Dear World,

Why are you so cruel?  I haven't even truly gone out yet to experience all that you have to offer, whether you present hurdles or shortcuts to me, and I know that you're dastardly already.  Why did man create such a corrupt society, one that embraces the most outlandish and terrible practices while rejecting the more benefiting ones (not benefiting for the pockets of big-time corporates, but for the world in its entirety)?  I daresay I am appalled.  Sometimes I wish I were an angler fish, or some obscure species of animal that lives far away from the disgusting species of deformed primates, or that I was born somewhere else in the universe away from this beautiful planet that humans have managed to ruin.  Sometimes I wish I could enter the realm of my dreams and not have to deal with the harshness of reality, but I know I can't.  I can't escape this bubble of hatred, greed, and vice, unless I miraculously build a rocket to shoot myself into the Sun, or perhaps a time machine that could send me to a better future where the world isn't much of the craptastic mess it is now.

So I will be waiting for your downfall, O human-induced world.  When humanity finds itself at the precipice, I will sit back and laugh as they try to mend something beyond fixing.  There won't be a need to say 'I told you so'.

Death, I don't fear you.

Life is another story.

Mapping Everyday: Gender, Blackness, and Discourse in Urban Context: My Take On It

This article was very interesting, and quite true.  Our society is tightly wrapped in a blanket of racism, sexism, and discrimination, one that we "attempt" to unwrap but ultimately stay bound to.  The media is so concerned with exploiting minorities, and practically point fingers on who's making society the craptastic mess it currently is.  Sexism towards women has altogether made men terrible obstructions, whereas it has made women believe that being submissive and ultimately undermined is acceptable.  The quotes made by the students, specifically the remarks about porn, sexual violence/abuse towards women, and the comment about D.C., had a particular impact on how I read the entirety of this article.  They made me think: why is society this way?  Why do we separate ourselves from one another?  Is there a way to amend society?

Mapping Everyday: Gender, Blackness, and Discourse in Urban Context

"Finding the Critical Geographers useful once again, we turn to Lefebvre and Soja, this time on the discussion of the spaces of representation (in Soja's trialectic described as Thirdspace) which are seen as distinct from spatial practice (Soja's Firstspace) andrepresentations of space (Soja's Secondspace), but also as encompassing them. This Thirdspace is “directly lived, with all its intractability intact, a space that stretches across the images and symbols that accompany it, the space of ‘inhabitants’ and ‘users”’ and spaces of representation “are linked to the ‘clandestine or underground side of social life”’ (Soja 1996, 67). The concurrent nature of spatial dynamics then offers an opportunity to recognize the discursive in the construction of the social while still insisting upon the focus on the material, the lived experiences of space."


The whole concept of this so-called 'space' discussed in this article completely passed over my head.  I don't understand what is meant by this 'space', 'thirdspace', etc.  I am literally writhing in confusion.

Indigenous Resistance - Evading Oppression

I'd first like to start by saying this was a very interesting article.  Everyone knows that the Native Americans have been oppressed by both the American and Canadian governments, but most don't know to what extent.  This article outlines the trials and tribulations that the Coast Salish peoples on both the American and Canadian sides of the border went through in schooling.  Through the use of residential and boarding schools, the USA and Canada attempted to completely assimilate the Coast Salish peoples into white culture, diffusing out the culture of their ancestors; luckily, it was a complete and utter failure thanks to various strategies implemented by these indiginous people (e.g. not allowing the kids to attend the schools, allowing the children to attend Indian-only schools, accusations of racism, etc).  The Indian students of these assimilatory institutions were often reguarded in a negative way by their white classmates; however, they managed to perservere.  Though it took a little while before some equality was reached (it took longer in Canada than in the USA), the Coast Salish people managed to retain their culture, even though there was some mixing between the white and Coast Salish cultures.

It's hard to believe that this was going on no less than three decades ago...actually, I lied.  It isn't hard to believe.  Why?  You can come up with an answer to that question for yourself.