ff

* hey girl! you're a moron for getting raped!

sigh.

way back, when i was in munich, natalya and i went out (with a pile o' peeps from the hostel) to the hofbrauhaus. temple of beer and lederhosen. an incredibly tourist-in-munich thing to do. i had two of their giant-pints. probably somewhere around equivalent to 3.5 pints? maybe 4? a lot for me, but nothing too bonkers... especially considering the stomach-full of rich rich german food i was putting those beers into. sure, i was drunk. but i still had my wits about me. we had a nice time, and stumbled back to the hostel with one other hostel-er while the others continued to party into the night. we got a little lost, but made it home just fine. natalya went to sleep.

i went to the bathroom and cried for about 2 hours. i was sick with guilt and shame. because i'd been so irresponsible! because i had let loose a little, and therefore put myself and (much more importantly) natalya in danger. think of the horrible things that could've happened! how could i have been so stupid?!

it was not a good night.

and we all know i am a 'sensitive soul' and that i maybe feel things a little more deeply than most. but. what that night was was the product of years and years of being taught that it would for sure be my fault if i or natalya had been attacked.

anyways... the article above covers the topic of maybe blaming rapists from raping rather than blaming girls/women for being 'stupid/careless/slutty/naive'... it maybe isn't a 100% perfectly written piece, but it (and others like it recently) have made me think a lot about my own deep sense of guilt and fear, and how maybe i should start to redirect them... just sayin.

but... MEANWHILE!!!

here's something rather beautiful for you to read! about love and acceptance and gender-identity and growth and change and mothers and fathers and sons and daughters... there's some sadness in there, for sure. but if you zoom right in on the family? one of the best stories ever. wow. yes.

* i maybe cried a little at the end...

favourite mistake

sometimes when i mean to go to tinyurl.com, i make a typo and i go here instead:

tinu

hi! i love tinu. i keep using tinyurl even though i don't have to, just so that i can, occasionally, accidentally, visit tinu.

saved my life

it's a kimrup!
a mashra!

kimbra is back yo! mashup stylez.



i wonder if i am the leader in kimbra-blogging in north america? probably.

happy monday y'all!

pup around the village

margene post!!!! HAHAHAHAHA! she is endlessly hilarious. no jokes. (all jokes...) man i love that dog.

ff

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

stereotyping is hilarious!

(okay. sometimes. a little stereotyping is hilarious. sometimes. and. actually, generally, i do have a sense of humour. i swear! sarah can tell you! this week i laughed at my own 'gary sinise' 'bless you' joke so hard i cried. twice. on different days. even though NO ONE ELSE found it even a LITTLE funny. it was. mega funny...)

but, sigh. i'm a bit put off by the trendy new viral video sh*t girls say. ugh. i kinda really hate linking to it at all... but. ugh. anyways.

i've seen a few friends on facebook post things like 'OMG! i DO say that! HAHAHAHAHA! best!!!'
but, um, dudes. almost every one of those lines can be said by ANYONE EVER! okay. anyone middle-class-y and western at very least...
and it's not that this video is the WORST THING and i'm SUPER MAD and it's MEGA SEXIST! it's just that i'm tired of the whole gendering of everything all the time to the maximum. i'm tired of the 'you are over there and we are over here, we're SO DIFFERENT HAHA!'.

gender-essentialism boooooo!

and on that note. here are this week's pieces for to think on:

* the brits are starting to get it?

* parents being jerks. **

*thanking bowie for his gender-bending rocking ways.

i do love bowie so.

read read read my lovelies. (because boys and girls can both be lovely... and feminist!)

** oh man. so many things about these videos that make me crazy. like. dude. your kids sure are horrid ungrateful little things. i wonder how that happened?! and. um. language, children! but. that's totes off-topic. so. shhhhhhhhh. nothing!

warm glow

i've been hunting the last two weeks for a work gift-exchange challenge: a used copy of a favourite kid's christmas book. challenge indeed! see, most of the books i loved most are out of print and crazy hard to find... i had ordered 'morriss's disappearing bag' on amazon, but then instead of shipping it, the seller canceled my order after a few days. jerk. i was all in a panic.

but. oh! then! yesterday! just in time!

i found the greatest thing at seeker's books on bloor!

remember this gem?! i had forgotten. i loved this book so so so much. and the person receiving this book has a little boy and a little girl... and he's from winnipeg, so there's a bit of prairie in their blood. oh. it is perfect. i'm so so happy about finding it. i almost started to cry in the bookstore cause my heart got so big so fast...

i can't wait to be home for christmas. i can't wait. it is the most magical thing.

saved my life

oh, the national. thank you thank you.

last thursday night jeff and i were lucky enough to catch the national live at the a.c.c. here in toronto. it was an amazing show. they put on a crazy good performance.

highlights included the lead singer wandering through the crowd, his long long mic cord being passed above the heads of all the people on the floor, and right up into the 'stadium' seats. he was singing at the same time, of course. walking on seats. and. them bringing owen pallet on stage to play a few tunes with them. chills... and. a killer pair of brass players - trumpet and trombone. such a great time.

so. here is one of their new songs. (the one owen pallet played along with... SOOOOOOooooo beautifullysadly!) and also an older song with a hilarious video. sigh. thank you.





happy monday!