*Sings* Reach Out and Touch Base

I know the lyrics are “Reach out, touch faith,” but I hear “Reach out, touch base” or “Reach out, touch face”

Well. Cats and Kittens, today is both rant AND porn free.

I realized (when my mom sighed at me and told me) that I’ve been very “every little thing is a feminist issue or chance to bitch about our nanny state.” I’m not suddenly a non-feminist bitch or anti-nanny state. I’m just seeking balance. Mostly by completely losing it by writing. My brain is absorbed by my story. I’m muttering about it to myself. I walk into my living room and start conversations with my mom in the middle. I had the first half in my brain, and I forget to include her in those.  I try to sleep but think about my book. Balance is for suckers.

I am working out at least. I am doing Pilates one day and arm stretchy band stuff the next day. It isn’t a huge routine, but I’m starting small. I do attempt moderation and sanity. I’m just sick of my body hurting. I figure if my body is going to hurt anyway, it might as well because I’m trying to make it stronger. I need to do measurements so I can see if I’m making progress.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, or more aptly put for me, I spend all day in the kitchen cooking for everyone. I need to go to the Super Wal-Mart for supplies tonight. Anyway, my mom has this daughter who loves baking experiments. I love trying to make things from scratch. She asked for a strawberry cake, so I went scouring the interwebz for a cake from scratch. I told her about the things I was finding, and she said “Can’t you just find a recipe that uses a box white cake and add strawberries.” After my feelings of sacrilegious baker’s rage settled, I talked to my buddy Paula Deen (or went on her site), and she told me about her cake box strawberry cake recipe (or I found it on her website). It feels a bit like cheating, but at least it will be easier.

Chinchilla holding a sign

Tiny cute busker

So, we all know I’m a disgusting person. This has been long established. We drink bottled water. I know this is terrible for the environment, but Chickasha water is still gross even after being filtered. I will bring a bottle into my room, drink part of it and then forget it. In my mind, after a few days it is a rotting cesspool of yuck. I end up with several have finished bottles of water that I am too paranoid to drink and too lazy to dump out and recycle the bottles. Earlier today, I brought in a bottle, took a drink, and set it by the other bottles of cesspool water, OR I finished and forgot. Now I have a suspect bottle sitting on my desk taunting me.

Okay, I’m going to go have a mini coma.

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Down the Rabbit Hole *Snicker*

So, I had planned to come here and write about writing like a fiend and finding my groove again and inform y’all that the Viking hasn’t gotten me the pictures from the zoo yet because he is working full time and working on a Master’s and trying to get sleep. It started out innocently enough.  I decided to check out my site stats and clicked a link to a referrer. I spent the next 20 minutes like this:

what the fuck is happening

What the fuck am I looking at?!?

It was a tumbler devoted purely to nerd porn pictures and gifs. I thought after that summer looking at porn for a living, I couldn’t be shocked by nekkid people anymore until I discovered cosplay porn.

Keep the internet weird folks. I’m going to try and process some of the things I’ve seen. I CAN’T UNSEE THAT!!

 

*Le Sigh* rule 34

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Feminist Commandments or How Not to be Big Bag of Douche

1. Thou Shall Not Judge

Working moms shall not judge stay at home moms. Stay at home moms shall not judge working mom.  Career driven women shall not judge family oriented women. Family oriented women shall not judge the career driven women. Vegan, organic, whole food women shall not judge the dinner from a box women, vice versa.  Waxed, tanned, and dyed women shall not judge the hairy women, and hairy women should judge not back. Fat girls, skinny girls, shut up and be compassionate.

This is a difficult commandment. One I fail almost every day, sometimes several times a day. I believe we have to keep on trying. I might not agree with the way another woman lives her life, dresses, behaves, or any number of her decisions, but I don’t know her life. She doesn’t know mine. We all struggle with societal pressures, and the only way to make them easier is to stop creating them for ourselves.

When we tear each other apart, we make it easier for the rest of the world to finish the job.

 

2. Thou Shall Love

Be passionate.  Anger can be good. It can motivate. Sometimes we need it to show the world there is a problem. Anger can help us see, but it can also blind us. Love, though, can make real change. It builds where anger destroys. There is a necessity and a place for both, but anger should come from love and grow back into it.

Feminism and life should be about teaching and learning. It is much harder  to teach or learn through hatred and anger than through love. Also, love makes you happier than anger and hatred, and happiness does matter.

 

3. Thou Shall Listen

When you interact with people, be it other feminists or others, really listen. Try to understand where the person is coming from. Don’t try to prove your point or win an argument, communicate. Ask questions. Be respectful when someone believes differently than you. Don’t be defensive and try not to make others defensive.

If you want to make a change, you have to communicate, not just talk. Sometimes, people can’t hear or won’t communicate. There is nothing to be done. Don’t waste your breath or your calm. Many times, though, if approached right, people want to talk. They want to explain and make a connection. If you show them respect, they are more likely to reciprocate, and you will never teach without respect. You will never learn without respect.

 

4. Thou Shall Accept

This is a combination of the first three. We might not agree with each other. We might not place the same importance on the same problems. (This is good, by the way, since it means more women can truly focus on what matters to them. It adds to the movement, not detracts.) Accept the men who are full force into the movement, and accept the men who are allies, but haven’t wholly embraced it. The patriarchy is evil, not men.

 

I did this kind of as a joke, but the truth is, I believe every word of it. This applies to far more than just feminism. This is how we make things better. This is how we change the world.

In summary: don’t be a dick.

My final argument:

Be like the jaunty, dapper lizard wearing a top hat.

Be like the jaunty, dapper lizard wearing a top hat.

 

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Decisions

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. The decisions we make determine the kind of people we are. They determine the lives we lead. They also determine how we effect the world.  I know it is pretty elementary stuff. It is something I hope most of us figure out pretty early in life. I know a lot of people who haven’t.  There are some people who sometimes I want to shake and tell them to stop making the worst possible decisions. Sometimes, I make the worst possible decisions, and I know people I love watch from the sidelines and want to shake me. Life is a series of decisions.

Bad decisions were made here. Not pointing fingers.

Bad decisions were made here. Not pointing fingers.

 

There is this older man who works the grocery part of the Braum’s in Chickasha named Jack. I worked at Braum’s for nearly a year, and it sucked. It really, really, really sucked. I did his job, and it was the most suck of the suck in some ways.  Anyway, Jack, every single time I go into Braum’s to pick up just enough groceries to keep me from having to go to the super Wal-Mart for just a few more days and Jack is working, Jack is happy and bright. He smiles, makes jokes, and is just crazy friendly. A lot of times I’m kind of cranky when I go into the Braum’s, but Jack is impossible not smile back at. Jack is just one of those people.

There are these people in the world who makes everyone around them feel better. They make everyone they encounter have a better day. We live in this super jaded world, and happy, positive people are looked at suspiciously. Hope and caring are sometimes treated like sheer stupidity. If you don’t spend your life protected and cynical you are going to get screwed and treated like a sucker. If you believe that good things can happen or that people do want to be good then you are obviously unaware of the reality of the world. Trust me. I’m one of those oblivious suckers who sometimes gets treated like I have brain damage.

I have to make the decision in life if I want to be smart and guarded or risk getting hurt by being optimistic and happy. The second is a lot scarier. When I really think about it, though, I realize I lose very little by believing the best. I get taken advantage of sometimes. I get hurt sometimes. In the long term, pain is mostly temporary. Being wrong and looking like an ass is a lot less terrible than being isolated in my old armor.

I want to be like Jack.

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Boring

I am gloriously boring right now.

Here is a picture of naughty chinchillas to make it better.

Here is a picture of naughty chinchillas to make it better.

Now that you need mind bleach, back to what I was saying. I am gloriously boring right now. I don’t know how long it will last, but I am going to savor it.

My life is writing, finding out I am an idiot savant at crocheting, and being madly in love. I’m excited because I got some super awesome grammar checking software of epic writing. I’m reading the third draft of the short story that turned into a novella (which is now a novel), and I’m not finding it abhorrent. It needs a lot of work, but I see the gem and not just the rough. I miss my bff, and I’m pissed off about this cold weather bullshit.

It makes for terrible blogging but wonderful living. I’m going to enjoy it as long as I can.

One last: I’m thinking of writing a list of commandments for new feminism (mostly meant tongue and cheek). I’m going to try to have it Tuesday. Be ready to tell me what I did wrong, right, and what I missed.

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Wurds… I rite them gud

I’ve had a migraine all day. Right now, I just have a medium-sized left over headache, but my brain still feels like apple sauce.  What I mean to say is: don’t expect coherency. Do y’all ever expect the coherency?

Anyway, so very early Saturday morning I finished my rough draft. I decided to take many days off to play video games, watch Dr. Who and crotchet, and do other less productive things while I let the writing brain take a break. Last night I got so bored playing video games. Tonight, I will try to get some television time for the Doctor and blanket making, but I still think I will be restless.  I want to write. I think I pushed through that little broken spot, and now I want to work again. So, starting tomorrow night, I’m going back through the first part of the story I start over a year ago and working on it some more. It makes happy to have that drive again.

Yet another example of what my boyfriend puts up with.

Yet another example of what my boyfriend puts up with.

The Viking will log on to an IM with me some nights while he is doing homework, and we talk when he takes brain breaks, and I say the weirdest shit to him while he is busy. Not long after this I did a long bit of emoticon boobs of different sizes and shapes. I don’t know if this is the sort of thing he loves me for or in spite of.

Okay, so, sometimes something  happens that makes me realize I’m a bigger dork than even I realize. There is this banging  (I’ve decided to start using slang, because I am so bad at it that it amuses me) writing/ grammar software called Grammarly. I’ve been wanting it forever now, and today I found out they have an add-in for Mozzila Fire Fox that does many of the function but only all over the interwebz. I flipped ALL THE WAY OUT. Seriously, I posted about it on Facebook on both my personal page and the blog’s page. I linked it. I was that excited. I’m still excited. It makes me sad about me, because it is further proof I am a bigger dork than I ever imagined. It is a grammar and spell checker. I need a comma checker now.

I’m reading this Andre Norton book right now, and the elves are a race of fussy, foppish, gigantic douchebags. Even if everything else about the book sucked, I would keep reading it because I hate elves. They are fussy, pretty, pretentious, douchebags. And, I have the strangest prejudices ever.

I’m going to go do other things with my apple sauce brain.

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A Whole Lot of Wonderful (and Me doing the Ugly Cry.)

Thursday night was one of the most incredible nights of my life, and definitely the best thing that has ever happened to me as a writer.

I still really don’t know how to express what it was like to have an out pouring like I received Thursday night. I’m finalizing a few things with Paypal, but after that is done, I will be paying for a full year of web hosting. I have one more year guaranteed to do something that means the world to me.

What really, really made me ugly cry, though, is how much love I felt from you guys. I don’t feel like it was charity, I felt like you guys were telling me you believed in me. That means everything in the world to me. When I waiver and get scared that I’m wasting my time and should give up and get a real job, I will remember this. Kindness matters and changes lives. Thank you. And now, when faced with the voices of doubt in my head, I can say I AM a real writer.This is a real job. Thank you.

I stayed up all night last night, well until 5 am, finishing the rough draft on the last part of my book. I’ve now written two books through rough draft stage. The first one was a learning experience best used as salvage for other things, but it gave me experience, and it gave me pride. I still have a lot of work on this second book, but I can do it.

Thank you again. If I could you would all get one of these:

I'm not sure it is feasible to send all of my readers a box full of corgi wonderful, though

I’m not sure it is feasible to send all of my readers a box full of corgi wonderful, though

I had to throw in a corgi somewhere.

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Passing The Hat

So, here is the the thing, I have no problem telling people about great charities or places to help. I believe with every part of my soul people want to be a part of something good, and that two dollars can change the world. I believe many people can get an intense feeling of good and joy from doing good. Some people say giving because it makes you feel good means it is less altruistic, but I believe it is a manifestation of feeling like we did something good, and that happiness spreads and make more good. I know, totally dirty hippie of me.

That being said: I would rather rip out my own fingernails than ask for money for what I felt like selfish reasons. It stretches and frays every bit of pride I have to take all of my help from my parents. I have to remind myself how much I do for them in order not to hate myself. It bothers me that my friends know they are going to have to pay to do something with me more exotic than a cheap dinner. And, let’s just leave it at that the Viking is a saint, and I can’t wait for the day I can take him out to dinner. It kills me and my pride.

But, Amanda Palmer told me people want to pay for things they believe in.

So, here it goes. May 16th the 54 dollars for six months of my web hosting comes due. If I want to keep this site going, I have to find a way to pay for it. On the sidebar there is a Paypal donate button.

I don’t have anything to offer, except the thing I always offer on this site, me. I believe in what I do. I believe that being someone who stands up and says “look at how imperfect I am, just like you” can make other people feel less alone and less strange. I believe in making connections. I believe in the power of being vulnerable and showing people who you really are without worrying about image or product. Most people have reasons they can’t be open about their gore and bits and what they believe. I can be, so I should be.

I have spent so much of my life feeling like the only one who didn’t get the playbook. I felt alien walking around all these folks who got it. I felt alone. Then I noticed when I started being honest and opening up, everyone else felt the same way, too. We all feel alone, not good enough, or like we to be a certain way in order to deserve love and acceptance. We feel this way because we spend so much time bumping around the world with our guards up, never showing people our fluffy bits. We feel alone because we isolate ourselves out of fear.

My life changed when I took down the armor. I believe that people benefit from seeing others without their armor, because it is how we create true connection, and that is what we all really want, true connection. So, I’m taking down one of my last bits of armor. I’m asking you guys for help in keeping this strange experiment going.

There is a Paypal donate button on the sidebar. If you have some extra dollars, throw it in the hat. I have a little over two weeks to raise the $54. If I can’t, the world won’t end. I’ll find some way to keep this site going. No matter what, I will keep writing and being a red hot mess. I will keep over sharing and pissing people off. I will keep trying to be myself.

To sweeten the deal, if I raise the $54 I promise to make an ass out of my self on video. Tina promised to help. I’ll take input in blog comments and on my FB page as to how I am to make myself look like an idiot. It will be your time to exact your revenge for all my damn PMS posts.

I will leave you with the quote from Doctor Who that made me realize that it was far more than a fun little show:

I cried. This is when I really understood the Doctor

I cried. This is when I really understood the Doctor

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Bending Space and Time WITH MY MIND

So, yeah, caffeine

Lots and lots of caffeine

It isn’t all my fault. The world isn’t always friendly to day sleepers.

More importantly, the thing with my writing I’ve been trying to force finally happened. I’ve obviously been struggling with my writing for a few months now. Some of it was life, and I can’t help that. The creative stuff, though, kills me when it isn’t there. I’ve been pushing on this current project. I missed my characters. I missed my story. I wanted to write it, but every night I would sit down and try to reach for the story. It was like spinning gears. Something was just slightly off and, while everything spun, nothing worked together and moved. I kept forcing it, though, and Sunday night I figured out a tiny plot point that slid everything else into place.  My story makes sense. I know where I am going next. I’m so happy.

I’ve never hidden the fact I’m not happy when I’m not writing. I get frustrated because I feel like I should just be able to do it. My self worth is tied into what I do. I don’t like feeling like I’m not doing anything. I’ve been pushing and pushing and pushing trying to make it work, and finally, almost as an accident, I finally got it.

Between the sleep deprivation, the caffeine, and the hyper, I’m pretty sure I’m going to learn spontaneous human teleportation tonight.

Otter theif

An otter with an ice cream sandwich. How is this anything other than awesome?

I also decided to start working out again. I haven’t been happy with how my body feels for a long time. For me, it isn’t so much about weight, but more about how I feel. I’ve always been overweight, but for most of my life, I’ve felt strong. Several months ago I noticed that I am feeling weaker and weaker. I’m starting to feel my body is a trap. I can’t have that. It scared and depressed the shit out of me. I’ve found excuse after excuse to avoid making changes. I’ve dealt with little failure after little  failure, but yesterday I did my Pilates DVD. I’ve decided to go slow and make life changes bit by bit. I might write about it a lot. I’m sorry. I know it will get boring, but I have to feel accountable to someone. So, I’m being accountable to my blog friends. This week and next I’m going to do Pilates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. After these two weeks, I will see how my body feels, and I will add either walking at the park with my dog or riding the recombinant bike. I miss the joy of movement I feel when I work out. I might fail, but I hope I keep trying.

I’ve noticed that about my life. I have cycles of progress and stagnation. I fail a lot. I live a life full of good intentions and belief, but a lot of time I fail. I keep trying, though. I don’t know what else to do. Does everyone else feel like they are making up this shit as they go along, too?

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Bits, Bobs, and Ferengis (NSFW)

First, Required Monthly Corgi (again) brought to you by my friend Renee:

Oh, the cute is making my head feel a little explodey

Oh, the cute is making my head feel a little explodey

This is another one of those posts without a single unifying purpose, just a bunch of random crap cobbled together because they exist in my head.

I started watching the Doctor Who. The first couple of episodes were cool, but I couldn’t see what everyone was FREAKING THE FRELL out about. About episode five I got it. I watched episode ten last night, and I totally get it. Holy freaking shiv, the show is incredible. The story telling and acting is stellar. I’ll admit this too: it appeals to my feminist sensibilities.

I’ve come to accept that my life will always have a feminist lens from here on out. I don’t know how I feel about it, but I know it’s there now. Doctor Who kicks ass. Most things with the male ‘lead’ and female ‘companion’ have an element of the big strong man protecting the screaming female. Rose screams, but she also kicks everyone’s ass. The series, so far, has been full of smart, resourceful characters who solve problems as much with their brains and bravery than force. Gender doesn’t matter. It is wonderful, and I’m seriously entranced. If I ever breed, I’m making my kids watch the show to help ensure their awesome.

Okay, insanely silly side note: I got a second set of holes in my ears so I can wear the earring the Viking bought me all the time. (I’m pretty sure I dangled a modifier there, but I like to live on the edge.) I promised him I wouldn’t put so many holes in my ears I ended up looking like a female Ferengi.

So Tina doesn’t have to use the Google:

This is a sexy, sexy Ferengi woman

This is a sexy, sexy Ferengi woman (Updated: I just realized that some of you might not get the funny. It’s one of the male Ferengi characters in drag. Yep, an alien. You are welcome my friends.)

For everyone else: this is what happens when you go to the weird parts of the interwebz:

Rule 34 OR Ferengi Ta-tas

Rule 34 OR Ferengi Ta-tas

Also, when did I become all crafty and shit? I was pretty sure I got over my crafty tendencies when I stopped working with the Girl Scouts, but over about the past year, I’ve started making things and googling strange shit like  how to preserve flowers. I got excited about picking out yarn today because I’m crocheting a damn blanket. Yep. That’s right. I’m crocheting now. I just finished knitting the dopest, freshest headband in EXISTENCE. Well, okay, a six year old in the 1890’s would be embarrassed by how badly made it is, but I’m proud. I mostly stayed with uniform amounts of stitches. Remember when I was too busy gaming to do thing like knit? I don’t know if I’ve digressed or not.

Yeah… I think that covers it.

Oh, to help you recover from the Star Trek porn:

TO THE DEATH

TO THE DEATH

 

 

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