And Sasha Was Like...

› Virginia Gov. Candidate Cuccinelli Defending Law That Forbids Oral Sex

Hahaha uhhhhh, NO.

› Here Are Registration And Voting Instructions For All 50 States

Now you have no excuse. 

(Source: huffingtonpost)

› You Should Date Someone Who Cares About You

You should be with someone who values your time and calls when they say they are going to, who shows up on time to a date or texts you if they are going to be late. Spend your time with people who aren’t too important to look up from their phone and stop texting when you are speaking or who know not to answer unimportant calls when you are together. Someone who politely apologizes for taking that important call and knows who to pick up for. Someone who also knows that their parents and their grandparents are important in their life, too, and has a good enough relationship with their family to pick up when they call. Someone who still tells their mother or father “I love you,” even when they are in public, and who can’t wait to tell you, when the time is ready.

Date a person who is chivalrous, not as in “into patriarchy, paternalism and/or oppressing you” but as in someone who isn’t afraid to show they care about you. No matter your gender, be with someone who wants to open the door for you, just to smile as they watch you walk through it, and someone who lets you do the same for them. Someone who will pull out a chair for you or stand up when you leave the table, not because it’s expected of them socially but they want to show you how much your company means to them. Someone who wants to walk you home, not only to make sure you are safe but also because they want to spend more time with you and smile at you as your smile disappears behind the door. Someone who will wait up to hear you got home safe if they can’t walk you home and will ask you to walk them home, because they want to feel protected by you, too.

Seek out a mate who isn’t afraid to hold your hand or put their coat around you when you look cold, who knows that Public Displays of Affection aren’t as important as knowing you are cared for, even in small ways. Put your energy into a person who puts their energy and effort into you, someone who will buy you flowers if you like flowers or knows exactly what book you would want on your birthday. Someone who has listened to your opinions, your hopes and your desires enough to know the things you like and the things you don’t like, the correct ways to show you they care. Someone who knows to ask when you want to be held and caressed and when you want your space, when you want to have sex and what consent is. Someone who knows how important the word “no” is.

Date a person who tells you nice things about yourself and builds up your confidence but challenges you when you need to be challenged. You deserve to be with those who know when to argue and to call you on your bullsh-t, but also know when signals from you tell them to leave you alone and let it be. Someone who won’t let you go to bed angry and is willing to talk about what’s bothering you, if even what’s bothering you doesn’t quite make sense or seem that important to them. Someone who knows that personal relationships aren’t as simple as who is right and who is wrong, that your opinion and perspective are valid, even when the two of you totally disagree. Someone who knows you aren’t always right and they aren’t always right but are willing to affirm the person your belief system, because your opinions are a part of the person they adore.

Spend time with people who don’t make you choose between being friends and being lovers, who you feel like you can genuinely have fun and be comfortable with. You need to be able to be casual, hang out in your pajama pants and be like buddies sometimes, while also valuing the romantic side of your connection. Someone who (when you get that far) understands what balance is in a relationship, that sometimes you need to go out and do your own thing. Someone who trusts you to make your own choices and to come home and be with them at the end of the night without the need to interrogate you, or if you are in an open relationship, someone who always trusts that your connection is stronger. Someone who gets that being together and waking up together every day is a choice, one you have to continue to make and continue to commit to.

Date someone who wants what you want, who is open to the idea of the relationship you desire with another human being. You need to be with people who are open to what you have to give to them and are willing to match it. Someone who has communicated enough on the subject to know what you are looking for with someone, whether that be a fling, friends with benefits or a person to bring home to your parents or chosen family. Someone who isn’t afraid to give you what you want in life but also respects themselves enough to have standards and value what they need and deserve in this relationship (or even friendship!) Someone who isn’t afraid to let you know how they feel: about you, about life, about what’s important to them, about the future or about whatever is on their mind.

Life is short, so you shouldn’t waste it on someone who doesn’t understand you, refuses to try and get you, won’t put in the time for you, who is rude to you, your friends or to other people and doesn’t even call you. Don’t worry about if they read, if they don’t read, if they watch movies or if they’re into the wrong kind of music; worry about whether they care that you do. Details are important, but if the world ends this year, it’ll be more important to say you wasted the time you have left with someone who cares.

(Source: thatneedstogo, via crunkfeministcollective)

› Census: US poverty rose as incomes fell in 2010

There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009─ the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published, according to the new data.

Among some of the other data from the report:

• Women working full time earned about 77 percent of men, about the same ratio statistically as in 2009. But the number of men working full time dropped by 6.6 million while the number of women employed full time, with earnings, dropped by 2.8 million.
• The number of families in poverty has risen to 9.2 million in 2010 from 8.8 million in 2009. That boosted the family poverty rate to 11.7 percent from 11.1 percent.  
• For children under 18, the poverty rate rose to 22.0 percent from 20.7 percent, while for ages 18 to 64 it increase to 13.7 percent from 12.9 percent.

› A Bad Year for White Whine: College Scholarships and the Cult of Caucasian Victimhood

It’s hard out there for a white guy.

› 50 Habits of Highly Successful People

2. They find a lesson while others only see a problem.

7. They rarely complain (waste of energy). All complaining does is put the complainer in a negative and unproductive state.

16. They are life-long learners. They constantly work at educating themselves, either formally (academically), informally (watching, listening, asking, reading, student of life) or experientially (doing, trying)… or all three.

31. They are secure. They do not derive their sense of worth of self from what they own, who they know, where they live or what they look like.

45. They have an off switch. They know how to relax, enjoy what they have in their life and to have fun.

47. They are more interested in effective than they are in easy. While the majority look for the quickest, easiest way (the shortcut), they look for the course of action which will produce the best results over the long term.

48. They finish what they start. While so many spend their life starting things that they never finish, successful people get the job done – even when the excitement and the novelty have worn off. Even when it ain’t fun.

› Wikitravel

Resolution for 2011: Spend as little time in Florida (and the U.S) as possible.

› Goodreads.

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites. Never again will I have a problem keeping track of what I’ve read or want to read, and I fiiinally have a place to save quotes in a reliable manner (bye-bye scraps of paper and random nonsensical drafts on my phone!).

If you have one, add me. If you don’t have one, make one. Then add me.