Swine Flu . . . Panic!

So the University Health Center at the U of M posts monthly fliers over the urinals for guys to read while they're . . . you know.

I think this is a brilliant idea.

Today's flier had a section entitled "How to avoid the Swine Flu." Point 2 was "Stay 6' away." Point 3 was "Don't share saliva."

I don't think that is a brilliant idea.

First off, there should really be qualifying statements on both of those. "Stay six feet away" . . . from whom? From an infected person? From everyone? From pigs?

I'd really like to know. Their generalities could be panic-inducing.

And "Don't share saliva." It's spit, not Grey Poupon, and I'd really like more specifics. Don't share spit with . . . friends? Acquaintances? Pigs?

I feel that these are all viable questions.

Be, Don't Buy

I recently read in the quotes section of someone's Facebook that "Freedom is having options."

While I'm not exactly sure that's what the Founding Fathers had in mind, it is very reflective of our consumer-focused culture.

One of my professors made a point a few weeks back that how we as Americans identify ourselves in the post-WWII period has shifted from "I am what I do" to "I am what I buy." We no longer identify with other people who hold the same job as in previous generations, but rather with those who consume the same things--clothes, music, movies, etc.

We've traded in being for buying.

Prime example: Bohemianism. Formerly, one was a Bohemian, denoting an intrinsic disregard for current trends and an artistic flair for the dramatic.

Today, one buys Bohemian in the form of flowing skirts and floral prints. The fact that the oxymoronic term "Boho-chic" even exists probably has everyone who lived in Montmartre at the turn of the 20th century rolling over in their graves.

Basically--to sum it all up--everything in our culture has gotten a lot more superficial, from our concept of freedom to the way we relate to others.

Freedom isn't the right to choose without regulation, it's the right to be without oversight. In abandoning the latter for the former, we've traded in actual freedom for perceived freedom and reduced human beings from complex people to rational-acting, self-interested consumers.

(Unless, of course, you live in the underdeveloped world, in which case you haven't been reduced from a person to a consumer but rather from a person to "labor." That's another post.)

I refuse to be reduced. I refuse to be a consumer. I refuse to bow down at the altar of selfish materialism and ambition and instead I choose to be.

Thank you for your time.

Fact:

Sometimes, you just need to take a step back and breathe.

Unfortunately, the more you need it, the harder it is to remember that.

Deeeep breath . . .

Yay, surveys!

The rules are:

1. Respond and rework: answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.

2. Tag other un-tagged people.

What is your current obsession?
Umm . . . coffee? I dunno, I really haven't discovered anything recently that has just blown my socks off. Maybe a series of Baha'i podcasts I've been listening to every night before I sleep? I hate these kinda questions.

What are you wearing today?
An old RA t-shirt and a pair of jeans. I was wearing my favorite jeans earlier, but I bent over to pick up a penny on the way home from the library earlier today and they ripped right across my bottom. It's really a shame no one was there to laugh at me.

Do you nap a lot?
No, actually. You could probably count the number of times I've napped on one hand (excluding when I had mono, which doesn't count).

Why was today special?
I churned out a 6-page paper and printed all the resources I'll need for the next 10-pager I'll be doing tomorrow? My life rocks! . . . wanna trade?

What would you like to learn to do?
I went to a flamenco show the other night and it was amazing. I want to learn to dance/play the guitar like that. If you ever get a chance to see flamenco, go.

What's for dinner today?
My typical Med-themed food. Today I served myself bread with an olive oil/spices dipping sauce, followed by a chickpea salad.

What's the last thing you bought?
Groceries. Exciting, I know.

What are you listening to right now?
The rain fall outside . . . it's pretty relaxing.

What is your favorite weather?
If I have nothing to do: sunny and warm! If I have something to do: cold and dreary. That way I can focus without the birds and flowers teasing me out the window.

What is your favorite kitchen gadget?
Umm . . . right now I don't have a kitchen, but I guess I'd have to say the oven? I generally prefer to mix things (cookies, bread) by hand, so the only thing I really use that much is the oven. I miss baking bread.

What's your style?
Scruffy bohemian nouveau-Jesus I-don't-care.

What is your most challenging goal right now?
School? I always bite off more than I can really chew and wind up wanting to kill myself by the end of the semester. I also need to find employment for the summer so I can think about getting a car. Connections?

Say something about the person who tagged you:
She's the best prom date ever. I'd know, I went with her twice. :)

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
Paris. Or maybe Chile or Morocco. Spain? I like too many different places to answer this with any degree of certainty.

Favorite vacation spot?
My favorite "vacation" recently was to Spain, which I loved . . . but I always went to Florida with my family as a kid, and I really have nothing against that state.

Favorite meal of the day?
Lunch is usually the one I'm most hungry for, but that's eaten on campus, so maybe dinner? I usually enjoy whipping something up in the dorm.

Name a memory from childhood that sticks out in your mind:
I can remember the first adult I was mad at besides my parents. She got me in trouble for eating my cookie before the rest of my meal at church on Wednesday night. I hated her.

What celebrity would you like to punch in the face?
All of them. Paris Hilton or Britney Spears first.

What would you like to get rid of?
School?

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
A secluded beach somewhere with a book and a view.

Which language do you want to learn?
I've always wanted to learn Portuguese, but my Spanish and Arabic need brushing up. Yeah, that's right. Add French in there and I'm quatrilingual. Beat my resumé.

Which countries have you visited?
Mexico, Montenegro, Serbia, Spain, the South Bronx, and Memphis. Add in France and Italy if you're counting airport-only.

Which would you go back to?
Mexico, Spain, and the South Bronx. I'd also like to go to France and Italy for the "first time."

I tag Cara and Joseph . . . I think they are the only two who have not yet been tagged.

We're All 3D

Yesterday I got the chance to hang out with a friend who had previously been kinda a "flat character" in my life. We got the chance to talk for a while and I found out a little bit more of her story and how she reached the place she's at today.

It was an important reminder to me that there are no flat characters in life: we all change and we all have our stories.

Nothing profound in that, just something that I need reminded of from time to time.

Solo died.

The Sámi, Solo the Fish, and Other Things That Don't Belong

I don't really have much worthwhile to say, but it's either update this or work on a paper. We all know that the decision made between these two choices will always be the internet.

The next paper I have to work on, though, should be pretty interesting--it is for my anthropology course and will be on the Sámi people of northern Scandinavia. The Sámi are an indigenous group who have faced oppression in the past, not unlike the Native Americans here.

I have a personal interest in that topic because the Sámi provide me with a claim to ethnic diversity: my great-grandmother was a Sámi who immigrated to the United States with her family when she was a little girl. Hopefully this paper will provide some insight into my heritage beyond what I learned from my great aunt when I was little.

And now for something completely different:

One of my fish is really sick. My favorite one, Solo.

So, realizing that other more serious things have occurred in peoples' lives in recent days, if you happen to remember my fish tonight in your prayers, I would be very appreciative.

Also, to continue this very fragmentary post, I have finally gotten back into the practice of maintaining a prayer journal the past few days. This has been a great source of release and I have found it very refreshing. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up.

Met with the advisor for my history major today. He was very helpful--unlike a certain other advisor with whom I have met recently--and really encouraging about next semester. I might end up with 21 hours, which is a little scary, but I'm hoping it won't end up being too bad.

. . . Yeah, so I think I've written on everything I possibly could. Guess I'll get to crackin' on that paper.

Ciao!

God has been singing

for a long, long

time.

God looked at Himself in a mirror

and the world was created.

What do you see when

you look back?

Cuteness Concentrate

So, after several posts of ranting negativity, I've decided something more up-beat is in order.

By following a link to a link to a link, I found these:

AKA, the cutest things ever.

. . . EVER.

I want to learn to make them. I will give them to my children. I will give them to your children.

I will devote myself to spreading happiness, love, cheer, and Star Wars to everyone around the globe.

Which one do you like best? I'm kinda leaning towards Yoda, myself.

A is for Advisors

[EDIT: I finally heard from my advisor shortly after finishing this post. He is redeemed.]

. . . who are supposed to advise.

Really.

I've sent my advisor emails 3 times in the past few weeks with the schedule I want for next semester. I've thought out everything I need to do to graduate on time. All he needs to do is sign on to his little computer and press a button saying okay.

Is that so hard?!


I've emailed. I've called. I've gone by his (empty) office.

If I don't get to register soon, I'll lose out on the classes I want to underclassmen. I'm really not a fan of this part of the semester. I have enough stress writing papers.

Grr.

In other news, I read an article earlier today that said 30% of the greenhouse gases emitted from Argentina come from flatulent cows.

I was going to turn that into propaganda for vegetarianism. Bean plants aren't flatulent. However, beans can cause flatulent humans, and I'm sure 6 billion of those wouldn't be great for the planet, either.

Oh well. I tried.

Isn't it Ironic?

I should be working on the rough draft of a 15-page paper that's due in my Soviet history course tomorrow, but I just can't focus. I'm hoping by writing a little bit about it on here that I can inspire myself to get through the last 7 or 8 pages I need to write by 9:40 tomorrow morning.

. . . I hope.

So what's the paper on?

The Influence of Mirza Sultan-Galiev on the Fate of Central Asia.

It sounds riveting, I know.

Mirza Sultan-Galiev (above) was a leading Bolshevik during the Russian Revolution and the highest-ranking Communist of Muslim Central Asian descent. This gave him a pretty unique perspective on events--which ultimately led to his downfall at the hands of Josef Stalin.

Sultan-Galiev wanted what was best for his people: a pan-Turkic semi-autonomous state within the Soviet Union that would cater to their interests and culture. He was a moderate and an idealist in a world of fanatics and pragmatists.

Fearful that Sultan-Galiev's idea would come to pass, Stalin accused him of colluding with terrorists (false charges) and had him removed from the party and sent to the labor camps. Furthermore, in his paranoia, Stalin committed to the opposite of what Sultan-Galiev had suggested: he divided Central Asia into the "-stans" with which we are familiar today, creating cultural and national divisions that had previously been abstract or non-existent.

So, in sum, because Sultan-Galiev was such a vocal advocate for the unification of his people, he is at least in part responsible for the reactionary policy of Josef Stalin that has insured--almost without a doubt--that a pan-Turkic republic will never exist.

Ergo the title.

Now wasn't that fun? Didn't you enjoy reading that?

Oh well, look at the bright side: even if you didn't, at least you now have a useless piece of Soviet trivia you can throw around to sound smart. :)

The Wall of Hate (and Stupidity)

In the center of campus, a wall has been on display for the past week; it is called "The Wall of Hate."

This wall is made of cinder blocks, each painted individually with a word someone has been called that made them feel discriminated against. Earlier today, the wall was torn down, symbolically representing the destruction of the barriers between people who are different.

Angels sang. Birds chirped. Rainbows appeared in the sky and unicorns danced through fields of daisies while everyone sat in a giant circle singing "Kumbaya."

Yeah.

But in addition to being corny, this wall achieved another, if unintentional, end: it trivialized the problems of real hate and discrimination.

Bricks inscribed with serious slurs like the N word, "Dirty Mexican," "Fag," or "Dyke" were on the wall right next to bricks with polka dot backgrounds and bubble letters reading "Dumb Cheerleader" or "Too Pretty." No joke.

I'm sure that last one hurt a lot.

Discrimination is a real problem for many people. People who have been discriminated against in this country for many years, facing much more difficult issues than being "too pretty."

And--while the intentions of the organizers were probably good--this event did nothing to help our society overcome those barriers and stereotypes . . . it only served to delegitimize them by placing serious problems side-by-side with silly, superficial ones.

Call me a cynic, but that wall only symbolized--if anything--a step backwards.

Le Sigh (Cough-Hack-Wheeze).

Sinuses. Are. The Devil.

Period.

I've been having trouble with these stupid things for almost a month now with hardly any relief. Medicine works for a time--5 days at most--and then poof! my mouth is the only useful orifice in my head.

And it's ruining my focus. I wrote 3-32 as today's date in my notes.

Grr.

Someday, I'm going to live somewhere with a dry, stable climate.


--Insert segue here.--


Has anyone heard much about that new sagging bill in the state's House? How can you make a law about something like that?

Besides, at least in Memphis, that's totally unenforceable. 2/3 of the city would be fined. Daily.

And police officers should have more important things to do. Like eat doughnuts.* Or catch drug traffickers and rapists.

This country is nuts. Revolution starts tomorrow.


*Blogger does not like my spelling of this word. Blogger can deal.