Fashion Raptors: Dinovember 2016 Edition

Happy Dinovember, advice-seekers! This is our favorite month of the year. Besides being a 30-day celebration of our glorious selves, it's the month in which we celebrate our favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. It's the one day of the year you humans take in the right number of calories. This year, the feasting starts early - we and the Ladies are kicking off our celebration on Saturday, November 5th with our buddy Kyle Coston's Gut-Bustin' Thanksgiving special. The Ladies will be feeding Kyle a special treat, so don't miss the fun! If you're more into dinosaurs than turkey, be sure to follow the adventures of our pal TR Henri and his friends at the Henrietta Public Library. These guys get up to all kinds of hijinks!

And now, without further ado, we solve your problems. These questions come from some of our friends who attended LadiesCon 2016! If you don't see your question, fear not - we will address it in a later installment.


Dear Fashion Raptors, Pastels?  Yes or No? xoxo Lindsay

Dear Lindsay:

Our fashion rule of claw is that you've got to go with what works for you. This has much less to do with how you look and more to do with your lifestyle, interests, and values, with a bit of consideration for context. For example, when Jason asked about Hawaiian shirts, we were affirming, but reminded him that they might not work in every social situation. Likewise, if you feel great in pastels, by all means rock out with your gently-colored, soothing self. We, on the other hand, do not wear pastels personally. In addition to the fact that they clash terribly with our hides, they are just murder for showing blood stains, and while stalking prey you tend to stick out like a sore thumb. Cotton-candy pink just doesn't blend with our territory.

Dinosaur fashion critique.


How to get better at "moultipen" like 19x100?

Anna

Dear Anna:

We are so excited that you want to get better at math! Math is very important - we need to figure out how fast our prey is running, calculate the best angles at which to bite them to snap their necks, and count our skull collection to make sure we aren't running out of space.  But sometimes math can feel a little overwhelming, especially when it is new, so it's good that you're thinking about how to make it easier for yourself.

To start with, the best way to get better at anything is practice! We didn't learn to disembowel a Protoceratops with a single slash right out of the egg - we had to work hard at it, and you will have to work at multiplication. Luckily, there are a lot of sites that make it into a game, so you can have some fun while you learn. We really like Greg Tang's math games - Kakooma is pretty great, or you can give his word problem creator a try!

Another thing to remember is that people who are really good at multiplying use short cuts and strategies to make things easier. It's important to know why 19 x 100 = 1,900 first, but after that, knowing that you can just add 00 next to anything you're multiplying by 100 makes it easy to answer quickly. Here are some good mathtricks! Good luck and have fun practicing.

Tax season is rough.


Cargo shorts for men. Why the hate? They are the best kind of shorts, right?

Angryfaerie.com

Dear Angry Faerie:

First, we'd like to ask you a question. Why are you so angry? Is it because you feel that your cargo shorts are being besmirched? We hope our answer makes you feel a bit better.

As we note in our answer to Lindsay, quite a lot of fashion is about what makes you feel good. However, other people have their own opinions about what looks good. The cargo shorts detractors object because they feel that the many pockets:

  1. Make for a bulky and unpleasing silhouette.
  2. Are unnecessary for the average person.

In addition, some people feel that the typical cargo short is a bit too long, cutting off your legs in an unfortunate spot and making the wearer look more squat.

That said, the real question here is what you personally care about. Fashion, to some degree, is in the eye of the beholder and thus, cargo shorts are widely considered to be unfashionable. If you care about fashion, you should consider other leg covering options, including slim shorts, pants, kilts, or skirts. (The last two are considerably easier choices if you have a tail, but you can also just put a strategically placed hole in the other options.)

If, on the other hand, you care about your personal comfort and ability to store a quantity of smallish items for later, continue to wear your cargo shorts with pride. They can be a source of continued delight for your mate, if you have one, when you pull small and whimsical objects out of them at the end of the day. Be sure to check them before you do laundry however - there's nothing worse than staining the rest of your clothes because you forgot to remove the viscera you were saving for later from pocket number 4.

A final thought: If your significant other is secretly throwing out your clothes behind your back, it might not be the shorts you need to get rid of.

Pocket protectors.


Have a question?

You can send them to us care of the Ladies. We love hearing from you!