Typical A** Movies

Ariela Haro August 19th, 2008

Okay, I have a bone to pick right now. Last weekend, I made the mistake of watching Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Well, not really a mistake. I did enjoy most of it. The movie played on a lot of stereotypes and the scenes with Doogie Howser were pretty funny. But, if there’s one thing I can’t stand is when a movie shows partial or total female nudity and only shows an ugly guy naked or totally hides some essential schlong shots from you. God, it makes me sick!! Continue Reading »

Everything Happens for a Reason…

Ariela Haro June 25th, 2008

If there’s one phrase I can’t stand and find completely odious is “everything happens for a reason.” What exactly does this mean? I have thought about this long and hard, and have completely offended close friends and family members with my less than objective perspective on it.

Some pretty horrible things happened to me as a teenager and, in turn, I did some horrible things to myself. Whenever I would turn to my mother and ask her for help in understanding the world, she would say “everything happens for a reason.” Now, my mom is a devout Catholic who has attended church every single Sunday of her life, but she is still pretty liberal and open to reason and debate. When I asked her what that phrase means, she made a very nebulous comment that god doesn’t give us “tests” that we can’t handle and horrible things happen to make us better people. This made no sense to me at the time and makes no sense to me now. Why do some people get b.s. heaped on them like no other, and many other people go though life relatively unscathed? And the people who have had the most heaped onto them generally do not become fantastic people, but withdrawn, depressed and defeated individuals. There are a few great exceptions to this. Ayaan Hirsi Ali became a terrific social advocate because of nasty experiences with her religion and society. But Hirsi Ali is a truly exceptional case and most people are not like her.

Bottom line: There needs to be evil in order for good to come out of it. Continue Reading »

Interracial Dating

Ariela Haro June 15th, 2008

It is often argued that interracial romantic relationships are considered taboo in a lot of sectors of society, and that it is better to go out with someone of your own race in order to keep it safe. I would highly disagree. Interracial dating is a lot more complicated than that. My fiance is an American of European heritage and I am an American of Mexican heritage. We are technically an interracial couple, except, I am white-looking, so we are considered acceptable as a couple pretty much anywhere we go. If I was an American of Mexican heritage that looked Mexican, we would be classified as an interracial couple and deemed unacceptable in most circles. I am of course, speaking for society in very general terms. Continue Reading »

The Innocence of Youth

Ariela Haro June 12th, 2008

When I was in third grade, I thought the first man on the moon was Louis Armstrong, a rotund-cheeked black man. This didn’t seem odd to me in the least. It wasn’t only until later on in my youth that I saw a picture of Neil Armstrong and clearly saw that he was a white man. Oops. Inconsequential, I thought. When I shared this knowledge with my peers, they all laughed at me and stared in wild bemusement as to how, exactly, did I ever think the first American on the moon was a black man? Dunno. Innocence, I guess. Aaahh, I miss those days when possibilities seemed endless and the first person on the moon being black did not seem weird… I just wanted to share that thought!

Notions of Race in Eating Disorders

Ariela Haro May 29th, 2008

For about 20 percent of my life, I suffered from anorexia and binge eating. I went for days eating like a bird, and then I would eventually scarf down a voluminous amount of food in one sitting. This, of course, caused me an incredible amount of pain. I would usually crouch in a fetal position, holding my faux-pregnant belly, yowling in pain. This was my own private pain. Only once was I caught. My mother found me on the floor when she came home from work early one day, and it caught me off guard. She was very worried and asked what was wrong with me. I told her that I just had an extremely bad stomach pain. She told me that stomach pain that extreme is not normal, so she called a doctor and made an appointment. The next day, I went to the doctor with my mom. Continue Reading »

I Got Sold Out by Co-Op America

Ariela Haro May 7th, 2008

So several years ago while in college, one of my Sociology professors raved about a charity called Co-op America. Co-op America is a social justice and environmental organization. They even have their own version of the Yellow Pages called the “Green Pages” for environmental and socially responsible businesses and services. So about two years ago, I decided to donate $20 to them. This seemed to be on one of my whims. Initially, I was quite pleased with the results. I got their Green Pages and a lot of information about microloans - which I was very interested in investing money into. Continue Reading »

In which someone notices I’m a man

Karl J. Mogel April 29th, 2008

Yesterday morning, Ariela and I were up at the crack of, no, actually we were up before dawn, racing down to WORT 89.9 fm in downtown Madison for a show of Other Voices. From 5-8 AM Ariela was playing some classical music performed by and/or conducted by women. This was, after all, a show intended to highlight the contributions of women to classical music.

You can listen to the show online here at this link, but it is not available to be downloaded as an mp3. (This will be available from now through May 4th 2008 - on May 5th next week’s show will record over it)

For the first hour and forty-five minutes, Ariela went solo, playing music performed by women, and its good stuff if you want to listen to it. At the 105 minute mark (you can skip ahead if you want to), Ariela cut the music that was playing to introduce the next topic: Holst’s The Planets, and some of its influence on science fiction film music. Let me tell you a little about its genesis, and what happened off the air during the show. Continue Reading »

Marya Hornbacher

Ariela Haro April 27th, 2008

I met Marya Hornbacher last week on Thursday the 17th of April. I wish I was able to post about this sooner, but my blog was having some technical problems with the server.

For the first time in my life, I was honestly starstruck. I’d like to mention that I am from Los Angeles, and I have seen my share of stars. But it takes a lot for me to be starstruck. I absolutely adore Marya Hornbacher’s work. Her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, is my favorite book. I have read it many times. So I drove out all the way to Edina, Minneapolis from Madison, Wisconsin, and it was worth the trip. Continue Reading »

LOL is NOT Supposed to be Said Out Loud

Ariela Haro April 15th, 2008

I went to this party a few weeks ago and could not help but notice a young man (presumably a college freshman) say LOL in this dragged out, absurd way to anything he considered funny. Seriously, if any of you out there get this old school reference, he sounded like Joey from the 90’s show Blossom when he said it. LOL!

Maybe this guy spent way too much time typing away on AOL instant messenger and in chat rooms, that he somehow thought it was acceptable to say LOL in public. I mean, the next logical step would be for him to say ROFL and LMAO amongst mixed company. Actually, now that I think about it, that would be really funny to hear an adult human being say ROFL and LMAO in public. What would that sound like? Roffle? Lamow!

Anyways, next time I see this guy, I am tempted to sit him down and reason with him. Who knows, he might just get really mad at me and say WTF!

Seven Things I Hate About You

Ariela Haro April 11th, 2008

Thanks for the meme Karl. Now I’m going to have to answer your silly “survery.”

My hubby-to-be, Karl Mogel at The Inoculated Mind, infected me with a blog meme. Here are the rules.

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules here.

3. Share 7 random or weird facts about yourself.

1. When I die I want my ashes to be scattered over Mozart’s grave in St. Marx Cemetary in Vienna, Austria.

2. I am a Momma’s girl. I call my Mom every day just to shoot the breeze.

3. I have very diametrical tastes in media. I either love award winning films/sitcoms, or terribly banal and insipid programming. No middle ground.

4. I refer to Mozart as “Motzie” and Schubert as “Schoobie.”

5. I actually cheated on a Spanish test in high school and was chided by my teacher who taught my mom how to speak English when she first came to this country. (That one still gets me).

6. I make beeswax candles for sale at the Madison Farmer’s Market. Sometimes, when I think no one is looking, I like to take a bite out of some of the wax.

7. I am intrigued and sometimes obsessed with obscure and/or long words. People can often tell I used to be an English major.

4. Tag 7 random people at the end of the post, linking to them.

5. Leave a comment on their blog so that they know they’ve been tagged.

Okay, see, I just started blogging and I don’t know seven people who I feel I can send this stuff to. So, I’ll just answer these questions and go on about my merry way. Enjoy!

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