The Part In Defense of Frozen

In celebration of Disney's new trailer being released for FROZEN, here's a little bloggie because I am super pumped for this movie to come out ...

Of all the issues that have been raised about Disney's new feature film coming out this Thanksgiving, Frozen, this is the one that baffled me the most: apparently, a major complaint that many "fans" (honestly, I call them "naysayers", but I think I'm supposed to be nice about this) is "oh my God, not another Disney movie about some blue-eyed, blonde-haired heroine! Where's the diversity, Disney!?"

And, let's be real, I'm an Asian-American young woman growing up in a predominantly white country -- I should have a problem with this. For Christ's sake, I just wrote a blog about why representations of Asians in the media needs to be better! But, in all honesty, I don't. Whoops. First of all, the basis of the setting for the story is like freakin' Norway, and I get the feeling that it's also supposed to be like Hans Christian Anderson-era Norway -- read: mid 1800s. Yeah, not many people of diverse backgrounds there at the time anyways. And while Disney isn't exactly known for paying too much attention to historical accuracy, I don't know how I would feel if there ended up being a "token diverse character" just for the sake of there being one. That just feels like they'd be trying too hard.

But anyways, that's just the icing on the cake. Here's the cake: Disney needs to put out a blue-eyed, blond-haired heroine because they really haven't had a Caucasian heroine princess yet! Seriously, think about. Snow White? Had to be saved by a prince after she fell victim to her step-mother's cursed apple. She really didn't do much other than befriend seven dwarves (unless we're talking Once Upon a Time Snow White, who is end-of-story-awesome). Cinderella? Had to be rescued from her terrible family by a prince after he fell in love with her after dancing with her for like five minutes. Yup, a real badass lady right there. Sleeping Beauty? Didn't even do any dragon-fighting! Nope, she went dancing through the woods, ran into a random guy, sang a duet with him, went home and promptly passed out for a century because she couldn't resist her curiosity for the pointy-wheel thing that had magically appeared in her room. Then had to be saved by a prince who did all the interesting fun hero/heroine things. Belle? Uhm... let's not get started on Stockholm Syndrome, yeah? Gaston and the Beast are the ones who do all the stereotypical hero things, even if Belle is the one to get the Beast to love in the end.

Ariel? She did do a bit of heroine stuffs, fighting Ursula and all, I'll give her that, but anatomically speaking ... she's not exactly human (well until the very end ... and if anyone complains about "spoilers", Imma punch you, because you shoulda seen that movie a long time ago) and technically it's Prince Eric who steers the ship into Ursula's side. But I suppose she's still a "white" character, so we'll give Disney the point for that one (I personally give them half a point, but, again, I think I'm supposed to be nice about this). Tangled's Rapunzel, however? Not exactly the heroine in the traditional sense. She does adventurous stuff, way more so than her previous princess counterparts, but the story's really Finn's *cough*Eugene's*cough* ... I mean, the whole movie starts off with Zachary Levi: "This is the story of how I died ..." Not exactly, technically, a girl-driven story. And Finn does most of the saving and fighting, though Rapunzel did get a few good whacks in with her frying pan (by the way, E and I did discover that frying pans are surprisingly useful in extremely unexpected ways this past weekend while trying to get our couch set up. I kid you not).

So ... we're at like one of six in terms of white heroine Disney princesses.

Meanwhile, Disney's "ethnic" princesses are a whole different story. Admittedly, we don't start off very well with Princess Jasmine ... Like with Tangled, it's mostly Aladdin's story (also seeing how the movie's named ... Aladdin). Jasmine doesn't really do much hero-y stuff. But then there's Pocahontas, who is the epitome of outdoor adventure, and while she doesn't fight, she does lay down her safety to prevent war from breaking out (ayyyyy my internal historical accuracy monitor is squealing in outrage right now, but whatever, it's the portrayal that counts this time around). And I, as a proud Asian-American lady, can't forget about Mulan! If Pocahontas is the epitome of outdoor adventure, Mulan is the epitome of Hun-fighting badass! Yeah, she gets a point. And finally, the lovely Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. Her work ethic alone makes her a heroine to me, but if we're going for something physical to make her count, she does single-handedly(ish) take down Dr. Facilier at the end by destroying the voodoo talisman.

That makes the count three out of four.

So yeah. Are we counting minor princesses too? Like, say, Megara from Hercules? She had to get saved by Herc in the end. Not really a point for the white girls. Jane from Tarzan? Kind of the same boat as Meg. Giselle from Enchanted gives the girls a boost, though, considering that, despite her naivete, she is the one who slays the dragon in the end. As for Esmerelda from Hunchback and Kida from Atlantis, Esmerelda isn't a really heroic, fight-the-power character as much as she is the love interest, but Kida is literally the savior of her people. So ... white girls: 1/3; other ethnicity girls: 1/2.

The total count becomes this: 

White girls: 2/9, or about 22%

Ethnically diverse girls: 4/6, or about 66%

Wow. Yeah ... I think the numbers speak for themselves. While I'm all for the promotion of varied ethnicities in films, I hate to say that Disney does not have a great track record making their white princesses into white heroines. As much as it sucks to not have good ethnic representation in the media, in the spirit of media equality, I don't even want to think about how it must feel for a white girl's media representation to solely be that of the damsel in distress waiting to be saved. That sucks even more for all us feminists out there.

So, to all you naysayers, I say this: If you're going to complain about anything, go complain about how the character design of Anna and Elsa looks exactly like the design of Rapunzel (oh wait, they don't) or that the original Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale is being beaten into submission or something trivial like that. Or, tell you what, considering the movie isn't even coming out for a few more months, why don't you wait until the film's come out, watch it, and then rip it apart if it's as bad as your fears say it might be! Because then, at the very least, you have an informed opinion on what you're bashing. And, oh right, you might actually find that you were wrong, and the movie is great.

Just sayin'.

--Tiffany.

Disclaimer: Though I'm trying to get into the animation industry, I did not work on this movie, so I am technically unbiased. I can only say I'm "technically" unbiased because my lovely roommate, E, worked on it, so she, of course, has influenced my view on it, but seeing as I've only seen what everyone else has seen (i.e. the teaser, the trailer, the released synopsis, and the design artwork), the movie looks gorgeous, witty, funny, and like it will be a great joy to watch!

The (First) Part About Asians in Television: A Word on Sherlock and Elementary

*edit* Rereading this whole thing, I felt the need to put in this disclaimer ahead of time: BBC's Sherlock is the main reason I would have even heard of Elementary or cared about it for that matter. I'm not trying to bash the show ... I love every second of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman banter. Steven Moffat is a writing god-among-men, and if I ever get the chance to work on a show as intelligent, adventurous, fun, tech-savvy, hilarious, and well-put-together as Sherlock, I'd consider myself to be one of the luckiest people alive. *endedit*

This actually started last September -- well, even earlier, I guess. Probably sometime last June. I had just finished thesising and recovering from thesising and I binge-watched (if you can really call it binge-watching when there are only six episodes) BBC's Sherlock. The wit! The sarcasm! The carefully thought-out -- EVERYTHING! And the cheekbones! Oh, the cheekbones. Basically, especially after the stunning RDJ Sherlock Holmes films of recent years, Sherlock Holmes was back in fashion. And so I counted myself among the extremely un-surprised when CBS announced they were going to do their own Sherlock Holmes series, set in New York, with completely new (rather than reinvented) mysteries. Exciting! 

Johnny Lee Miller was cast as the recovering addict Mr. Holmes, and the role of Doctor Watson was filled by ... Lucy Liu. Aka, not only an Asian, but an Asian woman. As if the genderbending was so far out of the realm of possibility to some people, she is Asian. They went and "racebent" Watson too! Inconceivable! Despicable! In all honesty, if I remember correctly, the backlash against her being cast is somewhat akin to the backlash against Ben Affleck being cast as Batman for the upcoming Justice League film. 

Anyways, back on subject, in a round-about way: having just finished watching the first season of Elementary in time for the season 2 premiere tonight, I found Lucy Liu's performance throughout the entirety of the season to be outstanding. She's subtle, graceful, ferocious, intelligent, loyal, thoughtful, thorough, caring, and all-together a great representation of what a good friend and human being should be. A wonderful foil to Miller's good-chaotic Sherlock. And, as an Asian woman in film, Liu's casting is a testament to the hope that the portrayal of Asians onscreen is slowly getting better.

See, that is the majority of the reason why I think Elementary has half a leg up on Sherlock, at least in the race front. Don't get me wrong, Sherlock is amazing. The script, the line delivery, the scope of the whole show ... I do believe all that is at a higher production value than Elementary (as can be done when you only do three episodes a season and have a year and a half between airings ... MOFFAT!! *shakes fist*). But, and it actually surprises me to say this, Sherlock lacks meaningful diversity in its casting. As far as I can tell, the only person in entirety of the main cast who is not some sort of Caucasian is Sargent Sally Donovan, and she's only in half the episodes (not to mention she's literally built to be an un-likable/unsympathetic character). 

Not only that, but Sherlock takes a step in the wrong direction with the second episode of the first series, "The Blind Banker". Long story short, it's the Chinese mob. And there are Chinese artifacts involved. And the non-lead, sort-of center-of-focus character is a Chinese young woman who I couldn't help but cringe at every time she was on screen (Soo Lin Yao). While I'm extremely aware that my Chinese-American upbringing is far from standard, it felt to me that her entire purpose in that episode was to reinforce stereotypes about Asians. She was doe-eyed and docile throughout the entire episode, even when the mob's assassin comes to kill her, and she held onto a Chinese accent stronger than the one my own mother has. (Honestly, I know that one doesn't seem like it should matter that much, but think about it this way: if you were running as fast and as far as you could away from people who would hurt you to the best of their ability, and you had a chance at blending in to your new environment, wouldn't you? She's intelligent enough to know flawless English, so she's got to be intelligent enough to learn to mimic the English accent. I'm just saying.)

And the Chinese mob! Yet another unnecessary stereotype! While Soo Lin Yao obviously represents the flawlessly innocent exotic beauty of the Chinese, these mob members, so fully steeped in their evil smuggler ways, are twisted, heavily-accented, and *sigh* no getting around it -- straight-up ugly, as any self-respecting villain should be, apparently. In contrast to the taller, gorgeous, wide-eyed Soo Lin, these Asians were the squat, squinty-eyed, wrinkled Asians. Take a second to think about it. You know the image I'm talking about.

These parts were cast as stereotypes, not people. And that is my big issue with Sherlock, well, at least with that episode of Sherlock. My problem with it is that there is no in-between. Sure the world, as seen through the eyes of Sherlock, is a completely maddeningly different one than the one the viewer would see on her own, and maybe the series is supposed to be like his point of view or something, but Sherlock also sees layers of people, which is why he is so good at catching criminals -- he in shades of gray, not strict black and white, as the characters were painted in "The Blind Banker". 

Whereas, with Elementary, Watson is a force to be reckoned with. By the end of the first season, Holmes himself even puts her on-par intelligence-wise with Moriarty. Watson holds her own in a world surrounded by men who think they hold all the cards at all the times, but she truly is the one to bring them together, hunker down, and hold them up -- she is the stability, foundation, and connection that Holmes and the boys need in order to even consider getting along. Watson is more than the bland, two-dimensional, but-we-have-a-strong-woman-so-we're-doing-female-diversity-right "strong female character". Like I listed before, she's got a long list of truly admirable qualities that exemplify what a good friend and human being should be.

And she just happens to be Asian. 

Seriously, though, her race is just an afterthought! There hasn't been an episode yet where Watson has been written into your standard Asian box. From watching the show, I get the overwhelming feeling that she was cast as an American-Asian, not as an Asian-American. The show makes it feel like she was cast a person first, and her identity as an Asian is a relatively secondary aspect to her personality, as honestly, it kind of is, at least in my experience. 

I know, it seems counter-productive for someone who could be now touted as holding the banner high for positive portrayals of Asian-Americans to have their race be considered secondary, but that's just it -- we're people first, not Asians. Being Asian to us is just the same as all the people who are from, say, Ireland ... Is being Irish the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning? Do you wear traditional, or even stereotypical Irish dress on the day to day? Do you speak American English with that great Irish accent? Is Guinness the only beer you'll drink? Are you a practicing Catholic? Do you believe in leprechauns? 

... No? 

Well of course you don't, you're American!

Surprise. So are we.

Yes, I'm fully aware that I just listed a bunch of probably insulting stereotypes about Irish people (and I do apologize for that, I do), but this is what I'm talking about. It's apparently not okay to list Irish stereotypes, but it's acceptable to stick Asians into a neat little box and always have them portrayed that way? (That sentence alone is insane ... Asia has as many countries as Europe does, all with varying cultures, customs, and peoples ... just like Europe does). That's why there needs to be a shift away from what has become the standard portrayal of Asians in film and television. We are not all super-genius math geeks, and we sure as hell are not doe-eyed and docile exotic playthings from the Orient. The majority of us don't have accents, especially if we were born here, and all in all, and perhaps the most important thing of all: we're just like everyone else who lives in this country. So there's no need to differentiate Asian-American characters from white characters.

And that is why, despite there being a fandom-wide disdain of Elementary from Sherlockians, I will continue to watch Elementary proudly, no matter how much flack I get from my Sherlock-loving friends. 

--Tiffany

P.S. Check out this article; it's one that I found around this time last year about the casting of Lucy Liu in Elementary, and it definitely inspired this blog. Honestly, the article was actually the reason I didn't even bother writing this in the first place last year, because it explained so eloquently why the racebending of Dr. Watson doesn't deserve to be bashed. 

P.P.S. Quick explanation of this blog: Really the only reason I ended up deciding to write this is because I just finished the first season of Elementary, and based on its individual merits, I'm not a fan of the bashing that the show is getting from Sherlock fans who refuse to watch it purely because they consider it a rip off of the British show and refuse to see the differences in genre and intent between the two.

The Part About the Weekend

'Ollo! Hey! I got 23+ page views on my Fantasy Rules post, which I quite like. I haven't really done a musings post in a while, so it was actually kinda fun.

Anyways, picture time! E and I had a very busy weekend, and admittedly, the pictures aren't very good at exemplifying how epic it was, but let's just say there were lots of smiles and high fives involved for being really, really productive. Well, mostly. But like, on our list of like twenty things to do, I'd say we got like nineteen done. Bamskees! We awesome.

Here we go!

September 20, 2013. IT'S FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIDAY! Yeah ... we went around Sherman Oaks/Van Nuys/Encino getting supplies for our Housewarming Party on Saturday. Pretty sweet shopping. This was the outside of the Ralphs on Ventura on Encino. The moon was killing it! What a gorgeous night. :)

September 21, 2013. Yup. That's Comic Sans. BUT we got our whole couch in one go. Hello Living Spaces! It was fun. Lotsa forearm work. Look! There's E.

September 22, 2013. E and I went to LMU's Alumni BBQ. Fun shtuff! Great to see friends and people :) Oh such an epic day! We woke up early to get E her new iPhone from the Century City Apple Store -- that failed -- so we went to the Third Street Promenade Apple Store, and then the AT&T store to activate it. It was like a two hour ordeal, but at least it got done and it was fun to wander the Promenade in the California morning.

September 23, 2013. LOOK! Our couch. It's a sectional. Wow, we're so cool. We got this whole thing into our apartment (mostly) on our own. Had some help loading and unloading from the elevator, but walked it down the hallways and into our apartment ourselves. We so cool :)

--Tiffany

The Part Where I've Done Pretty Much Everything But PhotoDump

... but I think that's a good thing right? I'm actually writing things this week. Madness! Haha. But furreal! If you're reading this one and you haven't looked at the ones I've put up this week, check them out below!

But yeah, here are the photos from this past week!

September 14, 2013. E and a coworker and I went down to the OC on a mission to find a couch. We didn't find the couch. But we found lights to string up (more of a struggle than you'd think)! AND we got super distracted (literally) by tall shiny objects (aka the Crystal Cathedral). It was actually kinda cool to run around the complex a bit. Some very interesting architecture.

And proof that, with me, it's always a church outing :P

September 15, 2013. Finally finished this, after working on it for almost 14 months. Desert, 2012. This is definitely one of my favorite places in the world

September 16, 2013. Lighting in the new apartment.

September 17, 2013. View from the new apartment of the Galleria

September 18, 2013. Went to E's basketball game in Burbank! I got to be their cheering section with one of their coworkers who didn't want to actually play.

September 19, 2013. E bought a new plant to be friends with zombie plant. And like a good zombie, zombie plant killed its new friend. We just can't win with this thing!

Yeah, that's the wrap for now!

--Tiffany

The Part Where Fantasy Rules

I believe in alternate universes. I believe in alternate universes the way that some people believed in Santa Claus as children or the way that some people believe in the afterlife. It's a fantastical idea, but the world out there is way too big and crazy and unexpected for there NOT to be a chance that alternate universes exist. So I choose to believe in them.

My personal theory on alternate universes (and one I've heard isn't super uncommon among people who like to  ponder these types of possibilities) is that every little decision you make spawns a new universe outside of the one you are living in. There are literally googols of universes out there that exist and spawn new ones and new ones and new ones, and, essentially it's infinite.

And, sometimes, when I'm feeling low, I like to play pretend that my favorite literary or TV characters exist and there is an astronomically tiny possibility that they actually exist; that the ideas that spark these crazy shows are just the universes bleeding together. That there is an astronomically tiny possibility that they actually exist and can actually show up at any random moment and make things a hell of a lot better than whatevers going on in the now.

That, my friends, is the power of fantasy.

"Rescue me, Chin Boy. Show me the stars. " -- Clara, Doctor Who.

--Tiffany

The Part About Feet

All right, here's where I make a molehill into a mountain, but it kind of pertains to femininity and societal perception, which is something I seem to have found my stride writing about here, so here I go:

The Part About Feet.

I (finally) finished my desert oil painting the other day (much thanks to E gifting me a fantastic set of oil pastels that she doesn't use), and since those pastels are infinitely better than the ones I had been using, I figured I'd just continue with doing more oil paintings instead of taking a break like I usually do because my fingers hurt so much. So, I immediately started drafting this one idea I've had for a bit of time ... girl on the moon, blowing star dust into the night sky ... very fanciful and cutesy and girly and colorful. It's gonna be fun!

BUT, as I was drawing her, I was drawing her feet, and I started thinking to myself: "Yikes, I draw some fugly feet. They're all big and knobby and weird looking, and wow, EW. Haha!" So I did some self analyzing, trying to figure out why I always draw weird-looking, gross feet ... Is it because I have strangely large feet for my height and I don't want to be the only one? I, personally, and unlike a lot of people, don't mind feet. There are far too many awesome reasons that feet are awesome, like running, and walking, and generally helping people get places. Reason enough to not mind feet.

So what's wrong with the feet I drew? (Well, ignoring the anatomically incorrectness because I didn't really pay attention to bones and toes and silly things like that.)

Then I realized it: girls are always portrayed in cartoons and animations and drawings and such with teeny, tiny feet! My drawing's feet are ... enormous in comparison, and I've just always drawn feet like that in my Figure Drawing classes, but I've almost only ever seen small feet on animated characters. Case in point: Disney movies ... I don't have any pictures to back this up, because Disney Feature Animation (rightfully) doesn't allow photographs inside the building, but the studio is advertising for the upcoming movie "Frozen" (which I am extremely excited about and can't wait to see) in its front hallway, complete with these awesome, gorgeous life-sized (ish) cardboard cutouts based on the character designs, which range from probably about five-foot-four to six-foot, depending on the character.

Obviously, these characters are not realistic or anything, because they are animated characters, but something that really threw me were how tiny Elsa and Anna's feet were! Their cardboard cutouts were five foot fourish, which is about my height, but their feet were between half and three-quarters the size of mine! And, I mean, I know I have big feet; I'm a size nine, and, relative to my height, I'm pretty sure people my height usually land somewhere around a seven, but ... half the size of my feet!? That's like almost kids' sizes.

Again, obviously, it's a design choice to make the feet that size, but it makes me wonder why it's so common for feet to be teeny tiny in female characters. Hans's and Christoff's feet were of normal size (ish). At the very least, their cardboard cutouts, at six feet tall, had feet that were bigger than mine. By a fair amount.

So why is it so prevalent that the girls' feet be small? It's not dainty or cute ... it's painful. I know this because binding feet was an extremely popular custom in China, and I've heard horror stories about how binding feet for a little while can still cause permanent damage. Now, I know this custom has more or less died away, and I'm not saying that Disney movies are influencing girls to attempt to make their feet smaller in any way, but I think to some extent, it just sucks that this film portrays an older teenage/young adult woman with feet designed to the proportions of a child. I mean, the issue is bigger than just her feet; it's just sort of the gateway to this problem of "feminine" beauty in art.

I think what I'm hoping for -- and this is more of an overarching idea about the perception of women's beauty in the media -- is for real women to be better portrayed in popular culture. Things have gotten a bit better in recent years, with there being a backlash against super skinny models in ads or on TV (there's a problem with the backlash too, but that's a whole 'nother blog), and with actresses like Jennifer Lawrence or Shailene Woodley being prominent in both the awards circuits and when they talk about their confidence in their natural body types (who knew that Jennifer Lawrence is considered a "plus" actress?? The girl is like a size 4 or something ridiculously not "plus"). But is it enough? There are still countless examples of girls in media who are an unhealthy size 0 or 00 or have done extremely damaging things to their body to fit into what the media portrays as beauty.

It's a little bit funny to me because, while the rest of the character designs don't exactly promote having a bit of muscle or weight on your bones, the feet were what really got me. But I guess it's because they were so far out of the range of normalcy for a young woman's foot. I look at the designs, and I say to myself, "well, yeah, I know people who are that tiny and that tall, so okay, it's not a stretch." If a girl were born with the set of genes that are conducive to her being that skinny without hurting or starving herself, then good for her; some people get lucky in their body types, but no girl, I repeat, no girl is going to be a five-foot-four, fully grown woman and have feet that are what looks like a size four.

Look, it's got to start somewhere, so I'm saying it here: Disney, I'm super looking forward to this new movie of yours; I love the art I've seen so far, I love the focus on it being a sister story, and I love that it's gonna be a musical (and that Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff and Josh Gad are in it ... AGH! What a cast!! :D) ... I just hope that, in the future, those leading ladies will have feet that are big enough to support their weight. I can promise you, your ladies will still be great dancers, will still be considered dainty and adorable, and will still steal the hearts of millions of little -- and all grown up -- girls across the world. Without making them wonder why their feet have no chance of ever being the same size.

--Tiffany

The Part About Remembrance

So here we are, on the eve of another anniversary of the worst day in modern American history. It's a little strange to be 12 years removed at this point. I remember pieces of that day extraordinarily vividly, as I'm sure all American young adults do. It comes in bursts of memory, but, actually in total, I don't remember much.

I remember waking up suddenly, inexplicably at around 6:00AM PST. I know, logically, it couldn't have meant anything, but it always kind of weirds me out that it did happen. I remember seeing light in the hallway outside my room and knowing that I had a little bit more time to sleep. So I went back to sleep because I didn't understand why I had woken up.

I remember being in the back seat of my mom's old Toyota Camry listen to the grief-stricken KGO 810 reporters talk about the World Trade Centers. By the time I was on my way to school, everything was over. They said something about how the Towers had fallen. I didn't understand. I thought the Towers were in San Francisco. New York was almost an imaginary island in my mind.

I remember dropping my brother off at his high school in downtown San Jose. At a high school next to the airport. I don't remember why she said it (obviously, I understand now), but my mom told my brother to be careful at school that day. I didn't understand why.

I remember my elementary school principal saying something about how it was safe at school now. Us students, we would be kept safe. It could have been at our morning assembly, but I don't remember standing in that square and looking out at the other students at my K-8 school; my school might have eschewed the typical assembly and just had all the teachers send their students into their classrooms immediately and announced it over the loudspeakers. I don't remember how, I just remember it being said. I remember fear. I remember confusion. I remember sadness, overwhelming sadness.

I don't remember much else about the school day. Everyone says it was a clear blue day in New York, but when I think back to that day, which I guess I don't really remember, I remember gray clouds all day until I got home from school. In all honesty, it probably was a pretty boring day at school. I was in sixth grade. Our teachers didn't turn on the TV.

My mom tells me that I asked her to stay at school that day, and she, worried about me, did ... but I don't remember that either. But it kind of makes sense, because I remember getting home earlier than usual that afternoon. I usually went to the after-school day offered by my school, but I remember getting home in time for the afternoon news to be on. My mom was somber. She turned the TV on while I did my homework ... the TV was never on when I was growing up. Especially not on the weekdays. I remember the replays and reports of the devastation in New York. I didn't understand who would do that sort of thing.

And then I remember it being September 12th, and September 13th, and September 14th. And of those days, what I remember most was sitting awake in the backseat of my mom's Camry every morning on the way to school, counting the flags that people put up in the aftermath. I remember writing pen pal letters to students in a sixth grade class from Manhattan. I remember the slew of patriotic country songs that made their way onto the radio. Every time I would hear one, I would smile.

I remember September 11, 2001 as the day America was attacked, and thousands of people died, but also the day that thousands of people lived by the courage of others. I remember it as the day that I learned that the world was much bigger and crueler, and much more terrifying, and much stranger than I had assumed it was. But it was also the day I learned that the world is also filled to the brim with kind, courageous, and much better people than I was aware existed.

There are countless stories of people carrying injured coworkers down the stairs. There is endless documentation of the firefighters who just kept going up. There are eye-witness accounts of first responders heTilping those injured or confused on the streets. Wherever you go on or near the anniversary of September 11th, there is always a story of someone helping someone else out.

So that is what I choose to remember now, 12 years later. Those who died but also those who lived. I mourn for those whose lives were cruelly and unnecessarily cut short, but I celebrate those who helped, gave support, experienced, and grieved together. It was a day of infamy, but it was also a day of unrivaled good and unrivaled kindness in those who responded with courage and sought to help everyone they could.

The best of humanity is in a response with kindness when faced with cruelty. The best of humanity is a response of bravery in the face of something truly terrifying and horrific. The best of humanity is the response of forgiveness when all you want to do is hate.

So that is what I hope to do: I hope to remember those who were lost, celebrate those who were brave, and forgive the ones who really need it. And I pray for peace, because, more than anything, this world needs it.

Be a patriot today: go and give someone a hug. Make your little part of the world a better place.

Always forgive, never forget.

--Tiffany

The Part About Photo-Dump Days

Doing a mini photo dump before this gets out of hand!

September 6, 2013. Out and About in San Pedro Square with one of my LIT friends :) Very cool place; can't wait to go back when I'm back in San Jose

September 7, 2013. Parent day in San Fran and then across the new Bay Bridge for the first time.

September 8, 2013. Family dinner! My parents met my brother's girlfriend's parents for the first time, and we all had MEAT. Yum!

September 9, 2013. Look! A Wild E appeared! :)

September 10, 2013. My mom makes cool things. So she decided to embroider giraffes on a bath towel for me. And it was beautiful.

September 11, 2013. At the Sherman Oaks 9/11 Memorial Service. Cub Scouts looking at the only pieces of the World Trade Centers and Pentagon in the state of California.

September 12, 2013. I don't think they have enough satellite dishes up on that roof. Haha!

September 13, 2013. Every end is a new beginning. New rainbows! Man, I've never had issues breaking in flip flops, but this time around ... OUCH.

--Tiffany

The Part About The Last Two Weeks

Hehe... well, as I mentioned last night, I've been rather busy running around Los Angeles, half of the time, without internet, so ... whoops! here are all the pictures I haven't put up yet. I really need to stay more on top of this. I will! I will! I promise! (ish.)

August 16, 2013. Ladies' night out. Pretty epic night out in the end ...

August 17, 2013. Went to the Wellsbourne with E and my friend from high school and then ran into two Gryphons! overall, pretty sweet bar, though very hipstery.

August 18, 2013. The first day of mad sickness. I thought it was only going to be a day, but, oh how it turned into chaos.

August 19, 2013. See?? CHAOS. Sickness and chaos.

August 20, 2013. E found these maps of the USA based on questions, and I am so proud to say that California is by far the craziest state in the union. Like ... by far. Blows New York so far out of the water it's not even funny. Love ittt :D

August 21, 2013. After days of not being able to do ANYTHING, I dragged E out to our favorite old haunt and had as many eggs as I could handle eating. And it was delicious.

August 22, 2013. Trying to get a head start on packing, and came across this beauty. My first Harry Potter book =) The one that changed the world. I still take it with me to be in my mini library to remind me of how much I love reading.

After all this time...Always :)

August 23, 2013. Got off of work, had been cooped up all week, so I decided to go down to 3rd street, see a movie (ended up watching Kick Ass 2. Wasn't great, but wasn't terrible. Just, unfortunately, not as good as the first). Walked to the bluff overlooking the ocean and watched the sun set.

August 24, 2013. E and I went to see Back to the Future at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery! Loved the crowd. It was a very fun movie to see as a group!

August 25, 2013. Moving. Phew! What a trek!

August 26, 2013. We moved all of E's stuff on Sunday, but we still had our old place, but the sink kept backing up, so we told the maintenance staff, and then got to work on it. And punched a hole in the wall outside our apartment. It's a little funny. But, I guess, not really.

August 27, 2013. To celebrate moving in! E and I now live right next to the Sherman Oaks Galleria, so we went to the Cheesecake Factory there to celebrate. And she had cheesecake.

August 28, 2013. Went to Target to pick up some cleaning supplies and organizing stuff. And there was a shudder and a mini blackout, so I was like "heelllll no. I'm outta here" and went back to my car, only to realize that the parking lot had been affected too and that there were no lights on. hahaha yeah ... It was an interesting night for sure.

August 29, 2013. Empty Apartments. Goodbye West Park Village! It's been fun, but no we're in the ....

August 30, 2013. PH! ... for Penthouse. Oh Lord, we sound a tad bit pretentious saying that. But, it is what it is, and we are on the 4th floor :)

August 31, 2013. Went out with Caitl because SHE just moved to Sherman Oaks too! This is a little Irish Pub that some of our friends were at. Live band, good music, tad bit older crowd, but an all around good time!

September 1, 2013. Went to the final Shakespeare in the Park at Griffith Park ... they did "As You Like It", and it was GREAT. Had some great conversation, got to catch up with some friends, enjoyed some wonderful Elizabethan spoken word ... and then Lawrence Fishburne sat down like twenty feet in front of us. hahah it was pretty cool!

September 2, 2013. I has pretty lights in my new room! They're weathered copper (to look antiqued) dragonflies with little colored marbles in the bodies to add a little color. If you look at the picture in my last post, they are what's causing the glow from the left side. And that's my bed! (errrr my pillows on top of my blow up mattress. haha)

September 3, 2013. Driving back from Encino because we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and then Panera for dinner. Love me some pretty lights :)

September 4, 2013. LAX to SJC. So happy to have gone home (and am now at home). I've never seen LAX so empty though! It was kinda creepy, which is funny because there were definitely more than enough people to populate it, but I'm so used to the airport teeming with people that it was strange that it wasn't.

September 5, 2013. Dropped off my brother at the airport and then went to visit my parents at their work's new location. My mom took me on the grand tour of the place and this is the warehouse! And that, down at the end, is my mother :) She's a fun one, she is!

And that's it for the past two+ weeks. I promise I won't let this happen again!

--Tiffany

The Part About Moving Mindsets

Phew! It's a been a busy two weeks ... I'm not going to lie, that illness took a lot out of me, and then me and E moved apartments that Sunday, and then I was without internet until this past Saturday, and now I'm back at home in the Bay Area for a mini-vacation. So, that's all that's really been going on, admittedly, being busy busy busy! I now have a room and bathroom to myself, barstools that are actually usable under a kitchen bar, and an apartment with central air (and, boy, do we need it ... it's been sweltering every day). It's a pretty nice apartment though. This is how I've set up my room, anyhow:

Put up some pretty dragonfly lights on the wall above my bed, installed my makeshift desk across the room with a little bit of inspiration on that wall too ... it's really nice to fall asleep with that across from me too. I really am a bit fan of the natural light that I get in my room. The only lights that are on are the dragonflies and this is relatively lateish in the day. It's very comfy, and there's a nice amount of space to spread out, which, I've started to realize I really kind of need in order to get my mind in order and actually get things done.

I didn't just move, I went through and organized all my stuff. Threw out a fair amount, got a nice pile of things to give away, and reorganized a lot of my stuff so that I actually know where everything is! It makes my brain much happier, to have everything organized, and I'm ready to start working, especially now that I have a (sort of) desk! (kay, it's really just one of my drawing boards on top of two short(ish) organizing towers that I already have, but still. better than the floor. ish.).

As much as I like my organized chaos, I've found that I can't work when the chaos doesn't have a system, which was hard to create when I didn't have my own space, and for fear of bothering E's space. So it's nice to have system now, and my mind, though still thriving on the slight chaos in my room, feels much happier about getting down to business.

So yeah, I didn't just move apartments; I'm working on moving mindsets. I've got so much space in my (own?? wow that's weird to say after a year+ of having a roommate) room, so I'm sure the chaos will thrive, but I'm really looking forward to letting the chaos work for me, rather than having to corral it, which, is strangely comforting to me (sorry, mom. haha!).

Anyways, I guess what I'm looking forward to is a new space, new energy, and (re)new(ed) motivation. Gotta get stuff done!

And, now I gotta enjoy my night with my fam-bam.

So happy to be home. HELLO CANTONESE PEOPLE!! ^_^

--Tiffany