One of the many things I do averagely...

Amature song writing has been one of my greater distractions lately. I figure I might as well throw one on here to fill some space.

This one is pretty self-explanatory and predictable (but hey, isn't that how Taylor Swift made it?). I left the continent for half the year to go run around South America with a flipcam and my hair to the wind. My boyfriend, although always supportive, wasn't so happy when I turned a 4 month trip to a 5, then 7 month extravaganza.

This is my apology:

Happy National Coming Out Day!

In honor of National Coming Out Day, or as my friends at BornLikeThis.org call it, coming in. BornLikeThis.org was created by 6 very brave young men from NYU who want to give hope to youth who are dealing with the same obstacles these boys face, being a part of the LGBT community. Their heart-rendering testimonies brought me to tears as they each shared their own "coming out day". Some were kicked out of their homes or disowned by their families. Eduardo told how it was through his strong and supportive friend group that he was able to cope and move on to a successful life he is proud to live. Realizing that not everyone has friends like Joe or Johnny in his/her life, these boys have come out online to give their support to struggling LGBT youth around the world.

Their mission is simple: you were born like this. This is not just a phrase to them, they call it a "thought revolution". Striving not only to change the way the world views the LGBT community, but more importantly, Joe, Johnny, Colin, Eduardo, Adam, Zaneta, and Stephen want to change the way LGBT youth view themselves.

So here's my challenge to you this Coming Out Day: come in to your own skin. Accept and love yourself, find what makes you, you and embrace it. Today go out and celebrate yourself, whoever or however you may be. And while you're at it, give a little shout out to the people who have inspired you to do so.

Thanks, Born Like This. Today I've been inspired.




My Brothers and I marching with the Born Like This boys and the Delta Lambda Phi Fraternity in the 2010 New York Pride Parade.

15 Songs to a Better Day

Here are a list of songs I've complied that will put you in a better mood. I chose songs that represent the seven stages of grief and then ended with a go-to happy song. This will turn any bad day around!

1. Shock and Denial:
The Denial Twist, The White Stripes
Denial, Sevendust

2. Pain and Guilt:

Ms. Jackson, Outkast
Nobody's Fault But Mine, Led Zeppelin

3. Anger and Bargaining:
Why Not Me, Ludacris
Gone Forever, Three Days Grace

4. Depression, Reflection, Loneliness:
How To Save a Life, The Fray
It Ends Tonight, The All-American Rejects

5. The Upward Turn:
Getting Better, The Beatles
Make You Feel Better, Red Hot Chili Peppers

6. Reconstruction and Working Through:
Gives You Hell, The All-American Rejects
So What, Pink

7. Acceptance and Hope:
Try, Try, Try, The Smashing Pumpkins
Something To Believe In, Bon Jovi

*8. Get Happy
Beautiful Sunday, Daniel Boone

Here is the playlist on YouTube: 15 Songs to a Better Day Playlist

Should we all reconsider Columbus Day?

This isn't kindergarten anymore when we believed the fairy tale about Christopher Columbus who discovered our land and broke bread with the natives. We know better. We know about the genocide which can be considered one of the worst in our people's history. This man we are honoring slaughtered, raped, enslaved, and more basically, wiped-out an entire race of people.

Without him, yes, our world would be a much different place than it is today. Who's to say whether the loss is worth the gain? I can't speak for that. But I can speak up against the crimes he committed and I can spend Columbus Day in remembrance of the lost cultures instead of in honor of a villain. 

Here are some places you can go to learn more about the native cultures that were lost as a result of Christopher Columbus' arrival:

The Nation Blog
Caribbean Native Languages and Cultures
Wikipedia: Indigenous People of the Americas
Indian Cultures

Battle of the Sexes

 

I decided  to poll a few friends of both sexes as a little experiment. I asked each of them individually to say out loud whatever first popped into their head upon being read the above list of words. I was surprised by how similar the results were, I even got "ball sack" and "short skirt" from the girls. I am interested to see if perhaps there would be a bigger difference if, instead of boys vs. girls, I had done college students vs. parents or any  socio-economic variety similar to that. Or even northerners vs. southerners might have given me more of a difference.

To argue against one's self

Since I am actually against acts contributing to global warming, for the purpose of this post, I will be arguing against the before-mentioned. Playing the part of my smart-ass, conservative father, here are my views supporting global warming:

(read: southern accent)

Who will need a beach house in Florida when year-round summer is just years away?! And all them pretty girls will save an ass load of money on those cancer boxes! This global warming deal is clearly win-win. You see, these left wing brain-washers are trying to take away our freedom to drive tractor trailers and keep those 'skeeters at bay with aerosol cans. I can't even tell ya who's slim enough to fit in one of them smart cars, that just ain't healthy. Those are communist cars you know. Hitler himself designed them and sold them to Castro right before he passed. They've got little radios in them stuck on that damn CNÑ. All the Cubans went crazy from it and that's why they keep drowning themselves in the ocean. I hear all this shit-talk about saving the penguins but they don't give a rat's ass about their own southern comi neighbors, some humanitarians right?

There's a little thing I like to call streamlining. Now it ain't pretty for everyone involved but it's a proven business technique. You just let-go all of the workin' folks that are holding your business back and, yeah a few tears hit the dirt but, the company runs more efficiently after. Global warming will do just that for the United States. Once those socialist, Obama-loving, states like New York and California join the little mermaid under the sea, we can get back to what true America is all about. Sweaty white folk in big trucks. That's the America I'll fight to preserve. And that's why I will stay strong in my stance for global warming.

Here's to the crazy ones

People put so much effort into fitting in that everyone forgets to stand out. We weren't born to assimilate the way we do, that is something we've been taught. This teaching starts day one of our lives; when a little girl is wrapped in pink and a little boy in blue. Girls are given dolls and boys are given trucks. We are handed scripts to live out and it takes little convincing until we are more than happy to do just that. Whatever happened to the days when the box held more hours of fun than the toy inside? Do parents realize when they make their child change out of his superman outfit and into his school clothes that he is learning? He is learning that he must wear certain clothes to be acceptable, that when he is not in the clothes that the other kids are wearing he is not fit to attend school.  And then they wonder why ten years later their daughter insists on wearing a $100 pair of jeans... or why she bullied an old friend who wore last season's shoes.

So who's going to stand up against society? Who is going to compliment the kid with the mohawk or cheer on the anime club? Who will encourage people to break the rules and make their own? Anyone? Bueller... Bueller...

I don't know that people ever will. At least not enough to make a real change. But maybe that's the point. What's a rule-breaker without a rule to break? Or rebel with no force to rebel against? Maybe society is set up this way to see who the real geniuses are, the ones who can see what they aren't being shown. Everyone has the potential to be creative, but it takes more than potential to make it in the creative world. You've got to put yourself out there, you've got to be willing to fail over and over again, you've got to be ridiculed, you've got to accept the disapproval of others. The ones who make it through that, the ones who spend their whole lives being their own biggest fan, the ones that do what it takes without fear of consequence, those are the crazy ones.