Sunshine and Bagels -- The Little Miss Thinks

I read this the other day and I knew I had to re-post it . For all of you who are twenty-somethings consumed with fear and rush and panic to find a job... breathe. and read: Being in your twenties is all about discovering which things hurt you and what makes you feel good. You go in blindly, practically pricking yourself with a dull blade, and then you walk out with tougher skin. One day you’ll stop pricking yourself altogether. Maybe. I don’t know. How would I? I’m just a twentysomething, remember? This is what your twenties are for — to feel and see as much as you can, to take advantage of not being tied down to anything and anyone and to go balls to the wall with everything that you do. You’re a raw nerve. You hate getting upset over little things, about being constantly unraveled by ignored text messages, parents, grades, and friends, but you have to remember something: you don’t know yourself entirely yet. Before the age of 20, you were mostly under your parents care, a reflectio...

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.

Through mulling about online as I always do, I came across this article, that I found extremely thought-provoking. I identified with his story: Some excerpts: The following day, I attended a workshop about preventing gender violence, facilitated by Katz. There, he posed a question to all of the men in the room: "Men, what things do you do to protect yourself from being raped or sexually assaulted?" Not one man, including myself, could quickly answer the question. Finally, one man raised his hand and said, "Nothing." Then Katz asked the women, "What things do you do to protect yourself from being raped or sexually assaulted?" Nearly all of the women in the room raised their hand. One by one, each woman testified: "I don't make eye contact with men when I walk down the street," said one. "I don't put my drink down at parties," said another. "I use the buddy system when I go to parties." "I cross the stree...

I apologize for the incompleteness of my last post. I was quite upset when it happened suddenly. Sigh. Oh well, life goes on. Word of warning, most likely, I don't have your (or anyone's) phone number. Please text/call me sometime :) ___ Regarding: It Gets Better We had a discussion on Chela Sandoval's differential consciousness in class on Thursday. In the most simplest terms, differential consciousness refers to the "practitioner’s ability to read the current situation of power and self-consciously choosing and adopting the ideological stand best suited to push against its configurations, a survival skill well known to oppressed peoples." It is the ability to think and operate in different gears because of the limitations inherent in a singular mode of thinking. My professor then proceeded to briefly discuss the "It Gets Better" Project that derived out of the suicides of teenagers who had been bullied because of their sexual orientation a...

Hope everyone had an awesome Valentine's Day! Janice was my valentine this year and we had lunch at Celia's -- ehhhh, you call that a CHIMICHANGA?!!! Ridiculous. Anyways, I learned about the concept of double consciousness in class on Tuesday and revisited the topic today. "It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." -- W.E.B. Du Bois The relevancy of it, you might ask? On Valentine's day, Xuemin received a beautiful bouquet and the delivery guy was extremely nice and so on, joking that she had another secret admirer other than him, haha. When Xuemin was surprised that the bouquet came with a vase and commented on it, he said that yes, it came with a vase, and that what with the vase being red and all, didn't it represent good luck in the Chinese culture? He then wished ...

I think it's unnecessary to say this, since you may have already noticed... but I am incredibly slow... and infrequent with my posts. In any case, first off. I'm doing good, so no worries :) I've had many adventures since I last posted though I am horrible at updating them. *** So... in case you didn't know... I'm not extending. I was debating the question for a while and ultimately I was waiting and debating and searching. But yeah, coming back to the States in mid-January. At the current time, I can't say which date. I'm working out plans for traveling and although my original plan was to come back on January 12th and give myself some break time before class (lecture starts on the 18th).... my plan now is to come back on the 20th... and basically miss the first week of class. Why? My roommate Neha invited me to Nepal and her close friend is getting married. The marriage ceremony will be taking place from the 17th-19th... and honestly I want to go...