everything and nothing

Can I suggest their steadily worried human neighbour who has to deal with issues and comes up with wilder and wilder theories every week but is never correct (ghosts, demon possession, poisoning, lizard people, government conspiracy but aliens? Don’t be ridiculous).

IT IS NOT: enjoying food from another culture, enjoying music from another culture, learning about another culture, or learning another language

as a South Asian poc, my immigrant family has always loved and WILL always love: 1. cooking traditional food for you and watching you try it, pointing out which ones might be too spicy, laughing at the faces you make. 2. DRESSING YOU UP! especially anyone female-identifying. A sari is the most complicated garment ever and there is an art to dressing someone, my mom and aunties are so stinkin’ proud of themselves whenever they get the honour of wrapping and pleating any young woman’s First Sari. You don’t need to be SA (south asian). Our hospitality treats a guest as an honorary family member. They’ll fawn over you, they’ll take pictures. You arms and neck will be laden with bangles and gold. You’ll smell like jasmine when you walk into a room because there will be fresh jasmine in your hair. Everyone will call you beautiful. The difference is, WE will put the bindhi on your foreheard. Not you. (I mean this as nicely as possible: you did not get yourself here on your own.) 

You are here because we INVITED you in to celebrate diversity with us and its delightful kaleidoscope of colours and flavours… I am glad that we are now educating ourselves on cultural appropriation, but I hope it doesn’t stop you from accept such invitations. I hope fear of being “politically incorrect’ doesn’t turn into “fear of interaction.” If you’re so worried about the way you look “politically” then you miss the whole point. Cultural appropriation is declining to interact with us as people, as friends. Failing to acknowledge us as families. And instead waltzing in to our homes to eat our food, wear our clothes, don our hairstyles and walk away without a backwards glance–claiming all the while that the moment we step out of the small privacy of our homes we must reject it all and conform to “Your World.”

Hello, folks!

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs where people incorporate glitter into their spellwork. And glitter is 100% magickal, but it is also 100% MADE OF PLASTIC. Plastic, as you may know, takes 100s to 1,000s of years to decompose.

The cheap glitter you buy in those little tubes? It’s made of tiny pieces of plastic.

BUT THERE ARE AMAZING ALTERNATIVES!! - Mica glitter is made of crushed up rocks! That’s right, ROCKS! What could be better for spellwork! You know what’s even better, depending on where you live? Mica can easily be found outside and it is super easy to MAKE YOUR OWN MICA GLITTER FOR FREE! Ever wonder what makes makeup so shimmery? It’s mica powder. - Edible Glitter is made from plant starches and plant material. Meaning, it’s great for the environment. Bonus: YOU CAN EAN IT! Great for kitchen witchcraft!!

So, before you buy a tiny, sparkly tube of cheap, plastic glitter, please think about where it came from. And, also, think about where all of that glitter is going to end up.

By searching around, people have found this forum post from 2007:

1.) it wasn’t Disney who turned down Coco but DREAMWORKS.  and to those who STILL erroneously insist that Disney/Pixar turned down The Book of Life

2.) People getting mad at this:

Marigolds are traditional to our culture as well as to the holiday, ESPECIALLY in petal form. Not the best example but that’s like getting mad at different Christmas movies for using mistletoe.

3.) “Oh it’s the same plot.” Has anyone looked up the plot for this movie other than outright bashing it from the trailer?  “The footage, raw though it may be, spun a compelling story about Miguel, a sweet kid who loves music despite the fact that his abuelita banned music long ago, thanks to an ancient drama involving Miguel’s great-great-grandfather—a dashing musician—who walked out on the family. That musician, Miguel discovers at the start of the film, is his town’s most famous son: deceased film star and music supernova Ernesto de la Cruz. On the eve of Día de Muertos, Miguel breaks into de la Cruz’s mausoleum in order to borrow the famous skull guitar that hangs there so that he can enter a talent competition and convince his family to embrace music again. Once Miguel touches the guitar, he becomes something of a living ghost. His family can no longer see him, but Miguel can now see all of his dead ancestors—who look like fantastically decorative skeletons—crossing over a bright bridge made of marigold flower petals from the Land of the Dead. Looking for help and answers, Miguel travels to the Land of the Dead—a dazzlingly vibrant, stacked metropolis inspired by the Mexican city of Guanajuato—himself and sets off an adventure with trickster skeletal companion Hector to find the rest of his family, de la Cruz, and the answer to how he can fix this curse.”   You know how insistent Pixar is on always making original films. So don’t you think that they would continue that?

4.) “But the white director who thinks he knows everything because he’s been to Mexico.” That’s right, a white person who is not of Mexican/Latinx culture can not truly KNOW our culture simply by visiting it. And Lee Unkrich knows this fact. Which why he assembled a group for the sake of making sure the movie is culturally accurate, rather than him taking on that role

you know, a team of actual latinx. Including someone who was a huge critic of Coco, and is a critic of Disney, Lalo Alcaraz. He is most famously known for his response to the action of Disney attempting to trademark Dia de los Meurtos (which will be our next point). It’s not Alcaraz selling out. It’s him working together with the movie so it’s not just Disney trying to bring in more Latinx fans but rather creating what Unkrich’s true mission: “a love letter to Mexico.” This team along with many other Latinx creatives (like Adrian Molina who was originally just a writer and then promoted to co-director) and a fully latinx cast (again, as insisted by Unkrich), are working together to make it a Latinx piece of media. ( http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/12/pixar-coco-gael-garcia-bernal-dia-de-los-muertos-miguel )

5.) We all know and got rightfully angry at Disney for attempting to trademark Dia de los Muertos. This was due to the similar original name the movie had. As expected, it received intense backlash to which Disney quickly revoked the request to trademark. Unkrich was the first to vocalize that this was a mistake. This even leading to that point most likely has to do with him being a white man not of our culture, but this humbling experience is what really knocked that message into him and he began recruiting people like the ones in the above point to make sure that the movie itself is true to the people, culture, and holiday, in ways he himself could never fully grasp.

6.) It’s about the Day of the Dead like The Book of Life. My response to this is easy: look at how many movies are there about Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentine’s day, Saint Patrick’s day, etc.

7.) Gutierrez himself doesn’t want it to be a competition but as two wonderful films about one aspect of Latinx that will hopefully lead to more in the future.

I need you to stop and read this for a second. 

My best friend and I are creating an app to help closeted LGBTQIA+ kids in abusive situations. 

The app is finished, and we plan on submitting it to the Technovation competition in April. 

But there’s one problem. 

We can’t get the app to help people if we don’t have the data. 

The competition states we must source our own data through a survey, and if we don’t get enough participants, we can’t submit or release the app until we prove that there’s a need for it. 

We already polled our school’s relatively small GSA, but that gave us biased answers that weren’t enough to successfully draw a conclusion. 

Please, take this survey. No matter your sexuality, gender, preference, race, or anything of that matter. We need data to make this work. 

More importantly, we need you to make this work. 

The difference between this app helping people, and sitting in a trash folder on my computer is the amount of data this survey collects. 

me: 

Wear jeans/pants that “breathe” and bring a sweater, even if it’s scorching hot out, until you know which building blasts the AC to 60 degrees F and which feels like a sauna

Backpacks with thick straps are your friend!  Messenger bags are cool and all but if you’re commuting with a lot of stuff, symmetrically styled backpacks are better for your back

You are your own person and you can walk out whenever you need to or want to, so long as you’re not disrupting the class.  Meaning you can go to the bathroom without permission, take a breather if you’re anxious, answer an important phone call, etc.

If you don’t like the class on the first day, if you can- DROP THAT CLASS AND TAKE ANOTHER ONE!  It’ll only get worse from there!

If you can, take a class outside your major; it’s a good break from your expected studies.

You are in charge of your schedule.  Your adviser and guidance counselor is there to ‘advise and guide’ but if you don’t like certain classes and you can substitute for others, that’s your choice.

Consequently, if you are changing anything drastic in your plan, talk with your adviser and instructors.

Pay attention to your credit hours and grades.  Never leave this to the last week of school, you will be sorry and stressed beyond belief!

Unless it’s a lab book or otherwise specified, go to the class for a week or so before buying an expensive textbook.  Some classes, while having it on their required list, do not actually use the textbook a whole lot and you might find some of it scanned online.  Rent if you can or buy used online (schools actually don’t give discounts).  Use your best judgement on what you think you need.

Tell the people who go up to you selling or advertising things you are not interested in that you are in a rush to class and don’t have time to listen to them.  It’s less rude and they’ll leave you alone.

The smaller the class, the better it is to have some sort of acquaintanceship with a couple classmates.  They might save your ass if you are absent one day or need to study.  And talking with them makes the time go by faster without it being so insufferable.

You don’t need to join a club or sport, but internships are cool and useful!

If you can afford it, take a day off once or twice each semester if you’re too exhausted.  Just be aware of what you missed and if it was worth missing!

Your health is the most important, this goes for mental health too!!  Note: College-age/upper teens is when mental disorders like depression and anxiety are most commonly diagnosed.  Most schools have therapy services, especially during exam time.  Look into it if you need to!

Communicate with your professor if you are having trouble with something.  Anything.

Eat and stay hydrated.  Bring a water bottle and snack to class.

All-nighters will happen but never go over 36 hours without sleep.

ADDITIONAL ADVICE

Don’t let a mental health day turn into a mental health week because you will be so screwed.

Pay attention to the syllabus and do not lose it. A lot of professors put all of the assignment due dates in there and ONLY in there.

If your school has blackboard or moodle etc. CHECK IT. a lot of professors will only post certain info there and not talk about it in class