Friday, October 30, 2009

Number 9

Life has been CRAZY this past week, hence the total lack update since the 23rd when I spontaneously told you guys I'm going to LBK for the weekend.

Unfortunately, when I promised you guys pictures (I believe my exact quote was "lots and lots"), I lied. Techie and I didn't take a single picture the whole weekend, except of this ridiculously too adorable puppy that we *definitely* almost stole. Can you blame us?! Look at it! I'm sorry the photo is a little blurry; it wouldn't stay still!

The trip though, was wonderful. Mostly because I got to see my best friend, who I hadn't seen in months, but also because Texas A&M beat Tech in what was probably the most surprising game of the season. 52-30. Whoop! First time we've won in Lubbock since...1993, I want to say? Good times. :)

I wish I could give y'all more pictures. But don't worry, there will really and truly be lots and lots of pictures after Halloween. I promise. :)


Friday, October 23, 2009

LBK

9. Visit Techie in Lubbock.

Happening, today. I will be there in less than 12 hours.

I'm ridiculously too excited. :)

No worries, you guys will get pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.


Thursday, October 22, 2009

Writer's Workshop: Passion

I want a tattoo. Actually, I want many, but only one really has to do with Mama Kat's prompt this week.

It's not that I'm passionate about tattoos, or that they make me live my life with passion, or anything. Tattoos don't change me, they don't inspire me. But I really want a little heart tattoo with the word "Shalom" in Hebrew inside of it on my left foot to remind myself to walk in love, peace, and passion. Because I truly am an incredibly passionate person, but my shy nature often allows me to forget that.

I'm passionate about today. You know, carpe diem quam minimum credula postero; seize the day and place no trust in tomorrow. (That's another tattoo I want.) I live every day of my life passionately with the hope that if I die tonight or tomorrow it will all have been worth something, anything, to someone.

I'm passionate about human trafficking. Perhaps I should say I'm passionately against human trafficking. The fact that right now someone, somewhere is being forced into some sort slavery -- whether it be into Joseph Kony's child army, prostitution, or any type of involuntary servitude -- literally makes me sick. It makes me shake, makes me see red, makes me nauseous. That passion is why I'm devoting my life to an organization like The A21 Campaign or International Justice Missions or Human Rights Watch once I finally graduate.

I'm passionate about peace, hence the word "shalom" inside the heart. No, I'm not one of those people that has peace signs all over anything but doesn't really seek it. I honestly crave it; it's like an eternal hunger that gnaws at my heart. In Psalm 34:14 our God, the Prince of Peace instructs us to "Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it," and I intend to do just that every day.

Loving people makes me passionate. I love, love, love people in general. It entirely conflicts with how shy I am, which irritates me to the ends of the earth, but it's true. The biggest joys of my day are seeing other people smile. Sure, I also really enjoy getting an A on a test and watching Grey's Anatomy (it's Thursday!), but those are temporal, and while happiness is temporal as well, it's so much more effectual and in many ways so much more eternal.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

True Story Tuesday

I don't know if Rachel got this idea from someone else, but for today, I'm jacking it for myself. Mostly, because I don't have time for a good blog post. True story.

True story...
...I'm an, er, creative note-taker in class.















My macroeconomics notes. Isn't the robot attacking the business cycle with his laser eyes cute?

Drawn during English History. It's Richard II, right before being killed. He is NOT happy.

True story...
...I have had five tests in less than two weeks. Stressful!

True story...
...My dream self is dating one of my professors this semester. It's confuses THE CRAP out of me every time I wake up.

True story...
...I'm probably going to have to get rid of my tragus piercing. :(

True story...
...I should *definitely* be studying for a test right now.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

ArtLurker AND Maroon 5 Lied to Me!

As many of you saw (and were rightfully disgusted by), on Saturday I posted an entry titled "The Craziest Man in America?" about a man and his "artistic" rape tunnel.

Now, I need to kind of rescind that post. And apologize for calling him deranged.

See, the people I got the article from, ArtLurker, admitted a few days after the posting of the Rape Tunnel article that it was all a hoax. I originally thought that maybe it might be, but so many outside news articles and websites supported it that I decided to concede that the world is in fact filled with lunatics that need to be castrated. Luckily, my original hunch was proven correct by my good friend Stephanie (who you should follow on Twitter) who found this article from ArtLurker saying that it was a "joke" posted to encourage discussion about modern art.

Now, while I was initially annoyed that someone would use rape as such a sick joke (one of these days, there'll be a full post on that), I soon breathed a sigh of relief.

There's no Rape Tunnel! My faith in humanity has been restored! The world is in fact filled with rainbows and butterflies, no matter WHAT Maroon 5 says!

Okay, maybe not. But at least I'm not tweeting about castrating the poor guy anymore.

[img cred: sodahead.com]

Saturday, October 10, 2009

The Craziest Man in America?

This post started as a stream of consciousness Saturday thing that I saw someone do... though now I honestly can't remember who. Sorry!

But, anyways, in the midst of my stream-of-consciousness writing, I was also on Facebook (one can only think about ice cream and puppies for so long before it gets boring to readers) and I came across this article.

Yes, it IS called "The Rape Tunnel."

See, there's this guy named Richard Whitehurst in Columbus, Ohio who is generating a lot of media attention, not to mention protests, because of an "art project" he's working on. The project? A rape tunnel. [The article itself is an interview and I think you should read it in it's entirety to really understand it, but I'll put some key quotes here.]

He describes it as a "22 ft tunnel [made] out of plywood that leads into the project room. There is no way in or out of the project room except for this tunnel. As you travel through the tunnel, it gets smaller and smaller, making it so that you have to crawl and put yourself in a submissive position in order to reach the tunnel’s destination. At the end of the tunnel the subject will find me waiting in the project room and I’ll try to the best of my ability to overpower and rape the person who crawls through."

He concedes that there will be a sign on the door to it, warning people what it is and what will happen to them if they enter, which may or may not make it consensual, but that's not really that point. When asked Why rape? he said it was because "as an artistic gesture" it was the "most impactful" he could think of. He originally did something he called "The Punch-You-In-The-Face Tunnel," which is obviously less awful but ended up ruining a model's career. To this day, the matter still isn't settled, and he takes joy in that, saying, "this took place two years ago, and I’m still having an impact on this young lady’s life, something not many other artists could claim about their work." He goes on to say that "rape seemed like the next logical step."

Seriously? You're deranged.

Let's take morality out of this for a second -- how does punching progress to rape? I would think the next logical step was breaking an arm or stabbing or shooting them in a non-fatal way. Rape might come after that, followed by murder. Now, let's put those morals back in: Uhm. Hi. Rape? ILLEGAL. It's mentally and emotionally damaging to men and women alike. Some people that are raped tend to commit suicide and/or start raping other people and/or start killing people. Is that SERIOUSLY the effect you want on society? You want to be thrown in association with famous serial rapists such as Ted Bundy and Robert Leroy Anderson? Seriously!?

The interviewer even asked, "Is your intention to ruin people's lives?" His response: "Possibly. I’m not necessarily concerned with the positive or negative effects of this project so long as there is some effect on people’s lives. I’ve merely set up a situation where there is potential to impact people in meaningful ways." [I added in the italics.] Yet, this same man later says that he thinks rape is "morally reprehensible," and mentions it should "generally not be allowed in society." Generally? Does that mean there's a time when it's a good idea?

His goal in all of this? " I’m trying to totally reconfigure art’s importance in the world and make it meaningful."

I'm pretty sure there are other ways of going about that. Try doing it without ruining lives.



[img cred: artlurker]

Read my follow up story here!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Writer's Workshop: In The Mirror

Thanks for the prompt, Mama Kat!

When I look in the mirror, I see green eyes searching for an answer.

When I look in the mirror, I see a girl that just wants to have fun.

When I look in the mirror, I see a Hispanic dancer with "too big" hips waiting to break free.

When I look in the mirror, I see someone who is patiently waiting for the next step. Except maybe not so patiently.

When I look in the mirror, I see someone who really enjoys avoiding homework. A lot.

When I look in the mirror, I see an artsy hippie and a country girl conflicting.

When I look in the mirror, I see a girl that really likes Hard Rock Cafe.

When I look in the mirror, I see someone who is a little confused.

When I look in the mirror, I see someone who really likes coffee. Too much. Maybe loves it. A lot. Uncontrollably. Insatiably. Could marry it if that were legal and not the most bizarre thing ever.

When I look in the mirror, I see a nineteen year old that is still naive enough to believe in changing the world.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Freedom of the Press?

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the World Media Summit. It's basically an opportunity for people working in media to get together to discuss "ways of survival and development for the global media industry." (Li Congjun, President of Xinhua News Agency in Beijing.) The theme of the summit is "Cooperation, Action, Win-Win & Development."

It should probably be titled something more along the lines of "Someone Other Than Me Note the Irony in China Hosting a Global Media Summit to Further Media Influence and Power When They Barely Allow Foreign Reporters in Their Own Country Any Rights At All. I Feel Like I'm Taking Crazy Pills!"

I realize that's a long title. So I'm willing to settle with simply "Hypocrisy!" Hoo-ah!

Luckily, someone else agrees with me. See, there's this little group called Human Rights Watch (maybe you've heard of them?) and they've noted the irony in this too. As they say in that article, important people such as News Corporation Chairman & CEO Rupert Murdoch, AP President & CEO Thomas Curley, Reuters News Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger and BBC Director-General Mark Thompson will all be in attendance. They think (and I agree) that these powerful men should probably use this opportunity to encourage China to stop it's media censorship and abuse of journalists and actually live by not only their April 2009 National Human Rights Action Plan that says they'd cease this behavior, but also their constitution, of which Article 35 says that freedom of the press is guaranteed.

Yet, foreign journalists have been pretty much kept out of Tibet since March of '08. This past May, Guangdong provincial government asked the press to limit negative coverage in "national interest." In August, security guards in Guangdong "attacked Guangzhou Daily reporter Liu Manyuan when he attempted to take photos at the scene," beating him for roughly ten minutes. Three Hong Kong journalists were covering ethnic violence in Urumqi when they were teargassed and beaten by anti-riot police just last month. Five other reporters were arrested the same day and the AP news crews equipment was confiscated. (Read more about specific incidents of ill-treatment of journalists in China here.)

Is hoping they'd hold to their own word really asking too much? I don't think so. I mean, they said did they'd do it first. But, as so many people often do, they've gone back on their word and someone needs to hold them to it. And who better than people who are gathering to further media power? And yet, here is their list of objectives for the summit, directly from their website:
  • Media challenges & solutions in digital & multimedia age
  • Traditional media via new emerging media
  • Financial crisis & media response
  • How traditional media to meet challenges of digital and internet technologies
  • Global media merging
  • Challenges & opportunities in digital & multi-media age
  • Hi-tech's impact upon media development
  • Shaping the future of news rooms & journalists
Some are somewhat rough translations from Chinese to English (again, from website), but I was hesitant to correct them in case it was considered "misquoting" or whatever. But, even through rough translations, they're obviously not planning on discussing China's oppression of it's journalists. I suppose it could be part of 'media challenges,' but I get the feeling that's not really what they have in mind.

I just hope it comes up somehow. These men can't be so ignorant to not notice the irony of this whole situation. It's their duty to stand up for their own who are suffering for simply doing their job.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

MIA

My brain has been kind of MIA the past few days. I feel very... out of it. Constantly. As a result, I have gotten almost nothing done. And midterms start next week! AHHH!

But, I have been chipping away at that good ol' 101 in 1001 list, and I figure since it's been roughly a month since I posted it, I'll let you see how it's going. :)

  • The whole not cursing for a year thing? Gave up. I'll start again in a little while when I'm not feeling so angry and resentful and MIA all at the same time.
  • I'm reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov right now! This book is intense and disturbing, but good. Read it. Also, it's on the list of 50 banned books, which is #25 :)
  • #23 -- Lead a Bible Study. Roomie and I are. It starts tomorrow. I'm pretty excited.
  • On the 22nd, I'm (hopefully) driving up to Lubbock to go see Techie. :) I'm pretty excited about it.
  • I made Puppy Chow last week! It was delicious. :) And this week, I'm trying out making cookie brownie bars. I'll let you know how that one goes. That's 1 of the 20 new recipes I'm supposed to be trying. :)
  • Also, do y'all remember when I said I'm going to take a picture every day for a year? Well, I'm doing really well! There have been days when I've forgotten and such, but I'm making up for it by taking really good pictures on days when I don't remember to. One of these days, I'll post some highlights. The picture in today's post is definitely today's picture of the day. :)




Thursday, October 1, 2009

Lyrics by Hand

Remember how #49 on my list of 101 things in 1001 days was start a fun/interesting blog meme?

Well, my best friend Travis stole my thunder beat me to it:

He's started Lyrics by Hand over on tumblr. Isn't he awesome?

I think Lyrics by Hand is a pretty stinkin' sweet idea, and I'll tell you why (as if you could stop me): A person's handwriting is distinctive, and so is his/her musical tastes. So by hand writing the lyrics to our favorite songs, it's quite the reflection on our personality and identity. It's all about what makes us, us. It's a bit PostSecret-like in the way it can define us, or at least a part of us.







































The Regina Spektor one was my first submission! Now, you should too! Email a photo to LyricsByHand [at] tumblr [dot] com and they'll queue up! The only rules are:
  • They must be handwritten.
  • Attribute the song and musician
  • Keep it short, no one wants to read the entire lyrics to a song they’ve never heard.
  • No vulgar lyrics, please.