Commentary: Live for Yourself, Not for an Application
Here are some of my reactions to the New York Times article, "For Girls, It's be Yourself, and Be Perfect Too." (See below)
It is very true. Girls--of course boys also--today are pressured to achieve on multiple dimensions and then told to still celebrate their youth. Read More »
When Macalster College had a party themed "politically incorrect" and welcomed two guests dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member and an African American being lynched, protest ensued and the news spilled into major papers. Read More »
(This is the third time I'm typing this up. I hope I don't lose it again. Actually, I'll just write it in Word first.)
I am writing a novel. Or rather, I am trying to write 50,000 somewhat connected words. I’m doing the project through the National Novel Writing Month program, known cutely as NaNoWriMo (see my entry on this http://www.progressiveu.org/190000-nanowrimo-write-your-own-novel-in-30-days). I made a commitment 10 days ago to give this a try; so far I have yet to put down a single word. Read More »
Election Day is coming so quickly I almost forgot about it. Everybody get out to vote! I hope you all are already registered and have been reading up on your candidates. It's terrible to have low turnouts but uninformed voting is arguably even worse.
Maybe that's how we got President Bush reelected. You know, when that happened, I asked myself: What kind of country reelects a president like that? If Bush can win again with his horrible rep with everything, is it even possible for an incumbant to lose? Read More »
The "problem" with Progressive U is that there are always so many interesting things to read that I end up too distracted or intimidated to write my own posts.
Should I ignore what others say and simply focus on writing my own entries?
But then there are so many interesting and insightful posts. Am I ready to stop hearing about what others think about gay rights? racism? abortion? Am I ready to deprive us of the discussions I've been longing to have but can never have the chance to in real life? Am I willing to give up the interaction? Read More »
Always wanted to write your own novel? Never had the time to do it? Or simply lacked the self discipline to finish drafts you've started? NaNoWriMo is here to make the process slightly easier.
Now in its eighth year, National Novel Writing Month is a non profit program that encourages participants to ram out a 175-page (50,000 word) novel within the month of November. Authors--who may be simple cab drivers, doctors, dancer, and more in real life--have from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30 to accomplish the deed. Anyone who reaches the 50,000 word mark is considered a winner. Word count reporting is based on an honor system. Read More »
Happy Halloween! (O.K., so technically it's already no longer Halloween, but whatever...Happy All Saint's Day! Y El Dia De Los Muertos!
So for Halloween, I shrouded myself in a gigantic piece of big cloth and roamed the streets as the Grim Reaper. I think the costume was ghetto enough to let me pass without having a scythe. My face was covered and my robe bellowed behind me. I was scary...well, at least some little monsters and fairies thought so. Read More »
I was locked out of Progressive U for about a week due to a nasty technical difficulty I still cannot comprehend. For some reason, whenever I tried to log in, my name would appear in the list of "online users" but nothing else would happen. I couldn't see my blog entries, much less edit them or add new ones. I couldn't post new entries, and maybe couldn't comment either (I didn't try that). It was as if I never logged in. So at once, I was logged in and not. In this ambivalent state I was stuck for some seven days. Read More »
