List time! Scattered thinkings!

--I am not a big fan of summer.  It has my birthday in August, but after a certain point, who cares?  I'll be 35 this year.  I'm like, eh birthdays.   Plus, I don't have central air.  Most people in Philly don't.  So the summer can be kind of brutal.

 --Josh and I have lived together for over a year, beginning at some random day in May neither one of us can remember.  HOUSE-IVERSARY!

This shit is cute as hell.  Don't hate.

--My phone doesn't have a front facing camera, so when I want to take a selfie without a mirror, I have to just jab at it randomly.  Which mostly doesn't work.  Also, I thought I didn't have a contract canceling fee, but it turns out I did.  BALLS TO YOU, T-MOBILE.  

--I love being able to be on Twitter whenever.  My twitter handle is @Artists_Ali, which is a comics dork joke, and as I discovered when I tried to explain it to Jen on this last podcast, not a very funny one.  Look.  I'm an artist, not a writer.

--Game of Thrones exploded the entire internet!   I'm going to talk about it, and I'm not doing spoiler alerts.  If you are on the internet and you haven't been spoiled by now, your selective laser vision (that blocks out only spoilers) must be tight.

People who only watch the TV show, you have no idea how torturous watching the last few episodes has been.  And I knew it was going to be this episode, mostly because of the title, but also because of the placement of prior huge climactic events.  (Ned's head being chopped off, for example.)  I am almost relieved that this has happened.  I can finally breathe again when I'm watching the show.  And I don't have to stop myself from making tiny whimpering noises whenever someone mentions Walder Frey.  Because Josh has not read the books.

--When given a choice, Josh will read classical literature and stuff about Marxism.  I mostly read fantasy and art magazines, with a side of history.  I just finished a book that was an intro to queer theory, which I really liked.  I first heard about queer theory through Lesley Kinzel's work on fat activism.  I am also working my way through A People's History of the United States.  But I am mostly reading the Flora Sequnda books again by Ysabeau Wilce because I just got the 3rd one.  

Spiky football claw machine selfie!

 --I love Ocean City, NJ.  I love the Jersey Shore.  It combines two things I love the most- the beach and all the weird booth things and rides from the county fair.  Seriously though, if you think you are wearing enough sunscreen, you probably aren't.  And if you have tattoos, you need to get some SPF 100 on those.  Cause the sun destroys tattoos.

Vampire kitty!

--Yes, Sparkles really does have vampire teeth.  No, I did not name her.  The flash from my phone makes her look crazy!  I keep trying to get a picture of her in full-on I'm a Panther mode, but I haven't managed it yet.

 --Happy Friday, everyone!

The daughter of nothing in particular.

I take the Market/Frankford El train to work every day.​

I got on one morning, and a teenage boy shoved me as soon as I stepped into the car, hard enough that I stumbled.

Then he said to me--

"Eat a donut, bitch."  

He said it loud.  There were two other boys with him, and they all laughed.  Like it was the funniest thing they ever heard.​

When you participate in demeaning fat people, this is the culture you are contributing to.  

When you judge people's bodies, when you concern troll people about their health, when you say that fat people are somehow costing you money-- this is what happens.

(You always know a fat person has taken money from you when your wallet is smeared with jelly.  I HAVE A JAR OF JELLY, RIGHT HERE!  Your wallets aren't safe!)​

​And when you hate yourself and your own body, or you tell a slender woman that you hate her and she should eat a sandwich-- you are contributing to a toxic culture that teaches us to hate ourselves.  All of us.

​It also makes asshole boys and men think that if a woman doesn't give them a boner, that she is a worthless bitch.  

This is rape culture.  This is why women are starving themselves to death.  It is disgusting and wrong.  

Let's try to fight this bullshit.  

Let's be kind to each other. 

Sparkles demands meat juice.

This video is back from when Josh and I were still eating meat.  We've recently become vegetarians.​

LOTS of meowing!

She's a disappointed baby now because there is no more meat for her to beg for.  I made brocolli croquettes and she ate a bit of those.​

She's always trying to steal food from our plates.​

She's FOXY! And she's dancing. With a little help.

And this is our fluffy baby.  Dancing!​

Fatty fat fat

I usually wear headphones.  Before Josh and I started dating, I wore them almost all the time.  ​ I started in middle school with the yellow Sony Walkman everyone had in the 80s, and now I'm up to pink earbuds and an iPod. 

I first wanted to wear headphones all the time because I get bored.  I like to listen to music while I'm sitting in a car for hours with my family on a road trip, while I'm walking from place to place, or doing random chores.  ​

But I discovered ​quickly that wearing headphones had a side benefit.  I didn't have to hear the things people were saying about me.  Even if I did hear them, I could pretend that I didn't and salvage a shred of dignity.

People have shit to say to me.  Sometimes because I'm a woman.  Usually because I'm a fat woman.

I got involved (in a lurky way) with fat activism when I wanted to put together a lady 11th Doctor costume to wear to the Gallifrey ​One convention in LA.  I had an idea in my head of what I wanted, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  I did end up with a nice tweed lady blazer before I gave up completely.  

I had been wearing polo shirts and jeans for so long.  I hadn't even tried to find anything else.  Some intense googling brought me to fatshion webpages. (Fat + Fashion = Fatshion) ​  And through that space, I found fat activism.  ​

​Candy apples and razor blades

​This photograph is the first in a planned series.  About the things people yell at me.  Or say to me when they think I can't hear.  

People are so shocked when they hear about the abuse that happens on the regular to fat people.  That always surprises me.  Probably because I was a fat kid, and I've been hearing this stuff my whole life.  

Every time it happens no one acts like they give a shit. They laugh along or look away.  I just figured that everyone who looks at me knows I am being verbally harassed regularly.

They don't?  Well.  I'll make some art about that.

I've been a little amused the past couple of weeks by how appalled everyone is when the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch said ​that he didn't want fat girls wearing his clothes.

Well, no duh.  

First of all, dude said all this in 2006, so I'm confused as to why suddenly now people seem to give a shit.​  I suspect that people who are a US women's size 10 are not usually in the XL category and maybe that's why people are mad.  They don't want to be put in the same boat with the fats.

​There is only 1 store in the mall I can buy clothes at.  Maybe 2.  Lane Bryant is dumpy as fuck and expensive, so I don't get much there but underwear.  And if the clothes at Torrid don't match my style, I am fucked out of luck.  

Torrid is better than nothing but not ideal. I miss the gothy clothes they used to have. They try to be on trend (bless their hearts) but they are often a season or more behind.

THAT IS ONE FUCKING STORE.  ONE.  IN THE WHOLE GODDAMN MALL.

ONE. FUCKING. STORE.

NO ONE WANTS MY MONEY.  IT'S NOT DIPPED IN FUCKING BUTTER.  You won't even know it came from a fat girl.  It's exactly the same as everyone else's goddamn money.​

SOMEONE TAKE MY BUTTERY FATASS MONEY!  

​And this is why I do all my clothes shopping online.

The CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch just felt comfortable enough to say it out loud.  None of the major stores and brands want gross icky fat women in their clothes.  Or fatting up their stores and grossing out the real customers.

I'm going to have to take a moment and breathe through all my fatty lady rage.  Which is FUCKING LEGION.

The Militant Baker ​did an amazing photo reply which I am going to look at when I feel like I need to scream at people.  I think I am in friend-love with her now.  Also, I want more ink. 

There are worlds out there where the skies are burning, where the seas sleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice...and somewhere else the tea is getting cold.

-The Doctor

The most awesome street art I've seen lately

How fucking boss is this?  Philly has amazing street artists.​

The news has been bumming me out

This week, 3 women were rescued from a decade of rape and torture in Cleveland.​

I am obsessed with this case, and I can't stop clicking every link on the entire internet that is even somewhat related to it.​

The news seems relentlessly rapey lately.  I am irritated by how news people (usually male people)​​ profess their utter shock shock SHOCK every time something fucked up like this happens AGAIN.  AGAIN.

AGAIN.​

Maybe irritated isn't the right world.  Rageful? Filled with neck punches that need delivering?  The world's largest bird that needs to be flipped?

This shit is COMMON, you guys.  Not usually the chaining in the basement.  Usually these women would have ended up murdered.  But the raping?  Yeah.  The raping is COMMON.  ​

It is hideous how common it is.​

Here is a fact for you-- I am a rape survivor.  You probably know lots of rape survivors.  They may not have brought it up because It's not the easiest thing to crowbar into a conversation.

"Hey, by the way, I was totally raped and then there was this other thing that felt pretty rapey but I wasn't sure what to call it and I couldn't bear the idea I had been raped AGAIN, so I just chalked it up to bad sex and marched forward with my life..."​

That shit ruins parties.​   It is the real life equivalent of the record needle screech that brings everything to a halt.  I never know when to bring it up, or if it's ever appropriate to bring it up.  

And I kind of want to!  Because I want people to know that they know someone who was raped!  It's important to remove the stigma.  

I think it will give people that pity look, and I don't want pity.  I'm not some sad broken flower.  I am a bad ass, white trash, princess of POWER.

I had a bit more to say about rape culture and such, but I am going to end on the part where I declare myself to be a low class version of She-Ra.  

And just remind everyone that you know someone who has been raped.  It happens ALL the fucking time, and that is bullshit.  We live in a bullshit country that hates women and then I have to watch news fuckers wonder out loud how something like this could happen.​

Give me a fucking break.

Seen at the Girard stop

​I'm glad I got a photo of this Bradley Manning sticker cause it was ripped down the next day.

​Free Bradley!

How to make someone stop sending you mail.

I used to get mail from the national Republican party on the regular, asking me for money.​

I would never ever give money to Republicans.  I am a leftist, socialist, feminist lady of awesomeness.

This is how I got them to stop sending me stuff.

Go ahead and imagine me giggling the whole time I drew this and every time I look at it.​

A list for this week

--The weather has been so beautiful.  It's so nice to wander around in the nice weather and take photos.​

-​-I watched The Hunger Games movie again (b/c I was home sick) and I liked it better this time.  The thing that really bothered me about it before was how much the camera swings around crazily during the action.  We were sitting pretty close to the screen and it made me feel a bit nauseated.  On a smaller screen, not so bad. 

--Speaking of movies, I saw the Gatsby trailer, and I want to see it now.  I love the esthetics of the Art Deco period.  And Baz Lurhmann is a crazy person, so I want to see that.  I was also unsure about the next Superman movie until I saw the last trailer, but now I am fully on board with that.  

--It's my friend Melody's birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEL! ​

​--I found a recipe for vegan sausage gravy and biscuits that is AMAZING.  No, really.  We kept tasting the gravy and exclaiming over how good it was.  Here is a secret-- if you cook tempeh and mushrooms in coconut oil and add tamari and enriched yeast flakes, you don't miss meat.  You don't.  Seriously.  It's better than meat.  Country fried tofu is better than country fried steak.  I know you don't believe me but it's TRUE.  Just press the water out of the tofu first before you fry it.

--When our cat, Tifa, sits in the window sill with her head under the curtain so she can watch birds, we pretend that she is a superhero named Window Cat.  The birds are out, so Window Cat is back.​

--The nicest and fanciest canvas was on sale at Blick's this week!  70% off!  I restocked my studio with blank canvas.  Hooray!  (Being an artist is expensive. Always stock up when there are sales.)  ​

​Beautiful spring mornings.