It's a little thing, but it pisses me off: this article on the UK's Daily Mail website by Liz Jones, trashing women who get tattoos. Not men, of course--just women.

The title is "Why DO women get these tramp stamps?" To me, a "tramp stamp" is a tattoo on someone's low, low lower back that's visible when they bend over in crop-tops and ultra low-rise jeans. But to this writer, all tattoos--on women--are "tramp stamps". The entire tone of the article can be summed up by this quote:

"They are a mark of temporary insanity,
instantly turning the classiest, chicest
woman into trailer trash. ... Yes, I am
talking about tattoos, the most tasteless,
tacky, tawdry, terrible plague to infect our
nation since mad cow disease."

This article wouldn't bother me so much if the author took issue with tattoos on anybody. Some people just don't like them, and that's fine. Even in that context, her vehemence is a little off-putting--does she freak out about multiple piercings, too? (That reminds me I need to put earrings in.) Probably, considering she refers to the residents of Hoxton (an artsy area of London, from what I can gather) as "half-wits". How dare they be different!

But the fact that this article trashes exclusively women is just infuriating. She does mention three men: Winston Churchill, Johnny Depp, and David Beckham. Churchill, of course, she merely states that you "may be surprised" to know that he had an anchor on his arm. Depp and Beckham she trashes for their type of tattoo ("Winona Forever"), not the practice of tattooing.

No judgment, no trashing. No, she saves that exclusively for women, calling them trashy, "desperate" to fit in, and whining about how their tats aren't going to "look good" when they're old. All in all, it's just another way of bitching about women not conforming to a societal standard of uniformity and beauty. I bet if I read all her articles, I'd find plenty of bitching about ZOMG FATTIES, too.

The worst part, though, is at the end of the article, where she attempts to give her point a "message". She does this by talking about her friend's grandmother, who has a prisoner ID tattoo from the Holocaust. This tack-on at the end of the article serves no purpose other than to try to give the author's ridiculous intolerance a veneer of righteousness. Exploiting the death and suffering of millions to shore up your hatred of something as ridiculous as body art? Now that's trashy.


(In skimming some other articles, I've discovered Liz Jones apparently also hates people who eat meat and dairy products, and people who have more than one child. And oh, yep, there's the fat hate, complete with a picture of a "fat" girl eating chips, ice cream, and candy. Why am I not surprised.)

Arizona, Florida, California, and Alabama: I'm looking at you. Get over your problem with teh gayz already! I'm most shocked about California, I thought there was no way Prop 8 would get passed.

On a happier note, South Dakota's abortion ban failed, as did Colorado's asinine amendment to declare a fertilized egg a person (70 to 30%, bitches!).


In decidedly non-national news, I'm still slightly sick. Definitely better, though. If I'd been scheduled to work today I could've made it through my shift. Which is good since I actually am scheduled tomorrow. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll sound better too, right now my voice sounds like a gravel pit.

I actually feel hungry for the first time in about a week, too. When I get sick, I stop being hungry, although I generally force myself to eat because I know I need the energy to get better. And I'm seriously craving a big, juicy burger. It's 12:15 at night, and I'm about to put on jeans and go to Wendy's. I guess I need protein? :)

What an idiot.


Hello, people who came here from crooksandliars.com! Sorry this entry's not more exciting. ;)

When I first heard about Barack Obama, I honestly didn't think about him much for one simple reason: I didn't think there was a hope in hell of a black man, with a "foreign-sounding" name, even getting the nomination. When he did, I thought that meant McCain was a lock for all the same reasons. Despite all the talk about us being "free" and "equal", blah blah blah, I was sure there were way too many "good old boys", closet racists, and idiots who'd believe Obama was a terrorist, for him to win. I was wrong, and I am just so goddamn proud of my country!

Sitting in a Red Robin with my cousin and my best friend when, hours earlier than we expected, we saw "OBAMA ELECTED" on the restaurant's televisions. We thought it couldn't be certain yet, and we rushed across the restaurant to read the closed-captioning on the television. A few minutes later, we walked back to our table bumping fists and giggling with glee, and I've been grinning ear-to-ear since.

This means that the majority of people in my country were able to be blind to skin color.
They were able to accept that having a "Muslim" name didn't mean someone was a terrorist.
They were able to think critically and not just buy the GOP's accusations about terrorism, demolishing the coal industry, etc. etc.
This means the majority of my country didn't fall of the "aww shucks" schtick of Sarah Palin.
This means that the majority of people in my country chose the new, chose someone genuinely different, chose not to elect a familiar face out of fear.

I haven't felt this patriotic since I was five years old.

... that I sleep in my bed, rather than on my couch, for the first time in a week. I'm not coughing much. I'm not terribly congested. I still sound like death, but my throat doesn't even hurt. I might be able to stretch out flat on my cushy mattress instead of being propped up on the couch. Hooray!

Of course, that would require putting clean sheets on my bed. My cats and dog have been rolling around on my bed all week, so there's a fine layer of black and gray hair all over my white sheets. I should probably do that while I still feel awake, if I wake until my nap-induced awareness wears off, I'll end up sleeping on the couch out of laziness.

Because today I'm still sick and had to call into work again, but tomorrow I have to drive 90 miles one way to vote. Isn't that just spiffy?

It's my own fault for not doing my research. My school's website said that student were legally entitled to vote on campus. I should've looked into it more; I would still have had to register to vote up here. But I didn't. So now, if I want to vote, I have to drive to my old home town, burning most of a tank of gas in the process. And there's only one polling place in that town, so god only knows how long that line is going to be. Sonofabitch.

So I've noticed quite a few people ending up on this blog because of an entry last year where I mentioned having a pannus rash.

(Some of the other search terms are hilarious: "exercise fuck" (the best kind of exercise!), "fucking sick of starter wife ads" (me too!), "fat people need to STOP eating" (really?), and my personal favorite, "warm from the elephant's ass" (umm.).)

Anyway, since I've had quite a few hits from that, I thought I'd write something useful on the subject. I know it's sort of an embarrassing thing to talk about; after all, if we weren't fat, we wouldn't have that flap of skin, and therefore wouldn't have a rash there. And since being a ZOMG FATTIE is all our fault in the eyes of society, therefore it's embarrassing to talk about a condition that results from it. Also, in my case at least, the rash sometimes oozes and smells bad. Double embarrassing as it's not that far away from the female bits. Also embarrassing when it happens under your breasts, although it can probably happen anywhere there are skin folds.

So: what to do about this unsightly rash? It can be caused by several different things:

• heat rash
  
• bacterial infection
• fungal rash

Without seeing a doctor, you probably can't say for dead certain what it is. But if you're too embarrassed to see a doctor (which I understand!), you might try the following remedies that have worked for me. Keep in mind, I am not a doctor or at all an expert; these are just things I've tried, and your mileage may vary, so to speak.

Heat Rash

I think the times I had this rash because of heat/sweat were the worst--it stings, and burns, and feels like the skin is being rubbed raw. Sometimes it helped the immediate pain to hold an ice pack against the rash (or a bottle of peppermint schnapps I'd kept in the freezer, when I was desperate). One thing that just makes it worse: baby powder. That was the first thing I tried, thinking that it was chafing (from being a disgusting fatty, natch), and oh my god, the hell. I might as well have put sand under my gut.

Much better: calamine lotion. Although when it dries it can get sort of crumbly, it's very soothing and almost always seemed to cure the problem after a couple of days. One caveat: I wouldn't try applying it with cotton balls, cotton pads, or anything else papery--that will leave wisps of stuff behind that will be further irritating. My preferred mention of application was just to pour stuff onto my hand and apply it that way--no bits left behind.

At one point I also tried applying deodorant to the whole area to stave it off; I don't believe it worked very well.

Bacterial Infection

For a year or two, I had a recurring, super obnoxious rash. This was the kind that oozed puss and smelled bad and made me horribly embarrassed. I'd put calamine lotion on it, it'd go away, but then it would come back--usually after I had an itch and scratched my stomach (which allowed the bacteria into the skin). Sometimes this rash would spread to the tops of my thighs or up my stomach. I never saw a doctor about it, because I was too humiliated.

I didn't really get a handle on this until I was on a heavy dose of antibiotics after my sinus surgery. I'd been on antibiotics before without it helping; I think the only reason it helped then was because it was a really hefty dose. A topical antibiotic would probably have cured it, but I'd never tried it.

Again, don't try the baby powder thing. Yuck!

Fungal Infection

I thought that it might be a fungal rash, and so I tried a generic over the counter cream for it. It didn't help or hurt in my case, but it might for someone else. I don't have much input on this particular cause. This thread talks about some different cures. Things that make all of these worse are hot, moist conditions. Panty hose, especially, are terrible for it. Make that synthetic, non-breathable fabrics at all, actually. Ewww.


Since my post-surgery antibiotic overload, the rash has started to come back a couple of times, most notably when I woke up late after a double shift and didn't have time to shower before work (gross). Generally, to prevent it coming back, I do two things: make sure to wash under my stomach daily, and occasionally wear bikini underwear as opposed to briefs. Don't want to hear about my underwear choices? Too damn bad. :) I prefer "granny panties", but I'll wear bikini (or thong if I'm worried about panty lines) underwear because they go under my stomach, which wicks away moisture. The important thing to remember here is that it needs to be a breathable material, cotton for best results, or you'll make it worse. Keep the area drier and you'll have less issues.

My luck, now that I've shared all about my oozing rash and underwear preference, nobody will ever search for "pannus rash" and end up here again. :)

I realize that "motherfucker" is not an appropriate word for basic cable. So I wasn't expecting "Die Hard With A Vengeance" to be unedited. But you'd think they could come up with a better replacement for "motherfucker" than ...."melon farmer".

Every November for the last few years, I've thought about taking on the National Novel Writing Month challenge and writing a complete novel in a month. Just, you know, because. :) Because I used to write, and I miss it. But every year, I'm too busy. This year, I'm arguably less busy than I have been in years, but I still feel like I don't have time.

I've only got one job, finally, plus school, but I'm going to spend most of the month trying to work more--I need to make, like, $400 a week to pay bills this month. That's only eight shifts a week if I average $50 per shift. But I'm only scheduled for five a week. So basically I'm going to be driving to the next town eight extra times a week, and yelling into the kitchen "Anybody wanna go home?" This will continue through December and possibly January.

I've also basically backed myself into a corner with my classes--if I don't seriously buckle down, I'm not sure what the results will be with one of them (only because this professor thinks attendance is an important part of a college class and actually gives a grade on it, the douchebag. ;) ). And attendance has never been my strong suit. I struggle with it for a simple reason: if I can do well enough to pass without going to class, why go? Why drag myself out of bed when it's still dark out, when it's cold, to go listen to somebody blather about things I already know (in the instance of these two classes)? I'd rather sleep, then cram. But I know that's a very bad habit, and I'm determined to break it in these last two months of class.

All of this doesn't leave much time for writing, but of course there's always going to be something stopping me. But maybe next year ... which is what I said last year.

And by good TV I mean repeats of action movies I've seen many times, so I can listen to them as I drift in and out of sleep. I had to call in sick to work yesterday and today, although I think I'll be alright tomorrow. I hope. I still can barely talk--when I called work at midnight last night to say I wouldn't be there today, the girl who answered the phone didn't believe it was me. When the manager came on the phone and I said who it was, she said, "The one who works here?" which made me laugh, croakily, and then she said "Oh my god! I can tell by your laugh. You sound horrible!"

She was very nice about it, didn't give me a hard time about not coming in or anything--which was a nice surprise, my last two jobs (prior to the one where I was basically the boss) always gave me grief about missing one no matter how sick I was. One of my bosses made me come in when I had a highly contagious eye infection, it took all my willpower not to stick my fingers in my eyes and smear her desk with germs. :)

***

Aw, John McCain was kinda funny on SNL last night. Of course the video is surrounded by Obama ads--way to harness the power of the Internet. But what does it say his campaign that the skit he's in mocks his running mate so much? Hmm. I'd better be healthy by Tuesday, otherwise I'll infect everyone else in line to vote!