tattoo stockings on etsy.

Don't you love when one link leads to another to another to another...and you find some fun things along the way?

I was on Twitter and caught an article from NYULocal about NYU being deemed the 4th Most Hipster School (no surprise). Entertaining article (as all NYULocal articles are), and they always have these comments from this little community of NYUers who devoutly read and comment on every article (I think it's really cute!)

Anyway, some girl linked the photo from the article to its original posting and reference to hipsterism, which then led me to check out the rest of her blog.

Somehow, I landed on an Etsy site where two girls from Tel Aviv sell TATTOOED STOCKINGS. Some may say tacky but I say FABULOUS! Or maybe it's just the shoes that sway me so. Anyways, my favorite are these:



Great, no? Haha. And I came upon this all because of Twitter :)


PS - Google image "hipster" or "hipsters." It's great too.

what. the. $#@&. [is wrong with japanese game developers].

Irate is not adequate enough to describe my feelings right now after reading this CNN article about Japanese video games promoting rape.

Here is their video:


I'm in complete disbelief that anything like this even exists, and the fact that it does leaves me...well, let's just say that the words running through my head are not kosher.

I can't even write because I am fuming. My stomach actually hurts right now.

What pisses me off even more are the comments left below the article. I'm baffled at the ignorance and stupidity of some of the people who live in present day America. Besides the fact that some people clearly do not understand the magnitude of video games (or ANYTHING) promoting rape, some of those comments are just plain stupid. And y'all know how I feel about stupidity. Couple that with ignorance and apathy on a topic like rape and you will have one ANGRY Asian female named Gabrielle who is ready to !$%# up some Japanese game developers.

the invisible minority becomes a bit more visible (at least, in the fashion scene).

[Picture taken from Racewire.org]

Most people who know me know that I'm not that into the Asian American social analysis scene. Not to say I don't care, but it has never been as great of an interest to me as my fellow Asian Americans. I don't know why.

BUT my darling friend Kim just send me this blog post that made me very happy and somewhat proud: Asian American designers taking over Fashion Week (and the fashion industry in general).

Maybe it's because I love fashion and art. Or maybe it's because I've become more self-aware about race & culture. Who knows. But I do love the fact that Asian Americans (immigrants, 1.5ers, and hapas) are emerging and getting recognized in our still-unicultural society.

The invisible minority starts to get noticed...finally.

flash mob in vancouver.

Nifty flash mob, dancing for Ethiopia; utilizing the Olympics to create awareness.
Thanks, Garland, for the link!

The 3:18 Movement.

The 3:18 Project is finally starting.

http://the318movement.org

Check it out! :)

i'm an ellephant, not a mammoth.

Columbia did not close today (and I think for legitimate, understandable reason) but I'm choosing to take a snow day. Mostly because the only class I really care about today is my Advocacy class at night, which the professor already canceled. So why bother trekking north at the risk of getting stuck up in the *gasp* Upper Westside? We wouldn't want that, right?

NYU however canceled all classes after 12:30pm (there has been a variety of strong reactions to this in my apartment). This is probably the first time in decades that NYU has done a university-wide cancellation. I did appreciate a retweet I saw from NYULocal on Twitter:
kennycity: "The time in which the snowday news spread in Silver is excellent proof for my theory that #NYU is the most hyper-connected college today."
AMEN. So true.

Sadly, many of my friends at NYU either don't have classes or are at work instead of class anyways. There are some unhappy people missing out on a potential snowday.

Garland: wow
nyu closed
for a snowday
and i'm at work
:(
I MISSED OUT ON HISTORY
me: aww, i'm sorry
Alison is in the same boat
and Mal doesn't even have class today
so you're not alone!
Garland: lol sigh
why am i at work on a snowday? i should be making snowballs!
are you at columbia?
me: no, i'm not going to class
Garland: hahah skipping??
what's wrong with columbia!
they didn't issue a snow day?
me: nope.
Garland: they want to kill off their student body.
me: precisely.

But I shall not be defeated, Columbia. I will defy you and your plot to end my life early via snowstorm.

my screenname used to be coyote, bt-dubs.

I'll be on campus Wednesday and Thursday evening. I'm going to hunt, capture, and domesticate my new pet.

grumpy old men.

For those of you who don't know, I currently am at an agency that serves Holocaust survivors and the general population of elderly poor in a specific part of Brooklyn.

The other day one of the interns, Cory, went into our director's office to give his weekly report on his caseload and clients. One man that he's been working with for a number of months now is 99-years-old, about to turn 100 soon. Cory, who has been trying to get a big birthday celebration together for this man, asked him if he would like media involved too. The man replied, "Oh, the media just came last week to interview me!" This story is better if you know Cory and his facial expressions...but it was something like a "What? Ummm...okay?" kind of a face. He was confused about this and wasn't sure if his client was telling the truth or making stuff up. So when our director heard this story, she hopped on Google and looked up the client's name. It seemed to be a common theme recently for our clients to end up in the news for cute stories or survivor profiles.

And indeed, Mr. Pulwers was in the news. For getting into his first violent fight ever a the age of 99. Poor little Mr. Pulwers was the victim though, an innocent man trying to do the honorable thing of telling his soon-to-be-beater to not block traffic with his car. In turn, he got a metal steering-wheel lock smashed against his face. And the threat of having his balls cut off. All in Russian, of course.

Ridiculous.

Watch the video below for the story:


Gersh Gofman is not one of our clients.

healthcare reform fail?

In the words of Gilliguinea Pig (recent friend of Gabriellephant): "Healthcare is officially going to suck now. Thanks, Massholes."

NYULocal article on where it can go from here.

I haven't adequately processed all this. Between all the drama going on in the world and in my mind, I haven't been able to articulate anything lately. But hopefully it'll stir up dialogue for you.

haiti earthquake.

This morning, some of us interns gathered around my computer to watch Obama address the earthquake in Haiti.

Please continue to keep the people of Haiti and their families elsewhere in your prayers.

The IRC is accepting donations for crisis relief in Haiti.
Or you can text "HAITI" to 25383 to donate $5 to help the IRC rescue lives.

nyulocal is actually really amusing & somewhat informative.

I recently discovered NYULocal. The writing is enjoyable AND it's relatively interesting. Some amusing articles:

NYU student goes a week without technology.

NYU students dress like hobos, basically.

NYU is way overpriced and way under-justified in being so.
At the end, they mention how unnecessary it is that Bobst has flat screens but I'd like to add in how even more unnecessary it is that JSex has an $800,000 retirement benefit that's not included in his compensation calculation. (For those of you who know me well, I strongly dislike that mother-hugger.)

And lastly, a link from NYULocal led me to a completely-biased/stupid but somewhat-amusing article on NYC Universities and stereotypes. The 12th st. and 3rd Ave. chain-smoking comment about the New School kids amused me.

They feature the real voices of the students, elementary drawings of puking rainbows, and social commentary. Best of all, they rip on Gossip Girl. With every right.

ishmael beah, live.

Present: Jo Becker, Children's Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch; Ambassador John McNee, Permenant Representative to the UN; Ronnie Harleston, Lieutenant Colonel and Military Adviser of the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the UN; and Ishmael Beah, former child soldier and author of A Long Way Gone.

highest stress for lowest pay.

CNN and The Consumerist think that my field of work sucks.
I don't think it sucks, really...
but they aren't inaccurate.
Sighhh.

michelle obama & i have something in common.

Mark is awesome for being Mark. But he is doubly awesome for Facebooking me this superb news article on Michelle Obama.

Not only is she a fellow [beginner] hooper but she also loves french fries.

"And look, my favorite food in the whole wide world are french fries. I love them. Dearly. Deeply. I have a good relationship with french fries and I would eat them every single day if I could."

For a hooper who orders a basket of fries everytime she's at a diner or at Applebee's, this article is fabulous. Thanks, Mark.

Africa's first Fashion Week ever.

exciting!



& fabulous.
Johannesburg, South Africa.
check out more at BBC.

MJ, Obama, Twitter: the advancement of technology...

...means that it's too easy to become obsolete. & I apologize now for the lengthy entry that is about to occur; I know that it out of character for my blog but I feel the need to write:

As most of us have heard already, Michael Jackson was confirmed dead at the age of 50 earlier today (on about 50,000,000 news sites and stations).

My dear friend Matt brought this up to me, as he read many Facebook statuses mourn over "MJ" (it took him a moment to realize that was NOT Michael Jordan). He then went on a Google news search, telling me that hundreds of articles were popping up about this -- within a 5 minute block, it jumped up another 100+ articles. Yet, only one news source claimed that he had died; all others confirmed that he was rushed to UCLA Medical due to cardiac arrest but couldn't confirm death. I mean, it makes sense...hospital regulation, patient privacy, etc.

I IMed A-Live, who told me that he was pretty sure MJ was gone. Via text/Twitter/Facebook/gchat/whatever means, he found out from a friend who is a nurse at UCLA Medical that the King of Pop had passed away this afternoon. I then ceased reading through Washington Post, CNN, New York Times, etc., though moments later, LA Times confirmed his death...but after everyone heard via a source such as Twitter. (Even now, as I am typing this, my friend is texting me in regards to a tweet she read about a deceased celebrity...I'm informing her that it is in fact Michael Jackson...)

I thought about this -- how in a way, news stations are going to have to compete against or at least keep up with this generation's technology.


My brother recently told me about a clip from Onion News (the spoof newspaper/station, which is fabulous) regarding an NYU dormitory fire. It was originally declared arson but soon was discovered as an accident, thanks to 40,000 iPhones, Blackberries, digital cameras, and Twitter updates.

Watch it here, because it's really awesome and speaks a great deal to the power (and ridiculousness, at times) of our modern technology. That, and it mocks our generation in general. Sadly. But funnily.

I recalled a video on BBC that I saw of President Barack Obama addressing the injustice going on in Iran.

At one point, he says this great quote that really does speak to the power our generation holds:

"No iron fist is strong enough to shut out the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice. Despite the Iranian government's efforts to expel journalists & isolate itself, powerful images & poignant words have made their way to us through cellphones & computers, and so we've watched what the Iranian people are doing."

On Youtube, you can watch such footage of Iran taken by citizens over there.

Because of the internet, we have the ability to watch in real time via webcam exactly what is going on in other parts of the world. We have surpassed news reporters and even gossip columnists with our Smart Phones, picture texts, video chats, and such. We can find out before Anderson Cooper does whether or not a major celebrity is declared dead. That is mind-blowing.

Our generation is filled with non-professional journalists. Are you making yourself heard? How are you expressing yourself and what are you writing/typing/tweeting/texting/updating/uploading/IMing/talking about? Seriously.