Category: Interestingness

Miscellaneous interesting things

Sumissura Review: Affordable, Ethically Produced Custom-Made Suits and Clothes

- Alexis 5 Comments
Me in my new Sumissura suit, post-alterations (apologies for the poor-quality cell phone photos)

Alexigraph is not a fashion blog, and I rarely post product reviews here, so this post is a little out of the ordinary for me.  It is not a sponsored post, just an honest review of a service that I thought might be of interest to some of you.

A few years ago, I made the decision only to purchase clothes that are made by people working in safe conditions or that are second-hand (you can read more about my reasons here).  For the most part, it’s been a fun challenge to seek out brands and retailers that meet my standards, and the change has significantly cut down on impulse shopping.

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The Catch-22 of Makeup

- Alexis 2 Comments
A photo of Alexis not wearing any makeup
A rare photo of the author without makeup

Last Sunday, I did something highly unusual for me.  I treated myself to some spa time, took a boat out on the lake with my family, swam a little, and went out to dinner.  The unusual part was that I did all of this while wearing no makeup.  Though I haven’t really kept track, it’s possible that last Sunday was my first makeup-free day in nearly 20 years.  (Ok, there may have been one or two days after I gave birth, but they were days on which I didn’t leave my house.)

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Understanding the Declining U.S. Fertility Rate

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Photo of a mobile over a crib

A few days ago, data was released showing that the fertility rate in the United States – the number of babies born per 1,000 women of childbearing age – hit a record low in 2017, for the second year in a row.  The fertility rate has been declining every year since 2008, and the 3% drop from 2016 to 2017 is the largest single-year decrease since 2010.  The New York Times published an article about the phenomenon in Thursday’s paper with the headline “Fertility Rate Again Falls to a Record Low, Confounding Demographers.”  It seems no one can figure out why women between the ages of 15 and 44 aren’t having as many kids as they once did.  As a 33-year-old woman who conceived my first child in 2017, perhaps I can shed some light on the topic. Read more

Benefit Your Health, the Local Economy, and the Environment with a CSA Share

- Alexis Leave a comment

Close-up photo of strawberries

I’ve been making intermittent efforts to eat locally produced food since I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle some years ago, although I’ve never had the dedication of Kingsolver’s family to eat exclusively local.  I try to grow some veggies at home, but my success with gardening varies.  Foreseeing that weekly Saturday morning visits to the farmer’s market would likely be a challenge this year, I recently signed up for a CSA share.

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Imagining a Life Without Social Media

- Alexis 2 Comments

The news of the Cambridge Analytica scandal has led a number of my friends, no longer comfortable with the amount of data amassed about them, to declare that they are leaving Facebook.  People exiting certain social media platforms or abstaining for extended periods of time isn’t new.  For years now, I’ve seen posts from acquaintances stating that they are dissatisfied with what Facebook has become or how it’s affecting their lives.  It seems most of them usually return eventually.  It’s hard to free oneself of social media these days.  Everyone uses it.  It’s how we stay apprised of happenings in each others’ lives, spread information about events, and even learn about breaking news.

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