Romanticize ur life

In 2000 I was 6 years old. I couldn’t vote. My entire understanding of politics was who my parents’ liked. I was one of the children who’s future should have been protected by environmental action then.

But environmental action wasn’t taken then. I grew up, I can vote now, and people are still using the line that environmental action is for the children’s future! Do you know how empty that rings? As if anyone had ever cared about my future enough to change their ways. And the children of today recognize that as well, it’s why we have activist teens.

If I were a single issue voter, environmentalism would be the one issue. I’m not, because other things are important and because environmental justice is inherently tied to social and economic justice. But it’s the single most important thing to happen to humanity, ever.

In this post I talk about good election outcomes in Arizona-- of which I’m pleased with all except one, Arizona Corporation Commission, the 4th branch of the state government that manages utilities. The fact that we’ve elected folks who’s first priority isn’t clean energy now is horrifying. It was possibly one of the most important things on my ballot.

I guess this post is to say that I’m sad. After 2016, I had completely emotionally numbed myself to political outcomes. I had long stopped thinking about climate crisis because it caused too much despair. I’ve been taking care of myself and it’s allowed me to feel more capable, less powerless. I guess, I’m marking a difference in myself that I am feeling climate grief, but not despair. I’m marking that someday soon I feel that I might be ready to go into the world be the climate activist that’s always lain dormant inside of me.

statewide, the elections for u.s. president, senator, and 3 house representatives have all gone to the democrats

Arizona has a 4th branch of government called Corporation Commissioner that manages utilities statewide. The one incumbent, who has done loads to 1. make utilities more affordable for the working class and 2. implement a plan for green energy, has been re-elected! She happens to be a republican but I don’t care because she’s done a good job. We were voting for 3 seats; the two other Republicans are anti-green energy and the 3 Democrats are pro-green energy. The other two seats were taken by one democrat and one republican (thankfully, the less evil republican.)

Proposition to legalize/decriminalize marijuana passed!

Proposition to increase income taxes for the wealthy to fund education passed!

We’ve elected double the amount of Democratic state congresspeople compared to republican (14 vs. 7)

Very excited about indigenous woman Gabriella Cazares-Kelly elected for pima county recorder.

Proposition allowing community college to redistribute its funds passed!

For tucson school board: two people backed by the teacher’s union and one who’s platform is “address the school to prison pipeline” (especially important since the current school board recently voted to reopen schools, and the teacher’s union was advocating for those who platformed safe reopening)

Hey @ clothing manufactures, I shouldn’t have to sew an entirely new shirt to have one that fits.

Unisex sizing is only unisex sizing if it actually fits everyone.

I’m a small person, so I bought a size small. Here’s how it fit: it was too large on my shoulders, the sleeves were too long, the torso was both too long (it came to my thighs) and too narrow to fit over my hips. Take a guess as to whom that shirt would fit? Skinny tall people. With broad shoulders (*cough* cis men).

In order to make a shirt that fit I cut the sleeves off and cut down the sides of the torso. I trimmed and rehemmed the sleeves. Then I trimmed the shoulders and back of the armscye and reattached the sleeves. I sewed up the sides of the torso, then trimmed and hemmed the bottom of the shirt. The bottom had to be cropped quite a bit to deal with the “not fitting over my hips” problem.

I like having shirts that fit. I shouldn’t have to tailor them myself.

Only read 18 books last year. I knew it would be a rough year for reading, but I didn’t think it’d be that rough! So yeah, I definitely did not hit my goal of 40 books. But I did read some good ones that I’d like to recommend. In the order I read them in:

Bluets by Maggie Nelson

Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life by Ellen Forney

Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace

My Life in France by Julia Child

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Interesting that all of these are nonfiction (except perhaps Bluets which is arguably poetry). I think that’s because, aside from graphic novels, I don’t really seek out any fiction. (And oh were the graphic novels I read this year bad to mediocre).

A farmer was taking his produce to the market in a horse drawn cart, but the horse would not stay the path. It was continuously investigating the grass that lay on the roadside or stopping for what seemed like no reason.

The farmer had this issue every time he went to the market but this was his only horse and he was too poor to buy another that might be a better cart horse. Besides, this horse was a perfectly serviceable plough horse, it only had these difficulties when going into town.

He used to be able to keep the horse moving by using a whip, but his neighbor had told him that overusing a whip was cruel to the animal and may ultimately harm the horse more than it helped the farmer.

Saw this on twitter and thought I’d put in my (20)10(’s) cents. Shout out to Letterbox’d for allowing to me to Remember What Films I’ve Seen and generally being the Goodreads of movies

2019: I have not seen any movies released this year (yet). 2018: Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse 2017: Coco 2016: Moonlight 2015: Brooklyn 2014: The Way He Looks 2013: A tie between Belle and Austenland 2012: Les Miserables 2011: Captain America 2010: A tie between Letters to Juliet and How to Train Your Dragon

I found this to be a difficult exercise, mostly because I am very indifferent about movies. Some were easier to choose (i.e. Coco) because they had a profound emotional impact on me. I tried to choose films that actually changed my life, in the way I think or the way I interact with other people through shared media consciousness.

I’ve spoken about this with my brother, my general lack of interest in films, and it’s likely because I don’t know how to “read” them. He says that movies generally form an emotionally environment more than tell a story. And while I know how to “read” visual media in the stationary forms of art, the element of time throws me off when it comes to movies.

I was a bit confused about how movies and tv could be so different but we got to talking about the history of tv, and how it is historically a dialogue heavy medium due to the low visual quality of early television versus the high quality of “the big screen”. As a writer I am trained to understand textual media and thus have an easier time appreciating tv shows.

The media I enjoy that comes closest to that of movies is most likely comics as they are also a series of images juxtaposed next to each other. However, comics are positioned spatially on a page whereas frames of a movie are positioned in time.

It’s easier for me to watch and enjoy animated movies because I understand more of what goes into the process of animation. When I first made this list it was mostly animated movies because that’s what I enjoy, but it changed when I thought about how the films actually affected my life.

Last movie you watched: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Last song you listened to: My brother is listening to the playlist he played at his wedding. Currently playing is “You Can’t Hurry Love” by The Supremes

Last show you watched: I’ve been watching The Great British Baking Show because 1) I’m applying to baking jobs and then sometimes I worry that I don’t know enough about laminated doughs so this is “research” and 2) looking for a job is very stressful and this show is very soothing. But I think the last episode of a show that I actually watched was Ugly Delicious because I made pizza and my brother wanted to show me the pizza episode so we could have Pizza Discourse

Last book you read: Currently reading America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook. It has a basic description of a variety of culinary techniques and it’s not much that I don’t already know, but I wanted a refresher. I’m also in the middle of reading Fast Food Nation, but I just feel like it’s so depressing. Last book I finished was The Sonoran Desert: a Literary Field Guide 

Last thing you ate: Had coffee and koulourakia, which are a plain, twisted, greek butter cookie that I bought at the Greek Festival last week, for a post-nap snack

If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be: In my own apartment/house?? Alas, one needs a job to get one of those.

When would you time travel to: The short-term future in the hopes that society would have gotten kinder.

First thing you would do with lottery money: My brain can’t process this question, that’s too much money. I’d have to think a lot about it.

Character you would hang with for a day: Beka Cooper. She seems calm and we could talk about/practice fighting techniques.

Time right now: 18:29

ID: An open journal with a colorful abstract drawing across two pages. The left side is drawn in marker and the right side in color pencil.

Me: “I really like the look of bullet journal spreads, maybe I’ll do one of those.”

In the brain there is an area called the somatosensory cortex, which one wears like a headband across the front of their parietal lobes. This is the part of the brain where touch is synthesized, in a particular order from toe to tip of tongue.

When I look at myself in the mirror, I look exactly as I had hoped I would; I look perfect. When I look down at my own chest or touch my own chest, there is a sense of freakishness, like something is missing.

And there is literally something missing. A physical part of my body has just been removed and it is going to take a while for my nervous system and brain to catch on to the new state of affairs.

Image description: 1. a portrait in ink of a short mexican transgender man with curly black hair and a trimmed beard, wearing a denim jacket and a messenger bag. 2. the same portrait with colorful sections drawn in marker around him in an oval.