Formula Blogging

Yue Ju Wan

is 9 Levels of Awesome!!!
I feel just all kinds of happy now that I can breathe again. Today is a day when I love, love, love traditional Chinese medicine.

Magnificence For a Monday

and boy could I use some after the morning I've had, between the Admin's torpedo job of my whole economic plan for next year by scheduling one of my required classes for Monday mornings when I had planned to be teaching (yeah, I know it's nothing personal, but still--since teachers are by and large hired in the fall and not in, say, January) and having a particularly emotionally difficult case this morning. They say as providers who genuinely care about their patients it can be hard to find the most effective place between giving compassion and maintaining professional distance, not to mention how you deal with your own feelings of fear and helplessness when you get someone whose prognosis is poor. More on that later, maybe--I need to process it a bit more.

But a friend sent me this this morning, because she knows how much I love the incomparable Celia Cruz. I say it couldn't have come at a better time, so please enjoy it with me!

Dave Chappelle Wants Tony Snow's Job

It's true--go look!

All I can say is I would never miss another press conference again...

The iPhone Is a Piece of Shit and So Is Your Face

Maddox reviews the iPhone. I got this from Shakes, who got it from Chris, it's really quite funny.

But be warned--as Shakes notes, don't click through if you are easily offended, 'cuz you probably will be.

Going to 11 on the Stupid Dial

Checking the Yahoo mail I couldn't resist clicking on this trenchant (and by trenchant I mean completely banal, in an intelligence insulting kind of way) bit of dating "advice" from Evan Marc Katz who himself is (gasp!) still single. But whatever. He's a dood living in Dood Nationz so he knows best. Then I found that both Amanda (and do note the irony of poetic proportions that is Google Ads) and Jeff have already done both exemplary and snarktastic jobs of excoriating this piece of puffy cobaggery, so I don't have much to add, except to feel that if I were a man I would be totally insulted by this. Are any men who may be reading this insulted? Just curious. As a woman I'm just rolling my eyes because plenty of boyfriends have told me my most salient points (e.g. not wearing makeup, not acting like a doormat) are supposedly what turns teh menz right off.

I had been going to pick #9 as my favorite (" Cooking dinner for a man is like buying flowers for a woman, except it takes a lot more time, effort and thought for you to do it. Thanks. We appreciate it.") since the condescension is just-mwah! magnifique!!, but then I got to #11:

Just because we like looking at the women in Maxim doesn't mean we want to actually converse with the women in Maxim. Not for long, anyway.

Um...yeah. Thanks, Evs--I feel so much better! All along I just needed to lower my standards--because everyone knows that being single and happy on one's own terms is worlds worse than being in a relationship with a total douchehound who insults one's dignity. I'm going to go and get me one of those Nice Guys® right now!

The Satire, It Writes Itself

Check this out and then tell me men can't be feminists. Sweet milk chocolate Jeebus.

New Blog on Fat and Medicine!!

Kate Harding who blogs at Shakesville and Shapely Prose is starting a new blog in the wake of all the stories she has been getting from readers about being fat and trying to get healthcare. As a future care provider and someone who definitely does NOT agree with all the hatred and misinformation about the so-called obesity crisis, I'm pretty excited about this. Of course links will be posted when it is up and running. In the meantime, do click on the link to Shapely Prose above and read some Thorn's posts as well as their comment threads, but be warned you may want to cry, smash things, or both.

No Vacuum Here

Here is the link to Jack's post on street harassment over at Feministe I had mentioned earlier. It's a fantastic post so be sure to read the whole thing, then follow the links to the Brian Lehrer show and catch that as well.

Pay special attention to the exchange between host Lehrer and a caller named Shane who displays just stunning levels of sexist assholery and is the perfect foil for deconstructing the power trip inherent in harassment. That such men do not really think they will attract a woman, but rather it is about putting her in her place, as a sexualized object that is gazed upon and evaluated, whose default response to such objectification should be gratitude that someone with a penis finds her fuckable, as well as an awesome discussion of the agency of women themselves who may or may not want to "dress sexy" or attract attention for various reasons.

There is also an interesting discussion about the "heterosexual framing" of harassment and how being queer may or may not figure into it which throws the genderedness of the whole thing into even bolder relief. Just go read--you'll be glad you did.

Rufus Wainwright - Going to a town

A quick bit of Democracy Now! on the way to school inspired me to post this, besides thinking that Rufus Wainwright is wildly talented as a musician and songwriter. I feel tired of America too.

I Dream of a World, Follow-up

I started this over in a comment thread of someone else's post, and it grew and grew so I decided to post here. Last night I was just too freaked and angry to write much more than I did.

So last night I was a good kid and did my dishes and cleaned up the kitchen after dinner. Then I felt kind of restless and crappy, so I went out for a walk up to the Elvis shrine and back. They are decked out in summer fun islander garb, which is appropriate. I think my favorite is the bunny ears for Easter though. Or maybe Christmas Santa hats:


I met the most awesome Siamese kitty, which made me happy too.

And then I was almost home, walking by Grant Elementary and I heard a car pull up and drive slowly behind me. So I turned around, car kept driving, I kept walking. Sure enough this underwear shit-streak leans toward the passenger side and makes a disgusting comment about my legs and the implied quality of my vagina, and how was I doing tonight, baby? and why didn't I not walk myself on over to him and not be rude 'cuz he just thought I was sexy was all...

So I kept walking and looking straight ahead like he wasn't even there, even though I had already started scanning for an escape route without even thinking about it like I always do, even though my blood was pounding in my ears and my hear was hammering in my chest, even as I was wondering if THIS would be the time I was physically and not just verbally as usual reminded that my body was ultimately not my own. But apparently my unwillingness to play along exhausted his patience and he mumbled something and sped off, but then stopped at the next block and waited. And then drove slowly on a bit, and then stopped and waited. I slowed down too, waiting to see what he would do. He finally turned down 26th and sped off, so as I got to 25th I turned and started heading south.

And he came up behind me AGAIN, slowed down and lurked, but then took off again without saying anything. At this point I just ran home as fast as I could, figuring I would make sure no one was watching before I darted into the Maze to lock myself up in my apartment. Which no one was, so I did. But it freaked my the fuck out, even though it's not the first time something like that has happened to me and I know it won't be the last. Even though I've found myself in even scarier encounters. Even though I know I will still go out and live my life. And it pissed me off too, because if I were to relate this anecdote, even if people were polite enough not to come right out and ask me what I was wearing, why was I out taking a walk alone in my bourgeois neighborhood after dark etc. but they sure would be thinking it. Which is a very human thing to do, on the one hand--if we know that people are to blame for their own misfortunes, then we can avoid similar fates and thus maintain the illusion of control. On the other hand, it's absolutely infuriating, because I was not the one in the wrong, he was. Where is the outrage that some people feel totally free to be violent misogynist assholes instead of the resignation that boys will be boys or wev and there's nothing to be done, why bother.

I don't know how to get across what it feels like that it is so normative to have this awareness everywhere you go, with everyone you are with that it hardly even registers half the time. Or how it feels to know that your choices of where you can go (in the larger sense of life as well as where you feel like spending your evening) and when, and with whom are limited because of that, and how inherently fucked up that is. Or what it feels like to be grabbed by the ass or the breasts or the hair, to be masturbated to on the bus, to be threatened with rape, torture, and death for daring to speak to power instead of shutting up and putting out bitch like what you were put on this earth to do, and then to be told you are a feminazi, making a big deal out of nothing, that you are being too sensitive and just need to develop a thicker skin and be tough like teh menz instead of whining like a little pussy girl, you shouldn't have worn that skirt/heels/modest kindergarten teacher attire, what were you thinking going out without a man to protect you 'cuz everyone knows that a woman without a man is fair game for poaching and I mean that in every sense of the phrase.

Breathe. Blink. Swallow.

I know things could have been much, much worse and there but for the grace of God go I, but I'm so tired of this shit I could scream and cry buckets. Except sometimes I'm afraid if I ever started I may never stop.

I Dream of a World...

in which I can go out minding my own business and not be accosted by kerb-crawling mouth-breathing fuckwits who think their attention is flattering rather than terrifying.

Reading For Monday

This will be a working post, since I keep getting interrupted by patients who need their needles pulled and their ginormous and complicated Rx's refilled, so keep checking back. But so far...

Neddie: Perhaps The Most Juvenile Thing I've Ever Posted (and just when I'm realizing there may be some frequent road travel in my future...and the comments thread is NOT to be missed!)

Zuzu: John Travolta: The Best Part of Playing a Woman is the Groping on the upcoming and sure to be obscene travesty that is the Hairspray remake

Will Ferrell as Shrub on global warming (can't decide whether to laugh or cry? why not do both...)

The Onion: Edwards to End All Bad Things by 2011

Taking Steps: phone booths, iii: snakes and ladders. (an older post I've been meaning to put up for weeks now...sigh.)

Red Thread: Feminist Parenting Palooza

One of My Greatest Fantasies Ever

What? Tell me you don't want your own posse of Ninja Kittenz!

One Kitty World, One Kitty Love

No really, it's true! Check it out:

They are all from the Near East wildcat clave and they are the amongst the most successful carnivores evah!

No wonder I call them kin. Just when I thought they could be no more fascinating creatures! Sometimes it's cool to be wrong.

Planet Unicorn 4!!!

So I was over at Shakesville this morning and was excited beyond belief over this--I LOVE Planet Unicorn and you should too. Latest episode below:


Episodes: 1, 2, and 3 if you haven't already seen. Episode 3 is especially for us bikey types--fantastic!!

Music For A Monday: The Hanslick Rebellion:

Posted especially for Miles, because I said I would, and for anyone else having a case of Teh Mondays. Love!

William shatner in Lucy in the sky with diamonds

This fanatsic piece of fan art was uploaded at a small company and then promptly removed after the word got out. It is a a brilliant video to one of the oddest covers ever recorded by Captain Kirk. And he recorded a bunch.

Two Read 'Em's

One is Saturday Surf Blogging, a new regular feature from Brynn over at Shakesville which I think I'm going to really enjoy.

Also not to be missed at Shakesville this weekend: Melissa's inimitable and incisive take on Peggy Noonan, who has always read like the sound of someone with a mouthful of fillings chewing on aluminum foil. As usual, Liss says it better than I ever could.

Have you ever watched--I mean really watched--a cat clean his or her toes? If not, then you should, because it is singularly amazing how fiercely they can dive in between them and not get their tongues tangled up in all those claws. That is all.

Fireroad 451*

OK, maybe not quite that hot. But a bona fide scorcher nonetheless, so much so that my Reddingite heritage of 110+ days all the time all summer long came in quite handy. You can clearly see the numbers in the photo of my Vector, right? Plus it made sure that I would have the whole 9.5 miles of fireroad and trail pretty much all to myself, coming and going.

It is now July, and officially time to start ramping up for the summer trip. I had wanted to do what I did last 4th and take the Idlehour trail from Henninger Flat over to the top of Mt. Lowe. But there were so many bugs in the shady parts of the Toll Road leading up from Henninger I thought better of dropping down into that deep creek canyon. Plus I indulged my abiding and totally psychological aversion to descending into faraway and lightly travelled canyons. Seriously, last summer when I was stuck in the Kern Canyon I was really kinda weirded out, even before the 2AM bear visit. I stuck to the high road, since straight-up hilly miles and hours on my feet were the goal anyway.

It has been a bit over 3 years since I'd hiked that way, so it was kind of cool to revisit, even if it was just a staid old fireroad in bakin' hot conditions. Other than a couple of runners (I'm guessing) training for Angeles Crest 100, it was just me until I got to the jct with the trail that comes up from Sierra Madre. Met 3 guys on bikes who wanted some beta on the lower part of the way I'd come up, since technically Henninger Flat and the Toll Road are supposed to be closed. But there aren't any signs any more, and the washed out sections have been transformed into singletrack with good tread. No rangers came out and yelled at me. I had thought about maybe grabbing some friends and some picnic food and heading up later in the afternoon to have dinner and then watch some fireworks from that lovely little bench overlooking the SG Valley that the campground sits on. Maybe next year, if I'm in town. I would much rather be in Mineral King though.

It was a mellow and uneventful descent. I saw no one. Not one person. No animals either, come to think of it. But oh, the trash!

I had half a packful that I chucked at the observatory and then picked up a few bottles, a drink box, a fabric softener sheet (?) and an empty yogurt gallon tub the last quarter mile before the parking lot, which leads to my oft-repeated and at this point partially rhetorical Question of the Day: What the fuck is wrong with people? Do you suppose they don't use trash cans at home either?

*our old UCLA mountainbiking column, but it's apropos so it stands

Tuesday Cat Blogging

What's that you say? Shouldn't you be in class, young lady? Well, yes I should, but we're on break. And I'm bored.

It's a refreshing mountain spring!

Serious young man

Tune in tomorrow for Wednesday dessert blogging, strawberry-rhubarb edition!

Ani DiFranco Grand Canyon of Light

Truly one of the most scintillating, electrifying women to ever take a stage. Hat tip to my wonderful new compadre Pedro for this! Besitos y cariño--and I hope your races went well!

Proud to be Canadian

Happy Canada Day!!

The Zimmers

OK, so I'm having a bit of trouble lately keeping an even keel, to the point where surrounding myself with stories and music and such that make me happy really does make me happy, so here they come, all in one place, for me to find when I need to be reminded that the world and the people in it are pretty beautiful and amazing.