Fine, I'll tell you why I was laughing . . .

Yup, those damned "Femi Nazi's"

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:33:51 GMT

An extremely prominent country club in Arizona is being taken to court because they bar women from the grill room. Aside from the general stupidity, why should you care?

Because this is the type of place that John McCain and other members of our government are members. This is a room in which many a business and political deal is brokered. And women aren't allowed in. (A side note: if you are thinking of voting for McCain, please note that he has refused to comment on this situation. Turd. How is there any question of what to say? I mean, unless you don't value women as human beings.)

For the audacity of fighting for the policy of allowing women into this room, female members and male supporters have been called nasty names and had their phone numbers posted online calling them "Femi Nazi's".

I love the apologists who say women just "aren't as motivated" and that's why they aren't found in larger numbers in the upper echelons of our businesses and governments. Bullshit. It's because where decisions are made, places like this, women are still being told it's a boys club and they aren't allowed in.

via Feministing

When I pretend I'm an ar-teest: photography edition

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:05:28 GMT

With my schweet new cam-er-a, I have been snapping pictures. I took it to the national aquarium (you totes didn't know we had one, did you! It's in the commerce building, that's why.) so that I could play with the settings. Here are some of the better ones

These sconces were around the EPA building. They are almost as big as me. I know I said this post
is about the aquarium, and it is. But we got off the metro in front of the Woodruff Wilson Memorial and you had to walk aaaroooound the bigass Regan Center for International Trade and past the EPA building and in front of the Department of Homeland Security and Warrentless Holds and Deporting Your Ass.

The funny thing is that the walk to the commerce building was actually pretty short.

The salamander genus duder was swimming, but he mugged for the camera.

I thought the light on these just made them so pretty, especially the delicate stems. And look who's watching you in bottom left corner!

OMG turtles are kyooot! I took about 10 pictures of this little guy.

This is a puffer fish that only wanted to swim at the top of the tank, which was a good two feet above my head. I had to use the very technical photography technique of "hold your camera over your head and take 10 pictures in hopes that one will come out."

I have always been more interested in anemones, starfish, and coral than fish. Anemones in particular because they are sort of plants . . . and sort of not plants. How wild is that?

I have the urge to write dialogue for this guy. Aaand ladies and gentlemen, I've become my mother!

I think the spacing and centering on this shot, plus the contrast in texture, should get me into a calendar. I'm just sayin'.

Where neon colors were born.

SPLAT!!

While this guy is awsome and sorta nauseating on his own, my mom managed to make it worse. She was all "imagine that with some garlic butter." I wanted to vomit, not because OMG THE HUUMANITY THE AMINALS AGHGHGHG! but because seriously? They may call it a lobster, but it is obviously the spider of of the sea.

No amount of garlic butter changes that.

Nervous: Vanity edition

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:33:30 GMT

I have felt very much like changing something regarding my hair. Since I have no desire to straighten it, get extensions (hahahaha), or cut it (trust me when I say this makes me look like a fugly bush. See: me in 3rd-7th grades) . . . . well, that left one thing.

I picked out some hair dye labeled Copper Red and am waiting for my wet hair to dry to see the results. Oh man, am I nervous. Which is dumb, since I stayed in the reds family and am barely making any kind of change, but I'm a bit worried I will have hair as orange as two very orange things.

And that it will not flatter me.

According to the Studies that Have Been Done

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:25:21 GMT

I run my relationships a lot more like friends with benefits.

asdkjlkjsakjakl swim suits!

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:14:49 GMT

I broke down and ordered a swim suit from Old Navy after trying everything else. Well, it comes today---and it's practically orange. Not at all the hot red it looks like it is. Orange is not the color for me. Plus, they note that it has underwire. Awesome, I'm looking for bewbage support. What it neglects to mention is, o hay, the rest or the cup is totally unlined. That makes the "support" pretty much worth less and brings the nip nip show fo sho.

I am pretty sure there is a conspiracy to make sure fat girls look bad in swim suits. The number of suits that do not accomodate/flatter a large bustline (unless you are wearing a bikini) are nearly non-existent. Agh.

Soooo . . . I'm thinking about trying their halter tankini, which promises a lined cup. Which color to go for though? Does black look too blah? Will I look like yet another fat girl trying to hide in a black suity? I'm thinking I could add something to it when I get it. A bit of red something or other.

From another site (and much as I hate the stupid idea of "you'll look slimmer instantly!") I am also considering this in the color shown in the big picture.

Halp plz.

When my love of rap music and lolcats combines

Tue, 13 May 2008 19:27:03 GMT

Hopefully you've heard the song "Ridin' Dirty"

Bodily awareness

Tue, 13 May 2008 03:47:02 GMT

One little discussed byproduct of the push for women to hate their bodies is the fallout from the split that emerges between mind/body.

I imagine a big contributing factor is that dieting rhetoric makes it sound as if there is "you" and then there is "your fat" or "your body". That there is the "skinny girl" inside all of that chub. Furthering this split are the attempts to comfort fat girls by telling them what great personalities they have, how smart they are, etc. Those things are wonderful and true, but it serves to further separate women's minds from their bodies.

I've noticed this in myself in a number of ways. Currently or in the past, I have been known to:
--ignore or diminish if I am in pain
--ignore/diminish being too hot or cold
--think spending money on things for my body are "not worth it" because what difference does a softer shirt make?
--find myself confused by how tired I am after doing several tasks in a row

One thing that has certainly brought me back into my body is sex. From there, I've been working to erase the lines between my body and myself. If without my body I cease to exist then my body is me. I find myself doing more and more things that respect what my body wants---buying laundry detergent that smells nice, spending a little more for that soft shirt, investing in a window herb garden to have the freshest flavors available. I am trying to pay more attention to my bodily comfort and to estimate and plan better for when I will be tired, hungry, or achy.

How are you all with this issue? Experience it or don't? How do you deal?

NO SCHOOOOOL!!!

Mon, 12 May 2008 11:39:55 GMT

Hell to the yeah, I love days off!

The best ones are like today---I am really tired and could use the extra sleep, it's pooey outside (rainy) and I was halfway there when I heard the announcement. I definitely started going WOOOOOO HELL YES NO SCHOOL OMG YAAAAAY and then turned around at the next light.

I swear, I really do like my job. As I tell the kids though, I love sleep even more.

A little broken.

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:50:17 GMT

I got into education---and literature in particular--- partly because I love them both. Mostly though, I got into the field I am in because I want to improve the world around me. I think the best way to improve our world is to reduce bigotry and prejudice and ignorance through exposing our young to other people, cultures, and ways of life.

This makes it especially hard when I have a day like today, where students openly display such negative feelings towards gay and black students. I won't get into the two incidents, but there was no question that these students see these people as some sort of scary other.

It is both my job/not my job to give students a character education. Schools and parents will insist that we do . . . .until they disagree with what we're saying. Then suddenly they cry it's not our job. I myself am torn on the issue---I want them to get it at home, but public education is often the only place where a child may be exposed to an important other point of view.

I'm blathering on with all this to say that when I see a student who has had me in class for months, who has seen my example every day, and who still holds such bigoted ideas . . . . my heart breaks a little.

Things that I am embarassingly excited about.

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:31:41 GMT

OMFG YAAAAAAAAY.

Zach Braff posted to his blog to announce that Scrubs is NOT OVER!!!!! Previously it was going to be over this week, and srsly, I was going to be all pouty and cry, cry. Because I'm obsessed like that.

But it's not!
18 more episodes!

Oh, I am so surprised. Not.

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:29:03 GMT

Your LJ Slut Stats!
Out of your 29 friends, percentages you have:
met		62.06%
hugged		51.72%
dated		6.89%
kissed		24.13%
seen shirtless		20.68%
seen naked		10.34%
had net sex		6.89%
made out with		13.79%
had oral sex		6.89%
fucked		6.89%
Get your LJ Slut Stats!

Clearly, I need to meet someone with a sewing fetish.

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:34:35 GMT

The back of my legs are on the strained side today. What was I doing, you ask?

Dancing? Working out? Yoga? The nasty?

Sadly, all no.

I was sewing. Surely everyone does the splits and stretches around to get things they need rather than getting up. Right?

I also sew naked.

Observe as I increasingly become a caricature of myself.

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:21:03 GMT

Evidence:
1. I made indoor s'mores. Not sensibly in the micro, but over an unscented candle. Those fondue stickers come in handy--thanks mom!

2. I was slick after getting out of the shower and a bottle of hair stuff slipped out my hand. I squeaked. Involuntarily.

Stupid nightmares.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:04:55 GMT

I've been having them pretty badly lately. Like, they have invaded my napping and that's not normal. I don't know what the deal is, honestly.

This morning I woke up from a really scary one in which I was standing in a gymnasium while zombie hordes swarmed around me. That sort of scary thing is totally weird for one of my dreams. They didn't attack me, but . . . .

They ate one of my students.
One I actually rather dislike.

It scared me silly and I felt sorta guilty . . . but oh man, funny.

I could do with some kissing. That's not related to this post, it's just true is all.

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:27:10 GMT

This was going to be a post about what I've been thinking about the last couple days. It was going to be about some things I've realized. But after 3 false starts, I chucked it. Here's the gist:

I'm pretty much okay.

I have stubbed my toe on the nasty fact that I am, indeed, human.

I have shape-shifting insecurities. I would be discouraged by this, but it means they know how tough survival is in my head these days. Watch out, you bastards ;-)

Stretching out like a sea of blah before me . . . .

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:32:08 GMT

I have been . . . dare I say it . . . . kind of bored this week. I feel like I'm missing out on something, but I'll be damned if I know what it is. Some novelty, I guess. During the week I end up doing a lot of the same things because there is little time or energy to do much else. Couple that with what looks to be a bland weekend (though I could be wrong, there may be a group trip in my future) and . . . . meeehh, bored.

I realize that maxim holds that "if you're bored, you're boring" but I guess I'm not quite sure how to stop being boring right now.

Hmpgh.

fat and happy

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:52:31 GMT

This is pretty much me, y/y?
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/04/16/funny-pictures-direkly-proportional-to-amount-of-happy/

Making inferences

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:34:46 GMT

Coworker: It sucks, but as a teacher, you just can't be bad. You have to go out of town if you want to be a drunken whore.

Me: I've never been much of a drunk.

I am so gross. Just fyi.

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:35:31 GMT

I cleaned my car today for the first time in a year. It was disgusting in the severe. The slopped residue of so many tea/coffee/soda beverages made this sticky blackish sludge that took 4 towels and a soaking of shout to overcome.

I removed an entire bag of trash from my car.

Ewwwww.

I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:02:02 GMT

Yes, I'm 5. I'm also vair vair excited. It will be the last week of June.

If I don't melt in the heat I plan to ride Tower of Terror at MGM until I poo my pants.

Have you ever noticed . . .

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:21:57 GMT

. . . that when fundies rail and scream that "OMG TEH GHEYS WILL DESTROY OUR NASHUN!!!" . . . . they have no idea how that will exactly work? It's all "they're destroying our youth!" and "no society or religion thinks homosexuality is moral!" and "it ruins marriage!!" . . . . but never how exactly it does those things.

My plan for destroying the nation is to engage a high enough volume of people in sweet bangin' so that we run out of all rubber and plastics due to toy usage.

Too many dongs, not enough tires, our nation collapses.

What's your plan? Straight allies should also agree to DESTROY TEH NASHUN in solidarity, of course :-)

My favorite lame pickup line:

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:35:06 GMT

"If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"

What's yours?

I haz an accomplishment!!

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:00:30 GMT

I moved up to the next level in belly dance! Wooo!

I feel talented and stuff :-)

Conversations on race

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:44:15 GMT

Having read and participated in enough discussions about race in America, I've been working on putting together a list of things that I see white people do that shut down the conversation. Conversations about race are surely riddled with other problems, but I'm listing these ones because: 1. I see them most often 2. I used to pull a lot of these. Yes, really, so this isn't me being More Liberal Than Thou. I remember being raised to talk like this about race because my parents talk this way about it.

These things are:

1. Turning the conversation into proving that "I'M NOT RACIST!!!11". Making your own comfort (ie, not feeling like a biggot) as a white person the focus of a conversation about race not only derails any attempts at solutions, it also shows just about how concerned you are with the issues POC are trying to raise. Who cares if beauty mags only pick white-looking black women to show, I'M NOT RACIST!!11 for reading those magazines. Real productive, right?

2. "But my family immigrated too." Chances are, your family came because they wanted to. No one grabbed them before they had the chance to grab so much as one possession. Imagine what it would be like to be taken from your home right now with what you have on you and then dumped off in an ocean away from home. You can't speak the language, you don't have a thing on you money or barter wise, and you aren't able to contact anyone to send you anything, and no one will pay you for your work. What effect would that have on you? Your family? This segues into . . .

3. "But slavery was a long time ago." Look at the above situation. Do you think that kind of poverty might affect your grandchildren? Your great grandchildren? That much aside, consider that racism was blatantly institutional in a time that your parents were kids. (Here I assume most of the reader base of this journal has parents in their 40s/50s) The right to vote wasn't granted to POC until 1964. My dad was 8 that year. Consider how not having your interests represented democratically would effect your ability to prosper in the area you live in.

4. "But I know rich black/brown people! " Naturally. Does that mean that the number of POC with wealth, who go to jail, etc is equal in proportion to their amount of the U.S. population? No, it doesn't.

I sure as hell don't have solutions for all the problems regarding race in this world . . . but talking about and trying to end a conversation with these points just doesn't get us anywhere. I was glad each time I met someone who explained how the above lines of reasoning I was using were faulty . . . so uh, tag, you're it :-)

Jots and tittles

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:50:22 GMT

--I woke up a guy who fell asleep in traffic. Got out of my car and knocked on his window til he woke up. I told my maternal grandma this and she was like "weren't you scared?" She asks the same thing whenever I mention driving the 95. I did not get my senseless bravery from her.

--I have spent the last couple days trying to whip my taxes and a former banking issue into some kind of shape. The shape in mind being one that doesn't poke me in the side. I've mostly resolved that stuff and will spare you the details unless you want them.

--Hair is dyed back to Supah Red. It always makes me happy when it is.

--I'm watching West Side Story with the kiddlings (What's An Adaptation? Is our lesson today kids!). What this means is I will have watched it 6 times in one week. Rest assured I've been singing the songs over and over. Plus that new Mariah Carey "Touch my body" that the kids have been humming. Please, do a little sing song and give me something else to run around my brain.

--I eat lunch with a couple of my kids. Today Boy Regular asked Girl Regular if she would go out with him sometime. OMG. While myself and Guest Luncher were sitting there. It went like this:
       Boy Regular: Will you go out with me sometime?
       Girl Regular: WHAT?! OMG WHAT?! Ms. D DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS?!?!?!
       Me: I could tell, if that's what you mean.
       Guest Luncher: He wanted me to come so he'd have the guts to ask.
       Girl Regular: WHAT?! WHAT?!
       Me: Guest Luncher, I think you and I need to talk a walk. Get a little fresh air.
So we buggered off for five minutes or so and gave them a chance to talk. In my great wisdomosity, I knew the girl was not going to take it seriously if others were there. She's the kind of kid to think anyone who liked her is joking, and I wanted Boy to have a chance to explain things. I'm dying to know what was said (I know, v. high school of me. Whatevs.) but when I came back they were just looking at cat macros. I'll ask tomorrow.

--My new black bra is weirdly snug in the band. It's the same band size as the two others I just bought of the same brand, so I dunno what the deal is. Poo.

--I was reminded today of two weird things my parents did while I was growing up:
       1. Mom would sing "I'm so pretty" to be goofy. Mostly when trying on clothes or watching me put on makeup.
       2. Parents would ask me to say what noise animals made. Baa for the sheep, Quack for the duck, etc. Except for the skunk picture they taught me "Pew, pew" while holding my nose.

--Spring breaky starts at noon on Friday and runs through all next week I am totes excited. Plz to be makin' plans with me if you are in my area. (Or make plans in me if you are with my area, ow ow.)