Yahoo hired female lap dancers, for the second year in a row, for their "Hack Day" event in Taiwan. Then issued a stupid ass apology. To say that this is infuriating is an understatement. Some of the comments are also pretty enraging. For those that don't get it: objections to female lap dancers at a tech conference IS NOT sex negative, nor is it an effort to deny women their sexuality or sexual expression It is about treating women as people of worth, rather than sexual objects. This does not create an environment that is comfortable for all people, women and men included, but especially women who are already confronted an incredible amount of sexism in the tech industry. Yahoo does not need to reinforce this by saying "tech guys, women are here for your objectification!" It doesn't matter if there were male strippers there too or not or if this is par for the course in Taiwan. A tech conference is just not the place for it.

I went bouldering with Gregg yesterday at Midwest for the second time in as many years (at least) and it was super fun. My upper body is very sore today! I look forward to going more often.

Thursday on my way out the door from work I noticed I had a broken spoke on my front wheel. It was only a matter of time I guess. I rode home and walked over to Freewheel. Half a minute after the mechanic gets my wheel off he says that I actually have four broken spokes and my wheel is basically toast. I was only a matter of time I guess. I decide to get a new rear wheel as well, because I'd been having some troubles around throwing my chain and the likely contributing factor being a bent tooth on the rear cog, which I can't replace because I can't get the lockring off. I take my bike, two new wheels and some rim tape home and spend an hour switching out the wheels and only popping one tube. One complication arises in that the chain is too stretched out and doesn't want to work with the new cog. I make a couple different trips to Freewheel, one to get a chain that's actually too narrow and another to replace it with one that's the right size. Finally by Saturday afternoon, I have a whole and functioning bike. Time to ride...

Sunday we did the Minneapolis bike tour. We had a rough start but a mostly incredibly enjoyable ride. It was gorgeous, my bike felt good and my legs held up well (my back, not so much). I experienced some clicking on and off and realized when I got to St Anthony Main that it was the screw holding on my rack being hit by the master lock as it passed by. Thankfully the guy from Park Tools had a bunch of odds and ends and found a shorter screw that fit. I think (hope) that was the last of the kinks. The rest of the bike ride was delightful as we went through parts of Minneapolis I've never seen. All told, we rode 40 some odd miles and I'm not really feeling it at all today, other than being tired, but I think that's also a complication of being somewhat sick. In my lethargy and desire for coffee, I took the bus in to work, so we'll see how my legs feel tomorrow. I really don't feel at all like I rode in one day almost what I ride in a whole week. Maybe I'll be whistling a different tune tomorrow when I get back on the bike.

I had my first adventure in canning last night. These be the specs:

• 3 wide mouth pint jars
  
• lemon plum tomatoes, raw packed, 1T lemon juice and topped off with boiling water
  
• processed 40 minutes, water canner method
  

I realized my biggest pot is still not quite big enough to can pints jars in but I think it went okay anyway. Well at least until we get botulism...

I'm riding my bike like usual and turn onto the Minnehaha bike path with a bit of a bump and my chain comes off. Not only does it come off but it whips back around and wraps itself around my rear hub, locking up the wheel as I skid to a stop. The force of the chain locking up the wheel actually pulls the wheel to the side against my seat stay. Ironies of ironies, I am without a 15mm wrench necessary for fixing this issue. Thankfully a pair of runners ask if things are okay and I jokingly ask if they run with a 15mm wrench. They don't, but they do live nearby and offer to run back for one. A few minutes later they come running back with the necessary tool, my wheel is fixed and we're all off on our respective ways. Those folks were super awesome!

I went on a fucking fantastic run with floydcollins yesterday. Now that it's finally cool and less humid, I apparently have my running mojo back.

I enjoyed the Fair on Friday with Abby and her sister, had an awesome weekend, have baby melons and eggplant ready to harvest in the garden, watched a terrific movie called The Jerk and among other things life is pretty okay.

As I've continued consuming more and more media originating in the British Isles, I've noticed a common thread wherein tea has magical properties. Gregg made me a fantastic cup of tea the other night and after that, I'd really have to agree. Chamomile brewed in half water, half almond milk made for a wonderfully restorative (and tasty!) brew. I think they're on to something...

Footage of the moon landing makes me tear up. The Earth hangs in the blackness, as small and insignificant as it really is and a few incredibly lucky people get to see it first hand, thousands of miles away from the rest of humanity. Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, said it was like sitting on god's front porch. I think it would be like getting as far away from god's front porch as humanly possible, away from the human constructs of religion, race, sex and politics. Space is mostly empty, of molecules and violence and the bullshit idea that there's some supreme being worth killing each other over. We have this precious jewel of a world, unique and unlike anything we can see with the eyes we've extended out into space and we seem incapable of just enjoying the ride.

So now that I'm an independent adult and living 1000+ miles away from my biological family, I wonder how grown-ups maintain their relationships with their parents and siblings. I love my parents and brother of course. But I feel like they show no interest in my life which would normally be displayed by calling me (ever) or even sending an email. I know things have gotten insane at home with my brother in and out of rehab and doing stupid shit all the time. Am I supposed to be the one that calls and emails all the time? Is it the obligation of the child to check in with the parents always? I find it confusing and difficult to navigate. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

That said, they put the dog to sleep Monday. She was old and had been in ill health for a long while so I'm not surprised or anything. The day would come eventually. I'm not terribly heart broken as she'd lived a long and good life, but I wish I had found out by my parents calling me (if only to share their sadness) rather than me calling my mom to tell her my house didn't get destroyed by a tornado.

I dunno, maybe they assume the same about me.

The first of the tomatoes ripened this weekend! We also got a few cucumbers and harvested the rest of the candy stripped beets. Hopefully pictures will happen at some point (including some better ones of my Marilyn Monroe hair!).

I know a few of you on my F-List are the writing type and thought I'd try an experiment: a writing prompt! Write an opening to a story (a few lines or as much as you want!) wherein at least one character is seductively eating a beet. That's right, a beet. Seductively. Free reign on everything else. I'm excited to see what y'all come up with (feel free to post anonymously if you're shy).

Listened to a story about a writer who sets his mystery novels in Provincetown and had a lot of vivid memories of the places they went to. Perhaps a return visit is in order soon...

They're good for stopping bullets when someone fucking shoots you in the head for riding your bike.

Also... the motherfucker is on paid investigative leave, if you want to talk about fucked up.

- Flat front tire on my bike this morning
+ There was a properly sized replacement tube about
+ Changed tube easily
- Lost my head start on the morning

I had a dream last night wherein I was pregnant and I poked at my belly for awhile feeling weird, but also excited, about it. I was also watching Oliver and he started to grow up super fast. First he started talking (in full sentences!) then he was walking and getting bigger and by the time his parents came home, he was a full grown teenager (complete with headphones and a magazine!).

Turns out, ginnyz was right. It's on with the rabbits (and maybe even the squirrels)! My eggplant was getting big and fuzzy and having flowers when someone chomped off the whole top, including all the flowers. I'm guessing it won't recover enough to actually produce more blooms in time to make fruit before the season is over, but I may be wrong (hopefully). They also took down a kale and one of the Cucurbits and potentially a whole branch of one of my tomatoes (though that could have been wind damage). Since having Jean-Luc out in the yard sometimes wasn't enough to keep them away, I decided to create a perimeter of soiled cat litter around the garden. I scooped out the poop first, of course. Since the litter we use is basically compressed saw dust, it will biodegrade and hopefully the scent of cat pee will keep the jerks that have been munching on my plants away. I may also put up some fencing, though that will make weeding more difficult.

Hey LJ - it's been awhile.

I took an awesome vacation to the North Shore a few weekends back with charliecopper and floydcollins. We biked down the Gitchi-Gami trail to the Split Rock lighthouse and for the first time I kind of wished for a multi-speed bike. There were lupines everywhere and it reminded me so much of Maine. We did a lot of physical activity - biking, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, walking, swimming, boat hull moving. It was splendid.

The garden is doing well enough considering a wholesale loss of the strawberry plant and heavy damage to the legumes. Maybe those rabbits aren't my friends after all... Tomatoes are going gangbusters and I'm drooling in anticipation of their ripening.

I've been trying to pick up running and have had decent success until Sunday when I sprained my ankle. I think I may be ready to run again today or this weekend. Noticing quick improvements and generally feel a sense of accomplishment at running almost 2 miles without stopping (flashbacks to the Presidential fitness challenges of my youth aside...). Biking a lot more in general and finding it's getting me home faster than the bus.

I have gained some weight and have been a bit puzzled as to why. I'm thinking maybe it's from the IUD as I've been eating rather reasonably and exercising more and more.

Work has been stressful etc etc.

I read this article this morning not expecting to encounter the outrage I did. For one, this whole argument about "selling out" is pointless snobbery. If an artist you like is selling their music to a corporation that is morally questionable to you, then you have an argument and can feel free to no longer purchase their music or otherwise support them. Otherwise, they're free to do with their own artistic creations whatever the fuck they want. And in either case, the song is still the song. Enjoy it for what it is, not what it's used for.

But the real point of me bringing this up is his metaphor for the act of "selling out." Stevenson says, "When a deeply moving song gets sold for an ad, it's like finding out that the cute girl you've been having long, philosophical conversations with at the coffeehouse spends her weekends turning tricks."

For reals?

Because clearly sex work and intellectualism are incompatible. All hoes are just dumb bitches right? Because suddenly the "cute girl" is now a "dirty slut," your "long, philosophical conversations" are just, what, exactly? Completely invalid? Does what this woman does for a living really make that much of a difference in whether you can appreciate her philosophical contributions?

Ugh. It's a profoundly stupid (though surprisingly apt, just not in the way the author intended) argument.

I consider this a small redemption for the pretty meh-bad strips lately.

The garden seems to be doing pretty well. We've had a few lapine friends munch on our peas and tomatoes, but otherwise things are doing okay. Some of the tomatoes and the first batch of shelling peas have flowers which gets me super excited. That and I found some tofu options that would be a great sub for mozzarella in insalata Caprese.