Thoughts to Consider

So, it's tough to be a woman in a lot of ways. But here...this is deeply disappointing to have pointed out to me, if not surprising.

The Gender Coverup by Maureen Johnson: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maureen-johnson/gender-coverup_b_3231484.html

My So-Called "Post-Feminist" Life in Arts and Letters by Deborah Copaken Kohen
http://www.thenation.com/article/173743/my-so-called-post-feminist-life-arts-and-letters#

Food for thought: These book covers have been redesigned to reflect what they would potentially look like if written by an author of the opposite gender. The images on the left are the original, "real" covers produced by publishers; images on the right are the recreations. Which do you think will be taken more seriously?







Just...something to think about.

This is something -- one small thing -- that as a publisher I might be able to help change, or at least not perpetuate.

Doing Something With My Money.

 

http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/ariel5183

Today I finally decided to do something that I've wanted to do for a while, but only became possible recently because I've had disposable income.  

I made a loan through Kiva!

Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.

I've been hearing about this for the last year or so from John Green, author, vlogbrother, and nerdifghter, who had this to say:

 

I think this is a pretty cool concept: loan as much or as little as you want to people you choose--people whose businesses and situations you know about. This isn't giving to an organization that will use it all up in administration, either; 100% of all loans made go directly to the borrower, while the Kiva administration raises funds for itself through separate donations. It's also not throwing money at a problem in the hopes that it will solve itself. By loaning money for individuals to start their business, grow their profits, or educate themselves, they are empowered to sustain themselves after the loan, independent of outside aid. 

So today, I made two loans of a combined $100 total. Of that, only half came from my money. The other half were "credits" given to me by donors: $25 free for new users and $25 when someone responds to my invitation on Facebook.

This is Vineta from Samoa. She's owns a general store and needs money to buy supplies. I chose her because her cause was underfunded and needed the most help. Now 37% of her $675 loan has been fulfilled!

 

This is Ana Sabina from El Salvador. She makes tortillas for the market, and she needs money to buy a refrigerator and some books that her daughter needs for school. I chose her because of her dedication to her children's education, and I wanted to help get those precious books into her twelve-year-old daughters hands. 

So, yeah. If you have five spare minutes with the Internet, click the link below to loan $50 free--$25 for you and $25 for me! You don't have to spend anything. 

http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/ariel5183

March Madness (which in my life, has nothing to do with basketball, or whatever)

This has been my face for the last month. 

So it's been a long time since I've posted. What have I been up to? 

To be honest, I don't even know. Work. Work. Work. Class. Class.  Phi Sigma Pi. Class. More work. Phi Sigma Pi. Being sick. Work. 

It's been just a little bit insane. 

But you know, I've actually done some cool stuff in amongst the stress. Let's see. 

I went to Denton 35 Festival, which was pretty cool (if crazy). Unfortunately, the first night I didn't go for very long, but then the next night it rained--a deluge like no other--and the thing was pretty much cancelled. Then the next night, I saw a couple cool bands, but I had a fever so I left early and missed the truly awesome stuff. This is my life. 

Then it was Spring Break! This meant my dad's and brother's birthdays, and this awesome otter cake my mom made. It was as delicious as it was adorable. 

Unfortunately I had to work all through Spring Break, and it never really felt like a break as I was sick and busy the whole time, but at least there was....

 MUSE CONCERT!!

It was unimaginably epic and spectacular. AAAAAAAGH! Still can't believe how cool it was. 

This is the Cellular Device Nebula located in the American Airlines Constellation, as seen from Section 318, Row H on planet Earth. 

This past week since being back at school has lasted years. 

There are a curious number of misplaced chairs around campus...Hm.

A couple days ago a balloon man came to Honors for an event! He made this beautiful octopus as well as many other spectacular balloon shapes. And I had many balloon sword fights. I won them all. >:D 

(not really)

Yesterday Jackson and I went to the Dallas Museum of Art, which has free general admission right now. We saw all kinds of old art, including a mummy and some very neat artifacts from ~2500 B.C. I wish I remembered more about each of these specific pieces, but I don't. So here, look at some pretty old stuff. 

This is a phoenix (Japanese?).

This is a weird little dude (Mesoamerican?). 

This is definitely Roman. 

This is ancient Indian. The detail here is amazing!

Then today I went with a bunch of Phi Sigma Pi people to paint pottery at Time to Kiln. I made this:

The colors look really ugly in the picture, but this is the color scheme inspiration (which I stole from the Internet, of course: design-seeds.com -- an awesome site) 

So hopefully it will turn out looking something like that. 

My "Big" (read: mentor-type-person) in Phi Sig, Erin, made a lovely mug!

She's awesome. 

 Then I got sushi and went to a bunch of meetings and bought some chocolate and studied management nonsense and now I'm writing this blog. Whoopee! You're all caught up in my life now.

Have some things!

A Jackson wearing a fringe-ful coat, next to a flower tree!

A turtle cartoon, made in times of boredom at work!

A Sheldon the Tiny Dinosaur cartoon!

And a cartoon by my brother about winning Olympic archery! I hope you don't mind me sharing this, Austin, because I think it's fantastic. 

Have a wonderful day and a glorious, chocolatey Easter! 

Learning Something New About Myself (probably)

Today while I was studying for Management (urgh) at work, I came across the Myers-Briggs Personality Test in my notes. It occurred to me that I have never taken a satisfactory personality test--I never even got the results of my job aptitude tests in high school. And while I don't necessarily trust these types of things as all-encompassing truth, it's still interesting. So I decided to give it a try and hit up the internet.

After taking several tests, me results came back pretty consistent:

INTJ

61% Introverted (versus Extroverted)
55% Intuitive (versus Sensing)
63% Thinking (versus Feeling)
71% Judging (versus Perceiving)

Eeeeeenteresting.

Apparently only 1-4% of the population fall into this category. Wikipedia says INTJs are "most comfortable working alone and tend to be less sociable than other types. Nevertheless, INTJs are prepared to lead if no one else seems up to the task, or if they see a major weakness in the current leadership. They tend to be pragmatic, logical, and creative. They have a low tolerance for spin or rampant emotionalism. They are not generally susceptible to catchphrases and do not readily accept authority based on tradition, rank, or title."

Most of what the Wikipedia article has to say resonates with me, in fact. Psychology! But, as my coworker Lex remarked, "It's like a horoscope, only a little bit more real."

Indeed.

If you want to take the test, here's one that I did:

http://similarminds.com/jung.html 

Goodbye, World.

This is my farewell to you all. You probably won't see me for the next few months. In the last five days, my life has gone from depressingly empty (school + nothing = boredom) to oh-my-god-what-am-I-going-to-do full (school + new job + Phi Sigma Pi + Sigma Tau Delta + College of Arts and Sciences Ambassador = AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH).

So yes. Let me explain.

Other than the receptionist position I mentioned in my previous post, I have made a few decisions that will henceforth make me a more involved human. The first is that I decided to join UNT's chapter of the co-ed honors fraternity Phi Sigma Pi. After visiting a few information meetings, a couple of friends and I decided that the people are awesome and the "fraternity" part is really more of a formality than a lifestyle, so I applied. And now for the next six weeks I'm going to be going to Rush class every Sunday and doing service projects/events with all these lovely new smart people.

Secondly, I am applying to Sigma Tau Delta, the fancy-schmancy English major honor society (another fake-Greek organization), which does cool things like have visiting authors speak and go to English conferences. Luckily, this is a relatively minor commitment with monthly or bi-monthly meetings, so this might not be the death of me.

Thirdly, my English major adviser (Dr. Penner's-mother Lyke lolololol) asked me to be an English major College of Arts and Sciences Ambassador, which sounds awesome to me -- talking to incoming freshmen interested in English and basically convincing them that the English program rocks. Right now it doesn't seem like too big of a commitment, just a few evenings here and there, but we will see if I actually have time for it. I really hope I do.

All of these things excite and interest me. I just hope I'm not taking on too much. But either way--wow. A week and a half ago I was spending three-quarters of my day staring at the Internet and halfheartedly flipping through my agenda to see when things were happening (or more likely, not happening). Now I'm employed and a prospective member of multiple organizations and potentially friends with ALL THE PEOPLE! :D

So farewell. I will see you in the summer. If I make it that far.

General Life Announcement.

So yep. It's official. I got a job! I'm going to be a receptionist at the Gateway Center, which I can see from my window (as pictured). Woohoo! Employment! Money! Etcetera!

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

I'm convinced. Hank Green is a genius. 

When Hank first announced his side-project, a modern adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as a YouTube video blog, my first reaction was, "Oh, that's cute." Loyal nerdfighter that I am, I subscribed to Lizzie Bennet's fictional YouTube channel and occasionally took six or seven minutes out of my week to watch Ashley Clements as Lizzie rant about her silly parents, her sister, her grad school, and this jerk she met at a wedding called William Darcy. 

It was fun. It was cool. It was new. And it soon became a fully-fledged fandom, with all the trappings of yet another collective obsession belonging to thousands and thousands of bored internet-lurkers. People like me -- young, outspoken, and always looking for something new. 

Now, I'm not as intense of an internetter as some. I'm afraid of twitter and tumblr, and I'm only slowly acclimating to such big forces of the virtual world as Reddit and Imgur. But I follow YouTube religiously. I Facebook. I even Pinterest from time to time, and obviously I have a blog. So I'm not ignorant of these things. Maybe just a little late to the party, but I'm getting there. 

Still, this project, LBD, took me by surprise. As the story progressed, I became more and more engrossed, and so did the rest of the internet. The geniuses behind the project branched out into other areas, giving their characters fictitious twitters and tumblr accounts, facebook pages, company websites and email addresses. Other characters began to vlog, including Lydia, Charlotte, and Darcy's sister. These actors took on alternate identities almost as real as their own, in the virtual world at least. Now you could be browsing around on Pinterest and come across some of Jane Bennet's fashion pictures or Lydia Bennet's not-so-sound partying advice. 

It's all amazingly three-dimensional, a story experience unlike anything the world has ever seen, to be overly dramatic. The extremely broad fan-base experiences the misadventures of the Bennet sisters in real-time, in real-life detail. And yes, there are some campy bits, like the fake demonstrations of "Pemberly Digital's new video-chatting technology" that are obviously contrived, but the scope of the project is so huge that things like that are added bonuses rather than unconvincing plot complicators. 

I fully expect to see more of these in the future, a whole new genre of internet storytelling. And I welcome it, giving life to these old stories, making them relevant to young people today who may love or hate them. This is the future! Huzzah! 

Anyway, go watch them if you haven't already. Start from the beginning. 

www.lizziebennet.com