Category Archive

Life

We launched as Offbeat Home in 2011, but it has become clear that the site is about much more. In 2013, we relaunched as Offbeat Home & Life, with an expanded focus on Relationships, Budget & Career, Travel, and Style. This is the category for the non-home/rest of life stuff!

Will Tumblr's adult content ban be catastrophic for sex work and queer communities? Tumblr adult content ban

Will Tumblr’s adult content ban be catastrophic for sex work and queer communities?

Tumblr announced that they are going scorched earth with pornographic content by removing it from the site entirely. Tumblr’s decision feels very much like a condemnation of sex work and pornography as a whole, and specifically ends up targeting marginalized groups who rely on the site in a number of ways. For those of us who don’t have a problem with safe, consensual sex work, this has the appearance of making it unnecessarily harder for folks to make a living online. For others, it feels like the only way to save the children (why won’t somebody think of the children?!).

Resilience reading: Books to help with the bounce-back

When I was going through the shitshow of my post-divorce emotional recovery process, I read SO MANY BOOKS. With 50/50 custody, suddenly half my time was very very empty and I was adrift and confused and so I did what nerds have always done: I buried my feelings in words, and went searching for my redemption in books. These are the crisis and resilience books that helped me the most…

11 binge-worthy podcasts to add to your feed

Are you as deeply entrenched in the podcast life as I am? All it takes is one gateway podcast and you’ll be hooked. Oh that sweet, sweet audio goodness.

I went a-hunting for some newer ones that are making my podcast feed more robust in its awesomeness and was not disappointed. From true crime to truly geeky, here are some great podcasts to add to your feed…

Turning future desires into present contentments

Where are my fellow discontents? My fellow day-dreamers and strategizers and ladder climbers? This post is for you, my fellow folks who spend your days up in your heads, dreaming and scheming about how things would or could be better if you only had this, or if you only did that, or if this thing was different or that thing was changed.

You’re looking at crones. Can you see the beauty?

In our society, it is not acceptable for female-identified people to age. We are all downloaded with the message that we are supposed to look 20 years old forever. We get mad when our bodies begin to droop, sag, slow down, and our physical/mental abilities change.

But aging is a reminder that we are having a finite experience on the planet… and that is beautiful.

Do I shave my armpit hair to keep family peace?

Do I shave my armpit hair to keep the peace with my family?

Several months ago, I committed to stop shaving my armpits. My cousin is getting married in a couple of weeks. The wedding is a big deal, and will be pretty formal. My extended family dynamic is such that it will likely be perceived as a personal attack to the bride if I show up with hairy pits. I’m really conflicted. Do I just shave for the sake of keeping the peace? Do I hide my hairy pits? Or do I just say “Fuck it!” not make a big deal of it, and let my family and my cousin think what they think?

Book club: Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram

The Enneagram is not especially cool right now. It came to popularity in the US in the ’70s, and while astrology has gotten a breath of fresh air through the social justice lens of folks like Chani Nicholas, there’s no similarly hot new take on The Enneagram.

So this is not new, and it’s not hip. But you know what? This book cracked some things WIDE open for me…

Dumbledore's Army, still recruiting: How U.S. elections are like the Battle of Hogwarts

Dumbledore’s Army, still recruiting: How U.S. elections are like the Battle of Hogwarts

I’ve been upset about the recent Senate hearings and I’ve been ever more upset since the vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court; I’ve also been thinking a lot about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Seem strange? Let me explain…