In the darkest hour, there will be light.

Ok. So here's a story that I can't stand.
My mom is from Colombia. For those of you who don't know, that's in South America. I've been told she has a "heavy accent," but I can't hear it since I've been her child for as long as I can remember. Any way, she was telling me about a dispute she was having at the high school at which she works. The issue went so far that she had to have a meeting with the fighter (a co-worker), and the vice principal and principal (I think that's all..). The point of this story is that the fighter's argument for the dispute was, "Well maybe what I was trying to say got lost in translation."

As if my mother doesn't speak English.

What's further, the co-worker has received her GED from high school while my mom has a college diploma from San Jose State. Who do you think speaks better English of the two?

Point being, I can't stand that bugga bugga bullshit [King's Speech, anyone?]. Your accent, race, or any thing else does not make you less of a person nor less intelligent. So next time you plan on being discriminatory, think to yourself: What if someone was acting like the way I'm acting right now to me or to my mother?

Then how would you feel?

Tim Hetherington: A Vanity Fair Portfolio Politics: vanityfair.com

Tim Hetherington: A iVanity Fair/i Portfolio Politics: vanityfair.com

Truly awesome in all sense of the word.

Bring your hips to me.

Dub step + Glee. Whaaa!

"Glee Dubstep" directed by Jason Kibbler from SWELL on Vimeo.

Number of those I know who've died from cancer: 5

Nearly half of all Californians born today will develop cancer at some point in their lives. Wow. That is astounding but not unbelievable. The amount of people, unfortunately, that I know who have died because of cancer just went up by one last week. We just talked about in class how in the 1920s it was more common to know of deaths [due to disease] than it is now. But that seems to be changing with cancer. How prevalent is death in your life?

Later this year, Californians will vote on an initiative to provide more than half a billion dollars annually for cancer and medical research.

• reduce suffering and death from cancer in our state.
  
• entirely paid for with an increase in the tax on cigarettes.

Please sign this petition supporting this initiative to fund cancer research.

www.acscan.org/CApetition

Fact: This research funding will be controlled by a board of cancer researchers, doctors and other experts. They will ensure that 98 cents of every dollar goes directly to lifesaving work and not state bureaucracy.

• fewer kids will start smoking
  
• more adults will get the help they need to quit

Always chasing tail.

This is my puppy...

...oy.

Ed TV.

I had a movie moment yesterday.
I grade papers for a Kinesiology professor, and this week I have projects to grade. The projects are in binders so I brought my reusable Trader Joe's bag to school and filled it with projects. I put the full bag on the rack on the back of my bike and clamped it in. It wasn't very stable so I was being conscious not to make sudden movements.

Well that plan failed.

As I come up slowly to a red light, a loud honk startles me from behind. I turn to look for the source (as I obviously wasn't doing anything wrong waiting in the bike lane at a red light) and immediately am a foot away from a bus. The driver comes right up next to me and startles me so bad I lose my balance on the bike (which is already faulty because of the large mass of binders strapped to the back of the bicycle). I fall into the bus and catch myself with my hand against the side of the bus. The bus driver says,

"Sorry, I was just trying to let you know I was here."

What kind of driver HONKS AT A BIKER to just let them know they were there?!

Rude.

So unbeknownst to me, my bag full of projects had become unstable with the bus scare.
I soon take off when the light turns green and what do you know

the bag full of class projects falls off my bike in the middle of the intersection.

(The ending of this story is some what anti-climactic, as I quickly pulled over on the corner, ran out in the street to pick up the bag and binders, and make it back to the side walk safely before the light turns again.)

Another movie moment happened later, at night.
I just watched Donnie Darko in the theater for a class.
Last night, like in the movie, I slept walked. (The last time I slept walked was in middle school.)
I got up, went to the restroom, took off my sweatshirt and sweatpants, and grabbed my fan and put it by my bed (but didn't plug it in or turn it on).
EEeeeeee! Weird. At least I didn't burn someone's house down or break my school's water main.