Going Without Shampoo?

Keeping your hair clean without shampoo. Would you try it?

The Boston Phoenix: The No Poo Do
Natural Family Online: Why You Should Go No 'Poo
The Carousing Classist: Taking the Hippy Dippy Plunge
The Daily Mail, UK: Could you Survive without Shampoo?
Simply Living Lightly on the Earth: The No Poo Movement

Foraging for Wild Food

ForageSF was conceived of by Iso Rabins in early 2008, with the mission to connect Bay Area dwellers with the wild food that is all around them. Through a monthly box of all wild foraged foods, which we call a CSF, we deliver fresh, sustainably harvest wild food to city dwellers. From wild mushrooms to acorn flour, there is a wealth of edible forage just outside our doors that few people know about, and still fewer ever consume. Our goal is to push people out of the supermarket, to get them trying new foods harvested sustainably and fairly by their neighbors. As part of our community focused philosophy, 50% of the profit from the sale of any product we purchase from a forager goes straight to that individual . That is, to the person who collected it.

Departure

This was in an email sent to my Mom. This picture stood out from them all. Gave me a tear when I looked at it. This is the real reason the war must end. A little boy should not have to cry for his Father or Mother in this way.

I Want Paper Coffee Cups

I have one of those tiny flies buzzing around me tonight. It's too fast for me to kill. I must need more coffee if I am this slow. 

Today you could have gotten a free coffee at Starbucks if you brought in a travel mug. I have a travel mug but it makes the coffee taste like plastic and it doesn't fit in my purse. So it is really not very practical at all. I wonder if they would have served my coffee in the regular paper cup if I showed them the plastic travel mug first. Likely not as the whole point was to encourage people to bring their own cups versus continuing to use paper cups. 

However, how green is it to bring your own mug really? 

First, people don't always wash their travel mugs in between coffee stops. The barista at the coffee shop usually rinses out the travel mug with a squirt of hot water. But, is that really enough to make it safe from bacteria and whatever else could be lurking in there? While being sick may turn you a shade of green it is not a good thing for the environment, in many ways. 

A paper cup is easily recycled. At worst it will decompose in your compost if it doesn't make it into the recycling bin with the other paper. A plastic cup can not be recycled, it will not compost and it will not go out with your recycling but will have to be put out with the unredeemable garbage. 

If I have to haul a travel mug around with me I will need a bigger purse. Likely I need a bigger purse already as I am also expected to carry my own grocery/ shopping bags too. I don't have a car to be my second purse or my socially and environmentally conscious beast of burden. I have to carry whatever I need with me on my shoulder all day, while running around from place to place and bus to bus. It may be good for the environment but it is not good for me. I don't like hauling around cargo. 

Twitter Viral Spamming

Twitter is losing some of your followers and giving you others you don't want. I've had two Twitter posts for porn sites. I don't (and have never followed either of them). Still, they were able to post to my account. I went to their account and blocked them. Twitter claims they investigate account which people block. I doubt they have that kind of time in reality. But, still, it is something you can do with evil intent and hope Twitter does do something about them.

Mashable has a post about this. They focus on Twitter followers being lost. For me this isn't a big issue as I don't follow a lot of people so I would likely notice if one or two of them disappeared.

Pick Our Bones in Peace

I'm watching National Geographic, about lions. Lions in Africa and Asia are dying out due to the human population who keep crowding them and killing lions for killing livestock or attacking people. The naturalists and scientists are working on high tech solutions, considering cloning some of the remaining lions so the species doesn't die out.

Isn't the whole thing kind of crazy? A low tech solution would be much more practical and sensible. Why are people allowed to take over so much of the planet, like parasites on the Earth? We have so much population that people are starving themselves in areas where they can't grow enough food to support the population. How can people have so little control and yet expect we have the right to kill off other lives just because they are animals? Just because they get in our way?

Isn't the loss of habitat for animals an early warning sign for ourselves? How far will over population go before people clue in and really do something? When all the available space is gone will we just move to another planet, another host body to suck dry?

It's frustrating watching shows about large carnivores. They are most preyed upon in the over population game.

Also, the more large predators we kill off the more the more the scavengers like pigeons, rats and cockroaches can take over. Cause they learn to live with people, even in deepest, darkest, urban environments. They learn to live off of us, our garbage and our silliness has people out there feeding pigeons while others are killing lions, wolves and polar bears for being in the way. So that in the end, can you see us killing ourselves and leaving the planet to the scavengers who can then pick our bones in peace.

Local TV Channels Going PPV in Canada

I've signed the petitions for the local TV stations to get paid through the cable companies. I know this will mean another increase to my bill from Bell TV. I am even willing to pay another dollar or so per channel to keep watching A channel, CBC, CTV and etc.

Ideally, this would mean the local channels could stop running ads. If I'm paying for the service I'd like to stop having the ads (ideally). I know this will not happen and I'm not even writing to ask for that.

What I am asking for however, is for CTV, the A Channel and all the others to cease and desist with the practice of turning the sound up when commercials are running. Then turning the sound down again when the programming starts. This is something which has really ticked me off from the very beginning. I have completely stopped watching some channels, like YTV, over this.

As a consumer who will be soon paying for the local channels I do not think it is too much to ask for CTV, the A channel and the others to treat us (the paying customer) with a little courtesy and respect.

I will also send this to Patrick Brown, our local MPP here in Barrie. Maybe my request will just be ignored but I really do think this is little enough to ask for in return for paying for the service.

Not Allowed to Attend

I hope she ignored the request not to attend the funeral. No one has the right to tell family they can't be there to give their respects, say good-bye a last time and just know that they attended and were some part of the whole thing. What is wrong with people that they would dare to tell someone not to be there?!! I married an American guy and my wedding and reception were all about who was allowed to be there. I told them to bite me and I made sure all the groom's family were there, whether they liked it or not. It was my bloody wedding and my own family couldn't all attend just because I was married in the US and not Ontario (where I was from).

I posted this to 30 Something and Searching in response to her friend being told she was not to attend her sister's funeral.

To All the Smokers I Have Known and Lost

I wrote this as letter to the editor for our local newspaper. It was a reply/ rebuttal to another letter which talked on and on about the freedom and rights smokers should have. I know it is a long and tired argument but it isn't often that smokers talk about anyone but themselves when they argue for smoking. I thought it was time someone pointed that out. Maybe it will make a difference, likely not. But it was said. Time will tell, time is a blabberwort that way.

Regarding Steve West's defense of smokers and their rights... Why is the smoker's lament always "my rights", "my choice", me me me.

Let's think about other people first for a moment. The downside of smoking related health problems are pretty well documented. Health and health care for smoking related illnesses and those caused by second hand smoke. Also, smoking puts people at risk for other health problems, other kinds of cancers for one. It even affects those not born yet. If we could eliminate smoking as a health problem our economy would benefit too. There could be more money available for research or cures for other illnesses which are not self-inflicted. Governments and other organizations could put their resources into more essential things like daycare, eldercare, etc. There could even be more resources to really help people stop smoking rather than trying to convince them it would be a good idea to try.

Then there is the environment. Smoking causes a visible pollution in the air, it deposits a film of grime on surfaces like car windows and walls inside homes. Smokers choose to flick their cigarette butts on our sidewalks, in public parks, at bus stops, outside of shopping malls and restaurants. That's called littering yet it is overlooked. If each cigarette butt were a pop can, coffee cup, plastic bag, water bottle or pet poop would it be overlooked then? Do smokers even notice butts piled up in places where children tend to pick things up?

Now lets talk about you. Have you looked at your teeth lately? Have you smelt your breath? Unless you use a pretty strong whitening toothpaste (which isn't helping the durability of your tooth enamel) your teeth are grungy looking. Kissing you is like kissing an ashtray. Sitting next to you in public place is stinky business. I can smell it on your clothes, in your hair. When you sit next to me I come away smelling like smoke too and it bothers me all day, until I get home and shower. It's not doing your clothes any favours either is it? Do you have that hacking cough in the morning? My smoking relatives do. Sounds awful, like they are struggling to cough their lungs out so they can breathe again. How much fun is that?

Now lets get to me. I am a non-smoker. I have asthma. I have a physical reaction to your smoking. It makes it hard for me to breathe. I'm not just asking for you to put out your cancer stick because I don't like it. I don't like not being able to breathe the air. It's a habit I've grown into. Much like your own habit except I started a lot younger and really do think I should have the right, the freedom and the choice to continue doing so.

I forgot to add about the extra cleansers needed to clean up smoking grime, how those are all extra detergents and chemicals being added to our water, our ecosystem.

Tired of the Shoe Thing

I'm tired of the over-used thing about women and shoes. I don't care much about shoes. I have a pair for summer and a pair for winter. When one wears out I buy more. I don't drop everything for a shoe sale. I don't think shoe shopping is a great way to spend an afternoon. Seems there has been a thing in the media about how much women love shoes.

I think it began with Caroline in the City (or whatever that show was called) where her men friends created a cartoon about women never having enough shoes. OK, ha ha ha. It didn't make sense to me cause I don't know any women like that. But, sure, I'll go along with it.

Since then I keep seeing more of the shoe thing. It seems to be growing and gaining momentum. Enough already. Not all women have a shoe fetish. I expect it's only a very few in fact.

Another Paper Box

I've got a crayon box sitting on my desk. It had Crayola markers in it, 64 of them. One of them, garden green, has no colour and I'm going to send an email to Crayola about that. Maybe I will even get that done, off my to-do list, tonight.

I'm just looking at this box and thinking about the paper/ cardboard used to make this box which is now disposable. Thinking about all the years we had boxes of crayons, pencil crayons and pens and threw away boxes. Often they were kind of ripped up cause I did try to keep mine all tidy in their box as long as I could. But the box never could outlast a pencil case or metal crayon box (usually a cookie tin left over from Christmas).

Does it make anyone else feel kind of sad to think of the trees cut down to make packaging which we throw out soon after we bring the stuff home?

A crayon box isn't big. One crayon box is just one crayon box. But, we bought a new bathtub for the renovations to add an apartment to the basement and that was a really big box, for one home, one family. It had to be strapped to the roof of a friend's van to bring it here. The empty box had to be folded several times to fit into the trunk of the car. The recycling truck which picks up our cereal boxes, milk cartons and newspapers, would not take the bathtub box. The man on the truck explained that it would not fit on their truck. The box would take up too much space and they would not have enough room to load all the recyclables from the houses on their usual run. We would have to drive that box to the dump.

To the dump? That doesn't sound like recycling.

So that isn't what we did. I folded and semi-crushed that box until I could smoosh it into the trunk of the car. Then we drove it to the massive store (one of those huge parking lots with a row of massive chain stores to one side) where we had bought the bathtub. I dragged that box out of the car and put it into a handy shopping cart in the parking lot. I left it there. My small protest to too much packaging and the waste of too many trees.

This crayon box is still on my desk though. Still making me feel sad for the part of a tree it once was. Never to be a tree again. Was it worth it? To be cut down, pulverized, painted and folded and then stuffed with crayons only to be bought and then discarded? I don't think so.

We need different packaging. Why can't crayons be sold in a tin box which would last longer and not become dog earred and torn. A tin box could go to school and stay in a locker and then come home again. A tin box could last a kid from grade one to high school and beyond. The tin box could outlast the original crayons and end up holding pens and pencils when that kid starts their first job in some cubicle or something more interesting and unique. A tin box could be passed on to children of that child and then grandchildren. A tin box would only increase in value and be something treasured if it was kept by the family.

This cardboard box is never going to be any of those things. If I don't take it to the blue box it will just be landfill, un-needed and unnecessary landfill. We have an overflow of landfill of this kind already.

So here is this one box. One box isn't much. Like one tree in a forest, it's just one and when it's gone it makes a bit of room for saplings to reach up through the space and grab some sun for themselves. The problem is that it's not just one tree or one box.

Think about all the packaging we take for granted, don't even see it as we go through our day to day lives. There is such a ton of it. In a week you might be throwing away a whole tree. But, one tree isn't much. Right?

Voter Apathy and Disinterest

It was the election tonight in Canada. The Conservatives have won. I gave them a vote. It must be about 20 years since I last voted. I just didn't care enough to bother. Tonight they say only 58% of people across Canada voted. That doesn't count a lot of people who have slipped through the cracks and were not even counted as being eligible to vote. My brother being one. I've been one in the past and didn't care to do anything about it.

They are talking about voter apathy and trying to come up with reasons and fixes for this. I listen and no one is really getting to the real reason, at least for me. I am just not interested in listening to them nit pick and bash at each other like a bunch of spoiled, rude children. How can you take anyone who behaves that way seriously. I sure don't see myself bothering to vote for them. If that is all the political parties have to offer, it's just not enough. I'd vote for someone who could at least try to appear like an adult.

That is partly why I voted this time. My sister had talked about how much she wanted to see Conservatives get in. I listened but still wasn't planning to vote. Then they came around to the house, which isn't that new or unusual. Only the Conservatives actually did so. The others sent out the standard brochures bashing the other parties and sounding like a pack of whiny babies.

Then our candidate for this area showed up at our door one night, himself. That was nice! It was about a week before tonight, the big election. He must have been hugely busy. But, there he was, a personal appearance at our door. He did not talk politics, he just introduced himself and asked me if there were any issues I'd like to ask him about. I didn't have anything in particular. But, geez, what a hard working guy to go door to door himself. I was impressed for the first time in a really long time.

Since then they phoned a few times. Really too many times as it was the holiday for us on Monday and we were busy enough. We had their sign on our front lawn. First time I have ever had an election sign at the house. Across the street the new neighbours had a Liberal sign up. Diagonally across the other neighbours had a Conservative sign up, bigger than our own.

Anyway, listening to the talk about voter apathy is making me think how silly it is to consider mandatory voting, where it is illegal not to vote. If this is a democracy people should be able to choose not to vote. It is sending their own message. It's just a shame that the politicians are not really listening. I think most of them are so self involved they can not hear anything beyond their own nose. I wonder what people do in Australia where they have mandatory voting? I bet there are a ton of spoiled ballots. So, really, what has making voting mandatory done? Can someone from Australia comment about the mandatory voting and voter disinterest?

Happy Election to the USers. At least it is done for awhile again here. I kind of envy the US cause they only have elections every four years. Here they are called randomly. But the elections in the US seem to go on for about a year before they finally vote and shut up about it all. I'd really hate that. Do you just shut off the TV and radio and try to turn a blind eye to all the election stuff on billboards and everywhere? I was only in the US for part of one election. Glad I missed most of it.

What are elections like in other countries? How about in the UK? Do they backbite and bitch at each other too? I remember when they did not do that here. It started a little trickle when I was in my teens and has snowballed since then. I really do think that is the main cause of voter disinterest/ apathy. We just have no respect for someone who can't behave any better than a tired and grumpy two year old.

At least in other countries you don't have two official languages. I'm so sick of hearing everything in French and English. Kind of a joke that the Liberal candidate for Prime Minister (what the US calls President) couldn't really understand English. My brother said it really came down to choosing between French and English. I agree, it was. I voted for English. I'm in Ontario and we just tune out anything in that French babble. (Nothing personal to the French speaking people. But if you are in a room where everyone is speaking a foreign language how long does it take before you get annoyed with it and just tune them all out?)

Are You a Survivalist?

I've been posting writing prompts to the Word Grrls blog awhile. I'm not sure what put the end of the world scenario into my brain but there it was.

If you were a kid during the Cold War times when we kept hearing about the bomb that was going to drop (from Russia, China or some other country behind the Iron Curtain) how does it still affect you? Even now that the Wall has gone do you just think the bomb (may as well call it that as anything else) will just be from another direction. Most of all, do you think you could be someone who would adapt and survive?

I'd like to survive, mainly just to see things in the changed civilization. But, I'd be really lucky in a glitchy way to stick around. I tend to pick up all kinds of odd illnesses, mostly virus stuff. So, my chances are about as great as the cockroach the first bomb lands on, nil to squished.

Here is the comment I made in Word Grrls. Would like to hear more thoughts about this and decided to post it here.

I remember it too, those years as a kid in the little grades, thinking about the bomb that was going to drop and end us all. Kind of a weird age to live in as a kid. I think even now that the wall has come down that feeling of impending possible doom is still hanging around. I guess it has just changed direction.

I'd take some food, mainly canned stuff and water. Some of that powder stuff you can pour in to make your water taste like lemonade cause I'd be sick of water pretty quick. I don't like it much now.

I'd really need a lot of paper, pens, coloured markers and pencil crayons. Various books. Maybe a ton of those classics which I always mean to read (feel I should read) but haven't so far.

Mostly, I'd like some way of staying alive long enough to see how things come back. I love reading those science fiction stories about how people get through disasters and rebuild. To live it would be really interesting. I don't think I'm a very good survivalist though. I'd be dead pretty quick from asthma, allergies or some weird virus.

After posting this I found a blog called Suburban Survivalist. Another blog found through Entrecard.

You Versus Your Job

Does your job define you or do you feel ashamed or less than proud of the job you have? This was my comment to a post from Laughing Mama. She said she feels ashamed of her job in a coffee shop.

Don't be ashamed to work in a coffee shop. I work as tech support and was a department store cashier for three years before this. Almost everyone I work with is much younger or a generation older. But, it's my day job. I come home and as I write I become myself again. You aren't your job.

Some days it does hit me more. How little I have accomplished job/ career wise. But I'm not focused on that. I don't see a career as the best measure of success. How happy are you day to day? Are you doing things which make you happy?

Being happy with yourself and your life (your job is only part of your life), that is real success.

$10 Minimum Wage

I don't often post about politics or issues cause I just don't see the point. It's like chasing your own tail for your own amusement. The only people listening are other people chasing their tail too.

I was thinking this morning about the up and coming raise to minimum wage. It's going to go to $10 an hour as the standard. I forget just when, next year I think. Some people think this is just grand, an answer to all their problems. But, I think, it's going to cause massive unemployment and prices on everything from your toe nail cutters to your car insurance are going to go way up.

Think of it as the retail store selling gizmos. They now have to pay their employees an extra $2.something an hour. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Under water that iceberg includes the services the retailer uses to get the gizmos they sell, the services the retailer uses to present the gizmos to the public and the services the retailer uses to be allowed to stay in business. We can call them insurance companies, electric power companies, transport companies and window display small business companies for short, though there is a much longer list. Ask your local retailer about the services and businesses they use for their business and services. All of those companies are also having to pay the new minimum wage and have put their prices up.

So how does the gizmo seller stay in business? In order to stay in business they have to raise the price of gizmos, quite a bit likely. Just to try to pay for their increased costs and their employee wages. If they can get rid of a few employees they will. They will have to. Likely they will struggle awhile. Then the company that mass produces the gizmos for the retailer begins to get greedy and offer them at wholesale prices from some warehouse instead of going through retail. So now the retailer is cut off. They can't compete against that.

The politicians who started this are trying to throw a bone. Thinking that the public will think this is just great. Hoping that we will be so overwhelmed by their generousity and concern for our welfare that we will actually feel we should get out to vote for them. There has been a huge lack of turn out for elections. I haven't voted for a long time myself. Not that I don't care. I just don't see anyone I'm willing to pay the cost of gas for to go out and vote. No one stands out as someone worth my time. Whichever party put this through is just hoping to get the support of the huge amount of the public who work dead end minimum wage jobs and those who have less than that but aspire to more.

In reality, we've just been royally screwed over. Once this whole things starts within a year there will be tons of unemployment. Which will be a drain on government support services which comes from the average person making minimum wage at a dead end job. So taxes will go up too. Which means your grand minimum wage raise will be sucked right back up by the government. Thank you very much.

Don't worry about the politicians though. Even if only a handful of people vote they give themselves another raise, take a few months off. Just pay them in margaritas and send them to the summer cottage in Muskoka.

Light the fire. I'm done.

Picking Friends?

Below is the comment I left in a post on Imagination Madness. I thought about shutting up and not posting anything cause I really do not want my thoughts to be taken the wrong way and I especially do not want to hurt anyone or have them feel defensive. I have an honesty problem. Saying what I think, trying to be honest (not bluntly or brutally) has gotten me into a LOT of trouble in the past. People don't always want to hear honest ideas and opinions. But, in the world of blogging I try to let myself be myself. So, you get to hear what I think. You don't have to listen. :)

Tracy was writing about being bipolar. This was how she ended her post:

Oh yes just before you judge me or drop me like a hot potato because I am manic, just remember, BiPolar is a chemical unbalance/disorder the same as someone who has diabetes has a disorder of "basically" the pancreas produces too much insulin, which when monitored can be controlled, BiPolar is the same, so think about it, would you stop being someones friend because they had diabetes ?

That Grrl's comment:

I'd stop being friends with someone based on what they do, not on who they are. My brother's ex girlfriend broke into my Mother's house and tried to kill my brother's new girl friend. Her excuse was that she didn't like taking her medication. The scary thing is that she could have gotten away with killing another person that way. It has happened before. If you find people a little concerned about befriending someone on medication it isn't a personal thing about yourself, it's knowing there is a real danger in some cases.

After my experience I'd be a little worried about someone who should be on medication who decides not to. Just as a friend I had in high school who was epileptic. She could have had a fit at any time. I knew her for years. She taught me what to do should she need me to help her. I was glad I never had to but I was glad to know what to do.

I come to visit you almost every day. I'd meet you for coffee and we could chat up a storm. I trust everyone until they give me a reason not to. But, not everyone is that way. As much as you want to be understood you need to try to understand other people too.

Hope you don't take this as being critical of you. I don't mean it that way at all. I didn't post to upset you just to exchange thoughts, ideas and experiences, as blogging gives us the chance to do that.

I think we are a little nervous around anyone we have just met. If you also know the person is epileptic, bipolar, etc you might feel a bit more nervous as it is something you don't know about, you don't know if they are taking medication, if you will need to hold their tongue while they have a fit to prevent them choking on it. (Did you know you have to do that if someone has an epileptic seizure?)

Life is interesting and you meet all kinds of people. You find out a bit about them and form opinions about them, yourself and life in general.

What do you think? About any or all of it? What are your thoughts, ideas and experiences?

BlogTalkers #49

From BlogTalkers:

Motivated by the fear of harassment claims, many companies now prohibit men and women from meeting one-on-one inside of offices or conference rooms that do not have a window to an outside hallway or area where others can see into the room. What do you think about that? Good move because it protects everyone involved, or an unwarranted overreaction driven by nothing more than overreaching morals and fear?

Kind of a nice swing back to old fashioned respect for each other I think. Part of me thinks it is silly that men can't be expected to behave. After all, why should women be kept in quarantine just because we are female.

Yet, men have proven that only some of them do have control over their own morals. So, maybe a throw back to old fashioned ways is not a bad idea. We already keep children confined to school buses and getting rides to and from school. We don't let them go out on their own as easily as we once would have. That is interesting as the old fashioned way was not to think much about what the kids were doing, their safety.

Anyway, I'm kind of undecided and yet I can see that it might have a good point. It might bring back more old fashioned traditions.

Anything is possible.

Customer Service Abuse

It was Thursday... I don't think I had this many people spazzing and yelling at me even when I was a telemarketer. The real joke is that these people called me for help. However, the joke is on them. I didn't really try to help any of the real jerks. Why should I? Let them just stew in their own juices with phones, TV and Internet that don't work. If you can't talk to me like an adult go suck your thumb in some dark corner and leave the grown ups alone.

I was sitting, waiting for the bus to get home tonight and I felt like one raw nerve. I had to think about something else to keep from crying. My eye sockets feel like dried, raw, paint from looking at the computer screen all day and trying to read the fine print in instructions and guides for those who don't want to do it for themselves. That part I don't mind and I even understand. I don't like reading the manual either. But the people who rant and rave will get nothing but someone who listens and waits for the best way to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

I had an email to write about abuse for a blog event today. I guess I've done it. I'd add other forms of day to day abuse we may or may not think of. Road rage being one. what is so wrong with people that they take out problems and frustrations on someone else to the extent that they leave another person (a bystander most often) bleeding and crying in pain??? Get a grip for your own sake. That person you just screamed at might see you walking to the bus and not think twice about knocking you down just as easily as you knocked them down on the phone.

Plus... you stupid bastards... bet you never thought about the fact that I've got your account information on my screen. I can see your phone number, your cell number, your mailing/ street address and very often your credit card and social insurance number too. Think twice before you open your mouth! You're the one with your bare ass hanging out as far as I'm concerned.

So, the moral of the story is... next time you want to scream at someone over the phone SHUT YOUR MOUTH really tight, hold your nose and count to ten, or thirty, or whatever it takes. Don't abuse someone just cause they seem to be so far away and such a safe bet over the phone. I've got you like a little bug under a microscope. When the shoe hits you won't even know where it came from.

Don't abuse customer service people. We CAN fight back, if we choose to do so.

Now... because I'm still feeling stressed and pissed off... one final word... fuckwad! It just had to be said. I have no idea what it really means it just feels right.

Cause You're Beautiful... If You Believe You Are

Oprah is talking about how people see themselves and how people from different cultures want to look more western/ white. It's interesting.

One young woman created a film showing kids who had a choice between two dolls, one white and the other coloured. Each kid (of those she showed) picked the white doll as the pretty one, the nice one and the one they would most like to have. It was sad. But even sadder when she asked them to hand her the doll that looked like themselves and the kid picked the coloured doll. I never would have thought about something like that. Never would have thought they would pick the white doll that way.

I hear so much talk about black this and black that. They make themselves seem all fluffed up with pride in being black. Far more than anyone thinks about being white. When I started my first full time job I was 16 and the black women there kept together, not unfriendly. Just that the different culture groups did stick together. I used to be intimidated and a bit afraid. I didn't really know what to think about them. Or what they thought about me. I expected them to be angry at me cause the media presents so much anti-white feelings from black people. Even back then, I would say it is still very much the same now, however many years later.

The show (Oprah) went on to talk about how Asian girls want a crease in their eye, that fold where the eyelid recedes. I did notice that some Asian people don't have that. When I was a kid I wondered how their eyes could work, if it couldn't really open all the way. It is interesting to hear the thoughts of those women. I don't feel privileged to be white. It's just who I am. I am aware that other women try to look more "white". Black women straighten and colour their hair. I sometimes think they must have been born that way as races of people mingle and change and the different cultures blur. How can you tell if you only see someone once.

Anyway, it was sad to see that and yet, few women of any colour feel beautiful. Each has her own view of herself. Sometimes it comes from her family and the media more than it comes from her own thoughts and ideas. I think my biggest flaw is being fat. But, I could continue making a list which would include the grey hair which seems to be gaining on my natural colour more each time I look at it. I have dry skin. Sometimes I have oily skin. My feet are not cute and the bottoms are not soft and pretty. I have long since given up on being pretty. I never got into wearing make up or trying to look all girly and cute cause it's just never going to happen.

So, though the cultural stuff is interesing that isn't all there is to it. Very few women feel attractive, let alone beautiful.

Why is it Socially Acceptable to Be Snobby

Wink looks neat but will not work well enough for me. It will be SO nice to have the new computer. Yet it really does annoy and aggravate me that people expect everyone to have the latest, newest hardware and software. It's a very arrogant attitude.

Snobbery really bugs me! But it's hugely common and socially acceptable cause it makes people feel good to have someone underfoot. Everyone wants some kind of underlings to look down on so they can look up at themselves. Maybe that's why I never get anywhere with my life. I tend to think I'm nobody special. Though even I think less of street people. Fear them a little too but don't think of them as being on my same playing field. Yet, I also worry about ending up there myself. In my family I was voted most likely to end up a bag lady. More than once.

Anyway, I will save my link to myself at Wink for later. I do have the money for the new computer now. It's just a matter of when and where. I really don't think I can wait all the way till August. I want it now, I'm so excited to really start computer shopping. I've been looking online. Seems Staples is the best place cause they have a one year warantee and sometimes have a bundle/ package which includes the new flat monitors. That is a Must this time around. Last time I was getting a new computer they were the latest new thing and way over my price range. Not this time!