Two Small Victories, and One Large Failure

Remember that thing on my hand? Well, I was advised by a few different people that I should try smashing it with a book. So, last night, I got my sister to slam the shit out of it with a giant vegetarian cook book. It didn't actually go away, but it is smaller than it was. I may have her smash it again later.

Also, I finally finished reading The Divine Comedy. I don't think I actually mentioned that I was reading it, but I've been working on it forever! I think I finished three other books during the time that I was reading it, because it just felt so overwhelmingly long. Anyway, I finally got through it.

As or the failure, I got my pole yesterday and it's too tall to fit in my exercise room!

Ⓥ Veganism and Sexism

T.O.F.U. magazine (the one that published one of my articles a while back) just put out a new issue. First of all, I find this very exciting, because I love T.O.F.U. magazine, and I'm glad to see they are back after such a long break. Second, this new issue was about the intersection of animal rights and sexism, and it inspired me to talk about my thoughts on the subject.

When you talk about sexism and animal rights, the group that comes up the most (by far) is PETA. They are well known for their use of nude or barely clothed women in their ads, and they were mentioned in several of the articles in T.O.F.U. Many people find their treatment of women to be highly offensive, and claim that it is hurtful to the cause. I don't agree. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely things that PETA has done that I disagree with, but I don't believe that their treatment of women is sexist.

The way I see it, the women who appear in the ads do so by choice. The women decided that they wanted to allow their bodies to be used that way. I don't think that's sexism, that's personal choice. Isn't a big part of the idea behind feminism that women can choose what they want to do with their own bodies? If they want to take their clothes off to bring attention to animal rights issues, shouldn't they be allowed to do that? If these women were being somehow forced or manipulated into showing their bodies, that would be sexist. That fact that they choose it for themselves, makes it sort of empowering (at least in my opinion). For these women to stand up and say "These are my beliefs, and this is my body, and I am proud of them both" seems sort of like the opposite of sexism to me.

Furthermore, whether people like it or not, or agree with it or not, these sorts of ads do draw attention and get people talking, which is really the whole point. People can't help but notice these things and, once they notice them, they pretty much have to acknowledge the content. So how, exactly, is allowing women to use their bodies in ways that benefit causes they care deeply about, by their own choice, offensive?

Good News Everyone!

I might have cancer! Just kidding, I'm not that lucky. I do, however, have some fucking knobby thing on my hand, which I thought was a bone that was out of place, but apparently isn't. My mom insisted that we x-ray it, which resulted in the conclusion that it is "weird" and "not bone" and that I "should get it looked at". How very helpful. Also, for the love of fuck, if this weather doesn't stop I am honestly going to lose whatever semblance of sanity I have left!

In case you don't watch Futurama, I should tell you that Farnsworth's "good news" is never, in fact, good news.

Where Is the Line?

Do you think there is a line somewhere where trying to be a good person, and do the right thing, and get along with everyone gets so fucking frustrating that it actually makes you a worse person? If so, I'm pretty sure I've crossed it. I still do everything I feel like I should do, and try my best not to argue with or inconvenience anyone, but I'm so fucking bitter about it that I'm pretty sure everyone can tell that I hate everything. At this point, I really just want to tell everyone I know (human and non-human) to fuck off, and move to Portland, or any place that's not here (I mean that I want to move to Portland, not that I want to tell them to move to Portland).

An Investment In My Future

I finally did something that I've been wanting to do for a long time; I ordered a stripper pole. I keep finding these videos of people pole dancing, and I just think it's totally fucking beautiful, and I really want to be able to do that with my body. I never did take that exotic dance class I was wanting to take, and (assuming I'm able to get the thing installed properly) this will save me money and hassle in the long run. Plus, you never know when I might decide that I want to be a stripper, and now I'll have the proper training (whether or not I'm kidding about that depends entirely on how stupid I look when I try to use the thing). 

I also ordered a DVD from Felix Cane^

Victory!

After the purple fiasco, on Saturday, I decided to redo my hair. I bleached it for a hour and then used a diluted version of the purple conditioner, and I finally got the color I've been trying for! Of course, there are no guarantees that it won't turn a ridiculous color later, but at least for now it looks pretty cool. My sister was kind enough to take a picture for me, so I could show you guys what all the fuss has been about.

Also, I was not aware until now that I am the same color as my mom's kitchen. 

Not Quite What I Was Going For

Lately, I have been trying to find a way to keep my hair from getting yellow without having to actually put that purple stuff on it every day. I tried purple shampoo, which is what everyone online recommended, and that did nothing for me. Finally I decided to try putting the purple in conditioner, and see what that would do. Since I got no effect whatsoever fro the shampoo, I figured it would probably take quite a lot of purple in the condition to get what I wanted from it. Turns out I was wrong. When I got out of the shower yesterday, I looked in the mirror and thought "Yeah, it's definitely kind of purple." It didn't look that obvious though, it just had sort of a purple tint, so I thought "Oh well, I'll just deal with it for now." Then, while we were out shopping, I went into the bathroom at Wal Mart, and it was fucking purple! Apparently, it was just the lighting in my house that made it look not terrible. So yeah, I'm definitely going to dilute my conditioner a bit.

It couldn't even be a nice purple, like Leela's. It was a charming mix between lavender and gray.