Photobombing Pastimes

I'm a pretty big fan of photobombing. Although, I don't think I've done it successfully in a very long time. It really was a part of my life back when I was 17, 18. I was recently looking through some photos, many of which I bombed. And... stumbled across this classic:


I gotta get back in the photobombing game.

How The Times Have Changed

I was looking through some old gchat conversations I had with my mom for fun/ procrastination. I found this gem from 9/29/08:

Kleine: So, can we talk about the financial crisis for a second?
Mammers: Sure.
Kleine: What the hell is going on??!! Did the stock market go crazy today?
Mammers: Well, have you gotten your cardboard box and a spot under the freeway picked out?

At the time, I thought it was funny and vainly hoped that by the time I graduated college (this May), it wouldn't be an actual possibility. BUT I WAS WRONG.

Oregon Trail - 1 star

It's the 40th anniversary for The Oregon Trail video game and, I found out, it is currently available on the iPhone. Excited about reliving childhood memories, I made the 99 cent purchase. Unfortunately, (surprise!) there was RAMPANT racism in the game. Of course this is not in the free version -- you don't interact with American Indians until about half-way through the purchased game. Some examples:

This is what happens when you "hire someone" to "help" you cross the river:

And when your wagon is attacked by "bandits" (granted, sometimes white guy bandits attack you too).

While iChatting about this, Zuzu, Kleine and I decided I should retaliate by giving the game a crappy review. Here are their suggestions on what I should write, followed by what I actually wrote.

ZUZU
Subject: Educational...if you want an education in racism
Review: This is a fun game, but it depicts American Indians inaccurately.

KLEINE
Subject: RACIST-ASS GAME!!!!!!!
Review: DO NOT SUPPORT RACISM BY BUYING THIS GAME!!!!!! They make Native American Indians look like COMPLETE CARICATURES!!! IF YOU PAY FOR THIS GAME THE TERRORISTS WIN!!!!

COMPROMISE
Subject: Supposed to be educational, actually racist
Review: It's a fun game, but the depiction of American Indians is wildly inaccurate and disturbing. As an educator, [who doesn't lie on these?] I'm concerned that this is a program aimed at young people in order to inform them of American history, but in reality propagates racial stereotypes.

A snippets of our conversation:
"Oh I see, so you have to upgrade to racism."
[after waiting for example of racism to come up during the game for a while] "If some racism doesn't happen in 5 minutes I'm going to get upset."

Snowpocalypse 2011

Dodo and Kleine both live in L.A., while I have made my home on the Boston. After growing up in the Southwest, I thought I would be consistently excited for things like "seasons" and "weather." But this winter has pummeled out any illusions of liking snow out of me. And it's only January.
Seriously, I've been in Massachusetts for 10 years now, and I have never hated winter so passionately. Especially considering all the complaining I always do in the heat of the summer.

Anyhoo, my friend Meister is moving to a co-op in Roxbury, and we spent the last week trying to fix up her room enough to make it a habitable environment prior to the move in date. Considering it was built in 18somethingoranother, it has taken a bit of work. On the way back at around 2:00am three nights ago we saw this:

What appears be an enormous snow pile was possibly a car, camouflaged by the fact that the snow around it was piled just as high. Don't be fooled by the scale compared to the rearview mirror. This pile was huge. Skeptical? So were we...until we drove by the next night and saw this:

Confirmed. You are fucked.

xoxo
zuzu

Dreams Realized

FINALLY there's a knitting pattern for Old English-ed clothing out there! Nothing like wearing Beowulf. Took the world long enough.

The World Upsets Me Sometimes

So, I was shopping with Dodo and my friend, Paris. Because some items needed to be returned at various places and Paris had a gift card, we reluctantly decided to go to the Americana. Which, for those of you familiar with the Grove, is essentially the EXACT SAME THING, but in Glendale.

We are walking along. Ready to execute our plan, so we don't have to hang around that abyss for too long. In our attempts to find an H&M (where Paris had a gift card), we were stunned to see this display:

 

That is a window display of female mannequins doing household chores. In our shock and awe, we decided to take photographic evidence. Whilst doing this, a man walked by, saw what we were taking a picture of and said: "oooohhhhh cool!" I guess he didn't understand that we were taking this photo out of anger, not window-shopping wonder.

For those who are wondering, this is from a Forever 21 store. Unfortunately, Paris, Dodo, and I mistook this store for H&M (they all look the same) and went in. The display was just as absurd inside:

They are really just grabbing 2011 by the throat with this display. I had always assumed a woman only did chores in an apron, but NOW I see that it's totally cool to do it in heels! Thank God. I had been feeling so held back by antiquated notions of how you could dress when you did your womanly duties. 

Luckily, we figured out we were in the wrong place and made our way over to H&M, which was also all white and brightly lit, but the music was just as loud, which at the tender age of 21, I just can't take anymore!

Kleine