From all over

Someone once told me that angry people are smart people. They are aware of things around them, and realize how shitty things can be therefore are angry. Well, in that case I am a genius since I'm angry quite often at society, and the world in general (at humans always)

So to further establish my superior intelligence, I shall start off with a rant about GOSSIPY INDIAN WOMEN. I know it happens in any community where one loud-mouthed-stupid-good-for-nothing bia blabs to all her good-for-nothing friends about someone else's child. Well, the Indian communities around the US are rich breeding grounds for this particular species. They not only talk about you, but decide to call your parents under the pretense of "caring" and spill the shit they hear.


I have one, simple message for them : BACK THE EFF OFF! if it's not your family, mind your own damn business. I WILL shed all my years of "respect your elders always"-training and tell you exactly what you need to hear.


Obviously, sane pieces of advice will be ignored by these women so I just wasted my time.

Moving on to Indian women who DO deserve very much the time of day (and respect, awe, admiration, etc) are the GULABI GANG from the state of Uttar Pradesh in India.


Their creator Sampat Devi decided to form a "gang" that fights for justice (in the RIGHT sense of the word) In the city where she's from, girls at the age of 12 are married, wives beaten, rape charges on men ignored by corrupt officials, and much more. So Sampat Devi and her women fight these injustices by literally beating up the wrongdoers. Their uniforms are the bright, pink saris they wear (Gulabi in hindi = pink) that defy the notion that women are subservient, and muted members of society. So here's to you Madame Sampat Devi! You rock and do continue to kick major bootay.

Sampat Devi of the Gulabi Gang

Read more about the gulabi gang here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7068875.stm

Well, I'd also like to give a shout out to a less-important, but hot pink-clad group of girls: the JEZEBELLES!

MAD at myself

Money changes everything.

You suddently have money and that makes you actually buy things you usually would think about 1000 times over.

You suddenly DON't have money and that makes you frugal beyond belief. You question the price / necessity of almost everything.

I got this new job (which is good) so then I bought myself a ring for Diwali. Fine. I can excuse myself for that (even though in the grand scheme of things, I'm an ass and I could have donated the 700 dollars to charity instead of watching my ring sparkle in the sunlight)

But, apart from this ring I have bought things I don't need. I usually would never do this, but I have impulsively been buying things! Not expensive things, but just any "deals" I see. Tar-jay has become my new place to be when I'm utterly bored. I go to their sale section and think "Ooo! new t-shirt!" or "OOo what a steal! $10 cool party shirt!" and then I buy them. I pat myself on the back for a job well done. I'm doing an awesome job of re-inventing my un-stylish closet!

SYKE.

I've just bought into consumerism. I have some amount of money so I think I should spend some of it. I do save a bunch each month, but instead of donating money to charity (which I always wish I could), but I spend it on myself. I am now the person I vowed never to become. I told myself I wouldn't be materialistic. But now I browse beauty / fashion blogs that offer all sorts of advice on "cheap fashion" and then try to follow their advice. Their intentions are good. MINE aren't because I've become a loser who hangs out Target too often (otherwise Target is awesome)

GOAL NEXT MONTH: DONATE 200 dollars to a good charity.

I know others have been hit very hard, Thanks to rich mothereffers and their awesome decisions, but I have been OK so far (thank you engineering degree) so I should help those less fortunate than I am and not be a dick and shop for things I definitely do NOT need.

but for those who still want to shop, i like these websites for good advice:

http://www.omiru.com/
http://www.cheapjap.com/

Congratulations to ME

I am now officially engaged to myself. I have bought myself a gorgeous ring from Jared. I can now proudly say that my first ring was NOT from my fiance, but from ME.

I actually don't want to wear an engagement or wedding ring ever. A marriage is something personal that's between two people. It doesn't need to be paraded around like a prize-winning thoroughbred. I'm so tired of women who define themselves based on the size of their rocks.

UGH.

When I went to Jared, the conversation went something like this:

Saleslady: "Hi! What can I do for you today?"
Me: "I'd like to buy a ring for myself"
SL: "Oh for yourself? Like a cocktail ring?"
Me: "Just a nice ring. yes"
SL: "Well right here we have right-hand rings.."
after 5 minutes of showing me their small selection of 'right-hand-single-girl-spinster-rings'
Me: "Well, what's on the other side of the store? Can I see those rings?"
SL: "Well those are more engagement ring style rings"
Me: "And?"
SL: "Well, you might not want to wear those on your right hand. You know they're meant for the other..they're romance rings..."

At this point I was annoyed. A ring is a fucking ring. The only person that SHOULD define WHAT the ring MEANS is the person who gifts it or wears it. "hi, here's a friendship ring for you'. "hi, marry me. here's your engagement ring".

WHY the hell does anyone else have a say in what a ring should be? IF i want to wear a fucking giant rock on my LEFT ring finger w/out being engaged, I'LL do it. I can wear a ring wherever I want.

Me: "M'am, I just want a nice ring to wear. I don't care to know if it's a 'right hand' or 'left hand' ring because I'll wear it on whichever finger I so choose so please don't define things for me."

Silence of about 30 seconds while the saleslady stared at me in shock. fuck you lady. show me the damn rings.

so she did show me around ALL over the store. I chose this one:


The gem is called citrine, 14K gold, pave diamonds around the citrine.

It's pretty, shiny, and I'm proud that the first ring I bought was for myself and not anyone else =)

Draining days of Documents

You know, you see and hear about how life after college in the working world is really fun. We're all young, nubile and perky (especially the girls get it? har har) We're making money, enjoying our independence, having sex with multiple partners with a side of no guilt (yea i wish), and relishing the silver years (golden is when you're old right?)

But no one ever mentions the amount of fucking tax is taken away each paycheck if you're single. No one mentions the monotonous 8-10 hours of work a day you do when you're a new hire. No one mentions the onslaught of bills, or how you actually DON'T get laid every weekend because you were too busy to get waxed.

I really hope the up-coming college graduates don't expect to live The Hills life where 1000's of dollars are shoved down your throat while you galavant across the town 'figuring yourself out'

The recent-college graduate life is actually a lot more difficult, tiring, and mentally draining. The fortunate ones continue partying after graduating with a bullshit degree with daddies' deep wallets. The rest of us have to try to figure out what we want to do with our lives in REAL jobs. THAT's a career in itself. I think finding the balance between enjoying your young adult status, and setting a good path for the future defines us at the stage. I hate how society / entertainment industry makes it out all to be a cake-walk and misleads the younger generation to thinking everything just comes on a silver platter.

This leads me to really hate the entertainment industry. But, that's for another blog post.

But, I do have to say my work is not as draining, since I have someone sitting next to me with a possible parasite eating her insides. It's exciting everyday to wait for it to crawl out of her (makes us all want to come to work) This one is all for you BZ. Now you're officially popular since legions of readers follow my blog.

WHEEEE! back to enjoying my early 20's.

Conquering Fear

So, I have bought a new car. A very sexy white Volkswagen rabbit. It's a MANUAL because I decided it was high time I learned how to drive a stick (not THAT kind of a stick dirtbags) Anyway, at first it seemed like a really exciting feeling. Then I actually got the car and started practicing in parking lots with my dad when it seemed like the worst idea ever. I couldn't get that damn car to move. I wasn't pressing the clutch enough, or I wasn't giving enough gas or I was tearing up in frustration while my dad yelled at me for being useless. It seemed terribly hopeless. Here was this beautifully engineered car that looked like a mini rocket and I couldn't fucking get it in 1st gear and move. I wanted to be run over by my own car. I also wanted to slap myself really hard for going on this stupid foolhardy quest of learning how to drive a manual. Who needs one in this country anyway? STUPID STUPID STUPID me.

All those feelings went away this morning. I had been praciticing every day with my dad, but I was a nervous mess and sweated buckets every time I sat in the driver's seat. But today I finally decided to take the car out on my own and drive it around to get groceries. I talked to myself while driving (therefore looking psycho to everyone else) I kept repeating that it was just a car, and that only I could truly control how it was going to move. In the 5 nerver wracking minutes it took me to get to the grocery store, it felt as though my heart was literally going to burst out from me and land on the windshield. But I didn't stall. I kept telling myself I wouldn't. I drove to the extremely bad-driver filled area of BJ's and even parked straight! I drove back smiling the entire way. I jerked a little here and there but I didn't stall at all. I wasn't nervous on the way back.

So in a span of 5minutes I conquered my fear. But it took me almost 2 weeks to build up the courage to go out there and drive for myself. I'm sure everyone else has learned to drive a manual in a much shorter time period but I'm glad i finally did it.

If only I took risks where needed in other parts of my life. But I figure, if I can gain the confidence to drive a manual, then nothing is too much further.

oh and here's a picture of my lovely new car =)

In Honor

In honor of the purpose of my blog, which is to think big and outside of the box (neither of which I have done), I've decided to include all things BIG. Some of it is nerdy, some cool, mostly random and silly. So here goes. THINK BIG EVERYONE!

BIGgest Land Mammal:
Hellooo African elephant. Did you know that female elephants (cows) remain pregnant for about 22 months?! Us humans complain about a measly 9 months. Imagine morning sickness for about a year..yum.

BIGgest (tallest) building : (For now. They're building an even taller building in Dubai)

Taipei 101 , Taiwan. Height: very tall. lots of stories filled with things to do and shop (especially for women)

BIGgest mall in the world:

South China Mall (where else?) in Dongguan, China. 7 million sq ft. That's roughly a small country in itself.

BIGgest University (in terms of enrollment):
Allama Iqbal Open University (1.9 million enrolled) in Pakistan. This picture is just a small section of the campus.

BIGgest blog (as rated by Technorati.com with the most number of fans. They also received an award for Lifetime achievement (err why?) and Best Group Blog in 2006) I should include Tila Tequila or something but even spelling her name out makes me feel dumber so I'm not going to do that.

www.boingboing.net


Shall post more BIG facts later. Any burning desires for big things? I like to ask questions like that even though roughly 2-3 people have read my blog so far.

-edit-
More BIG stuff

Best Websites of 2008 (so this would go under the category of BIGest / popular websites of 2008)

Times magazine has listed the Top 50 Websites of 2008. Some of them like the one above are very useful. The image above is of Gasbuddy.com where volunteers post updated gas prices in their area. Very useful for travel and such. Others include AfricaGadget where interesting things that are happening in Africa are written about (there's a lot more to Africa than Darfour, and Mugabe) I also highly recommend Omiru.com. Fashion at a value (it's designed for both men and women)

According to the Times article:

"Focused on "real style for real people," Omiru doesn't just tell you what the fashion trends are — it helps you figure out what actually looks good on you. High-waisted pants aren't flattering on most people (in fact, 70% of people polled by Omiru won't be wearing them this year, even though they're back in style), but horizontal stripes can be (they don't make you look fat if they're narrow). The site recommends dresses for curvy petites and accessories for your little black dress. Sure, tips like these are sprinkled throughout more mainstream fashion sites like Glam and Style, but Omiru's laser focus on practical fashion advice makes it a don't-miss."

That's it for this post. I'll look up other cool big stuff later on (again to my many readers :) )

Are we simply programmed?

Why do I feel like women are sort of programmed these days? Even the young ones, especially the young ones. We live in an age where choices are countless; career, clothes, hair styles, breast sizes, and of course men. But, why does it seem that most young women seem pressured to accomplish something instead of doing it by choice?

I'm talking more specifically of marriage. At the ripe old age of 21, or 22..I have seen girls worry about marriage. Some are already married by this age but that was their choice and they're happy with it. But why do the girls that aren't married feel stressed when they hear about someone else getting married? It's not everyone, yes but why has the ring become so important?

I feel like times have changed somewhat. Back in the day, women didn't really have much of a choice when or to whom they got married. Being unmarried in your late 20's meant something was definitely wrong with you. Now, that women DO have the choice and you are NOT considered a leper if you're not married by 27, it just seems that women freaking about about marriage has just become more VOCAL.

College Graduate: 21
In a Relationship: ~21-22
Engaged: 22-23
Married: 24-26
Babies: Between 28-33

I've fallen prey to this 'programmed timeline' as well. I have definitely thought about it. It seems like the young women who aren't necessarily following this are freaking out. If you're in it, it's ok. If not, well...something might be wrong with you.

I truly am happy for my friends who have chosen to get married because it's about love. But the rest of us are not falling off nature's 'plan'.

Learning to differentiate between a programmed decision and a personal one might be the challenge of my generation (or at least to me)

Intelligence IS sexy

I could go on forever about how looks are valued more than anything else in this society (aka for WOMEN) so I'm not. But check out Hot for Words. She's a Russian girl who loves to study the origin of words. Subscribers can ask her questions on how the word 'tit' came about, etc etc. The subject is boring but she's made it 'titillating'. Looks AND intelligence!

She's figured it out. Men will listen to ANYTHING as long as it looks good. Well, at least she's spreading knowledge and proven that most men think with only ONE of their heads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Qm5H_8wL0

watch it. i personally like what she teaches. p.s her boobs look good too so that's an extra incentive.

p.s obviously intelligence is sexy no matter what you look like. so FUCK YOU MAXIM MAGAZINE for saying Sarah Jessica Parker is one of the un-sexiest celebrities because she's VERY intelligent.

A cultural expansion

This post is dedicated to my Italy trip last year. My sister and I went to Venice, Rome, Siena, Florence, Viterbo, Orvieto and the Tuscan region . I could write paragraphs and paragraphs about the wonderful things I saw and ate in Italy, but I can pretty much sum up my trip in 2 sentences. Ok maybe 5.


So this is the outside of St.Peter's church in the Vatican:
(This is not our actual picture we took when we were there)

And then we went inside which looks like this:


I swear to you, I'm not joking but when my sister and I walked in, I almost cried. It sounds really silly and cliche but it was so true. You think Italy, and you readily think of the renaissance, Michaelangelo, and all the wonderful art and history. But when you actually see it, it's a completely different experience. But yes, I had tears in my eyes because it was just too beautiful and majestic for words.

Have you ever seen a piece of art or a historic building or city that's literally moved you to tears? If you have, then you're very lucky to have experienced it.

Isn't that the ultimate cultural expansion? To experience something of another culture that doesn't necessarily relate to yours, but be completely in awe of it and appreciate it for what it is?

Superficial women? NO WAY!

So, the new sex and the city movie is out. After four long years of wait, the sequel came out and everyone was waiting with bated breath. I saw it. It was so lame in comparison to the series. The writing sucked. No witty one-liners, or sarcastic remarks. The plot was trite and the ending was terrible. A lot of critics wrote all this as well.

But, the one thing I didn't like was the constant mention of FASHION. A lot of the critics wrote about how FASHION was everywhere in the show and it came off as really superficial.

Yes, the focus on fashion was teeny-weeny bit excessive with labels shoved down your throat every other minute. But, everyone knows by now that SATC established lots of trends, and designers were everywhere..etc etc.

But how come no one says anything about James Bond movies? It's filled with cars, cool new gadgets and Bond treating women like disposable napkins. Soo....how come no critic ever mentions "James Bond is a superflous asshole who treats women like ornaments"

So it's ok for men to be materialistic..but not for women.

LAME. this hellish patriarchal society needs to die.