A Short Rant on My Frustration with Social Networking Sites

Below is just a re-post of a journal entry at a nameless dating/social networking website that I’m at. I feel that it’s a small part in a long-train of thought that I have with social networking sites in general (particularly MySpace).

I have repeatedly made the effort to format my social networking profiles in a way that properly illustrates who I am. In the same breathe, I’ve also made the effort to be straight-forward as possible (a.k.a. filtering out those I don’t want contacting me). Yet, this tactic seems not to work, as people obviously bypass reading the profile’s content and head for pictures. As I get messages that prove this assumption, I think to myself:

“OK, you’re contacting on the basis of my pictures (I’m not hot shit, I know). Don’t you see that looking at the content of your profile and my profile, we have absolutely jackshit in common? Why do you send me messages solely with ‘HEY MA, UR SEXY’? Umm, really, how do you want me to respond to that? Thanks? No, it’s tacky. Besides, any response on my end implies that I would want to hear back from you, which is the last thing I would want to occur. So, again, no, fuck no. Why won’t people take the time to read, in order for them to realize that I will probably turn them off? Seriously, the realization will probably occur in one paragraph’s worth of reading! Please do it!”

I know, naivety is at play here.

(Said post at nameless dating/social networking site)

If Roadrunner Records Thinks Amanda Palmer is Fat…

then I must be a beached-up whale.

Seriously, the record label that has subjected us to Nickelback since hell began, thinks Amanda Palmer (of the Dresden Dolls) is fat. They wanted to edited out her belly shots in her new video, “Leeds United” because it was seemed “uncommercial” Uhh, where’s the fuckin’ fat in the video below??? And does this mean that Roadrunner’s CEO has a six-pack?

FUCK YOU ROADRUNNER AND YOUR FUCKIN’ SEXIST SHIT, Palmer is fuckin’ hot!!!

Additional belly coverage at:
Feministing
The F Word
Shakesville

Hiatus, Obviously

Obviously, I took a break from the blog.  Many things have been going on in the past two months that will ultimately be reflected on this blog.  I can’t say when this will occur, but soon I hope.

I have also developed a preference for Twitter.

Reflecting On a Year Ago: Depression

Due to déjà vu-ish and dumbass circumstances, accumulatively speaking I slept only one hour today. I usually wake up at 8:50am. At 7:20am, I was wide awake.

Instead of lying depressed in bed knowing that I wasn’t going to get anymore sleep, I just got the fuck up. I decided to get myself to the gym. I have never been at the gym before noon on weekends, and on weekdays, I go in after 8pm.

But it was either going to be the gym or the bottle.

I thought to myself, “should I go handle my dual rage/emo-ness through the bottle and repeat the same mistake of last year, or should I be productive and get a workout, particularly since I haven’t been in the gym in almost two weeks? Alkie mode or Workout mode? Alcohol or gym?”

So yes, I picked the gym.

Ironically, I crashed and burned around this same time last year. Although several situations were going on concurrently, I never indicated what the main cause was, only making subtle hints to Death personified.

So Jordin Sparks Thinks I’m a Slut

Jordin Sparks at yesterday’s MTV’s Video Music Awards: “I just wanna say, it’s not bad to wear a promise ring because not every guy and a girl wants to be a slut, OK?”

Yeah, this slut is appalled. This slut is more appalled because this slut knows that Abstinence-Only “Sex” Education is an absolute failure. But anyway…

GO SLUTS!

Forward Widely: INCITE! Needs Your Help!

Many blogs have posted the information below, please help if you can!

Dear INCITE! friends and supporters,

On the eve of the 3 year anniversary of the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and subsequent government criminal negligence and assaults on the low income people of color on the Gulf Coast, our sisters from INCITE! projects in New Orleans (including the local chapter, the Women’s Health and Justice Initiative, and the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic) are bracing for the potential landfall of Hurricane Gustav, which is currently projected to hit the Louisiana coast on Monday or Tuesday at a category 4 or 5. Voluntary evacuation of New Orleans has already begun, and mandatory evacuation could be declared as early as today. INCITE! organizers in New Orleans have made over 700 phone calls to women of color and their families that make up the constituency of the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic, working to prepare and implement evacuation and safety plans.

Your assistance is urgently needed to help the low-income women of color and their families evacuate safely if need be, stay safe for the duration of the evacuation, and return to the city as soon as possible so as not to fall prey to the pushout that has kept so many folks from being able to return to New Orleans since Katrina. Local organizers are using whatever resources and funds at their disposal to help women and their families evacuate, bond people being held in Orleans Parish Prison out, and support those who make the choice to stay in whatever way they can.

Your support is urgently needed: financial donations of any size are needed and would be greatly appreciated.

Donations online are preferred because we can more quickly send the funds to our folks in New Orleans.

You can send your donation to INCITE online by going to this website:
http://incite-national.org/index.php?s=137
Click the Donation button, put New Orleans in the “Purpose” line, or you can write a check directly to WHJI and send it to:

PO Box 51325
New Orleans , LA 70151

This money will go directly to supporting the hundreds of low income women of color that are the constituency of the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic.

Once again, the particular vulnerability of low-income women of color and single female-headed households (including folks with disabilities, seniors, undocumented immigrant women, and incarcerated women) has been erased in the face of disaster and overlooked in the days leading up to the storm. With few resources, facing challenges and concerns for their families of their own, INCITE! New Orleans and WHJI have stepped in to fill the gap. Please send all your support, solidarity, sisterhood and strength their way, and join us in hoping for the safety and well-bein g of the people who are already suffering from Gustav in Cuba , Jamaica , and Haiti , and willing the storm to subside or veer off safely before it strikes the Gulf Coast .

We will keep you posted as things develop.

peace,
INCITE!

Who Are You?

Renegade Evolution (or just Ren), guest blogging over at Feministe, asked readers “Who are you?”

When people ask you that question, how do you reply? When you are asked to write a self-bio, or someone does one for you, what is your identity? What words do you use to describe yourself? You are often only offered a few in order to give the world a glimpse of the vast, huge, complex thing you are. Who are you? What do you say?

Initially, I just had nine things written out, but then it evolved to 18. There are many excluded from the list, but these were the ones I was feeling the most at that particular moment. Below is my list in no particular order (which I had entered as a comment on her post):

1. Queer Latina, who gets mistaken for a little bit of everything.
2. Short, 5′0.”
3. Slightly struggling between the terms of “feminist” and “mujerista.”
4. My current job title is, in the broadest terms, Fundraiser for Mujerista-Centric Purposes. So I guess Mujerista it is!
4. Quarterlife crisis sufferer.
5. Cynic, acidic, sarcastic, borderline misanthrope. No tolerance for bigotry (not in the “please don’t say that because X is wrong,” way, but in the “Yo! STFU, before I beat your ass up” way. Seriously, I’m tired of having to explain why X is wrong.)
6. Fiercely anti-hipster.
7. Moderately militant.
8. Constant worrier about my financial health/wealth as my parents get closer to retirement age and it seems that I’m going to be a/the primary source of their income (they have no retirement plans; no substantial savings; debt; their pensions look miserable; Social Security in ten years? Their home country’s stability in ten years? My dad’s current gameplan: winning the lotto. Yeah, it’s pretty bad.)
9. Thus, constant worrier about my future career plans and current education plans, but…
10. I’m the classic procrastinator.
11. Weightlifter who enjoys both the health benefits and vanity aspects, in the sense that it garners attention (although the physical improvements are definitely a plus).
12. Aspiring belly dancer.
13. Reemerging goth, much to the horror of my parents (although this mentality is found almost everywhere, the goth subculture is viewed pretty much as a anti-Christian, Satanist movement in their home country).
14. A gamer, much to the annoyance of my parents (apparently I’m too old and there’s the issue of that pesky vagina that I walk around with).
15. Picky as hell (I can’t help it. My ideal partner has already been fabricated in my mind! That’s the person that I want!)
16. Anti-relationship, yet lonely (I admit it, I admit it!).
17. Toph (Avatar: the Last Airbender) is pretty much me in cartoon form, except that I’m not from a financially-privileged background, I’m not nomadic, I’m able-bodied (she’s blind, yet able to “see” through the vibrations she feels in the earth), and I’m double her age. But shit, everything else is pretty much dead on!
18…as demonstrated in No. 17, I’m Avatar-obsessed, and I’m unwilling to accept the fact that the show has ended. Everyone knows this about me…maybe this should have been No. 1.

Belly Dancing Video of the Week: Depeche Mode’s “It’s No Good”

So, it’s not the typical belly dancing music, lacking the basic elements and characteristics found in most tracks. However, I find that it very suitable for warming up. Plus, I just LOVE Depeche Mode.

Thinking Out Loud: Exotic

When someone says “you’re exotic to me,” what is their reference point? A papaya?

I despise papayas, unless it’s blended into a smoothie.

Smells Like a New Obsession: Vinyl Toys

For years, literally, I have been going into Forbidden Planet and I would just stand there and look at their sporadic Qee collection and other vinyl toys. Qee is a collection of vinyl toys from Toy2R in Japan. Today, after a staff retreat located not too far off from Union Square, I decided to stop by Forbidden Planet, like I always do when I’m in the area.

I don’t know exactly why I never bought a vinyl figure. Perhaps it’s the space issue. If I were to start buying these things, where exactly would I put them? Perhaps it is the price tag. Some of these limited edition toys can get pretty expensive.

But today I said “Fuck it, I’m buying one.” I bought my first Qee, a DIY Qee: