Lost Boys

An interesting little short film about Rufio (one of the Lost Boys in the movie Hook.) It hints at some of the troubles that Rufio face (foster care, mom getting deported, bully), which isn't unusual for a Lost Boy. This makes me wonder if he ever sees his mom again.

~ Stacy N.

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Bullet Journaling

I tried bullet journaling* long ago. After watching this video, I got excited and productive and tried doing exactly what the video said. However, that got too overwhelming (and a bit confusing) because it felt like I was still following a strict structure, one that's almost like a planner but isn't.

*bullet journal: a planner, diary, and/or notebook in one. You can use any notebook or journal, but most people go with a dotted journal.

 Then a few years later I stumbled upon this blog post and a Nifty video.

The video and the blog post still had the original structure, an index, a key, a future log, a monthly log, and a weekly/daily log. But it was all customizable, and not everything was required. If you didn't want a monthly log, that's fine because your bullet journal is a simple reflection of you. If you wanted to have a place exclusively for quotes, that's cool too. If you wanted to go down the creative route, go right ahead. If you're like me and can't really draw then, it's fine to go down the minimalist route.

In general, just make it your own and have fun with it. If you're not having fun anymore, then you're either my friend who says that people who bullet journal secretly hate it but continue with it because they like making something pretty (funny enough, she also has a bullet journal.) Or you feel pressured to keep up with the pretty bullet journal style because everyone you know has a pretty bullet journal. If it's the latter, just change it up and follow what your heart tells you to.

~ Stacy N.

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[Insert title here]

[Insert something long and insightful while I'm off planning for future blog posts, bullet journal stuff, and personal life stuff.]

~ Stacy N.

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A dog's best friend

I didn't really feel like writing a lot, so here's a cute short film about a dog and his new, unexpected friend.

~ Stacy N.

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They were never meant to be

An interesting film about autumn.

~ Stacy N.

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I love this country, even though at times it doesn't love me back

• Part of the reason why I stopped putting my hand over my heart whenever I hear the national anthem is because it represents a history that has repeatedly discriminated people who aren't white, able-bodied, males on a systematic level. Whether that was the three-fifths compromise, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Plessy v. Ferguson court case, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Trump getting rid of the bathroom rules that protects trans* students, the many accounts of police brutality, and more. It's hard to feel patriotic towards a country that actively tries to get rid of the rights of others. 
• Since Trump's election, there seems to be a rise in hate crimes. It's discouraging, heartbreaking, and frustrating whenever I'm looking through my social media, and I see whatever injustice just happened. However, I'm happy when I hear about the community gathering around to protest, to sign petitions, share it on social media, donate, march, etc. to protest against the social injustices.
• It's still a long way to go before we could get rid of prejudice, hate, and oppression (if we ever do fully get rid of it). And that is going to happen long after my lifetime, After all, Rome wasn't built in a day. I just hope that it comes sooner. 

~ Stacy N.

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Racial performance

Back in February in my Asian American Literature class, we talked about racial performance. Normally we act slightly differently around everyone we're with whether or not you notice it. Racial performance, on the other hand, deals more with how people of color think how they’re supposed to act based on a perceived cultural consensus of their race, especially around other people of color. Key and Peele deftly points this out in their “Phone Call” video when they start using more black vernacular around each other even though it's not part of their everyday speech. Same when Jessica and Louis Huang get “success” perms in the Fresh Off the Boat episode, “Success Perms” even though at that time of their life they were not yet successful.

That made me think of all the ways I was putting up a racial performance. A common one that I could think of was whenever someone asked for my major, I would always say“English, but I’m also minoring in business." That little business tidbit makes me think that hey I’m not completely failing my race (aka my parent’s expectations), I’m still going into one of the four major career fields (medical, STEM, business, and law) albeit in a nontraditional one that deals more with the publishing industry. Another one would be whenever I see an older Vietnamese person who works at a store or a restaurant I always say, “cảm ơn (thank you)” to them to subtly let them know that yes I am also Vietnamese and I’m not completely failing in not speaking my mother tongue. I also become a bit quieter and reserved around them, as one does when you’re around elders.

By now it's become a habit that I can't easily break because it's so ingrained in my system. And I'm not sure if I'll ever stop doing it because, to a certain extent, I feel like I have to make up for being a "bad" Asian who doesn't normally fit the model minority stereotype. Even though I know it's dumb, and that there's no such thing as a bad Asian.

~ Stacy N.

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Cảm ơn nhiều lắm

Bố mẹ, cảm ơn vì tất cả mọi thứ, và con thương bố mẹ nhiều lắm. Cảm ơn for taking the jobs that no one else wanted even though that meant waking up super early and working very late. Cảm ơn for helping me with my car and its many problems. Cảm ơn for recycling cans and helping to save the environment while getting money out of it, even if it is a little embarrassing. Cảm ơn for picking me up from the library and for going to all those various school events. Cảm ơn for giving me money to help support my passion for books. Cảm ơn, cảm ơn, cảm ơn for all the sacrifices you two made, even if it's the painful one. For without it, I wouldn't be the person I am today, và con tự hào về bố mẹ nhiều lắm.

~ Stacy N.

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Love is what makes the world go around.

A sweet little film about a girl's love for ballet.

~ Stacy N.

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Asexuality

A great video that talks about asexuality, the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, the romantic attraction spectrum, and more.

~ Stacy N.

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A video about mass shootings & voting

Note: This was written during the time the Orlando Shooting occurred. I wasn't comfortable enough to post it then, however, I'm ready to post it now after doing a lot of thinking (and trying to clean up my drafts folder.)

Content warning: death, mass shootings, guns

When I heard about the Orlando shooting I was scared, sad, and angry. Scared because it affects me on a personal level as a queer person of color. Sad that the shooter thought that this was even okay in the first place. And angry that the society we live in is still for LGBTQIA+ discrimination, from bills that dictate where a trans* person could go to the bathroom to the fact that people could be fired all because of their sexual orientation. As the video says, we're not going to help anything if all we do is change our fucking profile picture on Facebook for a day or two. Yes, that shows "support", but what use is that support if you continually practice LGBTQIA+ discrimination yourself. Whether it's intentionally misgendering someone; refusing to see someone's relationship as valid because you only believe in heterosexuality; believing that a person could only be straight or gay and can't be anything in between; intentionally harass someone because they don't fit your view of what a "normal" male or female is supposed to be; complain about why isn't there straight pride and then using the excuse, "sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I know people who are gay/part of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum." when people confront you about it; and more.
Actual support consists of really learning about the discrimination LGBTQIA+ people face; actually try to not discriminate against people because of their sexuality and gender expression; sincerely apologizing if you do make a mistake, learn why it's a mistake, and then try to not repeat said mistake in the future; signing petitions that attempt to stop discrimination on a bigger systematic level; telling your local representatives to take action on behalf of the people to stop the discrimination; going to vigils; donating and/or helping out groups that actively try to stop the discrimination, and more.
When I saw the Dalai Lama speak live on my college campus, one of the important messages he gave was that if we wanted to see a more peaceful, happy society, then we need to actively take action, not passively pray about it or to talk about it on social media or in real life with no intention of actually doing something about it. And one of the best ways to do that is to register to vote and to actually vote on November 8, 2016. Sure, we may have a small voice when it comes to the federal government but our voice is big when it comes to local, state government.
Vote for people who you want to best represent your district and state. After all, the people in congress are supposed to represent the American people, and that's hard to do if some of them aren't willing to be more open-minded. Also, vote for people who genuinely care about the people they're representing, and who aren't going to turn on the people just to get more power, money, or because their party told them to. So VOTE. And don't forget to tell others to vote.

Some links to help you get more involved with the social justice movement:
The Human Rights campaign 
DoSomething.org

Voting info:
Voting registration dates (the whole site is pretty useful in general because it has other kinds of voting info like state requirements, voting methods, who to contact if you need help with voting, etc.)
Registering to vote

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I'm such a book nerd

My favorite quote from literature?

From John Green's novel Looking For Alaska
Text reads: Just like that. From a hundred miles an hour to asleep in a nanosecond. I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.

For some reason, this quote just makes me smile. Like ridiculously out of the world smile. And if I had to tattoo one line and one line only on my body, it would be this one. All because it makes me happy.

~ Stacy N.

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Happy (very late) birthday Sweetie.

It's been about a month since the New Year has started, and already I broke one my resolutions. For at least once a week, write a post on Sweets Galore. As you guys may have noticed, I have not been doing that at all. A roll of excuses about my absence could fall off my head and land onto my hands to be typed out. And they would all be true, however would I really mean it when I say sorry and try to attempt to go back to that particular New Year’s resolution? The answer, my dear readers, is no.

I won’t really mean it if I apologized about ‘abandoning’ my blog and not abiding to that particular resolution, because that sentence wouldn’t feel true. However, I am a bit sorry that I have not been posting lately. My head does not want to keep on having to invent new post ideas every single week, it, as well as I, would like to have some time away from the blogging world to do our own thing, which is living life.

However, I am a bit sorry whenever a perfect opportunity to blog passes by. Simply because I don’t have the time or energy or it may have slipped from my mind, for me to actually go onto BlogSpot and type the whole thing down.  A perfect example of this would be my blog’s birthday, which turned two on January 8^th of this year.

So to make up for it, I am going to post four videos that I like right now.

One is a book trailer for a book that I have recently reread.

Another is a Disney short film that has no words.

The third is a song that involves school.

And the last video involves science.

So without further ado, here they are.

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A failure and a book

The end of the world turned out to be an epic fail. However, the epic fail will happen all over again around 2015... maybe.

But, this book, The Raven Boys  isn't a failure. With characters who makes hard choices, isn't entirely romantically in love with one another, and visions that may or may not come true, with a pretty unique plot, it certainly landed a spot on the list of books that I have to have. It also deals with psychics, which is better than having to deal with all of the vampire and werewolves who falls in love a bit quickly somewhere in the book of Twilight. (But I must admit Charlie Swan is a pretty cool character).

And now I present to you, The Raven Boys animated and kind of creepy book trailer that I couldn't help but laugh at.

P.S. Only three more days till Christmas and the new Doctor Who Christmas special. ^.^

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Banned Book Week

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

 Ray Bradbury

I've been learning a lot about banned books this week, and found a number of reasons why books are banned. In my opinion, the reason why most books banned is because of vulgar language. It doesn't matter if the books are really amazing that it deserves the highest medal award. If there are a ton of swear words than certain people freak out and demand it to be banned. Another reason, I found why books are banned is because of the topic it talks about, such as homosexuality, magic, racism, kids killing kids, teen pregnancy, kids trying to learn how to be accepted but doesn't attend school that much, etc. 

And it makes me angry that all of these books are banned. No, homosexuality isn't a disease and people won't become gay if they read Heather Has Two Mommies or any other book that talk about homosexuality. Kids won't have low morals if they read The Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or anything else. And no kids won't become violent if they read The Hunger Games trilogy.

It also makes me angry when some people ban books even though they haven’t read it at all. What’s the point of banning something if you don’t even know what the book is really about? Have they even tried to find what the theme (moral lesson) of the book really is? Have they thought really hard what it meant to other people or did they just ask themselves, this sucks because it has                      etc, let’ s not read it anymore and let’s have other people not read it or else they’re not a good person or whatever.

That is by law, a violation of free speech. If something is banned at the library, than that’s taking one less idea that is replaced by yay we banned this book now let’s burn them or something like that. That’s one less story for a person to get into, to escape his/her own life at the moment. It’s one less dream, one more sadness for the author, but it’s a lot more anger for the people who enjoyed that story.

We have the right to read whatever we want, and it’s our choice to endure the consequences that come out of it. If someone doesn’t like it than that’s fine, but it’s stupid of him/her to take that book away from a reader that enjoyed that book, or a reader that wants to read that book.

It’s like a person who hates the stars and tells the other people to not go to the stars, if that makes sense.

So I dare you this week and any other week to read a banned book. Whether it’s a book that has been banned from this year or any other year, read it. And if you don’t like it then that is fine, but don’t let it get taken away from the library because that is one less great literature out of the world. A work of literature that can possibly help us in the future if things go wrong. Literature that can make people small with one small character, a funny sentence/paragraph, or something else. Literature that can inspire.

Lists:

2011/2012 list of Banned Books

Banned classics

Books that were banned in 2005

Books banned by government (includes governments outside of the United States)

A very large amount of Banned Books on Goodreads

And more if you google: banned books list, or something of that sort. 

Now a video from authors who stand for free speech. 

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Towards happiness, but how?

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Upcoming movies that I want to see

Movie: The Dark Knight Rises
Movie Date: July 20, 2012
Book: Yes?
Have I read the book: No, and I'm not planning too.
How badly do I want to see the movie: Not that badly.

Other:

Click to enlarge 

Movie: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Movie Date: September 21(?), 2012
Book: Yes
Have I read the book: Yes, and it was a great read.
How badly do I want to see the movie: Pretty badly.
Other:  It's amazing that the author is also the movie director. And the book is great, I recommend reading it. 

   

Movie: Rise of the Guardians 

Movie Date: November 20, 2012

Book: No

Have I read the book: N/A

How badly do I want to see the movie: I can wait to see it later on. 

Other: I always imagined Robert Frost as an old guy that wrote poems. 

Movie: Les Misérables

Movie Date: December 14(?), 2012

Book: Yes

Have I read the book: Not yet, but I will before I go see the movie. 

How badly do I want to see the movie: Half pretty badly/half I can wait.  

Other: I believe that is held during the French Revolution, just putting that out there. 

Movie: Oz The Great And Powerful

Movie Date: March 8, 2013

Book: No?

Have I read the book: If there was a book, I would most likely read it. 

How badly do I want to see the movie: I want to see it, but I can wait.   

Other: What is the plot about exactly? I know it has to deal with power. 

Movie: Catching Fire

Movie Date: November 22, 2013

Book: Yes

Have I read the book: Yes, but I'm going to read it again before the movie comes out. 

How badly do I want to see the movie: Really, really badly.   

Other: The people that are in charge of casting people should finish casting the rest of the cast and tell us who  Finnick is. The suspense is killing me (and a lot of other people) from not knowing. Plus, they should start filming by now. 

No trailer, but here's a fan made movie poster. 

source

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Skary Childrin

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Happy Earth Day

I forgot to mention in my last post that today is Earth Day. So Happy Earth Day everyone. No please enjoy some videos from a person named Louie Schwartzberg who maybe works with DisneyNature, I don't know. 

*Has only seen two of the videos/environments from [Planet?] Earth*

 P.S. Don't destroy the Earth and all of it's beauty, please?

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Just one for day or more specifically 6 1/2 more hrs.

^.^ I'M SO EXCITED FOR THE HUNGER GAMES!!! I still haven't bought my ticket yet. :(
So I'm planning on withdrawing some money from my bank account tomorrow and hopefully see it on Saturday or Friday depending on the circumstances. Also have you heard? There's a new Taylor Swift song that's also going on the Hunger Games soundtrack, and and it really does fit in with the whole Hunger Games theme. How one moment it's childhood and you don't have to face the cruelty of the world yet. Then the next [you turn twelve] you face the cruelty of the world, and also hope to not have your name called. Because obviously, who wants to fight to the death. As Peeta says in the Hunger Games, it takes away everything about you once you do murder someone.

Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people? It costs everything you are.
- Peeta, pg 23, Mockingjay

So without further ado, the song Eyes Open by Taylor Swift.   

The tricky thing
Is yesterday we were just children
Playing soldiers
Just pretending
Dreaming dreams with happy endings
In backyards, winning battles with our wooden swords
But now we've stepped into a cruel world
Where everybody stands and keeps score 

~.~.~.~.~

So here you are, two steps ahead and staying on guard
Every lesson forms a new scar
They never thought you'd make it this far
But turn around, oh they've surrounded you
It's a showdown, and nobody comes to save you now 

lyrics found at azlyrics here. 

 

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