Summer Loves

Watch: Mad Men. As if I even need to tell you about this, most likely
if you've watched any television, read any online news source, or
turned on any radio, you'll have heard what an amazing show this is.
Nominated for 17 Emmys (and already winners of 2
Golden Globes) this show is like intellectual crack. For a glimpse
into 1960's society (and, let's just put it out there, our current day
society) this show delves into all the stuff you didn't think possibly
existed, but did, and all the stuff you wish you knew more about, but
don't. It's painfully ambiguous in regards to relationships, pasts,
and futures -- and reflects so amazingly our reality that you can't
help but see a little bit of yourself in every character. Second
season premiered a little more than a week ago, hop on the bandwagon
already so you don't hear all the juicy spoilers ahead of time.

-- Sidenote: The Hills season 4 premieres on August 14th. I don't
watch it. I just, you know, read about it whenever I see an article
about it. Or, um, try to catch re-runs. Or, umm...whatever. It's a
cultural phenomenon. Don't judge me.

Listen: The latest addition to Timba's team, Izza Kizza, just dropped
his mixtape last Wednesday for free on his myspace page. While my
opinion of Girl Talk's Feed definitely improved over time, I'd say
that the first listen through of Kizza's album was on the same level
as my initial reaction to Night Ripper. HELL OF GOOD! My favorite
track so far is Don't Stop Go! but, each track grows on you the more
you listen to it. Zomg, the buttery hip-hop goodness even made me
groove at my desk. Embarrassing? Yes. Uncontrollable? Unfortunately.

Read: Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. This is possibly the biggest
pop-culture drop that I've done in a long while (minus aforementioned
Hills premiere), but after her big appearance at Comic Con with juicy
tidbits about the film version's development, even I got suckered in.
Plus, it's August, and who wants to read about Vampires around
Halloween? That's so cliche. It's like the smutty romance novel you
don't want anyone to know that you're reading, but you can't detach
from your hand. I already read 200 pages, and I only bought it 36
hours ago. 18 of which I spent sleeping. Chew on that one. (Haha,
punny. I swear one day I'll recommend something of greater literary value.)

Buy: Sarah Jessica Parker's Bitten at Steve and Barry's.
Everything is $8.98 (I'm not kidding) from jeans, to dress pants, to
tshirts. The line is surprisingly well-tailored, and while the
material is not the greatest (and I have yet to see how it handles
wear and tear) there is something incredible about slipping on a pair
of jeans that costs lest than $10 and watching them hug in all the
right places, and fall to just the right length. Plus, I can attest to the fact that their cotton tshirts can even withstand a sturdy round in the dryer and maintain its general shape and form even though you meant to hang dry it so it would never shrink.

Pop-culture overload brought to you by endless hours of internets and
lazy summer weekends. Gotta love it.

Don't Complain; Work Harder

That's one of the ideas that Pausch talks about in his speech, and that's something I'm going to here. Not that I don't complain unnecessarily sometimes, if I didn't admit that it would be utter and complete hypocrisy, but I will say that there are some more difficult issues to be dealt with in the world than any of the stuff I come up with. This is called feeling like a chump for complaining when I really have a good deal, no matter how you slice it.

Yes, I went to a women's college, and yes I do have a tendency to focus on women's issues. This, however, is something that we should pay attention to for its own reasons. Much as I complain about guys disrespecting women, the Rape Epidemic in the Congo is in a class all its own.

"Honorata Barinjibanwa, an 18-year-old woman with high cheekbones and downcast eyes, said she was kidnapped from a village that the Rastas raided in April and kept as a sex slave until August. Most of that time she was tied to a tree, and she still has rope marks ringing her delicate neck. The men would untie her for a few hours each day to gang-rape her, she said.

“I’m weak, I’m angry, and I don’t know how to restart my life,” she said from Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where she was taken after her captors freed her."

Please read the article. Even the next morning, I'm not even entirely clear on how to reflect on it. How about this: it terrifies me what human beings who have experienced trauma can inflict upon other people. Rape as a concept frightens me in a way that, strangely enough, makes me feel numb. Rape that involves foreign objects and completely destroys a woman's internal organs causes the emotional equivalent of a stomach flu. This is obviously not my most articulate post, which I attribute in part to the lack of sleep, but honestly part of it is that I just can't conjure any coherent thoughts. Reading that article made me want to cry.

I need to learn how to become involved in relief efforts for this.

It's funny, after keeping an eye out for an appropriate article which would spark desire in me to comment (nods to Mr. Spit), I am finding it so difficult to form full thoughts. Maybe I need an electric shock to the brain.