Sunshine and Bagels -- The Little Miss Thinks

I was struck by a thought today of creating an additional blog where I would focus on my political philosophical thoughts - my feminist, decolonial ramblings. But then I caught myself -- there is no need for a separation of self and politics. I am inherently a political being. This blog is inherently a political act. And yeah my interests are multifaceted and I'm multifaceted and this blog is a testimony to the different aspects and interests I have and love. But I do realize that my readers are multifaceted as well and I appreciate and understand that people have a different interest in visiting my blog and so I decided that I will add tabs to my page to simplify the reading and also because I wanted to play around with the blog page. Also, I played around with the overall layout as you can see... Love it? Hate it? Let me know :)

Yesterday: Had a pretty rad dinner at Kirala on Shattuck in Berkeley. It was pricey and a bit of a wait, but definitely worth it. Probably some of the best sashimi I have had in my life, no joke. We tried two robatas (basically skewered appetizers)-- baby squid and chicken meatball, a deluxe sashimi platter, the california roll, the caterpillar roll, the rainbow, and a large sake. The waiter was so nice, he even gave us an extra sake on the house! And a free mochi on our green tea. All in all, a lovely end to a great weekend. Today: Class, gym, class, soy vanilla latte, meeting. Worked on posters for Senior Weekend which will occupy the entirety of my weekend. I'm actually quite excited! Yay!!! After the volunteer training and the general meeting, we had extra pizza and so I took a box, but as I was walking home, I realized that I didn't necessarily need it and so when I saw some folks in front of the church near my apartment, I offered it to them. There was one partic...

When I was back in Seoul, a yelp deal came on for tandem skydiving -- when you fly harnessed to an instructor. My friends bought it, but unfortunately, due to medical issues, one of my friends couldn't go, and so I took her place. We drove to Skydance Skydiving early this morning in Davis, CA. This was of course after a short tour and visit to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield -- more info on this next time. After registering, filling a few waiver forms, and a short 45 minute lesson, we were ready. We then waited for about 2 hours before our names were finally called. This is when it hit Laura and she started to freak out. My instructor was Rob -- he was awesome. He was definitely professional and reassuring, making my first skydiving experience (and potentially not my last) incredible. I opted to pay extra for video and pictures and man, I don't regret it at all. By the way, if you ever want to watch it, just let me know :) I can't express in words how crazy, wo...

I've decided to switch back or rather add some more easily obtainable goals. One of which is to try every single Group-X exercise class offered by the RSF (the campus gym) at least once by the end of the semester or at the very least, this summer -- although I must say, the caveat might be the aqua classes given I don't have swimwear here and classes in Hearst Gym.... In the past, I have tried: Bollywood -- quite fun but the steps can get complicated Cardio Kickboxing -- whew, what a work out, I couldn't even make it through the whole session Some yoga class but I can't remember which one -- it was so slow, I almost fell asleep This semester, I have tried: Nia -- quite fun, the instructor was super nice and it was a lot about grounding yourself and finding yourself Toning Express -- quite intense and quick too, only 30 minutes! This week alone, I have tried: Power Yoga -- Not bad, not too rigorous either -- there was a focus on aligning your breath with you...

I received a comment that I stopped making personal updates, and so here it is Neha, pictures of my lovely lovely face and personal adventures-- by the way, I love that you still check up on me, haha Had to add this picture :) As I always do, let's do this backwards. Haha. Today (4/12/12): Had an alright day -- gym, shower, classes, followed by a delicious bacon burger from Bongo Burger with young Laura and young Janice. Always a delicious adventure. Also also, I received my awesome birthday presents from Laura!!!! Yeeee, I love them! A book of sites, a book of important french words and sentences, and a lovely lovely journal and an even lovelier card -- kekekeke, love love love. Thanks Laura!!!!! Couple this with the other awesome birthday present I received a while back from Lisa, I am all set!!!! It's even annotated with TIPS!!!!! YEEEEEEEE! Thanks Lisa!!!! Oh and of course, Laura introduced us to the video trailer that made her fall in love with the movie Ted...

Still much that I need to catch up on but this news piece caught my eye today and I had to share. It's powerful when a woman calls out patriarchy for what it is, but even more so, when she is a celebrity figure. Ashley Judd has recently had much media discuss the potential of her having plastic surgery because she appeared to have a much puffier face and in response to the media and public frenzy of critiques and gossip, she posted a response: Judd writes: If this conversation about me is going to be had, I will do my part to insist that it is a feminist one, because it has been misogynistic from the start. I choose to address it because the conversation was pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the...

Had a nice lunch with Laura consisting of a Top Dog hot link, tater tots with nacho cheese, and a cold coke. Perfect. Came back and lazed about with my roommates. Xuemin wanted to watch a documentary about illuminati which led us to this clip: And all I could think was dang... Tupac was legit. And well spoken. A true revolutionary. And I could empathize with his thinkings. And then we talked for a little bit about how he came from a house of revolutionary thinkers (a family with ties to the Black Panthers and the Civil Rights movement), and was influenced by such thinkers like Sun Tzu and Niccolo Machiavelli. And although I'm not going to discuss how I feel about whether or not Illuminati exists, one thing is definitely true: The media of the day (and one could argue that it still does) cast Tupac as some sort of gang-affiliated, crime committing thug. And did not appreciate the value of his revolutionary and color and class transcending thoughts. And I wonder if that is wha...

Have lots of news and updates to say, but still overwhelmed with assignments. But here's an interesting clip. I was introduced to the 1491's today in class when my professor played one of the videos. He mentioned one of their other videos and I just had to watch and share. According to their website, The 1491s is a sketch comedy group, based in the wooded ghettos of Minnesota and buffalo grass of Oklahoma. They are a gaggle of Indians chock full of cynicism and splashed with a good dose of indigeneous satire. They coined the term All My Relations, and are still waiting for the royalties. They were at the Custer’s Last Stand. They mooned Chris Columbus when he landed. They invented bubble gum. The 1491s teach young women how to be strong. And… teach young men how to seduce these strong women. Here's one of their comedy bits about opening a casino in New York during the Occupy movement. There's a couple concepts I found rather interesting and rather hilarious.