oh dear, oh dear

[dragonlady7]

Feeling poorly today, but at least it's just cycle-related. (Cramps and general ickiness of the first day sort.) Mostly it's that my back hurts. I had plans to go out and get supplies to do gardeny things, but I do not wish to move from this blanket-swaddled nest. I have to do some sitting-and-writing things before tomorrow anyway... Phooey.

Chita has had a crotchety-old-man expression all morning. Squinty-eyed, slow-moving, suspicious. She is so cute. I haven't had her to the vet in basically a year, though, so I really should bring her in for a check-up. I was joking that I'd call and ask if I could get my cat "winterized". When we got her, the vet's office had different "packages" they'd do for your kittens-- the "stray", the "indoor", and the "outdoor" package. We meant to get Chita the "indoor" package, but it turns out that in order to be spayed she needed all the "outdoor" shots anyway. Which was confusing. But anyway.

For some reason I am link-fascinated today. So.
Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them-- fascinating. From 1910. He's, like, the Martha Stewart of turn-of-the-last-century farming.

Depressing and infuriating-- but at least someone can articulate just what it is that she is so angry about. I'm angry too. rm discusses last night's debate.

I cannot believe that I sat on the couch last night watching the men vying to be president seriously (such as it is) debate whether healthcare is a right or a privilege. Leaving aside matters of capitalism and socialism, our broke ass country and our ideological fears -- doesn't everyone have a right to live? to be helped if they can be helped? Isn't it simple? At least philosophically?

[...] And so I am angry at the people who tell me the results of this election won't really matter, won't really change my life, won't really put me at risk, won't really be the possible end of all things.

I am angry at people who tell me to calm down, as if I am merely a hysteric. As if my friends aren't at very real risk of dying from failed policy.

The election matters, and lives do, in fact, hang in the balance.

And if you think that doesn't include yours because you are insured, healthy, financially stable, straight and not in the military, well good for fucking you.

Agh. I need a minute. Go read the whole thing, really.

Another fat-acceptance article, nice and short and succinct. Losing the Weight Stigma in the Toronto Star.

In 2005, Bacon led the only randomized control trial to date that tested this hypothesis physiologically. She randomly assigned half of the 78 subjects, all women, to a Health at Every Size group; while they lost no weight, their healthier behaviour led to lower blood-pressure and cholesterol levels, which stayed low even two years later.

In the weight-loss group, more than 40 per cent dropped out before the six-month low-calorie diet ended, and at the two-year follow-up, the average dieter had regained all her lost weight, and the only measurement that dropped was one for self-esteem.

And, to bring back the cute, frualeydis recounts a lovely conversation with her preschool-age daughter.
Er, I mean, obviously society is falling apart at the seams and our most fundamental values are destroyed. Yeah, whatever.

But no, I can't resist. More! (It's like I'm a real blogger! Only without any overarching theme!)

kass_rants explains why we're not going into another Great Depression.

And then, some non-LJ reading. Did you know the president of Burpee has a blog??? Yes! It's more interesting than you'd think. The first few entries are pretty tame, and some of it is a bit markety, but if you read enough he reveals certain things, like that he writes everything longhand and doesn't own a computer so his secretary transcribes these, and also that he doesn't own a cellphone. He's just generally fascinating as, once you get down to it, the presidents of most companies are, whether their decisions are good or bad or they're reprehensible people or not.
On politics:

Thus, as the garden mirrors the gardener, true democracy—and the choice of its leader—reflects the people. So how do we grow a president?

First is to eschew religion. Gardens neither appear nor disappear by magic, but gradually develop over time through tested knowledge and dedicated practice. In a democracy, outcomes are not faith-based. The ancestors who instructed us to garden successfully also taught us to keep the gods out of the garden. Religion serves to sort out fundamental personal struggles, but not to make the plants grow. A precious drop of empirical science yields more fertile public policy than the grandest theology.

And a few interesting ruminations: on the ingenuity of children in the kitchen; on how the Irish caused the invention of genetics as a field of study--Really!-- and one more, on the irrelevance of old media.

Innnnteresting.

Also he links to a neat blog by a really dedicated locavore in Michigan, who owns a small organic farm and grows 95% (or more) of her own food. In an interesting and somewhat brave twist, she is not a vegetarian-- she was, but has decided to breed rare meat animals (i.e. formerly commonplace but now endangered "heritage" species), so she's working up to that by starting off with some ducks and chickens and a couple of turkeys. Fascinating! And inspiring-- she is a rabid intercropper and a fanatical succession planter, and I am totally going to try all of that.


Whew. Lots of links. Other people talking, instead of me. Do I feel better?
I will, after I read a bunch more of the blog in that last link. So many pictures! Beautiful pictures! Oh! I want to live like that. (I did, somewhat, as a child, and is it weird that I so want to go back to that kind of lifestyle? Yes, it is, a little. It was hard. But I love the idea of it. Oh, that my backyard was more than twenty feet by twenty feet... and zoned agricultural...)
Oh, one more quote.
This one's just silly.
My mom writes very brief emails from the computer in her room during study hall. I just loved how this sentence came out. (Gingersnap is one of our cats, an unpopular, stupid, rather smelly creature who has never learned how to be agreeable.)
" Dad took Gingersnap to the vet yesterday and got new tires for my car."
I read that as being an exchange, and thought, "Wow, what a deal! Wait, the vet has tires?"
Yes, I am firing on all cylinders today, why do you ask?

Comments

[gasslight.livejournal.com]

LOL, well the sentence DID lend itself to that interpretation. Very Dangerfieldesque!

I note, as merely a little interesting, that we are both "girly" at the same time. I slept with both a cat and my "hot rice bag" last night. I don't know which was more comforting.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Hot rice bag. I am intrigued.

I had various cats roaming over various parts of my body throughout most of the night and morning, but neither of them has proven to be the sort of cat who will be in any way "comforting" at any time. Especially when there are two of them and they continually have quiet little territorial wars over the bed.
And it's always on my half. They never fight over Z. Or try to sleep on him. And I do not know why this is.

Hm, maybe it's something in the water. I know last year my entire roller derby team's cycles synched, more or less-- at least eight or nine of us were on the same day. I was consistently four days to a week later than everyone else. It was pretty miserable. We referred to it as "bloody knuckles" due to our team logo being brass knuckles. My goodness, we were not fun to be around during that week.
I'm worried it will happen again this year.

[gasslight.livejournal.com]

The hot rice bag is just a couple of socks, filled with rice that I then tossed into the sleeve of an old sweater and stitched up. I had originally just put the rice into the sleeve, but that tended to leak. I toss it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. I like it because it's big enough and amorphous enough to get it where I want. In the winter I sometimes just heat it and stick it in the bed by my feet for extra warmnth.

Regarding the cat, it seems I might have gotten my ass bit this morning, which was not particularly comforting either...

Luckily for me, I often think my crankiness is funny (blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall never cease to be amused...). Cramps on the other hand, feel like pain I'm required to CARRY AROUND.

[lenine2.livejournal.com]

And if you think that doesn't include yours because you are insured, healthy, financially stable, straight and not in the military, well good for fucking you.

I can not comprehend the debate about healthcare. Why on earth would anyone be against it? Maybe it's because the people who yell the loudest fall into the categories above?

I was fired from a job once because I caused the company's insurance premiums to go up. Since then I have had my own private insurance. This year my premiums will be a little over $18,000. Premiums! For the first time I'm thinking of dropping it.

Then there's my brother-in-law, who found out he has lymphoma just one month after he found out his company was closing. His unemployment payments are $100 a week. He's trying to find a job while going through chemo, because he has to pay the medical bills somehow.

*change of subject* I am SO HAPPY you found that Burpee link. Thank you!

[rensreality101.livejournal.com]

I am swamped but I didn't want the day to go by without checking on your nephew. I hope everything goes well with his surgery.

(and the walking...so cute)