I started going back to the YMCA with the following wellness goals in mind: Prevent weight gain. Clear the mind. Important in creativity. Manage stress. Get my conditioning back and start running again. Adding movement to go with modifying food after hibernating all winter. Why the Y? I have one downtown and use it after … Continue reading Music Monday: Fatima’s YMCA Work Out Playlist
Category: Life
Top 10 Book Lover Struggles
For the record, I have struggled with all of it. I especially excel in number 9, losing my bookmark in my sheets. Too bad there 9a doesn't exist, that's leaving the book on your bed and somehow sleeping on it. That actually happened one night. While I enjoy Goodreads, the Savvy Reader 50 Book pledge … Continue reading Top 10 Book Lover Struggles
Music Monday: I’m Afraid of Americans By David Bowie
Over the weekend between errands and general lollygagging, I confirmed Berlin Station had made it's way to Canada, a piece of good news. Bad news, it's on iTunes, and I use a Chromecast. It's another headscratcher for Canadian viewers as one show from a network, like Graves, can end up on Google Play while another … Continue reading Music Monday: I’m Afraid of Americans By David Bowie
A Music Monday With No Music And Other Musings
My Monday in an image: No, I didn't stay up late watching the Oscars. I found out about the Best Picture debacle live on Twitter. Mistake numero uno, too much screen time. I wanted to see what song would the award, and I hoped Oscar did not go to 'City of Stars.' People talk about … Continue reading A Music Monday With No Music And Other Musings
Finally A Shared Article With Full Text
In the early Facebook years, 2007-09ish, I find an article to share after reading, reading it again, then thinking 'I must share this!' The shareable features in WordPress allow me to do the same thing for both Twitter and Facebook. Good thing too in regards to the woman at the centre of this article from … Continue reading Finally A Shared Article With Full Text
The Last Decent Person in Washington
Just a word of warning. I tried opening the red, full-story, bar and got nowhere. The original source is the New York but even this excerpt from Longreads gives people a glimpse into Carla Hayden and the work she does at the Library Of Congress. (One of the holiest of holies in the library world … Continue reading The Last Decent Person in Washington
Finding My Funny
The email from the Prairie Theatre Exchange acting school reminded me about spots left in some their winter term classes. I already took a 20 week, yup 20, acting foundations class. I learned my mind was Teflon at the time while memorising a monologue for the class but helped me get out of some areas … Continue reading Finding My Funny
#MusicMonday: Let The River Run by Carly Simon
Carly Simon discography contains songs people will sing hum quietly or sing at the top of their lung years after charting. She's the woman behind 'You're So Vain,' writing songs about ex-lovers before Taylor Swift turned that subject into an album concept. She's not a stranger to movie soundtracks starting with 'Nobody Does It Better,' … Continue reading #MusicMonday: Let The River Run by Carly Simon
A Fat Body and a Fat Mind: On Taking Up Space, Unapologetically
I read this essay and immediately shared it on Twitter. Lately, I have tried to reclaim my body after years of being ashamed of it. I still remember those times people took my name and said, “Fat-Fat-Fatima.” The more I branched out, the more the teasing increased. One time, the vice principal at my elementary school gave me a Participaction Fitness wheel, the kind telling me how much activity would burn off certain foods. Guess it beat dealing with the guys doing the teasing.
When this essay came along, I felt thankful somebody else in high school will not have to go through diets or deprivation. They will not look back at their school pictures and say “hey, I was not bad.” These girls, and guys, will have the tools to take a look at a narrative square in the eye and call bullshit on it.
Carmen Maria Machado?s stunning essay in Guernica on the power of women who take up space is an important read for people of any size. Midway through the piece, she describes what happens to self-perception when you live in a world where there’s little representation of your physical self, and what representation there is is mocking or shaming.
Every day, I look for myself in other women’s bodies. This is what happens when you never see yourself in television shows or catalogues or movies—you get hungry. In passersby, I seek out a faithful replica of my own full chest: my plastic-bag stomach pooched over jeans, my milk-carton hips, and my face with its peach-pit cheekbones set in coffee grounds. In this way, I see myself in pieces, mostly, and have to assemble my body in my mind.
It isn’t like my mother and the woman buying the peppers; I’m…
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Only Connect
Longreads shared this article from The Economist about refugees and mobile phones. On the journey to a new life, phones feed the soul as the body goes hungry. The Economist reports on how refugees prize mobile phone connection — even over food. via Phones Over Food: Why Mobile Phones Are More Important to Refugees — Longreads
Unpaused Life 