Opting to watch politics on my PBS & Twitter, as opposed to IRL

President Obama is coming to campus this Thursday. Surrounded by a mass of liberals that make up his base, he'll give a speech the day after his first debate with Mitt Romney.

I went to see Obama in 2008 at the Kohl Center while he was campaigning.
I saw him again in 2010 on campus, when he came here to campaign for congressional candidates during the midterm elections - too bad Russ Feingold lost and Scott Walker won, eh?

In theory, it would be nice to see him Thursday, but I don't think I will.
For one thing, it's at noon, so I'd probably have to take the entire day off to stand in line and then see him and etc.
When I saw him in 2010, we stood in line for an entire mile and after hours of waiting, they said, "Just go to Bascom Hill," and it was kind of a free-for-all of people streaming over the stairs between Van Vleck and Van Hise.

Worse yet, to attend the rally, one must obtain a "ticket." Getting a ticket is easy! Just give your full name, phone number, and e-mail address to the Obama campaign, :) (my eyes roll forever)
Even if I had people to go with (and I'm sure I could find people if I tried), I am just not feeling it this year.

I have acupuncture scheduled at 4pm, and I'm worried about traffic returning to normalcy in time for me to ride the bus/get my car. Maybe I'll just take the bus & forget my car.

Anyone planning on going?

The Casual Fatphobic Narrative

I've started reading J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, and I kind of like it so far.

It may be worth buying for some of the prose alone, everything else aside.
50 pages in, Rowling appears to be setting up a novel about local political intrigue, and also of class-based judgments between a "beautiful" community and an uglier community next-door that takes their tax money to pay for vandalized bus benches, etc.
As an added bonus, the character with whom I most identify thus far is a woman of color who immigrated to England.

It's got a lot going for it, is what I'm saying, and I plan to finish reading.


Throughout the first 40 or so pages, Rowling is introducing a varied cast of characters. She has a pretty negative view of society (which is part of why I enjoy the book). Some people are sympathetic, but most are not.

Then we get to Howard.

Though Pagford's delicatessen would not open until nine thirty, Howard Mollison had arrive early. He was an extravagantly obese man of sixty-four. A great apron of stomach fell so far down in front of this thighs that most people thought instantly of his penis when they first clapped eyes on him, wondering when he had last seen it, how he washed it, how he managed to perform any of the acts for which a penis is designed. Partly because his physique set off these trains of thought, and partly because of his fine line in banter, Howard managed to discomfort and disarm in almost equal measure, so that customers almost always bought more than they meant to on a visit to the shop.

For such an accomplished writer (seriously, some of the sentences in this thing), it strikes me as really fucking lazy to use a character's fatness as a marker of their flawed character.

She did it with Vernon and Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter, and now it's happening again.

And what the fuck is up with the penis!fascination in that quote?

I want to love you more, J.K. Rowling. Be better.