March 2013
4 posts
4 tags
What does it all mean?
Every time I discuss literature with children, I see the message so much more clearly.
2 tags
Why I celebrate Women's Day
I am a woman therefore whatever I do or am is womanly. I define what a woman is.
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Tragedy
A few weeks ago I was reading to a class of 5-year-olds a book about opposites.
Hot and cold, up and down, inside and outside, clean and dirty
And when I introduced the page showing Boy and Girl, one of the girls in the class exclaimed in sincere exasperation:
Oh c’est trop nulle, être une fille.
[[MORE]]
It sucks to be a girl
(Nulle means worthless, useless, hopeless. Lost cause. I...
4 tags
Assigned Identities
The nature of my teaching jobs usually leads me to learn just as much, if not more, than my students. And everyone I teach has taught me something. Usually it’s just new words, but the subjects have also been hang gliding, keeping actual doctors-in-the-house in theatres, and Olympic table tennis. Sometimes the subjects have a more important lesson, too. [[MORE]]
My student from Rwanda...
September 2012
3 posts
Neil Gaiman: Not-cool things to do, bro... Part 1 →
stoya:
I can actually remember every time a person at a convention or trade show has touched me inappropriately. My first year at the Venus Fair in Berlin there was a man who shoved two of his fingers into my panty-covered vagina. It was really fast, like he was standing there one second…
It’s universal.
Street harassment happens everywhere to every woman and it’s disgusting,...
7 tags
“It is not feminism’s goal to control any woman’s fertility, only to...”
– Baumgardner and Richards, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future
August 2012
6 posts
1 tag
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“My being is captive
To the concept of...
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How frustrating that those in our society with the highest economic value are all liars!
July 2012
1 post
4 tags
This is what the internet is for...
The greatest collection of books on one webpage!
Or as I now have it bookmarked:
Gift Ideas
neil-gaiman:
Do not hesitate. Go to this link.
Then gaze at the book titles, and marvel.
(I don’t actually think I need to read any of them. It just makes me happy knowing they exist.)
Edited to add, someone has done an illustration for HOW TO AVOID HUGE SHIPS.
June 2012
3 posts
7 tags
Tonight: Costume Party with Schizophrenia Theme
I was deciding how to interpret this theme and assumed the party hosts don’t intend everyone to come unkempt and suicidal. It’s not Halloween so it seems unlikely violent criminals are the intended result. The host’s interpretation of schizophrenia is to dress like a woman, which didn’t clear the definition up for me one bit.
So what’s a girl to do?
I considered...
5 tags
May 2012
7 posts
4 tags
Although common marketing practice in North...
The two plants are botanically very different. Many plants in the sweet potato family, Convolvulaceae, are actually poisonous and only one species is widely used commerically. Yams, on the other hand, yield from a variety of perennial vines.
Yams are an important crop in Asia and Africa while sweet potatoes - distantly related to potatoes by the way - have been cultivated in Central and South...
4 tags
Last night I was asked which medium I prefer :...
For some reason my companions weren’t convinced that I am a music person and chose “books” for me.
And I just thought, What a silly question. How could I choose ?
So I said, You don’t have to choose. You enjoy each in a different state of mind.
But they weren’t buying it, so the issue was presented in a more concrete way:
If, on the same night, there were a...
4 tags
Conneries
Somehow I’ve finally gotten pretty good at writing bullshit in French. Just finished writing my letter of motivation for a grad school application.
I mention something about wanting a dynamic and well-rounded education but I really just want to sleep, eat, read, play games, and internet all day.
1 tag
If this were a movie
I’d be yelling at myself to stop even considering the alternative to what could be a great awakening.
3 tags
Taking a serious plunge into American...
Probably only have 2 months left living in France for an indefinite amount of time.
I feel like buying as many “Que sais-je?” books as possible.
April 2012
2 posts
Decision '12
Stay in France, follow my brain? Move home, follow my heart?
6 tags
“There’s no safety this side of the grave.”
– - Jubal Harshaw, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
My younger brobot’s dear friend died in a tragic accident about a month ago and it’s really eating him up. What to say to make him feel better ? There’s nothing comforting in this.
February 2012
6 posts
Coup d'Etat show on 06-02-2012
coupdetatrcv:
We have a chat with Kack, our special guest. Brendan shows up late like a diva.
Download the mp3 of the show here: CoupDetatRadioShowFor06-02-2012
My French radio debut. In English.
January 2012
4 posts
3 tags
2 tags
Education in Europe
is amazing. I took two classes last semester(4 hours/week) and just got the bill. I was worried because EVERYONE comments on how expensive the university I’m attending is when I tell them what I’m doing here. It’s private and decent, at the cost of 90€ per class for the semester. No enrollment fees, no books to buy.
Admittedly I don’t think the quality is nearly half as...
The only thing I want out of 2012
is to be able to look back and know I lived it honestly. Bonne année.
December 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Unfucked e-mail!
Just completed the successful unfucking (deleting, labeling and archiving) of over 600 messages in my Inbox and I unsubscribed from about 5 e-mail lists!
Yay!
4 tags
“It is more like the sorrow of a dream than an actual loss.”
– The Time Machine by HG Wells
6 tags
Oooh getting so excited for ATP!
November 2011
12 posts
4 tags
6 tags
The amount of chance involved in being born as the person I am, into the family and community I was, at the same time as the people I know and the luck I’ve had in meeting the people I have - whom I should never have met if it weren’t for the combination of all these things - makes me feel so grateful for whatever it was that set this universe in motion.
4 tags
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“Méfiez-vous des lapins, tout particulièrement de ceux qui dédaignent les...”
– Beware of rabbits, especially those who despise turnips.
Not sure what this means, but received this advice in an e-mail.
1 tag
Yes thank you
that’s nice of you to say I have a nice smile and pretty eyes. But I really just wanted to know if they bus was running tonight, Mr. Prévention Métro Guy. Thanks.
6 tags
“There was never a girl born who ever grew older than 18 in her heart..no matter...”
– Jubal Harshaw, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
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“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of...”
– René Descartes 