Thursday, June 10, 2010

Family

The situation with your uncle sounds like a total nightmare, and I wish I could have been there to support you. I miss you terribly but I AM SO FRICKING EXCITED that you are coming to visit.

Meanwhile, I am waiting for my autoclaved sterilized paper to reach under 100 c degrees so that I can used it for drying strawberry leaves.

It's all fun and games at the lab. I froze a glove in liquid nitrogen the other day, and my friend laura and I have made it our goal to make dippin' dots before the end of the summer. Maybe you'll be here to partake!

Meanwhile, baby cousin has made friends with guys I learned are heroine addicts.

Awesome.

Let's run away to the galapagos islands and ride tortoises all day?

yes?

<3 M

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Save the Date

I wasn't sure where to post this: under my personal blog or this one. Obviously, I decided on this one because I wanted to talk to you about it.

Today was awful and I really wanted/needed all you birds with me. You know how my family isn't exactly eye to eye politically? And even though we aren't, I love them. I love them so much. Well, I got into a huge yelling fight with my uncle and it was just AWFUL. So much so that tears are still making their way down my face. I was already tired when I arrived and didn't feel like putting up with the insenstively politically biased jokes he makes even knowing that there are other people in the room who don't share the same opinion. Thus, I left the dining room in which he was loudly voicing his remarks. Well, he follows me. He followed me into the living room to my seat, stood over me, bent down till his face was a foot from mine, and yelled out rhetorical questions such as: "What's wrong with the second amendment Raven?! You don't like free speech? You don't like the constitution? I'm 'pro-law.'" I put my hand up in front of my face and repeated five times in an elevated voice, "Get out of my face." No, he kept on and on, harassing and provoking me. So, I lost it. I started yelling about how those "pro-law" views are aligned with anti-immigration reform and other racist policies. I yelled about how "pro-law" views are rigid and lack compassion. And I mean, I'm sure I called him some other things but still he just kept yelling and yelling, even when at one point I stopped and calmly apologized for referring to him as racist. His mannerisms were just so aggressive and that of a bully. At one point he accused me of not having an open discussion about issues with him but his type of joking doesn't invite dialogue and his behavior surely didn't. I was so upset and flustered that I couldn't even think of things to say at one point. Not that he would have heard through all his ranting.
It's not that I'm "anti-law." It's that I'm pro-human rights. I'm pro-peace.

ON A HAPPIER NOTE: I talked to my mom today about visiting and it seems as of now, the date is June 23rd. I'm so happy for you and L! Your perseverence and commitment is amazing and inspiring.

Friday, April 30, 2010

I

miss you M-bird.

Love, Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Pursuit of Happiness

"...I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shine ain't always gonna be gold. I'll be fine once I get it. I'll be good...(Ratatat comes in with their solo) beeee ya duh day duh doooo duuuh beeee ya duh day duh doooo duuh..."

Despite the many allusions to drug use, I love this song. It's been on repeat since last night. It's just what I did with that other certain song that you couldn't stand, remember? Except I don't think this song will annoy you in the least, I hope. Whoever thought to put together Kid Cudi, Ratatat, and MGMT is a visionary. Amaazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z_Ys3BO_4M

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Don't you love it when Hare Krishna chants come on your iTunes and you're momentarily confused?

Oh, that doesn't happen to you?




Huh.




I thought everyone had three hours of Hare Krishna chants on their iTunes.



No?



Huh.

Yay Research

Salvatierra v. Del Rio ISD
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/DD/jrd2.html

Cisneros v. Corpus Christi ISD
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/jrc2.html

I like this next one:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2112268?&Search=yes&term=Education&term=democracy&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DEducation%2Band%2Bdemocracy%26wc%3Don%26dc%3DEducation%26submit%3DSearch&item=3&ttl=3961&returnArticleService=showArticle

And finally,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2131003?&Search=yes&term=limits&term=equal&term=access&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dlimits%2Bto%2Bequal%2Baccess%26gw%3Djtx%26prq%3D%2528Texas%2Bhispanics%2529%2BAND%2Bjid%253A%2528j100241%2BOR%2Bj100772%2BOR%2Bj101302%2BOR%2Bj100225%2BOR%2Bj100893%2BOR%2Bj100127%2BOR%2Bj100369%2BOR%2Bj100126%2529%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&item=12&ttl=23545&returnArticleService=showArticle

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Cartoon




Yay statistics jokes!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

So.. I'm a nerd.



Safra is a MAO inhibitor. This knowledge is 'dangerous' in the wrong hands.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Internship

So, I was on the phone with the man who offered me an internship. We had a dialogue:

M: Thank you so much, I hope I'm not a disappointment.

K: Oh, you won't be. We have only had one disappointment. This poor guy, he kept lighting his hands on fire while he had rubber gloves on. I suggested he move on, simply because I was afraid I would see him in the emergency room.

M: Haha. Oh no. Maybe he was trying to burn his finger prints off for his future career as a professional theif?

K: Maybe...


Hmmm. Oh phone anxiety, you manifest yourself in such an interesting array of manners.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Education at Its Finest

Here I am in the student center. It truly is tragic, and absolutely unpardonable what they are doing in Texas. I, too, hoped that as a nation we had moved past such unabashed racism and classism.

I really wish that we lived in a world where ignorance and fear were not the reigning powers, but of course, we do. I guess the only way we can fight such great unjustice is through the spread of love, acceptance and knowledge. The fact that we live in a country where many forms of love are frowned upon... Love between people of the same gender, love between people of different races: even among forward thinking, liberal, progressive families, there is a large amount of subtle racism... Many white parents would not feel great if their daughter or son brought home a black or hispanic girlfriend/boyfriend, and, I am sure, the same goes for black and hispanic parents of the same nature, love that is expressed by giving a dollar to a homeless man, love even for animals (who hasn't experienced hostility because of being a vegetarian?), and last but not least, love for fellow man in the form of compassion, charitable organizations and government aid, makes it all the more difficult for an individual to spread love and erase fear and hatred. I really do find it surprising, however, how easily who states and nations lend themselves to explotation at the hands of fear mongers. It makes me worry a little about the very fabric of our nation. I have to believe that a rational, educated person, couldn't be exploited so easily by those wishing to gain power and control through the exploitation of entire races and classes. Events like what is happening in Texas make that difficult. Now, I have homework to complete, but I love you.

One last thing: a girl in here, sitting at a computer with facebook open, blasting music, just said "My family would be so dissapointed in me if they knew I was failing three classes."
I'm dissapointed in her, and I'm not her family. Turn off your music and study!!

Pond Hockey

http://www.hulu.com/watch/118204/pond-hockey#s-p1-so-i4

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Disillusioned

I thoroughly enjoyed our visit yesterday. It makes me happy to know that some things, like you forgetting your key, haven't changed. I think we had a good vent about ignorant people.

Expanding on that, I feel disillusioned and betrayed that something like Texas' new curriculum can still happen today at that level of government. I'm experiencing deja vu. This new change will further the disintegration of the education system in Texas and ultimately, the U.S.

It's not like we're already behind educationally compared to the international community. Oh no. Our students are bilingual, trilingual. They are fluent and cultured and well on their way to becoming upstanding global citizens. Texas' percentage of high school graduates is already lower than the national percentage. Let's ignore the fact that Texas is home to about 8.9 million Hispanics, whose growth rate is faster than any other minority growth rate in the U.S. Let's ignore that 48% of Hispanics in the U.S. reside in Texas and California. Yes, why don't we whitewash history AGAIN. Let's take away role models who are praised by the rest of the world for their work. Let's ignore our Founding Fathers who believed in the separation of church and state. That sounds like a well thought out, non-oppressive, forward moving plan.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Kermode and Mayo

I don't read or listen to any reviews of a movie or album before I've had a chance to look at it myself. So, I've been watching Mark Kermode's and Simon Mayo's movie reviews on youtube lately (youtube.com/kermodeandmayo)and find them hilarious and constructive and insightful. I don't know why the show names both of them since Mark Kermode seems to dominate most of the conversations. They're like the human Bert and Ernie duo. These reviews make me want to watch the movies I haven't seen just so I can watch the review of them afterward. Even listening to Kermode's reviews has made me question my judgement of a few movies. He's just so snappy. His most well-known movie review is probably of Little Man which he called, "genuinely evil."

Fish Family.

You should definitely get a fish, and name him Lola. I hope to get Dorian a girlfriend, so I can have a whole lineage of baby Dorians.

Bullying

Your mother was wise. My mother told me to laugh at them. It's hard to laugh when tears are streaming down your face. Being an only child was rough sometimes, but you know that: the only difference is that your mother had better advice, or at least more age appropriate advice. I don't think my mother ever figured out the how-not-to-get-bullied thing herself.

I am so glad I missed the cyberbullying generation. I also am glad that I remember cassette tapes. And CD players. There is a girl who works out in the gym who comes with one of those old walkmen. I admire her oldschoolness. It makes me want to work out with a phonograph, just to, you know, one up her or something.

Ben Harper will be in Atlanta in the beginning of May. I am quite excited, though I don't know if I'll be going.

He'll be at Variety, and you know how I love Variety.


I feel like my writing is disjointed. How out of practice a little lamb doth become.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Lola

You having a happy fish that makes bubble nests makes me want to get a fish so it too can make happy bubble nests. Maybe this time a spider won't eat it. Ew, I just googled images of spiders eating fish but all the spiders creeped me out so much that I couldn't stay on the page long enough to really understand the images. I'm thinking that the fish's name should be something typical like Lola, L-O-L-A, Lola.

Cyber-hate

I strongly dislike the 'hate' groups on facebook. The groups that say, "This person sucks," or "I hate this and that."" Also the groups that create unnecessary competition such as, "I bet I can get more people for this state than another state." A person must be really discontent with his/her life to feel the need to bash something through creating a facebook group that will spread the negative energy. I truly pity those people.

When I was younger I was a bit naive in thinking that everyone my age was nice or my friend. I was just an honestly happy kid. So, to put me down one week these two girls in second grade started calling me ugly on a daily basis. I told my mother, who is amazing, and she prepped me on bullying and role played with me on how to handle them. So, when the girls came back one day to bully me, in return I said, in my sophisticated seven year old voice, something along the lines of, "I'm sad for you. You want to bully me to make yourselves feel better but that means that you're sad about your life and I'm sorry that your life is so sad right now." And for the rest of elementary school, they were my friends.

I wish all bullies were as easily pacified, especially these new cyber-bullies.

Happy Fish Blow Bubbles

So, I bought Dorian a plant, and since I did that, he's started building a bubble nest. I did some research and that means that he's a happy fish! I am a successful fish parent. This makes me unreasonably happy.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Not now, Not Never

I was just watching law and order svu and the main characters just had a back and foreth that went like this:

oh no, not now


not never.


I lolled.

House

I wonder why nobody corrects them. I know if I wrote for or directed a medical tv show, I would want everything as accurate as possible. Even as an actor they should have some gist of procedure. I mean, it really is common sense that you can't micropipette without looking, that's just dumb. Remember that day, in our first year, when we watched episode after episode of House because there was nothing else on tv and everyone was too indecisive to pick a movie? So epic. Bones comes back on April 1st. I can't wait. I still fit in jogging during Bones time.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

House

I'm watching house, and while I enjoy the show, the lab procedures make me laugh. They micropipette without watching what they are doing, and they were EATING in the diagnostic lab. Eating. In. The. Diagnostic. Lab. I got yelled at and wiped down with disinfectant for setting my water bottle (closed, covered) on a lab table where we were dealing with non-pathogenic e-coli. The last thing a scientist would want to do is nom on a sandwich where they are testing the blood of a sick person for disease.

Friday, March 19, 2010

'M' fix

"My Mom told me my hair smelled like hair..."
"What does that mean?"
"I guess it doesn't smell like shampoo or anything?"
"What does hair smell like?"
"I don't know...and she said that she could smell it from standing a couple feet away from me."
"Gasp, haaa, I don't think she meant it as a good thing."
"No! She didn't and she said that maybe I should get a special shampoo because she didn't want me to have a problem I didn't know about."
...
"So, now I've been washing my hair like three times every time I shower."
"Oh nooo, at least your hair is pretty."
"I guess."

Two minutes later

"I'm filming so if I need an 'M fix' later I can just go back to the video."

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Whoa



For every step her dad took, the little girl went, "Whooaa! Whoa, whoaa..."

Daily Dose of Cute


Not as awesome as the green thing at Luminaria, but still pretty adorable.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Blue Monday

Dear Bunnies One, Two, and Three,

I apologize on behalf of my carnivorous dog. You hadn't even opened your eyes to witness life when your lives were taken. I can still hear your squeals and cries as she took you in her mouth and proceeded to swallow you whole. I mourned for your deaths that fateful morning. I sobbed and shouted incoherent words when I couldn't release you from the clutches of my dog's mouth. I sobbed for your mother, realizing she would find you gone from the safety of the burrow she built for you. Most of all, I sobbed because of the reality of the cycle of life; knowing it wasn't cruelty that possessed my dog to eat your fragile bodies and take your lives. Maybe it was because it was a Monday.

Sorry & love, Dog Owner

Luminaria

Clips from Luminaria! I saw so many people from my high school that night who were either just observing like me or being cooler and performing. It was ridiculous. I feel like such a slacker now.





Dorian


Meet Dorian, my new son. That's right Dorian, you're e-famous.

Video I Made.

I really liked this song, so I made a music video with some footage I took driving around my home town. It's called Magnolia Street by Buddy Mondlock

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

One More Thing

I found this list of commonly confused words very interesting! I hear people confuse Wary and Weary all the time! I think it's a Georgia thing.


clean, cleanse
mews, muse
appropriate, apropos, expropriate
sentiment, sentimentality
impossible, impracticable, impractical, improbable
milk toast, milquetoast
ravenous, ravaging, ravishing
ferment, foment
guarantee, guaranty, warrantee, warranty
re-dress, redress
obligate, oblige
bay, cove, gulf, inlet
politicize, politick
sailer, sailor
ability, capability, capacity
technical, technological
humankind, mankind, womankind
all right, alright
drier, dryer
alibi, excuse
wary, weary

Back Here!!

So, back at Hagnes. There was, indeed a rat in the science center. Dr. Pilger caught it, and put it in a cage, where it napped peacefully.



That, my friends, is the napping rat. My mother sent my this, and it made me almost go into shock...



I struggle with stairs, and my own feet, etc.

This guy is insane.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Dear M-bird/Qop,

I still have a week left but I know you're on spring break right now and know you probably won't read this soon. I miss you and hope you're having a faaantabulous-safe time. It reached 80 degrees today. I'm sporting boyfriend shorts and a light long-sleeved shirt accessorized with a brown, braided belt. My taste buds ache from my lack of diet coke. UGH, you know?

My mother's co-worker's child introduced me to this Canadian show on the BBC called, My Friend Rabbit. I think you'd really enjoy it if we watched it together. I've been humming the theme song most of the day. "You use your head, I use mine...I've got an idea and though we might not stop, we put our heads together and we won't give up...We're a team with lots to share. It's not where we're goin', it's how we're gonna get there...We can do it...Me and my friend Raaabbiit."

Also, my most recent music obsessions are Jónsi and Fruit Bats but I think I already told you. I went to see A Single Man the other day. You should go, you'd enjoy it because I did, even though it looked like one giant Tom Ford ad.

Love you, R

IWD



On 6 March 2010 I went to the International Women's Day March & Rally.