four ex-students avoiding the real world

elitedaily: The 20 Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make In Your 20s

Some of these are bogus and I totally don’t agree. But the site is called “elitedaily” so what can you do sometimes. In fact, it’s mostly terrible.

The link.
The simplified list. (Edited for people who want a normal life and don’t want to be jerks):

20. Working for money, not for building your dreams

19. Thinking that this is the right time to fall in love

18. Trying to act like the man rather than learning how to become one

17. Making friends instead of earning trust

16. Not caring because you only live once — that is for fools

15. Making all your wants, needs

14. Forgetting that family comes first

13. Blaming anyone else but yourself for anything in life

12. Getting comfortable like you actually deserve down time

11. Sticking with jobs that didn’t teach you anything

10. Following the crowd instead of forging against it

9. Failing to energize those around you

8. Think you need to stop learning and growing

7. Thinking that anyone will ever pay you back

6. Spending your money on women who aren’t escorts
                     …..like, WHAT?!

5. Holding on to friends that waste your time and add no value to your life

4. Forgetting about the piggy bank and spending every dollar you have

3. Mistaking safe sex for anything besides anal

2. Dating unstable women (HELLO, AND MEN) with mommy and daddy issues

1. Forgetting that karma is a huge b*tch


-Tas

motherjones: kateoplis: “Here are some broad descriptions about the generation known as Millennials: They’re narcissistic. They’re lazy. They’re coddled. They’re even a bit delusional. Those aren’t just unfounded negative stereotypes about 80 million Americans born roughly between 1980 and 2000. They’re backed up by a decade of sociological research. The National Institutes of Health found that for people in their 20s, Narcissistic Personality Disorder is three times as high than the generation that’s 65 or older. In 1992, 80 percent of people under 23 wanted to one day have a job with greater responsibility; ten years later, 60 percent did. Millennials received so many participation trophies growing up that 40 percent of them think they should be promoted every two years – regardless of performance. They’re so hopeful about the future you might think they hadn’t heard of something called the Great Recession.” The Me Generation Well, they’re right about the “save us all” part, anyway.

motherjones:

kateoplis:

“Here are some broad descriptions about the generation known as Millennials: They’re narcissistic. They’re lazy. They’re coddled. They’re even a bit delusional.

Those aren’t just unfounded negative stereotypes about 80 million Americans born roughly between 1980 and 2000. They’re backed up by a decade of sociological research. The National Institutes of Health found that for people in their 20s, Narcissistic Personality Disorder is three times as high than the generation that’s 65 or older. In 1992, 80 percent of people under 23 wanted to one day have a job with greater responsibility; ten years later, 60 percent did. Millennials received so many participation trophies growing up that 40 percent of them think they should be promoted every two years – regardless of performance. They’re so hopeful about the future you might think they hadn’t heard of something called the Great Recession.”

The Me Generation

Well, they’re right about the “save us all” part, anyway.

It’s graduation speech season!

I’ve posted links and quotes to this speech before, but here’s a well-made video of David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College.

Enjoy!

“…And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about in the great outside world of wanting and achieving … The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.”

-Tas

npr: Here are three common dishes served at home whose looks can be improved with a bit of design attention. These two-step tips are from food stylist Lisa Cherkasky.  — Serve a better-looking plate - The Washington Post Do you do this? — tanya b. Ah PGL. That time of life where hosting dinner parties involves more than breaking out the wings, dip and beer. Here’s some cool tips on how to plate your food so your friends/s.o. you’re trying to impress think you’re a master artiste! Essentials from the article: Instead of arranging things side by side on the plate, lean one against the other to build height and interest. Use a large white plate and don’t overfill it; white space makes food look better. Pick out nice pieces of meat and vegetables and arrange them, rather than spooning a big helping onto the plate.   A small mound of mashed potatoes creates a good platform. Green adds interest. Spoon sauce around sparingly. One simply grilled piece of meat, one side dish. By placing meat on top of the vegetables, you build height and add interest.  Garnish with fresh herbs (good for color and aroma) Bon Apetit! -Tas

npr:

Here are three common dishes served at home whose looks can be improved with a bit of design attention. These two-step tips are from food stylist Lisa Cherkasky. 

— Serve a better-looking plate - The Washington Post

Do you do this? — tanya b.

Ah PGL. That time of life where hosting dinner parties involves more than breaking out the wings, dip and beer. Here’s some cool tips on how to plate your food so your friends/s.o. you’re trying to impress think you’re a master artiste!

Essentials from the article:

  1. Instead of arranging things side by side on the plate, lean one against the other to build height and interest.
  2. Use a large white plate and don’t overfill it; white space makes food look better.
  3. Pick out nice pieces of meat and vegetables and arrange them, rather than spooning a big helping onto the plate. 
  4.  A small mound of mashed potatoes creates a good platform.
  5. Green adds interest.
  6. Spoon sauce around sparingly.
  7. One simply grilled piece of meat, one side dish.
  8. By placing meat on top of the vegetables, you build height and add interest. 
  9. Garnish with fresh herbs (good for color and aroma)

Bon Apetit!

-Tas

HOW TO RESPOND TO UGLY BUT SOMEWHAT TRUE FACEBOOK COMMENTS?

I have a serious PGL question for y’all.

In this technological Internet world wherein we can communicate with people who have long left our lives and who we would otherwise never talk to, there is the person who reaches out in an unwanted way.

image

So, I live in Turkey.

I have an Armenian Facebook friend who was in a study abroad program with me almost four years ago. We’re just FB friends.

If you didn’t know, Turkey and Armenia have some really shitty relations. Turkey has done some pretty brutal stuff (as in geno-freaking-cide) to Armenians in the past and won’t own up to it. 

Now, how do I respond to a comment like that? 

Facebook now has this feature where, when you delete a comment, you can send a message to the person with the deleted comment attached and give them feedback as to why you chose to remove it. I think it’s a fabulous feature.

Below is how I responded. I’m curious, though. What would you have done and how do you feel about people posting unprovoked and ugly truths on your wall? Things that people definitely should know of and think about, but in a more constructive way. It’s one thing to make that your status, but is it acceptable to make a statement on someone else’s? I’m just not sure.

image

It says: 

Hey T, 

I deleted your comment, and I wanted to explain why—please don’t think I did it because I disagree with what you were saying or don’t think you have the right to talk about important issues like the Armenian genocide openly.
I deleted your comment because 
1. It was very incendiary. Your tone and absolute disdain for all Turks, many of whom are only now slowly beginning to realize the atrocities they let occur in the past and present, is not something I can leave up on my wall, especially when it was unprovoked and uncalled for. There are proper forums to express these kind of emotions, and if you want to talk about history and present relations in a constructive manner, then maybe you can aim for a discussion on my personal Facebook page. 
2. I was honestly looking for something to do tomorrow. If I’d left your comment there and then proceeded to ignore it and make plans around it, I would have been belittling the point you were trying to make by acting as if it were unimportant or irrelevant, which it is ABSOLUTELY not. This is a very important issue here, and though I can’t pretend to feel the way you feel about it, I do believe it’s necessary for the Turkish nation to face what has happened and is happening in this country.

I know those aren’t rock-solid reasons to delete your comment, and I recognize that it was the easy way out for me, but I want the minimal amount of political interaction I have on my facebook to be constructive and illuminating, not volatile.

Tas

(for the record, he apologized)

I have so many things I’ve been avoiding writing about, but somehow this has spurred me to post. I was doing laundry and finally went to wash the second duvet cover on my comforter, (why there are two, I don’t know). And this photo is of what I discovered was hiding under there. I literally gasped out loud and did a little happy dance. How, at 24, I can still love this series so much that I feel the need to share this experience with all of my friends, family and followers really does say something: Harry Potter, you are magic. -Tas (Now my comforter can really live up to its name.)

I have so many things I’ve been avoiding writing about, but somehow this has spurred me to post.

I was doing laundry and finally went to wash the second duvet cover on my comforter, (why there are two, I don’t know). And this photo is of what I discovered was hiding under there.

I literally gasped out loud and did a little happy dance. How, at 24, I can still love this series so much that I feel the need to share this experience with all of my friends, family and followers really does say something: Harry Potter, you are magic.

-Tas

(Now my comforter can really live up to its name.)

The Colbert Nation web team (I’m calling us Little Women right now) got to visit the Colbert Report studio last week. It was awesome!! We took turns in Stephen’s chair behind that infamous desk… so surreal. I got chills.

-Malia

Going to shamelessly plug… I realized the Twitter account @TinaAndAmy wasn’t taken and was floored. When they hosted the Globes, no one seriously jumped on that boat?? THEY SHOULD DO EVERYTHING, PEOPLE. So I created the account. Please follow if you want some T & A quotes/updates/funny photos! Dream team, y’all. -Malia

Going to shamelessly plug… I realized the Twitter account @TinaAndAmy wasn’t taken and was floored. When they hosted the Globes, no one seriously jumped on that boat?? THEY SHOULD DO EVERYTHING, PEOPLE. So I created the account. Please follow if you want some T & A quotes/updates/funny photos! Dream team, y’all.

-Malia