The Antisocial Socialist

Among the exciting bits of having a Shiny! New! Phone! is that it's a phone that, unlike the old Infernal Device, people actually make cool crafty cases and such for. But being a pragmatist, I went for an Otterbox case because I am afraid of dropping the thing. It's a nice case (teal and grey, in case you were wondering) but it has two problems:

1) It's a little plain.
2) There's a hole in the back that shows the Apple logo. Which, aesthetically, is a bit dumb, but also basically says "steal me" to anyone who sees it out. Not that the case itself doesn't say "steal me," but it would be nice to have a bit of plausible deniability about it being a really great phone.

So, I thought, phone decals exist! At least, I have a decal for Mac the Knife (if you haven't seen it, it's Woody Guthrie's "This Machine Kills Fascists"), so I figured that such things existed on Etsy. Alas, they do not sell a "This Machine Kills Fascists" decal for the iPhone, probably on the basis that anyone who buys one is already not a very good leftist, so I spent some time searching up designs and found a whole bunch that I like.

Does anyone know if vinyl decals even stick to an Otterbox case? Furthermore, your advice is needed on the following options:

1. TARDIS #1. Plus: Cheap! Minus: No photo of the actual thing.

2. TARDIS #2. Plus: If the photo is to be believed, looks much better than the first. Minus: Will it stick to the case as opposed to the phone?

3. Girl on a tightrope with a crocodile. Plus: Cool picture, will match the case. Minus: Same as above.

4. Le Chat Noir. Plus: I still love this poster. Minus: Might not match the colour scheme, might make my phone look like a college dorm room.

5. Green lace. Plus: Will match, is definitely meant for a case as opposed to the phone. Minus: Has a hole for the Apple logo, kinda boring compared to the others so far.

6. House Greyjoy. Plus: Badass. Minus: I'd prefer it if it were just the sigil with no text, House Greyjoy kind of suck even though they have the best sigil.

7. Bathroom flamingos. Plus: The colour is perfect, awesomely retro. Minus: I may get sick of flamingos.

8. Alice in Wonderland. Plus: It's Alice in Wonderland. Minus: Same as everything else in this line.

9. 221B. Plus: Cool! Minus: Sherlock fans.

10. Anchor. Plus: Matches the colour scheme, meant for the case, implications of rum and sodomy. Minus: Shows the logo.

[Poll #1954882]

I know you were all worried, so here's camwhoreage (of a sort) and a picture of Evo the puppy.

( Cut for the uninterested )

Things that I find ridiculously hard to buy

Shoes that are:
• Comfortable enough to walk in every day
• Cheap enough that I won't cry if I get a scuff mark on them
• Not pointy
• Not high-heeled
• Cute

A bag or purse that:
• Is big enough to fit the following items: Book, glasses, contact solution, wallet with too many cards in it, keys, address book, agenda book
• Is totally waterproof, not just water-resistant
• Is not leather
• Is not a stupid shape
• Has a shoulder strap
• Will not fall apart a month after I buy it

A clock radio that:
• Has good enough reception to get CBC
• Is small enough to fit on my night stand
• Has numbers large enough for me to read at a distance of about a foot without my glasses on
• Is not ridiculously complicated to use
• Is cheap
• Looks reasonably nice

Do they seriously not make this sort of thing? I mean, I can blame the lack of cute non-high-heeled shoes and practical purses on the patriarchy, but the clock radio thing is just weird. The best one I found so far was made by Chinese spies or something, but I don't really need surveillance capabilities in an alarm clock.*

Is it me or are these items that difficult to acquire?

* Admittedly, that's fucking cool.

I don't even have a regular cell phone, so why would I want an iPhone? I bet you don't need one either.

I present to you: a hand-carved Hummer rocking horse.





They're talking about blogging, PR, and spin on CBC. It's so cute when Old Media talks about New Media.

If global warming keeps turning Toronto winters into Vancouver springs, I may not need long underwear for those cold, cold demos and vigils. But I'm not betting on this good weather lasting all winter. So I need to buy long underwear, or leggings, or something.

Now, I'm not into consumer activism*, but I never miss an opportunity for a poll. I would like to only own union- or co-op-made clothing, but it's often prohibitively expensive. And since you almost always need to order that stuff online, it's a pain to get sizing right. I buy union-made clothes where possible, but quite often it isn't.

My longjohn/legging options generally come down to two places: Chocky's, which is cheap as hell and stocks kneesocks with skulls on them and other sweatshop gems, and American Apparel**, which is mostly affordable and brags about how they pay their sewers living wages. Kinda. The owner also gropes his workers and models, apparently. On the one hand, we have atrocious economic exploitation, on the other, somewhat better labour standards, but atrocious sexual exploitation.

I leave it up to you, LJ friends, to cast your vote on my unethical clothing choices.***

[Poll #901179]

* I take part in boycotts, but only when they're part of a campaign and thus have the potential to be somewhat effective.

** Not these leggings, though:



What were they thinking? How does someone think that looks good?

*** And under capitalism, pretty much any consumer choice you make is unethical. I'm curious about which is the greater of the two evils. I suppose the greatest evil of all is the gold lamé leggings, but let's not go there.

The Editorial Eyrie requires a Roomba.

I'm just sayin'.