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Feast on Your Life

LOVE AFTER LOVE (Derek Walcott)

“The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored for another,…

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micdotcom

Watch: Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui had no idea she won a Bronze medal

k-n-i-h-a-deactivated20180107

weirdest / most Czech job benefit: “pet bonding days”–if you get a new pet, you get 3 days off work to bond with it

(this is not counted against the 5 weeks of paid vacation or the supply of sick days)

la-grande-follia

You know you’re American when you read this and your brain stops working as you wonder what on earth you would even DO with five weeks of vacation.

k-n-i-h-a-deactivated20180107

hang out with your pet even more, probably

rehfan

Holy Christ…. FIVE WEEKS of PAID VACATION TIME????!?

That exists? Really? And not for high-paid CEOs and shit? For like, workers in retail jobs?

fauxscandinavian-deactivated202

In Denmark, we get six weeks.

And a year’s shared maternity/ paternity leave. And the “first sick-kid day”.

And universal medicare…

ksoranna

I'm finally in a "real" big girl job and I only get 15 DAYS...not weeks...of paid time off and any sick days are counted against my PTO

bitongainhambane

ksoranna

Because "girls" are amazing!

fialleril

No (Or: Anakin Skywalker in Ten Steps)

1. When he’s eight years old he decides that freedom means never having to say “Yes Master” or any variation thereof again.

2. Two days later, he starts counting. In one day, he says it 13 times. Kitster says he said it 16 times, and Anakin wonders if that’s worse, or just more of the same.

3. When the Jedi comes, Anakin calls him “sir.” He hates that word, too, but he’s learned the hard way that it’s safer. The Jedi doesn’t correct him.

4. Even so, for a few days after leaving Tatooine he almost believes he’s free. He’s off planet (and that’s where all the freed people go, isn’t it?), and in a starship, and he’s going to be a Jedi. He’s heard a lot of stories about the Jedi, but none of them say they’re slaves.

5. He was wrong, though. He has to call all the Jedi “Master,” and there are rules to follow, and they cut his hair and dress him and tell him where to go and how to behave and what to do. Master Obi-Wan tries to explain the difference, but he can’t see it, so he doesn’t understand.

He chafes, but never too much. He’s always known just how far he can push, and no further.

6. By the time he’s nineteen years old, and in love, he’s said “Yes Master” 22,753 times.

7. Padmé is upset that they have to hide their wedding, that it has to be private and unshareable. She pretends that it doesn’t bother her so much, and in return he pretends that it does bother him, too.

It doesn’t, though. On Tatooine, all slave marriages are like this. He’s always known he would get married this way.

8. He’s going to be a father, and he’s joyful and giddy and terrified. (He’s now said “Yes Master” 35,802 times.)

There’s a corner of his mind that repeats the old Tatooine law like a mantra. Children follow the mother. His child will be free.

9. There’s something to be said, he thinks, for choosing one’s own master. Or at least having the illusion of choice. He’s now said “Yes Master” 35,998 times, and as he kneels before Palpatine, he could almost believe this is what he’s always wanted.

10. Luke is twenty-four years old, whole, and beautiful, and he’s never said “Yes Master” in his life. Vader doesn’t know this empirically, of course, but he knows it all the same. The slave can always recognize the free man.

It’s not until Luke lifts away his mask and looks at him with desert blue eyes that Anakin realizes he’s said “No” for the very first time.

jadebrieanne

I’m so sad right now.

ksoranna

I never thought of it this way before :-(

huffpost

Did these instances of racism happen today or fifty years ago?

zoecravitz

ksoranna

#womensrights

infinitblaq

ksoranna

Simple morning pleasures

The Sum of 365 Days

I am FINALLY back!! My new blog post: https://ksoranna.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/the-sum-of-365-days/

#writings #thoughts #love #friendship #travel

neotropicalprince-deactivated20

we have all read fanfiction that we shouldn’t have

frontseatpocket

just a few favorite tags

orcshaming

just open up tag viewer on this post and settle in with a snack cause ain’t nobody sleeping tonight, friends

zeiat

installing tag viewer for this was the best decision i ever made

witchdaggers

this is so tragically beautiful

topcas

Where do people find these

candy-cane-castiel

ksoranna

I don't know why. ..but must save for later

#fanfic #crazy reading

neaato

Why Asian Americans Excel At Academics

Why do Asian Americans, as a group, tend to excel at academics?

Newly published research arrives at a simple answer: They work harder than their non-Asian peers.

The study also attempts to answer the less-simple question of why these kids tend to put more effort into their studies, and comes up with two likely answers: The culturally based belief that effort leads to achievement, and the fact that recent immigrants are highly motivated to succeed.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, sociologists Amy Hsin of Queens College and Yu Xie of the University of Michigan analyze data from two nationally representative studies: The Kindergarten Cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which tracks children who entered kindergarten in 1998; and the Educational Longitudinal Study, which looked at the habits and achievements of high school students who were sophomores in 2004.

The first group of kids was tracked through eighth grade; their scores were based on their teachers’ assessment of their proficiency in reading, math, and general knowledge, as well as their “attentiveness, task persistence, and eagerness to learn.”

The high school students’ scores were based on their grade point averages and performance on standardized tests. In addition, their teachers reported their level of attentiveness in class, and noted whether they felt “the student works hard for his/her grades.”

The researchers report that the achievement gap between Asian American and white American kids starts off as small to non-existent, but gradually grows, peaking in 10th grade. This suggests the difference reflects “academic effort rather than differences in cognitive ability,” they write.

Crunching the numbers further, they find socioeconomic factors, such as the fact that Asian Americans kids “are more likely to live in stable, two-parent families with higher incomes,” explains “almost none of the overall Asian-white gap in academic effort.”

So what does make a difference? The researchers find that “differences in immigration status” are the biggest factor, followed by “differences in cultural orientation.”

“Regardless of ethnicity,” they write, “immigrants are self-selected in terms of their motivation to succeed and their optimism for future success.”

“Given their marginal position as relative newcomers to the U.S. with few political and social resources, Asian Americans may see educational credentials as not only having symbolic value in terms of conferring social prestige, but as having great instrumental value as the surest way to attain upward mobility,” the researchers add.

The importance of this motivating factor is reinforced by the finding that “their educational advantages decline over generations,” Hsin and Xie write, “suggesting that third- and later-generation Asian-Americans do not benefit from these resources as much as first- or second-generation.”

Regarding cultural differences about learning, “the results show that Asian Americans are less likely than whites to believe that ability is inborn, and more likely to believe that one can learn to be good at math,” the researchers write. While it’s likely that this attitude derives in part from Confucian teachings, Hsin and Xie note that it is not unique to Chinese Americans, but rather is found in immigrants from throughout Asia.

So what about the “tiger mom” hypothesis, which suggests Asian mothers demand more of their kids, and see to it that they achieve? The study suggests it is, indeed, one factor in their academic success, although — contrary to the stereotype — this approach appears to be more prevalent among immigrants from India than those from China.

“South Asian parents have the highest educational expectations relative to whites,” they write, “followed by Filipinos, Southeast Asians, and East Asians.”

Beyond strict mothers, the drive for academic success “is sustained and reinforced” by other factors, including “ethnic communities that offer newly arrived Asian immigrants access to … resources such as supplemental schooling, private tutoring and college preparation,” the researchers add.

Hsin and Xie note there is a downside to all of this academic success: Asian American students fell less good about themselves, and spend less time with friends, than their white peers.

“The extraordinarily high educational expectations that Asian-American youth hold for themselves, as well as the expectations parents and society set for them, (may) cause those who fail to meet expectations to feel like failures,” they warn.

That very real problem aside, this report reinforces the idea that America’s continued success is tied to the fact we are a nation of immigrants — a land that attracts motivated people who work hard to succeed, and instill those same values in their children. Perhaps rather than tiger moms, we should call them eagle moms.

#asian #eagle moms #academics

soulrevision

An AMAZING display of solidarity from Atlanta, New York, DC, Philly, London and back to Nigeria. Men, women and children showed up in their Gele’s (headwraps) for rallies and protests today in an effort to push for more coverage and aid in finding the abducted Nigerian girls. #BringBackOurGirls

(These photos are not mine, they are photos from twitter. Please feel free to tag anyone you may know that is in these pics)

#bringbackourgirls Nigeria