educate

Stay The Fuck Home The Learn Something New Edition

Being stuck at home, doesn’t mean that you need to spend 75% of your time on the couch and 25% of your time sleeping. Take this time to learn something new. The other day I saw a butterfly and now I’m reading up on butterflies. If you love bats, last summer I did several blog posts about going out nightly with my bat detector. You could also pick a historical figure and learn about them. Learn how to build a model plane, train or action figure. Read up on science type things. Keep your brain active! Below is are a few of the things I’m doing!

Butterflies One of the most beautiful things to see is a butterfly. It signifies hope, warmer weather and new life. Butterflies start out as caterpillars and after hibernating, because floating works of art. Below are a few links so you can also read up on them.

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/969e-Biodiversity_ButterfliesBook-Division-Planning-And-Development.pdf

https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

https://www.cambridgebutterfly.com/all-about-butterflies/

https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/why-butterflies-matter

Nell Shipman was a Canadian actress, author, screenwriter, producer, director, and animal activist/trainer. Her works often had autobiographical elements to them and reflected her passion for nature. Recently, we watched her movie Back to God’s Country. It was glorious. She was glorious!

Cross-stitch isn’t really a new thing for me, rather I’m relearning how to do it. I want to make art with it as well as embellish the clothing I make. Also, it’s a lot of fun!


Tips https://www.buzzfeed.com/elizabethlilly/cross-stitching-tips-every-beginner-should-know

Free patterns https://www.dmc.com/us/free-patterns-5041/free-patterns-5042/free-cross-stitch-patterns-5044.html

https://www.tinymodernist.com/pages/cross-stitch-basics

Aloha Wanderwell was a sassy young woman and an inspiration! https://www.alohawanderwell.com/

Container gardening is a great way to grow your own food, especially if you live in an apartment with a balcony. When I had a balcony I great a bunch of my own veggies and herbs. I loved planting them in the spring and watching them grow. Considering everything going on, learning how to grow your own food is a great asset and skill to have.

https://www.almanac.com/content/container-gardening-vegetables

Soapmaking is a great way to make your own bath products, but a fun thing to do with your kids as well. Once upon a time I ran a small business that made bath products and bars of soap was one of the products. Again, this is a skill I am relearning.

With or without Lye — https://wellnessmama.com/60992/how-to-make-soap/

Drawing Lessons After years of not drawing, (I used to sketch and draw everyday) I picked up the pencils again about a year ago. Recently, I did a 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge and man o man do I need to relearn a lot! I’ve been doing a few online tutorials to help me get better again.

https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-learn-to-draw-stage-one-manual-skills–cms-23304

https://www.creativebloq.com/features/how-to-draw-animals-people-landscapes

Silk Screening is another skill I need to relearn for both art projects and to make merchandise! I used to make my own t-shirts for a feminist website I used to run in the late 90s and it’s time to get back at silk screening.

https://lifehacker.com/a-simple-guide-to-screen-printing-your-own-shirts-5886483

What new skills do you want to learn or who are you reading about?

Oh Hi Gino

higino

Ladies and Gents. Meet Gino or Steve or Ray or what ever his name is this week. Gino is a pick-up artist. Gino likes to target women over the age of 50.  Gino  is currently looking for an Educated, Activity 50+, Partner Walking, Biking, Dinning & Theatre.  For a good time email gino8@mail.com. If you are into Partner Walking , Dinning and Activity 50+ (what ever those things are), Gino is your guy.

Just when we thought that James Sears political career put Dimitri the Lover in it’s preverbal douche bag grave, when we stopped certain men from coming across the border to run conferences on how to mistreat women, when we finally thought that we could go a summer with out men cat-calling women… along comes Gino.

I’m trying very hard not not email or call Gino to set him up.  Setup a date with him and send him into the middle of nowhere. What I want to do is very immature, so instead I am making everyone aware that yet another pickup artist is on the loose. However, I am not stopping anyone else from doing so.

A month ago my neighbour saw his flyers appearing  on trees and poles in Roncesvalles. Within a couple of days they all disappeared. Then yesterday, we noticed new ones in the High Park area. I’ve noticed there are some blazing differences from his current flyer and the one from a month ago.  The flyer above, he is no longer specifying which gender he is interested in.  Maybe he is all about gender equality when it comes to his doucheness. Maybe he wasn’t having any luck with the ladies and decided to broaden his options?  Maybe he is an equal opportunity douchebag. Gino has also switched from listing his phone number (as you will see in the photo below) to now listing only his email.  Was Gino overwhelmed by all the attention his phone was getting from the ladies?  Was he tired of his phone ringing at 4 am?  Or all of the discouraging texts he was being sent?  Did your dreams not live up to their expectations Gino?  I wonder if his phone number is still in working order?

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(photo credit Valerie Gow)

I don’t understand this mentality.  This desire to treat women like objects rather than human beings. The need to degrade them and treat them like dirt.  Haven’t we moved forward enough as human beings to realize this is wrong? How do men like Gino or Ray or Steve or what ever his name is, still think it is ok to act this way. As a society we should be moving beyond all of this, educating those who still think it is ok, that misogyny is ok. Respecting each other, loving each other. In the year 2016 we should no longer be living in a world that still has to deal with misogyny, rape culture, homophobia or racism. If we could put end to the above mentality, end homophobia and racism, events like Orlando would not be happening.

If you see these types of flyers, tear them down. If you see any type of propaganda that is about misogyny, racist or homophobic in theme, tear them down.  Speak out against it. Complain. Be verbal. Write about it. Educate those around you. Help bring an end to it. We should live in a world that we feel safe in.  Be able to go out at night and not worry about being attacked. Go to school and not worry about being raped. Show public affection and not worry about being beaten up and have derogatory words yelled at us. We shouldn’t be ashamed of the colour of our skin, our religious choices, our gender, our sexual preferences or who we are. People like Gino need to stop disrespecting women. We all need to start respecting each other.

Tear down the flyers, educate, love one another.