Thanks to April for the heads up on this awesome artist who does pin-up art of beautiful fat ladies.
You can go here to see his gallery of lovely ladies. And, if you want a portrait of yourself done, he can do it. Portraits start at $395, which I think is an awesome price to pay for a gorgeous pin-up portrait of oneself.
You can see a video of Les Toil's work here.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
New Age/Wicca/etc catalog: some plus sizing
I got a new-to-me catalog in the mail today from The Pyramid Collection, website found here. They have some pretty neat clothing, that if I were younger, and could wear a size 24, well, just let me say I would be so willing to buy some of their tops. I'm not into dresses usually, but they do have some I would wear over leggings/tights.
They also have some pretty neat jewelry, and their faery/dragon/mermaid figurines are cute as all get-out. Pictures of some of the items I liked follow:
Midnight Dragon
Gift Faerie
Fireheart Dragon
Dragon Ornaments
Tie-dye Ruffled Dress
Renaissance Faire Dress
Purple Rose Dress
Grecian Key Dress
Forest Finery Dress
Embroidered Tunic
Crimson & Lace Dress
Aurora Borealis Skirt
The only problem I have with the website is that I couldn't find a size chart for the clothes. However, the catalog does have a size chart, but some of the sizing between the chart and the sizes listed on the clothing don't match (some clothing lists a 3X as a size 24, the size chart says 3X is 26/28) so that's something to take into consideration if/when ordering from them.
They also have some pretty neat jewelry, and their faery/dragon/mermaid figurines are cute as all get-out. Pictures of some of the items I liked follow:
Midnight Dragon
Gift Faerie
Fireheart Dragon
Dragon Ornaments
Tie-dye Ruffled Dress
Renaissance Faire Dress
Purple Rose Dress
Grecian Key Dress
Forest Finery Dress
Embroidered Tunic
Crimson & Lace Dress
Aurora Borealis Skirt
The only problem I have with the website is that I couldn't find a size chart for the clothes. However, the catalog does have a size chart, but some of the sizing between the chart and the sizes listed on the clothing don't match (some clothing lists a 3X as a size 24, the size chart says 3X is 26/28) so that's something to take into consideration if/when ordering from them.
Monday, February 9, 2009
I need to vent
Right now, I'm so mad I can't see straight. I just got back from a doctor's appointment where I actually yelled at my doctor (and I don't yell at doctors, I just don't go back to see them when they make me that mad about poor treatment).
I haven't seen my doctor in about a year, and was waiting to do my yearly check-up in May when my Medicare kicks in so that Medicare and my insurance would cover everything. But I needed paperwork filled out to get my 25-year-old guaranteed student loan forgiven, and my doctor wanted to see me since I hadn't been in for quite a while, supposedly to do a physical. That physical consisted of weighing me (which I'm fine with, I only let them do it once a year) and taking my blood pressure and pulse. The first thing she said was that I had gained 15 lbs in a year and needed to go on a diet to lose that and more. Then she started in on how my blood pressure was high (and it was, for the first time in my life) and how losing weight would bring it down. And the usual bullshit of calories in/calories out leads to weight loss. I tried telling her that I've dieted, done all kinds of weight loss pills, from phen-fen to amphetimines, and had weight loss surgery and all any of that has done is make me fatter than I ever would have been if I had never done any of it.
She still insisted that dieting worked, and I must be eating too much to have gained 15 pounds in a year. She wanted to know if I drink soda, I told her diet soda, iced tea with either no sweetening or just one packet of sweet'n'low per gallon. She suggested I switch to water or those calorie free flavored waters. WTF is the difference between sugar-free flavored water and diet soda? They both have artificial sweeteners in them. Then she wanted to know what I eat, do I eat a lot of "junk" food or do I eat a healthy diet (do I drink full fat milk *no way, milk tastes awful to me*, can I switch from American cheese to mozzarella)? I told her most of what I eat is meat, cheese, veggies, and fruits, with occasional chips/fast food/pasta/rice/potatoes/cookies, but nothing to excess (but it's mainly the same foods DH eats to control his blood sugar/type 2 diabetes because we can't afford 2 separate meal plans). And I'm finding out that as I'm getting older, I just don't feel like eating as much as I used to. So I'm not eating too much, from what I can figure out, probably between 1500 and 1800 calories a day. So I told her I was sick to death of hearing about calories in/calories out, and how diets work so well for permanent weight loss. I told her that I had 35 years' worth of dieting experience that told me all it did was make me fatter. I told her that assuming someone was fat because all they do is pig out all the time hurts and that's one of the reasons I don't go to see doctors as often as they would like. I said I was tired of being told I'm fat and need to lose weight, that I'm sick of doctors assuming that I don't look in a mirror every day and see that I'm fat, that I don't know that I'm fat without being told that. That why should she assume I'm pigging out on fattening food all the time, when there are thin people who can eat 5,000 calories every day and never gain a pound, and fat people who eat less than 2,000 calories a day and never lose a pound? She's thin, and said that if she doesn't watch what she eats, she gains weight, but can lose it if she goes back to "sensible" eating. I told her that it doesn't matter how "sensibly" I eat, if I diet, yeah, I'll lose the weight, but it will eventually come back because I can't live on less than 1500 calories a day for the rest of my life (and even if I could, eventually I plateau and then start to regain the weight because my body is not a closed thermodynamic system and my metabolism slows down). I told her that my weight is no longer a topic of discussion if she wants to continue to see me and monitor my health. That I didn't have a fucking clue how I lost that 18 pounds last year, and I don't know how I gained 15 lbs this year. Hell, my weight can fluctuate by 10 lbs just from one day to the next. I also told her that I have to watch what I eat because of the complications from my VBG. That certain foods (fast food burgers and fries, and lots of leafy greens and veggies) will give me explosive diarrhea within 15 to 30 minutes of eating them, so I try to avoid those while still eating as "healthily" as I can.
So then she wants to know what kind of exercise I do. I told her I had been riding my recumbent exercise bike for 15 minutes each of 3 days a week, but had quit when my knee started hurting (and 1600 mg of ibuprofen didn't even touch the pain, and that was after getting a cortisone shot in the knee). I told her I can't walk for any distance that's going to do me any good because my lower back cramps up, then my legs go numb, and if I don't have somewhere to sit right away, I end up falling down (which leads to further injury of my bad knee, or twisting my weak ankles). I told her I've been taking 800 mg of ibuprofen 3 times a day, which helps with the knee pain, as long as I don't do much of anything (like walking or standing for more than 5 minutes at a time). So what does she suggest? Flexeril for the back spasms and add tylenol to the ibuprofen when I ride my bike. Like I haven't tried adding tylenol or aspirin or advil to the ibuprofen when I'm in pain. I'm willing to try the flexeril if it will help my back, but I really don't see how it's going to help the knee pain (and another cortisone shot will only last a couple of months and they don't like to give them any more often than every 4 to 6 months). So lucky me, I get to go back in 2 weeks for a blood pressure check, and then again in 4 to 6 weeks. Oh yeah, and stress has nothing to do with high blood pressure, even if your blood pressure is normal at home all the time, if it's high most of the time when you go see the doctor, then you obviously need to be on medication to bring that blood pressure down to "normal". And losing weight will totally bring high blood pressure down too. JFC, I am so fucking sick of all this bullshit, I even told her that I don't care if my fat kills me, at least then I wouldn't have to listen to people spew shit at me about my weight anymore (so now I'm depressed and there's something seriously wrong with me if I see death as a solution to my "weight problem"). Give me a fucking break. I'm not depressed, death isn't a solution, I'm just mad as hell that she thinks all my problems are caused by my fat and will magically be "cured" if I just lose some weight.
She also had to throw in that fat has a correlation to some cancers (breast and endometrial were the ones she cited). I told her correlation is NOT causation, and if I get cancer, I highly doubt that it's because I'm fat. I don't think endometrial cancer is a concern if you're no longer having periods, so that's not a problem for me. She also wants me to get another mammogram and I told her no way in hell, once was enough for me (they have to take 4 pics of each breast on me because mine won't fit on the x-ray plate in one shot) and that's painful, having each boob squeezed flat 4 times. There isn't any family history of breast cancer in my family, as far as I know, so I'm not going to worry about it (and yeah, that might be stupid of me, but it's my body and my life and my decision to make).
Oh, and trolls, your comments on this post, if you deign to make any, will not see the light of day, and that goes especially for my own personal troll who drags its bridge around after itself while following me around the intarwebz (you know who you are, DC).
I haven't seen my doctor in about a year, and was waiting to do my yearly check-up in May when my Medicare kicks in so that Medicare and my insurance would cover everything. But I needed paperwork filled out to get my 25-year-old guaranteed student loan forgiven, and my doctor wanted to see me since I hadn't been in for quite a while, supposedly to do a physical. That physical consisted of weighing me (which I'm fine with, I only let them do it once a year) and taking my blood pressure and pulse. The first thing she said was that I had gained 15 lbs in a year and needed to go on a diet to lose that and more. Then she started in on how my blood pressure was high (and it was, for the first time in my life) and how losing weight would bring it down. And the usual bullshit of calories in/calories out leads to weight loss. I tried telling her that I've dieted, done all kinds of weight loss pills, from phen-fen to amphetimines, and had weight loss surgery and all any of that has done is make me fatter than I ever would have been if I had never done any of it.
She still insisted that dieting worked, and I must be eating too much to have gained 15 pounds in a year. She wanted to know if I drink soda, I told her diet soda, iced tea with either no sweetening or just one packet of sweet'n'low per gallon. She suggested I switch to water or those calorie free flavored waters. WTF is the difference between sugar-free flavored water and diet soda? They both have artificial sweeteners in them. Then she wanted to know what I eat, do I eat a lot of "junk" food or do I eat a healthy diet (do I drink full fat milk *no way, milk tastes awful to me*, can I switch from American cheese to mozzarella)? I told her most of what I eat is meat, cheese, veggies, and fruits, with occasional chips/fast food/pasta/rice/potatoes/cookies, but nothing to excess (but it's mainly the same foods DH eats to control his blood sugar/type 2 diabetes because we can't afford 2 separate meal plans). And I'm finding out that as I'm getting older, I just don't feel like eating as much as I used to. So I'm not eating too much, from what I can figure out, probably between 1500 and 1800 calories a day. So I told her I was sick to death of hearing about calories in/calories out, and how diets work so well for permanent weight loss. I told her that I had 35 years' worth of dieting experience that told me all it did was make me fatter. I told her that assuming someone was fat because all they do is pig out all the time hurts and that's one of the reasons I don't go to see doctors as often as they would like. I said I was tired of being told I'm fat and need to lose weight, that I'm sick of doctors assuming that I don't look in a mirror every day and see that I'm fat, that I don't know that I'm fat without being told that. That why should she assume I'm pigging out on fattening food all the time, when there are thin people who can eat 5,000 calories every day and never gain a pound, and fat people who eat less than 2,000 calories a day and never lose a pound? She's thin, and said that if she doesn't watch what she eats, she gains weight, but can lose it if she goes back to "sensible" eating. I told her that it doesn't matter how "sensibly" I eat, if I diet, yeah, I'll lose the weight, but it will eventually come back because I can't live on less than 1500 calories a day for the rest of my life (and even if I could, eventually I plateau and then start to regain the weight because my body is not a closed thermodynamic system and my metabolism slows down). I told her that my weight is no longer a topic of discussion if she wants to continue to see me and monitor my health. That I didn't have a fucking clue how I lost that 18 pounds last year, and I don't know how I gained 15 lbs this year. Hell, my weight can fluctuate by 10 lbs just from one day to the next. I also told her that I have to watch what I eat because of the complications from my VBG. That certain foods (fast food burgers and fries, and lots of leafy greens and veggies) will give me explosive diarrhea within 15 to 30 minutes of eating them, so I try to avoid those while still eating as "healthily" as I can.
So then she wants to know what kind of exercise I do. I told her I had been riding my recumbent exercise bike for 15 minutes each of 3 days a week, but had quit when my knee started hurting (and 1600 mg of ibuprofen didn't even touch the pain, and that was after getting a cortisone shot in the knee). I told her I can't walk for any distance that's going to do me any good because my lower back cramps up, then my legs go numb, and if I don't have somewhere to sit right away, I end up falling down (which leads to further injury of my bad knee, or twisting my weak ankles). I told her I've been taking 800 mg of ibuprofen 3 times a day, which helps with the knee pain, as long as I don't do much of anything (like walking or standing for more than 5 minutes at a time). So what does she suggest? Flexeril for the back spasms and add tylenol to the ibuprofen when I ride my bike. Like I haven't tried adding tylenol or aspirin or advil to the ibuprofen when I'm in pain. I'm willing to try the flexeril if it will help my back, but I really don't see how it's going to help the knee pain (and another cortisone shot will only last a couple of months and they don't like to give them any more often than every 4 to 6 months). So lucky me, I get to go back in 2 weeks for a blood pressure check, and then again in 4 to 6 weeks. Oh yeah, and stress has nothing to do with high blood pressure, even if your blood pressure is normal at home all the time, if it's high most of the time when you go see the doctor, then you obviously need to be on medication to bring that blood pressure down to "normal". And losing weight will totally bring high blood pressure down too. JFC, I am so fucking sick of all this bullshit, I even told her that I don't care if my fat kills me, at least then I wouldn't have to listen to people spew shit at me about my weight anymore (so now I'm depressed and there's something seriously wrong with me if I see death as a solution to my "weight problem"). Give me a fucking break. I'm not depressed, death isn't a solution, I'm just mad as hell that she thinks all my problems are caused by my fat and will magically be "cured" if I just lose some weight.
She also had to throw in that fat has a correlation to some cancers (breast and endometrial were the ones she cited). I told her correlation is NOT causation, and if I get cancer, I highly doubt that it's because I'm fat. I don't think endometrial cancer is a concern if you're no longer having periods, so that's not a problem for me. She also wants me to get another mammogram and I told her no way in hell, once was enough for me (they have to take 4 pics of each breast on me because mine won't fit on the x-ray plate in one shot) and that's painful, having each boob squeezed flat 4 times. There isn't any family history of breast cancer in my family, as far as I know, so I'm not going to worry about it (and yeah, that might be stupid of me, but it's my body and my life and my decision to make).
Oh, and trolls, your comments on this post, if you deign to make any, will not see the light of day, and that goes especially for my own personal troll who drags its bridge around after itself while following me around the intarwebz (you know who you are, DC).
Friday, February 6, 2009
New (to me) commercial on Fox
DH was watching TV the other night while I was playing on the computer and a commercial came on that just had me foaming at the mouth (good thing I didn't have a brick handy, we would no longer have a TV if I had). It's talking about healthy eating preventing all kinds of diseases, and one of the segments shows a kid saying something about eating fewer sweets because sugar causes diabetes. WTFing hell! Since when does eating anything with sugar in it cause diabetes? Sandy has a good post on this here.
Another segment was talking about eating fruits and veggies to prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, and cancer. Sandy has a good post on diet and heart disease prevention in women here, a couple on cancer prevention and diet here and here.
Seems to me that maybe some (most, I would hope) adults aren't buying the diet/lifestyle changes to prevent diseases, so now they have to start in on brainwashing kids into believing that how they eat is going to cause/prevent disease. None of those diet/lifestyle changes have been proved to prevent any disease, but that doesn't stop the media from continued publishing of mythperceptions, mythconceptions, and mythinformation. Who stands to gain the most from the continued propagation of these myths? It certainly isn't the public who is the target of this campaign. Could it possibly be pharmaceutical companies? How about the diet industry? Maybe bariatric surgeons? And let's not forget all those companies who make questionable supplements with incomplete ingredient lists that haven't been tested but will "cure" anything from an ingrown toenail to cancer.
I am so sick of being told that it's all my fault I'm fat, that's it all my fault if I get cancer, that it's all my fault if I have a heart attack, that it's all my fault if I have high blood pressure, that any illness I have is all my fault. That if I had just lived "right", eaten "right", and done just the "right" amount of exercise I would never get sick, and I would live forever young/rich/beautiful/smart/WTFever. What about all the people who have done all the "right" things? They still get sick, they still get diseases, and they still die, some of them sooner, some later. Ya know, life is a gamble, and even if you do everything "right", there is no guarantee of how much time you are going to have on this earth. Worrying and obsessing over everything you do is not the way to a long, happy, productive life (whatever that means to you, and each person's definition of that is unique, as it should be).
Has anyone else seen that commercial? What did you think of it?
Another segment was talking about eating fruits and veggies to prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, and cancer. Sandy has a good post on diet and heart disease prevention in women here, a couple on cancer prevention and diet here and here.
Seems to me that maybe some (most, I would hope) adults aren't buying the diet/lifestyle changes to prevent diseases, so now they have to start in on brainwashing kids into believing that how they eat is going to cause/prevent disease. None of those diet/lifestyle changes have been proved to prevent any disease, but that doesn't stop the media from continued publishing of mythperceptions, mythconceptions, and mythinformation. Who stands to gain the most from the continued propagation of these myths? It certainly isn't the public who is the target of this campaign. Could it possibly be pharmaceutical companies? How about the diet industry? Maybe bariatric surgeons? And let's not forget all those companies who make questionable supplements with incomplete ingredient lists that haven't been tested but will "cure" anything from an ingrown toenail to cancer.
I am so sick of being told that it's all my fault I'm fat, that's it all my fault if I get cancer, that it's all my fault if I have a heart attack, that it's all my fault if I have high blood pressure, that any illness I have is all my fault. That if I had just lived "right", eaten "right", and done just the "right" amount of exercise I would never get sick, and I would live forever young/rich/beautiful/smart/WTFever. What about all the people who have done all the "right" things? They still get sick, they still get diseases, and they still die, some of them sooner, some later. Ya know, life is a gamble, and even if you do everything "right", there is no guarantee of how much time you are going to have on this earth. Worrying and obsessing over everything you do is not the way to a long, happy, productive life (whatever that means to you, and each person's definition of that is unique, as it should be).
Has anyone else seen that commercial? What did you think of it?
Monday, February 2, 2009
Book review: Long-time Listener, First-time Werewolf
I just finished this book last night (it's 3 books in one volume, Kitty and The Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes to Washington, and Kitty Takes A Holiday by Carrie Vaughn).
I read the first two on Saturday, between 8 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. (what can I say, I was grabbed by the eyes and just couldn't get loose). I finished the 3rd one last night (started at 10 p.m. and finished at 1:30 a.m.).
Kitty is a werewolf who works the late night shift as a DJ at a radio station, mostly playing an eclectic mix of music, everything from classical to rock to metal to punk. One night, out of boredom, she poses a question to her listeners: "Do you believe in vampires?" Shockingly, she gets call after call after call, and talks to her callers on the air. Some say they are vampires, witches, werewolves, and they all seem to have problems. Kitty talks with them, dispensing advice, and before she knows it, the time for that night's show is up. When she goes in to work the next night, she thinks she may end up being fired for not following the assigned format. But her boss has a box full of phone messages and tells her the ratings were fantastic. He wants her to continue what she did the night before, and talk radio's newest show is born - The Midnight Hour.
Carrie Vaughn has created characters you care about, characters you want to know more about, characters who leap to life on the page and into your heart. I don't know if she's planning on writing (or has written) any more books about Kitty, but I sure hope so. The third book has left lots of possibilities for further development, and I sure would be interested in reading more of Kitty's adventures. (ETA: I just found out CV has 3 more books about Kitty, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, and Kitty Raises Hell. Damn, now I have to see if I can find them.)
Next on my reading list is Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. I have books 1 through 6 and 8, and 7 is on backorder. I don't want to start reading them until I have all 8 of them in my hot little hands, I hate starting a series and then having to stop because I'm missing part of it. In the meantime, I'm also working on Kim Harrison's series about bounty hunter-cum-witch Rachel Morgan (vampires and pixies and demons and faeries and lycanthropes, oh my!). I have to admit, this is another series that has grabbed me by the eyeballs and doesn't want to let go. And yes, I'm in the habit of reading at least 2 books at the same time, sometimes I'll have 3 or more started. What I read depends on my mood - am I in the mood for romance, do I want drama, do I want hair-raising danger? Or maybe I want all of that at the same time, and can't find it in one book, so I'm finding the elements I want in several different books. My personal library is growing, and I've had to write down all of the authors and titles to put on index cards so that when I shop for books, I can refer to them to see if I've already purchased a book (but not read it yet) so that I don't end up with duplicates. I have almost 200 books now, and that's just what I've bought in the last 2 years. I gave almost 1,000 books to my son when I got married, he'd been after me for years to give him my books, since he'd been reading them from the time he was 6 (and yes, he's as avid a bookworm as I am, he's adding to the collection all the time, too). He's also like me in that he will go back and read books again and again if he really liked them the first time around. I had books in that collection that I had read 20 times, they were old friends who never let me down and I miss them sometimes. My dream has always been to have a house where I can have one room with nothing but books and a comfortable chair and reading lamp in it. Talk about heaven on earth, that's my vision of it.
I read the first two on Saturday, between 8 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. (what can I say, I was grabbed by the eyes and just couldn't get loose). I finished the 3rd one last night (started at 10 p.m. and finished at 1:30 a.m.).
Kitty is a werewolf who works the late night shift as a DJ at a radio station, mostly playing an eclectic mix of music, everything from classical to rock to metal to punk. One night, out of boredom, she poses a question to her listeners: "Do you believe in vampires?" Shockingly, she gets call after call after call, and talks to her callers on the air. Some say they are vampires, witches, werewolves, and they all seem to have problems. Kitty talks with them, dispensing advice, and before she knows it, the time for that night's show is up. When she goes in to work the next night, she thinks she may end up being fired for not following the assigned format. But her boss has a box full of phone messages and tells her the ratings were fantastic. He wants her to continue what she did the night before, and talk radio's newest show is born - The Midnight Hour.
Carrie Vaughn has created characters you care about, characters you want to know more about, characters who leap to life on the page and into your heart. I don't know if she's planning on writing (or has written) any more books about Kitty, but I sure hope so. The third book has left lots of possibilities for further development, and I sure would be interested in reading more of Kitty's adventures. (ETA: I just found out CV has 3 more books about Kitty, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, and Kitty Raises Hell. Damn, now I have to see if I can find them.)
Next on my reading list is Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. I have books 1 through 6 and 8, and 7 is on backorder. I don't want to start reading them until I have all 8 of them in my hot little hands, I hate starting a series and then having to stop because I'm missing part of it. In the meantime, I'm also working on Kim Harrison's series about bounty hunter-cum-witch Rachel Morgan (vampires and pixies and demons and faeries and lycanthropes, oh my!). I have to admit, this is another series that has grabbed me by the eyeballs and doesn't want to let go. And yes, I'm in the habit of reading at least 2 books at the same time, sometimes I'll have 3 or more started. What I read depends on my mood - am I in the mood for romance, do I want drama, do I want hair-raising danger? Or maybe I want all of that at the same time, and can't find it in one book, so I'm finding the elements I want in several different books. My personal library is growing, and I've had to write down all of the authors and titles to put on index cards so that when I shop for books, I can refer to them to see if I've already purchased a book (but not read it yet) so that I don't end up with duplicates. I have almost 200 books now, and that's just what I've bought in the last 2 years. I gave almost 1,000 books to my son when I got married, he'd been after me for years to give him my books, since he'd been reading them from the time he was 6 (and yes, he's as avid a bookworm as I am, he's adding to the collection all the time, too). He's also like me in that he will go back and read books again and again if he really liked them the first time around. I had books in that collection that I had read 20 times, they were old friends who never let me down and I miss them sometimes. My dream has always been to have a house where I can have one room with nothing but books and a comfortable chair and reading lamp in it. Talk about heaven on earth, that's my vision of it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
