Sick Cure

I got sick a little while ago. I'm better now, and I submit that this is why: I stopped drinking coffee, drank like a gallon of orange juice, and forced myself to chew a garlic clove before bed. I also drank a special drink made of hot water, lemon juice, jaggery, garlic, and cayenne. Lots of cayenne. If that can't cure your cold, there is really no hope for you.

MABROUK, YA MASREEN!

I stayed up way too late last night, with the intention of celebrating Egypt's overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. To be perfectly honest, I spent most of yesterday reading or watching or listening to news from Egypt and weeping in public. I'm a teary person, but the jubilation of seeing a nation free themselves from 30 years of oppression and tyranny is just too good to keep any kind of composure. It was wonderful hearing everyone in the streets, crying out "be proud, you're an Egyptian!" It's just so rare to hear good news, especially from this region, that has such a sense of hope. I've spent a lot of time hoping for this day, both for Egypt and for other countries struggling under unjust regimes. It's insane to think that finally a revolution based on human dignity and the desire for social justice and freedom has succeeded. To have words like freedom and justice bandied around in a totally sincere way is incredibly moving, and I think it was the contrast between the protesters complete life-and-death sincerity and Mubarak's empty rhetoric in his last speech that made it so enraging. Was it just the right time? Why now? Why Egypt (first, I hope!)? Things to think about.

One thing that gives me hope that the Egyptians will find a peaceful and democratic government moving forward is the communal spirit of the revolution and the sense of responsibility for their future that Egyptians feel. As they banded together to clean up downtown after the fights and protests of the past 18 days, a flyer distributed says:

"Today this country is your country. Do not litter. Don't drive through traffic lights. Don't bribe. Don't forge paperwork. Don't drive the wrong way. Don't drive quickly to be cool while putting lives at risk. Don't enter through the exit door at the metro. Don't harass women. Don't say, 'It's not my problem.' Consider God in your work. We have no excuse anymore."

First, that's kind of hilarious, because it sums up all the daily ills of life in Cairo, but it's also amazing, because instead of the usual cynicism and resignation that was so embedded in the national psyche, it shows an incredible sense of agency and hope.

Color Palettes

Uh oh. I just stumbled down an internet rabbit hole into a world of color!

It started by a memory of this Camp Comfort post about Wear Palettes, a blog of color palettes taken from street style (and other) photographs. Like this one, cute, right?
While I was looking for that, I found this cool website Color Hunter that creates custom color palettes from your images for you. Unfortunately, it doesn't catch smaller patches of colors, even if they're a big deal in the outfit. For example, in this one below, where's the red from the shorts? What about the bright blue in the towel?
This next one is from a painting by Egon Schiele, called The Artist's Wife. Where's her green shirt? And the red hair came out kinda brown.Anyway, this post from Style Bubble clued me in to using Paint to pull out the colors. I guess everything isn't automatic. It also has some nice examples from Wear Palettes, I particularly like the dark rich plaid palettes. Plus, it sent me to Colour Lovers, a community of palettes, color trends, interactive graphs (!!!), and other joyous color fun. I'm definitely going to check it out further.
I made this on Paint just now. See how much better my color palette is than the automatically generated one? So much better.

un-glamorous work clothes

Now that I have an internship where I have to look professional, I have discovered that my usual wardrobe of (jeans + LLbean boots + plaid shirts) or (girly dresses + giant earrings) is not really "business casual." Clothes with holes (the alarming majority) are also out. Which is too bad, because I get lots of compliments on my shabby wardrobe. Therefore I am looking for a nice blazer, some kind of business shoes, and a nice leather bag. Let's begin:
from Les Anti-Modernes. I'm not even going to see where she bought it because I am quite sure I cannot buy it. But it is a "boyfriend blazer" which I don't understand. What does this "boyfriend" label mean? On jeans, it seems to mean: straight, kinda baggy, so ok, I understand that, but on a skinny blazer? I guess it just means "cut straight" not "could be your boyfriend's," unless your boyfriend is really skinny and quite stylish.
Another "boyfriend blazer"! This one is from JCrew, who has lots of nice expensive jackets. Unfortunately, that is the only nice thing about JCrew, who has been disappointing me A LOT lately with their stupid ruffles on everything and ridiculous styling. They used to be pretty, classic clothing but I think they have let the Michelle Obama endorsement get to their heads. I am not even anti-ruffle, I am just anti-Jcrew: ridiculous pricing for clothes made in third world countries, the absurd "we hand-sewed on these sequined flowers onto artisanal tweed from the finest mill in Portugal" prose in the catalog, the unattractive too-many-frilly-accessories styling, half-tucked in shirts, neon ankle socks, and so on and on and on. Rant over.
Ok, next I need some shoes. They have to be warm & look classy, preferably kinda retro. These are from etsy & are about $25 and more or less my size but I won't get them, because that is $25 + shipping for shoes I can't try on. Really I want the shoes that belong to my Policy teacher who I love & who is always super stylish & whose hairdo I try to copy when I go to work (only she has dark curly hair which is the opposite of mine) & who I want to be when I grow up. The other young women at the agency I "work" at also have great brogue-like shoes but they are short and so are used to wearing heels more. That's my problem with shoes-- a two inch heel makes me six feet tall.
Ok, losing steam! This is a boring shopping list anyway, but I need a nice leather bag. Zeb went to Unique (our favorite cheapo thrift store) on Monday while I was in class and I told him to find me a nice leather bag but he returned empty-handed. So since that's about all the effort I'm willing to put into shopping for a bag, I'll just post this one from the first blog I referenced, even though I don't really like it, just to give you an idea of what we're talking about here.

Warning: Post Includes Talk about Tampons

The other day my friend loaned me an organic tampon and said that she'd heard that normal tampons have fiberglass in them to increase bleeding. (!!!) You know, so that the company sells more tampons?

Anyway, since that sounded totally absurd, I decided to sleuth a bit and according to a reputable looking source, (and the back of my box of tampons) there is no fiberglass in tampons but there can potentially be dioxins, which could potentially cause cancer, eventually. The dioxins can come from the bleaching process or from a rayon-cotton blend, or even from pesticides used on the cotton when it is growing. This is either dangerous because you are putting them on a very absorbent part of your body for quite awhile, repeatedly, or not something to worry about because there are dioxins & pesticides & harmful chemicals everywhere so the tiny amount in tampons are chump change. The latter view is the official FDA line, and I think I'll go with that, since I'd rather not worry about it.

Myth-Busting!

I frequently get into discussions with friends during which it becomes clear that someone is Totally Wrong about some fact, but no one knows enough to truly disprove them.

For example, canker sores are nasty little sores on the inside of your mouth or on your gums or the inside of your cheeks. They are NOT in fact "cold sores" which are caused by a variation of the Herpes simplex virus and are recurring and on the outside of your lips. Canker sores are caused by a variety of random things, like food allergies/sensitivities, rough toothbrushing, stress, and lack of sleep. The Mayo Clinic (the ultimate source) also recommends switching to toothpaste with no sodium lauryl sulfate, which actually works, I think. Tom's of Maine makes some, but they were pricey so we got Weleda's Salt Toothpaste which is good but makes you thirsty, and Peelu toothpaste which Zeb hates because it has weird fibrous bits in it but I think is not that bad.