Blame Richmond

how easy to halve a person, i guess. i stood and saw my body as cake. i was only delicate if balanced, pristine. felt like i was always flooding; always crying at weird times and laughing when anybody else would scream.

i just wanted to love. in sum and in total i just wanted to love what i did and who i was and what i wrote and what i read and what i watched and the world at large. god, did i want to love the world. i wanted to show people every snowflake and tell them about the secret layers of The Little Mermaid and show them silly dances and be okay.

i look at my body and her ruined wedding of a figure and how she is now a half of a half of a half; all too-much shoved into a dark space that molds over and rots in me. i’m wrong when i exist and therefore try to be nonexistent. to phase effortlessly in and out of other’s lives like a wisp, to come and go before they know i’m annoying.

one of my friends laughs. “you’re so extra,” he says.

i take another piece of myself off. eat it, and don’t throw up.

Don’t ever hug a lobster when you see one on the street,

For decorum is essential when a lobster you must greet.

You may comment on the weather, compliment his choice of hat,

But crustaceans like their space if one should stop them for a chat.

Don’t ever hug a lobster when you’re strolling down the coast,

Simply nod and give a greeting, or a handshake at the most,

For a lobster’s first priority is formal social graces,

And one seemes over-familiar if a lobster one embraces.

Don’t ever hug a lobster when you meet one in the sea,

For a lobster’s spines and chitin make it difficult, you see,

And he might become self-conscious if you bring that fact to light,

The minor N, and the major A,

Most of these songs don’t really talk about traveling, but they remind me of travel because I would listen to them on the plane or on the bus, because I associate them in a certain place, because I discovered them on the road, or because I associate them with a travel movie. So here are my favorite travel songs :)

Wait - M83

Midnight city - M83 (I’ve been jamming to this song on buses for months)

The lonesome boatman -  Dropkick Murphys (my favorite song for hiking)

Especially me - Low (the best song to listen to when you’re trying to fall asleep on a night bus)

Home - Passenger 

Der einsame Hirte - Leo Rojas (this is the song I woke up to every day while I was in Peru, so I can say that I know this song pretty well ^^)

El condor pasa - Simon & Garfunkel 

Come together - Aerosmith (I discovered this song at a concert in Uruguay, there are many versions of it and now it’s my “Uruguay song”)

Leaving tomorrow - Bastian Baker 

Hotel California - Eagles 

Long nights - Eddie Vedder

Hard sun - Eddie Vedder

Guaranteed - Eddie Vedder 

Dream - Imagine dragons 

Song for a dream - Indochine 

J’t’enmène au vent - Louise Attaque (this song is special to me because this is the song we would listen to all the time in the family car when I was a kid and we went on holidays)

Ch’Uwa Yaku Kawsaypuni - Luzmila Carpio 

Porque te vas - Los Pukas (to be honest, I don’t like this song that much but I heard it in EVERY bus I’ve took in Peru so now I feel very nostalgic every time I listen to it)

Schengen - Rafaël 

150 ans - Rafaël 

Desert rose - Sting 

Like gold - Vance Joy 

Conquest of spaces - Woodkid 

Step out - Jose Gonzalez

Got something you need to do at a certain time every day (e.g., take meds)?  Start giving your cat a treat right before you do it.  You may have trouble remembering, but your cat absolutely will not.  

Hello stop whitewashing black characters. 

a lowkey halloween playlist filled with spooky bops

OH MAN

LET ME LEARN YOU A THING

AND YET

WE ARE NOW GROWN-ASS ADULTS IN OUR THIRTIES

AND IT STILL GETS QUOTED FROM TIME TO TIME

I HAVE THE WHOLE THING MEMORISED

TO THIS DAY, MY MOTHER REGULARLY SAYS “BUT I AM LE TIRED” BECAUSE OF A VIDEO I SHOWED HER IN FUCKING HIGH SCHOOL

Holy shit!

All right, listen up, folks, because this is really important. The media has been completely silent on this. The only way I found out is through the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) but that’s it. No articles, no news reports, nothing.

There’s a new bill up on the table (H.R. 620) that could keep businesses from not being penalized if they don’t follow the Americans with Disabilities Act.

That’s a mouthful of many contradictions so let me clarify:

The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990 and is one of the few actual pieces of legislation that disabled Americans have. It’s the big one, the reason there are elevators in buildings, the reason there are ramps, the reason there are curbcuts, the reason there are options for Braille or subtitles, the reason service dogs need to be allowed into a building, the reason accessible parking exists, the reason accessible bathroom stalls exist, the reason you can’t be fired based on your disability, etc. etc. etc.

People, especially businesses, have been getting away with loopholes for years. But there’s always been some sort of enforcement in place, penalizing businesses who don’t adhere to the ADA.

But this bill?

This bill gets rid of that accountability.

This bill sets forward specific requirements (such as a disabled person having to make a formal claim before a building is investigated) that one has to follow before a business is penalized. If nobody is able to meet those requirements, that business gets to get away with not following the ADA without having to change anything or face any legal/monetary consequences. 

This bill could destroy everything that the ADA stands for and make the nation even more inaccessible/unaccommodating than it already is. 

And I know what you’re thinking. “Oh, that dastardly Trump, he mocked that reporter once, I guess this makes sense.”

And no, no, it’s so much worse than that reporter, it’s always been worse than that, we’ve been trying to tell you for over a year and none of you listened. This isn’t just about him being ignorant or prejudiced.

This is about this:

An article from almost a year ago that most of the world ignored.

Other members of congress have been sued as well. And now, rather than fix the problems, they’re all trying to secretly pass a bill that makes it so that they can no longer be held accountable for not following the ADA, letting hundreds of thousands of businesses get away with it as a result.

Don’t let them get away with it!

These are the points I’ve made:

The ADA is the law. It has been on the books for 27 years. If businesses cannot follow the law, and run an establishment according to legal requirements, they shouldn’t be in business.

This is a civil rights law, if we start rolling it back now, other laws will likely follow.

Ignorance of the law is no defense. A business can’t claim ignorance of the law if they fail a health inspection in their kitchen, they shouldn’t be protected by ignorance of the law in this case.