Dress like Grimace

It's not winter yet and I'm already sick. Pretty sure I ran an all-day low grade fever yesterday and yet I still went for a run for an hour, did some heavy lifting and had children scream in my face while defencelessly threw my arms around my head, trying to muff out as much of everything as I can.

Today, I'm taking a day off.

To make up for me feeling shitty, I think of these boots. No, you don't have x-ray vision. They are in fact see-through.

These are the Vancouver hipster version of Cinderella's glass slippers. Except they will never fall off my feet because they are rain boots. Come to think of it, if Cinderella wore these she would've never had her prince coming to rescue her from her shitty home. She would've had to think of a way to break out of that room, somehow elude her evil step mother and sisters, start a new life and become a feminist then later join an all-girl hardcore punk band.

Jeremy was looking super lumber-jackish and I found it stylishly hilarious so I asked him to pose for my blog.

I must say, he's a natural at modelling.

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.

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.

Losing Mental Fecal Matter

I saw a movie recently called Mysterious Skin. It is by far the most intensely explicit and hard to watch films I had ever encountered (yes, it was even worst than Requiem for a Dream). The movie, I thought was a realistic and harsh portrayal of the ever cringe-inducing subject matter of child sexual abuse which a lot people just wouldn't touch with a thirty-foot pole. But what makes this film successful was far beyond it having an alluring cast and compelling storyline. For little details such the setting and the atmosphere really make the viewers relate to the story and empathize with the characters' afflictions. And the most poignant element which really made this movie what it is, is the music. The soundtrack to this movie is primarily composed of songs by shoegaze bands from the 90's. As a total nut of everything 90's and even a bigger nut for shoegaze/noise rock, I natural lost my shit when I heard songs from bands like Slowdive and Curve and Cocteau Twins.


"Golden Hair" --- Slowdive.

Currently my favorite song.

Seasons Change and So Did I

I spent eight hours in front of a computer yesterday doing grant writing and have never been so terrified of the act of typing after I was finished. So today, instead of brainstorming something to rant about and posting it, I'm afraid I'm going to have to present you all another picture show. It's actually not all that bad because as I was going through my outfit pictures today, I discovered a few photos I have yet to post. So, they are posted here to achieve three major purposes: 1) they're fun to look at; 2) they serve as reminders of the passing of time and change of seasons 3) when analyzed on a deeper level, they are symbols and visual indications of the cyclical nature of things.

I wore this outfit in the middle of June when it was 27 degree (Celsius) out. It was primarily inspired by the cover of Gulag Orkestar by one of my favorite bands, Beirut.

The polka-dot top used to be an awkward length, so did to it what I do to most tops; crop it! I wore this during one of the dog days nearing the end of July, and it was still too damn hot.

This is a recent outfit I wore to my first day of work. It kept me warm in the morning but by the afternoon, shirt-sweater combo seemed like an overkill. Regardless, the days are getting cooler by the minute and I'm starting to regret not getting the most of summer when I had the chance.