ff

what up, rape culture!? whatcha been up to lately? cool, cool.

* how's about you give this a read?

okay, jokes aside (HAHA RAPE!) this is a solid piece. all academic in nature. thanks thomas!
it is longish, but well worth the time. there are statistics and percentages, guys! NUMBERS! and, too, some very good advice. i just want to cut-and-paste it all, but i'll try to limit myself to:

something that i'm finding terrifying and shocking as i learn more and more about rape culture is how many people i actually know who have been sexually assaulted. i always thought the list was too long when i was looking at the 'society-confirmed-rapes', but now as i think back on stories i have been told over the years... there are so many i never classified correctly. never truly appreciated the extent of damage and violence. so so many. and i shudder to think about what my reactions were when i was told about these assaults. did i listen openly or did i try to excuse the acts - try to empathize with the bad guy because, you know, he was a 'nice guy'? did i build one more tiny wall against a victim classifying her assault as just that? god i hope i didn't. but i probably did. even though there was always a banging in my gut i didn't understand. all i can do is know what i know now and never ever ever put up such a wall again. let's all be that way, okay?

happy friday, my lovely internets.

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grandma's candy bowls

{borrowed from here}

sometimes (maybe around the holidays, say) do you sit in bed at night not being able to sleep and just crying happytears because the love that you have in you for the humans in your life is just too much to handle? and you think about them one by one and you're just trying to keep it together because holy holy holy god, how did you get so lucky and where on earth did they come from? and you can't, in this moment, even fathom being anything but happy and filled with love - even though you know you surely will feel sad or tired or mad or nothing soon enough, but right now it just doesn't even make sense to feel just exactly like this joyloveexplode?

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saved my life

christmastime! i am feeling all of the feelings all of the time. EXPLODE EXPLODE EXPLODE!



happy monday. don't forget you get to light two advent candles now!

(oh, and. i'm sure you've all heard by now. but in case you haven't. toronto is the best. ikeamonkey.)

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ff

are you a feminist?

no? why not?

these are questions i've had many times. of people who are totally feminists. but refuse to use the word. (hi guys! i started this feature for you!)

and here are a few other people who are asking those questions and thinking on them. do have a read!

{mary elizabeth williams at salon makes a real good point}

* why are women scared to call themselves feminists?

and also, in fashion-town:

* do you call yourself a feminist?

okay great job. i'm going to sign off now. and i'm going to do it calling y'all feminists. ready? get yourself ready.


happy friday, my lovely feministas!

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students

two short stories and some thoughts.

one.
yesterday. a 'friend' on facebook had a whiningest status about how much he hated whiney students whining about exams-and-papers stress because didn't they know the real world is harder and you don't get grades and blah blah his life is so much more stressful then theirs blah. so i thought to myself 'that is one too many whiney statuses from you!' and unfriended him.

two.
today. i got to go to ballet class, watch a movie, have a little painting/drawing playtime. roommate sarah studied and studied and studied. we went out for a quick glass of wine with another law-friend. walking to the subway on this lovely not-winter-december night, i picked at my gold nail polish and sighed so happily and space-cadetedly 'sometimes don't you just love your life?!'. roommate sarah responded with '...i was just thinking about {insert law things with clauses and statutes and many complicated bits}...' haha! our brains are different.

what is the point? well. for one it is that i am very happy and lucky and my life is pretty freakin great right now. but also, it is that roommate sarah and the other laws i know are working very hard at studying and learning and writing and thinking. other students of all kinds, in fact. right now. and some days i get whiney for no good reason at all and roommate sarah doesn't even hit me upside the head and say 'STOPITSTOPIT YOU STUPID JERKFACE, YOUR LIFE IS A BREEEEEEZE!' which i think is very nice of her. to not do.

blah blah. GOOD LUCK AND GOOD WORK, students. school is hard sometimes. and i'm impressed and proud to know so many students at various levels and in various disciplines who work so hard at the thing they are doing. because they want to be better and best versions of themselves in whatever field. keep it up! you're great, guys! high fives and puppies! don't get too stressed or sad or scared or sleepy! here's a thing for you!

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skate away

{borrowed from here & here}

  

it is not winter here. not even close. it is barely even fall some days. yesterday? it was 12 degrees.

even though i am calling this city mine, there is still a whole lot of edmonton in my bones that i can't shake out. and those edmonton bits think that it can't be december, it can't be advent, without the cold. the snow. the crinkly-freeze-your-nosehairs-when-you-inhale kind of cold. toronto doesn't understand this cold even a little. which makes it hard for me to understand how toronto can understand christmas at all. i think it does it all wrong.

i can't wait to be home. where christmas is the realest thing. i've been spending time with wintery images to fill the hole in my winter-heart.

 {borrowed from here & here}

 {borrowed from here & here & here}

 {borrowed from here & here}

 {borrowed from here & here & here}

{borrowed from here & here}

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saved my life

i've been having these extreme feelings lately. (i know, right? me? and feelings?! what even is happening?) they're good feelings, mostly. but. overwhelming. like i can't possibly get all of the goodnesses into my cells in time, and it is all just too much, and oh gosh, how will i ever get all of these insides out into the world, and if i made a million movies could i ever make a scene poignant enough to have just one person watch it and understand these bursting busting feelings?

and also i bought the melancholia soundtrack on itunes, and i've been listening to that a lot. because it feels suitably epic. for these bursting busting feelings that have me staggering and stumbling through my days.




and if you made it through that beautiful-but-very-hard video, you get to watch this video. which is different. but also very very very good.



WHY IS THIS THE MOST FUNNY THING?! it is. i don't know what wizardry they're using to make it SO FUNNY but they are pulling it off. oh man. the sofa bears.

happy monday. happy december. happy bursting busting insides.

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