What are you willing to reveal in a text message?

This is something I don't have to worry about. Being a cheap bitch has its advantages. DH and I have a family plan for our cell phones, but we had them block text messaging because adding texting to our plan was more money than either of us wanted to spend. Before we had texting blocked, we were getting spam texts, and every one of those fuckers cost us 15 cents (now I know 15 cents is not a lot of money, but get 10 of them in a month and that's $1.50, get 100 of them and that's $15.00, not an amount of money I want to spend on spam). It's bad enough that we get all this spam in our email, I'm not going to deal with it on my cell phone too.
So -

Receiving a text message asking for your credit card information may be a no brainer for some who wouldn’t think of replying, but what if you receive a text message asking about your lifestyle habits, if you smoke, drink or what you weigh? Would it be as clear how revealing that information might be used in ways that might negatively affect you?

IF I had text messaging, and got one of those, my response would be either MYOB or no response at all (or maybe a nunyabizness).

The health information technology industry has been creating ways to use text messaging to reach patients with health promotions, appointment reminders, and to monitor their compliance with health prescriptions. The mobile healthcare business is a growing field and increasingly also being used to monitor lifestyles and adherence to performance measures. Contracting with government and insurance companies, they’re providing patient messaging services to manage care (“patient care messaging”) and encourage patients to follow healthy lifestyles.

You want to text me with that kind of shit? Then you're going to pay for the texting on my cell phone plan and even then, I may or may not reply to your texting (yeah, I'm contrary like that).

A company in the UK has developed a clever scheme to use text messaging for health phishing — to learn if people smoke, drink and their weight. It simply sends people a text message and asks! The answers are automatically recorded in their medical records and government database to be used to determine healthcare coverage or deny benefits, set premiums, and identify people for disease management intervention.

The company, iPlato, is marketing wireless technology to help providers and third-party payers communicate health messages to patients and monitor their healthy lifestyle choices, such as smoking cessation, weight loss, diet, exercise, immunizations, screenings and other initiatives.

Um, yeah, I don't think so. If my doctor wants to know any of that information, I'll tell her when I see her. The government can piss off, they don't need to know any of that, it's another of those nunyabizness things. And WTF is this disease management intervention? If the government thinks you aren't healthy enough to suit them, are they going to force you into whatever treatment they think you need? Our judgment on whether we're healthy or not isn't going to matter? Fuck That!!!!!! It's no one's business if I smoke, or drink, or how much I weigh. It's also none of their business if I exercised today or ate all my veggies. And if I had to pay for those pills the doctor prescribed(even if it's just a co-pay), damned skippy I'm going to be taking them, I'm not into wasting money just because I don't like taking pills (and if I'm sick enough that it requires some kind of medication, I'm going to take all of that medication so I'm not sick anymore, I'm not a masochist, I don't like being sick).
Granted this is only happening in the UK right now, but how long is it going to be before insurance companies in the US think this is a good idea and want to implement it? Makes me damned glad I don't have texting on my phone, mainly because I figure if anyone wants to talk to me, they can call me. If I wanted to type to someone, I'd talk to them on the computer with a full-size keyboard, not on a cell phone with tiny buttons. My cell phone is for making and receiving calls, it's not for taking pictures or typing messages (that's why I have a digital camera and a computer). Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a fossil (I'm so old, God owes me money, according to a friend of mine), but the more I see of technology, the more I think it's getting too damned invasive in our lives, and the potential for misuse/abuse is staggering. I'm going to fight that every step of the way.

Random bits

We found a neat toy for the cats the other day. It's a furry little mouse that squeaks when it's batted about. For all the toys the cats have, ever since they've gotten this one, it's the one they play with the most often. And they play with it several times a day (before, they might play with a toy once a day unless one of us actually plays with them with a toy). Even Fat Cat will play it 3 or 4 times a day, and he's 9 years old and likes to sleep most of his life away........lol.
Yesterday was our anniversary. DH and I have been married 2 years now (where in the hell does the time go?).
And we traded my Dodge Grand Caravan (I've had it for 4 years, and all this time I thought it was a 1998, and here it was a 1997) for a 2001 Ford Windstar. The Windstar is nice, has front and rear heating and A/C, middle captain's seats, back bench seat, a trailer hitch and towing package, and a CD/cassette/AM/FM stereo. The seat belt/shoulder harness fits without an extender, and I fit behind the steering wheel just fine (although I think I should have the driver side airbag de-activated, since there sure as hell isn't 10" between my chest and the airbag, and that's with the seat as far back as it will go). They say the color of the Windstar is green, but it looks like dark gray to me, so it's a really odd shade of green, if that's what it is. The body is in great shape, and it runs really good. I won't have to fill the gas tank quite as often as I did on the Dodge, since the Ford has a 26 gallon tank (the Dodge had a 20 gallon tank). I don't know what kind of mileage it gets, haven't driven it much yet. It needs tires; they aren't bald or anything, but with the little bit of snow we have here, I'm spinning the tires when I take off from a stop sign (I'm stopping just fine, years of driving old cars with shitty tires and worse brakes has given me a lot of experience with stopping in bad conditions). So next week we're making an appointment to get tires put on it.
I see they arrested the governor of Illinois and he's out on his own recognizance and back governing. Business as usual in Illinois, what a surprise (NOT).
I also see that Oprah is beating herself up over gaining back the weight she lost (how many times has this happened?). She's been losing and gaining and losing and gaining for at least 20 years, you'd think she'd have learned by now that it doesn't matter what diet you use, NONE of them work for permanent weight loss. I used to watch her show, back when she was first on, and thought it was great that this fat woman could be successful on TV. Then when she went on that liquid diet and came out in the size 10 jeans with that wagon of fat, representing the weight she had lost, I quit watching her show as much. And every time a diet failed, and she beat herself up for failing (dammit, she didn't fail, the fucking diet failed, like they always do), I watched a little less, until I totally quit watching her at all. I just wish she could figure out how to love herself as she is. No person's worth should ever be dependent on their appearance. She says she's not worried about being thin anymore, she just wants to be stronger, more fit, and healthier. That's good, but if she's still equating health with thin, I don't think it's gonna happen. Oprah has been successful at whatever weight she's been, you'd think that would tell her something about herself. She has drive and ambition and intelligence, otherwise she wouldn't be as successful as she is, and being thin didn't get her there, and being fat didn't keep her from getting there. Oh, and Gayle, with a friend like you telling her that being 200 lbs isn't healthy, she sure as hell doesn't need any enemies. You aren't her doctor, you aren't Oprah, you don't know for sure what her health is or how long she's going to live, so take a big dose of STFU about her weight.

Woo Hoo! I found some pants today

I know not everyone likes Wal-Mart, but I found some awesome (for me, anyway) pants there today. They look like the denim stretch leggings, but with a wider leg opening at the hem. Elastic waist, pockets, and the legs are actually long enough. WM is carrying them in sizes up to a 4X (26/28), which is what I wear. They actually have colors other than navy and black, too. I got a purple pair and a charcoal gray pair, but they also had dark aqua, sage green, tan, white, a very small check in black & white, and black, as well as a couple of shades of denim blue. Best of all, they were only $17 (White Stag was the brand). WM is also carrying tops up to a 5X (30/32) and they are actually cute! I got a scoop neck, short-sleeve, gathered top in a charcoal gray & white print, and a purple & white baby-doll top with purple lace at the neck with rhinestone flowers in the lace (kind of a crinkly, stretchy fabric). Both tops were only $14 each, from Faded Glory.
Actually, DH bought them all for me for Christmas, so I had to box them up and wrap them when we got home........LOL If I can remember, after Christmas, I'll put them on and take pics to post here of how they look. There were a lot of other cute tops there that I liked, so I'll probably be going back to get more when I have money to spend on clothes.
DH also knows what he's getting for Christmas from me, since he told me which cars to order from Motormint (he collects die-cast cars). I don't think the cars are going to get here in time for Christmas and his birthday, so I printed out pictures of them to put in cards for him, so he has something to open when family is here. Neither of us mind knowing in advance what our gifts to each other are, so it's cool :) And at least this way, I know he's going to like what I got him, and he knows I'm going to like what he got me (and that what he got me fits me).
So if y'all are looking for cute casual pants and tops, Wal-Mart's plus size section just might be the solution.

People wasting billions of dollars on quack health food and diet products

This should be another one of those "No shit, Sherlock" moments for these idiots who think "obesity" is a disease. And why are people wasting those billions of dollars? Because you morons keep telling fat people that being fat is a disease that is going to shorten their life and ruin their health. Because the media keeps touting how being "thin" is the only way to be healthy, happy, rich, smart, beautiful, popular, successful, and live forever.

Professor Lean from the University of Glasgow, is hopeful that a new European Union (EU) Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices, adopted this year in UK, will finally protect vulnerable consumers who are tricked into to buying useless food products or supplements in attempts to combat their disease.

"Obesity" is NOT a disease, asshats. It's never been a disease, and just because you label it a disease doesn't make it one. From Webster's Dictionary: disease 1-obsolete-trouble 2-a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs the performance of a vital function : sickness : malady 3-a harmful development (as in a social institution - the various diseases of civilization). Fat is not trouble, fat does not generally impair performance of vital functions (witness all the fat people who are still alive even after being told their fat is going to kill them), and despite what the diet industry/big pharma/the medical community would have you believe, fat is not a harmful development in civilization, since it's been around since civilization has existed.

Unlike medicines, food products that are marketed for health reasons are not subject to the same stringent research trials and control, and consumers are often misled.

Often misled? How about misled every fucking day of their lives! Misled by the media, misled by doctors, misled by pharmaceutical companies, and most of all, misled by all those companies pushing their diets that they know don't work, they know have never worked, and they know will never work (other than to put billions of dollars in their pockets) for safe and permanent weight loss.

It is already illegal for unsubstantiated claims to be made about the composition or nutritional function of food products, eg. that they are low in fat, high in fibre or help lower cholesterol, and it is also illegal to claim that a food can treat or prevent any disease—including obesity. However, many unsubstantiated health claims are still made, or implied. Misleading marketing can be found within brand names and images on packaging, in shelf or shop names, or on websites which suggest that products help weight control, are slimming, or are "Health Foods", when there is no evidence.

No shit, Sherlock, and WTF are you doing to stop those claims from being made? Namby-pamby little rules, like making them put teeny tiny print at the end of ads saying "Results not typical". Results not typical, my aching ass. "Results not happening at all, ever, for the majority of people, so you're wasting your money on this" should be more like it.

He points out that, of all the hundreds of products currently on sale to help people lose weight, only energy-restricted diets and exercise, the drugs orlistat and sibutramine, and in some cases bariatric surgery, are safe, effective and cost-effective. The remainder, he says, are either not effective or not safe.

Well, let's see now. If you go by evidence-based statistics, those energy-restricted diets and exercise don't work for safe, permanent weight loss. If you go by evidence-based statistics, orlistat and sibutramine aren't all that helpful unless you only have small amounts of weight to lose (like less than 20 lbs) and they give you the added benefit of possibly shitting yourself in public (orlistat) or losing maybe 24 pounds in 6 months and staying on the drug for life in order to keep those 24 pounds from ever coming back (sibutramine, not to mention that you have to stay on the reduced-calorie diet and exercise like mad for the rest of your life). And I'm not even going to address the success of WLS, we all know how successful and safe that is..........NOT.
So yeah, Professor Lean, it's idiots like you that created this panic and pushed people into spending billions of dollars on quack remedies that don't work, have never worked, and will never work, and you think you have a solution? I don't think so, since it's people just like you who came up with all the solutions you say are "quackery". And the solutions that you think work? Well, guess what, dickweed, they don't work any better than the quackery you're railing about. So go join the medical community, big pharma, and the diet industry in their little cesspool and leave fat people the fuck alone. With friends like you, we certainly don't need any enemies.

ETA: H/T to petulant at Shakesville for the link

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving today. I get to play on the computer all day as DH has to work. We aren't having our T'Day dinner until Saturday (he's off Fri, Sat, & Sun). We had planned on having it Friday, but my son has to work that day and isn't coming up until after work. So Saturday it is.
And since I hate to cook, and I hate doing dishes even more than I hate to cook, our dinner isn't going to be a big one (and paper plates/plastic silverware for dishes). We're having turkey breast roasts (no bones to deal with), ham, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, and dutch apple pie (with Cool Whip for the pies).
DH and I will be doing some minor housecleaning on Friday (dusting and vacuuming, mostly, some mopping, and laundry). I'm de-cluttering my computer desk today, it's a disaster, and I'm going to be putting all the CDs away since they're sitting on a wooden TV tray next to my desk while I've been labeling them (I still have about 30 left to do, found a bunch more that needed to be done).
At least this year I don't have to cook for a huge crowd. It will be DH, me, my son and his wife and one of the grandsons (the other one has to work), and one of DH's stepsons and his wife and 3 kids. Small crowd, one I can deal with fairly well (since I don't deal well with lots of people in a small space). One of the really nice things about this gathering is that none of the people coming are going to be commenting about how they shouldn't eat this or that or they shouldn't really have that much of this or that. Of course, we aren't having a huge meal with candied yams and mashed potatoes and gravy and all the other traditional Thanksgiving extras, but even if we were, no one would be talking diet trash talk, thank heavens. The one person who would be talking like that didn't get invited to dinner this year, she showed up an hour late for dinner last year and then was pissed because we didn't wait dinner on her (and her husband was even later getting here than she was). I was like, sorry, you knew what time we were eating, everything was done, I couldn't keep it edible waiting on you to decide when and if you were going to show up, so you get what's left over, deal with it. Would have been different if she had bothered to call and say they were going to be late, but no, no call, just show up late and then be pissed because we got to eat while everything was hot and they had to eat cold left-overs. Tough shit, I'm a bitch when I've cooked a huge meal and not everyone is there on time to eat it.
So this should be a nice, relaxed dinner with congenial company. I'm hoping I can get some decent pictures of everyone, and maybe talk my son into taking a picture of me and DH, since we don't have one of us together yet. If I get pics, I'll post them on here.

I'm done with our Christmas shopping! And other news.

Yay! We finished up our Christmas shopping before the crowds started in the stores. We got the grandkids what they all want for Christmas (within reason) and bought things for his stepkids/spouses and my son & daughter-in-law that we know they will like. the presents are even all wrapped and ready to go under the tree, when and if we decide to put it up. I even got all our Christmas cards sent out last week.
My big project for right now is going through all of DH's CDs that his ex burned for him and labeling them with what songs are on each one. That has shown me that I would not have been a good contestant on "Name That Tune". I would have been the one saying "I can name that tune in.......let's see, it's gonna take playing the whole song and even then I might not know the name of it." Now, I've listened to a lot of music in my 55 years of life, but most of it has been the country music from the '50s through the '80s, classic rock from the same years, and a lot of heavy metal. Music is one of the things DH and I don't have in common. He likes the old rock & roll and country music and doesn't care for heavy metal at all, while I don't care much for the newer country music. Most of the singers nowadays, I can't tell by listening to them who the hell they are. If it's Dolly Parton, or Reba McIntire, I know those voices. The rest of the female singers all sound pretty much alike to me (well, I recognize Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline too). I have an easier time recognizing male country singers' voices, like Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Marty Robbins, Conway Twitty, Travis Tritt, Dwight Yoakum, and Marty Stuart. But even so, a lot of the male singers still sound a lot alike to me (can you tell I'm not musically inclined?). So going through all these CDs and trying to figure out the names of the songs on them is a royal pain in the ass, especially since they all say (when you open the CD to get a listing of songs) "Unknown Artist Track#__". Now, if DH is home when I'm doing this, he knows the titles to a lot of the songs, and can tell me within the first 30 seconds what the name of it is. But I've been doing a lot of this while he's at work, so I'm guessing on the ones I've never heard, and some of the songs I've heard, but WTF is up with radio stations now that they play a song and don't give you the title of it or who's singing it? I mean, really, people, if you aren't going to tell me the artist and title of the song, how the hell am I supposed to find it on CD to purchase it? Could that be one of the reasons that CD sales have gone down the shitter?
I have WinAmp on my pc and the free database that looks up song & artist online can't find any information on any of the CDs DH's ex burned for him, and I don't have a clue where she got the songs (she took the pc the songs were on when she left). I don't know if she ripped them from other CDs or downloaded them off the internet. Now, I've used Limewire to get mp3s off the internet and I've ripped CDs that I purchased (I have 9 gigabytes of music on my computer) and every one of those mp3s has song name, artist, and length on it, so I'm at a loss as to how you can have mp3s on your computer and all they say is Unknown Artist Track #1, etc.
I'm running into CDs that have the same song on the CD twice, sometimes 3 times, songs are duplicated on other CDs, the CDs aren't labeled at all, other than to maybe say "comedy", "oldies", "country", "Christmas", etc. And those aren't even accurate, since there might be love songs mixed in with the Christmas music or comedy mixed with oldies or country, and then there's the Boyz2Men or Enya bullshit thrown in for good measure, or Celine Dion (I abhor Celine Dion, she sounds like she's screeching, to me).
DH wants to rip all those CDs and re-burn them so there aren't any duplications, but I don't know if that's a task I want to even think about undertaking. I would be the one to do it because he doesn't know how (he uses his computer for email and Pogo games, that's it). To do that, I would have to rip each CD, rename every track, and then burn them all to new CDs. Now, I have a CD burner in my computer (and I have a CD player that plays mp3s in my minivan), so I could do the CDs as mp3 CDs instead of audio CDs, which would mean I could put 5 - 10 hours of music on one CD, so I wouldn't have to burn as many CDs as I would if I redid all of the current ones (and DH is getting a CD player for his truck next month, right now he has a cassette player and cassette copies of all the CDs). Both of the CD players will play mp3 CDs, so that isn't a problem (and I like having a lot of music on one CD, then I don't have to worry about changing CDs while I'm driving, not to mention I don't have to have a ton of CDs in the van). So there are positives to ripping and re-burning all those CDs, but damn, that's a lot of work. I've done 25 CDs so far, and have another 26 to go (each CD has between 15 and 27 songs on it), so that's a lot of music. At least I don't have to write each song title by hand. I created a template in Excel, and as I'm listening to the song, I'm typing the title in (once I figure out what it is, or what I think it is because I'm guessing on some of them). Then all I have to do is print out the list (I can get 4 lists on one sheet of paper), and use my paper cutter to cut them apart and slide in the slim jewel case with each CD. That paper cutter is the best investment I ever made, back years ago when I was making counted cross stitch greeting cards. I used it to cut the card stock to size, and I've used it to trim photos I print out.
Speaking of photos, that was another project I did for DH. He had pictures of the USS Stark, when it got hit by those missiles during the Gulf War back in 1989. He was on the USS Conyngham at the time (as an HT1) and he helped fight the fires, carry bodies, and gather up the deceased crew members' belongings so the chaplain could see that their families got them. I had scanned them into my computer and burned them to a CD for him, just in case something happened to the actual photos. We sent a copy of that CD to the Conyngham Association for their website (that ship was decommissioned and scrapped, the association is for all the men who served on her over her 28 years of service). So the other day, one of the guys who was on the Conyngham with DH called to see if we could send him the pictures (I had sent him a CD with the pics on it, he took it to Wal-Mart and they couldn't figure out how to make pics off it). So I got the photo paper and printed out the pics to send him. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself......
And I'll tell ya what, I won't be taking any pictures to Wal-Mart to be fixed or printed off a CD. We took in an old photo of DH's parents to have it restored (it's a wallet-sized photo and very old). They won't do it without a release from the photographer, who happens to be dead and the studio is out of business. Wal-Mart said we have to hunt down his heirs and get them to sign a release to have the picture restored. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. My daughter-in-law ran into the same thing with them. Her mother, who is NOT a professional photographer, took pictures of 3 of our grandkids, had Wal-Mart put them on a CD (the CD has Wal-Mart's viewing software on it). Tina took the CD to Wal-Mart to have more pics made off it, and they told her she needed to have the professional photographer sign a release saying she could do that. I don't know very many professional photographers who would use Wal-Mart to develop their pictures and put them on a CD with Wal-Mart viewing software, but that's what they said, that the pictures had been taken by a professional (yeah, my granddaughter was on a horse in her grandmother's backyard in some of those pictures, and in her grandmother's kitchen in others, so yep, that was a professional photographer all right, came right out to the house and spent all day shooting pics of those kids). Whatever. I can print out the photos she wants, I downloaded all the pics off the CD onto my computer. I think I have a couple of gigabytes' worth of pictures on here. She'll just have to get the ink and the photo paper. It takes half of a color ink cartridge in my printer to do 22 - 4"X6" prints, so I'm not sure how much ink it would take to do however many 8 X 10's she wants. I'll have to see what she wants to do when they come up here for Thanksgiving next weekend. We're having it on Friday since DH has to work on Thursday (time and a half plus holiday pay will look good on his next check, he says).

I don't do 55

Kinda like Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55", I don't feel 55 (mentally, anyway).

Another reason I don't have much to do with family in Illinois

This email was forwarded to me by my aunt, who I really really love, it was sent to her by my niece (with who [whom?] I have my differences, to say the least), who professes to be a Christian. I really don't see much of those Christian ideals in this racist piece of shit. Talk about having white privilege and not being able to see it, this just makes me so fucking mad, and so damned glad that I don't have to interact with her (my niece)on any basis at all (although, if she reads this, she'll probably send me a nasty email detailing what a piece of shit I am as a person for daring to take her to task for her racist ass-hattery).

--- On Fri, 11/14/08, Traci
Date: Friday, November 14, 2008, 8:09 AM

This is that email I was talking about, Jamie. Not that I completely agree with all of it, but some of it.....
Traci













To Be White
cid:010701c857ef$745e8190$43665DE4@JanWhitemanPC
Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?





There are African Americans,
Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans, Arab Americans,
Native Americans, etc.
...And then there are just -
Americans.
You pass me on the street
And sneer in my direction.
You Call me 'White boy,'
'Cracker,' 'Honkey,'
'Whitey,' 'Caveman,'
... And that's OK.
But when I call you Nigger,
Kike, Towel head
Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey,
Beaner, Gook, or Chink
... You call me a racist.
You say that whites commit a lot
Of violence against you,
So why are the ghettos the most
Dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund.
You have Martin Luther King Day.
You have Black History Month.
You have Cesar Chavez Day.
You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi.
You have the NAACP.
And you have BET.
If we had WET(White Entertainment Television)
... We'd be racists
If we had a White Pride Day
... You would call us racists.
If we had White History Month
... We'd be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites To 'advance' OUR lives
... We'd be racists.
We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,
A Black Chamber of Commerce,
And then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?
If we had a college fund that only gave White students scholarships
... You know we'd be racists.
There are over 60 openly-proclaimed Black-only Colleges in the US ,
Yet if there were 'White-only Colleges'... THAT would be a racist college.
In the Million Man March, You believed that you were Marching for your race and rights.

If we marched for our race and rights, ... You would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, Brown, yellow and orange, And you're not afraid to announce it.

But when we announce our white pride ... You call us racists.

You rob us, Carjack us, And shoot at us.

But, when a white police officer Shoots a black gang member Or beats up a black drug-dealer

Who is running from the LAW and Posing a threat to ALL of society ... You call him a racist.

I am proud. ... But, you call me a racist.

Why is it that only Whites Can be racists?

There is nothing improper about this e-mail. Let's see which of you Are proud enough to send it on.
cid:010801c857ef$745ecfb0$43665DE4@JanWhitemanPC
John A. Emrick

I deleted her email address and the email addresses of the family members she sent this to, I'm not going to out them for the racists that they are, they already know it, and should be ashamed of themselves. This is so fucking wrong on so many fronts, I don't even know where to start. But I can tell them all this, being a racist when you're white and have all the fucking privilege in the world and then saying those people of color (against whom you are being a racist) are being racist against you? THAT is just so damned wrong, and you are so scared that giving equal rights to everyone is going to cost you the rights you've always had. It doesn't work that way! Grow up and get a fucking clue, people, racism is WRONG!!!!!!!!! I can't be emphatic enough about that. Everyone on this whole fucking planet deserves to be treated as a human being with all the same rights and responsibilities as every other person, and it doesn't matter what color you are, what religion you are, what gender you are, what size you are, or what your sexual orientation is. It doesn't even matter how smart or stupid you are, you still deserve equal rights.

Another clothing rant

This rant is about slacks/pants. A couple of years ago, I found some great knit slacks in Lane Bryant's catalog (cotton/polyester/spandex, and not a thin fabric at that). They had straight legs, elastic waist band (which is a must when the waists of pants are so high they hit my bra band), had pockets (have to have pockets), and came in talls. So, those slacks are getting worn out and I need to replace them. Does LB still carry them? For some reason, no, they don't. The only pants in that fabric with pockets have tapered legs (which I don't like, they cling to my compression stockings when my legs swell), and the elastic waist also has a drawstring that ties in front (WTF is the point of having a drawstring waist AND elastic?). The ones that have the straight legs don't have pockets, and they don't come in talls (I have a 32" inseam, so they have to be talls). I checked out Woman Within, and they don't have them either. Catherine's is a lost cause for me for pants, they don't carry talls at all (do they think all fat women have short legs or what?). Roaman's doesn't have them either, and neither do any of the other online catalogs I've checked. And what the hell is up with changing the sizing on pants from 18, 20, 22, 24, etc to 1X, 2X, 3X, etc? I know what size I wear in the conventional sizing (a 28) but this 1X/2X/etc bullshit means I have to guess if the damned pants are going to fit, because the conversion chart they give isn't very accurate (I ordered one pair using that chart, and the pants were way too big, and the fabric was thin and cheap).
Now, LB and Woman Within carry the denim bootcut leggings I like, in talls, with pockets, but I can't wear jeans all the time. There are times when I need a casual pant, but I have to have pockets (cell phone and van/house keys go in them, I don't like carrying a purse, my billfold holds everything else I need). I liked the pants from LB catalog because they were comfortable, they looked good, and they lasted quite a while, not to mention the fact that I didn't have to pay $40 or more per pair (I think they were $15.99 on sale, at that price, I could afford to have them in navy, black, brown, hunter green, burgundy, and charcoal gray). I have checked out every online catalog I know of for fat women's clothing and none of them have the kind of pants for which I am looking. Those pants are a staple of my wardrobe, and I am not a happy camper at the prospect of having to go out and hunt for the same type of fabric as those pants are made of, if I can even find it in the colors I want, then have to take an old pair of pants apart for a pattern, and make my own. Yes, I can do it, I used to make most of my clothing (back when bullet-proof polyester was in fashion and I could find it for $1.00 a yard). But it looks like that is what I'm going to have to do to get the pants I want (at least if I make my pants, I can alter the pattern so that the waist in front doesn't come all the way up to my bra). But damn, why can't they keep the pants I like? Why do they have to change the style every year? I mean, FFS, pants are damned pants, there are only so many ways they can be made, so why leave out important details like pockets and add superfluous details like a drawstring on an elastic waist?

For my husband, and all past & present soldiers

A very heartfelt thanks to all of you for your service to our country.