Day Ten: Crevasse

This was taken in the parking lot at River Legacy Park after today's bike ride. I didn't see any animals at all today (squirrels and grackles don't count). Bummer.

I did, however, pass one of the professors from my university walking his dog.  I don't think he recognized me.  

All Mixed Up

Black and navy!  Dots and stripes!  This outfit is fun for me because it combines pattern-mixing and basic-color-mixing. But because the colors themselves are subtle, it does all of this mixing without being too challenging to the eye and is deceptively simple.    

The dress is navy and white, the cardigan and shirt are black and white. I wasn't sure how I felt about navy and black together, but, as it turns out, I like it. Plus, this is just one of my absolute favorite dresses. It's so comfortable and versatile.

Outfit details:

Dress and cardigan:  thrifted

Black and white striped shirt:  Target (years and years ago)

Shoes:  Naturalizer

Day Nine: Faded Light

I have nothing to say about this one. No clever quotes. Nothin'.

Day Eight: Thorny

"One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning." ~James Russell Lowell

Etsy exploration: collage shoes

Browsing etsy today, I came across these shoes from Peace of Pi Studio:

They are upcycled and collaged with environmental messages.  They are awesome!  I love the way they look and what they have to say.  If I had the money to spend, these shoes would be mine.  As it is, I won't be able to afford them any time soon, so I'll post them here for others' and my own enjoyment. 

Viva La Stewart!

I'm becoming more and more engrossed in the debates and news surrounding the upcoming election, and it is beginning to show in my clothing. I can't wear my Obama shirt to teach in, so I did the next best thing today: I wore my Jon Stewart shirt.


I actually wore the sweater partially buttoned while I was teaching to keep Jon Stewart's face from being too obvious and too distracting in class as I taught, but just having him there made me feel a little better.

I enjoyed this outfit not just because of Jon Stewart, though. The bright colors and contrast between the red shirt and electric blue/purple skirt made me happy, plus it turned out to be really quite comfortable, suitable not only for walking back and forth from school (comfy shoes--yay!) but also for moving around the classroom and for sitting. Not all of the outfits I enjoy aesthetically allow for ease in all of those activities.

Outfit details:

Jon Stewart tee shirt: I'm not sure anymore

Skirt: thrifted

Belt and sweater: Target

Tights: we love colors

Shoes: Naturalizer

Day Seven: Frank

During today's bike ride, I saw an armadillo! I was in a good groove, though, so I didn't stop and try to take a picture. It was a hard choice. They're funny when they're startled. They jump straight up in the air.

Instead of startling the armadillo, though, I startled a walker. I passed a girl and her boyfriend on the left and apparently she didn't hear me coming until I was right next to them. She screamed. It was almost as funny as startling the armadillo would've been.

Stylemob: yea or nay?

I've been using stylemob since its inception, but I'm seriously contemplating deleting my account and abandoning the site. I rarely visit it (I get a lot more out of wardrobe_remix on flickr anyway) and when I do visit it I tend to be put off by it.

I don't like the voting element of stylemob and I don't like the tone of too many of the comments I receive. There are a lot of really nice people who use stylemob, but I also get comments like this one: "okay.... no comment but you need a stylist hunni." That comment was left on this outfit:


I can respect that not everyone shares my taste (and sometimes even I don't like all of my outfits so much in retrospect), but I don't need that kind of negativity in my life. Especially not from someone who hasn't uploaded any photos herself and who has commented on one of my other photos, saying: "kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkh."

What do others think of stylemob? Have you had good experiences? Bad experiences?

Day Six: Mr. Balloon Man

Walking home from school today, I spotted this work of graffiti on the wall by the bridge that crosses Cooper Street (the main street in Arlington that goes through the center of the university campus). It reminds me of the Mr. Men and Little Miss children's book series by Roger Hargreaves. I loved those books as a child.


This character seems depressed, though, unlike most of the Mr. Men/Little Miss characters. I don't know why he should be unhappy, though; he has a bright blue balloon, after all.

Day Five: Reading Rainbow

Remember that show? With Levar Burton? Anyway. This is a partial shot of one of my bookshelves. The closest book is one of my Jasper Fforde novels.

Books and pretty colors = happy Christy. :-)

Day Four: Unbalanced

I've been feeling a little off the last couple of days. Hopefully, I'll be back to my usual self soon.

Day Three: Turtle

At the park today, I saw this turtle walking along the middle of the road, so I stopped and picked him up and carried him to the grass by the trees. He was about a foot long. He sat still and let me get up in his face and take photos for a few minutes before he poked his head and legs out and turtled away into the trees.

The Blame Game

From yesterday's university newspaper, in an article about the increase in crime on campus:

Forcible sex offenses increased from one in 2006 to five in 2007, and burglaries more than doubled from 31 in 2006 to 72 in 2007, according to the [university's annual crime] report.

Assistant Police Chief Rick Gomez said most of the sexual offenses were "date rapes," crimes where the victim knew the offender. They often happened in residences and involved alcohol, he said.

"Women need to be smarter about who they date and be careful about what they drink, so that they'll have their senses about them so things like that won't happen," he said. "But as far as women just walking out around campus and being raped by a stranger--that's not happening."

In other words, if women were more discriminating and didn't drink so much, "things like that [wouldn't] happen."

I do believe that women need to be prepared to protect themselves if a man tries to rape or assault them (whether they know the man responsible or not), but the logic of Gomez's statement is not the logic of "just in case" but the logic of causality: if they "have their senses about them," are smarter, and behave themselves, then they won't be assaulted. After all, they're not assaulted when doing something innocent like walking across campus, he notes. It's true that most sexual assault and rape is perpetrated by someone the victim knows, but that doesn't indicate that the victim made a bad decision in getting to know that person (rapists don't wear signs) or that the victim invited the assault. Instead it indicates something about the sexual offender.

I am appalled at this statement. I am appalled that this logic is still so prevalent, that it comes from a source of supposed authority, and that it was published on the front page of a university newspaper.

I do believe I'll submit a version of this post to the school paper as an opinion piece in response to the article.

Day Two: Feminism

I am a feminist. I am studying feminist theory, following politics with an eye on feminist issues, teaching students to see the world in terms of feminism (among other things), and living a life predicated upon the advances made by feminism and hoping toward a future of even more feminist advances.

"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." ~Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler

"Because women's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...for lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement." ~Author unknown, quoted in The Torch, 14 September 1987

"You are a human being. You have rights inherent in that reality. You have dignity and worth that exists prior to law." ~Lyn Beth Neylon

Project 365: Day One

I finished the 365 Days self-portrait project a few weeks ago and since then I've rather missed my daily photography routine. It was certainly nice to take a break from it and I was damn tired of taking pictures of myself every day, but I'm ready to get back in the game.

But I'm getting into a different game this time. No more self-portraits. As of today, I am beginning a different daily photography project: Project 365. This project is, quite simply, about taking one photograph a day for a year. Some can be self-portraits, but that's not the focus of the group.

I'll be posting my photography here as well as on flickr. Here's my opening shot: