That’s Why They Call It The Blues
April 24, 2009 § Leave a comment
The summer before college, I heard the term “sophomore blues” at large group during the night dedicated to preparing us graduated seniors for university life. The meaning of the phrase that I procured was based on the fact that freshmen get babied by older students and courted by just about every campus organization. The next year, nobody really cares about you anymore. Classes become significantly harder, especially when one is switching majors on a weekly basis, and people expect you to fend for yourself.
Roomie #1 and I have both encountered sophomore blues this year, which led us to have many, many conversations about the past, ranging from childhood to high school, anything to escape the unexpected hell of the present.
I would have to say this school year sucked more than the last one. What with adopting literal nocturnal habits [I am REALLY good at staying up until sunrise now], a 7-8lb weight gain, and being more cut off from friends because of increasing school work, I would definitely not like to relive sophomore year.
O Boy O Boy O Boy
April 19, 2009 § Leave a comment
Although Harry Potter’s bath scene in Goblet of Fire made me squeal, I’ve always thought Ron Weasley was the cuter of the two.
The trailer:
And this comment summarizes my thoughts exactly:
I loved the 5th book, but the movie was vastly underwhelming, and experiencing that after the boredom that was the 7th book just killed my inner HP fire.
Who’s Got Talent?
April 15, 2009 § Leave a comment
First impressions don’t usually carry anything substantial about the person being judged. I’ve never watched an episode of Britain’s Got Talent, but I’m not sure why they still react so cynically when presented with a person who perhaps does not already look like a superstar — a while ago I wrote about Paul Potts, who also appeared on the show. Outwardly he was unimpressive, but he had the voice of a well-trained opera singer.
More recently, Simon Cowell & co. were faced with Susan Boyle, an unassuming 47-year-old lady whose dream is to become a professional singer [I love how they spliced in clips of audience members rolling their eyes]:
I’m not sure how the show works, and what exactly she wins, but I’m very happy for her. Hopefully this success will allow her to find some work…
Discrimination Has A Face
April 10, 2009 § 2 Comments
Our AAA president sent us a link to an article this morning about a state representative from Texas, Betty Brown:
A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.” […]
Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.
“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.
Brown later told Ko [a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans]: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”
What the freak?!
Asians and Asian-Americans [as well as people of other nationalities] have been changing their names for generations. My legal name was finally changed from 晓京 [Xiao Jing] to Laura during high school, though I had been using my English name since kindergarten. But that was a personal decision [made by my parents, I guess]; it is completely out of line to suggest legislation that would require this type of thing.
Gross. Here is the video of how it went down:
What’s sad is that as usual when dealing with racially insensitive remarks towards Asian-Americans, the perpetrator denies any wrongdoing. What will it take to change people in this country?
auradis 