My scrap of dirt

Vanessa Hudgens on the whole naked pics thing:

"It's just really unfortunate, and to this day people hate me for it, but it's not like I chose to put that out there in the world, you know? It's so aggravating and frustrating, and whenever anybody asks me, would I do nudity in a film, if I say that it's something I'm not comfortable with, they're like, 'Bullshit, you've already done it.' If anything it makes it more embarrassing, because that was a private thing. It's screwed up that someone screwed me over like that. At least some people are learning from my mistakes." (Source)

I can't stress enough how glad I am that she isn't apologizing all over the place. I've ranted enough about it previously, but I just wanted to say that. I'd actually love to have a calm, adult conversation with her about this whole scandal - and the assholes who are suggesting that having private photos leaked means you should have no problem displaying your body to the world. She seems to have a much more mature way of dealing with it now, which I can respect.

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I feel for Caster Semenya - I am a woman with male chromosomes. An interesting Daily Mirror Chronicle by Sarah Graham that's a good overview of why it's not as easy as drawing a line between male and female. I continue to be appalled at the way just about everybody is dealing with Semenya, from the way people seem to think it's appropriate to discuss very personal medical info to the incapacity of grappling with the fact that even sex is a social construct. I haven't read too much, but I like that her family and friends in South Africa are not caring. So much for being the civilized, liberal one, Western culture, no?

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Sinead's Hand: A cute video about same-sex marriage< from an Irish organization.


I've hit pretty much all my trademark topics so time to go watch Corbin Bleu on my TV. ;)

I'm still trying to get over my doubts from yesterday and the nervousness I feel because I think the project is turning into something very different from what I'd originally imagined in my head. I just need to convince myself that it's ok and I'll figure out the lit review and everything later. Basically originally I was interested broadly in how teachers teach, and I'm realizing that especially since I need to make the interview shorter, I'm really more interested in how the teachers teach and handle diversity and difference in the classroom.

Basically I'm still not sure what I'm doing. :/

So instead of freaking out, let me share a couple of funny links.
Cats can really sleep anywhere.
Cats fail and grad students.
( (Funny but Dollhouse spoiler!) )

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Now a few links stolen from le_canard.
The documentary Girl Like Me touches on how racism intersect with beauty standards. It's mostly bits of interviews with black girls who talk about how they've been made feel about their appearance. We often think that tastes are personal - so what if I like blonde better than brunette? It's a good reminder that tastes are also embedded in cultural bias and in Western nations, that means a certain racial bias, too.
The experiment featured at about 4 minutes is pretty heart-breaking and disheartening. It was reproduced recently and I don't know if I'd put quite the same positive spin on the story. I would love to try the experiment in France, but also to have white children do it, because I'm pretty certain patterns would differ.

And finally, in French, Mr. Haïdari who works at the City Hall in Marseille (he's assistant to the Mayor), talking about why he thinks it's important that we have racial statistics in France. The usual argument against such statistics - that they create racial categories that don't exist - is true in the sense that race is a social construct, but it blatantly ignores that this social construct has very real (psychological and material) consequences today in France (and beyond). Racial categories will never be perfect, but it's a better alternative (in my opinion) to pretending that there isn't a racial problem in France. These categories, we made them up, but today they influence the lives of people of color, and we have to stop ignoring that because it makes us uncomfortable.


That reminds me that this morning I was in a school and asked the head of the school (because he was showing me what kind of information students fill out every year) if he had any same-sex household that had a kid in his school. His first reaction was, "you know, it's none of my business" ("ça ne me regarde pas"). Which struck me as odd. Why would we want these families to be invisible? Is it that strange to imagine that teachers would know if their kids have a mom and a dad, one parent, two of the same sex? Under the excuse of giving people privacy, aren't we really playing into a system that assumes and favors heterosexuality? That's a rhetorical question, obviously. It's very telling that we ask kids to fill out information about their mother and father, but to ask if they have two moms or two dads is a breach of privacy.

Joss directs Eliza on how to do a sexy, confident walk.

If you ever need to feel better about your day, watch this clip. XD

Our babies are now grouchy teenagers (I'm kidding, they're still adorable) and I figured it was time for an update so you can see how well MeiMei Chloe's doing!

First, a video where she's walking so you can see she's gotten much more stable when she's walking calmly. She just looks a little wobbly. (Sorry the orientation of the video is screwed up, I forgot when I was recording her... >.>)


( More cat adorableness under the cut! )

Terra and I were at Brad's house today, doing some pumpkin carving! I was going to carve the Chinese characters for "serenity" into one of mine but got worried I would screw it up (this is the first time I carve a pumpkin on my own!). So instead I did evil (vampire?) Harry Potter (on the right) and a cute pumpkin who's having the BEST time, all the time, because, much like me, he's easily entertained. I named him Ron for continuity. And on the left side of my dear laptop Aziz, you have scaredpants pumpkin. In its defense, it did hang out very close to Chtulu (Brad's pumpkin, not featured here!) for a while, and that would scare the shit out of anyone.

I had an awesome time carving :D And I'm very happy with how they turned out.

While I'm sharing silly stuff, this video of Ellen interviewing Vanessa Hudgens just cracks me up. I just love the way Ellen asks her question very seriously and yet a little hesitant, and Vanessa doesn't seem entirely sure at first when she's joking or not. ^^


And finally,courtesy of metaquotes, are you pro- or anti-American? Take this test and find out! I got disqualified but if I hadn't, I'd still be at -35. Living in Vancouver screwed me from the start! Damn you, Vancouver, for being welcoming and progressive.



EDIT:
So, remember how I mentioned the kittens had been nursing from each other ever since Mommy's been gone? And how Chloe'd taken up sucking her own nipple? Yeah, well. She's been doing it a lot and yesterday I picked her up and noticed her nipple was very red, almost raw. ... Yes, my cat sucked herself raw. So I called the vet to check what I should do, and now I'm making sure she doesn't do it again, at least until her little nipple has healed. She's a very special cat for sure. ^^
And because I can, photo!

Our little one is almost 10 weeks old now! So here, have a bunch of videos. :D

This one just cracks me because she sounds so pathetic and really, it's an act. ^^



More videos of Meimei Chloe in our back yard (running around!) behind the cut.

( Still working on that coordination thing... )

Dr Horrible icon! Makes me happy. :D I'm so staying up tonight to try and get part 2 before bed. Might just download from iTunes straight away if it works so I don't clutter the website with everyone else. :)

A really good LA Times article with an awesome Behind the scenes gallery.

Still on Dr Horrible and also on Dollhouse, a Joss Whedon interview at Monday's FOX event. Speaking of, there is also a cool Eliza Dushku interview from that event and how much do I love her? A whole lot. The "I've got skills" and wanting to be a chess master is just adorable. :D See for yourself (I don't even mind the heavy make-up too much for once.)



And now, off to pack...

I love Joss, I love Joss and Eliza together, and if anyone can figure out what he says last, just before he says Eliza's not doing too bad? Let me know. *g*


EDIT: Duh. It's Tahmoh Penikett that Joss mentions.

omg that video with Morena being trans is awesome. Apparently thunder_nari came across it first. Heee. I just love it. See for yourselves:




While I wait to figure out how to alternate the photo stripe on the sidebar, I'm going to stick with activism since it's more in keeping with the theme. But I'm preparing a better stripe of kisses, too. :)

That's kinda cool: a video against homophobia created by kids in a high school in the suburbs of Paris.

It's cute, and it's kinda funny that, a couple of girls excepted, guys tend to go for longer pecks. *g*