Mwuahahahahaha

Aint that the truth (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)

This generation of young folk is witnessing a disturbing break between the promises of a market economy and our economic reality. Hard work no longer means success. Education does not mean marketability. There are simply no jobs. Nothing is certain. Nothing is guaranteed. No one is left to keep their promises. You know things are bad, when the risk of starting your own business from scratch at 24yrs old, are comparable to trying to find a "real" job. I know I speak for the young here, but those old fogies who got laid off must be feeling the same kind of angst.

Many people have started speculating about what this could mean... a whole generation of disaffected youth, who, having lived through this time, will never "recover" even after the economy does. They say, leaving school in this depression/jobless "recovery" will have a permanent effect on the earning potential of this generation. Some even say, these and related frustrations are at the root of the protests of in the Middle East right now.

Read... here and here. Then enjoy the comic below.

Think Less

" One of your strongest skills - your high level thinking - is irrelavant for you current position at this company." - My manager to me last monday

How utterly absurd...

...for the white man.

"The abilities, the intelligence, the promise of these young men will be squandered in their attempt to eke out a living doing the simplest, most mindless chores for the white man."

-Nelson Madela , Long Walk to Freedom, my copy page 33

This is exactly how I felt working for my last supervisor. Oh snap! Good riddance my friend. ha.

But will I prosper now that he is gone? We make jokes at work all about how the partners are afraid of Office 2007. We make jokes about "partner math" which is simple, slap dash math that latches on to the biggest roundest numbers on a page and yields nothing but broad estimations. Haha! so funny... Does this mean we get more stupid, dated and timid as we move up in this firm?

The more time I spend away from school the more I feel my intelligence is squandered. How do I stem this flow?

BTW I started reading Mandela's book. It was gifted to me two summers ago. It is quintissentially inspirational. Expect more quotes.

Hipsters, be free!!

"The dance floor at a hipster party looks like it should be surrounded by
quotation marks. While punk, disco and hip hop all had immersive, intimate and
energetic dance styles that liberated the dancer from his/her mental states – be
it the head-spinning b-boy or violent thrashings of a live punk show – the
hipster has more of a joke dance. A faux shrug shuffle that mocks the very idea
of dancing or, at its best, illustrates a non-committal fear of expression
typified in a weird twitch/ironic twist. The dancers are too self-aware to let
themselves feel any form of liberation; they shuffle along, shrugging themselves
into oblivion. "

-from here

I often feel the need to move freely. To dance, to fight to frolic. Where can I be free?

Jungle Fever

I'm getting an error when I try to post my Girl-talk videos from the summer, so iIll talk about this instead:

My roomie just admitted until recently he thought that Jungle fever was a legit medical thing... When his friend told him she had jungle fever, he asked "What are the symptoms? Are you ok?" But seriously, jungle fever is the new pink - it's hott. Go for it! Why get caught up with fear, worry and other silly things? Brown skin is sexy. You know you want to...

Acutane

My roomie is going on acutane for her acne and brought back this huge reader that she has to go through before she starts the 5 month course. Supposedly we have to watch her for depresison and crying spells while she's on the pills. More than that though... Apparently you SHOULD NOT GET PREGNANT while on the meds. So the reader has a whole set of sections trying to dispel the myths around sex and getting pregnant so that the patients don't accidently knock themselves up.

My favourite myth of all:

" 'Sexually active' means that you move during sex. If you don't move, you can't get pregnant."

I have no words

I'm here Bitches!

The other night when i was out on the town, some old white guy stared the shit out of me. I have officially arrived in Boston!

He's really not that into you...

I was hanging out with some people who's names are not important right now. Either way, there was a particularly entertaining part of the discussion that I enjoyed listening to even if I couldn't fully take part. The two boys were talking about relationship self help type books and how they are  woman's domain. The thing to read right now apparently is "He's really not that into to you", but there is no equivalent for guys because guys just don't read shit like that.

One fellow proposed, a dvd series where a guy and a girl act out a  potentially romantic scenario and at some point the viewer has to choose the next move - whether it is to do a certain action or say a particular sequence of words. Depending on their choice, the guy would either reach fourth base - Bow Chika Wow Wow! -  while the viewer watches,  or would only go so far and end up with various forms of rejection.  This is a perverted goose-bumps choose-your-own-ending type of thing where the key to success/victory/scoring is to learn not to be a douchebag. 

They said that it is interactive, helpful, fun and combines the two things that appeal most to men - video games and porn. But, would it  sell?

Ha! This cracks me up!

In my Honesty Box

I take issue with the fact that people find it so difficult to be honest with each other. Even worse, is when they can't be honest with each other even when they are honest with themselves. Nevertheless, we must deal with this fact. So I placed an honesty box in my facebook profile where the shy, the confused, the cowards and the secretly supportive can send their anonymous messages to me. It's a little piece of virtual space that somehow empowers people to tell the truth. This was posted in my box at about 3:02 one morning. I assume he was a little drunk.


"A certain secret admirer freshman who is sad to see you leave because he thinks you are pretty sexy and seem to have it going on and if you weren't leaving in a few weeks and he weren't a youngun he'd be asking you out on a date and dear god he hopes your not a lesbian, if you were he'd have no issue of course, especially if you liked both cindys and tommys, but anyhow back on message he just had to let you know what could have been if you weren't a million years older than he and ya know leaning towards soon being in a wheelchair and depends. Your cool, your hot, and you will be missed."


Sweet.

How should I reply?

Guy advice from a guy

Guys don't like girls who can talk

endquote

Update... long time no see

So Jack from the "Think like a man" failed miserably. He now says that he is done with games and scheming. He is simply going to jump on whatever floats his way.

I am still single and the thesis still needs to be written...

...but I am now back on board for the blogging. So if you are out there reading... you can rest easy now.

Stay tuned for recipes for my fav alcoholic drinks.

Think like a man

Yesterday, I popped into the bar and made a new acquaintance. He was on his fifth drink - four of which were in shot form - so I'm sure he was more talkative than he normally would be. He first caught my attention when, while giving a friend of mine advice, he told her that she needed to think like a man. Intrigued, I turned to him and said 

"Think like a man? Do tell..."

In the story that follows I shall call my new acquaintance Jack and the girl in question (you will be later introduced) Jill. 

"Yeah! Think like a man!" He said. apparently, men are stubborn and go directly after what they want. If my friend was to resolve her problem, she needed to be direct and get to the point in conversations,  instead of beating around the bush. 

This  seemed like reasonable advice in content, though not in name, so I kept listening. However, at this point a girl came by - this is Jill - and he put out his arm. She hugged him, they flirted a little and then she continued on her way. 

He continued to talk. "You see, you have to play the game." When a girl is  trying to get a guy or a guy is trying to get a girl, they follow certain patterns of behaviour. To succeed you have to know the rules and play. Girls pretend they are not interested in the people they are interested in . Guys always go exactly for what they want and that will never get them any. 

This was beginning to sound decidedly like bullshit. But then mildly-drunk Jack began to back up the bull with some incredible empirical data. 

"You see this group of girls behind me?" I look over his shoulder, and there, on the pseudo-dance floor was an awkward group of girls mildly swaying to the inappropriate-for-dancing bar music. "There is no reason for them to be there, but *Jill* just wants to get my attention." And lo and behold, there was Jill, swaying awkwardly in the middle of the gaggle.  "Now I turn away," He turned more fully towards me so that his back was firmly to the girls,  "and this is going to drive her crazy!"

You see, to get laid, the guy has to think like a girl. He has to pretend he is not interested, until the girl, in frustration/exasperation, starts giving much more overt signs. She becomes so invested, so obsessed! Then the guy can make his move because he knows that he is in!

And surprise, surprise, after a few minutes of the cold shoulder, Jill sauntered over and flung her fluffy white scarf around his neck. They flirted outrageously and I , nauseated,  went to go find some other acquaintances. 

Later in the night, Jill left without Jack and i went over to him to tease him about his failure. But he said, that 100% guaranteed on the night he returns, he is going home with Jill. I have a buck riding on this. I'll let you know whether he succeeds. 

I wonder if this only works for women and men who are utterly full of themselves or whether it rings with a deeper truth. I know I have, on more than one occasion feigned disinterest. But a cold shoulder would deflate and repel me rather than insight me to more overt shows of affection. 

Hmm... food for thought.