December 2010
53 posts
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True Grit
Admittedly, when I first saw the preview for the 2010 version of this movie the Coen brothers had created, I didn’t think much of it. But then I came home and my dad was all excited about it, so I wound up giving him this book for Christmas, thinking that I would read it after he got done with it.
It was actually a pretty delightful little book, originally published in 1968. A very quick...
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Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South
Needless to say, this book was amazing! E. Patrick Johnson traveled the South for years in the early 2000s interviewing gay black men, asking them questions about their Southern upbringing, segregation (since most of them were older), the role of religion in their lives, their identities, etc. He compiled the interviews into seven different chapters: Some Bitter Some Sweet: Growing Up Black and...
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“Don’t lose track of who you are just because it might be easier to be...”
– Schue in Glee
“…Like my students say, “Do you.” You know. Be proud of who you...”
– Mademoiselle Gregoire in Sweet Tea
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Surgery (pt. 2)
I can type! It’s a little slower than normal, but this is awesome because I was really afraid my typing would be slowed after my surgery AND because this is good exercise for my hand while it’s healing. I just have to be careful not to twist my hand at all, which makes going for that Shift key a little awkward. Also, the heel of my hand is wrapped in this super thick bandage that adds...
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“Not all who wander are lost.”
– J.R.R. Tolken (via ohmygrayson)
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This house is filled with books and photographs.
This is a trend I will replicate in my own home one day.
It’s not perfect, but it’s more than enough. How could I ever ask for anything more?
Happiness can be found anywhere.
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“Like most of my students, he treats his body like a machine. If something hurts,...”
– John Weir in What I Did Wrong
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Winter Wonderland
It’s two in the morning. I’m reading on my parent’s insanely comfy couch with two cats keeping my lap warm. The fireplace makes gentle, airy noises across the room (since it’s fake) while the tree beams beside it. Outside the window of the living room is a single street light that illuminates fat flakes of snow as they tumble and cling to the ground. My parents are out of...
“Whatever our reasons for leaving the South, the South never left us.”
– E. Patrick Johnson in Sweet Tea
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Surgery (pt. 1)
So today I went in for my consultation. For those of you I didn’t get around to telling, I’m scheduled to have carpal tunnel surgery over break. It’s pretty simple, and the recovery time is three to four weeks. Today I went in for a nerve conduction study and to talk with the doctor who would be cutting my hand open.
I was nervous about the nerve conduction study because I...
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Childhood
I’ve been thinking a lot lately how interesting it is that my sister and I had radically different childhoods compared to what my brother and baby sister have had.
My sister and I are 21 and 20, respectively, while my brother is 15 and my baby sister is 13. When I think of my childhood, I think of our little house in Memphis, TN. I lived there from ages 2 to 10, and it’s the longest...
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“None of us can control every situation we find ourselves in. What we can control...”
– Wangari Maathia— Unbowed
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Unbowed
Just finished Unbowed (2006) by Wangari Maathai, the creator of the Green Belt Movement.
What an amazing book written by an amazing person! In this memoir, Maathai takes us through her childhood in Kenya, her education in America, then her return to Kenya where she was confronted by a waterfall of inequalities that actively worked against her in many ways. As an educated woman, she was often...
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“If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.”
– Jean-Paul Sartre (via cavesoflilith)
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The Aliveness Project
I think that, if I were the type of person to settle, I would choose to do so at The Aliveness Project. I chose it as my service-learning course in Spring 2010 and, even after my 35 hours were up, I found that I didn’t want to leave. I had become impossibly attached to this little community. I began volunteering at the food shelf when Fall rolled around, and reserved every Friday from 9a to...
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One Day
Of course I want a relationship. Of course I want to fall in love again. Of course I want someone I can share my life with.
But not now. Maybe not for years, or even a decade. I’m still figuring my own shit out. My body is almost as restless as my mind. I need to push myself to the limit and I need to try my hardest and I can’t focus on doing that if I have to care for another person...
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“And I thought of all the grief and suffering and fucked up stuff in the world,...”
– Neil McCormick | Mysterious Skin (2004)
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That awkward moment
when you’re hanging with MC hammer and he won’t let you touch anything.
(thatawkwardmoment)
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“Reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life”
– Mario Vargas Llosa (via excessivebookshelf)
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Blizzard
Things are pretty quiet in my apartment. My roommate is in his room doing his own thing, the radiator in the living room makes the occasional hiss or bang, and quiet tunes are leaking out of my computer. Every now and then I hear doors open or close down the hall, or the folks above us move around. I glance over at the window from time to time to watch the snow and think about my paper topic....
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That awkward moment
when you’re trying to make a milkshake and all the boys come to your yard.
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Bones 6.9
Temperance: I listened to the universe. I felt something. -matter of factly- I'm sad.
Micah: -smiling- That's so much better than dead. Or dead inside.
Temperance: You hear that in a lecture?
Micah: I got my own sad story, Dr. Brennan. Just like you, just like everybody. I got my own sad story.
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Communication
Chase: (making a How I Met Your Mother reference) It's the possimpible!
Me: ...The possum ball??
Chase: Who?!
Me: Wait. Rewind.
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Undeserving
I throw at least 110% into everything I do. But with 18 credits, helping to run an RSO/501(c)(3), volunteering at two different places, and having a job… one class fell through the cracks. I always kept up with it, for sure, but it got maybe 25% from me this semester. I was already familiar with the content and most of the readings, but it was always the class I would skip if I was too busy,...
Book lovers always have to touch books.
teachingliteracy:
wortundsatz:
(Maureen Corrigan, Leave Me Alone: I’m Reading)
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Power & Ability
Today in my Social Justice class we did this exercise where four chairs were placed in the center of our room, and we could get up and arrange the chairs however we wanted, but one was the Power Chair. I got up and did the first thing that came to my mind: I put three of the chairs in a row and had the Power Chair facing them. I was thinking about Nazi Germany.
It seems strange to me that the...
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Soon
It’s a little under a half hour walk from my apartment to Coffman. In the morning it’s not so bad; the winter air is clean and refreshing, and usually the sun is just greeting the world. The walks home late at night, however, are freezing and exhausting. I play lively music to keep my feet moving, but there’s always one point in the walk (usually right after crossing the 35-W...
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“Have been unavoidably detained by the world.
Expect us when you see us.”
– Neil Gaiman (Stardust)
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“Does it break my heart, of course, every moment of every day, into more pieces...”
– Jonathan Safran Foer
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