Living ~400lbr

clientsfromhell: A client sent an (exceptionally) rude Word Doc outlining the ‘psychic’ website she...

Sun, 27 May 2012 18:42:55 -0700

A client sent an (exceptionally) rude Word Doc outlining the ‘psychic’ website she wanted to start, with comments like “I know you’ll have trouble understanding this,” “don’t question me, I know it’s going to work,” and best of all, “I know you have nothing going on in your life - see this as an opportunity to finally do something useful.”

After I sent her my quote…

Client: That was a lot more than I was expecting to pay.

Me: I thought you were psychic.

red3blog: Fun Fact*: People who want to talk about dieting and weight loss feel a great deal of...

Sun, 27 May 2012 18:34:01 -0700

red3blog:

Fun Fact*: People who want to talk about dieting and weight loss feel a great deal of entitlement to insist that they aren’t actually talking about dieting and weight loss.

(*- Warning: Fact may not actually be fun.)

I have encountered this. I wonder why they pretend. Is it to avoid seeming shallow?

misswendybird: I know I’m not a fan, but MINNIE IN PRINCESS...

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:37:50 -0700

misswendybird:

I know I’m not a fan, but MINNIE IN PRINCESS LEIA BUNS.

MINNIE AS PRINCESS LEIA and R2 WITH MOUSE EARS EEEEEEE!

Why cultural appropriation is DUMB

Wed, 23 May 2012 22:45:46 -0700

Have you ever checked out Engrish.com? An entire section is based on funny or off-color mistranslations into English.

Guess what. When you make a faux native headdress? When you get a Kanji tattoo? That’s what you are doing.

"I say this often, but God have mercy it must be exhausting to live so obsessed with the tribal..."

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:57:14 -0700

“I say this often, but God have mercy it must be exhausting to live so obsessed with the tribal culture wars that you can’t even enjoy a softball game without worrying about whether or not everyone on the opposing team is at least six degrees removed from all the many things you consider offensive.”

- Fred Clark at Slacktivist

Every day is a "fat day" for me.

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:40:12 -0700

shakethecobwebs:

Because I’m fucking fat.

If you want to stop having self-doubt days, go right ahead. I will support you in any way that I can.

But fuck you for saying that the days you feel gross and lazy and unsuccessful are your “fat days.”

Because my fat days are full of love, and compassion, putting up a fight for those that I love, feeling beautiful, and fighting against those who would rather see me fail.

Fat is not a bad word, and it’s not the reason for your shortcomings. So stop it.

THIS.

Every day since jr high has been a fat day for me.

The day I graduated high school.

The day I graduated college (cum laude).

All my jobs.

All the times I’ve had sex.

My wedding day. The day my mother died. The day my fathered died.

I AM FAT.

dduane: And also: that moment when you’re writing a...

Tue, 22 May 2012 11:44:44 -0700

dduane:

And also: that moment when you’re writing a book…

There’s nothing like it. That’s why we do it.

Yes. I’m going to take a vacation from this reality and explore another.

Something new to say

Tue, 22 May 2012 11:14:26 -0700

Everyone has something new to say, about everything. No two people have the same perspective on anything; sometimes the same person won’t even have the same perspective from hour to hour.

—- Mira Grant, aka Seanan McGuire

Race, celebrity, gender, and rape culture: What we refuse to see

Sun, 20 May 2012 17:27:00 -0700

Race, celebrity, gender, and rape culture: What we refuse to see:

carnivaloftherandom:

Last year, this incident occurred, we’ve recently heard of Alec Baldwin being stalked by a woman, and most people are familiar with Rebecca Schaeffer’s murder by a stalker-fan, or Paula Abdul’s stalker committing suicide.

Last week, Wil Smith was physically accosted by a journalist while promoting MiBIII, and he pushed the reporter away and objected vehemently to the fact that the reporter tried to kiss him on the mouth.

Some people are painting this as an incident of violent homophobia. They’re full of it.

The reporter (who allegedly does this as part of his schtick with people he interviews) committed sexual assault.

Yes, you heard me correctly. If you touch someone without their permission, as Wil Wheaton experienced last year, that’s assault. If you touch someone in a sexual manner without their permission, that’s sexual assault. It could be misdemeanor level, but it is still assault.

Celebrity is possibly the closest analogue that blurs the lines of race and gender, and approximates the level of entitlement society feels about women’s choices, bodies, and sexuality, all the time. The invasive glare of the spotlight and the way people demand access to those who are famous, is comparable to the objectification women are subjected to on a daily basis.

A few years back, Adrian Brody won the Oscar for The Pianist. Before he made his speech, he sexually assaulted Halle Berry, who was present the award, by grabbing her and aggressively kissing her. I do not think this was intentional, but I objectively speaking: it’s what happened. Google it and watch the video. Look at HER face, listen to what he said directly after. There is a further entitlement when it comes to race. So that incident was brushed off, (and no, I don’t think Brody is necessarily a horrible person, just displaying behavior symptomatic of our cultural problems) and when the same type of thing happens to Will Smith, he’s made out to be the villain.

If Denzel Washington did that to, say… Julia Roberts, or if Zachary Quinto did it to Bruce Willis… can you imagine the way all hell would break loose?

But because these two particular incidents were against actors of color, they are not being described as what they are: assault.

If someone grabbed someone on the street and kissed them, no preamble, we would clearly understand the events as assault, but when you bring fame into it, there is a sense of entitlement. Bring race and gender into it for extra helpings of cultural entitlement, and when someone reacts in a perfectly normal way, i.e., objecting loudly, calling out the person on their behavior, and physically moving them perpetrator out of their physical space, well: Will Smith is suddenly a violent homophobe.

Nobody has the right to touch another person without their permission, kiss another person without their permission (implicit or explicit) have sex with them without their permission, or to invade their privacy.

We have to stop acting like anyone’s body is public property, regardless of gender, race, orientation, color, or fame.

We are entitled to nothing from another person, except what they choose to give. Just because someone is gracious enough not to press charges, doesn’t mean an assault didn’t happen.

Here endeth the lesson.

wilwheaton: Republican presidential candidate MITT ROMNEY, when...

Thu, 17 May 2012 17:53:16 -0700

wilwheaton:

Republican presidential candidate MITT ROMNEY, when asked if he stood by comments he made on Sean Hannity’s radio show saying that President Obama wanted to make the U.S. a “less Christian nation.”

"Feeling kinda friendless, My better off dead list is longer everyday What’ll it come to when we’ve..."

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:05:09 -0700

“

Feeling kinda friendless,
My better off dead list is longer everyday
What’ll it come to when we’ve finally had enough? …

Pitiful and frantic
A cynical romantic – Oh the things we said
They’d all be laughing at the silly shape I’m in

Sky’s not Falling and the earth’s still turning
Yeah, the sun’s still burning in the sky where it should be
Though I’m not past caring, I have lost some bearing
And the world seems harsher than it needs to be.

”

- “Dirty Little Secret” from the album Vitus Dance

"All too often when we hear people talk about health, there is only Health capital H. In our ableist..."

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:59:34 -0700

“

All too often when we hear people talk about health, there is only Health capital H. In our ableist heavy culture, the image of health is for women (as women are seen by media etc) is White, slim hipped, large but not too large perky breasts, long legs, firm round (but not too round) bottom, long hair, very thin.

If we listen to any of the celebrity trainers, tv “fitness” personalities it is an absolute possibility for everyone to have this body if they only work hard enough.

”

- More discussion about health as a concept in America. (via nudiemuse)

“Try to move on, don’t be sad—” […] I’m outside the world...

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:52:06 -0700

“Try to move on, don’t be sad—”

[…]

I’m outside the world looking in

"We’ll probably never know how many women inventors there were. That’s because in the early years of..."

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:42:47 -0700

“

We’ll probably never know how many women inventors there were. That’s because in the early years of the United States, a woman could not get a patent in her own name. A patent is considered a kind of property, and until the late 1800s laws forbade women in most states from owning property or entering into legal agreements in their own names. Instead, a woman’s property would be in the name of her father or husband.

For example, many people believe that Sybilla Masters was the first American woman inventor. In 1712 she developed a new corn mill, but was denied a patent because she was a woman. Three years later the patent was filed successfully in her husband’s name.

”

- FactMonster.com (via stfuconservatives)

TW: racism, racially charged hate crimes: Asian-American history

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:00:58 -0700

TW: racism, racially charged hate crimes: Asian-American history:

by Jenn Fang

It’s almost the end of May. Do you know your Asian-American history?

Most of America isn’t aware that May is Asian-American Heritage Month. It’s a celebration that started in 1978, when Congress urged President Jimmy Carter to declare the week of May 4th ”Asian-American Heritage Week.” (That date was chosen to coincide with the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants on May 7, 1843, and with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad — built largely by Chinese laborers — on May 10, 1869.) More recently in 1990, following another vote by Congress, President George H.W. Bush expanded Asian-American Heritage Week to encompass the entire month of May.

Sadly, Asian-American history and heritage is rarely taught in U.S. public schools. So for those of you who’ve missed such curriculum, here’s a list of 10 factoids you may not have known about the history of Asian-Americans in this country:

1). The first Asians whose arrival in America was documented were Filipinos who escaped a Spanish galleon in 1763. They formed the first Asian-American settlement in U.S. history, in the swamps surrounding modern-day New Orleans.

2). In the years between 1917 and 1965, Uncle Sam explicitly outlawed immigration to the U.S. of all Asian people. Immigration from China, for example, was banned as early as 1882, when the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. It wasn’t until the Immigration Act of 1965— which abolished national origins as a basis for immigration decisions — that nearly 50 years of race-based discrimination against Asian immigrants ended.

3). Because of their race, Asians immigrants were denied the right to naturalize as U.S. citizens until the 1943 Magnuson Act was passed. Consequently, for nearly a century of U.S. history, Asians were barred from owning land and testifying in court by laws that specifically targeted “aliens ineligible to citizenship.” Even after the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, American-born children of Chinese immigrants were not regarded as American citizens until the landmark 1898 Supreme Court case, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which established that the Fourteen Amendment also applied to people of Asian descent.

4). Among the earliest Asian immigrants, virtually all ethnicities worked together as physical laborers, particularly on Hawaii’s sugar cane plantations. On these plantations, a unique hybrid language — pidgin — developed that contained elements of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean and English. Today, pidgin is one of the official languages of Hawaii, a state that is itself 40% Asian.

5). Despite the Alien Land Law, which specifically prevented Asians from owning their own land, Japanese farmers were highly successful in the West Coast where they put into practice their knowledge of cultivating nutrient-poor soil to yield profitable harvests. By the 1920s, Japanese farmers (working their own land, or land held by white landowners that they managed) were the chief agricultural producers of many West Coast crops. In fact, the success of Japanese farmers is often cited as one of the reasons white landowners in California lobbied to support Japanese-American internment following the declaration of World War II.

6). Many of the early Asian immigrants who worked as laborers on plantations and in factories were instrumental in the formation of the American labour movement, helping to organize some of the first strikes and unions throughout the country. Japanese plantation workers, for example, engaged in the first organized strike in Hawaii in 1904.

7). Anti-miscegenation laws that denied marriage licenses between interracial couples specifically prohibited intermarriage between whites and Asians. For example, the 1922 Cable Act revoked the citizenship of any female U.S. citizen who married an “alien ineligible to citizenship,” a phrase repeatedly used in legal documents to refer to Asians.

8). Unlike Irish immigrants, who predominantly entered the United States via the Ellis Island immigration center, most Asian immigrants entered America by way of Angel Island Immigration Station. Unlike at Ellis Island, where immigrants might spend between two and five hours waiting to be processed, the Angel Island facility’s unspoken goal was to limit the flow of Asian immigrants into the country. Between 1910 and 1940, many prospective Asian immigrants were detained for as long as two years at Angel Island, stymied by U.S. immigration officials hoping to find reasons to deport them. Some of the detainees wrote poems in Chinese on the walls of the Angel Island detention facility; these poems have since been translated and collected into anthologies.

9). During World War II, Japanese American internees — including both Japanese immigrants and their American children — were forcibly relocated from their homes in the West Coast to remote relocation camps. Even still, several young Japanese-American men went on to successfully lobby the American government to be allowed to volunteer as soldiers in World War II, often to prove their loyalty to the United States. The 442nd infantry regiment, a segregated Asian-American unit composed almost entirely of Japanese-Americans, fought in Italy, France and Germany and is still the most highly decorated regiment in United States Armed Forces history.

10). In 1982, a young Chinese-American man named Vincent Chin was brutally clubbed to death by two white men in Detroit, Michigan. The crime was motivated, in part, by anti-Asian sentiment stemming from widespread loss of auto manufacturing jobs to Japanese competitors; Ronald Ebens, one of the attackers, was heard saying “it’s because of you little motherfuckers that we’re out of work” to Chin moments before the attack. Despite pleading guilty to second-degree murder, Chin’s killers did not serve any jail time for Chin’s murder, and were only fined $3,000. Vincent Chin’s death served as a flashpoint that ignited the modern Asian-American political movement.

I learned about 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9 in school, but primarily as local history not US history. I grew up in Seattle while Senator Magnuson was in office and I had classmates whose parents and grandparents were interred.

Red Summer of 1919 & Other History America Should Discuss

Wed, 16 May 2012 09:51:00 -0700

Red Summer of 1919 & Other History America Should Discuss:

karnythia:

I see a lot of “slavery is over, black people should move on” rhetoric on the internet. And mostly I roll my eyes & keep it moving. But I notice that people who say these things lack historical knowledge. They don’t know about the Red Summer in which race riots broke out in 36 cities. The government blamed unions, Bolsheviks, & even the NAACP for what happened since it was apparently impossible to blame white Americans for the lynchings, rapes, & general mayhem that triggered the riots. In fact Attorney General Palmer filed a report that faulted black people for fighting back.

“ill-governed reaction toward race rioting…In all discussions of the recent race riots there is reflected the note of pride that the Negro has found himself. that he has ‘fought back,’ that never again will he tamely submit to violence and intimidation. “the dangerous spirit of defiance and vengeance at work among the Negro leaders.”

Mind you, the Red Summer came after the East St. Louis Riots, the Atlanta Race Riots, some 2400 documented lynchings and countless other acts of violence that didn’t receive much (if any) official attention. The Rosewood Massacre, & the destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa followed, and still there was no move on the part of the government to actively change the racial climate in America until the 1960’s. Jim Crow laws (in effect from 1876 to 1965) were the successors to theBlack codes that were on the books from 1800-1866, and if think that the Civil Rights Movement fixed everything the day separate but equal was legally abolished? You haven’t been paying attention. Look at America’s track record when it comes to welfare reform (and the mythical Welfare Queen), the War on Drugs that conveniently was more likely to heavily punish black offenders, predatory lending to black homebuyers, treating the pain of black children, & of course police harassmentand brutality. America’s got a long way to go, and ignoring the past or the present won’t fix a thing. You want black people to let things? Stop supporting the systems that oppress them.

I learned about Jim Crow and lynchings from my white Tennessean mother, not my 1970s and 80s history classes. Hm.

rastagaljamaican: sapphrikah: elonjames: Dear White People....

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:48:29 -0700

rastagaljamaican:

sapphrikah:

elonjames:

Dear White People. This is what you shouldn’t do. Ever. Like ever ever. Like—EVER. Ever.

White people are so damn clueless.

What would make you think she wanted to be pet like a dog?

Just show your white ignorance with your fascination, why don’t you?

Gringos love to do this shit.

Hell, I’VE had white ladies pet my hair and do the “OMG where do you get it permed??” thing - and I’m a white woman with moderate curls, so I’m getting off easy compared to black women.

(I hope my wide-eyed “What are you doing?” questions might teach people something)

sageoflogic: anticapitalist: Our real first gay president The...

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:13:15 -0700

sageoflogic:

anticapitalist:

Our real first gay president

The new issue of Newsweek features a cover photo of President Obama topped by a rainbow-colored halo and captioned “The First Gay President.” The halo and caption strike me as cheap sensationalism. I realize airport travelers look at a magazine for 2.2 seconds before moving on to the next one. I grant that this cover will probably get Newsweek a 4.4 second glance. I also understand that Newsweek is desperate for sales. Nevertheless, I doubt that the Newsweek of old, before it was sold for a dollar, would have pandered as shallowly.

The caption is a superficial way to characterize an important development of thought that the president — along with the country — has been making over recent years. It is also entirely wrong. Like the mini-furor a couple of months back about the claim that Richard Nixon was our first gay president, the story simply ignores that the U.S. already had a gay president more than a century ago.

There can be no doubt that James Buchanan was gay, before, during and after his four years in the White House. Moreover, the nation knew it, too — he was not far into the closet.

Today, I know no historian who has studied the matter and thinks Buchanan was heterosexual. Fifteen years ago, historian John Howard, author of “Men Like That,” a pioneering study of queer culture in Mississippi, shared with me the key documents, including Buchanan’s May 13, 1844, letter to a Mrs. Roosevelt. Describing his deteriorating social life after his great love, William Rufus King, senator from Alabama, had moved to Paris to become our ambassador to France, Buchanan wrote:

I am now “solitary and alone,” having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection.

Tl;dr Newsweek go fuck yourself. We’ve had a gay president before. Stop being a sensationalist piece of shit.

I love how Buchanan basically complained to Mrs. Roosevelt “I can’t get laid, I can’t find anyone to love, I can’t find anyone to help me, and I might just give up on the first two parts and marry someone I don’t love that I won’t want to have sex with so that I get a free cook.”

birchsoda: dutchbag: afternoonsnoozebutton: kymm-seabiscuit: ...

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:54:08 -0700

birchsoda:

dutchbag:

afternoonsnoozebutton:

kymm-seabiscuit:

I’ve been seeing this image pop up now for awhile and it irritates the shit out of me. I’ve never received food stamps, but this image is just stupid for a few reasons:

1. The iPhone. A pretty nice phone and it can be pretty expensive. However, it is a one-time purchase. Some people get them at pretty low cost for renewing a contract. AT&T sold 3GS models for $50. (I’m not sure if they still are.) Secondhand iPhones can be purchased for dirt cheap via craigslist. Monthly contract prices vary with the type of plan you have, but it can also be reduced to a fairly reasonable price. Finally, the iPhone could have been purchased prior to a food stamp recipient having the need to use food stamps. But did you think of any of that? No, because you’re too busy thinking of ways to fucking judge people. As an addendum, I’ve heard people say that the poor “shouldn’t even have a cell phone.” Are you fucking kidding me? How is an unemployed or underemployed person supposed TO FIND A JOB WITHOUT A PHONE?

2. Multiple tattoos. Again, one-time cost for tattoos. Could have been done before a person lost their job. Maybe it was a gift. But no, poor people shouldn’t have tattoos, piercings, or nice clothes. The clothes weren’t mentioned here, but that’s another stupid thing people say. I have a pretty nice closet of clothes I’ve built up over the last six years (since I stopped dressing grunge shortly after high school). Purchased a little bit at a time. So if you see someone wearing a decent outfit using food stamps maybe you should keep that in mind. Also, one can find pretty nice clothes at Goodwill for really, really cheap. I’ve found sweaters that would normally retail for $40 for $2.

3. Seriously, a mani and pedi? I had that done for my brother’s wedding last summer and it cost less than $20. Granted, I didn’t go to the most fabulous salon, but…really…you’re going to bitch about that?

In conclusion, fuck you for judging someone when you don’t know what circumstances led to their need for assistance. I’m sure there are people out there that abuse the system, but you don’t fucking know that just because they’re wearing a nice sweater. May you never have the misfortune of losing your job and not knowing how you’re going to make rent or feed yourself.

Good.

As someone who has been on food stamps, I will also testify that my nice things bought when we were properly employed, did not evaporate because I lost my job and was on food stamps. Also, selling clothes I will need to get a better job would have been really stupid.

Oddly enough, owning a house, car, gold jewelry, a 401(k) and a cellphone did not make me ineligible for unemployment after I was laid off. Funny that.

bustygirlcomics: Spillage.

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:50:11 -0700

bustygirlcomics:

Spillage.