75% of Latinos and 60% of African Americans feel more positively about Pepsi after watching the notorious ad. Of course, 60% of whites feel more negatively because whites always understand racism a lot better. 

Hmm, I wonder who’s tone-deaf now.

Of course, my birthday has to fall on the only day of the week when I have 6 teaching hours, going all the way until 7:10 pm. I wish I were more into work so that I could see this as something good. Or more into this work.

I have this very unfortunate character trait where I can absolutely love something but then one tiny little thing sets me against it, and that’s it, all love is gone. With people, if it’s that rare person I care deeply about, it takes something like a big betrayal to turn me off them. With people I simply like, a little thing is enough.

And this is what happened in my relationship with this school. I loved it but then a single meeting put me completely off. I try to fake enthusiasm but I’m a shitty actress. It’s very sad. 

We are preparing to celebrate Ukrainian Easter and Basia’s birthday. The thingies surrounded by painted eggs are paski. Paski take forever to bake, so I’d never make them. My mother is the author of the paski. 

Of course, there will be a ton of food on the table eventually. For now, I just wanted to show the decor and the paski.

Our university announced a smoking ban a while ago and inundated our mailboxes with notices, informing us that no smoking is allowed. Anywhere on campus! Not even in the parking lots! Or on the hiking trails! Anywhere! Ever! Huge fines await you! 

The campus was plastered with huge notices about the smoking ban. A no smoking sign greets you when you approach campus and long before any of the campus buildings are even visible.

And then I started noticing places around campus that seemed organized for smoking. They clearly weren’t spontaneous because there were cans for cigarette butts, and somebody was taking the cans away, cleaning them, and bringing them back again. There were many such smoking places, which had me confused because the ban still existed.

So I approached a group of smokers near one such place and asked them what was going on.

“Oh, they realized we were going to smoke anyway,” one student shared, “so they provided the trash cans for us.”

The student was right, and anybody with half a brain cell would know that you can’t keep smokers from smoking, especially in high-stress environments.

Everything is back to normal now: the same people smoke in the same places they used to smoke in. The only difference is that a sizable amount of money was wasted on printing notices and putting up signs.

When I’m at work all day  or even traveling out of state, and Klara is at home with her grandparents, I’m perfectly fine. But the moment I set out for a restaurant with N for 2 hours, I flip out over how she’s doing without me. 

I’ve seen many commercials, TV shows and book’s where it’s suggested that parents should be overwrought the first time they go on a date alone without the baby, so now I’m dutifully overwrought. I hate this but it’s stronger than me.

Just watched a few episodes of the TV show Girls. This is a show for those who wonder why the US needs mass immigration. Forget walls and bans. Find a way to address the problem the show depicts, and you won’t need as many immigrants.

Just imagine the same show depicting 25-30-year-olds from, say, Nigeria, China, India and Ukraine who waste years on unpaid internships while sitting around vapidly and staring at walls and expecting their parents to finance this lifestyle. Yeah, it sounds nuts. Which is precisely why 25-30-year-olds from, say, Nigeria, China, India and Ukraine aren’t coming up with trigger warnings, victim-blamings, fat-shaming, and all the rest of it.

It would be one thing if the show depicted wounded kids from places like East St Louis who have a hard time getting their bearings after a traumatic, indigent and chaotic childhood. But the professionally, psychologically and intellectually neutered characters of this show aren’t an anomaly or trauma victims. They don’t know how to want anything because they never had to. And this turns them into blooming, healthy, well-fed invalids. 

I don’t think I’ll keep watching because it’s too heart-breaking. I’m an educator, and it hurts me to see young people so drained of life and castrated. 

I now regret that I didn’t approach the student who recited his poem at the pageant to thank him in person. I was afraid I’d break down and weep because it was really a very powerful poem. I hope he knows he’s talented. It’s a rare gift that can make strangers cry in response to the power of art.

This is one of the students who come to us from East St Louis, overcoming enormous odds and creating a whole life for themselves. It’s such a joy to see them do research, create art, travel overseas, get job interviews. 

How can anybody really think we need fewer schools like mine? It makes no sense. 

Just saw on TV somebody who was identified as “Democratic strategist” and who wrote a book titled Reversing the Apocalypse. When she started speaking, she said a bunch of very reasonable, intelligent things. But it was too late because the book’s title has already repelled everybody who is not a self-important hysteric. 

It woypd be great if “Democratic strategists” understood that the Apocalypse folks are all with them already. Now it would make sense to try to attract those who are persuadable but are kept away from the polls because they are scared of the crazy wing of the party. 

As we have seen very recently, voters react positively to the message of winning and positivity. Nobody wants to hear about the Apocalypse. 

This was a great pageant, folks. I’m not entirely sure how appropriate it is for me to watch male students do a twerking number but the contest was great. I gave the highest points to the most intense contestant who, for the talent contest, read a poem he wrote. The poem made me cry, so I had to give him the win. 

This contestant didn’t end up winning the crown, though. The win was fair because it went to the cutest boy there. People seem to be very much into physical beauty. 

The half-time show was fantastic, and I’m proud of the girls in my sorority for organizing such a great event. 

There is this student who is in everything. He is learning every language, leading every student organization, taking every course, it seems. And of course, he’s in the beauty contest, too. Because HE’S IN EVERYTHING. 

I’m deeply envious of his robust psychological health.