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?
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
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.
Truly awesome in all sense of the word.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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.
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.
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
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day!
That's right, I love love so much I have it tattooed on my body! (minus the color..that's sharpie :P)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
It's much too easy to take a life.
I don't think anyone should have guns. Yeah, I said it!
Maybe the dying process should take 9 months as does birth. It will give people a chance to say good-bye.
Maybe the dying process should take 9 months as does birth. It will give people a chance to say good-bye.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Colonists.
What is the difference between colonists and evangelicals? I think they are very similar.
The most unfortunate part of this article, in my opinion, is Schmierer's quote.
“Naturally, I don’t want anyone killed, but I don’t feel I had anything to do with that,” said Mr. Schmierer, who added that in Uganda he had focused on parenting skills. He also said that he had been a target of threats himself, recently receiving more than 600 messages of hate mail related to his visit.
“I spoke to help people,” he said, “and I’m getting bludgeoned from one end to the other.”
Of course you had something to do with that. Directly? Of course not. But spreading hate into others does not lead to peace. Helping others, as Schmierer aimed to do, what was British colonists also aimed for in the 1800s. No?
And on this note...I just bought a new shirt! hooray.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The Scuttling Nature of Men and Women, or Lack Thereof
I am in a Women's and Gender's Studies class. We had an 'observation assignment' and this is what I found.
The Frog and Peach Pub, in downtown San Luis Obispo, California, was my place of observation for the gender observation assignment. On a crowded Tuesday night, otherwise known as Pint Night, the task of moving through the mass of beer-drinkers in order to get from one end of the pub to the other, was no small task. While in the ever-moving sea of young adults, I noticed a difference in the way men pass other men, men pass women, women pass men, and women pass women. Thus, I took a mental note of the differences in the actions of each gender and why this may be.
The most common theme of my observations was that women were much more physically aggressive when trying to make their way through a crowd than were men. Typically, when a girl was forced to make physical contact with someone in order to move, they would travel at high speeds with a shoulder leading the way. This, to me, was rude and obnoxious; however, it led me to quickly move out of a traveling woman’s way so as to not get a shoulder in the face, or even worse, a spilled beer. Of course not all women were so aggressive in their actions, but I am sad to say that it was the way of most girls. Additionally, women tended to move past both men and women in the same way. Men, on the other hand, moved through the crowd in a much more careful way. Men would often move in a scuttling motion with a hand out in front at around shoulder level, so as to touch a person on the shoulder or between the shoulder blades to let him know he was there. There were definitely outliers in the observations, such as those men who would have their hands dangerously low on my back or even the front of my leg. So too, were men who used a more bulldozing method; these men, I believe, were looked down upon by others for that. The men typically touched other women with their hand more than they touched other men.
The conclusions I draw from these observations are ones in the matters of respect. I believe women do not get as much respect as do men, therefore generally we must be more aggressive in getting what we want. That is why I think women tend to be more ruthless and rude when passing people in a crowded area. They feel they will not get what they want while acting passively, so they must act aggressively. Additionally, I believe many of them did not care about beer as much as men, so they paid no heed to their own beer they were spilling nor others’. I think men were more civil in this pub because they know of their ability to be physically over-powering and it could send the wrong message such as bumping into a man for wanting to start a fight or hitting a girl hard on purpose to be rude. I think men also care about beer more than women, and therefore move more carefully. It is more socially acceptable for a woman to be pushy in this situation than a man, much like it is not so terrible for a woman to slap a man yet for a man to slap a woman is abominable. Furthermore, I believe women are more comfortable with physical contact which is why they touch men and women the same when passing; however, it is not acceptable for a men to be physical with another man thus they pass men and women differently.
The Frog and Peach Pub, in downtown San Luis Obispo, California, was my place of observation for the gender observation assignment. On a crowded Tuesday night, otherwise known as Pint Night, the task of moving through the mass of beer-drinkers in order to get from one end of the pub to the other, was no small task. While in the ever-moving sea of young adults, I noticed a difference in the way men pass other men, men pass women, women pass men, and women pass women. Thus, I took a mental note of the differences in the actions of each gender and why this may be.
The most common theme of my observations was that women were much more physically aggressive when trying to make their way through a crowd than were men. Typically, when a girl was forced to make physical contact with someone in order to move, they would travel at high speeds with a shoulder leading the way. This, to me, was rude and obnoxious; however, it led me to quickly move out of a traveling woman’s way so as to not get a shoulder in the face, or even worse, a spilled beer. Of course not all women were so aggressive in their actions, but I am sad to say that it was the way of most girls. Additionally, women tended to move past both men and women in the same way. Men, on the other hand, moved through the crowd in a much more careful way. Men would often move in a scuttling motion with a hand out in front at around shoulder level, so as to touch a person on the shoulder or between the shoulder blades to let him know he was there. There were definitely outliers in the observations, such as those men who would have their hands dangerously low on my back or even the front of my leg. So too, were men who used a more bulldozing method; these men, I believe, were looked down upon by others for that. The men typically touched other women with their hand more than they touched other men.
The conclusions I draw from these observations are ones in the matters of respect. I believe women do not get as much respect as do men, therefore generally we must be more aggressive in getting what we want. That is why I think women tend to be more ruthless and rude when passing people in a crowded area. They feel they will not get what they want while acting passively, so they must act aggressively. Additionally, I believe many of them did not care about beer as much as men, so they paid no heed to their own beer they were spilling nor others’. I think men were more civil in this pub because they know of their ability to be physically over-powering and it could send the wrong message such as bumping into a man for wanting to start a fight or hitting a girl hard on purpose to be rude. I think men also care about beer more than women, and therefore move more carefully. It is more socially acceptable for a woman to be pushy in this situation than a man, much like it is not so terrible for a woman to slap a man yet for a man to slap a woman is abominable. Furthermore, I believe women are more comfortable with physical contact which is why they touch men and women the same when passing; however, it is not acceptable for a men to be physical with another man thus they pass men and women differently.
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