May 2013
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“We must try, through international education, to realize something new in the...”
– Senator J. William Fulbright
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“One thing that I hate is selling dreams. If you really want beauty in your life,...”
– MUICCIA PRADA
I have a document on my computer entitled The Future. As a college sophomore I made this document in an attempt to parse out what I wanted to do with my life and to plan it in stages. It started simply, with three stages:
Travel
Intern
Graduate
I am about to leave the third stage behind me. The previous stages went more or less according to plan, but I’ve had to rearrange and shuffle...
April 2013
10 posts
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Did M.I.A. Predict the Boston Marathon Bombings?
IN July 2010, M.I.A. (of “Paper Planes” fame) released a song called “Lovalot” on her new album. It was eerie and haunting, a song that made your heart sink, and for that reason critics declared it to be the gem of the otherwise lackluster album.
In “Lovalot” M.I.A. tries to get into the head of the 2010 Black Widow Bomber, Dzhanet Abdullayeva. Dzhanet...
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Spring Cleaning
Today is a day for spring cleaning. I’ve spent my afternoon decluttering my digital files and reorganizing my online bookmarks. Today is a day for a digital cleanse.
Outside of my window I can hear the reverberations of chanting. It sounds like the sliding scale of Arabic words, a morning prayer broadcast out of a mosque. It sounds like a wandering prophet marching down Fordham Road, singing the fortunes of the world. It sounds like a car driving eastwards, Gregorian chants thumping out the bass systems. It sounds like spirituality, only in the...
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March 2013
2 posts
A Theory
New York is still gritty. Bloomberg and Giuliani cleaned the city up like a pair of five year old boys clean their rooms; they just hid the grime in pockets of the city that remain unseen to tourists and hipsters and investment bankers. It’s still there, and you can’t call yourself a New Yorker unless you know where to find it.
February 2013
5 posts
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Strapped: My Eight Years With a Gun →
There has been a lot of conversation on America’s failing mental health system and gun control. What we neglect to consider is the mental health effects of gun ownership on otherwise sane owners. This article details the paranoia that comes with owning a gun for protection in crime-ridden 1980s Brooklyn, weaving multiple threads of narrative between their purchase and their eventual disposal...
January 2013
4 posts
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At Least There Would Be Cake →
December 2012
12 posts
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Unnecessary Roughness
I went to a library in Syracuse with my mother and my brother today. A squad of twelve police officers, including one in SWAT gear, stormed into the library as we were collecting our books to leave. They moved up to the next floor, half by elevator and half by staircase. My mom, worried that this was a situation we’d rather not find ourselves in, rushed us to the checkout counter. We...
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“Snow Ogre” by the now-defunct...
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“The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion...”
– ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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Ego-Boosting
Today, I:
Handed in my 61-page thesis.
Ran my first sub-8:00 mile. (Quite a feat considering that I usually run a 10:00 mile.)
Overheard two young girls pointing at me and exclaiming: “Oooooh, she’s so pretty!”
Received the kindest compliment from an anonymous friend via Facebook.
To quote Ice Cube,
It was a good day.
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“No one was with her when she died.”
– Truly the saddest line from Charlotte’s Web.
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Polite Street Harassment
Overheard on my walk to the library this morning:
“Heyyyy girl, may I hold your umbrella?”
“Aww man, I could marry that chick.”
“I clean, I cook dinner, I do everything, babe!”
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November 2012
4 posts
Guys, Guys, Guys
I wrote my favorite line from my thesis!!
“ Failing to properly stuff its face in preparation for sacrificial martyrdom, the pig forces White to abandon the inherent privilege within the farmer-pig dynamic.”
Yes, I am still excited about my thesis.
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How to Bridge the Hiring Gap →
I know there aren’t very many CEOs casually perusing my blog, but just in case there are, please read this and take it to heart. This Comparative Literature major will thank you, as will the unemployment and underemployment rate of college graduates, our most valuable demographic:
“EVEN the most technologically innovative companies benefit from having a balance of employees — most...
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It's the Night Before the Election
and TCM is currently playing The Great Gatsby. How fitting.
October 2012
7 posts
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Back to Normal
I went on a quick twenty minute run around my neighborhood this morning. It was wet and cold in the aftermath of the Hurricane. I donned a long sleeve shirt and track pants, the least revealing of all my running outfits. The neighborhood was less than bustling; my section of the Bronx revealed no apparent damage and most people stayed inside, enjoying their day off from work. This did not...
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Some Wise Words to All the Writers in Cafés (in...
Writing is not an occupation nor a profession. Bad writing can be, and often is, an occupation… It [writing] is more of an affliction, or just punishment. It is something that raises up on you, as a welt. Or you might say that it is the by-product of many occupations and professions, which the writer pursues (or is pursued by) recklessly or necessarily… The intellectual who simply...
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A Guide to K-Pop for Clueless Americans
So you listened to Gangnam Style. You learned how to do the horsey dance. You downloaded the song on iTunes and now it’s a part of your workout playlist for the gym.
But it’s getting a little tired. Your grandma thinks it’s cute. What do you listen to now?
Lucky for you, this little American girl has been cultivating her knowledge of that mysterious genre...
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“The way Kathie Lee needed Regis/ That’s the way I need Jesus.”
– Eight years later and this still remains the worst of Kanye West’s lyrics.
September 2012
5 posts
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