I get being intimidated by it. Beautiful women, thousands of products and a ton of pressure to be knowledgeable and skillful and look a certain way. Sephora is staffed by humans and some humans are dicks, but if you are ever made to feel crappy or unwelcome, take advantage of that receipt survey and tell them so.…

I worked at Sephora for a year and in my memory, the only time folks got judged for their makeup or lack of it was if their makeup was really crazy (pretty much just comically bad brows) AND they were also real Dbags.

I'm happy for folks that find what they're looking for with poly relationships. But I always detect so much smug defensiveness coming off evangelists, both in person and in writing. There are a lot of reasons not to get down with poly, and people who don't want to open up their relationships don't always suffer from…

Her real name is Rehtaeh and that's what they published. Her mother made it up and thought it was pretty, but yeah, it's Heather spelled backwards. No, the Herald isn't writing in code.

FKA twigs is the absolute best and if you don't know who she is, look her up and have a listen. She is the last word is auditory erotica.

I ignore conversations on any sort of media, or in person, about:

It's an interesting question, huh? I think women are more likely to be socialized with a lot of personal doubt. Anecdotally, when I talk to male friends and colleagues about how they tackle challenges (for example, interviewing for jobs they don't qualify for or investments they don't fully understand), they express a…

Yeah, that's the daftest criticism I ever heard. I think we can afford to let Taylor Swift write about shit she's capable of experiencing. I'm all for activism in pop, but I'm even more in favor of musicians knowing their limit.

Did you read that review as positive? It certainly didn't read that way to me.

I'm not a big fan of Taylor Swift's, although I did like Out of the Woods. I do admire Swift's skill for self-promotion and her willingness to experiment. Whether the effort is successful or not, it's more interesting than stasis.

Okay, sure. In what way is Taylor Swift's media manipulation like JT's, Biebers', Mayer's, Pharrell's, etc., but UNLIKE Beyonce's and Jay-Z's? I'm not really seeing any kind of clear thesis here other than that by and large you're not a pop music fan and regard artist self-promotion as "media manipulation" that can be…

Ah yes. The good kind of Puritanism. I'd take Dunham's awkward and ham-fisted social critique of white Williamsburg over this neckbeard's panting sanctimony any day of the week.

You know, another minority we could all do without is rich white assholes who can't keep their mouth shut.

My favorite technique is give myself an inflexible deadline, like writing before I'm supposed to be at work. I also try to have two writing projects of different lengths on the go, and as long as I'm working on one I can assuage my guilt.

One of my oldest friends was getting married to this shut-in type with a large, Pakistani family. It was kind of fiasco from start to finish.

Friesen Press always tried to be better but of course it's impossible. They are a startup created by this scheming failed entrepreneur and backed by Friesen Publishing, a very reputable printing press in Canada. Friesen Press had a lot of great people working there in the beginning, but the premise and the product…

Haha, take it from someone that worked there for six months. There's nothing about them that isn't sleazy. From predatory sales practices to being extremely duplicitous about where it's located (Victoria, BC), to the massive staff turnover rate, to promises of Oprah recognition and preying on the mentally ill. When I…

Unsweetened iced tea is a regional American thing. No one in Canada drinks it so no one in Canada sells it. If you travel around at all, you might discover this is not an isolated incident.

Honestly, everything is shittier in Canada than the states. Except the social justice and health care. But everything else.

God, TERFS. Just what the world needs more of. People who are so steeped in the mythos of "socialization is everything",despite the fact that much of the cosmos of the LGB community exists DESPITE socialization, that they're willing to disregard many thousands of identities because they don't understand them. You know…

My technique has been to find a "mentor" — someone around my age who I can tell has a somewhat similar body type to me and is just in way better shape. I never talk to them but I make them a source of inspiration. I watch which exercises they do regularly and think about whether I'd benefit from doing them too. I…

I've read studies that say kids makes you less happy in the short term (first 5-10 years) but happier in the long term (10 yrs +). I wonder about parents who weren't really cut out for kids—like my mom, who had them because it was expected but was not a huge fan, or my dad, who peaced halfway through to live across…