Weekly Food For Thought: 07/01/2018

The European Parliament killed the Internet. I'm not joking - and as some of you are fellow bloggers, you should know about this and how it might affect the way you post and link back to other sites. Fan-fic and fiction writers, also beware.

"Beauty means something different for everyone. It’s whatever makes you feel good," says Tess Holliday. She created the viral hashtag #EffYourBeautyStandards

Lance Bass, former NSYNC boy band member, has some great tips for looking after your mental health, but can we stop centering the voices of white, gay, cis-males in the LGBT+ community?

I am but a humble Upper Midwest resident and yet I resonate very much with this fresh take on what popular trends Southern girls are shucking and what they're donning instead. Allow me to tip my hat to that leopard print.

Priyanka Chopra Wants the World to Rethink How It Sees Beauty

Should St Paul, MN raise it's minimum wage to $15 an hour? With the same recent success in Minneapolis, St Paul now considers taking the plunge and the public weighs in. Not entirely sure how or if that would effect my pay just north of the greater metro, but $15 is more than I currently make. #jealous.

The best picnic is one that features fresh and locally-sourced food, right? The City Pages has the hookup in Your Guide to The Ultimate Minnesota Picnic.

I love the Guthrie - it's one of the best theaters in Minnesota and this summer it's featuring a very timely performance of West Side Story, with more depth and less finger snapping. So excited that I'll get to see this one!

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What's on My Mental Health Shelf?

I recently came across an article on ManRepeller from Victoria Storm - where she describes a "mental health shelf" - whether real or imaginary, that was a compendium of books, movies, music, or rituals we return to when we need a comfort boost or a mental health pick-me-up.

Now, I understand that not everyone is the type of person who enjoys re-watching the same movies over and over or re-reading a few favorite books hundreds of times - it definitely cuts into the amount of time we have to new and shiny experiences - but let's be honest. Nostalgia is great.

So here are the things on my personal Mental Health Shelf:

Films

Hocus Pocus | Labyrinth | Fifth Element | The Princess Bride | Kamikaze Girls | The Mummy

Books

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang | Dracula by Bram Stoker | Inkheart by Cornelia Funke | Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy | Malice by Chris Wooding | The Raven by Edgar Allen Po

Music

Spice Girls | HYDE | Olivia Lufkin | Linkin Park | Queens of the Stone Age | Che…

The Intersection of Myers-Briggs, Zodiac Signs, and Numerology

I've always wondered at the popularity of things like Myers-Briggs Personality Assessments, our cultural obsession with zodiac signs and astrology, and the newfound interest in numerology. It occurred to me that while we ought to know ourselves best, we are faced with crippling doubt as to our own identities and who can blame us? We're bombarded with media messages everyday telling us who and what we should strive to be.

And really, this quest to pin down our personalities and identities like an insect to a piece of cardboard isn't anything new - the philosophical sciences have been debating about what makes us tick for thousands of years. Today, we have at our fingertips so many resources as clues into understanding who we are and why we do the things we do. Entire seminars are held about communication styles, personality types, astrological alignments, and how it all determines our place in the universe.

I say, please take it all with a grain of salt.

My Life Path Number…

When Shameful Memories Ruin Your Day

When I was about 19 and Livejournal was still a thing, I was part of a community on there called "Bad Makeup" - yeah, it's pretty much what it sounds like. A group of self-proclaimed makeup gurus and enthusiasts that got their jollies posting photos of people with either poorly applied makeup or whatever they considered "bad" and then mocking them mercilessly for it. And we're not just talking about celebrities or public figures with makeup mishaps - these were their friends, family members, random strangers on the internet and even each other that they were cruelly targeting.

Why I was a member in such a group, I don't know. I think it was fear of becoming one of their targets while I was young and experimenting with makeup. I think perhaps I always wanted to feel a sense of superiority over other people in some way...

Anywho, I had finally gotten up the nerve to make a post of my own. I thought I would share a few photos of a previous friend group th…

On the Cusp

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