Wednesday, December 31, 2008

our new tv boy friend

kitchen nightmares is our new obsession. its a peak in reality television (tudou.com or hulu.com). unlike hells kitchen, where the emphasis is mainly on chefs competing, ramsey's blunt and harsh critiques serve as the basis in creating something new and ultimately friendly.
best moment so far was gordon's face when being shown 'unduck' and 'unfish' at a 'healthy' restaurant on le brea ave. this is the only episode where ramsey acknowledges vegan food because all the dishes had a vegan version. and as such, i was surprised by his brief but acute analysis in relation to fake meat:

you're not teaching people to eat healthy, you're teaching them to find the fridge.

i think this hits at the bizare oscillation i see in vegans between health-of-body and politics&thought, as well as, the big question generating natty foods: what legitimates something as healthy?

anyways how hip is gordy here? god save the queen

Monday, December 22, 2008

you're the one for me fatty!

I feel a need to take a break from by lost binge I have been on for 3 days now and vent. I went shopping this weekend with a friend and was overwhelmed by my old feelings of inadequacies I once had as a teenager. I am a self identified feminist and try to make my feminisms inclusive of body politics. Some people are in awe when I say this or very confused. At times people believe I am speaking of some kind of "sexual liberation" feminism so I then have to rephrase it and say, "I am fat positive!" Let me tell you though, the world outside my door is not. I grew up on the punk side and always browsed the Goodwill and the Salvation Army for my attire. I have gone through phases where I desired to mirror a little old lady or a mod. Inevitably though, I end up with nothing. I would sometimes come up at the Goodwill but rarely ever at the "hip" thrift stores like Buffalo Exchange. Now you see, Buffalo exchange and other stores like it are geared towards cool kids. Let me tell you, cool kids are not fat or even chubby. If you want to find old vintage cutie dresses or hand me down forever21 gear then you need not apply because they aren't going to have your size. Just recently Buffalo exchange started carrying size 12 jeans and sometimes 14 or even dare shall I say it...16!!! Chubby girls want to look hot too ya know. We don't want to be stuck only looking in the shoe and bag section while their skinny friends tear apart the clothing racks with so many items found, they can't even hold 'em. We want the cheap style too. Which leads me to my next irritation. I have had friends/lovers say "if I were you I would just learn how to make that stuff!" Like it is that easy. Not that it isn't a fabulous idea but honestly, I am not a creative seamstress. I can sew up pants and put some patches on a hoody but as far as patterns go-it is a nightmare! Why do chubby girls have to be the creative ones and make their own clothing? My next grievance is skinny friends refusing to acknowledge their privelages and act as if it is normal and there is nothing they can do about it. First off, if shopping is your favorite past time I can understand why we wouldn't connect in the first place. but if we are friends like so many of you have been then what is the deal? My skinny friends have always acted like I have a chip on my shoulder and am guilt tripping them and ruining their good time. Come on! Why is fat discrimination the politically correct discrimination? People treat us like the world treats transients and the homeless "they got themselves there, they can get themselves out if they cared or had enough will power." Bullshit! I have skinny friends who eat way more than I do and eat shittier foods than I do. I come up on my veggies every day, do you? Anyways, I guess I just want to start a dialogue about feminism and body politics again. I want feminists to engage about being fat and being skinny and what that provides for you in society or takes away from you. I want my friends and fellow bloggers to acknolodge fat discrimination as a valid opression and analyze how they incorporate it into their own lives.

Love,
Monica a.k.a. belly full of soup.

Monday, December 15, 2008

bottom brackets

my second post: this is about finding the proper bottom bracket for your bicycle. And will be one of several post on learning to fix and maintain our bicyclette. in my case, im converting an 80's japanese road bike into a single speed fixed gear for snowy and rainy weather.

this is the bottom bracket shell of a my little conversion: a 48cm shogan i bought for 65.00 dollars at c.c.c. i took the shimano road parts off for monica's bicycle. shell width is usual 68mm with 1.37 x 24 threading per inch... this is pretty standard for older steal road bikes.

one important exception is older european (french & italian) bottom bracket shells which unscrew in the same direction as pedaling - this can cause the bottom bracket to unscrew itself and even fall out... so keep it in mind when choosing a frame to build. this was a problem on my brothers peugot even after he bought a new sugino bottom bracket built specifically to convert an older style french shell. the same thing happened to another friend who had a cartridge style bottom bracket professionally installed on an older italian road bike he was converting; the cartridge nearly unscrewed itself in less than three days!
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at this point you have to decide what type of bottom bracket you want to mount your cranks and pedals on with. i chose a square tapper style bottom bracket; its called a "square tapered" after the ends of the spindle (pictured directly below) which has two squared off tapered ends. there are two popular styles of square taper bottom brackets: cartridge or newer one piece sealed shimano style bottom bracket and older style adjustable cup and cone bottom bracket.

i went with adjustable cup and cone. if you go this way, be ready for the bike shop's attempt to sell you the one peice for convenience sake. like the name implies, it screws in as one piece and you dont really have to mess with it much. this is great if you never plan on looking at it again and you have 20.00 to 50.00 dollars. the problem is once it takes a crap you must replace the entire thing. i have also seen people have problems with these bottom brackets when it comes to older european bikes with reverse threading on their bottom bracket shells.

i got this spindle with one tange cup, one retainer and bearing assembly, and bolt for 9.00 dollars at c.c.c. when i cleaned the old grease off i realized this was a sugino 109mm njs spindle.Photobucket

i got the replacement sugino cone and adjustable cup, bearing set, and mounting bolts for the cranks for 14.00 dollars from the recyclery.Photobucket

suntour superbe cranks tend to take a campy spindle. sheldon brown had suntour cyclones as accepting shimano style 110mm spindle. but i decided to try this sugino 109mm; if nothing else, it gives me options for adjusting the chainline.
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style 110mm spindle. but i decided to try 109mm at least it can be used to adjust chainline.
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lots of grease of grease, line it up, and its installed!
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other side with lock ring
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peasant clyde

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the newest member of the family: clyde aka lil' cletus. he came from the shelter in north pdx off columbia. don't let the underbite fool you... he gets more sympathy than a russian peasant. this is peasant clyde, forced away from his little bed by the a cossack vacuum.

this is a new bears blog that we've started while being snowed in pdx.