I'm posting multiple times in a week; must be summer

[lunabee34]

1. I have been extremely busy with grading and course creation which has curtailed my participation, but I didn't want to let the time period for End OTW Racism's protest action to end without making a public post about it. (To be clear, this particular protest action is ending today, not the movement to create a less racist environment for users of AO3 and volunteers at OTW.)

I believe strongly that harassment policies should be updated and clearly articulated and that if possible, tools in addition to muting and blocking should be made available. I believe strongly that the OTW should be more transparent to users and the public at large about its decision making, and I believe it should hire a Diversity Consultant.

chestnut_pod's Be More Democratic, Be More Autocratic, OTW is a fantastic post that offers many suggestions for ways the OTW might accomplish the goal of becoming less racist. In the comments to this post (and in other places like fail_fandomanon), what gradually emerges is a picture of an organization that is dysfunctional in many ways and at many levels and to a horrifying degree. I worry that some people might think the conversation in those places is straying from the very important topic of making the OTW less racist, but I don't think it is. I think that when an organization cannot uphold its duty of care to its volunteers at extremely basic levels that it certainly cannot uphold a duty of care to its users; when so much is broken within, of course, no steps have been take to repair what is broken without.

I hope that End OTW Racism will prove to be the reckoning that makes OTW/AO3 less racist and also improves working conditions for volunteers and all the other issues that have been coming to light as a result of this protest.

2. Y'all, this wavy hair is wild. I had noticed early in the spring that my hair seemed to be frizzier than ever, and when I mentioned it to my hairdresser, she was all, "Oh, yeah. Your hair is getting curly." And I was all, "WHAT?!" And she was all, "Any hormonal change can change the curliness or straightness or your hair, and menopause is changing yours." So naturally, I researched this, and she's right!

MIND BLOWN

I only wash my hair every three or four days (while bathing daily!), but when I do wash it, I blow dry it straight, and this was masking the waves. I just could not figure out why a blow dry only lasts me a single day now when it used to last me at least two, sometimes three. Now, I know!

My only problem is I have no fucking idea what to do with wavy hair. Last time I was at the hairdressers, it had not progressed to this degree of waviness. I am definitely getting tips when I go back next, but for now I've been reading online and trying to figure out stuff for myself. I can still just blow dry it straight for a day, and that's fine, but I'm trying to figure out how to lean into the waves. I'm pretty sure I've got 2A waves right now (except that counter to the description, I do have more curliness at the crown on the sides in the front rather than it all being flat at the crown). After doing some reading online, I think I put the air dry styler in when my hair was a bit too wet, so today I let it dry a bit more, then put it in and scrunched my hair until it was mostly dry and wow, that upped the waviness a lot, especially in the back (which didn't get wavy at all when I just put the stuff in my hair and let it dry without doing anything to it).

Now I'm contemplating whether I want to cut my hair to top-of-shoulder length to maximize waviness; it's several inches longer than that now and will be a bit longer at my next hair appointment the last week of July. My plan had been to just let it grow until it gets so long that it looks stupid, which is what I did last time, but now I'm rethinking. LOL Hmmmmmmm.

3.

They Don't Kill You Because They're Hungry, They Kill You Because They're Full by Mark Bibbins

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book is special to me because the oldest kiddo gave it to me for a gift and spent a lot of time thinking about what I'd like. Unfortunately, I bounced off most these poems pretty hard (they're largely what I call the nonsensical genre LOL).



View all my reviews


I did, however, enjoy these lines from "Look Who Came Dressed as the Sun" enough to genuinely LOL:

If you write "ironic detachment"
in your orange notebook again
I'm going to throw it into a fire
even if I have to make a fire.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Love that bit of poetry; very funny.

And yes, I knew the OTW was pretty dysfunctional but OMFG.

[lunabee34]

There's also another poem that makes fun of Ginsberg which got a chortle out of me.

I am shocked, just really deeply shocked about OTW. I am hard pressed to explain how things get this bad. It's just inexplicable to me.

[gloss]

I worry that some people might think the conversation in those places is straying from the very important topic of making the OTW less racist, but I don't think it is. I think that when an organization cannot uphold its duty of care to its volunteers at extremely basic levels that it certainly cannot uphold a duty of care to its users; when so much is broken within, of course, no steps have been take to repair what is broken without.
I want to believe this! I mean, I do agree, of course. I'm just so discouraged a lot of the time.

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

I understand that feeling, and I share it.

I think it's also important to remember that many people are just quietly doing their thing and not being jerks to each other (FFA is loud but a minority of fandom) or they are working in their actual lives to combat racism. For example, I was largely offline for most of May, but when I constructed my class, I made certain voices of color that typically get excluded from courses on nature poetry are represented. Is that the same thing as working to address racism in the OTW? Of course, not, but it's what I can do at the moment.

[minoanmiss]

Hair adventures!

[lunabee34]

Man, hair is hard.

I can't figure out how to keep the waves and ditch the frizz. Boo.

[minoanmiss]

Have you tried a leave in conditioner? That might smooth the hair out enough to gather into waves without the frizz.

Sent from my iPhone

[lunabee34]

I have not! It is on the list. LOL

[minoanmiss]

Go slowly with it -- start with small amounts, since your hair is not super curly.

Also a trick -- don't blow dry your hair all the way to full dryness. At dampness, lean over and shake your head vigorously and let it air dry the rest of the way. I used to do this to get the hair to settle into curls rather than individual strands. I forget where I got the idea.

[lunabee34]

Ooooh, thanks for the tips!

I've got a leave in conditioner and a mousse and some other things on my wish list for my bday to try out. :)

[feldman]

Manes by Mell on youtube has some wavy hair info I've found useful lately (
playlist).

I used to have mostly 1b with a sprinkle of 2a; didn't hold a curl, just flat dented bedhead with a halo of strays.

Then a had a kid with 3b ringlets, which turned out to be from my side, and maybe the epigenetics put some texture in my own hair too, but using curly hair techniques made my hair less bad at least.

Now in the last year it's shifted further to mostly 2b with 2c strays -- but I've never had hair with body before. It's like a new pet!

[lunabee34]

Oh, thank you! That playlist looks very helpful.

It is like a new pet! LOL

[landofnowhere]

I got wavy hair at puberty! (I think I'm 2b/2c by the classification.) It took me a while to acknowledge it, but cutting it shorter and putting in layers to allow it to really curl was a lot of fun. I haven't gotten it cut in years actually, but I've been thinking I should especially with the weather.

I wonder if I'll get more hair type changes at menopause...

[lunabee34]

I think I am going to go with cutting it shorter and in a way to accentuate the waviness. That seems to be the way to go.

It might get straighter at menopause! Or go more curly. Who knows? LOL

[china_shop]

I appreciate your thoughts about OTW and agree, like, 1000%. It's all such a shitshow. /o\

(My hair is so frizzy and I never know what to do with it. I don't actually want it curlier, but if the air dry styler could make it less frizzy, that would be amazing. Will research!

Anyway -- very glad you're enjoying your adventures in waviness! *cheers you on*)

If you write "ironic detachment"
in your orange notebook again
I'm going to throw it into a fire
even if I have to make a fire.

HEEE!

[minoanmiss]

Try a little leave in conditioner, and not blow drying all the way to full dryness. Once again I wish I could email myself to you!

[china_shop]

<3 <3 <3

[lunabee34]

I think it would make it less frizzy. I think the air dry styler, leave in conditioner, or a mousse would all do the trick. From what I've been reading, you would wash your hair, towel dry (not with rubbing! more with just squeezing or blotting the water out), and then put the stuff in your hair and then leave it alone! Don't touch it until it's dry! It's the touching it while it's wet that contributes to the frizz. And then when it's dry, you can run fingers or a wide-tooth comb through it if you need to.

Worth a try.

[umadoshi]

So naturally, I researched this, and she's right!

MIND BLOWN

Bodies! What?!

[lunabee34]

INORITE?

[archersangel]

Any hormonal change can change the curliness or straightness or your hair,....

which explains why my late mother said that several female members of her family got curly hair as they got older.

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

Exactly.