four ex-students avoiding the real world

Posts tagged tas

i spend my days answering the question ‘hey, does anyone want these leftover oreos that i’m not going to eat?’ with ‘ME.’

—Malia (to Tas)

I know, I know. I’m already sick of all the mothers’ day wishes. BUT. I’m proud of these photo finds. -Tas All my desi homegirls, you get me?

I know, I know. I’m already sick of all the mothers’ day wishes. BUT.
 I’m proud of these photo finds.

-Tas

All my desi homegirls, you get me?

This Trendy "Strong is the New Skinny" Thing (and what it could mean for the next generation of girls)

READ THIS LINK, READ THIS READ THIS. Please.

some key excerpts:

For the record: Teenage girls are so goddamn moody because they are always fucking hungry.I guarantee you that every teenage girl’s angst is amplified ~300% because  she is 1) miserable because she’s on a diet and hungry 2) miserable because she’s “on a diet” but just ate a cake and feels really guilty and is considering regurgitating it 3) miserable because she’s given up on dieting and resigned herself to being “fat”. And  why do we do this to ourselves?

Because we want to be thin and beautiful.

… The time when I was my skinniest and most photographically beautiful (i.e. I looked magazine-cover-skinny) was also the time when I was at my weakest, in all senses of the word. I was constantly asking the guys downstairs to opens jars for me, and if they weren’t home, well then I was shit out of luck (and pasta sauce). Trying to carry my own suitcases while traveling between Seattle and Montreal was (pathetically) a nightmare. Even carrying pitchers of beer at the bar I was working at was a struggle for my skeletal arms. I was sleeping 12 hours a day and constantly tired. I’m sure that my brain wasn’t functioning all too well either.

Now I wonder how my life would have been different if people had encouraged girls (me) to be strong instead of skinny.

I think back to high school, when I put myself on a 1200 daily calorie limit, even though I was running 3-5 miles daily.  I attended a reputably rigorous high school with a 5 AP course load, woke up at 6:30 am, went to school, did extracurriculars, worked part-time, and often went to bed at 2-3am. I was counting calories, denying myself food, guilt-ing myself when I did eat, and even though I was never more that 120 lbs., I never stopped pinching my “fat” every time I looked in a mirror. I was hungry, angry, tired, and depressed all the time. And I was a teenager. Let’s not forget that part.  Teenagers are hellions.

…My goal has changed from “be a size zero” to do a motherfucking pull up.  I have gained far more self-esteem from being able to pick up heavy shit that I ever have from being able to zip up a skin-tight designer dress.  I became a more capable, energetic, independent, and mentally focused person once my focus shifted from what my body  looks like to what my body can do

But it’s just tragic - no sarcasm here- really really tragic how a large majority of young girls in America spend their time obsessing over their weight, devoting time, energy, emotions, and effort into being skinny.

It’s tragic because you have to the think of all of the potential that is lost when a whole generation of girls care more about fitting into minuscule pants instead of… oh I don’t know… running for student council, pursing a passion, studying, volunteering, playing sports, working, furthering woman’s rights… the list could go on and on. My main point is, girls waste so much time on being skinny – because we are taught that is is important if we want to be successful- when we could be devoting their efforts to becoming so much more powerful than simply skinny.

Dear Society: Please assist me in convincing young girls that “strong is the new skinny”.

Encourage them to eat. Don’t let them diet. Discourage the idolization of anorexic and bulimic celebrities. Make them exercise instead. Teach them that “exercise” means running, jumping, sweating, grunting, working hard, and kicking ass- it doesn’t mean flapping their arms around in some trendy, overpriced Trogalaties course, or running on the elliptical until they pass out. Help them realize their own strength. All of these things will help girls realize their full potential, both physically and mentally. It will help girls become self-confident, capable, and literally and figuratively strong. A girl who is encouraged to be strong instead of skinny will have higher self-esteem, respect, ambitions, and worth. She will never be a victim. She will be healthy. She will be a leader. She will be confident. She will be kick-ass.

-Tas

genderbitch: masksarehot: gaobibaituo: awesome-everyday: shorterexcerpts: thecallus: theatlantic: The Cheapest Generation: Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Cars or Houses? What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery. Read more. [Image: Kagan McLeod] It’s safe to say that a decent number of Tumblr users are a part of the Millennial generation. So, tell us: Do you own a car or house? If not, why? IT’S BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO DISPOSABLE INCOME YOU THUNDERING IDIOTS. Fucking preference has nothing to do with it. 50% of college graduates have no job! They all have the most student loan debt ever! What are you asking this question for?! Also: housing is a good bit more expensive now. My parents got a 15-year mortgage on a new house in the mid-70s. The house was $32,000. Average home price in that area now? $190,000. So, home prices went up. Food prices went up. Health care prices went WAY UP. Rent prices went up. Higher education went up so damn high that some of us forgo that all together. Energy prices went up. Car prices went up. Prices of prices went up. We also pay cell phone bills, internet bills, data plans, text plans, online subscriptions, cable/satellite tv, netflix, DVR subscriptions — bills that didn’t even exist 30-40 years ago. We also use computers and smartphones and microwaves and other consumer electronics that didn’t exist 20-50 years ago. We need medications and doctors and contact lenses and tampons and maxi pads and other things that cost money just to be alive and keep us healthy. Most of us can’t afford to: Get married and have a “Traditional” big wedding Buy a house Buy a new car PLAN to have children Take two, consecutive weeks of vacation. Jobs that paid 50k in the late 1990s now pay between 30-35. Interest rates that favor consumers have gone down. So I say, no. We are not choosing not to buy homes. We’re not choosing to take the bus in cities where there’s no good public transit. WE ARE NOT CHOOSING TO LIVE WHAT SOCIETY DEEMS AS AN UNDESIRABLE LIFESTYLE. Don’t even get me started on the fact that these two people in the picture are young white hipsters. Young black and brown folks have been forgoing homeownership and buying new cars for decades, this shit isn’t new, pal. You’re just acting like this shit is new because it’s hitting white folks. anyway, my point is: We are fucking broke.  fuck all these articles written by assholes who actually know nothing about our generation FUCK THEM FUCKTHEM I’m either Gen X or Millennial, depending which dates you use, and so I’m old enough to have been living on my own as a lot of this started spinning out of control. It was like watching a trainwreck. The current state of all of this is ridiculous. I was going to go on a long rant about Boomers refusing to age gracefully, the impact of 9/11, the double-edged sword that is globalization, and our current loan culture and confusion of “needs vs. wants” that has been bred into us by clever marketing, but I’m too angry, and it was getting too long. So I’ll just say this: the system is seriously out of whack, and we’re in this strange place where we’re both trapped in bubbles and depressions at the same. I keep waiting for market corrections that just don’t seem to be happening. And also, I’ll just throw up Crack Shack or Vancouver Mansion for reference. And if you visit it, bear in mind that this is in a city where the AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD INCOME is $46K. FORTY-SIX THOUSAND A YEAR. Oh, yeah, the system isn’t broken at all…damn those cheap fucking Millennials & Gen-X-ers! Is every dipshit who writes these articles a rich sheltered moron? Cuz if I had fucking money I would buy those things. I DON’T HAVE FUCKING MONEY. Pretty sure I posted the orginial article way back when.Reblogging for the commentary. If you didn’t read the original article:here. -Tas

genderbitch:

masksarehot:

gaobibaituo:

awesome-everyday:

shorterexcerpts:

thecallus:

theatlantic:

The Cheapest Generation: Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Cars or Houses?

What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery.

Read more. [Image: Kagan McLeod]

It’s safe to say that a decent number of Tumblr users are a part of the Millennial generation. So, tell us: Do you own a car or house? If not, why?

IT’S BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO DISPOSABLE INCOME YOU THUNDERING IDIOTS. Fucking preference has nothing to do with it. 50% of college graduates have no job! They all have the most student loan debt ever! What are you asking this question for?!

Also: housing is a good bit more expensive now.

My parents got a 15-year mortgage on a new house in the mid-70s. The house was $32,000. Average home price in that area now? $190,000.

So, home prices went up. Food prices went up. Health care prices went WAY UP. Rent prices went up. Higher education went up so damn high that some of us forgo that all together. Energy prices went up. Car prices went up.

Prices of prices went up.

We also pay cell phone bills, internet bills, data plans, text plans, online subscriptions, cable/satellite tv, netflix, DVR subscriptions — bills that didn’t even exist 30-40 years ago. We also use computers and smartphones and microwaves and other consumer electronics that didn’t exist 20-50 years ago.

We need medications and doctors and contact lenses and tampons and maxi pads and other things that cost money just to be alive and keep us healthy.

Most of us can’t afford to:

  1. Get married and have a “Traditional” big wedding
  2. Buy a house
  3. Buy a new car
  4. PLAN to have children
  5. Take two, consecutive weeks of vacation.

Jobs that paid 50k in the late 1990s now pay between 30-35. Interest rates that favor consumers have gone down.

So I say, no. We are not choosing not to buy homes. We’re not choosing to take the bus in cities where there’s no good public transit. WE ARE NOT CHOOSING TO LIVE WHAT SOCIETY DEEMS AS AN UNDESIRABLE LIFESTYLE.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that these two people in the picture are young white hipsters. Young black and brown folks have been forgoing homeownership and buying new cars for decades, this shit isn’t new, pal. You’re just acting like this shit is new because it’s hitting white folks.

anyway, my point is: We are fucking broke.

 fuck all these articles written by assholes who actually know nothing about our generation

FUCK THEM

FUCK
THEM

I’m either Gen X or Millennial, depending which dates you use, and so I’m old enough to have been living on my own as a lot of this started spinning out of control. It was like watching a trainwreck. The current state of all of this is ridiculous. I was going to go on a long rant about Boomers refusing to age gracefully, the impact of 9/11, the double-edged sword that is globalization, and our current loan culture and confusion of “needs vs. wants” that has been bred into us by clever marketing, but I’m too angry, and it was getting too long.

So I’ll just say this: the system is seriously out of whack, and we’re in this strange place where we’re both trapped in bubbles and depressions at the same.

I keep waiting for market corrections that just don’t seem to be happening.

And also, I’ll just throw up Crack Shack or Vancouver Mansion for reference. And if you visit it, bear in mind that this is in a city where the AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD INCOME is $46K. FORTY-SIX THOUSAND A YEAR. Oh, yeah, the system isn’t broken at all…damn those cheap fucking Millennials & Gen-X-ers!

Is every dipshit who writes these articles a rich sheltered moron? Cuz if I had fucking money I would buy those things.

I DON’T HAVE FUCKING MONEY.

Pretty sure I posted the orginial article way back when.
Reblogging for the commentary.
If you didn’t read the original article:here.

-Tas

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