#project daisy

daisy

The way we receive our music these days can be referred to as the second generation of digital music services.  The first generation of music services weren’t really services at all.  They were tools that we used to dig up digital files around the internet.  Some smart guys got together and decided that if we the people crowd sourced the files; we would all be able to share songs at the blink of an eye.  Today, that music strategy still exists, but a more dominant one seems to be winning the hearts and minds of casual music listeners – it’s called streaming radio. While there are different types of streaming radio services, they all promise to offer you the same things.  In a nutshell, they aim to figure out what type of music you like while adjusting songs to fit that station.  How they go about it all is really a complete mystery to me, but it works and it has been improved over the years.  Project Daisy is trying to push this idea into the next generation of listening.  Using the same idea, the creators intend to add a cultural context to music selection, which seems to be missing from the original algorithms. http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2013/07/what-can-we-expect-from-the-project-daisy-music-service.html

Dad: That outfit? I didn't know trashy slut was a style these days. Change.

About a week ago, while sitting in second period, the urge suddenly struck me to cut all my hair off. During my sophomore year, I decided that I wanted to grow it out and I began the painstaking process of waiting patiently for my hair to achieve my dream length. But once I'd had the thought to cut it, it wasn't something I could easily shake. I wanted to have a new start and take on a sassier style. I felt it would be good for me. Despite my certainty of that morning, I later sat at my hair appointment and battled with myself internally for the better part of an hour. Thank goodness for my patient and wonderful hair dresser (who was actually present at the conception of this project!!). I found myself launching a slew of text messages. I sent photos of my current hair. I asked for people's honest opinions on what I should do. I asked for people to be brutal and criticize me so that they could ensure that I made the right decision. No one told me I should cut it. They wanted me to keep it long. "But it's so you!" "It might look masculine if you cut it short!" "Your hair now is just so pretty and girlie!" I knew in my heart that I wanted to make this change, but with so many people telling me it would be a mistake to take that leap, I thought to myself, "Will people like it?" "What if people think I'm trying too hard?" "What if people think I'm trying to be like so-and-so?" "What if people don't think I look as pretty?" And then I stopped. And I was ashamed of myself. I was allowing the fear of judgement from other people to keep me from making a decision I wanted to make for myself! I was allowing others to dictate my happiness. And yeah, it's just a haircut. It's just one small thing in the scheme of my life, but if I compromise those small things and allow other people to make my decisions for me.... Won't I do the same for the big decisions? I don't want to be that kind of person. I don't want to find myself lost in the need to gain the approval of others. I want to make my choices simply because I want them and I think they'll be fun. So as I sat in the chair, I said to my hairdresser, "Stephanie... Cut it all off!" Fifteen inches of hair later (which strangely resembled a squirrel once it hit the floor), I found not only my head felt lighter, but my spirits did also. I had made a decision for me. It's hard to do that- harder than we realize. We don't do it nearly as often as we should. We live in a society which tells us that having complete control over the way we look and the way we feel is scary. I don't want to become a prisoner of that, and I don't want other people to feel they're prisoners of it either. I learned a valuable lesson. I learned to not let people dictate what I do with my body. I learned not to let people dictate what makes my spirit happy. I learned not to let myself stand in the way of my own joy, simply because I fear judgment. I'd like to see a society which encourages people to be completely themselves. I'd like to see a society which allows people to change from who they once were, to who they want to become. I don't want to see people put in a box and told that change is bad. I don't want us to believe that simply because something HAS been a certain way, that it must REMAIN that way. Allow yourselves to move forward. Allow yourselves to grow. And don't let anyone stand in the way of your smallest source of sunshine, even if it's only a haircut. Because if you allow them in the way of your small joys, you might allow them in the way of anything.

I have moved into phase two of the project, and I will be posting about it at the end of the week to let you all know how it's going. Thank you for your continued support of this project. It means so much to me. My ultimate goal is to shed some light on the way that female aggression and bullying works, and to show the complex world that girls live in and are hurt by. If you're new to the blog, I'd encourage you to check out my earlier posts and see what I'm all about. 

In Project Daisy, I have not discovered everything there is to find about female aggression, but I'm not done yet. However, I'm starting to realize where it comes from. We carry it with us from birth. Because there's only so much that any woman-- any person -- can take.

Conservative female friend