Americanope

Emily.

[jeanqrey]

[plannedparenthood]

Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years, and one thing is clear: We will never back down and we will never stop fighting to ensure that Planned Parenthood patients have access to the care they need and for the people who come from communities that need our continued support in this new reality.

Many of the people Planned Parenthood health centers serve may be concerned about their safety, and the safety of their families and friends. We will support our immigrant, Muslim, Black and Latinx colleagues, partners and patients in the face of threats made over the last several months.

Health care should not be political. Every morning, Planned Parenthood health center staff across the country wake up and open their doors, as they have this morning, to care for anyone who needs them, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, income, or country of origin. They will do so today, they will do so tomorrow, they will do so every day as they have for 100 years.

[readmyquiet]

The 11:59 pm deadline ain't no joke in college.

[nubiana-americana-deactivated20]

listen to me. look me in the eyes. that blackboard link will close on your procrastinating ass

[alrightevans]

jane austen: this character is going to be the purest, sweetest, prettiest, kindest character i have ever written jane austen: everybody will love her jane austen: she is her mother’s favourite jane austen: a rich, kind, handsome bachelor falls instantly in love with her jane austen: the heroine looks up to her jane austen: she has never done anything wrong in her entire life jane austen: if she has any character flaws at all its that she is TOO much of an absolute sweetheart jane austen: and i will call her….. jane austen: jane :-)

[tardis-impala]

no offense but this year, politically, across the entire globe, has been an absolute joke 

[memeufacturing-deactivated20161]

hey babe did it hurt when you fell from heaven haha ? hey babe did you see a god in heaven haha ?? hey babe is There even a god at all??Does life have a point????Babe?????? Or are we all just pointless machines in an uncaring universe ????????????? Babe ??????????????

[dutchster]

i hope common sense is the next cool trend

[wasianraisin]

Me: why didn't I get full points for annotations

English teacher: you just wrote "savage" every time Lady Macbeth spoke

[lizardsinspace]

if i die during the test will the college board give me a refund

[world-shaker-deactivated2013092]

[leaves this here and backs away]

[thefederalistfreestyle]

WEST COOOOOOOOOOOAST [x]

[firelord-frowny]

It really, REALLY bothers me when I hear people frame climate change and other environmental crises as something that everyday, average-ass people are responsible for, and not corporations and entire governments. 

Like literally, how can a regular-ass person ~opt out~ of all damaging behaviors while still being able to function in society? 

You literally can’t. 

The future of our planet is not down to whether or not someone recycles their water bottle. 

It’s down to whether or not governments and corporations decide to quit sucking up all our resources and poisoning the earth with reckless abandon. 

I mean obviously people should still live as cleanly and as sustainably as they can manage where they are and with what they have, but like. THAT isn’t the major issue. 

[lilacbreastedroller]

govts and corporations have deliberately put the onus on yr individual choices so the system can continue being as destructive/profitable

[sopphistries-deactivated2016080]

God bless this post this pisses me off so much Also this hyper-individualist shift of responsibility is largely an American thing and consumerism is framed as a solution- e.g., buy more shit that’s sustainable! That’ll fix the problem (buy a new, green water bottle! buy a new, green car! buy a new, green whatever-the-fuck that’ll just ultimately produce more waste)!

[crybabyhellbutch]

I took a course in sustainable engineering.

The professor mentioned that even if every private individual in the world were to conserve resources and the environment the ol’ Jimmy Carter way- by turning down the thermostat, recycling your glass and plastics and metals, cut down on luxuries, take shorter showers, etc., it would only get us 10% of the way to where we need to be in order to avoid global catastrophic climate change.

The vast majority of freshwater use is from industry and agriculture. http://www.worldometers.info/water/ 

The vast majority of CO2 emissions is from industrial and electrical generation sites and associated vehicles. http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html

Private individuals hardly make a dent, even in ideal conditions.

[mexicanheaux]

I hope u all get accepted AND have the means to attend the college of ur dreams

[literarystarbucks]

Nick Carraway

Nick Carraway goes up to the counter, but instead of ordering something for himself, he leans on the edge and narrates what everyone else is ordering for the entire day.

[wasianraisin]

The End

It just hit me that junior year is almost over. Literally. I was rocking out to Uptown Funk when my mom threw something at me to remind me that a rather boring paper about the blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia Sila) is due tomorrow and I had yet to research the circulatory system of reptiles. 

But let me be the first to say HOLY FRICK! This year went by so ridiculously fast. It feels like I was giving my ringer presents yesterday and here I am, freaking out about the APUSH final project and ap’s and subject tests and college and quilt squares and literally everything else ever. 

How the dear heck did this year slip through my grasp? For the majority of the year, it seemed like it would never end. All the projects, all the stress, all the hair that fell off of my head while I struggled to figure out what I was saying on that beloved essay. And honestly, it still feels like it will never end. It hasn’t really set in for me yet that in 5 days I’ll not have any more classes as a junior and that in a little more than 2 weeks i’ll be a senior. Frankly, I’m pretty sure that the reason why it hasn’t sunk in quite yet is that i’m 110% ABSOLUTELY FRICKEN TERRIFIED. 

I can’t be an adult in a year. That just doesn’t make sense to me. This morning I was watching the disney channel. How can I be a leader of the school in a few months? How are any of us even remotely qualified for this? How have we possibly gone through everything we have already? And the more that I think about it, how the heck did any of us get through this year without losing our minds? 

This year felt like getting hit in the face continuously. Seriously, like there’s like a little boxer sitting on my shoulder that’s just been socking me in the cheek for the past 7 months AND NEVER FREAKING LETTING UP. ACT? Punch in the face. Profile project? Punch in the face. Finals? Punch in the face. Missing every single bio lecture and still taking the test? Punch in the face. AP’s? Punch in the face. Subject tests? 10000 small stabs with a tiny sword. 

So how did we all make it through? It’s a mystery and a miracle. I have absolutely no idea. I doubt anyone really knows. Junior year really sucks. It’s the year where grades mean the most and the classes are the most stressful, and at the same time it’s the year where you’re expected to do every single fricken extracurricular on the block while experimenting and making new friends. It’s exhausting. It’s terrible. It’s horrible. Being 16 is supposed to be about learning how to drive, sneaking into R rated movies, going on morning hikes to see the sunrise, making friends, going to prom, and all of those fun television clichés. So how did being 16 turn into crying yourself to sleep because you have a week full of some of the most important standardized tests of your life all lined up with no break? Blame the american education system, blame palo alto for being so conducive for stress, blame yourself, blame your parents. Blame whoever you want, but that won’t help anything. After all of that blame and anger all that you’re going to be is a little bit more angry and the exact same distance away from alleviating yourself of all that stress.

I guess the moral of the story is that we all need to have a break. We all need to be 16 for a little while. We need to go hiking and watch movies and spend more time with our friends than our chemistry books. We need to take 10 minutes, stop looking up the lizard circulatory system and just rock out to Uptown Funk. We’ve got 5 days left, so let’s enjoy ourselves.

[wasianraisin]

Apparently Political?

So this really weird phenomenon has started happening where I've become super political. All my conversations eventually devolve into a discussion about policy, and apparently my tweets are so charged that I'm now followed by a surprisingly high number of political groups and even the leader of the California State Senate. You all may be thinking, 'Huh! That's weird, I've never heard about Emily caring about politics! Or anything that's not herself or robotics!' I had a similar journey. I never thought I was a particularly politically charged person. I really don't know when this changed into the weirdly politically jaded person I am now, but I do know that my political brass reached a high point when Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for president. As a true Burnette, a family of die-hard Hil fans who've had a 'ready for hillary' sticker on their car since 2008, I was insanely excited. I ran around my house about 20 times before settling down, joining her mailing list on 3 different emails, signing up to be a volunteer, and applying for a job on her campaign. Emily 4 years ago would have been totally apathetic towards this. I used to not care about what happens to America. Maybe I'm growing up, though. Maybe (hopefully?!) it's a sign of maturity that I actually care about what happens to the country that I'm kind of forced to live in for the rest of my life.

[wasianraisin]

Music Video Art

Tonight, as I was trying (and succeeding!) to procrastinate taking my Engineering quiz and studying for Bio, I spent around 4 hours on YouTube watching various music videos. I watched one after another, starting with Pentatonix, moving to Lindsey Stirling, taking a detour over to TSwift and finally ending up at Stromae. 

To those of you who don’t know Stromae, he’s a Belgian musician whose music is sort of French electro-pop and his videos and songs are absolutely GORGEOUS. 

(This blog post is about to devolve into full fangirl mode. You’ve all been warned.)

Every single song and video has some important message. “Formidable” is about mistreatment of women, “carmen” is a critique of social media, “papaoutai” is mourning a lack of a father figure in a young boy’s life, and my personal favourite “tous les mêmes” is about being gender stereotypes and how hard they are to deal with as a queer person. And the music videos are ridiculously good. I’m not even exaggerating here. I haven’t seen many music videos as painstakingly and perfectly created as Stromae ones. It’s beautiful to see someone absolutely loving what they love to do and working as hard as they can to share their love with the world.

I’m just going to leave a few links down here so you all can see what I’m inarticulately droning on about!

Tous Les Mêmes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAMWdvo71ls

Papaoutai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiKj0Z_Xnjc

Carmen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKftOH54iNU

(Shout out to Devon for introducing me to Stromae!)