This building was so interesting. Probably because this house belongs to Gru from Despicable Me.
I’m Fat and so is Trump
Hello Internet,
I’m fat. I’ve been considered morbidly obese since seventh grade. Here I am at my thinnest and best shape of 200lbs and 220lbs:
My entire life I have seen people like me be one of three things: Villain, Weirdo, and Dork. These were the roles I could play in society and my role models were comedians (John Candy).
There were three universal truths about being fat:
1. You were messy, smelly, or gross.
To this day I am obsessively clean about eating and hygiene. I’m struck with terror at the idea of being messy with food in front of people or having BO.
2. You Love fast food.
I watched my mother (who weighed 300-400lbs for most of my life) struggle with this constantly. She wanted to be healthy but being poor meant it was easier to buy frozen and fast food. I still marvel at the privilege inherent in people who hate veggies. Fresh veggies are better than candy to me and growing up they were a rare treat. Now I try to follow a diet from the keto pure diet reviews I found.
That being said I do love me some McDonalds and A&W.
3. You were lazy / it’s your fault
Oh this is the reason so many people have eating disorders, Yo-Yo diet, or try dangerous things. Sometimes you’re just fat and sometimes you need to balance the need to lose weight and the time/money it would take to lose.
Hey advice person, let me stop you right there. I am perfectly healthy. My blood glucose, cholesterol, etc are better than most men half my age. Other than arthritis, allergies, and IBS; I’m fine. Also keep your chia/coconut/superfood to yourself.
Trump
I don’t hate Trump; I loathe him. His entire being, especially his presidency, is an assault to common sense, humanity, and decency. His treatment of minorities, the economy, and the English language are horrifying.
He’s also fat and likes fast food. We have that in common.
The disgusting thing about Trump serving fast food to a bunch of athletes is that he served them 2-3 hour old, cold, fast food. He could have commissioned a bunch of fast food trucks to show up and it would have been quirky. Instead he pre-ordered a bunch of food and as it cooled he gave a nonsensical speech.
His weight, ass, belly, flab, etc. do not represent his worth, or lack thereof, as a human being. His actions and words represent his monstrosity.
Please stop making fun of him for his fatness. Every time you associate causation between his being fat and his repugnant behaviour you tell me, and children who look like me, that we’re no better than Trump.
Fat is not a representation of worth. I am not inherently bad because of a number on a scale.
Stop mocking and associating Trump’s weight with his worth.
The living personification of capitalism and hate has given you a plethora of material to mock.
I’m fat and so is Trump. Our size doesn’t make us twins and the fact that we have that in common means absolutely nothing.
Be kind,
Éric
Blush: Unconditional Surrender Statue
You may have heard that, following the death of George Mendonsa earlier this week, the statue depicting the iconic kiss at the announcement of Japan’s surrender at the end of WW2 was vandalized.
I had heard that the nurse in the picture/statue had not known the sailor that had kissed her, but this vandalism made me curious to know more.
Fortunately, there is an article in The Smithsonian that had a chance to interview the nurse, Greta Zimmer Friedman. She died in 2016 at the age of 92. And while she remembers the event as “not romantic, but of celebration of the war being over” (paraphrasing), she also describes it as “not her choice to be kissed, the guy just came over and grabbed.” (paraphrasing).
Some interpret her statements as descriptions of sexual assault. However, Greta herself did not view it as assault, although she did understand the argument for it. (source NYT, as described by her son)
“[…]she made it clear the kiss was a “jubilant act” and “it was just an event of ‘thank god the war is over.'” ” (source BBC.com)
I am privileged to have grown up in a world that has not known war on the scale of WW2. I cannot imagine the relief, jubilation, and freedom that the announcement of the War being over would have caused.
No matter the cause of his excitement, or her retroactive approval, he should have asked for consent first. This isn’t a radical idea; simply respect others’ bodily autonomy. A quick question along the lines of, “Kiss?” or, “May I kiss you?”, would have had the same outcome.
Now, to get back to the vandalism of the statue, it cost $1000 USD to repair the damage.
The person who vandalized the statue was out of line. Although vandalism can be used as an effective, illegal, and destructive, form of protest, it feels disproportionate and disrespectful in this particular case. Damaging other’s property is against the law, no matter how much you disagree with the message.
It would have been better if they had printed a copy of the picture, graffitied on that, and taped it in front of the statue. Water soluble paint or chalk could have worked too. No damage done to anyone’s property, and the message would have gotten across.
Thoughts?
If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.
Dear Pegasus – Secret 2
Dear Pegasus,
You could have had a normal nickname, Lump or Bean or something, but that’s not how your mom and I think. We like geeky and strange things, I hope you will too.
In my first letter to your sister I told her we weren’t perfect, and that is still true. I can be impatient, prone to being loud, and sometimes I’m impossibly dense.
As your parents we’ll do our best for you, we’ll try to help, understand, and encourage you. At some point we will fail. I’m sorry for that but it’s inevitable. I hope you’ll forgive us. No matter what, there is one thing we’ll never fail to do and that’s love you. No matter what, we’ll always love you!
If I have one wish for you, it’s that you grow up to understand the strength in love, in emotion, and in knowing yourself. That you’ll understand the power of words and the unmitigated strength of kindness.
I love you Baby Pegasus,
Your weepy Father
Paladin Lance
The Paladin armour from Voltron Legendary Defenders is incredibly complex, so when I saw this Lance in armour, I was SUPER impressed!
Molecular Coffee
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
Atomo Coffee sounds like something from a science fiction story. Coffee that isn’t from coffee beans. It’s the lab grown meat of coffee.
My biggest worry with this sort of thing is allergies. I have a severe intolerance to coconut oil and milk, along with IBS, so I try to be very careful.
Here’s what they say:
Atomo will not have any allergen components or materials that impact metabolic disorders.
For the insoluble, non-volatile portion of the molecular grounds, we are still exploring many options and targeting an upcycled play that would take the byproduct of a current commercial operation and add value to it by using it as the carrier matrix for our flavor and mouthfeel compounds – essentially the proteins, carbohydrates and oil components you can expect from coffee grounds. Some examples of that would be watermelon seeds or sunflower seeds husks. Much of what we are doing at this stage is still proprietary as we have a good journey ahead to optimize the perfect molecular coffee that can be enjoyed as your daily ritual. All compounds and strategies will be shared as they evolve and are optimized.
The kickstarter is already funded and has 22 days to go.
I’m interested and a little skeptical. What do you think?
Éric
Ottawa Coffee Fest
We here at JenEric Designs love coffee, obviously. So when we heard about The Ottawa Coffee Fest that’s happening this year on March 23, we were pretty excited.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to attend because we’ll be at Ottawa Geek Market. So if you go, please tell us all about it!
Details:
- Where: Horticulture Building 1525 Princess Patricia Way (Lansdowne)
- When: March 23 10am-7pm
- Cost: $15 each + $0.50 per coffee sample (tickets on sale now!)
- Who: The vendors look super amazing and professional (vendors)
- What: Not only will you get to sample amazing coffee, but there are workshops given by professionals (workshops)
Bad Writing
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
What is bad writing? I bet you can think of multiple examples right off the bat right?
What if I told you this wasn’t terrible writing but realistic awkward, cult raised, teen flirting? Would you disagree?
So what’s the line? Where’s the litmus test? Why am I using so many question marks? Seriously, this is getting irritating, like sand?
Okay, silliness aside, most people have no idea what bad writing is and love to use it as an argument.
“I don’t hate women, but Doctor Who’s writing just sucks this season.”
“I’m not racist, but Star Wars The Force Awakens is badly written.”
What these people mean is that the show isn’t the way they remember and that makes them unhappy.
It’s not actually about the writing.
There are four main types of bad writing and that’s how I judge a book or show’s writing:
1. Mechanics
Typos, sentence structure, and grammar are important. If they’re off for no reason, that’s bad writing.
Eg: Th woman starred up at his face, wondering what that beard hide.
2. Repetition
I struggle with this in my writing. Repeating things can be useful, but makes it feel like you’re over explaining or condescending to the audience
Eg: She looked into his eyes, wondering what secrets hid behind those eyes. The eyes were dark blue and seemed to see right through her. She’d describe the eyes as piercing.
3. Boobing / Privilege
When you write about something you’re not familiar with but don’t realize, you end up, at best, sounding like a male author poorly writing a woman, or at worst, tone deaf and racist.
Eg: She boobily boobed down the stairs with her boobs boobing. BOOBS
Eg: Her exotic light-chocolate skin marked her as one of the less educated mexican delegation. She’d probably never been to such an advanced city. He was certain she’d appreciate the taco truck outside the conference centre.
4. Inconsistent Story
Contradictions, temporal weirdness, odd twists, or ridiculous luck can all throw an audience out of a work. In tiny doses, it’s not too bad, but too much or too blatant and it’s just bad writing. (Shakespeare was terrible with time.)
People will talk to you about pacing, clichés, contrivances, too much or too little dialogue, starting too early or too late, etc. etc. etc.
It’s all bullshit. What they’re actually saying is they don’t like something about the work and instead of facing that, they’d rather just make a vague useless statement.
Unfortunately, it’s also really hard to argue with such a statement.
Did I miss anything? Do you disagree?
Later days,
Éric
Travelling TARDIS poll
I only have a few pictures left from Disney 2015. I am coming up on a choice.
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