Guilty Pleasures

Spotify is, without a doubt, the greatest way to listen to music ever. Until I signed up, I had been listening to crappy lyric videos on YouTube, but now I can discover and share music to my heart's content. The only problem is the ads - in fact, it has been determined in a recent poll (aka: me and my friends complaining) that these ads are literally the most obnoxious things on the planet. As soon as you get really into an album or a song, they pop up, talking loudly and annoyingly and ruining your entire day (if not life). Usually they're either generic (mmm try this Coca-Cola), or random (Do you like this song? Then you need to buy car insurance!), but the other day I heard one that really made me think. Basically, it was promoting making playlists and sharing them with friends, and it ended by saying "What better way to define yourself than through your music?"

This seems like a strange way of looking at sharing your musical tastes, almost implying that you choose the music you do because of how it will affect your image (rather than because you genuinely like it). This really shows the division that has sprung up between the idea of liking something just because you like it, and the concept of creating an image. 

Spotify obviously knows how music tastes can change when it seems like they're on display, because they've made it possible to listen to music in a private session. I'll admit, I've used this setting before (I didn't think the world needed to know I had listened to "Applause" 37 times in a row) but I've been wondering why I feel the need to hide the fact that I've listened to "that kind of music." I don't pretend to know much (okay, anything) about music and what's good or bad, but I do know that I feel a lot more comfortable admitting I like Nirvana than, say, Carly Rae Jepson.

Sometimes, though, when I'm studying, or getting ready to go out, or driving in the car, or doing chores, or going on a walk (or basically anything), I'll want to listen to "trashy" music. Usually I attempt to write this off as a guilty pleasure, or, worse, as an "ironic appreciation." Yeah, I listened to "Kiss You" for three hours - but it's okay, because I did it ironically.

Then I read this amazing article, which completely changed my point of view. Dylan writes, "[My love of pop music] is not an ironic love, which is stupid, and also, what does that even mean? It’s not like I’m snickering in the corner when I loop “Call Me Maybe” in the morning. I loop “Call Me Maybe” because it’s the jam."

This shouldn't be a thing.

A few days later, I saw this quote from Dave Grohl:

I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you [freaking] like something, like it. That’s what’s wrong with our generation: that residual punk rock guilt, like, “You’re not supposed to like that. That’s not [freaking] cool.” Don’t [freaking] think it’s not cool to like Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” It is cool to like Britney Spears’ “Toxic”! Why the [freak] not? [Freak] you! That’s who I am, [gosh darn] it! That whole guilty pleasure thing is full of [freaking] [poop].* 

*Obviously, the only thing cooler than liking "Toxic" is substituting [freaking] for a naughty no-no word.

As Dylan concludes, "The coolest people I know are the ones who couldn’t care less about their personal cultural boundaries and just enjoy life and do whatever they want. They’re not too cool for anything, they’re cool enough for everything. That’s a much more exciting way to be."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to Mass Text. For three hours. Just because I can.

~Maya

Dear Nate Clark

Dear Nate Clark,

A couple of days ago, I saw Joey Graceffa's video about his car getting towed. Apparently he had been sitting a little bit across somebody's driveway. He mentioned he was afraid that he had left important information out in his car. I was bothered by the way that he said it, describing the car in the driveway as "fatass" and calling the owner a "slut", which even when it's not applicable and is a joke, is never acceptable.  However, I didn't think too much of it, especially since he makes videos discussing his life every day. Either way, your response to the incident was totally, completely inappropriate.

First off, I get it. Joey completely exaggerated what happened, and a few hundred thousand people heard it and assumed that it was true. I think the first four points you make in your video are fair, but you turning around and refuting everything he said publicly may not have been the way to handle it. A good old-fashioned phone call or facebook message may have done the trick, without you having to broadcast your private issues for the internet to see. And yes, I get it - that may not be fair to you, as Joey was the one that first discussed it in his video. But I watch him pretty often and like I said, he makes videos discussing his personal life every single day, and this incident was pretty insignificant and would have been quickly buried if you had not brought it to the public eye.

Besides, if you're going to spend three minutes discussing how much you disliked him insulting you, you might consider not turning around and doing the exact same thing. Insulting the way he makes his videos "just talk for five more minutes about nothing...but who wants to listen to that?" is putting yourself on the same level. No matter the circumstances, calling someone out on how much money they earn and how much they owe on the internet is so completely unacceptable!

Either way, I think both of you made mistakes, but I believe the way you handled this and the things that you said were totally inappropriate. It has brought lots of hatred over to Joey's channel, with far more dislikes than usual on his most recent video and a near endless stream of mean comments. I don't know if you didn't realize or understand the effect your words would have, or if you didn't care, but either way I think your response was pretty despicable.

Pretty Ugly

A while back, there was a trend going around Youtube.  Teenage girls would make a video of themselves asking anyone who watched it to comment, saying whether they are ugly or pretty, and to rate them on a scale of 1-10. The comments ranged from flat-out mean, to creepy, to some earnestly offering advice.






Louise Orwin first saw this trend when she was on Tumblr and found the "thinspiration" tag. In this tag were thousands of pictures of slim women, ranging from naturally slim to practically emaciated, that are shared as inspiration for teenage girls trying to lose weight. "I got obsessed with the way these teenage girls were using Tumblr. I felt like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole." She thought it was strange, saying "when I was a teenager, I was writing in a diary. Today teenagers are posting onto Tumblr." During this course of research she saw one of the "pretty or ugly" videos pop up. " I saw a really young girl pouting and posing in front of the camera. Her language was something that struck me. It was really teenage language; she was talking about how boys at school were picking on her but there was one guy who fancied her and she didn't know why boys didn't like her," Orwin explained. "I was horrified by it. Then you look at the comments below, they were horrific...I couldn't imagine myself posting a video like that, because I would have thought that she was opening herself up to a huge amount of criticism."

So as an experiment, Orwin created three teenage alter-egos: Becky, an emo girl, Amanda, a nerdy girl, and Baby, your average conventionally attractive popular girl, and posted a video as each of them. Immediately, she received floods of responses. "I got torrents of abuse. People were telling me to fuck of and die." Becky especially was targeted, with 200 comments in a week, nearly all of which were vicious. "I woke up and read all of this abuse and I really felt it in my stomach. I had to remind myself that it's not me, it's the character. Meanwhile, for her character Baby, she received hundreds of private messages, most of which from men, asking her to post more videos of herself or contact them directly despite the fact that Baby was supposed to be only 15 years old. Upon noticing this, she sat down and analyzed the comments and messages she received on her videos, finding that 70 percent of the feedback was from men, and most of the commenters were under 18.

One commenter that stood out in Orwin's mind was a user named RookhKshatriya, who wrote "you're a 4, and without glasses you are a 5". Upon looking at his channel, she discovered that he is actually a London-based academic who works in education and labels himself an "anti-feminist", making videos stating that the "Anglo-American brand of feminism that emerged in the 60s is has an ulterior misandrist agenda'. (View his hideous blog, Anglobitch, here.) "He takes himself very seriously, but he's going on Youtube and rating 15-year-old girls," says Orwin. 

Another thing that was intriguing to Orwin was the fact that these videos were sometimes as much about being on top of a trend as asking the question. "Part of the reason that a lot of them post the videos is yes, they want to know whether they are pretty, but they also see the trend going round and it's just another subject to make a video on. Which is strange."

Orwin now runs a show, Pretty Ugly, following the trail of her research, studying the relationships Becky, Amanda, and Baby have with the commenters and the people that messaged them. "Conversations with trolls, friendships...it also covers all the creepy side of it."

Interestingly, the show begins with her asking the audience the central question: do they think she is pretty or ugly. "I need to show how irrelevant that question should be.  Would you go up to a person on the street and ask them that? I am trying to make this world into a live, face-to-face world." She is struck by the way digital media is changing the way we perceive ourselves and each other, wondering what it will mean for feminism in the future.  She says she remembers coming to a certain age when we people were starting to talk about the pressure of media, and how it represents beauty. "Nw if you look on Tumblr, Youtube, Twitter, it's not the media, but the teenage girls themselves perpetuating this myth. They're resharing these images, reblogging. There's always going to be peer pressure, but I think social media makes these issues worse." But the issue isn't about removing the social media entirely. "It's about changing attitudes toward things and teaching girls to take responsibility for themselves online."

Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to go unfollow all of the beauty boards I have been following on Pinterest.

If Modern-Day Harry Potter Had Instagram

I saw Buzzfeed post about this today and basically died.

Can I just say how much I love that ron is roonilwazlib?

Dear Random Person In Line Behind Me At H-E-B...

Dear Random Person In Line Behind Me At H-E-B (or whatever),
I know.  When you hear I'm homeschooled, it's pretty intriguing. It's out of the ordinary and I know you've got to be pretty interested in what I do and how that all works.  But you know what? There's kind of a standard set of questions that are asked of high school homeschoolers, and over the years, and I've gotten a little tired of answering them.  So here - I'm going to put those answers out there right now.  Just for you.

Do you go to a one day academy or something?
Yes, I take a few classes, and I go to a book group and AP study group.

So...your mom teaches you?
Not really. She still teaches my brothers, but since I'm older she mostly just assigns me what I need to do before the year starts and I work through it on my own. 

Do you like it?
Yeah, I like it a lot. 

How do you make any friends?
*internal groan* There are lots of homeschoolers in Austin and we do meet ups and clubs and co-ops and things like that.  (But here, you're really thinking: you sit silently in a classroom next to people eight hours a day, and I do homework for five hours and hang out with friends for the rest of the day, and you're assuming that I'm the one that doesn't have a social life?)

So...do you take tests? 
*Tugging on your mom's arm in an attempt to leave* Yeah, I sometimes take standardized tests just to assure myself that I'm at grade level and I know how to take tests. Usually someone just has a bunch of us just come and take it at once as practice.  

How's college going to work out?
*Puppy-dog eyes* *silently begging your mom to answer the question for you* *giving in to the fact that she's pretending not to be there*  It'll work the same way that anyone else's application for college will work. I'll keep taking classes and making a transcript and I'll take the SAT test. I think all colleges accept homeschooler - in fact, some look for them.

What's wrong with public schools?  -OR- Do you learn more at a public school or as a homeschooler?
*prayers for sudden death so I don't have to answer* I personally just homeschool so that I can work at my own pace, going faster through some subjects and being a grade level in other things.

Hope that helps!

Thanks,



P.S. The answers are true to most people I know, but they will really differ person to person. A big part of homeschooling is having the freedom to decide what classes you will take, how many, and where you will take them.  

Learning English by writing short stories inspired by pictures

A few days ago, I saw a post on Buzzfeed about a Japanese girl, nicknamed "A",  who is learning to speak English by writing short stories based off of pictures from her Skype teacher, "Pony".  I looked through the Tumblr account that they have together and picked out the ones that were just too adorable not to share.

Have’t you done it yet? I’m tired of being the Hello Kitty. I realy want you to finish it because it’s a dark chapter of my life. However, if you draw me I look bad, I won’t forget you.

I’m a very shy model and I can’t look straight at cameras. I had a talk about it to my boss and she brought this wig. It was a good idea because people didn’t recognize when I looked down as I was walking in the runway.

She was eating cotton candy, and the cloud got close to her. The cloud said, “If you give me cotton candy, I will fall candy instead of rain.” She gave it to the cloud, but she didn’t believe him. However, now a lot of candy is falling from the sky, he kept his promise to her.

This is the newest Olympic game which is called Olympic husband hammer. The rule is very simple, you just throw your hasband as far as possible with screaming. You can get rid of stress, and get a fame and a shame.

Hey, I’m floating and this condition is out of my control. I can see a flying object in front of me. Is that a UFO by any chance? Will I be a victim? There isn’t any good thing if you will kidnap me.

My dog is like the reincarnation of Beethoven because he plays the piano all alone. I haven’t taught how to play the piano before, but he knows it for some reason. What’s more, his music is partly similar to Beethoven’s music. He’s the apple of my eye, but he’s a genuine genius.

I said, “Your dog looks so smart and cute as always. I want to have like your dog.” Of course, it was a flattery. I didn’t think so at heart what I thought was that my pet of a snake is the smartest and cutest!

Trashes are washed up on the beach. We collect then and made this boat which is used for collecting trashes. We have been planning to move to another city when it will be clean by the boat.

International Day of the Girl: Spotlight on Malala Yousafzai

Today is International Day of the Girl and the theme is innovating girls' education, so it seems only fitting to spotlight the brilliant Malala Yousafzai and all that she has done.

Malala Yousafzai is a 16-year-old Pakistani girl who survived a gunshot to the head after being targeted by the Taliban for supporting girls' education. She has been giving TV interviews on the issue since she was 11, and the assassination attempt has drawn worldwide attention to the struggle for women's rights in Pakistan.  Even now, Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told the Associate Press in an interview that "we will feel proud upon her death.".  But Malala has kept fighting. The assassination attempt has led to the creation of the Malala Fund, a campaign for girl's education worldwide.  President of the EU legislature, Matin Schulz, said "Malala  bravely stands for the right of all children to be granted a fair education. This right for girls is too commonly neglected."  She currently lives in Birmingham, England and was a contender for this year's  Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest person ever to have been considered. She won Europe's top human rights award, the $65,000 Sakharov Award, is expected to meet with Queen Elizabeth II later this month, and was in New York on Thursday, discussing her experiences and promoting her memoir "I am Malala" in television media interviews.  

Amazing interview with her on the Daily Show: