stinkerpants design

I just got back from watching Twilight.  I was entertained for every single second, and I refuse to discuss it with anyone who hasn’t seen it.  I would watch it again right now if I could.  That is all.

I am still a very crappy photographer, but I am very impressed with my new camera lens.  Wow.

I’m gonna go see what I can make happen with my products.

Ah!  I’ve been tagged by Marianne!  She actually tagged me about two weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to it.  Since this sucker has already made the rounds, I’m not gonna tag anybody. Which means that I’m breaking Rules 4 & 5.  Don’t tell.

1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Random things about me:

1. I have about twelve hundred nicknames for my cats and my dog.  They include (but are not limited to):

• Miles: Mao Mao, Tiny Cat, Angel, Angel Baby, Angel Baby Sweet Cheeks, Mower, Mowers, Dr. Miles Mao Fuzzlebutt, Fuzzle, Tiny Angel, Baby Cat, Babykins, Sugar Pot.  Some of those, specifically “Angel” and “Angel Baby” make Y want to vomit.
• Elvis Purrsley: Purrmaster Jack, Purrmaster Jerk (when he’s being bad), Little Guy, Kitten Cheeks, Little Kid, Mewers, Mewson
• Gwynnie: Gwynnie Gwynnie Cocoa Puff, Coco, Coco Chanel
• Peetie: doesn’t really have any names because she hates me (she was Y’s baby, so she has hated me from Day 1).
• Lulabelle: Lulu, Lula, Lu, Lu-Bear, Baby Bear, Pretty Lady, Big-Eared Dog, Wiggles, Wiggle-butt

2.  I am afraid of Suburbia. More specifically, I am afraid of the suburban lifestyle.  I am afraid of waking up one morning with a minivan and kids and having absolutely no idea who I am.  I realize that this could happen to me outside of suburbia, but for some reason I connect it to Suburbia.  I think it has something to do with the visualization of tract homes, and how nothing has any personality in those neighborhoods (photo from here).

3.  When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. In second grade, I won the “Young Author Award” for my book “Rats are OK.”  I was also a voracious reader.  I read more books than anyone in my fifth grade class and, as a result, won a dinner at Baker’s Square with my teacher.  Fancy.

4.  When I was a kid, I loved my dollhouse but I hated dolls.  I think this comes from my love of decorating.  My mom and I used to go to a store in Sacramento called the Elegant Dollhouse, where we would buy tiny furniture and tiny wallpaper and decorate the dollhouse.  I liked to rearrange the furniture.  Most of my love/inspiration for the dollhouse came from a book I read called the Midnight in the Dollhouse.  I outgrew the dollhouse around age 11 or so.  My mom packed the whole thing up for my kids.  It has working lights and was a hand-me-down from some neighbors.

5.  I have a black thumb.  I kill most plants.  I don’t mean to do it, but I am too lazy/forgetful to water them.  Oops.

6. I google anything and everything, all the time.  Generally speaking, I am a very curious person.  When I have a question, I really want to know the answer to it.  I’m never too lazy to get up and google something or write it down to google it later.  The iPhone has been a godsend in this way.  I can google things all the time now, and I don’t even have to get off my butt!

I was genuinely aiming to include a photo with each one of those.  That didn’t work out. Oops.

(Edited to add: if you haven’t read the books and plan to, don’t read this!! They’re super fun and I don’t want to ruin it for you!!)

Ryn totally just reminded me that I’m a slacker and I forgot to update about Twilight!  I got some very interesting comments on my last post, too, so I’ll respond to a few of them here.  Thanks guys!

So if you’ll recall, I liked Twilight, but I wasn’t too wild about the “message.”   I will say, it did seem to get a little better as the books went on (sort of), and I appreciated that Bella became a badass in Breaking Dawn.  The explanation that she was just not good at being human made me feel a little bit better, but still.  I still don’t like the message at all.  Bella is super weak and was saved by a man: vomit.  The plot here really isn’t that much better than the Cinderella fairy tales, is it?  Both Cinderella and Twilight feed on our deep-seated girlish desires.  I just wish our girlish desires were a little more mature.

I will admit, Edward is totally hot.  To be honest, I am a little disturbed by how hot I think he is.  I am obviously still a brainwashed high schooler somewhere deep inside!  That idea is far scarier to me than a vampire hell-bent on sucking my blood. ;)  This is the kind of romance that we women were raised to love, and the author does a really good job of feeding on all the things high school girls want: to be the envy of all the other girls, to be the sole desire of the hottest guy in school, to have him ignore all the other women that are constantly throwing themselves at him.  This stuff works!  It’s riveting!

I definitely liked the last book a lot more than the previous ones, even though it was kind of disjointed.  There are two main reasons for this: first, Bella and Edward finally consummate their love (after getting married!  Oh, how very moral!). This was SUCH A RELIEF to me, as crass as that might sound.  Throughout the first three books, I kept thinking, “PLEASE, just DO IT already!!!”  I was able to enjoy the last book a lot more because all that pesky sex stuff was out of the way.  Is that weird?  haha (on the same sex-related note, I think it’s kind of funny that these books are written by a Morman and are supposed to promote abstinance.  It was so clear to me that Bella would have jumped Edward’s bones in a heartbeat if he’d have let her!  That’s not exactly abstinence.).  The second reason I liked Breaking Dawn the most is that Bella was finally a badass and stopped being so pathetic.  I will admit, though, that Breaking Dawn was sort of weird.  Like I said before, it was kind of…disjointed.  I think I feel that way because Bella transitioned very quickly from child to mother.  It happened more or less overnight, which I guess seemed a bit rushed to me.

My issue isn’t so much with the idea of marrying young.  Some people definitely meet their partner early in life (like your friend, Kate!), and I’m totally down with that.  My issue is that Bella completely loses who she is in this series, and she has worth only after she’s married Edward and become a mother. Her whole life revolves around Edward from the very first book, and when he leaves, it begins to revolve around Jacob.  I know that it’s romance, and romance is interesting…but still.  It would have been nice to see anything about Bella that’s strong or worth respecting before the last book. I would be happier with future books, I think, now that Bella is a cool character who can stand up for her own damn self.

Betty suggested I check out Midnight Sun, which is on Stephenie Meyer’s website (the story of how this book was leaked is also on the website.  It’s totally sad, but I couldn’t keep myself from reading the leaked draft anyway).  Thanks Betty!  Midnight Sun is basically the first book, but written in Edward’s voice.  I definitely wasn’t ready to be done with the series, so I checked it out.  It clarified a lot of things about the first book and made Edward a lot less creepy.

Tahoebound pointed me to Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s comparison of Twilight and the Harry Potter series, and I have to say: I was fascinated with her analysis!  Alisa is obviously a very smart woman, and I think I’ll be subscribing to her blog to read more of what she has to say.  I totally agree with everything she said about Twilight, and it’s definitely a good read for those of you who read Harry Potter, too!

Now that I’ve totally criticized this entire series, I’m going to tell you the truth: I am not generally the sort of person who analyzes fiction.  For the most part, I read fiction for enjoyment, and I don’t really think that much more about it.  The sexism in this book really slapped me in the face, though, and it was impossible to ignore.  I got a comment from someone named J, who thinks I personalized the book and made it about me, instead of reading it objectively.  That might be true!  Who knows.  I studied psychology and women’s issues for years and I’ll admit to being somewhat of a militant feminist.  That being said, these kinds of messages aren’t healthy, especially when they’re being aimed at a seriously impressionable group (young girls). Young girls are already at risk of not thinking for themselves, I think it’s dangerous to spread these sorts of messages and stereotypes.  I would love for the coming generations of women to be more and more psychologically strong, and we’re not going to get there any faster when girls like Bella are idealized.  I may be personalizing the book, but my experience as a high school age girl was very similar to many other women I know.  I’d like to see young girls have better role models than Bella.

All in all, I thought the Twilight series was a lot of fun, but it wasn’t exactly good literature.  I got really sick of reading about Edward’s “smoldering eyes” over and over again.  Did that stop me from voraciously reading the next book?  Absolutely not!  Would I recommend these books to any adult capable of thinking for him or herself?  Totally.  I was highly entertained.

Thoughts?

(Edited to add: I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I totally want to.  No one will see it with me!)

Yes, yes, I have joined the masses in reading the Twilight series.  I finished book 1 last week, and today I got a fantastic deal on the last three.  Before I start New Moon, though, I really want to share my thoughts on the first one.  If you intend to read them, don’t read this entry!

Overall, I totally liked the book.  It was really addictive, albeit a little cheesy every now and again. I did have some feelings about it that I’m not sure most other people had, though, so I would really love to talk about it.

As a bit of a background, I had a verbally abusive and controlling boyfriend in high school.  I’m not really sure why I decided to date this guy.  I had super bad intuition about him, which I ignored. It ended badly: we had to call the police because he showed up at my house in the middle of the night, and he ended up stalking me.  Maybe I needed to see what it was like to be with a “bad boy”?  I’m not sure.  In any case, a lot of the feelings that Bella had about Edward in the beginning were very familiar.

Edward had a lot of red flags.  Off the top of my head:

• He and his family are social outcasts.  Other people have bad feelings about him, which Bella chose to ignore.
• Bella was repeatedly warned by other people to stay away from him.
• He warned her to stay away from him.
• She had feelings that he’s a little weird.

Bella ends up losing herself in Edward.  He is all she can think about.  She is willing to give up her entire life to him, in order to be with him forever.  This book is aimed at high school age girls, who are already susceptible to giving themselves away to guys.  I am a little bit nervous about the message this is sending: ignore your intuition.

I obviously haven’t read the next three books, so I have no idea what happens next (and please don’t tell me!).  I can tell you what I hope happens, though.  Part of me really hopes that Bella does end up giving her life to Edward (becoming a vampire), and I hope that she really regrets it.  I hope it ends badly, she figures out that being with someone forever that you met in high school isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, you should always follow your intuition and you should never give up who you are for someone else.

Did anyone else have these feelings?  I’m not judging yet, because I haven’t read the rest, but this is where I’m at right now.  Thoughts?

Thanks to my friend Jenny at Geek in Heels, I have recently learned something about blog feeds.

I use Google Reader to catch up on my blog reading.  Some blogs really frustrate me by having only a tiny bit of the post listed in the feed, and then you have to click through to see the whole thing.  This mostly annoys me if the blog is generally very image-heavy, and I don’t even know if I want to read the post until I see the images.

For some reason, I thought I could fix this.  Jenny told me, though, that people actually set their feeds up this way, in order to drive traffic to their site.  Now I’m wondering if I should be doing this?  How else would you get to see my twitter status (which I know you would be riveted by) or my latest flickr image (you know you wanna see my dog and her new toy!)?

What do you guys think?  Are partial feeds annoying to you?  How do you read your blogs?  Do you come directly to my website, or do you have my feed through Google Reader, Bloglines, or something similar?  Please tell me.  My curiosity is killing me (although I have no idea why).

Earlier today my good buddy, the Blogger Formerly Known as Mrs. Gingerbread, sent me a little link.  This little link had some very big news.  The article is super short, so I’ll quote it in its entirety here:

TRENTON, N.J. — Online dating service eHarmony is adding another personality trait to its 29 dimensions of computability.

The California-based company will begin providing same-sex matches under as part of a settlement with New Jersey’s Civil Rights Division.

Garden State resident Eric McKinley filed a complaint against the online matchmaker in 2005.

Under terms of the settlement, the company can create a new or differently named Web site for same-sex singles. The company can also post a disclaimer saying its compatibility-based matching system was developed from research of married heterosexual couples.

Neither the company nor its founder, Neil Clark Warren, admit any liability.

In addition, eHarmony will pay the division $50,000 to cover administrative costs. It will pay McKinley $5,000 and give him a free one-year membership to its new service.

Pretty interesting, huh?  There’s also this link, here, which is basically the same information, but adds this information about the terms of the settlement:

• eHarmony, Inc. will post photos of same-sex couples in the “Diversity” section of its Web site as successful relationships are created using the company’s same-sex matching service. In addition, eHarmony, Inc. will include photos of same-sex couples, as well as individual same-sex users, in advertising materials used to promote its same-sex matching services
• eHarmony, Inc. will revise anti-discrimination statements placed on company Web sites, in company handbooks and other company publications to make plain that it does not discriminate on the basis of “sexual orientation”
• the company has committed to advertising and public relations/ marketing dedicated to its same-sex matching service, and will retain a media consultant experienced in promoting the “fair, accurate and inclusive” representation of gay and lesbian people in the media to determine the most effective way of reaching the gay and lesbian communities.

As you likely recall, I left Weddingbee after making a public statement about my disagreement with eHarmony’s discriminatory practices. I didn’t leave because I thought I’d have any impact on eHarmony’s practices.  I simply did it because I couldn’t sleep at night knowing I was making them money.

So how do I feel about eHarmony now that they’ve agreed to offer same-sex matching?  Will I be returning to Weddingbee?

My opinions about eHarmony haven’t changed–quite frankly, I think they stink.  This isn’t a decision that eHarmony made on its own.  They didn’t suddenly realize that they were being unfair by excluding gay people from their matching.  They didn’t even make the decision to go into same-sex matching for monetary reasons.  They did it because they were sued, and for no other reason.  I think it’s sad that they will likely get/take credit for being “open” and “accepting,” despite the fact that this wasn’t really their choice.  I still think the company sucks, and I’m still not wild about the idea of volunteering to make them money.

I also feel that they got off pretty darn easy.  $50k and the cost of one membership, all for agreeing to do something that will make them a crapload of money!?  I’m not single (obviously), but if I were, I still wouldn’t use their services.  They may start providing same-sex matches, but they’re doing it for all the wrong reasons.

I am happy to hear that the settlement worked out this way, though, and MAD PROPS to Eric McKinley for pursuing the lawsuit.  At least someone in charge (in New Jersey) seems to realize that excluding the LGBTQ community is wrong.  Now, if we could only get our government to realize that the LGBTQ community shouldn’t be excluded from marriage, either!

I know I said I wasn’t going to say anything else political, but I’m just going to say this one last thing.  Then I’m done.  I swear.

Last night Y and I were sitting watching Oprah (in his defense, he doesn’t usually watch it, but it was her post-election special), and we started talking about what it’s like now that Obama has been elected.  In our entire lives, we have never had an inspirational leader.  It’s really exciting!!  We also feel like we’ve spent the last eight years feeling oppressed, unimportant and dismissed by our government.   Before Tuesday, I felt like my vote did not matter.  All this time, we’ve been fighting for THIS.  We’ve got it now!  We’ve elected a kick-ass president who really seems to represent what I care about.

So now what?

For the first time in my life, I feel somewhat quiet, politically.  I don’t need to be marching in the streets, screaming at the top of my lungs about how the election was stolen and all the ballots need to be re-counted.  I simply don’t know what to do!

We were all pray pray praying to get Obama elected, and now that he’s elected, I feel like we’re all staring at him, wide-eyed and expectant.  Now what? Tell me what to do, President Obama!  I’ll do it!  I’m here for you, man!  Reporting for duty!

This is so cool.  I’m so excited.

On the other hand, I’m also waiting somewhat impatiently for someone to tell me what to do to repeal Prop 8.  I feel like Prop 8 is a battle we can win, though.  This country, on the other hand?  I was very hopeless about this country just a week ago!  And now I have newfound hope!  It’s very exciting.

 Last night we went to an election party at our friends’ house.  It was a grand lot of fun, and I have some photos to share.  However, I also have some words to share–and I’m going to share them first.

This is the last political thing I’m going to say around here.  Well, maybe not the LAST, but I’m definitely not going to be freaking out on a regular basis anymore, now that the election is over.

The results of the election are really bittersweet for me.  I am so, so thrilled that Obama won.  SO THRILLED.  This has been a long time coming, and I was really excited to be part of it.  It was also really cool to find out who the president was (*gasp*) on the night of the election.  I have only been eligible to vote in two other elections, and we all know how long it took to figure out the results of those elections.

My excitement about getting a brand-spanking-new president who is eloquent, intelligent and inspiring, however, was tempered by a major defeat in California.  I am really depressed about the passing of Prop 8.

I would like nothing more than to be dancing in the streets right now, but I really can’t.  I have a very bittersweet taste in my mouth, and I could barely sleep last night because I just knew Prop 8 was going to pass.  It’s really depressing and it’s hard for me to be happy right now.  There are a few things I know, however, that are helping me remain optimistic:

• It is only a matter of time before gay marriage is legal.  No matter how you feel about homosexuality, this is a fact, people.  There were a lot of white people who didn’t want people like Y and I to get married 60 years ago.  And you know what?  The Supreme Court overturned laws in states prohibiting interracial marriage, citing that it is unconstitutional to prevent marriage between two people.  And it’s the same for gay people!  Our constitution is gender neutral when it comes to marriage.  It doesn’t get much more simple than that.
• Lawsuits are already forming to appeal this decision.  It is not the right of the voters to decide what is or is not constitutional.  As Stefanie so eloquently stated, it’s the job of the Courts to protect the minority from the majority.  Let’s get on it, people!
• The pendulum is swinging the other direction, finally.  Over the past 8 years, we’ve been living in a VERY conservative country.  But with the green movement and a landslide of a win by a Democrat, I truly believe we are heading in the other direction (finally).  Which leads me to…
• Barack Obama is our rockin’ new president, and he opposed Prop 8.  Let’s see what you can do for us, Barack!

So that’s where I’m at right now.  I am sad about Prop 8, but I am trying to stay optimistic: we have an awesome new president, we made sure that young girls still have a right to privacy and we protected farm animals.  The feminist and vegetarian in me are quite happy.

And now, shall we move on to the election party, which was really fun and creative?

Y and I celebrating Obama’s victory!

Watching McCain’s concession speech (well said, McCain!):

One of the best things about this party were the beverages and foodstuffs, all of which were election-themed.  First, we have “Mav-rickies,” which were DELISH and very strong.  “After a few, you’ll see Russia from your house.”

Red and blue states Jello shots (I prefer the blue, duh):

Blue state cupcakes, courtesy of Marianne–each cupcake was a different state!  I ate Oregon.  Go ducks!

“Don’t &*%^ us, Ohio!” Swing State cookies, which I slaved over.  They’re peanut butter and chocolate, Ohio’s favorite combo.  Thanks for not $%#ing us, Ohio!  Very much appreciated!

Y, watching the results:

A few of my girlfriends and I:

And that is all, folks!  It’s over!  Finally!!  I am so excited to stop feeling anxious all the time.

Anyone else do anything fun for the election?  Or did you sit at home in your jammies and squirm until the results came in?

Copy this sentence into your blog if you’re in a heterosexual marriage, and you don’t want it “protected” by people who think that GLBT marriage hurts it somehow.

On a side note, I know I’ve been sucking at updating recently.  I’ll be better, I promise!