Friday, August 7, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Totally Awkward Tuesday
I know I haven't posted a TAT in a while, but I have recently thought of a few really awkward situations I've been in in the past and thought I'd share at least one today. :] As always, this is hosted by the ever-wonderful Tova.
So, my first room mate was a great girl. Really funny, laid-back, wonderful. We fought like once the entire year we lived together (though I'm sure there were more times than that that we wanted to kill each other) and it was just easy and awesome. Now, there was one thing that made our relationship awkward occasionally. Before I explain, I'd like to remind you all that I'm very open-minded and was totally cool with this whole thing, it really honestly didn't bother me at all. My wonderful room mate was gay. Like I said, it was fine. It only ever caused a problem once and a half-ish. This is the story of that half-ish.
One day
, my new room mate, Ayla, stopped by my old room mate and I's room to kick me awake to go to our Phi Lamb meeting and, naturally, saw my room mate. They made small talk while I got ready and it turned out my room mate was on Skype with her girlfriend. I'd never seen the girl before but I'd heard a lot about her so when Ayla told me that my room mate and the GF had been talking, I wasn't surprised. But then when we left, Ayla did tell me something surprising:
"Valorie, her girlfriend could be your twin."
This didn't really bother me that much. I mean, it was kind of awkward, you know the same way it's awkward when you find out that a co-worker has a little crush on you but you so don't have a crush on them. I mean, apparently I was kind of physically attractive to her. Not so bad, I've been told worse (and been in more awkward situations), so I just kind of ignored it. However, Ayla wasted no time telling all of our guy friends (who are big macho men that are not so comfortable with their sexuality) about this new development in what I've come to call the Room Mate Files (after the X-Files. I don't know, I'm lame.)
They made fun of me incessantly. "Valorie, I bet she takes picture of you while you sleep." "I bet she watches you change." I knew none of this was true because she always fell asleep before me and because we never really had the same schedule so we never had to change in front of one another. That got awkward because they'd stop by the room on our way somewhere and make weird faces at me about it and annoy me about it in very loud voices about it on the most conservative campus in the nation.
She, of course, knew none of this. And, eventually, the girl and her broke up. But to this day, my friends are like "Remember that time your room mate was in love with you, so she dated a girl that looked just like you?"
So, my first room mate was a great girl. Really funny, laid-back, wonderful. We fought like once the entire year we lived together (though I'm sure there were more times than that that we wanted to kill each other) and it was just easy and awesome. Now, there was one thing that made our relationship awkward occasionally. Before I explain, I'd like to remind you all that I'm very open-minded and was totally cool with this whole thing, it really honestly didn't bother me at all. My wonderful room mate was gay. Like I said, it was fine. It only ever caused a problem once and a half-ish. This is the story of that half-ish.
One day
, my new room mate, Ayla, stopped by my old room mate and I's room to kick me awake to go to our Phi Lamb meeting and, naturally, saw my room mate. They made small talk while I got ready and it turned out my room mate was on Skype with her girlfriend. I'd never seen the girl before but I'd heard a lot about her so when Ayla told me that my room mate and the GF had been talking, I wasn't surprised. But then when we left, Ayla did tell me something surprising:"Valorie, her girlfriend could be your twin."
This didn't really bother me that much. I mean, it was kind of awkward, you know the same way it's awkward when you find out that a co-worker has a little crush on you but you so don't have a crush on them. I mean, apparently I was kind of physically attractive to her. Not so bad, I've been told worse (and been in more awkward situations), so I just kind of ignored it. However, Ayla wasted no time telling all of our guy friends (who are big macho men that are not so comfortable with their sexuality) about this new development in what I've come to call the Room Mate Files (after the X-Files. I don't know, I'm lame.)
They made fun of me incessantly. "Valorie, I bet she takes picture of you while you sleep." "I bet she watches you change." I knew none of this was true because she always fell asleep before me and because we never really had the same schedule so we never had to change in front of one another. That got awkward because they'd stop by the room on our way somewhere and make weird faces at me about it and annoy me about it in very loud voices about it on the most conservative campus in the nation.
She, of course, knew none of this. And, eventually, the girl and her broke up. But to this day, my friends are like "Remember that time your room mate was in love with you, so she dated a girl that looked just like you?"
Monday, August 3, 2009
In the news...
So, I've been really really bad at doing this newsworthy blogpost once a week like I said I would. I know, I'm sorry. But I'm trying, really! Anyways, here are some things that have happened in the past two weeks.
Erin Andrews, a female sports journalist, has been all over the news recently because someone decided to horribly invade her privacy and shoot a video of her alone in her hotel room. We can only assume what she was doing. As if female sports journalists didn't have enough issues with people doubting their credibility, they're being judged by their looks as well, which is pretty unfair. (Image cred: Chicago Sun Times & Google)
Chris Brown recently tried out an apology to the public in relation to his severe and cruel beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna. However, judging by how long it took him to apologize and his means of doing so (YouTube, man? Really?) it's doubtful whether or not his apology is actually sincere. I'll leave it to you to decide for sure. As for me, I think it sounds pretty scripted.
Internationally, three American hikers are being detained in Iran. Apparently they accidentally stumbled across the border and are now being charged with entering the country illegally. They had a fourth friend who stayed behind and is hopefully helping them and the US government get them safely out.
An 89-year-old survivor of three Nazi concentration camps was found strangled in his New York apartment last Thursday. On Saturday, an arrest was made in relation to the murder/robbery, but police are still searching for a man who was apparently the woman's accomplice.
The verdict for Aung San Suu Kyi, a Myanmar opposition leader on trial for subversion, was expected Friday but was delayed until August 11. She has been on house arrest since 1989 after she rose to fame as the face of democracy for Myanmar during the national uprising of August 8, 1988 (dubbed '8888'). She and her two housekeepers are now being charged with illegally allowing an American man to stay in her home. She's a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and if convicted could spent up to five years in prison.
China, which is often criticized for its (extremely) liberal use of the death penalty, is promising to (try to) reduce it's numbers of executions. "As it is impossible for the country to abolish capital punishment under current realities and social security conditions, it is an important effort to strictly control the application of the penalty by judicial organs," Zhang Jun, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, said. Of course, because the official paperwork basically says it's on a case-by-case basis and can be subjectively judged, this may just be a political stunt to look better, but nothing at all may change. Human rights groups estimate that somewhere between 1,700 and 5,000 people were executed in China last year for crimes as small as drug traffiking. I guess we'll see if that number drops at all in the next year.
As if Michael Phelps needed another record to boast about, he set the world record in the 200 m butterfly on Wednesday, shattering his own previous world record. Of course, this made up for the extremely shocking loss he experienced in the 200 m freestyle to German swimmer Paul Biedermann on Tuesday. Until then, he hadn't lost the 200 m freestyle event since 2004 in Athens. But I guess there's a first time for everything, huh, Michael? This has sparked what is being dubbed The Great Swimsuit Debate, which basically asks if new polyeurathane suits are acceptable to compete in since they create an obvious advantage for the wearer but are too expensive for every team to afford. We'll see if they get banned before the 2012 Olympics.
An 8-year-old girl in Phoenix was lured into a shed, pinned down, and sexually assaulted by four boys, all 14 or younger. The family was described as "ashamed of her" because the crime made the family look bad. As shocking as this is to Americans, people who know Liberian culture know this is typical. After 14 years of civil war in which rape was one of the tactics used by fighters, groups like Amnesty International have estimated that 60-70% of women in Liberia have been sexually assaulted. A government report in '06 said that have 1,600 women surveyed, 92% reported some kind of sexual assualt, including rape. In Liberian communities, rape victims are often ostracized because of the crime, so many keep it quiet, and it's not because they think rape is okay, but because it's considered part of everyday life. In 2005, after Liberia's first woman was elected president, rape was finally made a crime. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had this to say about the crime: "Those parents should know that things have changed in Liberia," she told CNN last week. "No longer do we tolerate this. This is not a question of shame on the family. It's a question of the assault of a young child, and that cannot be tolerated."
Erin Andrews, a female sports journalist, has been all over the news recently because someone decided to horribly invade her privacy and shoot a video of her alone in her hotel room. We can only assume what she was doing. As if female sports journalists didn't have enough issues with people doubting their credibility, they're being judged by their looks as well, which is pretty unfair. (Image cred: Chicago Sun Times & Google)Chris Brown recently tried out an apology to the public in relation to his severe and cruel beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna. However, judging by how long it took him to apologize and his means of doing so (YouTube, man? Really?) it's doubtful whether or not his apology is actually sincere. I'll leave it to you to decide for sure. As for me, I think it sounds pretty scripted.
Internationally, three American hikers are being detained in Iran. Apparently they accidentally stumbled across the border and are now being charged with entering the country illegally. They had a fourth friend who stayed behind and is hopefully helping them and the US government get them safely out.
An 89-year-old survivor of three Nazi concentration camps was found strangled in his New York apartment last Thursday. On Saturday, an arrest was made in relation to the murder/robbery, but police are still searching for a man who was apparently the woman's accomplice.
The verdict for Aung San Suu Kyi, a Myanmar opposition leader on trial for subversion, was expected Friday but was delayed until August 11. She has been on house arrest since 1989 after she rose to fame as the face of democracy for Myanmar during the national uprising of August 8, 1988 (dubbed '8888'). She and her two housekeepers are now being charged with illegally allowing an American man to stay in her home. She's a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and if convicted could spent up to five years in prison.
China, which is often criticized for its (extremely) liberal use of the death penalty, is promising to (try to) reduce it's numbers of executions. "As it is impossible for the country to abolish capital punishment under current realities and social security conditions, it is an important effort to strictly control the application of the penalty by judicial organs," Zhang Jun, vice president of the Supreme People's Court, said. Of course, because the official paperwork basically says it's on a case-by-case basis and can be subjectively judged, this may just be a political stunt to look better, but nothing at all may change. Human rights groups estimate that somewhere between 1,700 and 5,000 people were executed in China last year for crimes as small as drug traffiking. I guess we'll see if that number drops at all in the next year.
As if Michael Phelps needed another record to boast about, he set the world record in the 200 m butterfly on Wednesday, shattering his own previous world record. Of course, this made up for the extremely shocking loss he experienced in the 200 m freestyle to German swimmer Paul Biedermann on Tuesday. Until then, he hadn't lost the 200 m freestyle event since 2004 in Athens. But I guess there's a first time for everything, huh, Michael? This has sparked what is being dubbed The Great Swimsuit Debate, which basically asks if new polyeurathane suits are acceptable to compete in since they create an obvious advantage for the wearer but are too expensive for every team to afford. We'll see if they get banned before the 2012 Olympics.
An 8-year-old girl in Phoenix was lured into a shed, pinned down, and sexually assaulted by four boys, all 14 or younger. The family was described as "ashamed of her" because the crime made the family look bad. As shocking as this is to Americans, people who know Liberian culture know this is typical. After 14 years of civil war in which rape was one of the tactics used by fighters, groups like Amnesty International have estimated that 60-70% of women in Liberia have been sexually assaulted. A government report in '06 said that have 1,600 women surveyed, 92% reported some kind of sexual assualt, including rape. In Liberian communities, rape victims are often ostracized because of the crime, so many keep it quiet, and it's not because they think rape is okay, but because it's considered part of everyday life. In 2005, after Liberia's first woman was elected president, rape was finally made a crime. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had this to say about the crime: "Those parents should know that things have changed in Liberia," she told CNN last week. "No longer do we tolerate this. This is not a question of shame on the family. It's a question of the assault of a young child, and that cannot be tolerated."
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Jesse McCartney Concert :]
On Friday, Cyndi and I spent the day in Arlington. We drove to Six Flags of Texas in the morning, picked up our tickets for the Jesse McCartney concert that night, left Six Flags, then spent the day partly with Kevin in a Barnes and Noble drinking coffee and writing (hey, at least we weren’t wearing berets and being snobby too). It was great; I definitely got a lot of writing done AND finally got a picture of Kevin and I where neither of us are being too conceited and/or looking really mad.But, that’s not what I’m here to tell you about. I am here to tall you about the glory that was the Jesse McCartney concert that night.
So, I’m going to be honest. If a week ago, you would have asked me what I thought of Jesse McCartney, I would have told you he’s a pretty boy with an acceptable amount of talent, that sings a lot of pop with a few good hits, and it really only famous because of his ultra-talented father. Now I’d tell you that he’s a very pretty boy with a crazy amount of talent, who is doing awesome and original things with music, has a lot of really great honest songs, and would have been famous no matter who his family was.
Seeing him perform live was epic. That’s the only way to put it. He quite simply puts on a great show that entertains and excites. I could rave for hours, so here are few more pictures instead.
By the way, we were really close to the stage. :]
look at those moves :3
That was supposed to be me. Except, really. She was jail bait; I'm at least his age (which I shouted when he picked her -- the back up dancer on the right laughed).
my favorite picture from the concert. :]
The storm that made the concert end early and the park close. LAME.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Beliefs
I believe in SMILES, and that LAUGHING is the best calorie burner.
I believe in having FAITH.
I believe in MANICURES.
I believe that HONESTY really is the best policy.
I believe that JEANS & T-SHIRTS are sexier than any lingerie.
I believe in playing VIDEO GAMES.
I believe in ART.
I believe in holding your FAMILY close.
I believe that WATERPROOF MASCARA can save any bad day.
I believe in COFFEE.
I believe in QUESTIONING every earthly thing.
I believe that a moment between FRIENDS can cure a lifetime of hurt.
I believe in SACRIFICE and PUTTING OTHERS FIRST.
I believe in JUSTICE.
I believe that MUSIC can HEAL.
I believe in the color WHITE, in GOLD PAINT, and in FEDORAS.
I believe in FLOWERS.
I believe that HAPPY girls are what make PRETTY girls.
I believe that PIERCINGS can be cute.
I believe in FEELING ALIVE each day and LETTING GO of regrets.
I believe in PHOTOGRAPHY.
I believe that admitting your MISTAKES is integral to a healthy and happy life.
I believe in INDEPENDENCE.
I believe in DOING SOMETHING YOU FEAR every single day.
I believe in PRAYER.
I believe in MIRACLES, in HEAVEN, and in a MIGHTY SAVIOR.
What do you believe in?
I believe in having FAITH.
I believe in MANICURES.
I believe that HONESTY really is the best policy.
I believe that JEANS & T-SHIRTS are sexier than any lingerie.
I believe in playing VIDEO GAMES.
I believe in ART.
I believe in holding your FAMILY close.
I believe that WATERPROOF MASCARA can save any bad day.
I believe in COFFEE.
I believe in QUESTIONING every earthly thing.
I believe that a moment between FRIENDS can cure a lifetime of hurt.
I believe in SACRIFICE and PUTTING OTHERS FIRST.
I believe in JUSTICE.
I believe that MUSIC can HEAL.
I believe in the color WHITE, in GOLD PAINT, and in FEDORAS.
I believe in FLOWERS.
I believe that HAPPY girls are what make PRETTY girls.
I believe that PIERCINGS can be cute.
I believe in FEELING ALIVE each day and LETTING GO of regrets.
I believe in PHOTOGRAPHY.
I believe that admitting your MISTAKES is integral to a healthy and happy life.
I believe in INDEPENDENCE.
I believe in DOING SOMETHING YOU FEAR every single day.
I believe in PRAYER.
I believe in MIRACLES, in HEAVEN, and in a MIGHTY SAVIOR.
What do you believe in?
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