fuzzyred | It's been a week

This week has gone pretty well overall. Didn't get much housekeeping done, but work didn't suck, I had lunch with a friend, and I did manage to do at least a few dishes. Also, as a benefit of being on afternoons this week, I currently have 6600XP on Duolingo, though I am still roughly 5000XP away from first place. Ah well, there will always be next week.

In related news, I had a sentence in French today that was roughly "He always falls in love with the firefighters on the calendar." I might have the exact wording wrong, but it was definitely "he" and definitely talking about the firefighters on the calendar. XD Yay for inclusivity!

On a not so related note, I saw anti-abortion protestors outside of the hospital today as I drove past. They come out every so often and they always seem peaceful to me, but I always have an urge to go stand there with my own sign, slightly contrary to them. Don't get me wrong, I don't approve of abortion, but I do think it should be a choice, and that there should be the option to do it safely. That being said, once the baby is viable, I really don't think abortions should be allowed (Canada has no abortion laws at all.) That aside, I think abortion shouldn't be needed. I get that there are always going to be exceptions, where carrying the baby to term is just not doable for some reason, but if it's a preventable reason, let's treat the cause. If it's financially driven, let's treat poverty. If it's lack of medical care, let's make that accessible. If it's lack of ability or desire, let's make as many classes available as possible, let's facilitate adoption so it is true option (if it is less than ideal right now), and let's make birth control as widely accessible as possible. Getting rid of abortion without fixing the reasons behind it does nothing except lead to desperate people doing dangerous things.

Also, specifically today, there were a few signs that said "Abortion is the biggest human rights violation." Now, I will it give to them that abortion is not great, but look at the rest of the world. I think the human rights atrocities that are happening in the Middle East and the FREAKING United States and a worse concern than abortion. I know the two aren't actually comparable, and that one nastiness doesn't negate the validity of protesting a different nastiness, but, priorities maybe? Not that I really get a say in it either way.

And now that that's done, I'm hoping to get some gardening done tomorrow, and maybe a few entries/editing, and a butt-tonne of Duolingo. For next week, I would like to see if I can reach number 1 in Diamond League (but I'm out if it gets cuckoo), work on my basket, and maybe buy some yarn for Christmas ornaments.

I hope y'all are having a good week, and there is a Comfort Croner post coming this Sunday if anyone needs it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I am Pro-Choice, even though I wouldn't do it myself. I can make the choice for *me*, but I don't get to make it for anybody else. Now, if we can help make it easier to choose something other than abortion, I think everyone wins. Those who want and need the service can access it safely, and those who are doing it out a lack of other options can have support so they don't have to get an abortion if it is a matter of "can't" (for whatever reason) instead of "don't want a baby". I agree with you that lack of extended family makes raising children harder. My parents are divorced, so my mom raised my sister and I as a single mom, but she still had *both* sides of the family helping out, for things like baby sitting and what-not so she could still have a life and we were still taken care of. Without that support, my childhood would have looked very different.

O.o Uhhh.... Yeaaaa. Those to beliefs are sort of contradictory. If you want people to keep their babies, make sure they can keep the babies, in a life that is not filled with poverty, starvation, and homelessness. And again, as you also said, I really do think there are more pressing matters at the moment than women being free to get abortions. Let's try to put out the dumpster fire that is the world first, then worry about killing unborn babies, ok?

>>So yes, I'm in favor of reducing the need for abortion, while still keeping it safe and legal.<<

That. That is what I want. (Also, I did a quick check about abortion in Canada, and all of the provinces do have a gestational limit on abortion, which is good in my opinion, because I thought I remember from high school that you could "abort" the baby after it was born, which just *shudder* NO. I'm glad that is not the case here.)

Re: Duolingo, Thanks! I don't think I'll get it this week, though I'm still going to try. Maybe next week will be better. It definitely seems like you'd have a better time in my Diamond League; to survive the cut off you would only need 471XP currently, which I think sounds doable.

Yes! Yay for the good stuff!

I'm actually with you on having issues with abortion within the third trimester except life of the mother, though that's still a grey area. In the US there are states wanting to impose a 10 week limit and I think that's too soon, but I think by the third trimester is enough time to get it done if it's going to be done.

In fairness I've only done like 200something XP this week. Last week my Diamond league needed 800+ XP to stay out of the demotion zone and I ended up doing a lot of last-minute scrambling to not get demoted. This week I haven't been feeling well so I haven't had a lot of motivation for doing lessons except a little more than my daily goal to maintain my streak. So unless I haul ass last-minute like I did last week, which probably won't happen because I have a chapter to write, I'm going back to Obsidian, lol.

I agree about the health of the mother, though you are right, and there is still a lot of grey area here too. I also agree that 10 weeks is very soon, especially since I don't think the fetus is viable until after the halfway point. (I use viability as my main bench mark, because at that point you could opt for a c-section instead of an abortion, though I don't know if that would actually be practical. It just feels worse to me if the baby could survive on its own (as many as any baby can), but it still gets aborted.)

Ah, I think we all have weeks like that. Certainly I had some veryyyy slow weeks a while back, and it is a little daunting to know how long I have to keep my streak going in order to get the full acheivement there. I hope you feel better next week, and that Obsidian is less stressful for you. :)

Out of curiosity, do you know what the max level is for the streak achievement, as in, how many days?

200 days I believe, if I interpreted my friend's profile correctly. (Her badge said Level 9 and the next level was at 200)

OK! I've got 99 days (and am using my weekend amulet so I can be lazy :P). So I'm halfway there! (I'd probably try to keep the streak going even after maxing out the achievement, I see some people on the Duolingo forums who have like 1000+ day streaks and that's wild.)

Go you! I'm only on 33 or 34 days. And I have a streak freeze implemented so I can be lazy if I need to XD My friend mentioned seeing some people with 3 or 4 year streaks. That boggles my mind, I can't imagine staying consistent that long.

My streak would be longer (I started Duolingo in early April) but I've used a number of streak freezes, I usually use one streak freeze per week and I also always get those weekend amulets so I can slack off that weekend if I need to. I have more lingots than I know what to do with so the streak freezes aren't that big of a dent.

That makes sense. I also have more lingots than I know what to do with, so I figured I could afford to keep a streak freeze equipped. Although I do spend some if I am doing Duolingo on my phone (testing out of skills costs 5 lingots on the app)

It's been a week

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