Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Interests category.
Bringing In Our Year With Grand Style, and Lists
First, I want you to listen to this song:
Has the video loaded? Will it play while you read this? Good. We’re starting this blog post with cheerful, dynamic energy.
My new years was a very pleasant day. Finished editing my art portfolio site for college, which is now added to my links list on this blog. Look to the left! I also added a “new” theme - “new” because I have used it before. When I get back from my trip home to Bolivia, I’ll edit the headers and perhaps use a different theme, but I wanted a fresher and paler theme than my last one, which felt too formal.
Returning to my last day in lil’ ole ‘08, after the last edits in the portfolio, I underwent a massive cleaning/organizing spree. My desk is now nearly empty (I have a few things that will vacate this space once I regain my room), which feels a bit odd. I don’t want clutter, but I definitely feel like something is missing, so I added a few sketches and arts-in-progress so that my desk feels more productive. I am pelased to say that most of my stuff is a lot more organized, and that I plan on keeping it that way!
Because I was busy organizing until around 10 pm yesterday, my mom was left alone in the kitchen (usually my dad loves helping and ordering and taking over there… but he was rebooting my brother’s computer, as he lost all of his files), but she still put out a delicious dinner for the whole family - which this time, included my uncle, his wife, and my five year old cousin. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my yellow underwear (Yes, I am talking about my underwear. See, Latin America has a tradition where if you wear underwear of a particular colour, the next year will be better in a particular way. Yellow can be money, luck, love, depending on the country. Green is sometimes for money, red for love… it really varies from place to place to place. You get the idea. I wear yellow for overall Good Fortune In All And Everything.) We had delicious soft salmon, some odd pasta which tasted much better than I expected and still want, asparagus, camote puree, and a dessert of apple crumble and ice cream. My uncle and aunt (I’m still getting used to her as an aunt) helped her in the making, mostly in the slicing of the food.
Then, of course, it was midnight, where my brother opened a bottle of the champagne, and we all had a glass (well, some of us had two), as we went to our little balcony to watch the fireworks. Soon, we ended up putting our music set, and placed The Red Army Choir to play grandly as we talked and enjoyed ourselves. All in all, a very nice and peaceful end of the year.
I don’t know how to tell how psyched I am right now, as I feel a lot more free and energetic. 2008 was definitely a quite good year, despite college and school stress; I managed. I’d like to thank 2008 for not inflicting me with crushes or infatuations in school, excessive friend drama, no sudden dips in my grades, and a relatively accident-free time. 2008 is also the year that Obama was elected President, so I’ll take that as a good sign of what is to come. As it is, 2008 had its share of dissapointments, the biggest of which is in myself… so!
New Years Resolutions!
Blog wise:
- Change my theme and personalize it a lot more
- Finish adding and editing my Blogroll and Links
- Catch up on on those overdue posts (Creamfields, Tambopata, Analysis ala Sociological Images, etc..)
- Edit my categories, and categorize each post
- Add a page of the webcomics I read
Additionally, I want to thank everybody who takes their time to read this blog, and including those who came with the influx of the Avatar Cast Movie posts - I hope you found those useful, and I thank you for taking the time to get informed and writing to make a difference!
More Ok Go goodness, but their songs make me really happy!
School and work wise:
- Make notes for all my IB classes so I am ready for the IB exams that are looming nearer. Two year’s material!
- Not allow stress to get to me
- Organize my assignments, my materials, my locker, to avoid the mess that 2008 has had
- Do all my financial aid forms and required materials AHEAD of time.
- Finish the big ITGS project
Health and Habits wise:
- Organize my room once it is vacated, and keep it that way throughout the year (Includes closet and clothes, art’s drawer, hygiene drawer, jewelry drawer)
- Enter a workout schedule weekly or daily so I get in shape (10 minutes exercise in the morning, every other day 30 minute jog with dog)
- Stop eating cheese and cracker snacks each afternoon! Eat fruit and drink water instead!
- Fix my sleeping habits and schedule, it is insane.
- Fix my work habits.
Personal:
- Draw more! I feel I have been leaving my art to the side to finish my schoolwork, and I want to develop it and improve!
- Work on my personal graphic novel story… actually set the story in paper and design my characters.
- Stay in contact with everybody I love (work got in the way…)
- Stay as happy as I have been, despite everything.
I hope everybody else has a wonderful year too, and I hope we get past any troubles we run into. I also want to stop right now and thank for my parnets (though they are unaware of the existance of this blog). Mom, thank you for helping and understanding me all this year, for your invaluable advice. Dad, thank you for your input, and for learning a bit more how to hold your temper in check… though part of it is because my brother and I are getting better at dismissing you when you get out of hand. (Seriously dad..). Juanga, dear brother… thank you for… the sweet moments, when they come up. It’s really odd to think it’s my last year of high school, that 2009… that it really is the time for S09. Wow.
To Steph: thanks for reading my rants, joining my rants, and telling me when I am messing up with your subtle tactics… Thank you for being there for me, and for confiding in me, and for helping me in my messy chaos. You are and admirable appear-everywhere-do-everything-friend, and honestly, this year would not have been the same without you. We need to get out more together, grab some Starbucks, and then get you at my house so we can play some lovely wii and laugh at… well, everything.
To Patrick: I know I haven’t been online on msn lately, so we won’t get to talk until I get back from Bolivia, probably. Sorry about that, so hopefully you’ll remember this blog exists and read this little message. Thanks for staying despite the huge workload you have (Btw, Mr. 7-in-chem-and-physics, how the hell do you do it?!), and despite the difficulty in communication with you (lets face it, talking is sometimes confusing and hard, and you love making me so frustrated I can’t articulate anything in debates, but then, you ARE in the debate team), and for being my friend. You need to come again so you can beat me at Brawl some more.
To Insun: I know you won’t be reading this, because I haven’t linked you here, but the sentiment remains. I know sometimes you are volatile and irritable (… all the time), but I love being the other half of the Dynamic Duo! with you, and we share a great many times and fun. (Just, please stop with the idea of “let’s tell the guys who ask us to dance at clubs we are lesbians so they leave us alone” because it seems to me they get turned on…) It’s like we are meant to be balancing each other, and I’m glad that you want me to stay in your life. I hope you always know I’ll be there for you! Let’s walk together in the Graduation and remember all the sparking good times : D
To Mabel: Mabeeee, I love talking to you, and sharing with you. It seems to me each of my friend receives a particular facet of me more than others, and with you my geekyness just leaps bounds and bounds. Your attitude in life is refreshing, and sometimes I feel like you are the oldest of all my friends - lighthearted, but ready to face life. In a sense, you remind me of my cousin, in that maturity and humour go hand in hand. I’m just going to end this part with one word: ORUUGAAAS!
To Izzy: I don’t know if you have the time to read my blog, Isa, but hopefully you do and though we don’t talk a lot lately it is a form of communication. I jsut want to let you know that I miss you dearly, and hope that we talk again soon. Please answer my email queries, becasue since I’ll be going to college in the US (very likely, at least), I want to know if we can meet! Dear soul sister, I hope you have a wonderful time with Charles and your family, and please remember how much I love you.
To Paul: Dude, it’s been forever. I am sorry I’ve been so lacking in the contact department, apart from occasional Gmail comments and some tweets, but I miss you hun. I’m glad that so far from what I see, you seem a more confident person (nearly wrote seme there… but maybe that’s my subconscious saying something ; D) It’s kind of weird because you’ve gotten more serious regarding school, and what I remember of our afternoons at your place involves squabbling over who’s fault it was that your Fable character was being chased with a bounty, or something, you Franco! Regardless, I miss you, and all the awesome moments. Let’s recap red bar.
That’s it for now. There are more people I want to talk to, but I have to pack my bags now. 18 days in Bolivia and seeing family! Wish me the best, I’ll be wishing it for you guys <3
On that note, I leave you with Vampire Weekend and their cheerful music:
Writing Gives You Power: AtLA’s Cast, And What You Can Do
In a continuation from my last two posts, I’m going create a more specific directory in the spirit of glockgal’s livejournal post about the same. This time, it’s not about the reactions or the issues at stake, but rather, focusing on what you can do to change the whitewashing of the cast.
First, you have to write. Yes. Write a letter (polite please) to as many people as you think can make a difference. To the Big People over there, to the Media People, to your felow-avatar-fan-that-isn’t-clued-in, or to that friend-who-you-think-would-write-too. Spread the word to the people who would support you in this venture, and prepare your pens, sharpen your quills, or stretch your fingers for some epic typing, because it’s time to work for that diverse cast that AtLA deserves.
I Gave Up - Basketball And My Time
I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long. I’m extremely busy. I shouldn’t be here even, right now, but I guess I can take some time from my Genetics questions.
Basically, the past few weeks have been straight from IB Hell, with me ending so sick from exhaustion that on Friday I couldn’t even lift my head off my pillow without feeling a great wave of nausea. I literally couldn’t get out of bed. Missed school too. = /
And between all that mayhem that is the first semester of IB Senior year, what with the Internal Assessments, College Applications and Essays, the Extended Essay, Activities (CAS is such a prick; prickslap!), and just the average (average, for whom?) IB schoolwork load… let’s just say I am overloaded.
And Basketball season just started.
I’m going to be very honest. I love Basketball. I love playing. I’ve been playing since my eight grade, and always managed to make it to the team. Unfortunately, last year, because of the Glass Shard Incident, I wasn’t able to travel with the team. Well, I should have, because I healed in time to join quite a few practices, but the coach told me straight off when I went to see her that since I hadn’t gone to the practices, I couldn’t go. Uh. Yeah. Person with crutches at practice. Great. Such a good management of my time right? Nevermind my homework… I got nuttin better to do than hang around there uselessly.
But I can’t join Basketball this year.
It frustrates me so much, but I was close to breaking down yesterday, and ended up sobbing some time to my mother later in the day, and I know I can’t afford it. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the energy. Nevermind that this is my last year, or that my last year got messed up, or that its the one sport I really want to do. I can’t.
And I feel really bad about it myself, because in things like these, I never give up. Ever. It feels… like I’m letting myself down. My team down. My body down. I’ve been slugging it these past few years to be able to do Basketball apart from my studies. I’d have done Pilates or Yoga otherwise, and avoided a lot of injury (broken fingers, stretched tendons, strained wrists, scratches, bruises, scrapes…) like that. But I had dedicated myself to it, and if there is one thing I have ever prided myself in, it is my dedication, to the point that I would not sleep just to make a project as perfect as I could (Well, that was also partly because of procrastination, but you know my mindset).
And now I gave up.
It goes against my grain.
It’s not like Basketball is a very big part of my identity. It’s just that the dedication and determination that I put into it, is something that I have always seen as important to my identity.
I know I’m doing the right thing, but another part of me is screaming that I’m a sucky idiot and have to play, because I had promised to myself I would.
I’m going back to Genetics.
Partially Freed
SO!
I have had a nice weekend so far, gotten free from the great majority of my homeworks, hence, the partial freedom. Let us see what I have left.
1- Art
- Presentation report (FORGOT TO DO THIS OMFG)
2- English
- Read/log 3.3 in Othello for Monday
3- ITGS
- Read Gift of Fire Chap. 3, and write responses
- Vocabulary Quiz on-D Terms
- Read Chapter 9 Computer Confluence
- PROJECT THINGY OMIGASH THINKTHINK (This one is stressing me out…)
4- Fit for Life
- Get a journal
5- Spanish
- Read till page 208 in Un Mundo para Julius
- Read the comparison packet and make the outline
6- Math
- Exercises 15F (I LOST THEM AND HAVE TO REDO THEM GRAAAAAAARGH)
- Exercises 15G (MSN help for these…)
7- Biology
- Lab report due Thursday 28
- Photosynthesis Exam
So, a lot less then before.
I’ve had an overall nice weekend, actually. I went to Marite’s birthday thing this Friday, which was nice. The unfortunate part was when Insun and I got accosted by two creepy guys. I got better at saying “no” but I still need to work on it. I had to go back and get Insun though, she had this -_- face all the time and it was like “I shouldn’t leave her…” so I was fine in the end. Grgggg creepy guys. At some point, as we were dancing, the guy started grunting. That was when I stepped away and decided that enough was enough. Greh. Anyways.
Yesterday I slept till one, then spent the rest of the time reading Eldest by Christopher Paolini. Rereading, since I want the third book to come out. It was my relaxation day. The book is not the best, but I like fantasy fiction, so get on with the next book Paolini! (I also admire him… this story is from when he was 15 years old, and that is like.. and unfulfilled dream of mine, to publish one of MY stories, a fantasy magic one on top of it.) Then, at around 6, I sat down to start my homework, only to get invited by Chris M to go out with him and some friends around Barranco. I did go, and I had fun. Getting out after so much hell is nice =w= We ended going to this bar concert for free. It wasn’t very good though, but it was nice to get in. XD I also played Guitar Hero for the first time. It actually is pretty fun, jajaja.
Ahhh, I’m home now, and I need to start doing my homework. Also, my parents are going to have a college talk with me today, and I am NOT looking forwards to it. They were nice and di a college search for me of good Bio colleges… but… they viewed art as secondary…
I don’t know. I never doubted myself in studying art, viewed really only as a matter of what I felt like, until my mom told me she doubted me doing well in art. That was a really big blow.
Now… it’s almost like I’m just doing Bio because my parents expect me to do it. They are wonderful, they make amazing choices, and I love them, but…
I feel depressed about the direction this is going…
And I feel depressed because my parents don’t believe I should do art…
I’m just going to do English now…
Leadership Is Trying To Kill Me!
Now we know the truth in the words that with power come great responsibility. The thing is that with me, responsibility = no sleep + too much work —-> stress
I am SO glad that we don’t have more retreats. Maybe now I can get a routine out of my life and start going to sleep. I first need to work off the backlog I have, because it is KILLING me! I have like 13 homeworks! Ok, like three of them are of the quiz/test kind, but yes. The most important for me is to finish my art free topic. I don’t see it happening, but the further along I get… hopefully the nicer Ms. Sarria will be. I finally did my presentation on la Escuela Academica today, which was for like, two weeks ago, but between my surgery, the retreats, and Ms. Sarria herself having to go to the hospital for a family member, I hadn’t presented. Whew! That is out of the way now!
Here is my list of HWs:
1- Art
- Free topic work due tommorow/Thursday
- Research Workbook due Thursday
- Presentation report (FORGOT TO DO THIS OMFG)
2- English
- Read/log 3.3 in Othello for Monday (I did the three other homeworks today in my Fit for Life class since I can’t swim. Yay! DONE)
3- ITGS
- Read Gift of Fire Chap. 3, and write responses
- Vocabulary Quiz on -C terms on Friday
- Read Chapter 9 Computer Confluence
- PROJECT THINGY OMIGASH THINKTHINK
4- Fit for Life
- Exam this Thursday/Friday on swimming survival stuff
5- Spanish
- Read till page 208 in Un Mundo para Julius
- Read the comparison packet (I HATE COMPARISONS) and scribble/note/underline stuff
6- Math
- No clue. I’ll ask her for the work tommorrow in class
7- Biology
- Photosynthesis Assignment for Friday 22
- Lab report due Thursday 28
- Photosynthesis Exam
… K, I’ll do the art free topic first.
Aaaaaaaaah. I’m still so… frustrated over the Eight Grade retreat. It was… agh… I feel I failed. Like, I wasn’t good enough to get the kids to work or something. But geeze, they were so mean to each other! That was the thing that really bugged me, how vindictive and insulting they were to their own classmates, all the time. I can stand the “I’m too cool to care” guys and the hyperactive kids, even the cheating kid was ok. But how mean they were to each other? No wonder they didn’t do well! No teamwork! Because I couldn’t run for the last activity, where everybody has to run past a swinging jump rope (obviously not all of us could go through at once…) I saw the huge mess it was. They never managed it. You know how quickly the High School leadership group did it? In like four tries. (The supervisors were stumped. One said “You aren’t supposed to do it so quickly!”) Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. I hope the ninth graders are better. I hope I get Cody. I’ll find out tomorrow in the PGC meeting. *crosses fingers* At least I think we’ll find out.
As it is, not all of it was bad. I didn’t mind when a few of us stood up in front to talk to them of “the journey of high school” according to the yeti. I felt guilty when he said it like that, because I don’t have a very good memory. I’ve noticed everything blurs far more easily for me than it does to others, and my brother has that a bit too. I think it’s my way of surviving moving around so much.
Anyways, we talked about getting into new activities, finding out what you liked, the independence that comes with HS, getting yourself organized, and not being afraid to make mistakes. Then we seperated into small groups to talk to them more closely. I talked to a nice kid in my group who wanted to know about art (he likes game design, so I told him to get into ITGS and to start making projects and practicing from.. NOW!) He told me he is getting a team to make a game design, and I told him he was on the right path. Chris and Diego talked about music, and we all learned about Diego’s decisions regarding College. I’m impressed. He really is a Senior. I’m not. I’m not ready for the independence, the responsibility, the possibility of my fuck ups. But it was nice talking to him. It was nice to feel like I might be able to take decisions like that soon, and be mature enough.
Enough moping about that. I need to set my ass off in a work path now.
I’m also avoiding talking about college. At least I admit it.
Chao
“Banzai!”
Wow.
I must say, I am completely spent.
It’s funny how things ended up being in the “hostal”, where I guess, you put up with a setting you are not used to. Funny how Steph says that it was “away from technology” and I feel like laughing, but, go on a road trip in the Altiplano, away from cities so you can stay in a tin roof room with noodle soup for dinner and only enough electricity for the lights, and you might see more of what is really away from technology.
Still, they could have done something about the water. Or the clogging toilet. Helen, Grietje and I ended up going in the conference room or in somebody else’s bathroom. And showering isn’t easy when you can’t get your foot-wound wet. They could also have done without so many stairs- going up and down all the time with crutches is no joking matter. I’m spent physically, apart from mentally and emotionally. I did get two piggy back rides, but it was kind of embarrassing. Still, thank you!
As it is, there was no time for anything but PGC. No homework. At all. And I have so much work to do, and it’s becoming difficult because I got far more tired than I expected from my foot surgery. I mean, come on, it’s only a foot! Now I know why my parents were so worried about me not getting enough rest. I’m seriously hobbling past the days.
The PGC Retreat was amazing- great fun, interesting activities and talks, and a very nice opportunity to get to know each other. I loved how close the group grew in the space of three days- it is something I would not have considered really possible before. To be honest, I didn’t think much of the PGC Retreat- I thought of it more as training. There was that, but there was more, too.
PGC was beyond anything I could have expected.
It was amazing to see the transformation of the people around me; to see the depth on what had been superficial, uni-lateral cartoons that I passed by on my life. I saw their personalities, worries, and found I had far more in common with them than I expected. I saw that “common positive quality” in each one that I can like, and treasure- I heard so much. I learned so much. Thank you so much for opening yourselves to me. Sorry I didn’t reveal everything, but I’ve had some issues regarding trust since a friend stabbed me in the back in Honduras. But really, thank you for baring yourselves to everybody, for baring your soul. I don’t know what to say. To talk about this trivializes it. You needed to be there to feel how different everything was.
I think I’m going to keep this in my memory forever. I don’t want to lose such a rare experience.
Thank you guys. Thank you Steph, for being a good friend while we did this. Thank you Helen and Grietje for being such awesome roommates. Thank you everybody who helped me get around while in crutches and didn’t mind if every so often I asked favors because I couldn’t do it myself. Thank you everybody in the circle for opening up. Thank you Chris, for becoming my partner and taking this seriously and with responsibility, in what I hope will become an inspiring and great PGC group.
I’ve never really felt a leader till now. My family, friends, teachers in the past have said I could do that, but I have always felt cowed, not taken enough risks. I’m glad I took this one.
To give closure, I’m going to say what we shared at the end of all our discussions.
No, wait, I’ll let you imagine it. : 3
Avatar Finale
I just spent quite a large chunk of my afternoon watching the last episodes of Avatar The Last Airbender. I am in an indescribable state of sadness, exhilaration, and more mixed feelings. Pray excuse me as I vent my feelings and thoughts for a bit. It’s slightly spoilerish, but I doubt you will be able to read anything, so…
Reading the Classics-“101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers”
Copying Steph with this. 18 out of 100, huh? Maybe I should read more classics than rereading my favorite fiction…:
| Author | Title |
|---|---|
| – | Beowulf |
| Achebe, Chinua | Things Fall Apart |
| Agee, James | A Death in the Family |
| Austen, Jane | Pride and Prejudice |
| Baldwin, James | Go Tell It on the Mountain |
| Beckett, Samuel | Waiting for Godot |
| Bellow, Saul | The Adventures of Augie March |
| Brontë, Charlotte | Jane Eyre |
| Brontë, Emily | Wuthering Heights |
| Camus, Albert | The Stranger |
| Cather, Willa | Death Comes for the Archbishop |
| Chaucer, Geoffrey | The Canterbury Tales |
| Chekhov, Anton | The Cherry Orchard |
| Chopin, Kate | The Awakening |
| Conrad, Joseph | Heart of Darkness |
| Cooper, James Fenimore | The Last of the Mohicans |
| Crane, Stephen | The Red Badge of Courage |
| Dante | Inferno |
| de Cervantes, Miguel | Don Quixote |
| Defoe, Daniel | Robinson Crusoe |
| Dickens, Charles | A Tale of Two Cities |
| Dostoyevsky, Fyodor | Crime and Punishment |
| Douglass, Frederick | Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass |
| Dreiser, Theodore | An American Tragedy |
| Dumas, Alexandre | The Three Musketeers |
| Eliot, George | The Mill on the Floss |
| Ellison, Ralph | Invisible Man |
| Emerson, Ralph Waldo | Selected Essays |
| Faulkner, William | As I Lay Dying |
| Faulkner, William | The Sound and the Fury |
| Fielding, Henry | Tom Jones |
| Fitzgerald, F. Scott | The Great Gatsby |
| Flaubert, Gustave | Madame Bovary |
| Ford, Ford Madox | The Good Soldier |
| Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von | Faust |
| Golding, William | Lord of the Flies |
| Hardy, Thomas | Tess of the d’Urbervilles |
| Hawthorne, Nathaniel | The Scarlet Letter |
| Heller, Joseph | Catch 22 |
| Hemingway, Ernest | A Farewell to Arms |
| Homer | The Iliad |
| Homer | The Odyssey |
| Hugo, Victor | The Hunchback of Notre Dame |
| Hurston, Zora Neale | Their Eyes Were Watching God |
| Huxley, Aldous | Brave New World |
| Ibsen, Henrik | A Doll’s House |
| James, Henry | The Portrait of a Lady |
| James, Henry | The Turn of the Screw |
| Joyce, James | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man |
| Kafka, Franz | The Metamorphosis |
| Kingston, Maxine Hong | The Woman Warrior |
| Lee, Harper | To Kill a Mockingbird |
| Lewis, Sinclair | Babbitt |
| London, Jack | The Call of the Wild |
| Mann, Thomas | The Magic Mountain |
| Marquez, Gabriel García | One Hundred Years of Solitude |
| Melville, Herman | Bartleby the Scrivener |
| Melville, Herman | Moby Dick |
| Miller, Arthur | The Crucible |
| Morrison, Toni | Beloved |
| O’Connor, Flannery | A Good Man is Hard to Find |
| O’Neill, Eugene | Long Day’s Journey into Night |
| Orwell, George | Animal Farm |
| Pasternak, Boris | Doctor Zhivago |
| Plath, Sylvia | The Bell Jar |
| Poe, Edgar Allan | Selected Tales |
| Proust, Marcel | Swann’s Way |
| Pynchon, Thomas | The Crying of Lot 49 |
| Remarque, Erich Maria | All Quiet on the Western Front |
| Rostand, Edmond | Cyrano de Bergerac |
| Roth, Henry | Call It Sleep |
| Salinger, J.D. | The Catcher in the Rye |
| Shakespeare, William | Hamlet |
| Shakespeare, William | Macbeth |
| Shakespeare, William | A Midsummer Night’s Dream |
| Shakespeare, William | Romeo and Juliet |
| Shaw, George Bernard | Pygmalion |
| Shelley, Mary | Frankenstein |
| Silko, Leslie Marmon | Ceremony |
| Solzhenitsyn, Alexander | One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich |
| Sophocles | Antigone |
| Sophocles | Oedipus Rex |
| Steinbeck, John | The Grapes of Wrath |
| Stevenson, Robert Louis | Treasure Island |
| Stowe, Harriet Beecher | Uncle Tom’s Cabin |
| Swift, Jonathan | Gulliver’s Travels |
| Thackeray, William | Vanity Fair |
| Thoreau, Henry David | Walden |
| Tolstoy, Leo | War and Peace |
| Turgenev, Ivan | Fathers and Sons |
| Twain, Mark | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| Voltaire | Candide |
| Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. | Slaughterhouse-Five |
| Walker, Alice | The Color Purple |
| Wharton, Edith | The House of Mirth |
| Welty, Eudora | Collected Stories |
| Whitman, Walt | Leaves of Grass |
| Wilde, Oscar | The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| Williams, Tennessee | The Glass Menagerie |
| Woolf, Virginia | To the Lighthouse |
| Wright, Richard | Native Son |
Comments (4)
Re: AtLA’s Friky Diky Cast
To the guy who commented as “Michael” in my last post
Your attack on me is laughable. First of all, you assumed that I hate white people, and partly because I am not white; I am white. I am so white that when I wear skirts my friends comment on my whiteness. My family is white, a great number of my friends and my social circle is white, and I do not hate them or myself for being white. I do not need to not be white to see racism, nor to fight it. Besides, the colour of one’s skin should not matter or affect the logic of their argument: I simply am more privileged and so less likely to see racism in my everyday life, because I benefit from it and am not affected by it. (You might want to study the dynamics of privilege, since you seem to be soaking in it). Second of all, attacking me instead of the issues and the logic I raise is a logical fallacy known as ad hominem.
(Additionally, I was only using Harry Potter as an example of possible ways of choosing a cast based on talent, in a BIG movie. It really has little relevance compared to the whole weight of the post, but that this is the only thing that sticks in your mind shows how little you understood what I wrote).
Third, yes, I am critiquing a movie and their choice for a cast, because it shows racist undertones and considerations. I have not seen the movie, or most of the actors. Please note that I specifically mentioned that I would refrain from commenting on the acting ability of those cast for Katara and Aang (and even for Sokka) because I don’t know enough from them, apart from their ethnicity (and not even that for Aang).
When you say I am “completely in the dark”, that I “don’t know what the movie is about, have no idea about the storylines, or scripts, or what has been added or subtracted”, I want to laugh. I have seen all the Avatar episodes, do know the storyline, and so have a pretty damn reasonable idea of what the movie will contain (finding Aang, freeing him, Zuko finds him, the chases, Aang has to master waterbending, the comet!!!, are the basic elements), and I am not in the dark. True, I don’t know what specific changes have been made to the script, but I do know the casting, and it is the casting I am critiquing – not the script.
And here I would argue that I do have a reason to hate the cast. And it is here when you completely miss the point of the post. Let me quote rawles, as s(he) probably phrases this better:
Let me point the clueless to this wonderful post by vagabond_sal, because again s(he) says the same thing, and a bit more, better than I can.
I have the right to express my disappointment and provide constructive critique in the hopes of making Paramount Pictures and Avatar the live action movie a more inclusive movie that doesn’t discriminate against race – because racism is wrong, and should be stopped in all of its forms – but rather, welcomes diversity and makes positive of it. I have the right to expect that people of colour are fairly represented in the media, although it is currently not. And since it isn’t, I sure as hell am going to demand for it.
BTW: Batman and Heath Ledger is not an appropriate comparison, because it was a white character being played by a white actor. Please, avoid false comparisons – another logical fallacy. Instead of actually analyzing the logic and the arguments, you are trolling my blog and my person. Who was it that was talking about invulnerable internet tower and hurling insults?
“In the end, one loses an open mind, when they open their mouth.”
PS: Why did people get upset over Heath Ledger as the Joker again? I don’t remember that angst. And please, let it somebody other than Michael that informs me about this.