Old Grind Gag

I just thought I’d share a really shitty situation that I found myself in this morning. As many of you who read this know, it’s essay season… I’ve been bombarded, and now am overjoyed to say that I have ONE left! Anyway, continuing with my story…

I stayed up all last night finishing up an essay that was to be handed in at 4:00pm today. The writing was going great…I really enjoy writing essays of sociological theory class…. however, I ran out of coffee beans around 4:00am. I guess I could have started drinking tea… but I decided to instead try to make a shot of espresso from the coffee grinds that don’t quite make it into the portafiliter. I didn’t know how long they had been there for, and knew that it would most likely taste like shit because of the oxidation that would occur quickly after the grinding was done, but I decided to go through with it. This is a bad idea…

Don’t try this… it was disgusting… it literally made me gag. Needless to say, I battled the night with the help of tea instead of coffee.

So I guess…. don’t make shitty espresso from really old grinds… and …. don’t be a jackass and do something you know you shouldn’t…. just drink tea instead.

Is Vogue magazine Racially profiling?

On the cover of the newest edition of Vogue magazine is an example of racial profiling?

Take a good look at the new cover, and think about some of the emotions and profiles that come in mind… King Kong… primal…. primitive…dangerous…aggressive…powerful…criminal… Aren’t these thing we should be moving away from? Especially on the cover of a magazine that represents ‘high’ society in North America?

“So when you have a cover that reminds people of King Kong and brings those stereotypes to the front, black man wanting white woman, it’s not innocent,”

“Images of black male athletes as aggressive and threatening reinforce the criminalization of black men.”

Whose standpoint is coming through in these pictures? What is mistakenly being represented? Keep in mind that this is the first black man to ever pose on the cover of Vogue magazine…

I am not taking a side in this argument, what I want is to generate discussion on my post… Pease let me know what you think!

When Violating, Don’t Stroke to Long.

I guess the only significance this might have to my usual theme for blog posts is that this could very well take place on coffee break at your office. Sooo good, please continue!

In the sea of norms in which we live, many norms governing behavior are followed so automatically that we have no conscious knowledge of them.  The constraining nature of social norms is not perceived as long as one obeys.  Norms are not all equally strict, nor do they all carry the same kinds of sanctions.  It is only when one attempts to do otherwise — to be deviant — that we become very aware of the existence of social forces.  Some of the norms we take for granted are specific; for example, couples are expected to identify themselves as committed to one another, otherwise an unsuspecting single person might define the people as unattached and believe one of them is being flirtatious rather than just friendly.  Other norms are vaguely defined; for example, friends are expected to be friendly, but there are no clear rules about what and when they should be doing to demonstrate their friendliness. This video, which I thought to be pretty funny, would fall under the category of a vaguely defined norm. Please watch, and enjoy!