Hey! So a friend of mine, la_fields, wrote this awesome book called Maladaptation. She's a fourth year undergraduate student at New College and she already has her own fiction book published! Cool, right? Plus it's totally all about the gay. If you are interested you can check it out and order a copy on amazon here

I watched the first episode of Mad Men. It's filled with all of the intrigue, subtext, symbolism, and intensive character focused drama that I love. I have no idea why I haven't been watching this sooner, but I can tell you that it was a horrible idea to start during my thesis year.

I'm rewarding myself with the next episode after I finish the Derrida readings. Thankfully the reading has gotten somewhat easier as it's gone on, but it's still rough going. Apparently, it's intentionally as confusing as possible! Ah, how I love readings like this. It brings back all my fond memories of reading Kierkegaard as a first year.... </sarcasm>

For any parents, older relatives, or non-computer people out there, memorize this graph. You too can now become the local computer expert!




Original Link

This is the coolest thing I've ever seen posted on facebook. Thank you Glenn Beck, because your douchebag self noting how much you hate my school just made me love it all the more. I would kill to see this guy in a class with one of my professors and receive that "feel good" commentary my professors love oh so much. Or, how about the 9 kids who received Fullbrights last year out of a school of only 800 students ceremoniously stone him to death?

An Inconvenient Book (in which Beck rails against our narrative evaluations)

I'm a little late, but I still wanted to say Happy Birthday equusentric!!! You are a wonderful, giving person and I'm very happy to have you as a friend. Hope you had a fantastic day!

I'm at Hunter's graduation. It's hour 3 out of a nearly 5 hour ceremony. The principal is talking for 3 minutes about all 177 kids. Kill me now.

I'M GOING TO SEE THE KENTUCKY DERBY IN PERSON TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so fucking excited I am honestly shaking. I had such a hard time falling asleep last night because I felt like an 8 year old on the night before Christmas. The only way my life could get any better is if whoever wins today goes on to win the Triple Crown. If this happens, I could die completely content. I don't think this entire experience is going to feel real. I already feel like I'm dreaming it. I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

It's a meme about books! How could I turn that down? It's also long, you have been warned.

( Read more... )

The past 4 days I have not gotten more than 5 hours of sleep. It is now 5 in the morning. I am still up writing this paper. I have three pages done out of seven. I want to do bodily harm to myself for not getting this done sooner.

I am knee deep in paper hell. Here is my to do list this week:

Sunday
150 pages of "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
75 pages of "The Confusions of Young Torless"-Robert Musil
Finish 8 page "Crisis of Identity" essay of which I currently have two four pages done
Do a draft of thesis prospectus to give to my advisor

Monday Night
Spanish reading and 2 journal entries
Start Spanish essay
Develop topic and ideally get at least halfway through 5 page Cuban Revolution paper

Tuesday Night
80 pages of Cuban Revolution reading
Finish Cuban Revolution paper
Finish Spanish essay if not done on Monday

Wednesday Night
Spanish homework and journal entries
remaining 75 pages of "Young Torless"
200 pages of "Black Boy" (I truly hate this professor for assigning this much reading during midterm week)
Start 7 page American Masculinities paper

Thursday Night
Finish American Masculinities paper

*scampers off to get work done*

Season 3 of Queer as Folk is so freaking awesome. 308 and 311 have got to rank very high in my top 10 episodes of this series. I always think I'm done with the show and then one day I pop in a DVD for the hell of it and I'm reminded why I fell for it in the first place.

Also, Moulin Rouge! is my happy place. I love it because it's cheesy, it's a musical, and it is utterly and insanely ludicrous. I love it because it reinterprets songs in a completely new and inventive way that makes you view the original song differently. I love it because it's completely aware of the cliches and genres it relies upon and makes fun of them and itself. I love it because the singing is imperfect but done with heart. (Ewan McGregor's voice in "your song" to this day makes me melt into a giant puddle.) I love it for Nicole Kidman's amazing red hair and the fact that her face moves like that of a real human being and not an barely animated doll. I love it because it is epic and visually captivating and the dancing is incredible. It is comedy, tragedy, musical, drama, and satire all in one giant red bow. I love it because it's the reason my best friend and I became friends 9 years ago and we can still sit down once a year and squee about it. Finally, I love it because I have watched it more times than I can count and I never, ever, get tired of it. My favorite review site doing a write up of my go to happy movie in their blockbuster review column? is the total icing on the cake.

Hello flist, I need your help for a moment please. I'm working with a group of students to set up an American Masculinites film festival on campus. What I need from you is a short list of movies that you have seen which deal with issues of masculinity, fatherhood, the homosocial continuum, gender identity including cross-dressing and transgenderism, and/or other themes related to these. Easy right? If you would like, please also include a very brief description of why you think the film is worth including in an event like this.

Some examples of films we are including or are considering:

The Godfather
Some Like it Hot
3:10 to Yuma
American Beauty
Spartacus
Fight Club
The Crying Game
The Searchers

Thank you for any help you can provide, it is much appreciated!

I got into all the classes I wanted, yay! I'm pretty excited about all of them. American Masculinities was a particularly awesome class. We spent 30 minutes talking about the Superbowl and how it relates to issues of American masculine identity. I love being in school.

They finally produced a Dead Like Me movie. They had to replace the actress who played Daisy (one of my favorites) so I'm a little apprehensive about the quality of this, but anything dealing with Dead Like Me is game in my book. I miss that show so much.

Barack Obama is officially the 44th President of the United States!!

Your computer breaking in the middle of finals week... Priceless.

*sigh* At least I finished my Renaissance Epic Poetry paper (yay!!!!!!!) and I have only my Spanish paper left to write. Almost done.

Hey guys, thank you for all of the Happy Birthday messages and well wishes. I greatly appreciate them. Full write up will be available tomorrow but I just have to say...

I HAVE AT LEAST TWO POSSIBLY UP TO 6 BOX SEAT TICKETS TO THE 135th KENTUCKY DERBY!!!!!!!!!!!!

I CRIED when my parents handed me that message. I'm still in shock. We have to hammer out details and all that, but jesus I am on such a high. I cannot even believe it. I am starting to cry now even thinking about it. I have been dreaming about this since I was 12 years old. This is literally a dream come true for me.

I hope everyone in the US had a fabulous thanksgiving. Beth, Demarick and their two kids ended up not coming, so we had a pretty relaxing time here. It was good to spend some time with Isabel's family. I adore them and my parents have really warmed up to them a lot. It was nice. Plenty of good food (I personally ate about half the sweet potato souffle) and fun family times. Today I'm just trying to finish a paper due Monday and looking forward to midnight tonight when I turn 21.

However, there is a news story I wanted to share just in case anyone hadn't heard about it. It isn't intended to ruin anyone's holiday, but I think it's good to think about our priorities right now and whether this countries craven consumerism is really worth it. In this news story, a 34 year old temp worker named Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death in Long Island, NY by a mob of 200 people lined up at Walmart to get special black Friday deals. This mob tore the door off its hinges trying to get through. This is an incredibly tragic story, especially considering this man was only trying to do his job and did not willingly put himself at risk like the holiday shoppers. What truly sickens me is that when it was announced that the store was closing to deal with this tragedy, there were people who screamed at employees that this wasn't fair since they'd been there since 5 am.

I know in this bad economy everyone is trying to save and they're attempting to still provide a very fun Christmas for their kids, but I think we can all agree that no 50% off playstation 3 will ever be worth someone's life. We can blame Walmart for not hiring enough security and taking enough precautionary measures (and believe me I do), but these people are still responsible due to this mad dash mentality about accumulating more things. While I will never judge someone for celebrating (or not celebrating) the holidays in whatever way they see fit, I think this story and our troubled economic times do call in to question whether this American mentality of simply buying more stuff because we can or because we're supposed to is truly meaningful or fulfilling. Besides, isn't the core of the holidays about spending time with close family and friends? I urge you to take this in to consideration and determine for yourself what is truly important this holiday season.
Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede

Happy Birthdady to my lovely friend patty1943!!! I hope you have a fantastic day today. Thanks for all of your well wishes and kind thoughts these past few months. They have helped me enormously. I'm very grateful to have a friend like you.

Victory is ours at last.

I sat glued to the election coverage last night until after midnight. This was my first time voting in a presidential election and I cannot tell you how incredible it felt to vote for the first time in this historic election for a candidate that inspired me and that I believe in. I had heard all of the news discuss Obama's chances for victory, but I didn't dare get my hopes up only to be disappointed like in the 2004 elections. This time around, I finally got to see the candidate I wanted elected, and what a win it was. To watch Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, and most importantly for me, Florida, go blue was awe-inspiring. My county, one of the most Republican I know of in Florida, which hasn't given the election to a Democrat since 1944, was within 200 votes of electing Obama. That's incredible.

Unfortunately, even with this huge victory, we still have a long way to go. Prop 2 (an anti-gay marriage amendment) in Florida, Prop 8 of California, Prop 102 in Arizona, and Initiative 1 in Arkansas banning gay adoption, all passed. Our amendment in Florida, which needs 60% of the vote to become part of the state constitution, passed with 62.2% of the vote. It puts a damper on things to know that we can elect an African-American man as President by a huge margin, but are still too bigoted to allow for gay rights. Yet, I am hopeful that someday we will get there and Obama is merely one tiny stepping stone in that long journey.

Of course, the true test will come when Obama hits his first 100 days in office. He will be challenged liked no other. There's simply too much riding on him. Yet, I am hopeful that he can meet the challenges ahead and succeed, so for now at least I am choosing to remain optimistic about the future even as we face the huge struggles ahead.

Shame your friends into voting by customizing this video. Don't be that asshole who forgets to vote!

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/taf.html?id=&nid=On.Qhg1fUwT2hSP00WXvqDE2NTkx