Rachel's Presents

This is what I made for my sister's Christmas present. These are very different from my other finger puppets because none of these are original characters.

This is Perry the Platypus, the pet from the cartoon show, Phineas and Ferb. His expression is supposed to look blank and dumb because he doesn't do much.

I made a hat so that he can become Agent P, a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal of action.

This is Max from the classic children's picture book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I really tried to add personality to his face, but it doesn't show. I can't manipulate the needle well enough to get all the details right.

He comes with a crown that's a little bit big for him.

I am least satisfied with Harry Potter. It's upsetting because I really like this character.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

I have more free time now that I got accepted into a college, and that means that I can use more time to do the things I want, like making finger puppets. My dad said that I should really use this time well because I probably wont have this much free time for years. It's true. Once I get into college, I will be busy until I graduate. Once I get a job, unless I have a kind of job that gives me sabbaticals, I am won't have this kind of free time. So here is how I plan to use my time:

1. Read the books on my must-read list

2. practice my cello and my accordion

3. get a job

4. write!

5. make more puppets and stuff

6. go out more

7. find and listen to music

8. a big scale project that will bring change or awareness in my community

What else should I do with my precious time? Do you have an suggestions? What would you do if you had a few months to dedicate to whatever you wanted?

Anyway, expect a post with some serious writing soon.

Read for Charity

Do you remember that I wrote about my project back in August? I don't think I explained my project clearly back then.

I wrote a children’s book called “What Sammy Learned Today”. After working on the book for two years, I finally published it this year. My partner, Caryn, and I have been selling them to raise funds for First Book, a non-profit organization that provides access to books for inner-city kids. So far we've raised 700 dollars.

If you would like to help, please donate here.

The books aren't available online yet, but I think a free digital version will be available within three to four months.

I also started another blog to raise awareness. You can find updates on the project and other short stories there.

I don't mean to bombard you with all this information. I am just so excited that my project is in flight now.

Your Halloween costume is offensive

Halloween should be fun, but I am kind of frustrated by all these awful costumes. They're so offensive, cheesy and expensive that I would rather make my own costumes. I've griped before about an insensitive Halloween costume, but I feel the need to to complain again in a comprehensive manner.

Here are two awful trends that I find in costumes:

1. Your costume is racially insensitive.

Dressing up as another race is offensive. It is the same as walking around on Halloween in Blackface.

If you're trying to dress up as Pocahontas, it's fine as long as your costume is accurate enough. However, dressing up as a different race is not fine.

Don't call Inuits Eskimos! It's like calling an Asian person Oriental or a Black person Negro. I'm going to ignore the "Cutie Pie" part. If I try to explain why I hate it, I think I won't be able to finish writing the rest of this post. As for the costume itself, it looks nothing like the traditional clothing. It's a mockery.

Now some may say that I am being ridiculous. No intelligent adult would take these stereotypes seriously. It's all for fun, right?

Wrong. Kids might not fully understand these things, yet we have no problem dressing them up in these costumes. We are propagating insensitivity to oblivious children who want to imitate the adults.

2. Your costume is sexist.

These girl costumes are all pretty and cute. The models are in twisted unnatural poses.

Look at the range in these boy costumes. They can be scary or funny. Boys have the option of dressing up as an action character or as a police officer.

This costume was actually in the girls' section, not even in the teen girls' section. Why would anyone want to dress their 10-year-old into a pedophile's fantasy? Note that unnatural pose that suggests that girls are passive and meant to be pretty.

It's not funny. Don't dress up your little boy into a pimp. He probably doesn't understand what a pimp is. If he does, don't let it seem fine to exploit women by letting him dress up as one. Either way, he will hate you when he realizes what you did to him.


Compare boy pirates and girl pirates.



Boys pirates are described as "cutthroat" and "king." Girl pirates aren't actually pirates. They're just pretty pirates. See words like "pink", "cutie", and "Beauty" being passed around. God forbid that these girls should wear pants when they pillage. The point here is that girls can be tough, as long as they are pretty and girly.

These were found in the boys' section.
I see that the doctor costume is supposed to be unisex, but why is it in the boys' section?

These are all pretty respectable jobs.

There aren't that many real jobs in the girls' section.

I think that this is supposed to be the girl version of the military officer costume. It seems more like some sort of sexual role playing costume. ugh.

Oh wait! Here's a costume that portrays a successful young woman that's not very sexualized.

In my opinion, Miley Cyrus sort of ruins it. Besides, Hannah Montana isn't a career path that many girls can take.

I think this "Shipmate Cutie" is more reminiscent of a pin-up girl than an actual sailor.

I just wish adults would stop dressing up children like this. They don't understand that these costumes limit them. A little girl wont be able to find a FBI Agent costume in the girls' section and she will start to believe that girls can't be FBI agents.

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I'm sorry if I just took all the fun out of your Halloween with all this preaching. I had to get that off my chest. Here is a K-pop video to get you excited again.

I hope you have fun tonight. Don't offend anyone and stay safe! I have to go find a costume in my closet now.

Chopsticks

Today I noticed that my dad spreads peanut butter on crackers with chopsticks.

Accelerator

I was explaining to my sister how driving works.

Rachel: Don't you have to press the eh-eks-escalator?

Me: You mean, the accelerator?

Rachel: Yeah, that's what I said.

Rachel's doodle

Today, I am handing the blog over to my little sister.

The picture is an alien from Jupiter. My friend Brian made the alien and I did
the background. I did it for my sister. I hope you like the picture.

Kids can't write

Since my mother cut our cable, Rachel has been playing her Wii to cope with withdrawal. Her Wii marathon yesterday kept her sore today, so in Sunday school she wrote this prayer:

I pray for

me because I hurt myself almost everywhere.

What a prayer. When I look back at my writing from middle school, I feel the same way I feel about my sister's writing. I wrote an awful poem comparing organized office supplies with racism. Here's an excerpt:

I know I don't belong

In a folder named Asian

So I know no one else does

Wow.

Ms. Reichenbach

I doodled this masterpiece during my Macroeconomics class. I think the class is useful but this lady makes it so hard for me to concentrate on her lectures. She talks about irrelevant things and she uses the phrase "All right?" continually. My friend, Kelly, recorded that during one period she said that phrase about 178 times.

Good News!

I probably haven't written anything definite about my project so I will explain what is going on. My friend and I started a project last year called Read for Charity that uses different mediums to raise awareness about illiteracy and gather funds for First Book, a non-profit organization. The main part of this idea was publishing a children's picture book.

One year later, our vision is about to become a reality. Our book is about to be printed! I'll update with more information soon.

I need a purse...

Why can't I find a good purse?

I don't have the time to get off my butt and search for one.

I just need a purse that will work! I'm so tired of those teeny, useless, gorgeous purses and I don't want to lug around a grotesquely baggy purse. Do designers even think about how awkward it is trying to handle a purse at the table. I hate keeping it at my lap. I feel strange putting it on the table. There is no way I am putting it on the floor or hanging off the chair. That's just asking for someone to steal it.

If I got one of these purses, I wouldn't waste a second thinking about what to do with my purse. I'd put it right in the middle of the table and let the drooling commence.

They are from the 1970s.

The black one is a "American telephone bag by Dallas Handbags in patent faux crocodile leather."

The red one is a "red plastic telephone bag by Dallas Handbags with working telephone."

Did you get that? You can plug them into a telephone socket and they will actually work! They should make cellphone purses...

Yeah, yeah. These are impractical. Shut up.

I guess I'll look for the perfectly sized, quirky, over-the-shoulder, sturdy purse later.

Future!

I'm starting college applications, trying to finish my project, getting ready to go back to school, finishing P.E. and studying for SAT/ACT. This juggling act is getting very dangerous.

All these things make me realize that college and adulthood is right around the corner. This is my reaction:

Three Sociologists and a Moose

This morning I was on my way to my Sociology class to take my final exam. Since I'm kind of stupid, I took pictures while driving. These three guys are the three bearded men of sociology.

Karl Marx is my favorite sociologist. He was a conflict theorist so he believed society always had conflicting forces. You know, he emphasized the force of the bourgeoisie exploiting the proletariat. His ideas about Communism were way idealistic and he didn't predict the rise of the middle class at all, but I still admire what he wrote about the injustices the proletariat go through because it still rings true today.

Emile Durkheim looks kind of messed up as a finger puppet. I couldn't get his eyes and glasses right. -__- He's my professors favorite sociologist. He is a functionalist which means he focused on forces that hold society together. He worked on a variety of areas, like suicide, religion, crime and the workplace.

This angry leprechaun is Max Weber. I didn't mean to make his expression so evil. My brother thought the face looked like that of a Spartan. Unlike Marx, he thought that religion influences behavior more than capitalism. He's famous for his model of bureaucracy.

Sorry, am I boring you? Okay, here's a moose finger puppet.

I made it for my friend. I thought it was about time to make a moose because the very symbol of this blog used to be a moose.

I like making finger puppets and posting pictures about them, but at the same time it confuses me. I'm still trying to figure out the direction of this blog. The original concept(The Search for Awesome:A Girl on a Treasure Hunt) was vague enough so I could develop a central theme eventually. I started out just posting music videos, then some lame fashion posts. Now I am all over the place. Any suggestions?

High School Popularity

I've been taking this Sociology class during the summer and it's very interesting. Here is a chart straight out of my textbook. (Left click it and click open in new tab or window to see it in full size.)

This is from the section about socialization from peer groups. The textbook (Sociology: A Brief Introduction) says that "gender differences are noteworthy. The two groups named many of the same paths to popularity but gave them a different order of importance. While neither men nor women named sexual activity, drug use, or alcohol use as one of the top five paths, college men were much more likely than women to mention those behaviors as a means to becoming popular, for both boys and girls."

The point is that the way males are socialized makes men believe in different paths to popularity than women.

My brother pointed out physical attractiveness isn't present in the top five paths that college men think make high school boys popular.

Dumb Problems... Also, Happy Independence Day

Happy Fourth of July to all my fellow Americans!

So let me explain myself. My brother came back from good old Buenos Aires, Argentina, safe and sound. He came bearing gifts: a board game, a yerba mate gourd and a book of urban legends of Buenos Aires. I love urban legends! I would show you these except my brother LOST MY CAMERA in Iguazu Falls. He should have gotten me more presents.

To make things worse, I lost the memory card to my cellphone so now I can't even upload those pictures.

What is blogger without a camera? A writer. So I shall write.

I can't genuinely say I am happy that it is Independence Day. I don't feel the pitter patter of my patriotic heart causing me to tear up. It's like any other holiday. I don't feel especially happy that it is Christmas either. Happiest time of the year, my butt. I am never happy.

Despite the fact that I, Independence Day Scrooge, can't feel much patriotism today, I do love America. I have so much I take for granted here. I am a short walking distance away from a grocery store. I have diverse friends. I am entitled basic human rights as a U.S. resident.

So I believe we as a country need to come together to fend off and destroy our evil enemies.

That's right, aliens. We have overlooked them for too long and it is time we take action.

Everyone, I hope your day is fabulous!

Finger puppets for Clara

I showed my friends my latest finger puppets and they say that I've improved. What do you think? I think it's not really a matter of skill but rather the types of design. The designs have become more complicated. I'm about to elevate the sophistication of my puppets by making puppets of famous sociologists. I'm only in the designing stage right now. The problem is that I've never attempted to make a puppet with a beard, mustache and hair before. Sociologists have lots of facial hair...

The jacket for this on took a very long time. I think he's the coolest puppet I've done so far.

This puppet is dead. It has some sort of skin disease. My sister thought it looked like Spongebob Squarepants.

I hope you enjoyed them. I'll be sure to make more. I've been thinking about how to go about making hand puppets. Maybe I'll do them. Maybe.

I had so many plans for summer but instead of changing the world and going on adventures I just stay inside and sit on my butt. It's not like i don't do anything. I just never realized how much WORK needed to be done. I have to take P.E. online, take a sociology class, study to take the SAT and ACT one last time, start my college applications, read my summer reading list, research colleges, and finish my community service projects. I feel trapped while everyone else in whole WORLD is playing in the beautiful weather.

Okay, so it's not THAT beautiful. It's too humid, too sunny, and there's too many mosquitoes. Still, despite all these things I'm determined to make this summer worthwhile. So here's the plan:

-Work out

-Watch movies

-Discover more music

-Read read read

-Try to cook

-Have some really crazy nights every now and then

-Go see a show

-KOREAN DRAMAS

-Go out with my friends

-Practice accordion and cello

-Make finger puppets

-Make sure my sister has a lot of fun this summer as well

-Volunteer

-Write

I'm also thinking about changing the layout of this blog. It's a little to cute and childish.

I've had this plan since summer vacation started but it still feels like I'm doing nothing. I mean, I'm already working on a few of these things already but it doesn't feel like I'm accomplishing anything. I feel like I'm standing still. What exactly is it that I'm looking for here? What do I really want from this summer?

Summer in Miami

It's summer and despite the tremendous humidity, I am loving it.

This is one of the more bizarre flowers I've seen.

I was walking home after my haircut when I met this guy. He's huge!

No Camera

My brother took my camera to Argentina. That thing that connects my cell to my computer is lost. My brother left me his crappy camera without giving me that connecty thing. My dog ate my homework.

A blogger without a camera is an elephant without a nose. I mean, I'm supposed to WRITE stuff? Outrageous!

So here is a fun little assignment I had to write in school. The assignment was to write a 750 word essay about any six seconds. Although the beginning is somewhat dull, it picks up towards the end.

Time slows down the six seconds of mental preparation I take prior to my battle. I face the daunting, endless, white expanse of emptiness. The blue and red lines break it up, a pathetic attempt to make this harsh vastness orderly and manageable and it’s as reassuring as a consolation prize. I once believed that I would be victorious if I just slashed between enough of the blue and red lines but I won’t be fooled this time. It has nothing to do with how many stabs one takes at this beast. Instead, it has everything to do with how one goes about stabbing this beast. It’s freakish, wide eyes glare into the very core of my existence. I am judged before I even make the attack. My opponent has defeated people far greater and stronger than me. On some rare conditions it may have seemed that the warriors were victorious, but they would lose their wars eventually. Insanity and sadness would take them out. The more I look at it, the more I want to look away. Somehow, I am supposed to press my will into this horrid being and make it into an extension of my character. Somehow, I am supposed to slaughter this beast with my all. Somehow, I am supposed to fill the void with only my own consciousness. I fumble my weapon nervously. I’m not sure it can be done. I’m just not sure.

The distractions are endless. Restlessness stirs in the air. “Justin Beiber” and “salivation”, meaningless words thrown into the air bounce off my head and float into the cosmos but some are trapped by the gravity of my head and orbit around me. They bump into my head as they orbit around it, nagging me, inviting me. There are so many words and all of them are meaningless yet they are spewed so enthusiastically. Chess battles rage in the distance. Matthew Hersman quacks like a duck. They are all mocking me. It’s extremely clear now that this is a fight that I will be fighting alone. The distractions pull me toward the others, so I can immerse myself in their meaninglessness. I refuse to listen to the tugging distractions however, no matter how obnoxiously Matthew Hersman quacks. I pity the others. Soon, they will face the same fight as me. This thought brings a smug smile to my face.

I am a fierce warrior. I have been training how to fight these battles since I was six. Succumbing to distractions is a sign of weakness and lack of skill. I am stronger and better than ever before. I will rip this stillness inside me and fill that abyss with my entirety. I will wrestle that beast with my bear hands and kill it like Samson and Hercules killed those lions. I can do this! I can do this! The task before me is a perilous journey that deserves an epic like the Odyssey. Future generations will see my work and aspire to be just like me. The corpse of my enemy will be put on display as a piece of art. Those big names before me have nothing on me. Never before has so much talent and humbleness collided into a single being. All the uncertainty and anxiety from before has evaporated by the fiery heat of my intensity. I am Lucia Lee- no, Lucia Cristina Lee, Child of Destiny, Master of Fate.

So what is at stake here? Since future generations will tell stories about me, my reputation will be on the line here. I suppose my future itself will be altered by this task, considering how famous I will be as soon as I finish my magnificent work. The wondrous work of my hands will inspire the world to bring about world peace. Piece of cake.

All this preparation is tiring me out. Maybe I should, uh, give it some time. I mean, I should eat and take nap before changing the world. It only makes sense. No, no. I need to focus here. I have the concentration of a ninja. Hey, I like pandas. They’re the least intimidating of all the bears. Wait, no! Concentrate.

I breathe in and breathe out and gather my thoughts. This is it. I, Lucia Cristina Lee, Child of Destiny, Master of Fate, will overcome. It’s time to change the world. I grab my pen-sword and raise it above my head. With a battle cry worthy of a Spartan, I plunge into my essay.

You like big butts and I cannot lie

Yes, apparently I am five years old because I found this hilarious.

I lied in my previous post. Although I said I am back and that I will start blogging regularly again, I'm sorry to say that I can't guarantee anything: I have AP exams (five of them!) and SATs (boo) and ACT(hisss) and projects(poop) and finals(fascism!). Hopefully, I'll start blogging with a fixed schedule during summer vacation.