Also, in good news, drop over to Chez Miscarriage to congratulate grrl on the baby.

I highly recommend the Reader's Digest Guide to Sewing. It has everything I imagine you might want to know about sewing, and plus, you can get old copies really cheap- I got a copy from the 80s from about $5 including shipping.

A hilarious NSFW w/ sound video. I think the crazy descriptions of the sex acts are the best part. "The ultimate in self pleasure" and more, lots, lots more. Apparently this is a real product. Here's a NSFW, possibly fake ad for the same sort of 'product'. "Fuck Different" You go on and do that.

Instead of being productive, I will list why I hate people who exercise.


1)They make it more difficult to drink overpriced milkshakes at Starbucks. Yes, I know that a cream and caramel frappicino or whatever is a million calories. No, I'm not one of those bimbos who thinks that a glorified milkshake should be five calories. If you are on a diet, why do you want to drink this overcaloried crap anyway? What ever happened to carrot and orange juice?

2)They can find a way to make any physical activity competitive. You can say you walked around the block, and they'll say how many miles.

3)They don't understand the concept of lifestyle fitness. They don't ever just walk to the store or even walk to class- I see these people taking the shuttle or driving to class when it's barely any walk from their homes/dorms. On sunny days. But they'll spend a billion hours running on a treadmill. Get a life.

4)They taint any attempt to be healthy on my part. I'd love to take a nice class at my school's gym, but I don't want to pay money and then be surrounded by girls who don't actually enjoy movement but just want to look good while sitting outside in a bikini.

5)They'll probably drink a million cans of this.

6)They seem to be a continuation of this tragic trend, which annoyed me even when I was a kid. I was like you're 12, you're 80 pounds, you're not fat. It seems like all the I'm soooo faaaaat girls have grown up to become compulsive exercisers. I understand that some have underlying mental illnesses, but I want to be like shut up and eat a sandwich. And if you have a mental illness, get some fucking treatment. At least join a support group.

The mods at the EGL community have been so kind as to inculde a list of Japanese netshops so that we all can drool over the sheer cuteness. I think Mary Magdalene
is my favorite. Of course I could never afford any of it. Maybe I should learn to sew.

Hooray for metaphors.

Hipmama has a good FAQ.. Here's a little sample:
[Q]What do you MEAN, reverse racism doesn't exist?
...

[A]White people are raised to assume that anything in the world is theirs by birthright, and that other people are treated the same way as we are. The truth is that white people are given many things that POC are not - from jobs to smiling welcomes to the benefit of the doubt. When PWOC lose these things, the loss is often mistaken for racism or discrimination. Usually what is really lost is a piece of unearned race-based privilege, which white people are not used to functioning without

In other race news, P6 seems a bit despairing. Experience may wave a weary hand, but youth and zeal is determined to tell the white folk to go to hell for their blaming us for everything under the sun. And if they don't like that, they can kiss my black ass. Somehow this is very personally satisfying to type.

I really do not like my name. When I was a teenager, I always longed for a black name. and wondered why I was stuck with Shannon whereas others were Monique, N'Quita, Tamika, and many other more interesting names. Even my parents have unique names(which is probably why me and my brothers have very plain names). I think if I had a nicer 'white' name I wouldn't be so annoyed- Britney, Ashley, and Catherine were favorites at my school, for blacks and whites. But I was stuck with Shannon, which in my mind wasn't as sex specific as I would have liked. This impression came from the time that a boy with my same name was in my class. He was a lot more girly than me, to boot.

So I never did understand people who disparaged black names. Yes, some people are prejudiced. But those people's attitudes are their attitudes. If they didn't have the names to complain about, they'd complain about something else. It's like the people I call douchebags. Everyone has to conform to some narrow arbitrary standard. Women have to be exactly 110 pounds, or they are fat hosebags. Your only interests have to be celebrities, gossip and boys. You have to make at least 70,000 a year, or you are a failure. I am not going to lie, I'm frightened of these people. But I understand that you're not supposed to be, and anyway, if we as a people sit around cowering about what a bunch of overstuffed shirts think, how are we going to make any progress at all?

You can't change a relationship if you think you're the only person who has to change. It's a two way street, and plus who respects someone who is willing to change their whole culture and life to satisfy the unsatisfiable?

Look at these adorable Harry Potter LJ icons.(warning: spoilers) I had this for lunch, and it was awesome, although I only used one orange bell pepper and just guessed at what the amounts of the ingredients were supposed to be.

Corky's ribs also make good tacos- just take them off the bone, shred and put your usual taco toppings on them.

In other news, I also have learned the utility of reading Professor Kim's News Notes. For example, I learned that due to the white definition of racism(P6 asked why we need to define terms- it's because many people have different definitions) instead of upholding Brown versus the Board and trying to integrate the schools, we have people worrying about whether a magazine says Black in the title. To reuse a cliche, this is conservative correctness at its finest. Instead of fighting racism, let's pretend that there's no such social construct as race.

Let's note here that school segregation is not in fact an inevitable fact of life. Here's an anecdotal example (from flea's blog, please visit the original entry for visual aids.) :

In the fall, Lisa would be going to public school, while I'd be attending Aiken Day School (the school in the photo), a tiny private school that had a large leap in enrollment from the mid-50's to the early 70's, from forced bussing through the Civil Rights Act.

Many white southerners in fact did take their children out of public schools and put them into segregation academies, basically private schools set up so that whites didn't have to *the horror* go to school with blacks. Enrolling your child in private school at great expense does not in fact just happen. In fact, there is also no way to accidentaly sell your house and flee at a realtor's insistence that the blacks are coming! The people who put their kids in segregation academies and chased after the white American dream of no blacks in our neighborhood are in fact the grandparents of today's 20 year olds. These people are not dead. Their children still survive, and teach the young whites of today the same horrible racial attitudes that have been passed from generation to generation.

This is why one needs to be aware of their history. To be able to see the past, and learn from mistakes, to be able to see the fallacies in the arguments of the historically amnesiac, you need to gain knowledge. You need to read. Books as well as blogs- blogs help bring attention to the issues, but books help you explore the issues in depth. I would urge everyone to support their local library. Knowledge for free is a gift denied to many. Don't waste it.

Sometimes, I want to say- hey, no one ever looks good in a bathing suit. Give it up. I have to admit that in England, I found my dream swimsuit and brought it home with me. It's got boyshorts, and a tankini top. Problem solved.

When someone forwards you one of those "how to prevent rape by hiding in your house frozen in fear" emails, send them this: how to actually prevent rape.

I may have stopped gaming three years ago, but Civilization 4 is enough to get me back on the wagon. A week from getting that game, I'll have to go to Civilization Anonymous. I guess I should make it a prize- if I get a certain grade in methods, I can buy Civ 4 for winter break. I hope that works as there doesn't seem to be any reward that can get me to work on my 20 page paper any faster.

The sad part is that Arshes Nei is wearing more clothes than usual. Also, Bastard! is the worst anime ever, and should be purged from the earth, if it was left up to me.

This is the main reason why most people of color don't vote Republican. Let's unpack this argument. Somehow the appointment of one Hispanic guy to one position in the whole government is supposed to make up for greater opportunity for more people to go to college. I am not an expert on Hispanic culture, but I'd bet money that more Hispanics would want to say "My baby's a doctor" than "There's a Hispanic attorney general". People want your being in office to benefit them, and often they won't accept rich whites as a proxy for them. The job of a politician is to find what policies benefit your voters and enact them. Promising symbolism works for some voters but not for others.

From feminste, I got ginmar's post on preventing rape. This reminds me of something that made me very angry on my study abroad trip. They were telling stories for some reason, and one story was of a girl who had been raped with a tampon in, and got an infection and people thought she had an STD. The girl telling the story said that the guy's girlfriend didn't know. I was quite outraged, and noted that I would have told. I mean, maybe I'm a bit naive, but I don't think I could stand to know a rapist and not tell. I could see if the girl telling the story was the girl raped, and our culture tells us that it's somehow shameful for the woman to be raped instead of for the man(which is bullshit). But as a friend, I think it's important to inform other women which men are rapists, and to encourage report of rape.

Sometimes I think there would be a whole lot less rape at colleges if we had less of that ehehe, I'm not a feminist stuff. I certainly don't think a certain frat that got kicked off campus would have been allowed to video tape themselves having sex and then show it to other people if people had spoken up more about it. I certainly don't think that guys would get the idea that it's ok to pretend they are taking a woman home and then bring them to their apartments for sex if we spoke up. That means men too, especially men.

I don't think that anyone is served by not speaking up. Sure, some people will be assholes, and yes, some women might lose their positions in society(i.e. campus cutie warning: humor) if they don't uphold the patriarchical structures that make those positions possible. But I'd rather some girl not be able to trade on sex appeal than have more rape.

Today seems to be an oddly English themed day. In bad news, the exchange rate has faltered, making 20 pounds only $34. I was selling the cell phone I used to call my mom when the last attacks happened. In extremely bad news, there seems to have been another incident in London. This is probably a crazy thing, but when I was there, after the attacks, I wondered why they were searching backpacks with metal detectors at the Tate Modern but not on the underground(that I saw- I was at Euston station and went to Blackfriars). I hope the sociology trip people have returned to America already. Their trip is longer than ours, and they had gotten back to their normal routine after the attacks.

Pictures of anti minutemen activists. This reminds me that I really need to read Borderlands/La Frontera.

This is why I hate local news. The anchor sounded all alarmed while they were showing mugshots of this black dude. And guess what his crime was? Running a stop sign. Thanks for playing on white hysteria, folks.

Literally: Western Lolita.

When I was a high schooler, they taught ebonics too. It was called English- we read poems from Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, and I swear we read some Gwendolyn Brooks(or I don't know. I don't remember where I had seen that poem before). All of these works were mostly in, and celebrated black dialects. I can speak white English and in fact write and talk in it mostly. Also, one common criticism is that people will be at a disadvantage in the workplace if they use ebonics, but the thing is- it's not because of AAVE, it's about people's perceptions. If people changed their views so that more than one way of speaking was considered acceptable,then there wouldn't be a problem. For example, I went to England and the English people spoke differently than me. Instead of labeling their way of speaking 'stupid', I simply said "hey, they speak differently". That's called learning to deal with difference. The way you do things isn't the only correct way to do it, it's just one way. That's an important skill that many people are lacking, and it is costing them time and money.

While hulling some purple hull peas(someone's coworker or neighbor always seems to have extra produce in the summer, so we always get the benefits), I had the displeasure to see Creflo Dollar's annoying ass. He was going on and on about how unnatural lust(i.e. being gay, having sex outside of marriage, eating food with high fructose corn syrup) takes you away from god, and can't be satisfied. Hey, maybe high fructose corn syrup(we're just not satisfied with sugar, y'all) makes you hungrier, but for some reason I don't see how gay or extramarital sex is anywhere near as addictive as he acts like it is. Maybe I just have too much straight privilege to tell, but gay people seem to act normal to me and don't seem to be full of uncontrollable lust.

Luckily I complained enough to get mom to change the channel. Score one for me. But here's the article that goes along with the sermon. I love how he has a product offer right at the bottom. Holy money making batman.

FARK.COM: For when comparing a bunch of Hispanic people who want rights to a terrorist organization seems like a good idea.

Hugo talks about his body image. I have to admit that I don't exercise just because I find people who exercise so annoying. I can understand biking or walking for fun or to get somewhere, but once you go into going to the gym, or running, it just seems really stupid and pointless because where's the fun? You're doing pointless and boring things to fit into some impossible standard of beauty(don't lie to me and tell me you're doing it for yourself Yea right) . I don't like sports either because I'm both too old and too young for sports. When it starts getting competitive, the fun leaves it, so leave me out.

If you *must* exercise, do something fun for god's sake. What ever happened to walking for enjoyment or taking a dance class? Instead it's all about whether you ran ten miles or not. Boooooring. Hugo's not the only one with compulsiveness problems either. I'm not knocking moderate exercise- but once you've gotten up to 3 hours a day, give it a rest. Get a life. Chill out. There's so much more to life than numbers on a scale or how hard your pecs are it's not funny.

Alas, it's Harry Potter spoilers. Don't read this post since I just read Half Blood Prince and am bursting to spoil it. I thought Harry's obsession with Malfoy, even though it annoyed me at times, was more interesting than his obsession with Snape, because his judgment seems even more intensely impaired with Malfoy- spending every spare moment trying to track his movements, jumping to conclusions(just because you might occasionally have the right conclusion doesn't excuse it) and just generally being distracted. I hope he's learned his lesson after seeing Malfoy cry like a punk and after actually injuring him, but Harry's hot headedness doesn't bode well for the 7th novel, which I hope we have a shorter wait for. I had forgotten near everything that had happened in the 5th book, as I tend not to reread them.

I especially enjoyed the amount of teenage drama Rowling put into the book. I would think it was unnatural if a bunch of 16 year olds got along without fights about who is going out with who,etc. Ron and Herminone fans should rejoice as some big hints are thrown out this time. Although Rowling tends to be good with details, some just seemed to be thrown on- such as Snape being the half blood prince, and what's the deal with Zabrini? He shows up at the beginning and then doesn't have much of a role. I know this is all set up for the seventh, but as it is, it seems a bit thrown in,

Hey, the guy from the human quilt used my picture I sent in. Awesome.

Today me and mom went to a flea market. We mostly were trying to promote the real estate company she is an agent with. I was really shy and tried to hand out flyers despite my fear of going up to people and other people's suspicions. When I told a woman about the giveaway(free school supplies,etc) she said what I got to do. I just laughed and told her it was free. Although mom got some good leads- one from a woman from up north who was moving to our area- I credit myself with getting mom the lead because I noticed her saying "hush, auntie needs a house" to a kid and alerting mom. The other one was the husband of a school teacher who wanted the free supplies, but also needed to sell his house to a renter.

It was fun buying stuff too. I got two bows made from old timey fabric, some red gingham cloth for me to fool around with, lots of lipstick, and scarves. Mom got bath stuff(on my dime since tomorrow is her birthday), lipstick, inoffensive black movies(Are We There Yet? Barbershop 2) Meet the Fockers, and watermelon, cantaloupe and tomatoes. She wondered why I wanted the tomatoes, but you can never have enough local tomatoes, even if you have to make a lot of bruschetta , which by the way, mom thought was salsa. Crazy moms.

After that we went to the mall, priced a stove and I got Harry Potter.

Translation: "My friend with AIDS is still my friend"



"When I've rejected casual sex that appealed to me, it wasn't some sort of weird worry about disease or pregnancy, since I am acquainted with the concept of the condom. The fear of being treated like a slut overwhelmed me. That some men are willing to pass judgment on a woman they've just had sex with was also a problem"-Amanda in the infamous nice guys thread.

I have to admit I have seen this difference first hand. I have discussed my sex life in a lot of detail in other posts, but I have kept mum about the fact that I had had sex to the other people who were doing the study abroad with me. However, the guy I was with announced it to his room mate and our mutual internet friends immediately, and didn't seem to understand why I was embarrassed. We even discussed how all his friends would be patting him on the back about this but how another person who we both 'knew' on the internet was slagging off some girl he tried to have sex with. There of course was some casual sex on this trip by others- with one girl even bringing her conquest back to the dorm night after night, but in general, going back with 'sketchy' guys was discouraged due to the danger(although that might have been real). The event that stands out most in my mind was actually a story in which there was no casual sex.

The night before the bombings was also the night before our last day of class. Class even started one hour later as a special treat. One girl decided to meet one of her many new 'friends' (Yes, girls can have a harem effect too) across town. That night we thought she'd come back. But after the bombings, we started to become worried because she hadn't come back. We couldn't contact her, and the guy seemed seriously sketchy.

She finally returned at 9 pm noting that she wanted to come back earlier but the guy tricked her into coming back to his place and pressured her for sex. The other girls talked about how this was all her fault, and suchlike that she went with such a sketchy guy. I was angry at her too, but tried to note that no one made the guy act like that. I understand that some might have reasons why they'd like to concoct myths about why this couldn't happen to them, but I can see why girls wouldn't want to come clean about all their casual sex given this sort of environment.

I have seen women run down other women about how many men they have slept with. I have heard women claim that they can't be close friends with certain women because they have supposedly slept with whole frats. I am not surprised that many hold their tongues. I do not have a lot of sex, by anyone's standards, so wasn't so much the worry about the 'slut label' as much as I couldn't think of how to tell the story.

This wasn't a drunken oops, or anything related to relationships at all. Basically it was a you give me sexual favors if I give you sexual favors thing. Even fuckbuddies wouldn't be the correct way to frame it, and I never have had the 'cool' required to say "hey, we fucked, it was cool" in front of others. So how could I amend that into the world view of girls I barely knew? Easy. I didn't.

(As an aside, I notice that the same events and issues tend to come up repeatedly in my blog. I never seem to be able to process issues and emotions quickly, instead having to return to them again and again)

You are bell hooks (no capital letters)! You were
one of the first black wymyn to discuss in
public spaces the differences between being a
black womyn and being a black man or a white
womyn. You are the mother of intersectionality
and you couldn't care less about identity
politics. Thanks for making feminism accessible
and calling the white, middle class wymyn on
their bullshit!


Which Western feminist icon are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


Kick ass! I found this quiz on LAmom.

Answer the MIT blog survey. I did.

Black Folk Round Up:

Dude masterfully analyzes the idiocy of 'reverse racism' Oliver Willis nails it. If the Republicans were really sorry about the Southern Strategy, they'd stop using it. Carla from Cohobblopot articulates some of my anxieties much better than I could ever do. Also the level playing field is a lie, as anyone with any sense knows. Oooh, everyone's ass got kicked on this one. Read the comments for a prime example of clueification. I can't hold my temper in yet, but when I can I hope to be able to be an educator.

I'm a bit worried about the possible terrorism going on in our own backyard. Here are photographs of the aftermath of the bombing. Maybe I'm a bit sensitive, but this happened about 5 days after the London bombing so I'm worried that maybe the terrorists are getting bolder. Or maybe I'm just overeacting. Time will tell.

Geh, I hate guys like this. From the comments of Pandagon. Just a memo to guys: if a girl shows interest, don't act like girls don't like you.

Warning: this post talks about my sex life. In detail. If you don't need to hear about that, please read something else.

I was reading Alas a Blog and someone commented that we don't explain ways for young girls to avoid pain during intercourse. Since I just first had proper sex(some months ago a guy got it part way in) a week or two ago, I think this would be a good time to give my advice. The thing is that I've always had difficultly with my vagina. Pelvic exams make me scream unless they are done using a child size speculum. But I managed to have proper sex with very little pain due to two factors: stretching and lube. Lots of lube. The lube helped the stretching too. The poor guy(let's call him MR) had to use a lot of lube to manually stretch my vagina and then a lot of lube to insert. And before all this he had to remember to give oral sex(and he managed to do it with pussy at full hairiness and only got one hair in his mouth. We should start dumping all guys who complain about hairy fucking pussies especially if they withhold oral) I only felt a little pain and very little aching. The last time a guy tried to insert his penis, my vagina hurt for a full two days. And that guy had a smaller penis than MR. So maybe this has been helpful, but probably not.

I really want this book, it sounds awesome.

A South Asian clothing store in the neighborhood near King's Cross



Right on! I'm sick and tired of people acting like all Muslims are somehow responsible for terror attacks. The same people who are living large off the proceeds of slavery and Jim Crow(I certainly don't think most of these whites who think they have so much 'merit' would have rose so high if they had more competition from other races) and proudly say I didn't own any slaves as if that means they can't fix the problems that are happening today, are always acting like Muslims, which is such a big category- we have Muslims from Africa, Muslims from America, Muslims that are rich, Muslims that are poor, somehow are voting on when there are terrorists attacks. I would bet money that there were Muslims affected by the London attacks. There seemed to be a good amount of Muslims in the surrounding area of King's Cross station to me. Those Muslims ride on the bus and on the tube like anyone else. I think some people need to attend to their own problems first before trying to condemn someone else.

As for my own self, I'm sure that I have had some part in the bad foreign policy that may be fueling the attacks. It is up to me to figure out my part in all this and fix it up instead of pretending that the evil Muslims just came out of nowhere and attacked. Although maybe they did, but it's seldom as simple as that. I come from the race in America that criticizes itself the most. I mean, here's a fellow (scroll down, 7th comment) who blames all the problems of Black America on the fact that my mom(who has a master's degree,BTW) said I don't gots to have me no shrimps. Because of course if we all spoke 'proper' English, hundreds of years of racism would disappear. Heck, I speak proper English most of the time, and will you give that memo to the white folks, because they still say racist ass stuff in front of me.

The people who are in control mostly blame themselves the least. And that needs to change. We need to reach out to the Muslims. We need to make sure that extreme elements can't get more recruits. And we can't do this with this whole bow down to me, the American, attitude.

This blog will have a lot of my vacation pictures for a while. This one is of a group of people doing capoeira in front of the national gallery. The national gallery was great. I saw Monets, Seurats and much much more up close.

I'm back in the US!! Yesterday I went to the Tate Modern using the tube. Big black victory jig over the terrorists! Oddly enough, Bob Marley seemed to be playing everywhere yesterday too. I'm happy to get back to proper pancakes, no crepe like stuff(once I had one of those crepe like ones with mushroom sauce. ugh.)or ice cream on them. I kind of feel bad for worrying everyone but that is one of those things that can't be helped. Although I rather wish my cousin hadn't called demanding mom come get me.

In more obsessing about the terrorist attacks now I am worried that we'll start bombing someone else because on the radio in the internet cafe I am in someone said that these attacks proved why we needed to be in Iraq and yesterday while I was on the phone with my mom I was whining about what if there's another war. You can go to other people for informed commentary about the disaster, but right now I will use my blog for whinging about it. I may still whinge about it even when I get back to the US tommorow.

But I am glad I decided to use my mother as a point person. Because I called her at like 5 am central time I was able to get her to inform everyone I was fine. Apparently the study abroad office called everyone's home to tell them that we were safe and together. That was a lie then. One girl we couldn't get to. But now it is true, although some have left the country and are headed to the US as of now. The school is actually going to send vans around at the butt crack of dawn to get us to the airport. I'm glad. I'm so glad that they are going over budget to keep us safe.

According to internet quizzes I have a bad personality but at least I don't have to think about the disaster:

Extraversion |||||| 23%
Stability || 10%
Orderliness |||||||||| 36%
Altruism |||||||||||| 50%
Interdependence |||||| 30%
Intellectual |||||| 30%
Mystical |||||| 30%
Artistic |||||||||||||||| 63%
Religious || 10%
Hedonism |||||||||| 36%
Materialism |||||||||||||||| 70%
Narcissism |||||| 23%
Adventurousness || 10%
Work ethic |||||||||||||||| 70%
Self absorbed |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Conflict seeking |||||||||||||||| 63%
Need to dominate |||||||||||||||| 63%
Romantic |||||||||||||||| 70%
Avoidant |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Anti-authority |||||||||||||||| 63%
Wealth |||||||||||||| 56%
Dependency |||||||||||||||| 70%
Change averse |||||||||||| 50%
Cautiousness |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Individuality |||||||||||| 50%
Sexuality |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Peter pan complex |||||||||||| 50%
Physical security |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Physical fitness |||||||||||||| 57%
Histrionic |||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Paranoia |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Vanity |||||||||||||| 56%
Hypersensitivity |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Female cliche |||||||||||| 50%


trait snapshot:

messy, depressed, introverted, feels invisible, does not make friends easily, nihilistic, reveals little about self, fragile, dark, bizarre, feels undesirable, dislikes leadership, reclusive, weird, irritable, frequently second guesses self, unassertive, unsympathetic, low self control, observer, worrying, phobic, suspicious, unproductive, avoidant, negative, bad at saving money, emotionally sensitive, does not like to stand out, dislikes large parties, submissive, daydreamer

I also saw something strange at the McDonalds nearest King's Cross. This guy was filming a guy with an umbrella with a tube map on it. It's really weird being right here, and I'm glad I'm leaving tommorow, even if I can't get to the Tate Modern even from Euston Station. Another strange thing I saw were revenue protection people. That's what it said on their yellow jackets. They also had logos that looked like the underground logo but with bus in the middle. I asked one of them how to get to Euston station although I don't think I have the balls to go there.

I have been trying not to look at the news either. I hear that if you watch the bad events over and over(and I swear they don't censor the english news. I swear they had a guy with all his ribs broken getting CPR on the news yesterday.) you'll be really tramatized versus only being a little bit tramatized.

I'm still freaking out. I went near the King's Cross Station today and nearly burst into tears. Like the flags are half mast and the station is closed. I also can't go anyplace near where the bus exploded, even for free internet access. The girl we couldn't find yesterday returned at 9 pm. She said she wanted to go back home last night, but the guy was all sketchy and took her back to his place instead of to the dorm. Then she wanted to go back on the tube, but overslept(then again she wanted to go on the train to king's cross that blew up) and then tried to get on a bus but then they found a suspicious package and made everyone get off. Then she had to wait around at that guy's house, because even though one of the professors said they'd pay for a hotel if she felt uncomfortable, she couldn't find one. Also, she tried to get a taxi later, but they wouldn't go near our area just because of the terrorists, so she had to hop a bus.

I think one of the girls on our trip that actually saw it happen might talk to the newspapers at home. Luckily I dropped on the ground and was facing away and didn't see anything. I think one of our guys on this trip will have to shave his beard though. He's a nice Indian guy, but it's not like airport people or bus people know that. I don't know if I have the balls to go to the Tate Modern today.

Apparently the professors had to sit for a long time like two hours and they said it was a power outage. The professors detrained and walked. They wouldn't let the professors in the building until a TA came and got them and told about how they were really professors. The area is cordoned off and many streets closed.

Oh yea, and I may be bitching about minor things, but the paramedics have the hurt in hand and no one can do anything about the dead, so I find it more easy to cope by merely focusing on how I can't look at some paintings, which is at least fixable. Apparently 20 people died(unconfirmed) in the explosion I was near. Also, the professors were like at the tube stop just before one that got fucked with.

Tony Blair said something about how the terrorists are just mad that they can't destroy what we hold dear. Stupid terrorists, I wanted to see Frida Khalo paintings. At least I got to see pictures of her painting, but it's not the same!

We have been able to account for our two professors. Also the girl who annoyed me by disappearing with some french sengalese guy last night and not coming back has called. Here is google news for the explosions in London. I called my mom and she was like huh? because I had called her at like 5 am in the morning. I was all like OMG! explosions!!! and she was like why were you on the ground? Anyway, I told her that it was her job to tell all my relatives that I am ok. I bet Al Queda is ruining my vacation. Stupid bastards. At least I got to see the London Eye yesterday, nah nah nah. Oooh, Tony Blair¬

Yargles. Updated news report. They now have reported the explosion that I heard(I was a bit farther away than the girl who was crying and the one who noticed that I was on the ground) So the bus did explode. So I'm freaking out. I will probably blog every two seconds, do not be alarmed. I am glad I didn't actually see anything but the ground.

There have been tube explosions. King's Cross is a two minutes walk from the John Dodgeson House so I use it everyday. I do not know if what we heard in the park is connected with those.

I am fine. Today I was walking near Tavistock park or whatever, it was near the hotel tavistock and the cartwright gardens. I will figure out where I was later. Anyway, I was just walking by when something exploded. I saw everyone get down so I got down too. One of the people from my group saw me crouching on the ground and I was encouraged to get up and get into the University College Building the one that houses the psychology stuff and the geology stuff. The girl with her was crying so I thought she had been hurt. They were right there and thought the bus exploded and got upset. But apparently no one from our group is hurt. Some students are not here. We think they are hiding. We can not contact two teachers from our group. They may be hiding in their apartment or may be walking.

There are rumors of bombs on buses and suchlike. I will post with confirmed info later.

More reactions, more good sense. But I can not deny that I enjoyed the whole Pink Floyd live on the radio thing. Nor the Who part. Famous rock stars are all well and good, but they are better at music than sustained political statements.

Also yesterday, someone in my group toasted the many who died so that we could play flip cup(someone else said who comes up with these games? someone else noted drunk people) and have Bob Dylan singalongs in England. Our professor was in favor of throwing some tea into the Thames, but no one wanted to waste good tea.

Also this post reminds me of one of my bizarre phobias. I hate people asking me what music I like. I am quite aware of how whatever I do, my musical taste will mark me as an asshole who doesn't deserve to live. I like Bob Marley? I must smoke tons of pot(I don't) or be a big black nationalist(OH NOES!), I like the Flaming Lips? I must be a snooty twat who is pretending to know about music. I like Curtis Mayfield? I don't remember any stereotypes attached to this one, but it must be bad. Nothing is more nervous making than knowing you'll be judged based on stuff that makes no sense whatsoever.

You need to read this post on Live 8.

Good post. I will talk about the hysteria about minorities taking all the spots in X,Y, and Z later, but before that I'll say the Ivy Chronicles are great because they totally mock crazy white people. The insane parents who are crazed to have their kids attend the best kindergarten never seem to question the idea of legacy or sibling admissions, but god forbid minorities are allowed in. The fun part is that the author has fun satrizing instead of trying to write the story straight. The woman that cheated with the main character's husband says things like we have diversity at little lovely's school. Some have jets, and some have yachts. Oh, and there's one black girl!

Although characters of color are a bit unrealistically sweet. The Jamaican maid's son is a genius, and the only problems she has are saying 'had was' and some bad fashion choices. The lesbian mixed race couple with a disabled child are some of the few characters that act with integrity. Compare this to the over the top behavior of her white clients who do things like threaten to have her ruined, demand that she teach their tots all the answers to this test, bribe the board of directors etc,etc. Of course, this is a good literary device- the people who are supposed to have achieved on 'merit' are constantly breaking the rules, while the people perceived to have 'stolen' something are the people who have achieved.

Another interesting point is when Ivy our main character meets a cabbie who has built a school in India for girls. Based on a true story, the contrast shows just how shallow and pathetic the whole thing is. It seems that my beach reading is a bit heavy on the social commentary. Earlier I had read Suddenly Single in which a lady is annoyed by sexism. Like what the fuck? Is this some sort of British thing?