I'm on a bit of an animal blogging kick today, in case you haven't noticed. Anyhoo, overseas in Hampshire, people have been spotting this awesome, magical purple squirrel.
Nobody knows how the squirrel became purple. People from the school that the purple squirrel visits say that he was more blue at first. Experts think the squirrel has probably been ingesting dye from old printer or toner cartridges in a building storing old computers.
Sidebar: I remember one year when I was visiting family in Detroit during the winter, this black cat-rat-that ain't no damn puppy-hybrid ran across the road and I freaked the hell out. That day I learned that black squirrels exist also. Blew my mind, I tell you. The ones I saw were way bigger than an average squirrel and they had these long curly tails...something ain't right up there.
Here's a video of my two year old Shih-tzu/Lion/My Little Pony mix chilling in the car during one of my Whataburger french-fry smash-n-grab. I also have a ten year old Miniature Poodle named Pookie who I will also share more of.
author organized her closet and put pictures up. Man, I want this in my life somehow. Maybe when I get a real closet; one without those apartment built-in racks. This is like a jewelry-box closet...everything is so organized and pretty! I have to figure out what I can do with what I have so far; this is inspiring.
I don't know anyone who won't start dancing or consider dancing when they hear the opening notes of the beat from this song. POISON! POISON! POISON! P-P-POISON! Oh sorry, got caught up in the song...best line/lyric: The low-pro ho should be cut like an afro...lmao!
I am trying to plan my holiday menu. I think so far, I want to cook (and eat!) the following:
marinated & fried tofu cutlets (found in How It All Vegan) white bean salad (with white beans, green and red peppers, garlic, balsamic vinegar dressing) green bean casserole (vegan version) corn rolls baked ziti (found on the Barilla website)
This is just the bare bones version...I will be surfing VegWeb for more ideas.
Are you cooking for the holidays? If so, what are you cooking?
1. Erykah Badu, "New Amerykah, Part One (4th World War)": It's been five years since Badu made any musical statement of merit. The "Worldwide Underground" EP was her last project and it barely met the gold standard she set with her first two amazing albums. But Badu, one of R&B's most creative voices, returned to form with "New Amerykah," which played like an eclectic, absorbing jam session. We are already desperately awaiting part two.
This is my favorite song from New Amerykah. You should see/hear me singing along with this song; it's a real mess, lol. You gotta love how she switches up the music and gets into it. If I could get ova that hump...then maybe I will feel better. Maybe I won't, oh, if I could get ova that hump...then maybe I will...I'm livin'...check to check...just tryna pay my rent and I can feel it...comin' down around me...
2. Estelle, "Shine": This British singer-rapper-songwriter made her mark with "American Boy," an upbeat jam aided by a Kanye West appearance. The CD is a true reflection of Estelle — gritty, funny and full of sass. From slow R&B grooves to reggae jams, Estelle entertains throughout. She's the year's brightest new talent — which makes her omission in the Grammy best new artist category even more surprising.
3. Sia, "Some People Have Real Problems": Sia's album was morose, depressing and full of despair — yet undeniably beautiful and captivating. You'll find yourself sucked into her tales of heartbreak — and you won't want to leave them either.
I saw this article on Jezebel where an Iranian woman was attacked with acid by a man who was angry that she had rejected him. He stalked and threatened her outside of her job, then one day ambushed her and dumped a bucket of sulphuric acid over her head. His punishment, as decided by the court in Iran, is to have five drops of the acid dropped in each of his eyes. From the full article:
TEHRAN -- Ameneh Bahrami once enjoyed photography and mountain vistas. Her work for a medical equipment company gave her financial independence. Several men had asked for her hand in marriage, but the hazel-eyed electrical technician had refused them all. "I wanted to get married, but only to the man I really loved," she said.
Four years ago, a spurned suitor poured a bucket of sulfuric acid over her head, leaving her blind and disfigured.
Late last month, an Iranian court ordered that five drops of the same chemical be placed in each of her attacker's eyes, acceding to Bahrami's demand that he be punished according to a principle in Islamic jurisprudence that allows a victim to seek retribution for a crime. The sentence has not yet been carried out.
This is fascinating on so many levels. One argument is that this is cruel and barbaric punishment; more revenge than justice. Blinding this man will not deter other men from doing the same thing to other people. However, imprisoning him wouldn't deter other people either. I feel we also have to take the context of the culture into consideration; we cannot judge everything through an American lens. Iran has been notorious for not following up on crimes against women, especially horrific crimes like what happened to Bahrami. Some argue that it is good that they are even punishing him at all.
Honestly, a big part of me feels that he has ruined her life and livelihood and he deserves what his punishment is. The other part of me knows that some people will argue about where the line will be drawn. Of course this method couldn't be applied to everyone, I am treating this on a very individual level. If this means of revenge-punishment were possible for all offenders, things would get out of hand very quickly. Courts would have to ensure the accused party is actually guilty, none of that gray area business like here in the United States. The attacker in this story admitted his guilt, so that isn't an issue here.
Also, Americans that are horrified by this punishment but support the death penalty are hypocrites. We are the only westernized nation that still uses the death penalty. It is crushing to think of how many innocent people have been put to death in this country. The system is especially skewed against poor people, many of them black or hispanic, illiterate, you name it who have been coerced or tricked by the system. This retribution style punishment could never work on a large scale in the United States, but I do not disagree with it for this particular case. What do you think about this story?
No matter what people have to say about Janet now, she was in top form in the 90s. I think her problem now is she is trying to do the same thing she has always done, and it just isn't working for her anymore. Artists need to evolve, especially when they have been in the industry this long. Anyhoo, I'm going to pretend that everything she did after the 90s never happened. She had a few nice songs, but overall I'm retreating back to the 90s for my favorite Janet Jackson jams.
You Want This
This video was so fun to me. I remember wishing I had a group of sassy friends like that. Also, why did I know that whole dance breakdown at the end? Why do I still know it? Lol @ MC Lyte chillin' in the car while the others danced. She was too cool for school.
Anytime, Anyplace
I still love this song. I love the jewel-tone colors in the video. Everything is smooth, steamy, and just nice.
Runaway
This song and video is so cute. I love the costumes, the dances, the lyrics are light and fun; it's just a nice, carefree song.
I Get So Lonely
This song reminds me of high school; cold winters and basketball seasons. I still like it, and she looked really cool in the video.
I hate chocolate. I have hated chocolate pretty much my entire life. No, I'm not one of those people who hates some chocolate, but eats other chocolate...I hate it all. I even hate the smell of it. I know, I know; you can't say anything I haven't heard about this already...lost a few good friends over this, lol. On the flip side, I looooooove anything strawberry flavored. Like some people who are easily distracted by shiny things, I am distracted by strawberry smells, and will drool accordingly until I get my mitts on something strawberry.
For the holidays, one of my co-workers made cake balls for everyone. She made chocolate and red-velvet ones for everyone, but then she made me my very own special batch of (98% vegan) strawberry cake balls...nobody else has them but me! She is made of awesome. They are so rich, sweet, and strawberry-licious. They are the type of sweet that you have to savor, enjoying the mini-sugar explosions and parties happening on your taste buds. I'm averaging two a day right now, but I might have to bump it up to three. Would you like to see the little preciousnesses?
Today, my husband and I have been together for 3 years (married for 2, known each other for 11). I think it's safe to say I have experienced every emotion known to humanity while a part of this relationship, but this has ensured my awareness of how worth-it everything is. I cherish the time I have with him.
Also, it snowed today! For all the non-Houstonians reading, snowfall in Houston is like the coming of Christ himself. The last time it snowed here was Christmas Eve 2004, and the last time it snowed before THAT was in 1992 or 1993 (and that time doesn't really count because it didn't stick). It's amazing to see people stop what they're doing to go out and take pictures and frolic and be merry and smile at everyone else. I really feel like part of a Houston community when it snows. Every Houstonian I know on Facebook has a status that reflects the snowfall. It truly brings a bit of magic in the air, which went perfectly with the magic I feel on my anniversary today.
This song encapsulates the magic of our courtship (don't hate) and of today/tonight:
I wait for you, and don't know why/All I know...is I can't hide/At this temperature you could take over my mind/Like gossamer, you softly touch/It draws me in, I'm powerless/He possesses an enchantment/Tell me...I'm forgiven/He calls, don't know how I fell under his spell/Lately, I've been driven/He smiles...an enchantment/I wait for you, I'm mesmerized/This love is like a potion in disguise/I'd tightrope walk...with a blindfold on my eyes/I can't escape...or so it seems/I'd run away...he's in my dreams/He possesses an enchantment//It's the kind of sleepwalk that never ends/Type of loan with no dividends/It's a parlour game where you're givin' chase/Guess it could be called an acquired taste/I know he knows, he calls, I go, I know/This could be an enchantment//He smiles and I give in...an enchantment
*
This song just reminds me of the "home" quality our relationship has...my comfort zone.
Colors inspire me. Colors make me happy. I like to play with color combos and see what the result is. Today I went with a palate of red, blue, and purple with dashes of pink and green for a tiny bit of accent.
Red sweater, blue camisole (underneath), purple scarf (with pink), multi-color necklace (blue, green, purple, pink), blue earrings, blue dress socks, purple pumps. Oh, and yes I sit like that a lot because I am short! Don't hate. Here, have a little more red-blue-purple inspiration:
Back in the day, it did not matter what female rappers looked like, or whether they were sexy, feminine, or "butch", as long as they brought the talent. Female rap was about having a good time, female empowerment, and socially conscious messages. Now that sub-genre of music just has tumbleweeds rolling all through it. I'm posting my favorite jams from female rappers. Join me, won't you?
Shoop-Salt-N-Pepa
Gawd, I still love this song...I loved their confidence and they were so talented! On your mark get set go, let me go, let me shoop to the next man in a 3-piece suit/I spend all my dough, ray(?) me cutie/Shoop-shoo-ba-doobie like Scooby-dooby-doo/I love you in ya big jeans, you give me nice dreams, you make me wanna scream...lol let me stop. Ok one more: I swear, I stared, my niece my witness (lol) the brother had it goin' on with somethin kinda mmm/Wicked, wicked(?) had to kick it/I'm not shy so I asked for the digits...awesomeness.
I'm on the block, posted up like a mailbox...(only Mr. BohemianBookworm will get that line...but if anyone else does, you're AWESOME!)
This is super old, but I can't not post it here. I may have mentioned this before, but I have a fascination with death and the way it is handled in societies. I will probably do my masters thesis on something in this field.
Anyhoo, this 24 year old (Angel Pantoja Medina) from Puerto Rico told his family that he wanted to be standing up during his wake so his family obeyed his wishes. Reading comments on him and his lifestyle, it appears he was involved in the street life and that is what killed him. So my first thought was how interesting it is that he planned for his death in that manner. Commenters have been saying well, he was a gang member so of course he knew he would die early, but I think it's not that simple. Lots of young people plan their post-humous celebrations, gatherings, selections, etc. Secondly, from a physical/medical standpoint I wonder how exactly they got a corpse in the condition that it could stand for 3 days. The pictures also show the phenomenon of memorial T-shirts that are popular in urban culture. If you are offended by wake/corpse/body pictures you may want to scroll past these.
This story is a little old, but just as crazy. Every state has a "safe haven" law where parents can drop off their babies for adoption somewhere like a fire station or hospital without penalty. Nebraska was the only state without an age limit, so parents have been dropping off mother-flippin' TEENAGERS! Now that legislators are revising the law to impose the age limit, the teenage drop-offs have dramatically increased because the parents are rushing to get rid of their teens before the law passes with the new age limit! How the hell do you abandon a full-grown teenager? How do you drop them off like you would a newborn baby?! Of course, a lot of the teens end up running away...but who wouldn't run away at that age when your parents are like, nope you ain't livin' with us no more, you need a new family??!!?! This just boggles the mind. Here are some choice quotes from the article:
Legislators introduced bills calling for limits on the age of children who can be dropped off at hospitals in an effort to prevent newborns from being dumped in trash bins or other dangerous places.
Nebraska was the last state to enact such a law but didn't include an age limit. That has resulted in 34 children so far being abandoned there, some of them from other states.
Even as the session to correct the law approached, a 5-year-old boy was dropped off at an Omaha hospital on Thursday night. Earlier in the day, a woman dropped off two teenagers at another Omaha hospital, but one of them, a 17-year-old girl, fled. Authorities have not found her yet. (WTF to that whole passage?!)
Wow. The advances in the medical field have been really amazing when you take the time to catch up on what's happening. This teenage girl with an enlarged heart needed a transplant, but her first transplant didn't work right with her body so it had to be removed. While waiting on the next transplant, they kept her alive with artificial pumps that moved the blood throughout her body...but no actual heart! Can you imagine? This is promising news for people awaiting transplants who face certain death without them.
The pumps, ventricular assist devices, are typically used with a heart still in place to help the chambers circulate blood. With D'Zhana's heart removed, doctors at Holtz Children's Hospital crafted substitute heart chambers using a fabric and connected these to the two pumps.
Although artificial hearts have been approved for adults, none has been federally approved for use in children. In general, there are fewer options for pediatric patients. That's because it's rarer for them to have these life-threatening conditions, so companies don't invest as much into technology that could help them, said Dr. Marco Ricci, director of pediatric cardiac surgery at the University of Miami.
He said this case demonstrates that doctors now have one more option.
Yes, my big toenail is really cracked that far down and in. FYI, I am clumsy. A frickin' klutz. I also have a high pain tolerance, which I believe is directly correlated with my clumsiness. So I run into or bump or hit stuff all the time and don't miss a beat. Then mysterious bruises show up, the kind I might have to explain so people don't think I'm getting beat at home. And as the picture above shows, this kind of ish happens. I have no idea when or how this occurred, but what do I do dear readers? Surely I can't clip it off or *shudders* peel the nail back....I guess I just have to check on it's progress every day like a Giga Pet (remember those?!)
***EDIT*** A couple of days after this post, I straight peeled like, the whole thing off (where it was cracked). It didn't hurt anything like it sounds or looks, I swear!
Love me, love me, say you do/Let me fly away with you/For my love is like the wind/And wild is the wind/Give me more than one caress/Satisfy this hungriness/Let the wind blow through your heart/And wild is the wind/You touch me/And I hear the sound of mandolins/You kiss me/And with your kiss my life begins/You're spring to me/All things to me/You're life itself/Like a leaf clings to a tree/Oh, my darling, cling to me/For we're creatures of the wind/And wild is the wind
I Like the Sunrise
I like the sunrise/Cause it brings a new day/I like the new day/It brings new hope, they say/I like the sunrise/Blazing in the new sky/Nighttime is weary/Oh, so am I/Every evening I wish upon a star/That my brand new tomorrow is not very far/When that heavy blue curtain of night/Is raised up high/Way out of sight/I like the sunrise/So heavenly to see/I like the sunrise/And I hope it likes poor me/I like the sunrise/Here comes the sunrise.../And I hope it likes poor me
As an aside, I am not really a preachy vegan unless I see something horrible like the above video, or someone asks. This (watching a creature get slaughtered) is one of the reasons I eat a vegan diet. I cannot stomach watching that poor bird get butchered and the blood everywhere and then in good conscious eat another one. Many people do not see animals as living, feeling creatures (many who are very intelligent) and so see no problem with killing and eating animals. I have always been an animal lover (except mosquitos...die, die, die). I never ate that much meat growing up (side-dishes, represent!) anyway, so it wasn't too hard to make the meatless transition. I personally cannot watch videos like this (just go to peta.org for more!) and continue to eat meat so that is one of the reasons I stopped (once I had some workable vegan recipes in hand). I can't even watch Animal Cops anymore or hear about an animal death in the news, or look at roadkill without feeling sad. I saw a squirrel try to dash across the street and get run over months ago and I actually started crying. It was just twitching on the ground as its' blood poured out and it's intestines were exposed (so, who's hungry?). I am a sap. I just can't handle it!
Anyhoo, how much of a 'tard do you have to be to give a "folksy" interview about pardoning a turkey while another turkey is being SLAUGHTERED RIGHT BEHIND YOU! THE WHOLE TURKEY-KILLING DEATH TRAP MACHINE SET UP IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU! You gotta love the look on homeboy's face in the background. He's like, welp, I guess I'll wait a little bit....then he just says fuck it and kills the turkey. For those who don't know, the turkey' head is placed in the funnel so it can't move, and it's throat is cut and the blood drains away and the turkey fades to black. I'm guessing the cameraman/woman hates Sarah Palin. I hate everything.
For people who eat cows, pigs, PIG INTESTINES, birds, deer, squirrel, raccoons, gators, etc. and look down on or are grossed out by those from other cultures who eat horses, sharks, dolphins, guinea pigs, snakes, grasshoppers, roaches, spiders, dogs, cats, etc. just stop. You are hypocrites. And a little bit prejudiced (at least the people I know are). I judge you.
I am a Sociology graduate student, wife, pet-mother, and pixie. One of my favorite sociologists, Emile Durkheim, presented the notion of sacred and profane experiences in society. I believe that when one makes an everyday (or profane) experience sacred (or special) in some form, magic occurs in life. Join me as I share my interests in racial/ethnic relations, human rights, animals/nature, veganism, natural hair, music, death, general snark, and all the wonders of the world. May your day rain unicorns upon you.
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