Listening to

'These Hard Times' by Matchbox Twenty


and from the 80s--
'What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)' from Information Society


I woke up cramping and promptly vomited a couple of times because I started my period. It happens sometimes that I get really nauseous, usually when the cramping is bad. But I feel rather lucky. One co-worker's husband had an appendectomy, another co-worker had 2 feet of her colon resected due to a tumour (and she's in her 20s!), and then one of my friends is having a hysterectomy/a bit resected from her colon, too, next week. What is it with the GI tracts? Seriously, I hope everyone does well with their surgeries, and it made me feel better about just dealing with a little cramping and nausea.

I feel better now, although I'm a little sore (I had a box fall on my head at the gas station today, and although I think everything's alright, my neck's bothering me a little) and the cramping has eased but settled into my back. I'm headed to bed. The worst thing about picking up a friend from a second shift job is that when he gets paid, we go grocery shopping in the middle of the night. Fortunately the store knows us and opens up a lane when we come up with two cartfuls of stuff. I'm glad we only do it a couple of times a month. I just got bread tonight. I can't imagine actually having a stocked kitchen--or at least it hasn't been in awhile. I hope to rectify that next week. But I'm ready for bed tonight--so much so, that I'm going to do my religious obligations tomorrow night (I can do so within the first three days of my menstruation).

So, good night. Remind me that I have a story about pheromones to tell you tomorrow. Oh, well, I might as well give you the link, now...

Scents and Sensibility

Summation:

The secret to sexual attraction is in our genes, specifically in the sequence of more than 100 immune system genes known as the MHC, or major histocompatibility complex. Their main job seems to be helping the immune system recognise pathogens. But they also play a big role in choosing a mate. In tests, people chose others based on having some genes in common, but otherwise a very different matrix. That selects for diversity, without being so different as to be alien. They also found that those with too similar of an MHC tended to have higher divorce and adultery rates, as well as miscarriage and fertility problems. Here's the kicker: all this is based on smell, but our society is obsessed with perfumes and scents in practically every product we use, which undermines the MHC's role. And even more interesting, being on birth control pills makes men less attracted to the women, and women more attracted to men with similar MHC patterns, probably because hormonally the Pill mimics early pregnancy. Strippers, conversely, garnered far more tips if they 1) weren't on the Pill and 2) were ovulating. Oh, and women had a more discriminating sense of smell than men in terms of choosing a mate.

Interesting, huh? No word on whether this works for homosexual couples. But I guess the upshot is use unscented products and if you're looking for a mate, don't use the Pill for awhile but rather other means of birth control.