sundries

[rm]

Last night I got my first random comment on the tattoo.

A guy in my neighborhood rode his bike up alongside me and said, "Hey love,¹ what's the tattoo?"

And, you know, I'm not so good with strangers, so I was like "Just a phrase."

"But what's it mean?"

And I had that moment of horror of thinking no one will get it ever and the story is always too long to tell. "Just, you know, live your life big, yeah?"

"Oh, that's awesome!" And he rode off.

But today it's covered for the first time, and that's nice too. Mine. My secret.

I've mentioned this to a few of you elsewhere, but unlike other ink I've gotten, this required the needle to be on my skin for far longer chunks of time, because it had to be done in long strokes, like regular writing, to be smooth, so it was a little strange, sitting there in Islington while some loud girl got some stars on her neck and yammered with her friend about boys being able to feel these words being cut into my back.

Bidding has opened at graduate_maria to benefit theotoky. For those that are new here or missed it the first time, Maria's an old friend of mine who never got to finish her degree when we first met over fifteen years ago, because she was supporting her abusive spouse. Now she's one semester away from graduating, but needs tuition money to cover her last semester as multiple issues have intervened to make getting loans and other support problematic for her. People are auctioning everything from photography prints, to fanfiction, to crafts, to baked goods to help her out. There are also some amazing unique items like a steno starter kit and a rainbow horse art project named after John Barrowman. Please check it out, or boost the signal if you can.

Gay marriage has been legalized in Argentina.

NOM thinks gay people aren't persecuted. That'd be no. sparkindarkness has a round-up of the criminalization, persecution, murder and legalized medical torture of LGBT persons, a lot of which occurred in our lifetimes and is still happening RIGHT NOW.

Russia and the sexual revolution.

Women, aging and France.

Women, memory and size. I can see a lot of potential reasons for this study to be crap, including that depression and isolation both negatively impact memory. In a society that penalizes larger people, especially women, with social censure, it seems logical that larger people, especially women, might have memory problems, not because of the physiology of fat, but because of what happens to them socially because of said fat.

Michigan teen starts her own CSA farm in her backyard.

Who do you write like? If you too take crappy Internet quizzes, probably a white guy.

Who would you give your life for? Groups and self-sacrifice.

"In the middle of tomorrow, a great ribbed ghost has emerged from a distant yesterday" - 18th-century ship found at future WTC site.

Yes, LJ will be purging inactive accounts. However, LJ has just redefined those accounts to mean no log-in for over 24 months AND no content. So it was fucked up last night, but now they've made it not evil.

New, exciting Gallifrey One guest announcements! Ian McNice (so exciting, I am such a fan) as well as a long list of much loved familiar faces, plus some new exciting folks (Jane Espensen!).

Hey, would still hasn't written their WIAD? That would be me. ARGH.

Today is going to be long and brutal work-wise. But tomorrow is another day. And Patty will be home soon.

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¹ I live in Spanish Harlem. No one calls people "love" as a random term of address. It was completely random.

Comments

[botia.livejournal.com]

Anecdata time:
I had a near-eidetic memory for a very long time. It's still pretty good, but it took a hit once I started to develop fibromyalgia and arthritis

And, of course, when you have severe chronic pain, you gain weight because:
1. you aren't exercising as much
2. many of the medications we are prescribed for our chronic conditions CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN

Also, chronic pain negatively impacts memory as well.

Did the study control for people who have conditions like fibromyalgia, arthritis, lupus, etc? I doubt it.

Also: We tend to gain weight with AGE. Was age controlled for effectively? Because we also seem to have less effective memories as we age.

So many fucking holes in that study, and this is just a sliver of what I've found.