Under Construction

The stripes weren't doing it for me, and the previous viney stuff wasn't doing it for me either. The current stuff is okay, if not coordinated super well. It will have to do for now because it is bed time.

At some point, when I feel like it, I will return to blogging, and I will do up some graphics for a blog overhaul. I'm thinking something super nerdy and whimsical. You will just have to wait and see.

Also, Warehouse 13 consumes my life. I don't imagine blogging will return until I have completed my Warehouse 13 watching adventure, which I wish would go on forever. Alas, I only have 8 more episodes. Tis tragic.

New Life Goal - Master Upholstery

I really, really want to become an accomplished upholsterer. This isn't just a crackpot dream of mine.

I would like to be able to recover the chair in my living room with fabric I actually like instead of using an orange sheet stuck all over the bottom with dangerous pins.

I would like to be able to respond to the cat-astrophe that willl someday be my couch because Tonks really isn't half as fond of her scratching posts as she is the corners of the couch.

I would like to just do this as a hobby. I'm sitting in front of a pretty, shapely table at the moment, but it has some discoloration on the surface, and all I can think is "I could fix that."

Yep. I need to find a class on upholstering. Then I need to wait until my lease runs out, move into an affordable little house that is not downtown but that has a garage, and set up a little hobby shop for refinishing and reupholstering furniture.

Is it odd that I think that would be fun? I think I miss doing things with my hands. All I ever use is my mind, and it's getting a bit tired.

Sometimes I even imagine that I quit my job, open a bakery coffee shop that specializes in savory scones, and sell refurbished furniture from a side room. Of course, one has to have money for such dreams. And, let's be real, if I was running a bakery coffee shop, when would I ever have time to refinish and reupholster furniture?

Also, these are all things I enjoy that I think I might not enjoy so much if they became work. They are best as hobbies/pieces of a daydream.

Drop the I-Word

Amazing friends on facebook were sharing this, and I had to continue that sharing.

This video and the message being spread is an important human rights issue. One largely ignored in this country. The war on immigration is a war on humanity because it seeks to deny individuals a right to work and live based on their country of origin, which is ridiculus.

So many in this country want to see others off of wellfare, working for their incomes--bla, bla bla. Yet we have a double standard when people want to come here to work to support their families. Ironic when we consider how much financial aid we send to other countries without expecting a thing in return.

Why exactly do we prejudice some groups for the difficulties in their lives an not others? No answer? I didn't think so. It's called descrimination. It's based on arbitrary differences. And if you think the birthplace of an individual means they do not have certain rights, you're descriminating.

...I guess I better stop making fun of Lindsey for being a Southernor. ;)

See more on dropping the i-word.

Wardrobe Reassessment

I have a lot of clothes I don't wear. I like these clothes I don't wear, but I don't feel myself in them, so they need to go because they rarely come out of the closet. I'm cleaning my closet out, mostly of recently purchased sweater dresses, and they are all going to beautiful people who will love them.

I will stick to blue jeans, sneakers, cardigans, and t-shirts, preferably in stripes. I'd like more cardigans, so I've been looking at shopruche.com (thanks to Brig), but I really shouldn't spend money, so I will probably refrain. I can live with what I have.

I might, however, have to buy some jeans. I broke the zipper on my favorite dark wash jeans today. I'm not sure how it happened, but suddenly I realized, "my pants are not zipped!" Then I realized I could not fix that problem. It's a good thing I wear long shirts. :)

Wardrobe purchases from here on out have to fit the clothing persona I have recently discovered that makes me feel uber confident. Here's a sketch of the me I believe I have established and that I love. I really do have an outfit like this, and it's perfect.

It has been far too long since my last paint graphic. I should make them more often.

So there you have it--sneakers, cardigans, blue jeans, headbands, curly hair, and patterned shirts. I lurv it.

Retraction of My Rant

Thanks to NPR, I am now neutral on the insurance contraception thing. My rant was misinformed. Of course, I think that's how things often end up heated battles--misinformation. Since the difference is simply charging a copay or not, I don't know that this legislation significantly changes anything at all. It's null and void.

If you want to understand my change of heart, I recommend reading this: Rules Requiring Contraceptive Have Been in Place for Years.

They say it much better than I could.

Rant: Birth Control & Insurance

So usually I don't get into this sort of thing in my blog, but I'm just all steamed up about the issue of requiring birth control from religious institutions. If you're rolling your eyes and going, "Oh brother," keep reading. I might actually surprise you with the twist this blog will take.

I used to be a hard-core Catholic. Having been one, I tend to get really bothered when I hear things like "people should stop forcing their religion on others by pushing for anti-abortion laws. Separation of Church and State." Those comments always upset me because those individuals fail to realize that for the anti-abortion crowd, the goal is not to oppress woman (as I have often heard said), the goal is to defend life against murder. Just because you don't believe it's murder, doesn't mean it's acceptable for someone who thinks it is to sit by in silence. It isn't. From their moral perspective, that would be terrible.

Given my stance on that issue, you might think that I would fully support the Catholic Bishops in fighting the legislation that demands that they provide coverage for birth control through their insurance policies. Well, I don't. Not even a little. Here's why:

1. Institutions do not have rights. Our government does not exist to protect or defend institutions (or corporations for that matter). Our government exists to defend people. Individuals. Since this law doesn't force anyone to use birth control against their will, it isn't limiting anyone's access to their own moral religious decision making.
2. You can't tell me that individuals who will now get contraception covered by their health insurance would not have gotten access to it in another way before, so I don't think not paying for it is doing anything to prevent the use of contraception. Some might argue that they are opposed to financially supporting birth control on a moral level. I have little pity for them on that since the money is taken out from the institution before it reaches them, so again, no individual is paying for this. The entity is paying, and it is neither moral or immoral. If you're questioning me on this, read St. Francis de Sales Catholic Controversy. He really understands how the Church is composed of indviduals who have their own morality, but who do not dictate the morality of the Church as a whole.
3. I bet there are Catholic and other religious institutions out there that already provide birth control through their insurance and have for years simply because it might have been a part of a standard policy and they didn't choose to have it removed. I wonder how many institutions this legislation actually changes anything for.

I do have one area of ambiguity on this issue though. Some forms of birth control are seen as abortifacients because of the way they work to prevent pregnancy. That's crossing the line into the murder debate for the group of people concerned in this case, and I do tend to think they shouldn't have to put money towards murder, but it's still gray area, especially because I'm not 100% convinced of the existence of so-called abortifacients, and I believe they are pretty rare.

So in general, I support the requirement for religious institutions to provide coverage of birth control to employees. Those employees have rights. The institutions do not.

Feeling the Downward Pull

For those of you who also suffer from depression, you know that a high can be as rough as a low. With a high comes fear. Fear that good things will slip away. With this fear comes the same dark thoughts that come with a low. Is anything really worth it? Is it time to give up? The scariest thing about these thoughts on a high is that with a high there is no worry that someone will feel to blame. How can they? If everything is so perfect, it's hard for something to look like a cause.

On a more positive note, I've got to get a little drive back into my life for the purpose of coping. My major drive used to be my intense faith and as a secondary element of that, my writing. When I was a religious zealot, I felt like writing was my calling. It was my mode of evangelizing. Since I no longer am a religious zealot, I feel like my passion to write has fizzled out.

That can't be the case though. I wrote constantly long before I was an uber Christian. That portion of myself is hiding somewhere. I need it. I need to cut my Netflix subscription and my internet and force myself to find entertainment in constant reading and writing again. It's time.