Cat Legs

One of my living room wall is now a delicious seafoam green colour. I can now finally finish the rest of the room rearranging and improvements since the first stage of painting the wall is complete.

I got these leggings in the mail last friday from Drop Dead Clothing and thought it would the perfect accompaniment to my freshly minted wall. As a crazy cat lady these leggings are probably my favourite piece of clothing right now. 

Tomorrow is Halloween and I'm dressing up as Frida Kahlo.

Sunday Outfit Photo Dump (#2)

It's outfit dump time. This past week has been hard to dress for due to the unrelenting rain we've been having in Vancouver. I managed to pull some decent outfits together with the versatility of grandpa pants and vintage booties. 

Of course layering is also a must if you live in Canada. That and thermal socks.

The light sweaters are slowly making their out of my daily wardrobe as the coldness encourages the use of more hefty knitwear. Next week, I'll be all draped in oversized sweaters and chunky wools. Can't wait.

Feminism as Humanism

Facebook is great for when you want to judge people based on what pictures they have or what they say they are interested in. It can also be great for turning a moderately political back-and-forth set of comments into a full-blown meta-analysis about why the previous comments surrounding the topic of gender politics are one-sided, overgeneralizing and some what sexist. There were some comments made between a friend of mine and his friend that showed up on my facebook feed today which were less than encouraging. My friend updated his status a few days ago saying how a girl in his political science class apparently hates him. Even before reading the comments people have made about his status, I already smell the witch burning smoke. I knew this is one of those cases where a male felt threatened by a female because she's "too powerful" or in this case too politically charged. I was curious and have a lot of opinions, so I read what people wrote about his status update. Sure enough, my friend expressed that he felt like the innocent victim of a men-hating feminist. To be precise, he felt like that by virtue of the fact that he is male and exists was enough to warrant the wrath of an angry, female political science student.  

Following his self-deprecating note, one of his friends commented about how women aims to control men and then she proceeded to write about how there's a double standard against men in our current political environment wherein some men are not allowed to participate politics...........WTF?!!! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE HEARD THIS. The worst thing about her comments was she is actually calling "bullshit" on feminists by pointing out how unfairly privileged and over-advantaged women are these days and that she is actually advocating egalitarianism and gender equality by doing this. As I stared at these comments, confused and dumfounded, I began to feel uneasy. Then, it turned into absolute horror. I was terrified of the notion that people saw and perhaps will always see feminists as men-hating, angry and opportunistic "butch dykes". I was terrified of the fact that feminism is actually being misrepresented and misunderstood by women. However, I was mostly terrified by the fact that women have now turned against each other in trying to defend themselves as feminists, against other feminists.  



After mentally dissecting her logic and finding a fitting rebuttal, I wrote, "I see valid points in all comments but I must get one thing straight because I think a great deal of feminists aren't "ball-kickers" looking to politically castrate males. In fact, all the feminists I know, myself included, are not the radical, men-bashing, extreme left types. Feminism strictly speaking is a proponent of humanism which supports an egalitarian point of view. However some women who identify themselves as feminists can be very radical in their outlook but most of those opinions have been argued as counter productive in promoting true equality. I don't believe large political parties such as the Liberal, Conservatives and the NDP keeping men from participating, however I can see this happening in certain small-scale, grass-root feminist organizations. With that being said, gender-based exclusivity is actually more prominent against women throughout history than the other way around. In fact, women have only earned their political right to even vote just over a hundred years ago while men have been in government and positions of authority for way longer. In terms of male domination in the fundamental way, I do agree with you, most men don't control women or have any desire to. However, male domination is alive and well in other cultures. So much so that women are treated as second-class citizens. Moreover, because male domination has become so frowned upon in progressive cultures, people have become extremely sensitive towards gender politics however sexism has not been completely eradicated. Thus now we're dealing with a new type male-domination that is a lot more subtle and hidden but if you pay attention to certain details, you can see it everywhere. Take for example the phenomena of gender asymmetry in the beauty industry. Just think about how many women vs. men buy into the industry by purchasing beauty products and maintaining their appearance . How many cosmetic conglomerates are owned and operated by men vs. women or even how differently girls and boys are taught about their physical image from a young age. These are the types of issues we're dealing with now."

Is this what feminism has become? Please tell me not all women have turned against each other. 

Sunday Outfit Photo Dump

Happy Sunday errrvbody! I've decided to dedicate every Sunday to posting photos of the outfits that didn't make into past posts as a way of stretching the value of my self-indulgent hobby. Perhaps you'll find them useful.

"A Horde of Sluts and Ragamuffins Surges Forth"

I made dinner. Now my apartment is coated in the smell of Chinese food. It may be a good thing for some who loves Chinese food (ie. Jeremy). Not so good when I wake up in the middle of the night gagging on the smell of fried oyster mushrooms.

Something I realized about food and cooking: I love the first and am very good at the latter (seriously, I one time cooked a pot roast, "taste-blindedly"; as in I'm vegetarian and wouldn't taste the dish I created but still cooked it to perfection. Or so I was told). After this recent discovery, I can add cooking to my hobbies repertoire.  

Something completely off topic but will serve to relate to whole cooking thing is that I want to get an iphone or some sort of devise through which I can access Instagram. That way I can document every creative thing I do all the time, such as the food that I make.

I wore a fur jacket and got overheated right away so a nice light blazer is what I settled on. 

Adult Lessons

I get called a "hipster" way too much. Most of time by "non-hipsters". I've been called a hipster so much that I've not only started to identify myself as one but have began to make excuses for buying ridiculous outfits.

For example, I bought these white jeans on Urban Outfitters and wore it to work the other day. I got to work and realized just how impractical and flashy white jeans are. Plus, WHO THE FUCK STILL WEARS WHITE JEANS?! 

Apparently someone who thinks she's too awesome and cool and dyes her hair two colours does. This is what I am now. I have reached a point in my mid 20's where I've actually learned to truly appreciate what it feels like to just do things. You know, really do them right. "Hey, wouldn't it be awesome if my hair was differently coloured?" "OH MAN, TOTALLY, I'M GOING TO FUCKING DO IT" or "I was always told that white pants were a big fashion faux pas." "WELL, I DON'T GIVE A FUCK BECAUSE I HAVE JEANS IN EVERY SHADE BUT WHITE."

This is the lesson learned as an adult: the things I do matter to me because they make me a more actualized individual.

Funemployment

Hello blogosphere at 5:30 A.M.! As of yesterday I handed in my two weeks notice at my place of employment. This may seem unwise considering I need it to pay the bills and support my insatiable online and thrift shopping obsessions. 

In reality, I have been mulling over this decision for a very long time, since last year to be exact. Actually, ever since I started talking everyone at work into joining an union because there had been absolute no workers/supervisor egalitarianism or job security. It has been a year since that fiasco and even though we voted and won our rights to join the union, I have never stopped fighting my boss over issues such as fair treatment of every staff, gender discrimination (it is still the unspoken rule that male staff are not allowed to be left alone with the children we provide care for, because it "looks bad" by virtue of the fact that males are seemingly "more dangerous" and "more likely to molest kids") and managerial accountability. After all, he does run a non-profit society for children for fuck sakes! Shouldn't us adults lead by example by advocating equality, freedom and the rights of everyone? You see, this is where people get lost on, the whole rights for everyone thing. Most people think unions only protect workers and make managers and supervisors jobs difficult. Yes, this can certainly be the case however, from what I understand based on the basic functions of what unions do, they actually provide as an impartial, third-party scrutinizer for worksites. This means, accountability and responsibility need to come from both the workers and the managers. My boss, on the other hand, thought unions are going to make him lose his job or give his employees too much right that we'll go and ransack his office, or somehow get away with kidnapping his family or something. Seriously though, he was fucking paranoid.

So ever the past year; after our winning of the union vote and during our "pre-unionized limbo", I've been nothing but brutally honest with my boss about just how unhappy I've been with the practices and philosophies at WCASS (workplace acronym). I have had many a shouting matches over the phone and in person with various managers about their hypocritical and ludicrous way of dealing certain cases. Though all of which have something to do with fair treatment and equal rights but they ultimately affect the lives of the kids we provide care for. Thus, putting my self-righteous ego aside, a huge part of me is tormented by the paradox and irony of all of it. I sometimes find it hard to face the kids and teach them about being fair and respectful for every person and living creature whilst putting away cheques signed by people who think it's perfectly ok to execute brilliant plans such as relocate an unwilling staff because another staff complained about her being "too pretty" which "distracted" the kids from their daily activities and fire people during the middle of a union movement.

In a way, I feel like I've failed the kids for leaving and having to lie to them why I will be leaving. Through I know that it will not be fair for me lay the real reason behind my leaving nor would it be productive in a sense that trying to explain something like this to them now would only do more harm than good. The shittiest thing about this whole thing is that I feel selfish for not sucking it up and do it for the kids. I just hope someone else would come along and set a better example for them.
Moving on to the future, my unofficial last day is next friday but really I'm suppose to stay for another week after that. At this point, I don't think it'll make a difference how long I stay because the human resources department which consists of only one person - my boss (autocracy much?) will "have time" to find someone to replace me. I am going to look at job postings on craigslist now. Wish me luck.

Slow Cook

Happy Thanksgiving all of you Turkey lovers. My long weekend was extremely productive. I played a show on Friday night along with some great local punk bands and just had an absolute ball! Now I can't wait to get back into writing more stuff so we can start touring and play shows every night. 

Saturday was awesome. I went thrift shopping and got myself a wicked leopard print jacket (pictured below). It was only $7.99 and in great condition. I wore it out to see a friend today and five minutes into my trip I started to sweat. Of course, my vanity told me to keep it on so I sweated my entire Skytrain ride all the way from the East of GVA to the West end.

I also coloured my hair half pink and half turquoise but after several washes the pink bled into the turquoise so now I have mixed colours in the right portion of my hair. So far it doesn't look bad but I'm sure after more washes and when the brassy yellow tinge start to come out, it'll start driving me bat-shit insane. 

I've been procrastinating and putting off the opening of my Etsy shop. Shit! Maybe this week I'll find some time. When I do finally get it together, I'll link it to all of you right away. Sorry about the filler post, I really just wanted to showcase my outfit without having to write anything too involving and long.

Another Moon

Two weeks ago I was on another continent and now I'm right in the thick of it all. Back to work with the kids, a show on Friday, already out of groceries and even new job opportunity (more to do with working with kids). 

In the midst of living, I feel adventurous and want to explore more experiences. For some reason the thought of surviving a cross-Pacific flight for thirteen hours and traveling through time backwards from China to Vancouver make me appreciate life. This is why I have decided that in two years, I will be moving to Montreal. Thus leaving me with the biggest conquest yet to achieve - learning French.

Speaking of French, I watched a fantastic film by Tarantino the other day which some of you may have heard of; Inglorious Basterds. In it, the people spoke very little English and one Nazi was fluent in both French and German and Hitler was assassinated by brutal machine gun swiss-cheesing. It made me realize two things: one, European languages are beautiful. Two, if Hitler had in fact die that way, perhaps the world would be a different place.

After coming back from China, the very thought of living in a totalitarian society frightens me and haunts my democratic dreams (in which I speak English but hope one day that will become French). And perhaps this is a little too preachy and even patronizing but I think every young Canadians should be as politically active as they possibly can and exercise their democratic freedom in all ways possible. As one of the best countries in the world, we really don't realize the extent of our liberty. Seriously, just go read an article about what's happening in nations such as North Korea or Iraq. The fact that I can blog, post photos and even openly discuss controversial topic such as sexual politics and anti-establishmentarianism without paying much consequences is an absolute privilege.