Marina Rose Martinez

I put the call out on twitter for a blog subject and this is what I got:


cherryfizzy: @Marinaisgo about why your pants are awesome?


I don’t really get this once since I tend to avoid pants like the plague. I have a very high waste, and I carry my fat in the front, so wearing constricting fabric all up around my fat stomach has never appealed to me. Not to mention the fact that pants bother my vagina. Also, my lack of ass and hips in relation to my stomach make me look ridiculous every time I wear them.


When I was in highschool and college I wore pants constantly, but they were always far too big for me and I would sag them down around my hips. At the time I was either thin enough or retarded enough to think this was a good look, but once I started trying to be taken seriously as a professional, educated woman, I knew that pants had to go.


Every so often, on a weekend or on an extremely casual day at work, I’ll dig out my old cargo shorts, and try to relive the glory days, but I know it’s over between pants and me. My gross old Cartman gut hangs over my awesome cargo shorts, and no matter how many or various different shirts I wear on top of that, there’s no way I could lie to myself and say that it looks okay. So i put a damn skirt on and I go about my day.


I have to admit that I miss pants terribly at times. I don’t like the vulnerability of skirts, but they’re infinitely more comfortable than pants, so I stick with skirts and dresses most of the time. Although I do have a secret wish that my weight loss will continue at least until I can wear pants again and not look like a fool and feel like a sausage.

I’ve been a fan of the various multimedia ventures of Keith McNally for awhile now. His taste and ear for popular music is only less enviable than his encyclopedic knowledge of it. If you go over to keithcourage.com, you’ll see and hear some good fun stuff, ranging from shitty comics to well composed and edited videos.

So when McNalley announced his latest venture, “XO, an Internet Show by Keith McNally in the Style of This American Life,” I was interested to hear what he had to offer. I was a fan of “This American Life” for years, and I remember wishing there was something else like it in the world. But that was before I started to get more and more annoyed with the continued fake-ness of celestial radio, the perfect cuts and the slightly pompous, over-important sound that most radio has, including “This American Life.”

By the time “XO” came on the scene, I had been bored with “This American Life” for awhile. I was over their traditional 3 act composition, I was over their smart indie music, I was over their articulate, sensitive and quirky staffers, I was even over the well produced and eerily ironic TV show.

But “XO” has ignited my love for things ‘in the style of This American Life,’ despite my dispassionate objection to the actual show for so long now. So far, 7 episodes in, McNally delivers everything I liked about “This American Life,” and everything I like about podacsting in general, while leaving a lot of the apathetic, over-edited bullshit I left radio for in the first place.

Since music for me can sometimes make or break a show, let me say up front that the music selection is the kind of considerately chosen, perfectly variegated pastiche of sound and meaning that I’ve come to expect from McNally’s work thus far. But unlike his earlier show “I Have a Ham Radio,” where the music was clearly the main event “XO, an Internet Show by Keith McNally in the Style of This American Life,” places the emphasis on the story, using the music as a compliment to the narrative.

The meat of the show is the real life audio, mostly recorded by Keith in different everyday situations. The magic of McNally is that he has the genius or the arrogance that it takes not only to put the mirror of unfiltered observation against his own life, but that he has the testicular fortitude to reproduce it for all of us, and leave the dirt in, with full knowledge of his actions. There’s a part in one of the shows where Keith contemplates editing out some earlier section where he felt he was being petty, and unreasonable. But in the final edit, the petty audio remains, and so does this on air rumination on the future editing process.

So many things in life advertise themselves as genuine, and yet they rarely are. XO makes no such claim, in fact, with a subtitle like ‘in the Style of This American Life,’ a potential listener almost expects an imitation, absolving the subject from any obligation to reality. But what I love about XO is that it is so honest, and so brazen, without sacrificing quality. This is not to say that there isn’t windy audio, or fuzzy audio. The show is recorded during the course of a man’s actual day-to-day living. What I mean by quality is simply that: the impeccable transitions between music and talking, the fact that the music so often matches the tempo, the tone of the language as if they were made for each other.

If you like “This American Life,” you might like “XO.” That would depend largely on what it is about the show you like, and what you’re looking for when you’re looking for a show. In “XO 006 Alcohol Rant,” Keith says “I’d rather continue to alienate the people who aren’t on my wave-length in order to feed the people that are.” I think that’s as good a philosophy as any. I look forward to more of this fledgling show, and I recommend anyone who likes to be early to the pop-culture party to watch Keith McNally and his future endeavors. I think there’s a lot more people out there who are on that wave-length than he might yet know.

I Thought All Wool Was the Same

I work for an eco-friendly company as a copywriter, and although I knew that we sold New Zealand wool and not Australian wool, I?d never really given it much thought. Recently, I was assigned to write an article on the benefits of wool rugs and the benefits of wool rugs from New Zealand specifically. I learned that wool is naturally non-toxic, non-allergenic, flame, stain and abrasion resistant. A wool rug would suit a person with allergies like me, because wool naturally purifies the air in a house for thirty years.

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When I went to write the article, what I came upon was a complete mess. On the one hand, some people didn?t want wool to be purchased at all and only talked about how horrific and cruel the Australian wool trade is. On the other hand, Australian wool industry insiders were defending their farming practices as necessary for the health of the sheep.

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I’ve waded through all the information and came to the conclusion that although Australian wool is cruel, New Zealand wool is not cruel. I?m writing this article for people who are trying to figure out weather or not to buy wool, and who would like a little straightforward information weather than propaganda from both sides. I?ve made my decision, so this is biased, but at least I?m telling you that up front.

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In order to begin research on my article, I went to the web and while performing a Google search on wool rugs, I ran across several sites that had nothing to do with rugs, and everything to do with wool. They fell into two camps, the ones that wanted to educate the public on the horrors of wool, and those that wanted to educate on the benefits of wool. I felt like I walked into the middle of a fight that I had nothing to do with. Both sides were adamant, and often graphic in their arguments. Each side had their own angry rhetoric and traumatic video of animals suffering. It was fairly uncomfortable on both the pro and anti wool sites.

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As far as the issue itself is concerned, it seems that everyone is fighting over three main points. The first one was a process called mulesing, the second was that the sheep are often sheered so quickly and with such little regard to them that they are cut by the sheers in the process, and the third had to do with the practice of transporting sheep in sub-standard conditions.

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Mulesing is a practice that happens to Australian lambs in order to prevent a deadly and painful blowfly infection later in life. It is a surgical procedure performed on the lambs without anesthetic to remove the skin that blowflies most commonly lay their eggs in, which is on their rump. This process only happens to Australian lambs, as the climate in New Zealand is too harsh to accommodate the flies.

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The cruel sheering and harsh transportation were both charges levied against Australia alone. While I found no accusations that New Zealand was also employed these practices, I found no proof that they did not employ them either. I will say that sheep sheering is a tourist attraction in New Zealand.

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My decision to stand by New Zealand wool centered on the mulesing issue. If Australian lambs are not mulesed, they are subject to blowfly infection. If they are mulesed, they?ll certainly suffer during the procedure. Because blowflies cannot survive in New Zealand, the lambs there are not subject to infection and therefore they will not be mulesed. The Australian wool industry is trying to conceive of a way to be rid of museling, but until then I?d rather put my money into an industry that doesn?t have to harm its animals in order to care for them.

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It seems like every summer, we get the same speech, especially here in Sunny Southern California, where sunbathing on pool loungers is not just a hobby, but a way of life. ?The sun is bad?, they tell us, ?cover yourself in sunscreen?, they say! Fortunately for us sunbathers, there?s new evidence that the sun is actually good for you.

Recent studies have shown that regular and moderate exposure to sunlight can prevent certain kinds of cancer, strengthen your bones, and even make you happier. Of course, overexposure can cause damage that would outweigh the benefits, but about thirty minutes in the sun will stimulate your body to produce vitamin D, which boosts your immune system and is linked to the recent findings regarding cancer prevention.

There are ways to sunbathe safely that will maximize the benefits while minimizing the risks. You don?t have to burn in order to get your body to start producing vitamin D. In fact, doctors in notoriously overcast Britain have their vitamin D-deficient patients walk out of doors even when it?s overcast because they receive better benefits by doing this than they would by sitting in front of a special sun-lamp.

People especially at risk for skin cancer, who would be people with a history of skin cancer in their families, or with especially fair skin and hair, would do well to stay in the shade of a sun umbrella, which can be purchased from any patio furniture store.

Safe sunbathers must eat healthy, natural foods which assist the body in processing it?s exposure. Sunbathe progressively, for a few minutes at a initially, and then gradually more each day. Be aware of your body, burnt skin will feel abnormally hot, look red or become abnormally sensitive.

If you are very sun-sensitive, prop your feet up on an ottoman and try to expose only your legs and arms at first. If you are fairly sun-tolerant, lay out on a lounge and keep a timer nearby to ensure that you spend equal time on your back as on your stomach. In the summer, try to stay out of the mid-day sun as it is much stronger than it is during the winter. Safe-sunbathing, if done responsibly can ensure good health, mentally and physically for years to come, in addition to providing a relaxing hobby year round.

The American Futon

Everyone remembers the futon, weather in their first apartment as a dual-purpose couch, or on a visit as a convertible guest bed. Futons pepper the living rooms, bedrooms, and offices of our lives, our memories of youth and travel. The futon has become part of the American experience, even though the idea for the Futon came to America from Japan, like most of what we import, we have made it distinctly ours. The Futon?s place in the traditional Japanese home is very different than the way we come to know the Futon as a contemporary furniture piece.

In Japan, Futons are much thinner and more portable than they are in America. Traditional Japanese homes have soft tatami flooring, which the futons are placed directly onto at night for sleeping. In the morning, futons are rolled up and stored in cupboards so that the room can be used for other purposes.

In America, furniture is rarely moved, and we like to sit and sleep off the floor, which presented a problem for William Brouwer, the man that would bring the futon across the Pacific. Brouwer recognized the need for space in his native Boston, as well as the difficult, inconvenient hide-a-beds that were popular at the time. He made the mattress thicker and designed a three-fold, slatted wood frame that could slide down into a bed position or up into a couch position. In the years following the futon?s debut, others have added easy-conversion mechanisms, designer frames and mattresses made with modern foams and materials.

Today, the futon has become an American staple. Inexpensive futons can are frequently purchased by collage students and young people starting out. High end futons are made of sturdy hard woods and durable materials that can be used by families for decades.

Every summer, my grandmother and I would go on our pilgrimage to across the state, paying a visit to every relative in the line. Among the rolling green hills of California?s central valley my uncle and his family had made their home, which is where we would spend most of the summer. My uncle Chris and his wife were master gardeners. Their expansive back yard was the first place I ever saw a real compost bin, and their raised garden beds, with their thick, dark soil hid countless wriggling red worms for my amusement. I also remember the single most fascinating gardening accessory I had ever seen. Uncle Chris? old push mower was nothing but an outdated nuisance to his sons, whose chore it was to cut the lawn, but to me it was an engineering marvel. It?s rotating blades whirred across the grass, sending clippings and the scent of fresh grass flying across the yard. I always got to rake the clippings and deposit them in the composter, but what I really wanted to do was cut the lawn.

As early disciples of the Xeriscape movement, we had no lawn at out house, and I longed to reach the age when I would be considered large enough to operate the push mower. Finally, that summer arrived. I only stood about six inches taller than the mower itself, but I was determined. I got nearly half the lawn mowed before I gave up and conceded the mower to my cousin. To be honest, I have no idea if I ever tried mowing with a push mower again, but to this day, I recall the work-out I got.

This brings me to three months ago, when I had an incredible epiphany. I?m always saying I need to get more exercise. I spend most of my time sitting in traffic, sitting in my cubicle, or sitting on the couch in front of the TV. All my single-girl clothes have made their way to good will and I?ve decided that it?s time to act. We needed to budget, and our gardener just happened to be moving to Texas. What a perfect coincidence. Remembering the push mower, I talked to my husband, and we decided to invest in a reel mower. All the electric mowers were easily three times the cost.

For the last three months, I?ve mowed the front yard and back yard once a week and I?ve been feeling great. I used to have back pain that I blamed on my office chair, but I noticed the other day that it has been gone for the last two months at least. All through college and my busy working life, I was constantly sick. I thought that I was just a sick person, but I?ve been in good health this whole time. At first, it was hard to do one whole lawn, much less front and back, but I split it up through the week, and now I?m a mowing machine! My husband is so impressed with my newfound vigor that he?s threatening to take up mowing as well. We may have to start our own gardening service.