callmetheramblingman

[callmetheramblingman]

Right now, children’s literature is seeing an intense flare-up in the ongoing conversation about the diversity crisis in children’s books. While this conversation has been going on for decades, now social media has given the people having it megaphones, and they are using them to brilliant ends....

[callmetheramblingman]

Somebody asked me how I felt about Black History Month, and I said...

I think Black History month is a great idea, and definitely necessary in a time where many people buy into this idea of "post-racial America". Not enough people understand or engage with the narrative of race in this country. That being said, I'm not sure Black History month is doing a very good job of rectifying these issues. Most schools, especially those in the South, make no significant changes to their curriculum to incorporate Black history, especially at the high school level. I hear too often that Black History Month is a special privilege being granted to African-Americans. If it were even doing the most basic work necessary as far as race in this country, I feel like that wouldn't be the case. I shouldn't have to explain to my peers, and people many years older than I, that the American curriculum is heavily dominated by the stories and achievements of white males, or "dead white European males" as some people like to say. They don't understand that the reason people get uncomfortable when you mention "white pride" is because whiteness has never been anything other than a construct used to reinforce power structures and create artificial supremacy over brown people. They don't understand that whiteness is a political tool, something that has historically even been used as a gift to turn marginalized groups against each other. Like the eventual granting of "whiteness" to Irish people and Jews so that they wouldn't join African-American's in labor unions and general protest against the American system. Not even yet thinking about the rich history of Blacks that has been removed from our cultural imagination and history. Not even getting into the specifics of the great achievements of specific African-Americans. If Black History month isn't even achieving those basic things I mentioned, then it's not currently a useful tool in the creation of systemic change and ending oppression. It either needs to be somehow taken more seriously, especially by educational institutions, or changed in some radical way to really engage the minds of young people in this country and ideally older minds also. That's how I feel about Black History Month.

[callmetheramblingman]

Tap

For every ten minutes you go without your phone a child in need will get one day of clean drinking water http://tap.unicefusa.org/ 

[callmetheramblingman]

"The British economist Roger Bootle has written about the difference between “creative” and “distributive” work. Creative work, Bootle says, is work that brings something new into the world that adds to the total available to everyone (a doctor treating patients, an artist making sculptures). Distributive work, on the other hand, only carries the possibility of beating out competitors and winning a bigger share of a fixed-size market. Bootle explains that although many jobs in modern society consist of distributive work, there is something intrinsically happier about a society that skews in favor of the creative. "

[callmetheramblingman]

Hey guys! Haha so I'm the one who created the Facebook group, right now posts need to get approved because some Cornell TASPers were trying to troll. I'm going to remove it as soon as I hop on my laptop though :)

[callmetheramblingman]

Walk into the bathroom, check inside the shower for monsters and see this beauty. Cornell TASP 2013 mascot: Everyone meet Holga we found her on the street apparently

[callmetheramblingman]

And so it starts.

It was a great first day at tasp, I loved meeting so many new and interesting people. One piece of advice that was handed down to me from last years taspers is to journal every night of tasp. I really liked the idea and so I'll be starting tonight...I havent journaled in ages.

[callmetheramblingman]

I just want to say that I hope each and every one of you bebes has the most amazing summer of your life this far, that you let yourself change in some way, shape, or form, and that you enjoy the next six weeks to your fullest capabilities. I implore each of you to step outside of your comfort zones and seriously just live it up I’m your perfect little microcosm!!

It’s been a year for me and damn am I jealous. Have fun, y’all. TASP forever!!

[callmetheramblingman]

so tasp might just be starting a month from today and i might just be freaking out. a lot. 

[callmetheramblingman]

[callmetheramblingman]

God that TASP food survey left me feeling famished. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy eating at TASP. 

[callmetheramblingman]

We understood each other on other levels of madness.

— Jack Kerouac, On the Road (via trouble—ontheway)

[callmetheramblingman]

“But there is a growing global recognition of all these concerns. To close this long history on a note of placidity would indeed be inappropriate, but it would also be wrong to close on a note of doom. The history of the modern world shows the astonishing range of human imagination and ingenuity,...

[callmetheramblingman]

I had stopped using tumblr until I found out I got into TASP a few days ago

[callmetheramblingman]

my newest hobby is obsessively tracking the tasp tag, i’m rapidly becoming an expert

[callmetheramblingman]

it is 1 AM and i am currently crawling through CollegeConfidential’s ancient archives and reading posts on previous TASPs (circa 2002-2012). i feel like soon, my excitement is going to boil over and i am going to turn into a puddle of tasp-excitement feels

i don’t even know what to expect but i am SO stoked to meet 31 intelligent and fabulous and exciting people in less than 2 months!!!

[callmetheramblingman]

Coming out of Seattle Washington, Macklemore isn’t really your run of the mill hip-hop artist. He is among a rare breed of rappers that throw everything on the table and say “there it is, and if you don’t like it, I’m not for you”.

If any of you are looking for somebody else like this,...