doglover199709 – a great youtube adventure

I think I’m going to start writing here again! I have lots of ideas of things I want to say here, but the first thing I want to do is share an amazing video (actually set of videos) with you, because I have hopes it will make you as happy as it did for me. So here’s doglover199709’s video, featuring Rihanna’s “Disturbia” and doglover199709 dancing. I think it is pure awesome.

Okay, did you watch the video? I seriously think this girl kicks ass. Anyway, thanks to my friend Sarah who introduced this to me, and my friend Kristen (Sarah’s housemate) who introduced it to her. Am the last one to see this video? I have no idea. Maybe. I don’t really care either way.

So doglover199709 has other videos of her dancing and lipsyncing to other songs as well. This one just might be the coolest. I think one of my favorite parts about discovering this is seeing the really cool Youtubers who loved this video enough and others made by doglover199709 and decided to pay tribute to her by creating parodies and imitations. So there are all these people out there copying her dance moves, and some of them record it and post it to show respect. I like it. Speaking of respect, check out the Queen of Soul’s great hat:

That’s all for now. Happy Thursday!

Change the world. Please?

So I have been meaning to post about Proposition 8 in California, which is on ballot for the general election, and is a measure for the elimination of the right for same-sex couples to marry. I don’t live in CA, I’ve never been to CA, but maybe you or someone you know lives there and wants to spread the word about Prop 8. I hope you’ve already heard of it, and are already spreading the word to friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors, that our government should not be taking away our right equality regardless of sexuality. It has been in the news some, I mean even Google has voiced a desire for voting no on this issue. But whether you’ve heard about it before or not, do your research, think about the issue, try to understand what is at risk here, and I hope you will join me in pushing for a vote of no against Prop 8.

So actually I have a few more things to say about changing the world. The next thing on the agenda is a similar style of issue- Measure 11 on the ballot in South Dakota, banning abortion. The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families has more on this measure, the latest attempt by conservatives in South Dakota to take away women’s rights in that state. Take a minute to check in out.

Finally, to end on a positive note, check out this neat campaign that Feministing alerted me to this afternoon. The Girl Effect is about helping girls in poverty to help themselves, in order to help our world. The site talks about buying a girl a cow, funding her education, giving her a microloan, etc. in order to enable her to provide for her family, educate herself, stay healthier, and strengthen her community. It’s a compelling argument and UN Dispatch links to a report, Girls Count (that I have yet to read) about the impact of investing in girls in developing nations. I would suggest that if you don’t feel like reading the whole report, besides asking me to summarize for you (though I will because I hope to read it tonight) you spend some time looking at some of the info on The Girl Effect site. They raised some issues that had not occurred to me, such as the lack of ID or birth certificates as a huge barrier to women. One of the 10 important points the site lists under “change” and then “the big picture” is a simple but crucial distinction: girls are not just “future wives and mothers”. They are a category, they live in the now, they are girls, young women, not just future middle-age and old women.

Even though all of these issues matter deeply to me, there is not much I can do write now as far as funding. I am fresh out of college, paying off student loans, not really in a position to give a lot. But I do give some, when I can. And I hope to give in the future. I think it is kinda up to the individual to decide how you want to change the world, what you want to do, which campaigns and petitions and stories are closest to your heart. I think for me right now young people and young women and poverty and health issues are top for me. I guess I can specify by saying that I think education and reading are pretty important, so the campaigns I see related to these issues are where I am going to be focusing some of my attention. For now I am going to read, write, talk, and occaisonally donate money. And stop talking now. Here’s the basic video The Girl Effect created. There are more about specific stories of girls on the site.

Good tunes

Tonight I went to a drive-in movie theatre in nearby Newton, IA. I saw Eagle Eye and fell asleep midway through Tropic Thunder. It was so fun! I remember seeing the movie Pocahontas and I think Rookie of the Year at the drive-in when I was a kid. My parents had this great brown station wagon and we would lay in the back in pajamas and sleeping bags, eating popcorn and listening through the speakers you could attach to the side of your car. I wish drive-in theaters weren’t a dying race!

Anyway, on the way home we were listening to our favorite radio station that plays all the weird stuff Chad and I love from the 80s and 90s (Energy 106.7 if you’re interested). They played a few pretty great songs, including Randy Newman’s “Short People”. Then I started thinking about a few songs I wanted to put together on mix CD for the car, and coincidentally I discovered what seems like a pretty cool website, Mixwit. It’s pretty simple – you can search for songs from three places (I mostly stuck to the default but found that the others had a few the first one did not) and then put them in the order you want on a playlist, name it, and then add your own old school cassette tape style to it, and it is saved to the site so you can go back and listen or edit, as well as share it with friends. It’s nice if you use computers a lot but have a lot of your favorite music on your iTunes. Anyway, I made my first mixtape on the site tonight (I napped twice tonight so unlike most nights, I am wide awake at 3 AM listening to some awesome music, even though I will have plenty to do in the morning before my mother and little brother get into town and then friends join us for a dinner I plan to cook…ahhh!). I start out with a song that I find sort of obnoxious but so catchy from the late 90s/early 2000s, and go all over the map from there. I couldn’t really think of a good name for my mixtape, but hey, it’s late for me.

Check out my mixtape, hopefully you will enjoy some of the tunes that I love, and check out the site because it’s pretty neat. You could even share your tapes over here to see what else the site has to offer (and what great music my few readers enjoy). Have a great Sunday!

Fire and Brimstone

When I was in high school, I used to say “Oh well, I’m going to hell anyway, I might as well go with a bang!” if I did or said something perhaps considered non-Christian-like, immoral, or blasphemous in some way. It was a comment/joke I made when I said something outrageous or swore a lot or whatever. I can’t remember the last time I said it, likely because while in high school I think I may have felt self-conscious amongst other religious and conservative people at times like that, but once I got to college I was less self-conscious, amongst people who probably cared less, and I was less and then not religious. I haven’t thought about that phrase/idea for a long time. Meanwhile, I’ve quietly become an atheist and stopped caring much about whether people around me think I’m going to hell. This does not mean that I don’t have a code of ethics and a sense of morality, but it does mean that I tend to view this as quite separate from religious texts, doctrine, and people.

I don’t believe in hell, so I am not too worried if Sarah Palin thinks I’m going there, and hell (whether real or figurative) would have to freeze over and then some for me to actually vote for her and McCain. I don’t have a problem with Palin’s threat on an individual, very generic level. I do have a problem with the brand of feminism or pseudo-feminism that any self-named feminist who supports Palin would have to subscribe to, which involves a very artificial affiliation with women, identity politics at its worst. I have a problem with using a religious or spiritual idea such as hell which many American women subscribe to in an attempt to coerce women into supporting your campaign. I have a problem with Palin misquoting Albright, likely intentionally, for the worst of purposes. I have a problem with Palin and McCain and other politicians who solicit the votes of women while working against them in ideology, agenda, and policy every day. I also have a problem with people who, when angry with Palin and her views and candidancy, discuss the issue with the caveat that especially as a women she should not be espousing these views and voting for anti-women policy. I think this is close to her claim that if you are a woman you should support her. If you are a woman, you should be pro-choice. I don’t like it because it is general and limits discourse. I think that Palin is more conservative and anti-women’s rights than McCain, and it is hard for me to get past the charging a woman for her rape kit situation. Finally, I have a problem with LA NOW President Shelley Mandell’s gimmick immediately preceding the hell comment – she used her position to gain publicity and create a false association between the National Organization for Women and a Palin endorsement, and I think it was immature and selfish.

One final note for now: Last week I became aware of my new favorite women’s rights figure, Ernestine L. Rose. She has it all for me: suffragist, abolitionist, and atheist. She was a progressive, strong woman ahead of her time and discriminated against in many corners. One thing that I admire about her is her strength in not compartmentalizing her beliefs and values. While she was involved in women’s right work, Rose also fought amongst other early women’s rights activists for freedom from religion in the context of women’s rights. One of the things I have enjoyed while learning more about her is her conviction that one does not need to extract morality from text or an organization, but from a stronger universal sense of justice and equality. I think that this strong moral sense was what compelled Rose to frequently speak out about women’s rights at abolitionist talks, about keeping religion out of women’s rights resolutions, etc. And I would like to keep this model in mind as I think and write and talk about the election and politics and women’s rights and religion. It is enough for me to feel that Palin should not be treated differently than McCain, that morality is more than what comes from a book or a church body, and that women should be paid 100 cents to the dollar and be given the choice of birth control and the right to justice in instances of violence and sexual assault, not because God or my mother or my friends or Feministing or Wikipedia or the news or whatever say so, but because I believe it based on my own sense of justice, right and wrong, and equality.

Christmas Lists

Chad and I have purchased our Halloween decorations. I don’t remember ever purchasing Halloween decorations in the past, with my own money, of my own accord. My mother stays on top of that kind of stuff in general back home, and my dad stays on top of purchasing the super-cheap plastic pumpkins or almost-expired candy that catches his eye at the Dollar General. My first year of college a group of friends did some Halloween stuff together – we carved pumpkins and bobbed for apples and I think that was all I did for Halloween that year. Maybe I did buy a sign for our dorm door or something. After that year I was too busy or disinterested. This year, I live in a house. We started renting this little house on Sept. 1 and I am suddenly much more excited about Halloween because it means I might actually get trick-or-treaters, which I think would be entertaining. So I bought some awesome decorations at TJ Maxx a few weeks ago with a friend (we got awesome matching wooden Halloween cat yard signs!) and then this past weekend Chad and I made our way to Target which has the best Halloween item offerings I have yet to see. And now we are set! We haven’t put them up yet but we have spiderwebs and spiders, spider lights, an eyeball centerpiece for our table, more cat-related pieces (we recently adopted a cat so we are celebrating him, more about that later), and a big bowl to use for distributing candy. I just hope we don’t see a lot of sexy costumes.

But even though I have Halloween to focus on and pressure my boyfriend to help me get ready for, I am still thinking about Christmas, arguably my least favorite holiday. And no it’s not for Catholic reasons that I still remember from my Catholic days. I don’t like but also don’t really care all that much about the commercialism. Anyway, who cares why I don’t like Christmas…I am getting tangential.

I have been thinking about going home and going to the annual Christmas Eve Gathering at my mom’s parents’ house with my all my aunts and uncles and cousins. I have been thinking about how I can do Christmas with the family and Christmas with Chad and make sure our cat is fed, etc. Plus, my mom mentioned that I should start thinking about gifts I would like.

I hate coming up with items I want people to give me. If it wouldn’t piss my family off I would just tell them to give all the money they spend on me to charity. Despite this attitude, I can occaisonally see the good in obtaining something from family or friends that I just couldn’t manage to buy for myself. But I actually thought of a few things recently, which is what led me to the following story:

Apparently I’ve always had trouble thinking of gift ideas. My mom says that when I was 3 or 4 I wanted a red ball and a wagon. That was all I wanted in all the world. Every Christmas Eve when we go to my grandparents’ house we exchange gifts. Everyone gets the name of someone else in the family and they have to bring a gift for that person. It’s a small family so it’s pretty painless. Anyway, I think I’ve always had some inherent way of ranking gifts even if I find asking for them aversive, because of this strong Christmas Eve gift memory. One year, my uncle Dan had the name of one of my parents I think, and he bought our family a gift. I am sure I was too young to be aware or just not around when my mother probably told my uncle some things that she wanted or whatever. I remember the box was large and I was intrigued. I think that us kids were the ones to pull the wrapping paper off the box, eager to see this big gift, the size of which was sure to guarantee its splendor. It was in a boring-looking box but it was sure to be exciting on the insid…no? It is a humidifier? My mother was really excited and of course I said thank you too but I was devastated and shocked. A humidifier, for Christmas? It must be a terrible thing to be an adult. I thought is was so wrong and contrary to the spirit of the season to give such a gift, but my mother was so very happy upon receipt of this dreadful machine.

So now here I am years later, being asked the annual question of can I start to think about what I might want for Christmas this year? Usually I try to remember the title of a book I’ve been meaning to buy, or movies that I love and want to own on DVD.  A few times I’ve asked for shoes – I love a good pair of tennis shoes – and sometimes clothes like a nice coat. And still I remember that God-awful humidifier, and nothing I can think of comes close to the horror of that night. Until now perhaps.

I want a vacuum cleaner. And I’m going to ask for it for Christmas.

You see, though we have a cat and love him and are keeping him, there is the fact of my allergies. I am allergic to our dear cat Max (and other cats) and can live with him so far because I have kept him out of the bedroom and purchased allergy pills (generic Claritin), eye drops with antihistamine (generic Zaditor), and a $60 tabletop HEPA air purifier.  Now, I just started reading about this nice “de-shedding” brush,the Furminator which I think would decrease how much Max sheds, although its not too bad right now. But what I want next is a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner. And I can’t tell you how hard it’s been for me to come to terms with this. Because for the first time I have crossed the line into humidifier territory. Surely it is the being of the end. My only consolation is that Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon from 30 Rock uses humidifiers (see the video midway through the post). And she’s pretty cool-nerdy. Unfortunately, I don’t actually want a humidifier for Christmas. I want a vacuum. To clean the rugs with. What a loser.

The other Christmas idea I’ve come up with so far: sweaters to wear to work. It was good knowing you, youth.

This actually looks pretty close to a smaller humidifier I remember from growing up, complete with ugly shag carpet. I think the one my uncle gave us must have been some jumbo one. Maybe he should have bought us new carpet inside. Ah, youth.

My Reading Project: Roald Dahl

So I’ve been meaning to post this for awhile, and here it finally is. I am starting a new reading and blogging project! It is all inspired by bringing my copy of Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes back to Grinnell with me on my last visit home and also recently enjoying reading a chapter of The BFG to two very enthusiastic little girls while babysitting. I have always meant to go back and read some of Dahl’s more famous and classic books that I never actually read so now I am going to, as well as re-reading those that I loved as a kid. Dahl is our favorite pre-Rowling British children’s writer, and an important writer with whom to be familiar. He also led an interesting life which I will be learning more about through this project. At the end of my Dahl reading I am going to have a dinner party/picnic of sorts with whoever is interested in Grinnell to try out some of the recipes in the book and celebrate the stories. I am hoping to have the party on September 13, which is Roald Dahl Day because it’s his birthday. The link is actually to his foundation’s website, where you can learn about all the cool charities they help in the UK. I am going to save up some money so that I can make my own donation to a U.S.-based charity related to blood, brain, or literacy problems, like the local library here in Grinnell or possibly a nearby city’s library which was damaged in flooding earlier this summer.

As I read, I am going to write about the books and what I’m thinking and how they compare to my memory. I’ve read George’s Marvelous Medicine so far, and for the first time, and I am going to write about that soon, just as soon as this week gets a little less crazy. Next up in James and the Giant Peach I think, another one I’ve never read.

If you are interested, oh readers, you may also join me of course. I would love to hear your thoughts on Dahl’s books and life and influence. If you cook any related food I would love hear about that. I would always encourage donating to causes like literacy programs and other good charities like those the Roald Dahl Foundation gives money to. Finally, if you are going to be in Grinnell this September, you should come to my Roald Dahl-themed party! I am hoping it will be delicious!

Stay-cation anyone?

I was so grateful to read this Feministing Community post over the weekend. “All this gas talk reeks of classism” discusses the media coverage of the affects of rising gas prices on Americans. Author “Smartlikeme” notes the way that news stories lament the loss of the summer family vacation, thus narrowing the focus of the situation to middle class families, to the exclusion of families who could not have vacationed when the economy was doing well, because of low incomes, little or no vacation time, and other circumstances. The comments on the article are important to read too, as they expand nicely on this subject. As someone who has always belonged to that socioeconomic bracket where vacations, summer or otherwise, were not a component of my life, though it was something that most of my friends did at least once a summer, I am inclined to agree that the media and many middle-to-upper class families view the Summer Family Vacation as some sort of inalienable right, not to be missed under any circumstance. When I was four, my family traveled from northern IL to central MN to visit some family. That was our vacation. My little brother has never gone on a family vacation. We did go on some trips- a few day trips through the years, typically with scout groups or we would go as a family into Chicago or some other inexpensive local tourist-like spot. My brother and sister and I were club swimmers so we were often on the road for swim meets in the region, thanks to fundraising that paid for most if not all of our expenses. If you want to call getting up at 5 or 6 AM to drive to a pool and swim 8+ races a day for 2-3 days a vacation, then we had our share of those. My dad used his vacation time for work so that he could be off most of the week surrounding Christmas, or maybe a day when it was our birthdays, or the first week of school. When he was off he spent some of his time doing odd jobs around the house. Even if he decided to work during most of the holidays we wouldn’t have had the money to actually go somewhere while he was off.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to people going on vacation. I’m sure when I have the benefits and financial security I will try to go on vacation one of these years. More power to you if you can do it, and it is unfortunate if you cannot go. However, that this is the face of the summer ‘08 rising gas prices media event is classist and vastly simplifying the situation in this country for many families and individuals.

I also agree with a think some people who commented on that article, noting that there is also a lot of talk about hoping the situation gets worse so that people will take green options more seriously. And being a member of an upper-class liberal arts college alumni community and campus I sure am sick of hearing about all of the great effects of having high gas prices, like being forced to get exercise and help the environment by riding your bike to work. I personally walk or bike to work because I live two blocks away, but my parents could have never done this because of health, distance, the nonfriendly for bikers semi-urban setting, and they couldn’t use public transportation because the city was not large enough to support it. I could not in good conscience wish the situation would get worse, despite my desire for a healthier planet, but of the effect the situation has on people.

Anyway. Enough of Abby ranting. My situation in a wealthy college town with a lot of faculty and staff and multiple campus departments and my lack of vacation money and time means that I benefit around this time every summer, as I hear from faculty, students, and staff who are going on vacation who need cats, plants, and extra shifts cared for while they are away, so maybe I will use some of that windfall to try out a new idea I’ve heard of from these gas price crisis articles. The idea of a stay-cation never really entered my mind though I suppose I have been informally doing them for my whole life. I am going to have to try this out, to see if I can’t vacation in my very own apartment, in between watering plants and carrying for chemistry frogs. I did my first one on Sunday at lunch when the apartment smelled like a carnival as I attempted to fry up some iteration of Aloo Pakora (see stock Wikipedia image below).

Where should I not go on my next Grinnell apartment stay-cation? Oh the glory of high gas price adventures!

Admirable Optimism or Annoyingly Ignorant Bliss?

Yesterday morning as I was performing some of my mind-numbing library bitch work I came across this story in yesterday’s New York Times. I rarely read full articles in magazines or newspapers when I’m at the library, something related to the fact that I have recently punched in and oh yeah I am getting paid to sort, process, shelf, and bind prep serial publications for others, not my own enjoyment. At least I truly love the work.

In all seriousness, the people there treat me better than or as good as I have ever experienced a workplace, and I have had some pretty good bosses and workplaces, along with the requisite misery that comes with my age and class status. When I am talking to people there or hanging out it is like being with friends or really nice neighbors or mentors. When I am basically working alone doing tasks I have been doing all summer long for several hours in a row five days a week and there was no coffee in the break room when I checked earlier and I can’t see because the lighting is bad and I need new, as I phrased it today, “eyeball correction”, and I am dreading my 4 hour Friday afternoon closing shift, I get a little bitter and I just want to read the rest of that article that Jet magazine or the Journal of Physiology or Indian Country Today made sound so appealing on the cover.

Anyway, that is neither here nor there. So. The Life is good story. Since it has obviously in no way influenced my writing on Speaking of My Mother I will take this opportunity to divulge my personal perspective on the glass: I tend towards the pessimistic, slightly. It’s more empty than full at least. So I approached this piece on Life is good brand fanatics with some hesitancy. Yes, life is good, but it is also often bad. I am also a bargain shopper and don’t have too many strong feelings for particular brand names, though I have a couple that I do enjoy more than others.

The story that the NY Times was specifically covering here is one of intensely blind brand loyalty and equally hard-core and oblivious optimism, all open to public viewing at a Life is good Festival in Boston. The author, Eric Wilson, writes up a pretty great article, entitled “Everything’s Fine! My T-shirt Says So” and remarks that the slogan is “out of step with the times”. This is an understatement.

But both vendors and consumers of the merchandise and brand seem to particularly enjoy their carefree attitude and lives when most of society is suffering its hardest times. It seems that riding out the bad economy and “looking at the big picture” largely require the right attitude rather than what I was thinking about – some combination of money, luck, and connections.

The quotes and anecdotes in this story are priceless, it almost reads like an Onion article. A co-founder of the company asserts that the idea is about non-materialistic simplicity, while the consumers at the festival, in between “dog-bowl bowling” and group hula hooping (see the article for this strange image), are explaining and expanding their Life is good collections, “I’m Life is good obsessed…it makes me remember that things are not so bad” notes one such woman. Certainly this is no truer than for the company itself, whose founders don’t see a recession, but instead an “opportunity”. Wow, how can more people see these magical opportunities?!? Surely they exist; maybe we should buy these New Clothes and we will see them too!

But it’s not just about clothes- Life is good also has backpacks, beach towels, baseball caps, dog collars, mugs, hammocks, wallets, and candles. Anything a yuppie who is in no way feeling the economic strain would dream about. The company and their multi-merchandise message are also embraced by “the people who face the most adversity” according to co-founder Bert Jacobs. You can certainly see this in the pictures I found – a man playing with his dog on the beach, another man, formerly suffering on a hammock, who is now thinking “life IS good”, another guy so happy he wants to carry that girl on his shoulders, and she’s okay with that too. My favorite is the one where the woman is so happy that she has spread her life is good attitude to the cameraman I think, who is now laughing or hula hooping and thus can’t even get a good picture of this woman who is supposed to photograph. Wilson calls these fanatics “like-minded cheerleaders”. Well I call them American heroes of “American optimism”. They can teach us something about resiliency and ignorance, courage and privilege. If you want to be like them instead of always annoyingly complaining about the war in Iraq or stressing out trying to campaign for a better future. you can join these folks – just spend some money on Life is good apparel and accessories. I would go for the wallet first. I think they might put some money in there for people facing “the most adversity” so you can afford some of those $25 t-shirts.

The destruction of the environment getting you down? Go inside and light those Life is good candles. Depressed about the oil crisis and worldwide food shortages? Drink a cup of coffee in your Life is good mug. Then later this summer stop by your local Life is good festival, compete in some folksy contests, and pick up a few armfuls more of those irresistible shirts. Because Life is good Inc. understands that, and I quote, “too much of what is happening in the world is complex” so they’ve made it simple. Buy some crap, feel better, make them feel better so they can continue to get rich off your ignorant asses. Have a nice day!

Cut me some slack?

I’m a bit new to the art of blogging, and I am also freshly entering the world of writing for myself and not for a grade. Sometimes, it is hard for me to set deadlines and be efficient and write about things I am interested in posting here in a timely manner. Tuesday night was all set to be a writing night, but I was called for this babysitting job with some great kids, and I couldn’t say no to the extra cash to boot. Then when I got home from that I watched an episode of one of my all-time favorite television shows and went to bed. Wednesday night was also a bust in terms of writing but otherwise turned out to be amazing. Three new friends who work with Chad came over to play this card game, Chez Geek 3: Block Party, which was this awesome game revolving around living with roommates and trying to obtain “slack points”. After that I was exhausted and only got to a few odds and ends. Last night we went to a WarGames 25th Anniversary showing which was exhausting but so much fun, then watched the latest episode of Weeds (I really love that show!). I got some work done yesterday, then hung out for a while with a friend including witnessing and helping this hard-core woman when she face-planted into the sidewalk at Farmer’s Market and was ready to just walk away, bleeding with an expanding bump/bruise thing on her forehead. Anyway, this weekend I am supposed to got IA City on Saturday and possibly eat an Indian lunch buffet, and then go back Sunday night for an alumni potluck picnic. At least three really good friends in the area are going to be leaving come the beginning of August, though thankfully at least one is coming back in September. So I am sorta busy, feeling all social and happy, but it makes posting here more difficult. Anyway, until some of my new ideas down tonight, here are a few things that I originally wanted to make into full posts that I will present just briefly here.

Birth Control and our Government

I was deeply disturbed to read about the draft of a Health and Human Services proposal suggesting a redefining of pregnancy and abortion. You can read some articles at the New York Times, Reproductive Health Reality Check, The Huffington Post, and Feministing, amongst other places, which detail the situation better than I can. Basically, our government is putting women’s rights at risk while expanding the rights of health workers when it comes to religion and ideas about abortion and birth control. The new definition of pregnancy and therefore when a life is actually being aborted and a health worker can refuse to do their job and still keep it could have some serious side effects for women on birth control or who would like to go on birth control when religiously motivated pharmacists and medical practitioners would be able to withhold information and pills. This is scary and something everyone needs to be informed about – not just women, but anyone who knows and cares about women too. It is a slippery slope from what HHS is proposing here and we need to be very alert and active to prevent situations like this from happening. Several of the articles I list above have contact info for HHS if you would like to write to them.

Heath and The Dark Knight

I don’t have much to say here. I really enjoyed this movie, and I don’t consider myself to be someone particularly interested in these type of movies, though that might be an outdated perspective. After watching this I have decided that either Heath should not have died or they need to not have a sequel/not have him as the Joker here. I love his acting and I think his portrayal of the Joker was incredible. I don’t know how anyone could compete with that performance.

Centerfold

The other day while I was making my delicious French toast I was listening to the best cooking-in-my-kitchen music: the local “best of the 80s, 90s, and today” radio station. Okay, well one of the best cooking-in-my-kitchen stations; sometimes I switch it up and listen to the oldies station, which is also amazing. Anyway, while I was preparing my breakfast food for lunch the catchy but so terribly sexist 1982 song “Centerfold” by J. Geils Band came on the radio. I have ranted to a few people about this before, but here I am putting it out there: I really hate this song. If you’ve forgotten or have never heard the song, the premise is that this guy’s high school crush shows up as the centerfold of a magazine years later. He is crushed because his private fantasy girl has suddenly become a public figure of desire. He describes her as if she has no agency and says she was “pure like snowflakes” and an angel. The chorus describes his full outrage:

“My blood runs cold
My memory has just been sold
My angel is the centerfold
Angel is the centerfold”

It is so messed up to me that he is disappointed that the woman he used to objectivify (the opening lines of the song are Does she walk? Does she talk? Does she come complete?) decided to do whatever she wanted to with her body. And its not as if he never thought about seeing her naked either- he was thinking about her dress, and now he wants to take see her with her clothes on and go to a motel room, so she can “take ‘em off in private”. Finally, the song ends with his reluctant “guess I gotta buy it!”, despite his earlier laments, or maybe because he knows she’ll never take her clothes of for him alone.

Anyway, that’s all about that. The more I write about it, the less angry I am, perhaps because I am charging J Geils Band with selling my memory or rather appreciation of 80s and 90s music by producing this terrible song.

Tomato Plants Update!

As promised, an update on the status of my tomato plants: They aren’t dead yet.

Actually, they are growing too. I wish I had taken pictures of them before. They are growing strong along with their purple friend, but no tomatoes yet. Here you can see my three plants:

I’ve been watering them, but not really talking to them. When Chad or I remember we open the window they are sitting under to get them some more air. I don’t know if they will get tomatoes this summer. Are they the wrong size? Is it too late?

Also, as you can probably see in the picture, the second tomato plant, in the black pot, needs to be held up because it is bending quite a lot. So last night between babysitting shifts I went by the hardware store and picked up a stake and some garden twine. Now she’s upright again and hopefully that will keep her strong. Look at the difference between the two and also my shoddy staking job below.

Maybe I will do some real tomato growing research sometime soon and get back to you on the results. For now, I will remain hopeful and vigilant.