A cookie is worth a thousand words

Also Why Girl Scouts Rarely Get Harassed by the Homeless
Hobo: Hey! Is them cookies good? Is they good?
Commuter, holding bag of cookies: I'll give you a cookie.
Hobo: Thanks, man. What kind of cookies is these?
Commuter: Coconut.
Hobo: Thanks. Hey, can you do me a favor?
Commuter: I gave you a cookie.
Hobo: Yeah...you got me.

--Penn Station
via Overheard in New York, Feb 22, 2009

More NYU Madness

Updated story from Gothamist: NYU Student Occupation Continues: They're "Not Gonna Take It"

The Handmaid's Tale

Just Read: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

My sentence free summary and review: suppression of women, scary, misinterpreting scripture, religious oppression, future, unreliable narrator (maybe), technology, sexy, unsexy, subconscious sexism

My one sentence review: The narrator's voice and the fact that the author indicts everyone while not taking potshots at any particular group, are really what breathe life and credibility into this well-crafted parable.

When college students do stupid things and think it's profound

Conversation in Response to: Day 2: NYU Students’ Occupation of Kimmel

Alexander: When will the capitalist pigs give the vegan food and cigarette breaks the masses crave! me: Right
Mmmhmm
Alexander: I am currently occupying my desk
Viva le Alex!
I will sit here until the school meets my demands of a salary!
And then I will sit here some more!
me: Hahahaha
The question is, do you have boobies?
I only care about the demands of topless feminists
Alexander: Unfortunately not. Nor a vagina.
me: Damn
Alexander: I can draw boobies
I just need a protractor
And I can grab boobies
Does either skill help?
me: No
Alexander: So, what do you think about the Kimmel 60
me: Boobies
I think this is stupid
Alexander: It just seems so silly
me: It is
Like, if I were 19, it would be awesome
and if their demands made sense, it would be awesome
Their general stance, which calls for more budget transparency and more student involvement in larger decisions is fine and worth fighting for...
...but tacking on the Gaza stuff and the Coke stuff and the TA stuff to this particular protest just pretty much strikes any legitimacy they may have
...as do the naked "feminists"
Alexander: There are naked feminists?
me: YES!
Alexander: I didn't know you were being specific to this
me: The BOOBIES!
Alexander: I thought you were just talking about an IDEAL protest
me: nsfw, unless your work is like my work: http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2009/02/19/flashy-protesting
No...THIS protest
Alexander: forehead slap
me: Yes
Yes
Alexander: Ok, this is just retarded
It's like....you know what's it's like
It's like when movie producers want to make a genre teen comedy
And they find every cliche element possible and throw it together to make a bland, pointless mess
That's what this protest is like
It's doing a lot of things, none of them well, and it has no actual point other than to get people to look at it
me: Yes!
Yes!
Argh!
Alexander: And it's so tediously unoriginal
And wtf, make the library open to the public?
That's just dumb
There's a public library!
It's called, The Public Library!
And guess what, it's better than Bobst
The problem is since ANYBODY can take out the books they aren't always waiting for NYU students
Hence, Universities have their own libraries

Further Reading:

• From Gawker:
  1. Revolution Strikes the NYU Food Court!
  2. Vegan Lunch Dilemma Brings NYU Revolutionaries to Brink of Explosion
  3. Let Us Consider The NYU Twerps
• From The New York Times: Live on the Web, the N.Y.U. Occupation
• From Gothamist: NYU Students Occupying Kimmel Center Cafeteria

Jennifer Government

Just read: Jennifer Government by Max Barry

My sentence-free summary and review: capitalizm, humour, dystopia, privatization, family, awkward love, police, heroine, tie-in browser game, USA, Nike, Wal-Mart?

My one sentence review: It's no 1984, but it's still smart, funny, fun, and a worthwhile, quick read.

Madeleine L'Engle

Self-forgetting

"Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to by fears, beckoned by hopes. Small wonder that what he craves most is self-forgetting."
-Eric Hoffer

Moving on with life

The More Loving One
by W.H. Auden

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

Maple

Perhaps it is subconsciously due to the upcoming Valentine's Day, despite the fact that I think it's more related to events currently happening in my and others' lives, that I have been in a particularly sappy mood. It is also partially due to all of the flack the movie He's Just Not That Into You is currently receiving for being a shitty movie, which is unfortunate, because romantic comedies don't have to be trite, sexist displays of patheticness. Anyway, I'm in a romcom mood.

Edit: I originally included a clip from Notting Hill, but since I'm actually watching My Best Friend's Wedding (or just finished watching it) and because I find it more pertinent to singles than Notting Hill, I've included the final scene below, that pretty much almost changed my life in high school, for putting words to something that had been scratching in my consciousness. Spoiler alert, obvs.

Success