gdp's Comments

The Toast : An Open Thread, and Sea Room

Fri, 1 Jul 2016 16:18:29 +0000

Minie is ready. TAKE TO THE SEA! <img src="https://scontent-frt3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/e35/13525475_1733328426923042_1724523189_n.jpg"> Goodbye dear Toasties. As I wrote a couple of months back, I hope we scatter across the entire Internet and also the entire offline world and create a zillion more spaces to replace this one. And I hope that every new space we create is as safe, funny, respectful, thought-provoking, and empowering as this one. Also I will probably cave in a few weeks and join every single social media channel to find y'all. But until then, will follow any Toasties on Instagram - @cartoonminie for more pictures of the above dog. Thank you to the editors, writers, tech peeps, and illustrators who made this such an incredible website. I hope you all find brilliant new jobs or lives of extravagant leisure, whichever most takes your fancy. See you around!

The Toast : A note on The Toast

Fri, 1 Jul 2016 16:00:30 +0000

I am sorry that other women haven't helped you out in your professional life. If it helps, being the woman who supports other women or helps other women out feels seriously just as amazing as being helped or supported by other women. Even if you can't find ladies in your industry, if you can find any kind of local women's business network or women's chamber of commerce network, it feels GREAT and weirdly empowering to give your money to other women for services rendered. My city has a tradeswomen network and it is my go-to for plumbers, mechanics, carpenters, and so on. My tailor and shoe repair peeps are also women. So even if you don't need them right this minute, I can thoroughly recommend proactively building a list of local women service providers for any service you may need in the future (pest control, locksmiths, portrait photography, bookkeeping, printers, removal services, whatever). Happy bonus - I have zero angst that the electrician who is coming to look at my oven next week will condescend to me or rip me off on the grounds that I'm a woman.

The Toast : A note on The Toast

Fri, 1 Jul 2016 14:25:04 +0000

Yesterday the Two Monks made me cry. Today it was Hillary Clinton. OK then!

The Toast : Hey Ladies: Take it to Slack

Fri, 1 Jul 2016 07:39:30 +0000

In years to come, the Hey Ladies series will be pored over, annotated, and used in English classes to teach the incredible rewards of close reading. Thanks so much for getting the ball rolling on this!

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Thu, 30 Jun 2016 21:43:30 +0000

But I don't think attraction works that way. Normative-beauty-compliant people date people who are not normative-beauty-compliant for reasons of age, weight, disability, skin colour, gender presentation etc all the time. Most of the time, probably, since there are so many many ways to not be normative-beauty-compliant. It doesn't make the normative-beauty-compliant people suspicious. What's suspicious is the idea that a person cannot be beautiful and attractive if they fail to comply with normative beauty standards (e.g. by being older). I do understand being suspicious of the older party, though, since youth correlates with 'being easier to manipulate due to inexperience'. But hopefully someone in their 30s would have enough experience that this would not be an issue.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Thu, 30 Jun 2016 16:46:46 +0000

I would like to thank leaping_rabbit again for being such a spreadsheet badass and organising the Toast Post Summer Care Package Exchange and also to my Toastie match for sending the package in such good time. Mine has arrived already. I am waiting for tomorrow to open it, and it is something sweet to look forward to on a day that will be probably be more than a little bittersweet otherwise. Thank you!

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Thu, 30 Jun 2016 15:54:27 +0000

My mum's partner is my age. They've been together for over a decade, he treats her like the queen that she is, and my response has always been GO MUM! because that's what she deserves.

The Toast : Open Thread!

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 09:16:47 +0000

Marmite and butter. Honey and butter. Mashed up chicken livers with brandy sauce.

The Toast : The Toast Looks Back: The Best of If X Were Your Y

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 07:55:43 +0000

Did not ever think the Two Monks would make me cry. But there you have it.

The Toast : Open Thread!

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 20:30:44 +0000

I think you just type over whatever you want to edit and it saves automatically. That's what I did!

The Toast : Open Thread!

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 20:28:25 +0000

*a flock of kittens* <3

The Toast : Open Thread!

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 20:24:47 +0000

For the record, it's as normal to be freaked out about getting a dog as it is to be freaked out by people who refer to their dogs as fur-kids. And it's also perfectly normal to say "I will never refer to my dog as my fur-kid or to myself as my dog's mum" and then to cave approximately 6 months in. Ahem. Mine is a calm, old, low-energy perma-toddler who sleeps 90% of the time, but her naked need for human attention and affection is not in any way comparable to the independence of a deadbeat roommate (i.e. a cat) and it brought out the parental in me in ways that I was not expecting and never experienced with cats. Definitely not all dogs are like that and not all people will have that reaction. But if it happens and it freaks you out, that too is normal and will be OK.

The Toast : Open Thread!

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 17:24:55 +0000

Does anyone else have public figures who represent everything you despise but who you also can't help but sincerely admire in one very small and specific way? Mine is Theresa May. I am 100% against all her politics and everything she stands for and everything she wants to do with the country, but whenever I see a photo of her, I cannot help but admire her sense of style and how she makes it work for her. She dresses so well!

The Toast : The Toast Looks Back: The Best of If X Were Your Y

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 17:07:37 +0000

'If the velociraptor from Jurassic Park were you girlfriend' may not be my favourite post ever (though it almost certainly is), but it's definitely the post that made me feel most intimately and somewhat uncomfortably understood. "A nudge on your arm, a nod down at the dish. She left you two steaks." *sigh*

The Toast : Open Thread!

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 15:29:52 +0000

There is a Toast Connections spreadsheet for all your Toastie-finding needs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_26MiL9WN...

The Toast : Open Thread!

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 15:26:59 +0000

Very normal. I was increasingly freaked out in the days before my dog arrived and for a few days after, but it quickly became clear that adopting her was the best decision ever.

The Toast : Open Thread!

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 15:18:09 +0000

Oh dear. If you can find (and afford) an vet who specialises in behavioural issues (rather than a trainer), they should be able to recommend rather more than special food treats. For one thing, vets can assess whether anti-anxiety medication might help and, if so, prescribe it. I don't know what it's like where you are, but in my city there is a mobile behavioural vet who only does home visits so that she can assess the dog in the environment where the problem behaviours are occurring. If it's not possible to see a behavioural vet right now, Karen Overall's Protocol for Relaxation is a nice thing to do with your dog and might help with the feelings of hopelessness and frustration, to which I totally relate. That's partly because it can help teach a non-chill dog some self-soothing skills in your absence, but especially because it only takes 5-10 minutes a day and moves forward in tiny but quantifiable increments, so you have a tangible metric of how you're being proactive and making progress in helping her. It does involve treats, but not super-special ones, regular kibble is fine. I have an adapted version, which I can send if you like, or there are copies on the internet.

The Toast : Link Roundup!

Mon, 27 Jun 2016 13:51:28 +0000

Ride on a steam train! The Swanage Steam Railway that goes past Corfe Castle is particularly lovely in summer, but there are other steam railways around. Also, if you are not a vegetarian, then I would cut a coupon out of a newspaper or the Internet and go to a Toby carvery, any Toby carvery, for a roast with unlimited veggies and probably a free dessert thanks to the coupon. I've eaten the carvery roast at Tobys all over England and never had a bad one.

The Toast : Cocktail Hour: Open Thread

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 16:41:56 +0000

His ears omg! What a great mixture of handsome and goofy!

The Toast : Cocktail Hour: Open Thread

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 16:38:37 +0000

For my dog: Minie Mouse She lives in my house But she's not a louse She's a mouse! She likes to eat cows And wears a white blouse But she's doesn't grouse She's a mouse! Sometimes she howls And sometimes she growls But she mostly play-bows She's a mouse! Minie Mouse She lives in my house But she's not my spouse She's a mouse!