Funding and Support from the People

Yo! Respect to the Blue Scholars for this project called Cinemetropolis. In their effort to release their new record in true independent fashion, "No record label. No marketing and distribution deal. No middlemen. No bullsh*t," the Blue Scholars signed their record to the people enlisting the support of fans through the medium of Kickstarter. Depending on the amount invested, backers were promised advanced digital copies of the album, an actual cd copy, vinyl record, etc.

What I love about the project to sign to the people is that it gives the consumer the opportunity to give what we can and/or value the work and contributions of the Blues Scholars for what we think it's worth. So, if we feel the quality of their work (based on past experience) is worth more than a $12 cd, then we can give $50 instead. Sure, there's compensation, but there's absolutely an opportunity for choice and some self determination through this model.

And does it work? Hell yeah, it works. Out of a fundraising goal of $25,000, the Blue Scholars made more than $60,000 off the project. It's a testament to their artistry, intelligence and loyal fan base. Definitely a great teaching and learning experience from the Blue Scholars...as usual.

Power Can Be...

From a book on deck called Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination, by Avery Gordon, this first paragraph is bomb:

"...the power relations that characterize any historically embedded society are never as transparently clear as the names we give to them imply. Power can be invisible, it can be fantastic, it can be dull and routine. It can be obvious it can reach you by the baton of the police, it can speak the language of your thoughts and desires. It can feel like remote control, it can exhilarate like liberation, it can travel through time, and it can drown you in the present. It is dense and superficial, it can cause bodily injury, and it can harm you without seeming ever to touch you. It is systematic and it is particularistic and it is often both at the same time. It causes dream to live and dreams to die. We can and must call it by recognizable names, but so too we need to remember that power arrives in forms that can range from blatant white supremacay and state terror to 'furniture without memories.'"

Rediscovering New York: St. Charles Borromeo

Now that I have a few folks living in Harlem, I spend a lot of Saturday nights uptown. That means that I need to find a Sunday morning Mass to attend uptown as well. After doing the usual search this Sunday, I saw that the Church of St. Charles Borromeo was only blocks from my homie's pad on St. Nick's.

I walked over to the Gospel Mass and really enjoyed the Mass as a whole -the Liturgy of the Word, the music, but most of all the sense of community. It was extremely clear, that there was a fairly strong sense of community at the Church. One family seemed to be going through an extremely difficult time with two of their sons being racially discriminated against -innocent of a crime, but arrested anyway. It amazed me to hear a Catholic pastor speaking about racial injustice -something that I rarely hear at Mass. Of course, the few Catholic communities I have been a part of are rarely faced with racial issues in such a blatant manner -the privilege. It made me wish that more Catholic faith communities would better address issues of racism and of general oppression. While liberation theology is present within the Catholic Church, it's not often that parishes (I've been a part of) have shared this knowledge and the teachings around it. It struck me that a small, but historically important parish, that was struggling would be the one to have to address these issues. It was frustrating and beautiful at the same time.

No. No answers, but I'm sure glad I found that Mass on Sunday.

A Day Made of Glass

My homie who is an engineer sent this to me and it blew my mind a little bit. It's like the Jetsons to me. Is this really the time period we are living in?! The visuals of the possibilities were totally making me trip. What a world we live in!

Wonder how much all this would cost for personal use. lol.

Economic Hitmen Animated Video

I know, I know. I'm waaay behind. Hasn't everybody read Economic Hitmen already? No, I still haven't, but I sure did like this animated short.

The Radiant Child

Recently watched the documentary Basquiat: The Radiant Child. What an amazing piece -really beautiful, really interesting, and really insightful.

It really paints a wonderful picture of a beautiful soul and the amazing work he did.

What a gift.

Watch it.

The Spell of the Sensuous

Throughly enjoying this read right now!!

"Humans are tuned for relationship. The eyes, the skin, the tongue, ears, and nostrils -all are gates where our body receives the nourishment of otherness. This landscape of shadowed voices, these feathered bodies and antlers and tumbling streams -these breathing shapes are our family, the beings with whom we are engaged, with whom we struggle and suffer and celebrate...The color of the sky, the rush of waves -every aspect of the earthly sensuous could draw us into a relationship fed with curiosity and spiced with danger. Every sound was a voice, every scrape or blunder was a meeting -with Thunder, with Oak, with Dragonfly. And from all of these relationships our collective sensibilities were nourished."

-David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

PI Day 23 -Sights and Sounds: Angelus in the Mall

It just straight up blew my mind. Kay and I had just finished our day tour of Bohol and were roaming around the Bohol Quality Mall for a spot of dinner. All of a sudden, I saw two young people make the sign of the Cross. Usually, I take notice if there is a chapel or church around and cross myself as well, but I didn't see either.

I looked around frantically, "What am I missing?" I asked Kay.

She looked at her watch, "Oh, it's 6 o'clock. Stop right there."

I stopped, confused. All of a sudden I heard church bells over a loud speaker in the mall. The Angelus, a prayer that some American Catholics say at noon and Filipino Catholics say around 6pm was being announced over the loud speaker. As I looked around, almost the whole mall had stopped its movements -students, workers, civilians all stopped dead in their tracks while the prayer was said. I recited the words while my head quickly swung back and forth in disbelief.

Mall traffic stopped for the Angelus.

I know it's a Catholic country, but they don't even really do that in Manila so I was shocked to see it happen, especially coming from the States where any form of religious expression is looked down upon by many folks. Kay reminded me that in the province, it's still like that -public life is still imbued with religiosity. I guess in some ways, it's not so different in places where there is a large Muslim population and people pray together in public spaces. They certainly did that in many of the places we visited in Mindanao and I thought it was pretty dope.

It's always a tough balance. It's helpful to have structures that support spiritual beliefs and growth but at the same time you want people to really choose to express their religious and spiritual beliefs, not force them into it. I know lots of folks will look at this practice and see it as terribly oppressive, and I hear that considering the history of religions in Third World countries. I guess either way, in an ultra secular society or in an ultra religious society, the sincerity of your expressions is still your choice to make.

In any case, it is what it is. Mind blowing.

Riot in the Sky and Surplus Dropped!

My sister Sahra has done it again. After a short hiatus from the blogosphere Riot in the Sky is back online and better than ever. I didn't think it could look any better, but it does! I could say the same for Sahra girl as well! :) My friends are too fly for their own good!!

Sahra also dropped her new epic poem Surplus on the website as well. Download it asap. You need to read her genius! I had the pleasure of reading it before its release and was moved by its imagery, honesty, and its call to truth and action.

Sahra always says, "No homie bias," but I have some straight up, forreal homie bias because my friends are DOPE!!

PI Day 72 -WWOOF'ing at Herbana Farms

Vocabulary:

• Bolo: Filipino machete
• Damo: grass, also used to describe weeds
• Masaya: Cheerful or happy
• Visayan: Person from the Visayas, part of the central set of islands of the PI.
• Kwento: to tell a story/stories; a story
• Mabaho: smelly
• Suka: throw up
• Pechay: Chinese cabbage

~

Ms. Fu-Daddy off line for two whole weeks? To what does the cyber world owe this great pleasure? Well, I’ll tell you. And it’s not gonna be the short version (is there even such a thing on my blog? Maybe when you're lucky), so get ready.

I’ve always had this seemingly random interest in Earth Science. It was my favorite science subject as a young person and I took two courses in Environmental Geoscience as an undergrad and loved the heck out of what I learned. I was fascinated by the way nature moves and works and was moved when I learned more about garbage dumps, pollution, and issues with natural sources. I guess the interest isn’t random when you think about the issues of the Third World, industrialization and globalization –some of my favorite things to think about.

From what I’ve seen, much of Manila is an environmental disaster. I know there are some efforts to improve some of the issues, but the problems are still very visible –dirt, energy, garbage, no recycling, smog, it’s awful. Seeing the city in this state is rough, but seeing the countryside shifting because of environmental issues makes my heart heavy, especially knowing how small our country is and how limited our resources are. Sometimes it’s frightening.

Like many tropical islands, the PI has many natural resources that have become overwrought and tired by both transnational corporate and local interests. When you see the streams and rivers filled with garbage or the land overextended by large scale farming it just makes you shake your head. I recognize that agriculture and businesses provide work opportunities and food for many people, but at the same time there has to be a safer and healthier way to do it.

In addition to environmental justice, I also became interested in food justice as I observed the eating habits of my students and the issues of access to healthy food in our communities. I noticed what my students ate –Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, chips and cookies for lunch, candy for snack. I know, because when I didn’t make time to cook my own meals, I did the same things. When I drove through my students’ neighborhoods or walked into one of the grocery stores in the depths of the hood I noticed the lack of fresh produce. I distinctly remember one supermarket with very little fruit and vegetables with flies swarming around the fledgling produce section. I was so disappointed with the lack of quality. You definitely need wheels or transportation of some sort to get cleaner, fresher food. Meanwhile, in my old neighborhoods in Cambridge and in JP, there were several establishments that sold great produce in addition to beautiful weekly farmers’ markets only blocks from our house.

As I pondered the issues of food and its accessibility in communities of color, I began to look into veganism for both its political and health ramifications. I wanted to see what all the hype was about and found that I probably wouldn’t completely give up animal products, but definitely appreciated what I learned from it. Thinking of all the processed food we have now made me more interested in traditional diets that seemed more natural and healthier for our bodies to digest. In addition to this, I came to learn more about the food cycle itself, not just about biological processes, but also about the social forces impacting food production which in turn impacts our food intake.

When I watched Food Inc. earlier this year, the documentary only served to further fuel my interests. With the perfect timing of God and the universe, I met my friend Dave who recently founded an amazing group called The MOVE, whose goal is to provide opportunities for people in the community more of a sense of where there food is coming from and how it’s produced by hosting trips to local farms and organizing garden raisings. Though I was never able to go on a trip, I was able to help at a garden raising and have always been a big fan of the org.

When I mentioned my interest in working within the environmental/agricultural sector here in the Philippines to Dave, he suggested that I try WWOOF’ing. WWOOF stands for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It is an exchange program where one can room and board on a farm in exchange for labor on the farm. This can be done in many different countries and the Philippines has a few organic farms that are WWOOF sites. It so happens that the owner of Herbana Farms in Calamba, Laguna was a friend of my father’s during his activist days, so my parents recommended that I check out his farm if I was going to WWOOF at all. I invited Nen to come with me who has always loved gardening and was the person to invest in our garden in NY the most. We decided to head to Herbana for two weeks and see what we could learn about this process of food production.

~

Gil Carandang is the owner of Herbana and is very well known throughout the organic farming community in the Philippines because of his work around Beneficial Indigenous Micro-organisms (BIM) and other organic farming methods. He did a Fulbright in the States and also studied with organic farmers in Korea and Japan. Tito Gil is extremely dedicated to the work and to his farm. While we were there, he could often be seen in one of the farm plots or the garden working barefoot, with a bolo, ripped shorts, a loose tshirt, covered in dirt. From time to time he would sit with us and teach us about some of his methods and I learned a TON from being there.

When I got back from the farm, my loving family and friends kept asking what it was like, how it was, and what happened. At times I felt obliged to give some extravagant, exciting account of how my visit changed my life. But the transformative nature of working on the farm was quiet and subtle like the farm itself; and it was directly connected to the hard work and seemingly monotonous chores of farm life.

The farm is beautiful and huge and when we were walking around on the first day, Tito Gil explained that they had over 200 varieties of vegetation growing there. You would never know it, though. It’s done so naturally, with a focus on the importance of bio-diversity and natural balance, with trees to provide shade and protext crops from the wind, and crop mixing that complemented the types of growth and needs of the different plants to be harvested. Calamba itself is surrounded by Mt. Makiling to the South and Tagatay Highlands to the West. It was a gorgeous view to wake up to and wind down with.

The view we woke up to

The days were quite uniform for us. We would wake up between 6:30am and 7:30 am, have breakfast, do morning chores until 10:30am or 11am. Break and lunch were long, lasting from 11am to about 2 or 3pm, then go back to work in the fields. On our first day there, we learned how to transplant seedlings and how to propagate plant cuttings –very basic and very easy, but like anything else, good practice. In the afternoon, we helped plant some tomato plants in the rain. We did a TON of weeding through our two weeks there.

The Herb Garden after two days of weeding

The farm has an Herb Garden, a Community Garden, and then general plots for planting. The Herb Garden was a MESS before we came. There were herbs everywhere, but the damo had taken over some of the planters and over some of the walking pathways. We spent 2-3 days simply freeing the herbs of the choking weeds. When we weeded, we did it exactly how I’d imagine an old school Pinoy farmer working –squatting, using small knives as trowel, shears, weeder, and garden fork. I swear, my knees still ache from squatting for hours on end. I tell you, I went to bed and woke up sore as a mug almost every day I was there. There were days I couldn’t even lift my arms without wincing and my hands were swollen and sore for most of the two weeks I was there. And imagine, Nen was doing the same work as me and is turning 61 at the end of December!! Gangster!!

Our work tools

The reason why so much of the farm was covered in weeds was because Tito Gil only had two men working while we were there, Tata and Jenzel. He said it would be hard to hire new “boys,” as they’re called (I know, right?! They were definitely grown men) during the holiday season and would be hiring after the New Year. Because there were so few workers, they could only tend to the most important tasks such as planting, harvesting, and watering which was a TON since they basically split the whole farm between the two of them! We were able to help clear some of the damo and plant some young lettuce, tomatoes, and basil in different parts of the farm.

I hadn’t weeded in what seems like ages, so I watched the guys swiftly work on weeding rows and rows of plant beds. It was fascinating watching them

move so effortlessly through the weeds and dirt, while I slowly grappled sloppily with hardened dirt and thick roots. Sometimes Tata even worked barefoot because his tsinellas would get stuck in the mud.Most of my friends know that I’m a pretty strong girl, but my strength is admittedly unharnessed, usually coming out in disorganized, undisciplined bursts of energy. The years of hard labor were clear in their effective, precise and even graceful movements through the beds. I was so jealous of their ability and tried to imitate their movements, only to give myself a ridiculously painful blister on my right hand (sweet). I got a little too excited. On the days it wasn’t sopping wet because of the rains, it was burning hot and we would work til the late morning sun started beating down on us. At first, I would get dizzy from the heat and would have to stretch from my squatting position, causing my blood to rush to my head. The guys of course, just kept going on their merry way! After the first few days, though, I learned to just force my way through the pain.

~

Tomatoes we planted with Tata

Tata, who I privately dubbed as the Filipino Jamie Foxx, was a great person to work with. He was always joking, laughing, and chatting about his life, things that he learned about on the farm, and the different plants we were working with –“Masaya” as we would say. Jenzel was definitely much more quiet than Tata but just as efficient in his work style. Both are originally from Davao and both have amazing stories, though I’m starting to think their stories are probably somewhat similar to a lot of the stories of working class people here. While Tata had been working on the farm for two years, Jenzel has only been there for three months. Aside from their smooth and strong working styles, the other thing I admired most about the two of them was their hunger to learn as much as they could about the farming practices being incorporated at Herbana. Both of them felt that they learned so much about natural and healthy methods for farming by working with Tito Gil. They seemed insatiable, sucking everything in, while putting out a ton of time and muscle. After meeting them, I don’t think I am allowed to ever complain about the grind ever again (I probably will, I’m just sayin).

Tata has that high Filipino male voice and his Tagalog has the intonation of a Visayan who always sounds surprised –the last syllable or word of his phrase lilting just so.

He made kwento of all the things that he had done or did in efforts to make money just so that he could apprentice and learn more at different farms throughout the Philippines. He said himself that he really loves learning and knowing more about it all. He’s done everything from drive a tricycle in Quezon City, work in a palengke which he said was so mabaho he made suka. He once hitched a ride and worked a garbage truck just to get to Subic Bay. At one point, he was living in a sub division with his cousins, he planted pechay on an open lot and sold it throughout the sub division. He’s taught others how to make good compost and loves to share everything he’s learned. We constantly heard him on his phone helping people find good jobs. He told us about some of the job agencies that are good and some that are bad –seems you have to be really savvy to negotiate a good job agency! I’m telling you, this guy has done everything and has been through a lot, but he just goes on in his cheerful, matter of fact way and keeps it moving.

Produce harvested by Jenzel

Jenzel is a rider as well. He and his wife both work on the farm. Vianette, his wife, works as a maid in the house and their four year old daughter is often tagging along behind one of them somewhere around the farm. We spent most of our first week with Tata and then most of our second week with Jenzel. The first day we worked with Jenzel, he taught us how to “double dig” a plant bed –a method that keeps the soil loose and aerated, “like a sponge.” I found myself jealous, once again, watching his brisk, certain motions as he used his legs to push the shovel deep into the impacted soil. I have leg muscle, so I thought, “This won’t be bad, I’ll kick ass at this.” Wrong. My first few tries were clumsy and ineffective, yet I managed to break into a full on sweat within the first four minutes of trying to double dig. After digging out soil from about one foot deep into the earth, you have to break up the big chunks of dirt to make the soil more agreeable for planting. We spent a long time using our bare hands to break large chunks of soil (some rock hard) and after a while I felt my hands and forearms tire. Looking over at Jenzel, his forearms were flexing at a non stop pace as he broke chunks of dirt and I thought this was probably the best workout of my life.

Roselle plants in the Herb Garden, the red flowers are edible

While we went through the process of double digging, Jenzel quietly coached and showed us the best way to proceed. He also told us a little bit of his life before Herbana saying that he had worked in the mines after graduating high school. He told us stories of going down into the dark and how scary it was at first. All the workers would try to be in a certain part of the mine for fear of it caving in on them. Jenzel is one of those guys who can fix anything. When the faucet broke in our bathroom and was squirting water out at me (of course it was me) he was the one who climbed on the roof to try and stop the water. When that didn’t work, he simply created a water stopper out of some crude materials –a piece of hose, some sticky stuff, and two plastic bags, and it worked. Quiet, cool, and collected, “Yup, I just fixed a faucet out of nothing, thank you very much.” Lol. Who does that? While he doesn’t get paid a ton at Herbana, he also felt that everything he was learning was worth the work he was doing which is why keeps on at the farm. Respect!

~

Towards the end of the first week, Nen started helping Tata water the plants. Back in Herbana’s heyday, they used to have drip irrigation installed in the fields, but had to break them down due to budget restraints. So guess what we had to use…watering cans!! This is not your average backyard garden, or even your porch garden, this is a farm!! And we were using 2-4 gallon watering cans, walking back and forth to the water source to water rows and rows of plants. OMG. At first, I hated the chore with a vengeance. I tried shortcuts, I tried cutting out early, I despised it. Nen, of course, was meticulous and would make me go back and do a row if I didn’t water it well enough. When she could tell I was D-U-N-N, she would tell me to just go ahead and she would keep going. I want to say I felt guilty, but that would be lying. Then, my superficial self started noticing how cut my arms were getting and how I needed to use my core to water well, so not only did I proceed to water with a renewed sense of purpose, I started taking on double can duty while I left Nen with one can. Smh. Oh vanity.

Of course, whenever you get closer to the land, you also get closer to its inhabitants. I tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever accidentally sliced as many earthworms or overturned so many whole ant colonies along with their poor little eggs until I went to Herbana. I really felt badly about the ant colonies because I have a lot of respect for their hard working, little selves. Sometimes, I would just squat next to a colony and watch them move for minutes at a time –they’re a fascinating group, those ants. They work together and they just troop it all day long. They’re also a little terrifying if they’re red!! Do not, I repeat do not interrupt a red ant colony. I did it 2-3 times and it was not enjoyable. I was actually a little scared of the little buggers. Gosh, one tiny, red ant bit me on my thumb and it was itchy and swollen for 3-4 days. Their venom packs a punch!

It seems that insects feel completely at ease with me, as they felt comfortable enough to land on any one of my body parts while I was in bed trying to read. Every now and then a bug would drop down from the ceiling onto my book or me. After a while the frantic swatting turned into a look and a nonchalant flick or insect murder. Though, when huge moths the size of my eyes were flying around I did swat ineffectively until I broke out into a mild sweat –this made for a lot of laughs for me and Nen since I was so ridiculous about it. I don't even allow myself wander to the possibility of how many spiders crawled into my mouth at night. Ewww.

Along with these big moths, the spiders there were HUGE as well. I mean, I know I’m bigger than the spider, but when the spider is half the size of your hand or larger, they do look a little menacing and gross. The best was when I was finishing up my shower, trying to pull on my undies when a large spider decided it would briskly crawl towards me, right at that moment. I let out a yelp that could be heard from the second floor and ran around the spider’s path while risking my neck on the wet tiled floor. I joke you not. Another night, I was in the shower concentrating on cleaning my very painful blister when I turned around to see fur in the open window. Oh yes, my friends, it was a rat being a Peeping Tom. Fortunately for me, it jumped in the opposite direction, away from the bathroom. I would have died had it hopped into the shower with me.

~

Yes, there were some funny moments on the farm. With so much time, though during breaks, we also had a great opportunity for some serious study. Tito Gil gave us his training manuals to read while we were there. During our long breaks, we would read up on gardening, farming, and composting methods. I took copious notes on the ideal media mixes for different types of soil and how to make it; read step by step directions on how to double dig and create ideal farm beds; I read how to create my own Beneficial Indigenous Microorganisms to improve soil and plant health; how to ferment different plants in order to create both drinks for consumption and natural pesticides for plants. A lot of it seemed overwhelming scientific, and it was, but it becomes more approachable once you get the hang of it and practice. Fermenting pesticide only takes water, sugar, and some leaves. Anybody can do that!

Milk, sugar, vinegar: some of the basics of making BIM

One of the big things that Tito Gil stresses through building knowledge of organic farming methods is the ability of farmers to have more control over the choices that they make in growing. As you may well know by now self-determination is hugely important to me when talking about the Third World and oppressed communities. For me, one of the major solutions is education and Tito Gil’s methods encourage both education as well as skills necessary to give people the opportunities to make healthy choices –to have choices at all. In one of his essays, Tito Gil quotes Dr. Han Kyu Cho who said, “Farmers have lost their independent authority which they had in the farming techniques of the old days. Farmers became dependent in buying almost everything that they need in farming and they just engaged in farming by role according to the program presented by the seller. I insist to recover the spirit of farmers.” Empowering farmers to have real knowledge over their craft is something that seems so obvious, but like many things has been obscured by different interests that do not always benefit the farmer or the consumers!

It’s ideas like this that make folks like Tata and Jenzel stay, make me want to come to the farm, and makes Tito Gil so passionate about the work that he does. To be able to partake in the process was incredibly valuable. -no, no rip roaring excitement or apocalyptic changes. I’m not going to change my life to become a farmer, but I have gained a quiet understanding of the intricacies of growing and maintaining life and sustenance in a way that complements the consumer and the consumed. If you ever have a chance, I say go ahead and get your hands dirty, or your whole body for that matter!

Last night in Calamba

On Feminism for Brown Girls Today!!

"More than any other generation before us, we need a feminism committed to "keeping it real" We need a voice like our music -on that samples and layers many voices, injects its sensibilities into the old and flips it into the old and flips it into something new, provocative, and powerful. And one whose occasional hypocrisy, contradictions, and trifeness guarantee us at least a few trips to the terror-dome, forcing us to finally confront what we'd all rather hide from.

We need a feminism that possess the same fundamental understanding held by any true student of hip hop. Truth can't be found in the voice of any one rapper but in the juxtaposition of many. The keys that unlock the riches of contemporary black female identity lie not in choosing Latifah over Lil' Kim, or even Foxy Brown over Salt-N-Pepa. They lie at the magical intersection where those contrary voices meet -the juncture where "truth" is no longer black and white but subtle, intriguing shades of gray." -Joan Morgan

Thank Leigh-ness that she handed me this book, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost. It's an oldie, but goodie, and came at a moment when I was ready for it. It has flipped the script in so many ways and talks about a feminism of love, brotherhood and sisterhood. It's not angry, but acknowledges much of the pain that both men and women go through and how all of it contributes to our interactions with one another. Pick it up!!

The Story of Stuff

I can't believe I haven't posted about this before. This is probably one of the best teaching tools I've come across. The Story of Stuff is a short, animated documentary that teaches about our society, consumption, and the impact it has on the planet and people. The woman behind the project, Annie Leonard did The Story of Stuff and also has pieces about Bottled Water, Cosmetics, and Cap and Trade. It is a great teaching and learning tool and very enjoyable! I recommend you watch it now!

In Review: Time for Some Reading

I've been reviewing some of my old blog entries today. While my writing is not as sickeningly corny and trite as it used to be (I know, can you believe it was worse?) I think it's time to step up my game.

Better writing means more reading and I have not touched a book in a thorough, methodical, loving way in a minute. Thank goodness for short stories and planes , where I can read for at least a little bit and feel as though I've gotten through something! My latest have been excerpts from Sherman Alexie's Ten Little Indians and Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. Both have some really great short stories in them.

The end of the year always steals my leisurely reading time and directs me to research papers. Woopwoop (without too much enthusiasm). Hopefully, I can get back into my personal reading time soon!!