I heard a story on NPR tonight, Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Preferences, involving young (<6 yrs) boys who believe they're girls.  Their behavior involves playing with feminine toys, preferring the company of females, and wanting to dress in feminine clothing.  It got me thinking:  these gender-associated devices aren't simply social constructs -- they must actually be physical extensions of our primal values.

I've always thought dresses were a device of female oppression.  At least that's what I've picked up from those angry Sunday mornings when my sisters yelled at my dad for making them wear flower-print dresses to church service.

Apparently, though, dresses (and the colors pink/blue, toys, etc.) all have value associations distinct from social constructs.

Testosterone heightens sexual stimulation with the color 'red' but that might not have anything to do with blue or pink.  I don't have a clue about the dresses thing.

Maybe the kids in the NPR story are using social expectations in conjunction with their gender identity perception.

On this note on society and self, an idea has been bugging me for the last month:  Individuals affect society and society affects individuals -- evolution, genetic algorithms.  If I can't figure out the proper algorithm for a problem, why not build a system that can figure it out for me?  The random algorithm would be like the DNA for each agent; the dataset would be the environment.  Natural selection favors the agents best able to make predictions on the dataset.  I'm going to work on this after finals, if nothing else than to get away from everyone making plans for me this summer.

Evidently I have a facebook.  I'll get around to that sometime.

Should these entries have a purpose, is this for public consumption?  Seems more like a journal I keep upon my desk where people pass by and make notations.
"You feel sad about that?!  She's no good for you dawg.  Keep awesome!"

I guess so.  I've found sentence-completion exercises are pretty good at finding out things you didn't know you knew.  Don't look at me like that.
"I procrastinate because..."
I suck at life.
I can fail on my own terms.
I like the satisfaction of not doing anything.
Doing stuff feels like work.
I like the anticipation of doing something more than actually doing it.
Rocky Horror is on again.

That'll be in my private written journal once I get around to making one.  I got the notebook out for it; it's been sitting on my desk for a week.  I'm right on that sucker as soon as I finish this journal entry.  And after I get a soda.  ...organize that sock drawer...

Since it's been awhile, and I need a reference point, my life news:

• ex-boyfriend got 50 years in prison for murder.  I don't know how to feel about that.  He's an altruist, mystic, idiot, and his butt is likely worn through by now, which is too bad.  But then I remember he helped murder a boy, and one can't forgive him for that.
  
• Living in another place, soon to be another next month.
• Boyfriend building a business model on renting houses to sex offenders.  Business is good.
• Selling books.
• Throwing copies of Dostoevsky at the kitties.  Take that Russian literature!
• I drive a geo metro.  50 mpg.  Beat that.  I don't need to pick up women, so there.
• I'm avoiding studying for economics by writing this.  I better stop now and do that.

First I'll do my therapeutic exercises on ending procrastination.  Then I'll study.