All Aboard

A bit about this piece, in the artist's own words:

"The original poster, which is a celebrated American cultural symbol, features and glorifies a white woman. While I adore the original image, not every feminist is a white, cisgender, middle class, able bodied woman. In the same way, most mainstream feminism only speaks to that particular group. I made my poster to acknowledge the diverse struggles of the group that gets left behind, and to protest that in order to be effective in deconstructing sexism, we must understand that issues of sexism, race, class, and transphobia all intersect. My experiences as a white woman are very different from those of a WoC [Woman of Color] or a trans*woman or a trans* WoC, for that matter. Despite this, historically it has always been the experiences of white women that get the most representation within the feminist movement. So about damn time that we celebrate the rest of us. Let somebody else have the spotlight." 

Wise words and art from Chelsoir at http://soirart.tumblr.com.

Friday QuoteDay

“Our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law—for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.”

— President Obama, second inaugural address

Weekly Flâneur: Lion In Winter

Image of Trafalgar Square. Click to enlarge.

This one is from the vaults! Since it has been so bitterly cold out this week, there has been little motivation to do more than curl up under a fuzzy blanket and drink hot tea.

This lion of Trafalgar Square is used to the cold, so I'll let him take center stage.

Stay warm, my loves, and have a cup of tea for me. 

Trafalgar Square, London, U.K., 2011

A Short List

The things I say I am afraid of in order to hide my real fears:

• Insomnia

• Mice feces in the food at Cracker Barrel

• Red nail polish on beige carpet

• Beige carpet, in general, because vacuuming is a pain

• Finishing a really good book

• The nonexistence of unicorns

• Turning left into traffic onto Highway 51 anywhere in the stretch between the 485 interstate and Rea Road

• Bullet point lists

Friday QuoteDay

Click to enlarge and visit the original source!

Weekly Flâneur: Borrowed

"Pickering, North Yorkshire: A woman is caught in a high street blizzard." Property of the Mirror.

 Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow? 

Stay warm and dry, my winter friends. 

The very first borrowed Weekly Flâneur is courtesy of the Mirror; this photo is not owned by me. 

The Mirror currently hosts a gallery of flâneur-ish snow photos from across the U.K.

This Is 32

Birthdays are big deal when you hit 18, 21, 30. What's with 32?

No Big Gulps for NYC. 

 Teenagers totally don't dress like that.

Bring it on, 32. 

I'm waiting. 

Friday QuoteDay

“Another myth that is firmly upheld is that disabled people are dependent and non-disabled people are independent. No one is actually independent. This is a myth perpetuated by disablism and driven by capitalism - we are all actually interdependent.

Chances are, disabled or not, you don’t grow all of your food. Chances are, you didn’t build the car, bike, wheelchair, subway, shoes, or bus that transports you. Chances are you didn’t construct your home. Chances are you didn’t sew your clothing (or make the fabric and thread used to sew it). The difference between the needs that many disabled people have and the needs of people who are not labeled as disabled is that non-disabled people have had their dependencies normalized. The world has been built to accommodate certain needs and call the people who need those things independent, while other needs are considered exceptional.

Each of us relies on others every day. We all rely on one another for support, resources, and to meet our needs. We are all interdependent. This interdependence is not weakness; rather, it is a part of our humanity.”

— A.J. Withers, activist, author of Disability Politics and Theory

Weekly Flâneur: Rolling

Drive, pedal or skip? Click to enlarge.

One lane for cars

one lane for bikes

one alike for feet

Everyone's alright!

Today's Weekly Flâneur is provided by the lovely Karin, who, if the gods are kind, will one day retire with her millions as head hedgehog keeper at St. Tiggywinkles, spending her days feeding apple slices to small animals in comfort. Until then, she is the artistic flâneur of Brussels, the whole of the Netherlands, and occasionally London (where, in full disclosure, she will sometimes meet with me and keep me in line.)

The above shot was taken in Amersfoort, central Netherlands. Our bike lanes in the US, even the warmest states, are basically the gutter. Sometimes a small line in the midst of traffic is reserved for bikes, but it's terrifying.
What flâneur wouldn't love a path just for bikes when the walk became too long?

Autumn in Amersfoort, Netherlands, November 2012

Weird Facebook Ads, Part Two

Remember last October's round-up of Weird Facebook Ads? Time for another round of WTF with the good folks of Facebook. As always, click images to enlarge.


1.) Self-esteem issues

Wanna give money to people who call you ugly?! Of course you do. Because you're ugly, you're probably stupid too. We can insult you to your probably-not-ugly face and still take your hard-earned cash.

2.) The Ring

Turn a perfectly fine photo of your child into a creepy well-dwelling demon! Who wouldn't want that?

Solution: Don't watch VHS tapes.

3.) At least it's not another counseling ad...

OH DEAR LORD NO. That is a monkey. That is not a baby. That IS NOT A BABY. THAT IS NOT A BABY.

4.) In more OH DEAR LORD NO news...

The club can't even handle me right now.

Menfolk, please wear this shirt if you have given up any hope of having a woman in your bed. No false advertising here. 


5.) Post-Holiday Shopping

Would you use this? A Tuxedo Mask Doll? Finally. Why, yes, actually. I WOULD USE THIS. Me and 2 million 9 hundred thousand other people.

Razzle, No Dazzle

Oh, look.

Breaking CGI. Image via Wikipedia.

The 33rd annual Golden Raspberry Award nominations, the Razzies, have been announced. And blah blah blah you know the rest. Lazy, boring filler paragraph about worst performances followed by gleeful hate at anything aimed at women, aka Twilight. Even in a year that brought Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie, Savages, and The Watch to big screens. (All missing from the Razzies.)

Yawn. Wake me up when this derivative, constant misogyny is over. (I'm prepared to sleep for awhile.) Since we're repeating ourselves, it's as I said in 2011's Raz This:

It's almost as if movies aimed at women are treated as oddities without significance and without the same clout as "regular" movies. You know, the real movies. Those real movies that are always good, without a doubt, because they star dudes and shit.

Because if a movie is aimed at women, it's got to be bad. Teenage girls read Twilight. What do they know? Who cares if it is perhaps the singular mainstream franchise that is aimed at/for teenage girls that does not involve Justin Bieber, and therefore, no matter how bad the source material is, the passionate and financial endorsement of this series may be in part due to the fact that there is nothing else available.

If you're given stale bread, while your male counterparts ages 13-29 are given a full-course buffet with varieties of filet mignon, French cheese and rosemary olive oil croissants, you're going to love that stale bread, damn it. That stale bread is yours and yours alone. Sure, sure, you'll try to steal a bite or two, maybe even enjoy a glass of wine from the table labeled Die Hard but you know it wasn't made for you.

Hate chick flicks? Hate Twilight? Hate Sex and the City and Katherine Heigl?

Then demand wine and meat and brie cheeses. Demand something other than stale bread. And if you are one of those who believes that all chick flicks suck, no matter what, consider the source and count yourself lucky. Because you must be one of those who already ate from the buffet table.

Today in David Bowie

Today is David Bowie's birthday, and because he loves us, he gave us all a gift. A new single on the 66th anniversary of his first day on earth. Everyone! Leave work, pay alms, rejoice. It's a world holiday.

(Also, I learned a very valuable lesson this morning. I've been up since 9, but I avoided going online all morning in an effort to spend less time on the web and more time active. And what happens? A new DAVID BOWIE single is released. NEVER AGAIN. COMPUTER ON 4EVER.) 

Bloggity-blog Update

Hello, my friends!

Quick note to say I've finally written something in my About section. It's been hanging out at the top of my blog for about a month now with nothing in it. Now it has the origins and aims of FitC with obligatory David Bowie references. Plus, an updated FAQ, with the ever-present question, "Why are you on Blogger and not Wordpress?" answered.

Have a look if you have the time, and as always, thank you for reading!

Friday QuoteDay

“They presented male employers with identical job applicants—same experience, same qualifications, same resume—except one was named Dave and the other Diane. Then men in traditional marriages rated 'Diane' significantly lower than Dave. Because, you know, vagina.

Every woman has felt that—that moment when you can see a man’s engagement switch off, and realize that he will never take you as seriously as he would if you came back with a chest-merkin and a handlebar mustache.

But it’s an almost impossible feeling to quantify, and an even harder one to communicate to people who have never felt it. An argument that can be vaporized with an emphatic enough 'nu uh!' is a difficult argument to win.”

— Lindy West, from That Condescending Feeling You Get From Dudes in the Office? Yeah, That’s Real.

Weekly Flâneur: Blue Moon

Sister Moon. Click to enlarge.

Love will fly us to the moon and back. 

View from my neighborhood street, Charlotte, N.C. 2012

The 10 Most Popular Posts Of 2012

Happy 2013, my loves!

Are we ready for the new year? Even though we're already two days in to 2013, here's a look back at my most popular posts of 2012. These are the posts that had the most page hits, from random Google searches, Facebook, and returning visitors. Have you read them yet? Time to catch up! And then? There are so many new beginnings just waiting to happen. Let's walk together another year. My hand is waiting for yours.

10.) Cinderella
The night I fell. On the dance floor and possibly in love.

9.) Badly Drawn Little Comics: Jolly Green Giant
My scribbles on being a tall girl. Includes an accurate picture of me at 13. 

8.) Capricorn Babies
Did you follow this advice last year? Read it again. Give your Capricorn friends some love this year and don't wrap their birthday presents in Christmas paper.

7.) Small Reminders
An almost follow-up to the 5th most popular post this year, A Twist of Metal. 

6.) In Which I Substitute Witty Emails For A Blog Post
Private emails make for popular posts! Jamie and I talk about The Hunger Games, the 2012 Oscars, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and baby shower ideas. (Also, Jamie never learned to love Finnick from Catching Fire. Somehow we're still friends?)

5.) A Twist of Metal
In February of 2012, my dear friend Stig passed away and my doctor found a lump in my breast. Learning of Stig's death and having a biopsy to test for the same disease my mother had made for a nerve-wrecking 24 hours. I was able to write about it a few months later in this post.

4.) In Which There Is A Lazy Post
 Lesson learned: Publish all posts in Draft Folder, no matter how small. This teeny post made the top five!

3.) Facts Are Your Friend
Oh, North Carolina. Sometimes, I just don't know what to do with you. The passing of Amendment One hurt so many N.C. residents. We'll just have to keep fighting in 2013.

2.) City Beauty: Sugar Scrub Shave
Tried something new, and happily received a positive response from the Internet. Hello, Pinterest readers! This is the perfect sugar scrub to make your legs smoother than a classic jazz melody. (Also, cock puns.)

1.) What The Backstreet Boys Taught Me About Internet Politics
  Google. Google. What are you doing? Are you drunk? This is NOT a BSB blog. That's enough, Google.