Brilliant readers, thank you for the poetry suggestions. I will assemble them before my next library & bookstore trips. Yay!

I have another question for you. Is there a proper expression of detached indifference in IM/email/text/chat emoticons? There's definitely an ambivalent expression - :/ or :\ - but is there one that says "I am not iffy on this subject; I simply do not care" without any air of snark or pissiness?

Just a moment ago, I typed "whatever" meaning "whatever you want, I am untroubled by any possible outcome" but it read "whatever" as in "whatever, loser... talk to the hand". And there was really no appropriate emoticon to back up my text with emotional content.

I am troubled by this. Please assist.

I would like to read more poetry.

What should I read?

There's a cute post on Shapely Prose that uses the 'get a bikini bod in 2.5 minutes' articles in most magazines to talk about getting comfortable in a bathing suit.

Which reminds me of a question I had awhile back!
Poll #1191050
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

All weather being equal, do you feel most comfortable...

I personally think I look better not-quite-naked, or sometimes in dance costume. Clothes never quite feel designed for the shape of my body.

Here's an explanation of how the privilege exercise works in a classroom - which is where it was intended to be used. And more from the source. I'm intrigued by the statement that ... the people on one end of the room had to work harder to be here today than the people at the other end of the room. It's followed later in the exercise by a statement that having privilege "doesn't mean you worked less hard". So, uh. Which is it? *

The exercise seems to be, as crafting_change (and others, but especially her) noted, coming from a pretty weird place on social vs. economic class. If you follow the source link & look at their "social class awareness quiz", you'll see questions that gain you "blue points" such as:
What are Kona and Blue Mountain?
a. Resorts
b. Hotels
c. Islands
d. Coffee

And countering, "red point", questions:
What is 10W40?
a. An Unemployment form
b. A kind of oil
c. A criminal background check
d. A truck

Dude, that quiz needs a "how do you feel" debrief afterwards. Words like "unemployment" and "criminal" do not even APPEAR on the blue point list. If the questions are peppered with social-knowledge kinds of things like WWF and Vivaldi, and with an obvious bent that WWF = poverty, criminality, etc., Vivaldi = wealth, consumption, etc. AND each has a particular set of educational biases. Ah. I'm not making fantastic sense here, but I am now bothered by this exercise. I think it sets out to point out background differences in a way that is already pretty classist.

* Which is part of the point of a meaningful class discussion - neither statement is exactly true.

PS. Y'all are fantastic at teaching me about the world and your perspectives.

If you're a Lush fan, they've apparently overstocked some stuff and are giving away a free thing for every thing you buy. Which is a good deal if you like their holiday stuff!

So, I'm not actually going to do any of the formatty stuff they ask for, but I will say. Seriously? People haven't read these books? ( The unread books meme )
I put questions next to some because as far as I know, I've not even heard of them.

I've read 85 of the list; I miscounted the first time.

Today's weather makes me feel like the Postal Service. I've been digging my heels in about fall, not wanting it to come, and the forecast calls for happy times for me. It can be fall at night, and in the morning.

No concerns about the world getting warmer
People thought that they were just being rewarded
For treating others as they'd like to be treated
For obeying stop signs and curing diseases
For mailing letters with the address of the sender
Now we can swim any day in November

Thank you for all the happy birthdays. It was a good one.

You kids are the best hug delivery service evah. I feel better already.

Please send hugs.

If you haven't noticed, most of my photos from Hawai'i are of scenery, and a lot are of the mood shifts as the scenery shifts while you're driving or sitting in a spot. I think, in general, I take photographs that reflect the feeling of whatever I'm doing, which means if they have people in them, the people are doing something.

How about you?
Poll #1056814
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

When you travel, you take photos mostly of...

Is your travel photography representative of what you usually photograph?

What do you usually photograph?

Here is how it works. Copy this list. Leave in the bands you've seen perform live. Delete the ones you haven't and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list. Two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list.

1. The Church
2. Ani Difranco *
3. Crowded House
4. Jethro Tull
5. Nirvana
6. Mike Doughty
7. Clem Snide
8. Whiskeytown
9. 6 String Drag
10. Rainer Maria
11. Girlyman**
12. Blues Traveler
13. Dan Bern
14. They Might Be Giants
15. Son Volt
16. Peter Murphy
17. Turku
18. The Butchies
19. Pop Culture Casualties
20. Erin McKeown *
21. Rusted Root *
22. REM
23. Indigo Girls**
24. Concrete Blonde
25. Dar Williams**

The Kiyonna peeps sent me an email advertising those Spanx things (which is, I have to admit, cute in an almost-kinky way). And I was thinking, you know, I used to wear "control-top" stockings/tights all the time, yet the "body shaper" idea squicks me for some reason.

Why is that?
Poll #1043396
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Do you wear "body shapers" of some sort?

Whether you wear them or not, are they a good idea?

Random extra credit question - if you do wear anything that changes the shape of your body, how does that change the way you perceive your body when wearing or not wearing that thing? You could include bras in that, I suppose. Does it make a difference?

I used to be all "OMG you can see my tummy" if I wasn't wearing The Great Control Top. But bra vs. no-bra isn't a huge issue. So, I wonder.

I use like one stamp a year but bought a book at the post office. Plus, it's summer. I once had summer penpals.

So, I'd like to mail things!

If you'd like me to mail a thing to you, give me your address. It might be something I make, or something I find. Something that can be sent with a stamp, in any case. Comments screened.

LJ: We were dumb. Sorry.

Nothing makes me so willing to forgive a mistake (or in this case, a whopping dose of WTF WERE YOU THINKING) like a good mea culpa. That's a lesson for life.

Yes, undoubtedly LJ was reacting with seemingly no thought at all, and someone will probably do it again - maybe even in the process of trying to fix this mistake. But hey, I've done that, too. Any company or organization's decisions are made by people, people are sometimes stupid temporarily, and I say yay to people apologising and trying to fix their particular brand of stupid.

Because if missmeridian hasn't seen this, she MUST:


I mean, I love the rest of y'all too, but she will forever be linked with otters in my brain.

May is hula hoop month! I should work on getting my itty bitty hoop going around my neck. We should take our hoops out to a park!

Also, I? Have mad pretentious taste. If the beer post the other day didn't prove it, I believe the fact that I heard the word "Sanskrit" in two separate songs (on the iPod) on a 20 minute trip to the grocery story should.