16 August 2008

Your prejudice is showing

The last acceptable prejudice seems to be against fat people.

I see it all over the internet. There are so many trollish comments that talk about weight and how someone is fat and ugly and how if they got up and quit eating ho-hos, maybe they would be a decent human.

It seems that whenever a person who is in any way not bone thin appears on the internet, sooner or later, some troll will crawl out of the woodwork to tell them how disgusting and undisciplined they are, how weak and pathetic and how they need to shut up and go for a run and not be so LAZY.

I wonder if the commenters are aware that pretty much every slurred group has had the label "lazy" applied to them. Black people were called lazy and shiftless (I have no idea what "shiftless" even means, do you?). Mexicans were lazy because they liked to lay in the sun all day under their cactus with their sombrero over their eyes. Irish were drunk and lazy. Italians? Oversexed and lazy. And so on.

So while blaming fat on laziness might seem to be natural, trolls should realize that their prejudice against overweight people is your boring stupid garden-variety prejudice. They might as well be spewing the N word instead. Same thought pattern is in action.

I'm not trying to make excuses for my own weight problem, only pointing out that prejudice is prejudice, no matter how people justify it.

Food is an addiction for me - I'm willing to admit it. I will never be one of those people who says "I forgot to eat lunch today." I do not forget to eat.

Apparently it is an addiction for other people, too, and it is a harder addiction to kick than alcohol, heroin or cigarettes. 95 percent of people who lose weight gain it all back within two years, and usually add on pounds besides. We have learned not to view alcohol or drug addiction as a moral issue - why is weight still judged as one?

People are hurting about weight. People are working on weight. People are trying and trying and trying some more to lose weight and keep it off.

Y from Joy Unexpected had an amazing reading at the BlogHer Community Keynote that kind of sums it up for me:

We have 12 winners

The winners of the Soap Nuts samples from Laundry Tree are:

Jessica
Quite contrary 1977
Lizriz
Shy flutterby
Mar
Clair
Miss Britt
TraceyTreasure
Marieke
SusanC
Susie
Bako Carol

Please email me your addresses at suebobdavisATgmail by August 23 so I can get them out to you. Congrats and happy washing!

Look out DC, here I come

14 August 2008

Giveaway Time

As part of my attempt to be more ecologically conscious, I have made some changes in the past year.

I work from home 2 days a week.
I got a "solar clothes dryer" (clothesline).
I began composting.
And I decided to try these:
Trying out the soap nuts in my laundry

They are called "soap nuts" and they are supposed to contain saponin, a soap-like natural substance.

I have done 3 loads of laundry with them and so far, so good. You put 3-5 of the little nuts in the muslin bag and toss in the wash. Each set of nuts lasts 4 washes or so.

The only thing I DON'T get is that the little bag stays in the wash during the rinse cycle, a fact my mom pointed out. So either the chemical isn't very strong, isn't really doing anything, or my washables are going to get more and more saponin-y. I don't know about THAT part. Hm.

Anyway, if you want to give the soap nuts a spin, I have 2 spare bags and some nuts to give away. Leave a comment and let me know you'd like them. I will choose at random.

EDITED TO ADD:
The nice soapnuts people found my blog and said:
Wow! Thank you for mentioning our soapnuts on your blog -- and for sponsoring your own LaundryTree SoapNut giveaway! We regularly participate in giveaways with bloggers, but I believe this is the first time we've found someone kind enough to share their OWN samples! =D

If you'd like to give away a few more samples (and it's not too late) we'd be happy to provide up to 10 for your readers. (You can choose the winners and send us the addresses -- we'll be happy to take care of mailing them).

Also... I didn't want to "hijack" your blog post with advertising, but I DID want to answer to your question about the bag staying in the wash: Hot water causes the fruit to release its saponin, but cold water has little, if any, effect on them. So the saponin is released during the wash cycle, and is washed away during the cold water rinse.

Thank you for posing the question -- we have updated our site to include this info.

Thanks again, and have a wonderful day...


So they answered my question AND expanded the giveaway...I love the internets sometimes!

12 August 2008

Be Splendid

"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance." Bruce Barton

If you rise up, there will always be someone to try to slap you down. Human nature. Just today Mocha Momma got trolled on a silly, cute post by someone who said..."I can tell you think your better than the rest of us. Someday you will regret your smug attitude and everyone will see you for the snobby bitch that you are."

Mocha Momma IS magnificent. She is hella smart, tall and beautiful, and when she has the floor she takes it and owns it. She is formidable, so it is only natural that the crabs who want to stay down in the bucket grab her and try to pull her back down with them.

When I was a kid, I believed everyone was pretty much equal. I grew up in the 60s, okay? And I kept that attitude for a long time. I wanted to believe that, given enough help, anyone could be successful.

I'm past that now. Successful people are successful mostly because they are better at what they do than other people are. They get up earlier, work harder, think quicker and do things that other people won't.

Sure, luck plays a part. An important aspect of that luck is good timing. Google happened when the world was ready for an awesome search engine, not five years too early or five years after a great one was already out there.

The truth is, though, almost no one is successful alone. It takes a team to smooth the way, provide support and to cheer.

I love to watch people find their passion and work it hard. Isn't that why we all love the Olympics? We get to watch enthusiasm and talent and sustained effort all come together for one great moment.

That's why I love the BlogHer conference, too. I have seen people show up kind of timid and confused the first year, far more confident and focused the next, and fully involved in doing what they love and doing their best the third. This year the table of books written by attendees was about 30 feet long, a beautiful sight. Being around people who believe in you and cheer you on is invaluable when you are on the path away from the ordinary.

Tearing people down is easy, but building them up isn't that much more difficult. Why someone would choose the former over the latter is a mystery to me.
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