Gay Marriage in Ireland

I love this commercial. Just thinking about the spirit of modern Ireland for an instant, I'd have to say that gay marriage will become a reality for them in the near future. (via American Irish) I like the name Sinead. I was just reading about when Sinead O'Connor performed on SNL and then tore up a picture of John Paul II on live TV...and then shouted out some anti-pope statement. So, yeah, Sinead O'Connor. I wish there was a video somewhere. Oh wait, there is.

Resolutions for a New Year

I'm twenty. I've resisted it, but I can't ignore the feeling that my unavoidable transition to adult life (or something close) has begun. My resolutions for this new year aren't very much different from those of 2009, but if for fear of my encroaching adulthood, then I think this new year is going to be different, with a more serious approach. Bad sentence? I've long feared (since senior year of high school) that my writing has become less effective at expressing my feelings, so I'm going to factor it into my New Year's resolutions.
It seems like a lot of people focus on one big goal. This year I'm going to exercise every day! This year I'm going to give up caffeine! I'm going to read at least one novel a month! All good ideas, but when I've set those goals for myself, I've found that ...I fail. SO. This year, I'm going to make up plenty of little goals that I make a little progress on every day. If I fail at one, then I have several others to distract me from the failure. Here's my list:
1. Eat 4 fruits and 3 vegetables every day. (This is one that I'm worried about, but I did improve in 2009)
2. Drink 3 cups of tea every day. (I really don't want cancer.)
3. Spend more time outside.
4. Go to campus every day and read the NY Times. (It's free on campus, I have no reason to be uninformed)
5. Spend 15 cleaning every day. (I usually clean once a week, by which time my apartment is halfway to becoming an episode of Hoarders.
6. Use more olive oil. (It's good for you! And I have a big bottle than I never use.)
7. Take more pictures and print more pictures.
8. Be more organized.
9. Write 2 letters a week. To anyone.
10. Write more. Period.
11. Listen to more classical music.
12. File all of my receipts. (And possibly Excel my living expenses, but I don't want to get too ambitious.)
13. Think about sex less. (going to a new school and being alone has definitely kept my right hand warm.)
14. Limit myself to one latte per week.
15. Practice music once a week.

One Life To Live

I'm not typically a fan of daytime soap operas (though I do know all the major characters of Day of Our Lives, thanks Mom!), but it looks like there is some interesting stuff happening on One Life To Live. Not only are there major characters who are gay, but ones who have an interesting ongoing relationship with good dialogue, not to mention a whole lot of make-out scenes, and even a bedroom scene! I'm imagining female retirees and stay-at-homers watching this - wondering about the reaction. I love it.

What I Did Last Night

What the heck? I don't know why iMovie put bars on the top and bottom?! I'll have to upload it again...meh.

Saint Louis Gentrification

I was digging around online looking for articles about the status of gentrification in Saint Louis, Missouri, my hometown. There isn't much, and of what I did find, there's nothing recent. Not looking good. In those articles/blogs that I looked at (the old ones), the idea of gentrification was being demonized, as simply a process that forces working-class populations out of their current neighborhoods. That's true: those with higher incomes must replace poor and working-class people as they leave their neighborhood for gentrification to really work. But to me, and to many of my peers, gentrification sounds like a really good thing, especially for St. Louis, a city that many readily describe as dying.

I can see how at first, gentrification may not seem like a win-win scenario. Rent prices rise, families can no longer afford to live in a neighborhood, one in which they may have lived comfortably for many years, and eventually they find themselves in a predicament to which relocation is the only solution. It sucks. But you know what sucks even more? The death of a city, firms choosing to relocate to other metropolitan areas with better reputations, and young adults choosing to start families in other cities with better school systems and safer streets. In my opinion, the on-going remixing of middle-class and upper-class with the working class is absolutely essential to the health of a city. At the moment, relative to other American cities, St. Louis features a dramatic segregation between the classes. Any St. Louis native can describe to you the difference between a typical North County citizen and a typical West County citizen. And weighing St. Louis County against St. Louis City? The difference in poverty rates, unemployment, and crime is shocking. Why is gentrification a bad thing for St. Louis? Are St. Louisans satisfied with high crime and a city that becomes a ghost-town at night?

I would like to see a St. Louis with good public schools and a bustling downtown. I'd like to know how far off it is, if it's possible at all. I want to know exactly what is needed to jump-start the gentrification of St. Louis. It would take more than a couple of billion-dollar companies, more than a few new condo developments. I'm going to look further to see if anyone with power/money has taken this issue to heart.

Photo: The Olive Street of 2010? I think we're gonna miss the deadline. Sorry 1910. (via)

EDIT! I didn't find any blogs that focus strictly on gentrification, but there are a few concerned about St. Louis urban planning: Dotage St. Louis, St. Louis / Elsewhere, Vanishing STL. All very good blogs.

It's Snowing!

Obama's Bow to Japan

 I love Japan. Japan has done wonderful things for my life. Sony anyone? Pokemon? Instant noodles? Japan deserves a high-five. But not everyone thinks so. Some Americans are still bothered by President Obama's bow to the Emperor of Japan a month ago. Now, anyone who's even briefly acquainted with Japanese culture knows that bowing is an important Japanese social custom - like saying "hello" when you answer the phone - if you don't do it, it's weird or rude. Actually, not returning a bow is probably worse than not saying hello...  Nevertheless some people are outraged by Obama's disgustingly blatant display of subservience to a foreign leader. Fox News anyone? 
I just want to say that I love how Fox News often includes commentary on how people feel, like when they say that the emperor and his wife looked uncomfortable. Did you ask them? Is there an interview on record, in which someone representing the emperor says that he, the emperor, was uncomfortable? No? Then don't include it in the story and pass it off as legitimate journalism. The addition of emotions into a report that may or may not have a basis in reality is no more than a subdued version of sensationalism.  
On the subject of "protocol" that "has been the constant since the country's founding" my thoughts would be that in the eighteenth century, our prime concern was not bowing to European powers - it probably wouldn't have been cool for George Washington to bow to George III. But Japan wasn't really on the map in the 1700s, much less our fourth largest trading partner. Surely, if "protocol" had been written properly back in the day it would read "don't let the President bow to people unless it's the Emperor of Japan 'cause that's what they fucking do in Japan!!!" Obama isn't exactly prostrating on his knees or kissing the emperor's rings. The end.

Oh, and here's this picture that I borrowed from Fox News. I thought it was worth noting that when I downloaded it, the suggested filename was "obama_japan_monster." Obama Japan Monster. Hmm. You're so totally a legitimate news organization. Good job, Fox News.

St. Louis Zoo Features Electronic Polar Bears!

I have high regards for the St. Louis Zoo (not only because I grew up in the St. Louis area). And I always like to go to the Zoo during winter to see the polar bears frolicking. They have a deep pool of water and big rubber balls - it's amusing to watch them jump in the pool and bounce and toss the balls up in the air and such. Well, not anymore! Apparently, polar bears are extinct at the St. Louis Zoo. And they've replaced them with electronic ones! For me this just echos that fact that polar bears are becoming increasingly rare in the wild, and eventually electronic zoo versions are going to be all there is for anyone to see. Also, I wonder if this could also be taken as a metaphor for the dwindling status of St. Louis as a relevant American city.


Huffington Post
River Front Times
PETA

Cool Photo of the Week

Battlestar Galactica 101.

*chortle*

I saw this on TheBobBlog. I thought it was funny. I'm not sure how I should go about citing photographs. I assume citing the stolen-from website is sufficient?
Also, I thought Metro was a newspaper for Swedes, but I just looked it up on Wikipedia and it seems to be all over the place. Cool.

Love Al Jazeera

I have a tremendous respect for Al Jazeera. As far as televised media goes, the BBC and Al Jazeera are the only organizations I'd put stock in when it comes to good, undiluted, uncensored journalism. I know that they are often the only trusted source of news in the Middle East. They're not always perfect, but they're more valuable than the "journalism" that comes out of NBC and CBS.
I was just looking at Al Jazeera's uploads on YouTube (I'm a subscriber). Somehow I missed this one from last year. Note: this would have NEVER appeared on CBS or NBC or CNN, definitely not Fox News. I would like to know how many people continue to think of Barack Obama in this way. The first issue preventing its broadcast would be one man's casual use of the n-word in describing then Senator Obama...just see for yourself.

Also, Aliens in Norway

This is CBS coverage. And this is a report from the Christian Science Monitor



My first non-alien explanation would be a bizarre natural phenomenon, but news agencies are saying it's a Russian rocket launch gone awry. Hmm. Maybe I don't know very much about rockets, but I have trouble imagining how a rocket, even one spiraling out of control, manages to make a seemingly stationary perfect spiral appear for several minutes. Just don't get it. I would have more believed "time-space rift anomaly."

It's Really Cold

Haha, I'm posting this December 10th, but it's about December 9th, yesterday. It was really cold. I wasn't properly prepared for the sudden drop in temperature. I have a nice new semi-wool coat (with Thinsulate!), that goes almost to my knees, but it was barely enough to keep me warm. I only left my apartment to take my final sociology test for the semester. I always park in the Hitt St. Parking Garage because it's pretty convenient to all of my classes as well as the library and Memorial Union. I was kinda in a hurry because I wanted to look over the review questions quickly before taking the test. So I parked...at the far end of the garage away from the ticket machine. I ran to the machine, only to find an elderly man had was doing maintenance on it. I experienced a quick moment of simultaneous frustration and concern that an old man was doing machine maintenance without gloves at subzero temperatures. Okay, I run back to my car, drive to the other side of the garage, this time closer to a machine. Only when I get to the machine, it doesn't have a place for my student ID. Damn, good thing I have a healthy stock of quarters in my car at all times for exactly this purpose. In the few seconds it takes me to jog back to my car, my fingers begin to hurt. It must be colder than I thought. Oh, crap I need another quarter! Back to the car again. But the machine has mistaken my delay for incompetence and issued me a ticket with an insufficient amount of time on it! NOOO! So I place two tickets on my dash, one with 15 minutes on it.
On my way to class, I comfort myself by picking out people who aren't dressed appropriately. Honestly, there was still at least one person wearing flip-flops. I checked the temperature when I got home.

The Yes Men

The part I want you to see starts at 9:52. One of Al Jazeera's reporters is interviewing "The Yes Men" who are two American guys who make it their job to go around the world while posing as representatives of huge corporations, like Halliburton and Exxon, so that they can basically spread happy lies in an effort to awaken the public. For example, one of them posed as a Dow Chemical representative, live on the BBC, and apologized for a huge hazardous waste disaster that Dow Chemical previously (or so they made it seem) had nothing to say about. Apparently this was a big news for a few days on the BBC, but I didn't hear anything about it. I've never heard of the Yes Men before today, either. I wonder why - they're pretty funny.

Required Viewing For YouTubers

YouTube has only been around since 2005, but to me it feels like it's been so much longer. I signed up for my account the summer of 2006, which was only a year after the site was born. And I know by that time, it was already a pretty big part of my teen culture. I remember that when I signed up for my account, I was also lamenting the fact that I been putting it off for months, and therefore thousands of people had gotten in line in front of me. Anyway, interesting video.