What Goes Around Comes Around: Ted Talk With Naomi Klein

This is such an important talk on so many levels, including breaking my blogging silence!

Lets have a conversation about this.  I know I have been quiet for a few weeks here, however you can still find me updating pictures and messages on the sister blog via Tumblr, which is also linked at the top of this page. If you have an account follow me on there, if you don't, make one so you can!  

"This is our only home, there is no escape hatch...life is too precious to be risked for any profit." 

What stands out or strikes you as interesting, important, or controversial in this video?  Have you read anything by Naomi Klein?  Do you have any other comments or suggestions regarding this video directly or indirectly?  Comment below or email me shapedbymylife@gmail.com

Occupy Wall Street: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, But It Will Be Blogged

Photo Courtesy: Peter Whitley

The revolution is being blogged, facebooked, tweeted, tumbled, youtubed, photographed, written about, and discussed.  Occupy Wall Street has been taking place for weeks in New York City.  Protestors began occupying Wall Street September 19th, 2011; many have not left, many continue to come.

Within in the first week or so it became clear the police were not trained knowing how to deal with peaceful protestors.

 Immortal Technique uses Occupy Wall Street as a platform:

Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West discuss the Occupation with Keith Olbermann

Today marks 30 days of the movement; Occupy Wall Street has moved out of NYC and protestors are occupying world wide!  Here is a video of Beethoven's 9th Ode to Joy played live in Madrid. The crowd raised their empty palms chanting "these are our weapons," a sign of their peaceful resistance.  It's a beautiful sight.

Citibank Customers Arrested for Closing Accounts.  Is this what they call customer service?

A message from Anonymous to the 99%:

I AM NOT MOVING- A short film: perspective.

"It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."-George Carlin

Do you stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street Movement?  Have you been to any of the protests?  Comment below or email me shapedbymylife@gmail.com

Reinventing Feminism with Courtney Martin

After graduating college, I too had lofty ideas and was full of grandiose expectations.  My desire to change the world, at least to have a positive impact and work towards creating community, understanding, and compassion have never gone away.  I was lost as to how to do so.  The paradoxes mentioned in this talk are so on point.  I could identify with feeling overwhelmed, yet knowing that I didn't want these feelings to stop me from doing something.  This greatly contributed to the creation of this blog.

What I also love about this talk is that it doesn't even address the nazi-feminist persona that is so widely misused to describe what feminism is.  A person who claims that someone who is standing up for themselves and others who have been categorized as second-class citizens at any point and time, is quite the opposite of what nazism was about.  I love that feminism is reinventing itself, not complete.  Another sentiment Martin doesn't address in the talk is the term post-feminism.  I can't stand people discussing issues and claiming that feminism is dead or not needed.  It creates a false reality: that equality exists, that misogyny doesn't, and that patriarchy is no longer an issue; all of which are not true!  It's the same as claiming we live in a post-racist, post-classist, post-discriminatory world.  I proudly claim "This is what a feminist looks like!"


Thoughts and feedback are always welcome.  What makes you identify or not identify as a feminist?  Comment below or email me shapedbymylife@gmail.com

Security: Eve Ensler's TED Talk

Comments below or email me shapedbymylife@gmail.com

No Spain No Gain

ON THE LINE from amira bochenska on Vimeo.

BE the revolution! Think globally, act locally!

Comment below or email me shapedbymylife@gmail.com

Mo Money, Mo Problems

You can't turn on, or read the news, without coming across information (or sensationalism) regarding the debt ceiling and the financial crisis this country has gotten itself into.  Jon Stewart is one way I can follow-up my news intake without losing my mind.  At the end of July, this is where we stood, with news captions and articles creating a sense of fear that collapse was just around the corner: Stewart Takes On the President's Debt Ceiling Address.

With an agreement signed, only lowering the ceiling by a miniscule amount; you can view Stewart's appropriate response here, for the first time ever, this country has lost it's AAA Credit rating. 

From the MSNBC article US Government Loses Triple A Credit Rating:
"CNBC's John Harwood reported that S&P told the federal government at 1:30 p.m. ET Friday that it was preparing to downgrade the country's rating.
But Harwood reported that after U.S. officials pointed out an error in how S&P computed the ratio of U.S. debt to the gross domestic product, S&P decided to reconsider.  A source said S&P's calculations were off by "trillions," CNBC reported. A source familiar with the discussions said that the Obama administration believes S&P's analysis contained "deep and fundamental flaws."  S&P confirmed it changed its economic assumptions after discussion with the Treasury Department but said it did not affect its decision to downgrade." 

The article goes on to report, "The theme running throughout S&P's analysis is the breakdown in the ability of the Democratic and Republican parties to govern effectively. The agency said that policymaking and political institutions had weakened in the past few months "to a degree more than we envisioned." This has major implications for the nation's budget and debt problems...The compromise reached by Republicans and Democrats this week calls for creation of a bipartisan congressional committee to find $1.5 trillion of deficit cuts by late November, beyond the $917 billion already identified."
 
If you haven't had your fill yet, you can read more about the US Credit Rating Downgraded from The Huffington Post.

 

 

And I leave you with this article from The Huffington Post listing countries with higher credit ratings that the US.  How can we continue to proclaim that we are the greatest and freest country, when clearly, we're not.  Claiming something doesn't just make it true.  Actions speak louder than words, and saying our government is "of the people, by the people, for the people" hasn't rung true in far too long.

The Personal is Political

A writing professor once said that the personal is political and the political is personal.  I don't want to turn this into a political blog, however the personal is political therefore impossible to ignore; globally and locally, so much happened in the last few weeks:

Republicans are trying to redefine rape. I am in COMPLETE disagreement with this. You can sign the petition here and also read more about it at Moveon.org.  There is a great skit on The Daily Show, one of the few reasons I miss having cable, but am happy to be able to access it online.

The nation's largest provider of health care to low-income women (and men) are under attack: Defend Planned Parenthood!

Here are several articles and videos that are interesting about the upheaval in Egypt: Tariq Ramadan & Slavoj Zizek, Egypt Opposition Agree on Constitution Amendment Need, Into Egypt's Uncharted Territory, The Woman Who's Explaining Egypt to the West.

Being a writer and someone who loves reading memoirs, I found this article on the New York Times website really interesting and true. (If you can't enter the site immediately, it's really easy to set up an account).  www.dictionary.com defines memoir as a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation, an account of one's personal life and experiences, autobiography, the published record of the proceedings of a group or organization, as of a learned society, a biographical sketch.

Too many people are writing blogs (possibly mine included in this group of unwanted news/opinion); although in my defense I'm not just uploading pictures of my kids (which I don't have) or giving every single detail of my life because frankly, it's boring to hear every single detail about famous people, let alone people who aren't!  So the trend of too many blogs, this article hits home for too many memoirs being written and published. What kills me the most are the poorly written memoirs on the shelves today; I won't name names, but there are plenty cluttering bookshelves. Luckily, it doesn't make the great memoirs any less great. I could list a bunch I do recommend, or you can join and follow my profile on goodreads.

In local news, I heard from various friends Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings had an incredible performance at The State Theatre. I wanted to go, but have been overwhelmed with trying to get information and assistance to help with rent.  Unfortunately, apparently receiving less than $200 a week on unemployment means I "make" too much money to receive emergency assistance.  I can't even being to express my disappointment in the system.  I'm looking forward to a trip out of town to see old friends and set new goals for myself at the gym next week. 

Welcome Wagon

I am shaped by my life, both twisted and straight. -Marge Piercy

I'm a 27 year old female living in Ithaca, New York. After graduating with a B.A. in writing in 2005 I moved away and have been back in town now for three and half years.  I've wanted to start a blog but was undecided about whether I wanted to focus on a single theme; I came to the conclusion I don't want to limit myself. I am my favorite subject to analyze, dissect, create and recreate. I will write about sex, relationships, food, the world, art, music, books, and writing. Maybe as time goes on I will get more of a grip as to what this space is for. So here it is. Follow as this twenty-something tries to take it one day at a time.