Happy Valentine’s Day!
AKA “Candy Sales Eve” and “Single People Cry Bitterly Into Their Alcohol Day” and “Welp. It’s First Mother’s Day Again.”
Random
Fresh Off the Boat
I found this article which better describes some of the stuff I put in my last post, except in a much nicer, neater, non-emotionally charged way. I’m with a lot of the comments I’ve seen from fellow immigrant-Americans, and Nahnatchka Khan herself:
“When I read his memoir, the specifics were different to my growing up experience, being Persian American and him being Taiwanese American, but what I related to was the immigrant experience of the show, being first generation and having parents who weren’t born here. And that, to me, was my access point. When you take something from the source material that’s such a strong voice and make it into an 8 p.m. family sitcom on broadcast TV, you need a lot of access points.”
Some people criticized the story for being all about that 拉面 and not so much about 냉면 or ラーメン or even like, Maggi. And I understand that how that must feel, truly. But I also agree that the slippery slope is real; if this is accepted into media, and it doesn’t even have to be embraced, but if it gets, say, two seasons, then introducing other perspectives and other cultures and making them the heroes and the protagonists instead of the sidekicks and villains becomes one hundred percent plausible. If the networks see the money, then there’s a huge potential to expand into.
Yes, I’m biased because Fresh Off the Boat reflects my experience as an ABC (haha, ABC, get it? Because the network…It’s really early in the morning…) but I want to see all of my minority friends get their own on the screen without producers having to resort to placing everyone back in their respective countries (or fantasy countries; I’m looking at you, Disney) and their historical timelines that aren’t here and now. If this goes better than All-American Girl, we might actually get somewhere meaningful.
With this show I get to cheer on little Eddie Huang as my little brother if my little brother was awesome (just kidding, my actual little brother is pretty cool too) and as an extension of myself as I lived (R&B and hip-hop, Asian underachiever, strict parents, realization that I might not be worst off), not some random sword-wielding girl I can’t love like a younger OR older sister because she doesn’t exist as far as my reality schema goes.
You know who actually exists? Sophia and Louisa Chua-Rubenfield! The Fung Brothers! Joe Jo! David So! Bart Kwan! Olivia Thai! Ryan Higa! Freddie Wong! Anna Akana! Eddie Huang! David Chang! Ming Tsai! Dale Talde! Hung Huynh! Anita Lo! (if you recognize all or most of these names, we should be friends. Also, I present to you basically all the media I digest regularly. And literally.)
And ME! I EXIST!
Maybe it’s just because it’s really early in the morning, I still haven’t gotten anything done, and I’d really like to sleep, but I swear if ABC takes it off the air too soon, I’m going to send so many passive aggressive tweets, you won’t even recognize my Twitter feed.
I’m having a pretty good day
I started my new job today. And the hectic craziness that is going to be my life until at least May. And if I have it my way, the rest of my non-retired life will be fairly similar.
Sleepy train station picture! One transfer, about an hour (more like 40 minutes), all-in-all a decent commute. I don’t start too early, so there isn’t that much of a fight for sitting room which is nice.
Updates!
A lot of things happened in a fairly short period of time, so let’s get to it:
- I’m starting my job with Kelly Weiner on Wednesday!
I interviewed for a few smaller, unpaid gigs and so far have gotten one positive response back; if I get a second positive response, that means I’m doing 6 classes, and what basically amounts to two and a half jobs this semester. If everything goes well, I’ll beUpdate: I AM working with Kelly Weiner, Lynxsy, and Fuse Marketing! Yay! I want this. I’ve got this. I wish I was getting paid more, haha. I want responses from bigger companies offering paid gigs and I’m trying to keep my head up.- I’m trying to organize my next Surrender to Chance pack into coherent reviews, and I might include a few scents I found along the way! Still trying to find the time and energy to go to the city for another perfume day. Soon!
- I’m starting to dance again with a new/old group of friends. This makes me really freaking happy, because I feel like I haven’t danced in a while, and new friends is exactly what I needed. I have to up my focus though; I didn’t continue dancing almost solely as a result of my inability to focus, and the embarrassment that comes with not knowing what I was doing. Changing geographical locations isn’t a real excuse; I could always find another studio or another class when I moved around. I want to actually practice this time around.
- Perhaps I’ll even lose a little weight in the process. I ordered some new earbuds and am going to make a concentrated effort to actually hit the gym. In the meantime, I’ll just continue dancing, stretching, and doing some push-ups or something in my room.
- To that end, I’m also trying to eat cleaner. I’m trying not to go out as much (also because I want to move), and when I do, to choose things like fish and clear soups and salads. There’s no soda, or even juice in my dorm room, and that’s for the best right now. Cutting down on the sugar I’d be chugging.
- I’m taking a little time for myself. I just want to have fun right now. I very, very recently got out of a relationship and I’m trying to be strong in areas I wasn’t before.
Patriots Win!
Damn, Seahawks shot out of the sky.
Also, Coca-Cola, good choice on the music.
Academic freedom
My law professor is so bad at enforcing academic freedom. As defined by Stanley Fish during that seminar that I attended for him and a bunch of presidents/deans, and presumably in his book that I never bought (though I’m tempted to), academic freedom is the ability for academia to traverse all routes of truth with their students with the condition of refraining from affecting where those students go with their thoughts. And seriously, we can’t get through a class without him stating his views under guise of showing us where he’s coming from. It’s just unnecessary all of the time, and this is coming from someone who agrees with him.
Then again, we are studying law which is inherently political, unlike English, which is and was Professor Fish’s realm. My professor seems to think confirming his views over and over is necessary for some reason. It skirts dangerously close to making the classroom a sound board though, and I think all of the men sitting in that seminar would agree. They have, and would, all take a more way conservative take on teaching, even if it seems like the majority of them identify as perhaps middle-left, or middle-right. They would be authoritarian and respectable where my vegan, leftist professor is very conversational, even a little bumbling in a charming way. (He literally just said he was vegan.) I can’t imagine him being okay with the constraints Fish sets for academic tutors and for their pursuit of academia. It’s hilarious thinking about Mr. Fish trying to convince him that his teaching methods aren’t respectable, but I guess that’s why he teachers at my school and not at NYU or Yeshiva.
Wonuts & the first day of the rest of my life
I have just been alerted to the fact that waffle donut hybrids exist and can be had at the Waffles Cafe in Chicago. While this is wonderful, because donuts with the slight chewy and crispy texture of a waffle just goes so well with the sweetness of a donut (think cruller; those are my favorite types of donuts!) it is also terrible because I haven’t been to Chicago in years, I’m really bad at saving money, and I won’t be able to go until I have both money and time. And as the last semester of my undergraduate life is starting today, I may not have time until months from now, let alone money saved up.
Oh. Today’s the first day of the last semester of my undergraduate life.
Oh dear.
Oh.
Let’s hope this is the last semester, and I start my real adult life soon after *crossesfingers*.
Charlie Hebdo
Created by Lucille Clerc.
Perhaps I’m just a coward, but I don’t feel right expressing ideology right now. I don’t want to impress onto anyone that I am comfortable in ignorance, that I take comfort in “The truth resists simplicity” just as Mr. Green of the vlogbrothers doesn’t take comfort in his own phrase, highly repeated when tragedies of worldwide significance go on, but I’m also a wholly ignorant person. I don’t have any inside knowledge, and the barest of outside knowledge. I am no soldier, no scholar, no great influencer. I know to be a successful believer and supporter of anything ,I must focus, but that focus creates guilt. I am a mighty defender of the pen, but I am also hurt at what some of those pens spill. I am no supporter of violence, but I’m not blind to the power of it. I talk at times like I am not affected by the thoughts of others, but I am as subject to the feelings of others as anyone else.
I will say that there is no room for base ignorance when the internet is such a vast place. Beware of the words you use, and make sure you know what they mean. Being careless is useless at best, and harmful otherwise. The brilliance behind the covers of magazines is that they are not stupid mockery.
And so I leave this rather paragraph here. Je ne suis pas Charlie, but I will always admire strength beyond my own.
*List taken from Telegraph:
• Charb – (real name Stephane Charbonnier) 47, an artist and publisher of Charlie Hebdo
• Cabu – (real name Jean Cabut) 76, the lead cartoonist for Charlie Hebdo
• Georges Wolinski – 80, an artist who had been drawing cartoons since the 1960s
• Tignous – (real name Bernard Verlhac) 57, a member of Cartoonists for Peace
• Bernard Maris – (known as “Uncle Bernard”) 68, an economist and columnist for the magazine
• Honoré – (real name Philippe Honoré) 73, the artist who drew the last cartoon tweeted by the weekly publication
• Michel Renaud – a former journalist who was visiting the Charlie Hebdo offices
• Mustapha Ourrad – a copy-editor for Charlie Hebdo
• Elsa Cayat – a columnist and analyst for Charlie Hebdo
• Frederic Boisseau – a building maintenance worker
• Franck Brinsolaro – 49, a policeman appointed to head security for Charb
• Ahmed Merabet – 42, a police officer and member of the 11th arrondissement brigade
Happy New Years!
I hope you had as much fun and felt as much love as I did last night. Here’s to the new year!
Merry Christmas!
Hope you all had a good Christmas and did something as relaxing as a nature hike with your family…
…risky as eating raw oysters at a Chinese buffet…
And I hope you spent time with friends…
And ate some bangin’ food :3
Pomelo girl thoughts 