Dances, Debates and Ann Gray

Imagine you are in a public place like the quad outside the library or in one of your college's buildings just having a nice time. It's possible that you are standing around hanging with friends. You could also be alone. Suddenly a man you have never met before gets behind you and starts pressing his pelvis against you repeatedly. This seems inherently wrong, no? It can be classified as sexual assault or at least harassment, especially if you tell him to back off and then he just comes back a few minutes later to try again. There is definitely something perverse about this situation, and I would hope you all would agree.
Now my question is: Why does adding music to this situation make it socially acceptable? Friends, I am talking about college dances. These profoundly confusing events are quite different from high school in one aspect. In high school, if you choose to get hot and heavy on the dance floor, it is with someone you know. It is consensual. It is still creepy, but I digress. Here at college, males just prowl through the masses of dancing students, single out females, and then exert their will upon them.

This issue has forced females who attend dances to create a system of defense. The girls must dance in groups together, staying close to one another in order to defend themselves against the men. It's almost like how animals move in a pack to protect themselves against their predators. In the female's system of protection seen at dances, they dance fairly close together, and it often could be seen as intimate if it weren't for the fact that the reason they do this is  the "stalking" males cannot.

Explosions, Brotherhood, and Mordor

Thermite reaction anyone?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to put on a warm coat and walk into the middle of a cornfield and spend the night there? Well, I have . . .

Note: I didn't actually spend the night in a cornfield, which would have been very difficult this time of year considering the harvest has come and gone, but I think it would be kinda fun. But maybe I'm just weird. Yeah, that's probably it. Does anyone remember that cornfield you have to run through in Left 4 Dead 2? That was fun. And this isn't the last reference to zombie video games in this post.

The Sea in Storm, a Night with No Moon, and a Concrete Owl

Hello everyone.  I apologize for essentially dropping off the face of the Earth till now.  I had a semi-shitty week, and realized at 2 AM on Friday that I only had -2 hours to post.  So yeah.  Anyway. EDIT: I wrote this intro before something cool happened just now.  I promise only about 1/15th of this post is pissy.

Skype cannot replace hugs. I miss my boy.

9:30 AM EST: I'm in class and I am not paying attention and I was looking forward to Rich's post. )=

3:21 PM EST: Everytime you check the blog something will be different!  Right now I am adding this Little Bee quote about tea because Jason and I miss tea!  Backstory: She is a Nigerian refugee talking to someone from Britain.

“Tea is the taste of my land: it is bitter and warm, strong, and sharp with memory.  It tastes of longing.  It tastes of the distance between where you are and where you come from.  Also it vanishes- the taste of it vanishes from your tongue while your lips are still hot from the cup.  It disappears, like plantations stretching up into the mist.  I have heard that your country drinks more tea than any other.  How sad that must make you -like children who long for absent mothers.  I am sorry.” (emphasis mine)

All this tea talk makes me want to call my Mom!

I love that: "like children who long for absent mothers".  Has tea ever made you feel that way? Me neither, but it's a beautiful image.  I highly recommend the book.  And to clear something up: Nicole said it's no Middlesex, which is no Name of the Wind.  I haven't read Name of the Wind and I know I won't convince anyone who's read it, but I'd assert that Middlesex is better than Name of the Wind.

What is this white powder on the ground?

It's Wednesday! Known to many as hump day! Hump in this case is a noun. Calm down. Don't mount your nearest classmate. Well, I mean, you can. But I would advise against it.

So the week before last week was break. And I didn't talk about it because I was too busy being a college student who scheduled things poorly. But do not fret! I will let you in on a little secret. All I did was sleep, consume massive amounts of food, and watch "Doctor Who", "A Very Potter Sequel", "Easy A" and this show called "The Misfits" with my friend Victoria. That's right, Rachael. We watched "Easy A". I thought of you giggling the entire time. 

Anyways, that was my break. Now let us look back upon last Thursday, where I spent the entire day, when not going to classes, working on my reading for Chemistry and meeting with my Lab group to work on our lab (surprise, surprise). I was so busy that I didn't have time for dinner. Yay! My new diet plan: always be working. Alright, that was the boring part of the week. Now onto FRIDAY!

November 26th. Cha for Tea. Be there or be square.

I don't know what I really want to talk about this week.  I swear this isn't like a follow the leader thing where all I do is imitate whatever Derek's post is about.  I just really have no extra special things to talk about this week. After typing up that last sentence I made what Favio now refers to as my duckface.  Apparently whenever I relate something that is sad or disappointing I make a "duckface" frown of sorts.  I tried looking up duckface on google images to find a picture in case you wanted some help visualizing this but the images were...less satisfactory than what I was looking for.  My duckface is definitely more of a frown, not whatever those people are doing.  At least I hope its not...