Persepolis - some comments from

Granny to MJ: "You'll meet a lot of jerks in your life. Do not hurt them. It's because of their stupidity. There is nothing worse than resentment and revenge."
Granny: "Fear lulls our minds to sleep."
Granny: "You're crying because you were wrong; it's hard to admit your mistakes, eh?"
Voice over from the repressive society: "To die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of our society." - think of Durkheim and his view of suicide on this one.
Granny: "Tout la monde a toujour la choice." (all the world has always choice.)

Someone once said...

(in class today actually) that they did not feel like they were who everyone saw them to be. I thought this was interesting and found myself wondering when I felt the same way. Do others see us in the way we see and feel about ourselves? I mean, do they REALLY? What do we do when they are completely off? Do we correct them? Should we even really care? All these things popped up in my head after today's class.

No Lobbiests?

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/white-house-eases-stimulus-lobbyist-restrictions-2009-07-25.html so read the news there about Lobbiests and the stimulus bill. Now Lobbiests are ok.

Feeling Blue

I was reading Pacmans Blog and I'm glad he or she had a great time this weekend. However it made me realize how blue I am feeling. This weekend was great to soak up the sun and go to the beach and have a cocktail or two. However I couldn't. I was put on meds this weekend by my physician where I could not really have alcohol. It did not ruin my weekend I still had a BBQ at my place and had people over but I couldn't mingle with them. I was the only one not having a drink. There were many people on my block like Pacman & his buddies, many were drinking and just having a great time. I am feeling blue right now and wish I could have been myself this weekend, not only by drinking , but by riding my beach cruiser to the beach and soaking up the sun. I was told by my physican to stay away from activity. Just feeling blue & felt like blogging about it.

Anyone Hungry?

Food makes me feel hungry
Ice cream makes me feel amazing
Starving makes me feel less focused

Me I We - various thoughts

When Michael Jackson invented the moonwalk, he was being an "I". What were all the kids being who soon learned to imitate him? The "me" part of you never goes away, by the way. Both the "me" and the "I" keep interacting; it is not as if you are a "me" as a kid and an "I" as an adult. One way you could all approach W2 (in case you cannot think of your own topic) is that once you were a highschool student and now you are a college student.

Classmates in Soc Classes

We are two weeks away from the quarter being officially over and we have only one more class meeting. Sad but at the same time happy to be done with a quarter inching closer to graduation. There are classmates in SOC 301 that I have in other classes and having other classes with them have helped me make networks with classmates. Sometimes we don't understand the assignment or we missed class so we go to another familiar face for help. It creates a helpful network. Has this happened to some of you? Have your school networks changed from the beginning of the quarter to now?

man - women. it feels same

it doesn't matter if you are a man or women. it doesn't matter what you have on or not have on. sexual harassment could happen to anyone, anywhere. i was at work the other day and had a customer comment on one of my body parts. so i think to myself, this idiot, why the hell would he tell me that! but i didn't have anything revealing clothing on, i was in a sweater and slacks. but that just tells you what stupid people there are. people with no manner and will say and do as they please before thinking about it. i went and told my manager and now that customer never allowed back at my work. he get escorted out my security. how bad does that look. he shouldn't have made that perverted comment and he would have been fine.

Can You Be Trusted?

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading a magazine and I read something the interviewee said. It caught my attention and I thought it was accurate. It said "... Trust takes one second to lose and a lifetime to rebuild." Trusting someone fully is quite difficult and it may take a while for it to happen. Some may say “It’s hard for me to trust people” or “I have trust issues”. This depends on the person as well. It may seem easy when the trust they have with someone has never been broken, but it's different when one always gets betrayed and experience disloyalty on a daily basis. Your trust can be broken in diverse ways. When you think you truly know someone and then they turn their backs on you, you can’t help but be shocked and hurt. Trust can be lost between families, friends, significant others, associates, etc. I’ve experienced losing trust in former friends and it does take a very long time to be restored. Sometimes trust can be lost forever. To this day, I am still unable to trust them. How do you all feel about what the interviewee said and how do you feel about trust being broken and if there is a possibility, being rebuilt??

Are gender networks acceptable?

Is is okay for guys to have many girl friends without being labeled gay? We have all heard the stereotype, a guy who hangs with a lot of girls is homosexual. What if the guy is heterosexual with a lot of girl friends? Likewise, is it okay for girls to have many guy friends without being labeled a slut? This comment seems to be the more common than gaybashing a guy. When a girl has too many guy friends she is labeled. Is it a threat on the other gender and therefore they label the person or is it just a jealous person's name calling? I guess I'm asking classmates perspective whether having friends of the opposite sex is a acceptable, why or why not?

Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

In the book Four Agreements, Ruiz speaks about the following:
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
Retrieved from Don Miguel Ruiz and Don Jose Ruiz Website http://www.miguelruiz.com/fouragreements.html February 19, 2009 9:11 AM

Taking things Personal

Mother often tells me not to take things personal. At first I thought this would be simple for me to do.With age, I have realized that is not the case. I constantly remind me to do this even though it is part of human nature to make oneself the victim. Next time someone is yelling at you , remind yourself that it's their issue and not yours. Thanks MT for reminding me that today.

Networks within networks

I noticed something this weekend about the networks we make. I consider co-workers a network, but within the group of co-workers we select who we want to befriend outside of work which is another form of network. We are selective within those networks. I say this because it makes me think something that happened this weekend at work. A few co-workers planned to go to a bar after work so they were spreading the word but doing it selectively; they did not invite a co-worker who is kind of a jerk to everyone. I felt bad but this guy is really obnoxious and we wanted to take a breather from work (It was Valentine's night and we work at a restaurant) because work was craaaazy so he would killed the vibe and made it uncomfortable. It made me think of how selective we are even with a group we're only having a drink with and see on a consistent basis.

life or death situation

one phone call, one letter, one email can change your life forever. then at that moment you realize to yourself how involve and uninvolved some people in your life is. i get a call that i might have cervical cancer and now i have to go in and get a whole bunch of test done to make sure. then i realize who i called and said this too and how many people want to be there to make sure things are going to be okay. those are people you need to keep in your life. the people that are going to be there when things get really hard, and almost unbelievable.

Valentine's Day is my mother's favorite holiday. I remember growing up, she always gave me and my siblings a red flower. She is now 73 years old and has kept this tradition. It's funny because I was just thinking, tomorrow is Valentines Day. The first thing that came to mind was that, I must go to my mother's house to receive my red rose. It's amazing how a family member can continue to carry such small detail through out the years. What makes Valentine's Day so special to you? If it does and if not why?

Freedom

Have you ever sat down and thought about having freedom? whether it is at home, at work, at school, on the street or even just the illusion of what it means to be free? It did not occur to me that i have so much freedom in this country than what my parents had in their country when they were growing up until we had the discussion in one of my classes on Thursday. i can honestly say that i take allot of the things that America offers its people for granted. i have freedom of speech, religion, thought, sexual preference, education, so on so forth. I'm sure other countries have their own "freedom" rights, but America seems to cover all the ones that directly matter to a citizen. sure there are flaws in our constitution and some of the things do not make sense to us, because it was written so long ago, but it touches on allot of things other countries do not even consider to be a right for a citizen. the bill of rights amends all the rights i listed above plus many others. I'm lucky to live in this country and be able to express all the things that matter to me freely.

Super Bowl

I just had a thought today since it is Super Bowl Sunday. We have many networks in our lives but which one of those networks will we be watching the game with? Friends? Family? Co-workers? Or some other group we affiliate with?

Is there a Peace Treaty in the War of the Sexes?

Gender is not so much a set of traits residing with individuals, but as something people do in their social interactions. While sex categorization depends on the commonsense categorization (in the sense that people are categorized into either male or female) sex categories have certain traits that contradict that categorization. Gender involves other set of recipes for activities that must be modified according to different situation. The key concept is that of accountability. That, as society is structured according to sex categorization of male/female, people come to be required to be accountable for every action they perform to be appropriate to one's sex category. In this sense, gender is fundamental in all aspects of social relationships in the sense that one cannot avoid doing gender if one wants to make actions accountable. Gender is so fundamental that any type of social interactions and activities are potentially subject to "doing gender" (that is, making one's actions accountable in terms of their appropriateness to sex category). By doing gender, it in turn has the effect of reinforcing the notion of "essential difference between females and males". That is, these gendered activities are not so much expressions of natural gender differences but the very act of the production of these differences. In addition, gender is neither a role nor a display, because while roles are situated identities, gender is a master identity that cut across situations; to characterize gender as display is also misleading, as display implies something not so fundamental and limited aspect of human interaction.