Marianne Kirby (The Rotund) @therotund@wandering.shop

I have been ignoring that plucking my eyebrows is a thing I do on the regs. So now I am doing that. And daggum, every time I do this I sneeze my head off. How are these things connected???

Just finished up a #planner date with some friends and I have not laughed that hard in a really long time. Plus I got some planner stuff done. We are going to meet again at the end of January to keep all our shit in the same sock as a friend of mine’s father used to say.

I love planning with other people.

@therotund Treat yourself well this new year, whatever that means for you.

Fat or not, healthy or not, you deserve good things, good nutrition, good medical care. Take care. I love you.

What does any of this have to do with the Minnesota Starvation Experiment?

I was remembering the participant who, during the 1,500-calorie-a-day starvation phase, cut off three of his fingers with an axe and couldn’t say if he’d done it on purpose or not.

When fat acceptance activists say we don’t know how to make people safely lose weight and keep it off, this is one of the things we mean.

@therotund More radically: health is not a moral issue.

That means that you also don’t have to be making goals about your physical health to be valuable and worthy as a human being. You deserve dignity and respectful medical treatment and cute clothes that express your identity just as much as anyone else.

Food is not the enemy. “Good” food and “bad” food is ridiculous - food is not moral in that way unless you are talking about the ethics of production and distribution.

But what I want to propose to you is that dieting is not compulsory. There is no moral need for you to resolve to lose weight come January 1st.

Got health goals? Groovy. Evidence suggests that you will stay motivated to reach them if you frame them in measurable and actionable ways like “I want to run a 5k” or “I want to lower my cholesterol by x points.”

Those health goals may or may not result in weight loss but you will see health results either way.

@therotund But what, you may be thinking, does this have to do with anything ever?

Well, we are at the cusp of the year, which sees many a diet resolution.

Now, I believe in body autonomy and that means I support your right to make your choices about your body - and I expect the same respect in return. So I am trying to approach this without my usual flippancy re: diets being boring (because they ARE but also I listen to people talk about plenty of boring things for the sake of politeness).

Today I was mentioning the Minnesota Starvation Experiment to someone and I thought to myself, hey, you know who needs to hear about this? The answer, of course, is Mastodon.

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment was a study conducted in 1944 and 1945 to determine the impact of mass famine after World War II and the effectiveness of various rehabilitation strategies. This was a human experiment with a small group of men and was eventually written up as The Biology of Human Starvation in 1950.

Starting a major cleaning/reorganizing project is a GREAT idea when you have people coming over for a holiday meal in two days. The deadline lends urgency. *cryingontheinside*

So I had a productive plan? And now I am definitely sick. I am going to try to fend this cold off while getting things done.

It’s going to be great. *weak grimace*

HOLIDAY WEEKEND TIME.

FIRST ITEM OF BUSINESS: Cooking food my grandmother makes

SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS: Sorting belongings that have wound up in the living room

THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS: ??? There are so many options! Possible sewing because the new #tinagivens magazine has given me a lot of lagenlook feelings.

I mean. I always have #lagenlook feelings but this magazine is super well done and I need to make a ruffle slip; my soul desires it.

Y’all, this fic. My heart!

Have you read Rivers of London? It doesn’t matter if you have but if you have that’s the fandom. This is a Rivers of London/Great British Bake Off AU and it is keen and incisive and romantic and also it’s a constructed media fic, which I almost always love.

If you haven’t read Rivers of London, well. It’s creepy. Go read it. But also read this fic and be delighted regardless.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8243918/chapters/18891203

Oh, Wednesday - how quickly you have passed, like the other days so far this week. Tell me, Wednesday, when can I return to my stories? Because this to-do list life is dragging me down.

...a thing, you know? We train ourselves to see nuance and figure out elements of craft when we ready other people’s work and critique it thoughtfully.

Obvy this is my favorite soapbox. But I think it’s important for writers to read (whatever form that reading takes) and learn from other texts so they can sit down with all of that in the imaginary stew pot.

I can’t wait to apply some of last night’s theoretical thoughts to my own work. It’s exciting.

@therotund ...we all enjoyed it. And we didn’t all see the same issues. I hella disagree with that one guy. But we had such a great back and forth figuring out our different reads. And then when the author got to talk and ask questions, we had even more great discussion.

Like, it was a pretty nonstop hour and I know it was intense for me so it had to have been for the writer as well - in a good way!

That concentrated focus is good for us as writers - that chance to see how other folks do...

Whew, I probably talk about how much I love writers groups too much but I love writers groups. A good group is a magical thing where you get something out of the work perhaps especially the most when it isn’t even your work being critiqued.

Obviously there are tons of people who have bad experiences. I’ve had some myself! But last night I went to group and got to participate in reviewing a great story and having such good conversation.

We didn’t all agree on what the story was - though...