Coffee Makes the World Go 'Round

Welcome to Mitra's AP English Blog! .......................... Stick around to read some musings, critiques, and recommendations.

[inkycoffee]

One of my favorite songs from this new album.

[inkycoffee]

A Compilation of Topics I Wanted to Discuss in the Final Post and Couldn’t Decide on

I apologize in advance because this post will go all over the place since it’s the final one. 

At this point in time during previous years I was hyped for college being one less year away. Now with college being just one year away, I’ll admit that I’m a bit sad. Perhaps before I was filled with teenage angst and ready to get the hell out of this area and now I’m not, but with the end approaching I’m a bit sad. Next year we will no longer have our friends in the grades above around to be our mentors with tips and tricks to our classes. It’s daunting to be the ones leading organizations and ASB. I can distinctly remember feeling slightly lost in seventh grade when I first joined our school, but now with an unwavering squad and an ever-tightening class I’m a bit sad to let it go. 

Now that I’ve finished my sappy aside let’s get to the real topics:

1. Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang, our most recent AP American Voices assignment, was a surprising book for me. It was surprising in that it made me reflect a lot more on my own life rather than reflect on American society in general. With parents who are first-generation immigrants and one of them being a Taiwanese immigrant, I definitely felt a more personal connection to this book in comparison to our other readings. While I did not relate to the majority of the internal family relationships of the characters, it opened up for me the possibility that there’s a lot more to my parents’ emigration experience than I have understood or known about. Hunger showed me a snippet of the experience of my parents or people like my parents. That’s not to say that this book was not saddening or difficult to read at times. If anything it gave me a greater appreciation for who my parents are and what they’ve done for me.

2. If you’re on the prowl for some new and funky music I highly suggest twenty one pilots’ new album Blurryface. As twenty one pilots (or tøp) is my favorite band, I am definitely biased when I say that this album is thrilling and super duper lovely, however, I think that a lot of people may like it because it’s even catchier and more developed than previous albums. According to Billboard.com they are a even a likely No. 1 on next week’s Billboard 200 chart. This makes me pretty pumped because they are a pretty weird band that’s relatively unknown to people who don’t listen to their eclectic genre already. I say eclectic because it’s nearly impossible to describe their music as each of their songs crosses genre from verse to verse. Their lyrics are poetic and relatable; their beats are rapid and make you bob your head. They fuse rap with “indie” rock with electronica and throw in some pop as well. They are simply a duo from Ohio and I love them a lot. 

Thank you for this year of reflections--this has been one of my favorite academic projects I have ever completed.

[inkycoffee]

Not bad at all

My Chinese teacher (or “lǎoshī”) shared a bit of wisdom with our Chinese IV class today. We were just doing the usual--expressing concern about the test we took a couple of days ago-- when she told us that she didn’t understand why we don’t have confidence in our language ability. She reminded us that learning any language is hard and just like how she didn’t understand English slang when she began living in America, it would be hard for us to understand colloquial sayings in our first few weeks of visiting China. She said she had complete confidence that our ears would adjust and we would pick it up.

But our main concern was our grades and for the first time she told us about how she hates giving tests more than we hate taking them. Laoshi told us she thinks it undermines the purpose of learning and continued to explain why. To say the least, I was shocked. I had never considered that she did not like giving tests, but what really got me was what she told us next. Laoshi said, “If you get an 80% that’s totally okay! If you get an 80%, then you learned 80% of the material! Even a 60% is still good. The important thing is that you learned something.” When our discussion traveled over to the topic of SATs she recounted her experience of taking the extremely stressful Chinese college entrance exams and how she eventually got to teaching this class at our school. Laoshi reminded us that even if we don’t do well on these exams that continue to loom over us until we take them, it’s okay because there are so many paths to take and it’s good to take our own path.

Hours later I’m still thinking about this. We all looked at her dumbfounded when she first stated that getting an 80% is okay. While we often make fun of our school’s attitude towards grades--that anything lower than an A- is practically failing--and teachers are quick to remind us that this attitude is ridiculous, I don’t think I ever reconsidered getting “bad” grades until laoshi gave us her speech. I never thought about what that % really says about how I scored on my test. I would quickly pull out my calculator, divide the numerator from the denominator, and see where that score falls in. If it was an 80-something I would think something along the lines of “B is for bad” and be incredibly disappointed in myself. Getting an A wouldn’t make me happy because it’s what we’re supposed to be getting, right? That cycle of thought is plain unhealthy, so I’d like to thank my Chinese laoshi for making me think. An 80% isn’t bad, sure there’s room for improvement, but that means that you learned a whole 80% of the information and with all of our other commitments and exams and quizzes and projects and papers, 80% is not bad.

[a-girlbehindthecamera-blog]

Will Shakes

(sorry for the picture but my internet decided to spazz before i saved my blog post)

One last thing- we are performing in the Goode Court, so make sure you show up there and not at the chapel theater. Hope to see many of you there!

[inkycoffee]

There’s no room left for Apathy

Somewhat recently I heard for the first time (probably in APUSH) the term “The American Century” and it got me thinking. Although this term is a descriptive for the 20th century, it definitely holds some ground in the 21st as well. It’s made me think about everything I’ve learned while growing up about America and its global interactions. It hit me that until recently, I had never realized how involved in international politics our country is in comparison to some other countries. I never realized just how big of a presence we have and I haven’t sorted out my thoughts on whether this is a good or bad thing. It’s hard for me to envision what it would be like if we followed what those isolationists believed back in the 30s and cut off our relations to other countries. It’s food for thought I suppose.

This has also made me think about how we’re almost 18 and it’s exciting and scary. We are going to vote on policies for our nation and because of our timely birth we’ll even vote in this upcoming election. Recently this impending “adulthood” has pushed me to keep on top of my current events. Until now it was easy for me to fall behind on what’s going on in the United States and our country’s interactions with the rest of the world. I’ve even downloaded the App “BriefMe” on my phone where I can read the daily top 10 most-read news articles on the web. Keeping up with politics, while a bit tiring, is also necessary. I don’t want to go into an election and simply vote on the popular candidate for the party without giving it careful thought and analyzing whether they will uphold my personal beliefs. Understanding what exactly is going on and why things our happening overseas is also a bit of a challenge when you don’t have a complete understanding of all that’s been building up until now. I guess I’ll have to start listening to NPR more.

[goodishmusic]

Visit Original Link

fairly local | twenty one pilots

[inkycoffee]

“Lacey Lilac”

“Lacey Lilac” is the name of the nail polish I’m wearing currently. It’s part of the Sally Hansen “HARD as NAILS” X-Treme Wear collection. Without delving too deeply into the topic of marketing strategies, I’d like to mention that their slogan “Hard as Nails” does appeal to me. It makes their pale purple nail polish sound tough and there’s no reason that nail polish can’t be tough. It has also inspired my contemplation of gender norms.

I didn’t wear nail polish for a long time. I didn’t wear it in elementary school and I’m pretty sure I didn’t wear it in middle school either. Now, as a junior, I own fifteen different hues of the lacquer. What inspired this drastic shift? I’m not certain, but my current hypothesis is that I let go of my previous association of nail polish with femininity. 

In elementary school, kids liked to play a trick on one another. They would ask you to look at your nails without any explanation and if you looked at them with your palms facing away, you were a “girly-girl” and if you looked at them with your palms facing toward you with fingers curled, you were a “tomboy”. When I looked at them with palms facing away and was jokingly called a “girly-girl” I was infuriated. I dismissed their trick as frivolous and tried to move on. Apparently I didn’t truly move on because here I am almost a decade later still thinking about it. This anecdote may sound a bit tangential, but I promise it’s related. Throughout elementary school I called myself a tomboy and was prepared to defend the title if it were ever questioned. I think my dedication to that box made me fear doing or wearing things that were stereotypically female. After many discussions concerning gender norms, I think I finally let go of many associations I had with certain genders. By realizing that nail polish doesn’t have to be any more feminine that it is masculine, I started wearing it myself. I can wear nail polish, but still dislike wearing dresses. I can cut my hair short, but still wear make up. I certainly haven’t fully developed my thoughts surrounding gender norms, but I have realized that life’s a lot better when you dismantle stereotypes and just let yourself participate in whatever you enjoy whether it be stereotypically feminine or masculine. 

[inkycoffee]

I Like Television

People are so passionate about television. It sparks debates and rants. It creates unlikely friendships between two people who love the same show. I often get too self-reflective and become puzzled as to why I care about my favorite characters so much. I become surprised at myself for being so invested, but ultimately I think it's pretty incredible that TV shows can make us feel things. It's pretty incredible when we can connect to a character because the character isn't just some amalgam of stereotypes too often perpetuated by the media. 

People say that we shouldn't watch TV because it "rots our brains." They say that it's a sedentary and passive activity that certainly doesn't do anything positive for our brains. I disagree. Maybe that's just because I'm a fan of rare forty-five minute periods of escape from stress, but I also believe that it doesn't necessarily have to be a passive activity. If after you watch a finale that made you grip your seat you dart online to discuss it with your friends, I think it can become a pretty interactive activity. We can discuss our theories and frustrations for the television show; we can laugh at the writers of the show for defending their choices on twitter after fan outrage.

I like television. And, if you were wondering, my favorite show at the moment is The 100. It's the first CW network show to have a female lead character that also happens to be bisexual. It's rare because it's one of the only shows out right now that has a visibly queer lead, yet doesn't make it all about their queerness (but of course still doesn't hide it either). They have struck (what I think is) that magical balance where they represent a lot of people who are queer, yet don't consider their queerness to be their defining characteristic. It's a show about a nuclear armageddon, life on Earth generations after a war, a fight for survival, and ultimately, friendship. And it also stars a lead character who is canonically queer. If any of my praises for this show appeal to you, I suggest you check it out! And, if you do, make sure to let me know so we can have some riveting discussions. 

PS: The first few episodes are a bit slow, but I suggest that you fight through it because it picks up quickly!

[inkycoffee]

Give yourself a break

I have come to the recent realization that I love being busy with extracurriculars. Don't get me wrong--it's definitely not fun to stay up late doing homework, but after being between productions (Anything Goes and A Midsummer Night's Dream) and not having anything to do except homework and studying, I've realized that I do love being busy with acting. I love running into rooms as if I've been searching for Lysander and Hermia in the woods for hours on end. I love spending hours devoted to creating backstories and timelines for our characters that Shakespeare didn't include, to better understand their actions in the play. I love the bruises and marks from stage combat and stunts that look so real, but aren't.

Although we're often told to eliminate our extracurriculars when we're feeling stressed from schoolwork, I find that without taking a break with cast members or team mates or friends, school weighs heavier on our shoulders. For me, getting that pause from work and studying has done tremendous things to my internal peace and well being. I guess the point of this post is that if you're feeling stressed, don't be afraid to give yourself a break. Sign up for that club you've always wanted to join; bake some cookies; watch a movie with friends; make yourself hot cocoa; watch a Casti play (haha.) Do something for yourself that you know will make you happy, not your parents, not colleges. Deciding to quit activities that I wasn't passionate about to do two Casti productions this year was probably the best choice I've made in a long while and I really wouldn't have it any other way. 

[salon]

On Wednesday, health officials in two Bay Area counties put out a warning, letting tens of thousands of BART riders that they may have been exposed to measles

Thanks, anti-vaxxers!

[alicetookadrink-blog]

oh my god anit-vaxxers are going to cause a damn plauge 

[inkycoffee]

A thought that crossed my mind as I opened a playlist titled "Let's Conquer!"

I've recently noticed that I go through songs fast. If I've discovered a couple of new ones I'll throw them haphazardly into a playlist on Spotify and after a couple of days I'll arrange whatever songs that ended up there so that no artist plays right after themselves. I'll love this playlist for maybe a few weeks maybe a month, but after playing it nonstop while scrolling through Tumblr or shopping online (for products that I'll probably never buy,) I'll stop liking the playlist. This change usually happens gradually. One song that I particularly enjoyed now gets on my nerves and I'm no longer tapping along or bobbing my head. If I'm not too lazy to switch applications I'll probably fast forward to the next song. Then more songs begin to irk me. And now I need a new playlist. If I wait a few months or so, sometimes I can get back into the playlist. I don't ever delete them because I find it nice to be reminded of where I was four months ago or thirteen months ago. Whenever I abandon a playlist for a new mix I feel a twinge of remorse. Do I stop loving these playlists because I've left behind whatever state of mind I was in when I first picked out those songs? Or maybe I just have a habit of overplaying music that I enjoy?

Whatever the case is, I hope you enjoy this short mix of songs that I've pulled from a few different playlists from about a year or so ago.

1. Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Playlist Titled "idk man")

2. Maps by The Front Bottoms (Playlist Titled "idk man")

3. Kitchen Sink by Twenty One Pilots (Playlist Titled "TøP")

4. Entertainment by Phoenix (Playlist Titled "hecky (more art)")

[inkycoffee]

Why I don't like mimes.

When I was eight, I went with my dad to the World Cup in Germany because we had relatives who lived there. During our stay we visited a square in Florence, Italy filled with many nude statues (which I found particularly amusing as a child.) Hundreds of pigeons dotted the cobblestone ground and ran on their little feet to bread crumbs tossed on the ground. The crowds swelled and receded, filled with people speaking languages other than English. As I walked towards the upper right corner of the square, a mime stopped me. He had a painted white face and red lips and black rings that spread out from his eyes to the points of his cheekbones. He grinned a teeth-baring smile and gestured for me to come over, but I inched away. And then I looked to my right for my dad to tug me along somewhere else so that I could leave this mime and my heart stopped. I froze with wide eyes and whipped around my neck to the left to see if he was on the other side, but he wasn't. I walked tentatively towards the crowd where we had just left, and to my relief I spotted his striped Polo and blue Cal cap. I ran as fast as I could and tugged on his shirt from behind. He turned. His cap didn't have the swirling letters of Cal above the brim. My eyes widened. I turned around and ran out of the crowd in the direction of the mime who was gesturing towards me again. My breath got caught caught in my chest each time I inhaled. I turned down a dim side alley that left this corner of the square. Only a few people were passing through it. Spotting a blue cap moving away, I screamed repeatedly, "DAD! DAD! DAD!" as I ran down the alley. He turned around and I never let go of his arm for the rest of the day. 

[oh-snap-its-dicap]

There’s often no legal parking even 10 minutes before school starts, and I think that’s a problem. And that’s on a regular day. I live half an hour away and neither of my parents can currently drive me. All of us who drive have no other option and would take better routes if we could, but the fact…

[micdotcom]

The 39 most important feminist moments in 2014

In 1998, TIME Magazine declared feminism dead. Nearly 15 years later, it wondered if instead, perhaps feminism should be banned. Constantly on attack from all sides, feminism has spent the past few decades proving its importance and relevance over and over and over again. If there’s one thing history has taught us, it’s that the backlash against feminism will always be a measure of our success. That’s the thing with progress — it is far too often perceived as a threat by those who benefit from the status quo.

Indeed, as we head into December, it’s clear that the year 2014 was a historic one for feminism. Across the Internet and the world, women stood up for their rights, challenged stereotypes, fought for recognition and took control of the dialogue.

The following is a list of some of the most iconic feminist moments this year. 

[dowhatyoulike]

Almost exclusively for number nine, Laverne Cox. I’m crying- So proud of that woman. 

[artengine-blog]

[convivirconarte]

Antony Gormley - Field (1991) Instalación de 35000 figuras de terracota, de 8x26cm cada una.

[blythebaird]

HIGH SCHOOL This is how to run a stick of Chapstick down the black boxes on your scantron so the grading machine skips the wrong answers. This is how to honor roll. Hell, this is how to National Honor Society. This is being voted “Most Likely to Marry for Money” or “Talks the Most, Says the Least” for senior superlatives. This is stepping around the kids having panic attacks in the hallway. This is being the kid having a panic attack in the hallway. This is making the A with purple moons stamped under both eyes. We had to try. This is telling the ACT supervisor you have ADHD to get extra time. Today, the average high school student has the same anxiety levels as the average 1950’s psychiatric patient. We know the Pythagorean theorem by heart, but short-circuit when asked “How are you?” We don’t know. We don’t know. That wasn’t on the study guide. We usually know the answer, but rarely know ourselves.

HIGH SCHOOL By Blythe Baird (via farfromhomee)