May the Yuletide be Gay

Ah Christmas, my favorite time of year. Come December, I torment those near and dear to me with incessant carols and (some say) premature holiday cheer. Spending Christmas in Denver was lovely: cookies were baked, the tree was bejeweled, the Grinch was (re)watched. The weather gods even surprised me with the proverbial White Christmas, giving Denver denizens a clean cover of snow to alternately delight (children, sappy people, me) and torment (drivers, people whose duty it is to shovel driveways, me). In between eating, reading, sleeping, and playing Bingo with the high school crew, I even managed an afternoon of frolicking in the white stuff with my little brother. See pictures for proof of familial happiness.

But all good things (read: excessive leisure time) must come to an end, and I find myself back in damp and dreary DC just in time to ring in the New Year with awesome friends. I couldn't be happier to be back home. (That's right - I had the realization flying back into National that home is no longer the house I grew up in, it's the community I make for myself, wherever that may be. And at the moment, the District seems pretty damn homey, with friends new and less new to welcome me back.)

Since tomorrow is January, it's high time for me to bid goodbye to the "most wonderful time of the year" for year another twelve months, and get on with my life. But before I abandon the holiday spirit, I'm leaving you with a gift courtesy of my brother and YouTube (since what is Christmas about in this country if NOT the presents?!). I can't seem to figure out exactly how this video relates to Christmas, other than a character who happens to be named Santa Claus. After all, there's no push for material consumption, no pretty ornaments, and certainly no baby Jesus. Instead, there seems to be an epic battle of the "Agwars" spearheaded by a laser-ax-toting "Great Woodsman" against some troll things. Oh, and Santa owns a puma. Go figure.

Enjoy, and if you can find any seasonal message encrypted in this bizarre sequence, by all means let me know. Merry Christmas!!!!

I Put Papaya There

Yup, yup. Workin' on New Year's Eve. This is awesome -- nobody is here except for me and a handful of random secretaries. And since the bosses are gone, I'd say the saying "when the cat's away, the mouse will play" certainly applies.

In my case, it means re-watching favorites on YouTube and catching up on world news. There's a lot I could say about this gem of a video (i.e. how awesome it is to have a multicolored dance sequence on a misty mountainside, or how problematic it is that I enjoy watching videos that are only funny because of their non-Western foreignness), but I'd prefer to let the clip speak for itself...

Another Year Wiser?

I celebrated my 23rd birthday this week, and for maybe the first time in my life, didn't think twice about it. Usually, I recall meaningful events of the previous year, freak myself out a little thinking about how old/unaccomplished I am, then get a jump on writing New Year's Resolutions to commit to for my ongoing process of self-betterment. This year, I made french toast for the family, read for a couple of hours, went to see a mediocre play, and avoided eating chocolate for fear of further aggravating a cold sore that's already the size of Louisiana.

What a truly exciting life I lead.

My own mother actually made fun of me for being such a homebody, but I'm at peace with that fact. I've given up on the possibility of ever celebrating my birthday with friends. In late December, people are usually out of town, skiing, or with their own families, and being quite family-oriented myself, I'm OK with that. Last year, after realizing that my 21st had involved me flying 30 hours, having one glass of wine, and then passing out on my couch completely jet-lagged, I was determined to do the "traditional" party thing for the big 2-2. I roped about 20 friends into committing to a night of bar-hopping, and then watched helplessly as a blizzard rolled in that morning, trapping me in the house for three days with my family. So much for a wild party.

It seems quite clear to me that God does not wish for me to celebrate the day of my birth in any way other than at home, sober and in my pajamas. S'cool. Who needs big parties when you have, uh, nifty-ass hobbies like knitting and fiddling to prove how cool you are? Damn straight.

Anyway, thanks for all of you who wished me a happy birthday. It means a lot to hear from all the wonderful people I know, whether I met you a few weeks ago or have known you since middle school, whether you live near me in DC or are spread to the far-flung corners of the globe. I'm continually impressed by the caliber of thoughtfulness and intelligence you all possess, and by the amazing things you are all doing with your youthful energies. Big hugs to all!! (**Awwwwwww**)

Whatever, it's my birthday. I can be sappy if I want to.

And the Winner Is....

True to seasonal fashion, it's once again appropriate to play that all-American pastime: creating lists that document the BEST THINGS OF THE YEAR!!

I think our culture likes doing this every December because it's one way to see how life has moved forward; when summarizing the best, worst, and weirdest events, we prove to ourselves once again that we have made progress over the previous year. (Whether or not we have made any positive advancements is an entirely different question...)

Let's set aside commentary on "normal" compilations like "Top 10 Songs of 2007." You can find those in any magazine, written by any wannabe DJ, and frankly, they're all equally boring. Better is the Oxford English Dictionary's Word of the Year. This year's winner? Locavore, as in a person who eats seasonally-available foods, buys locally-grown ingredients, and shuns the addition of preservatives and carbon emissions that are necessitated when food is flown to the eater from thousands of miles away. Having just finished the thought-provoking Omnivore's Dilemma, and having pledged myself to attempt to be a locavore in so far as my meager budget will allow, I am quite pleased that this word made it in vogue.

(However, outside the tree-hugging community, it seems that not everyone was enthralled about this choice. One disgruntled reader posted a NY Times blog commentary that was a pointed critique of the OED's choice. It reads: "What about vajayjay? Didn’t you folks just do an article on that gem of a word? I mean come on. Who doesn’t love vajayjay?")

He makes quite a compelling case, but the do-gooder in me still says supporting the emerging local-foods movement was a pretty damn good pick, particularly for 2007, year of the Bali climate change talks, PowerShift, and Al Gore's well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize. As long as we are interested in commemorating each passing year by noting its most positive achievements, in hopes of passing those trends on to future generations, or at least continuing them in 2008, this pick by the OED seems like a very fitting tribute to an enviro-conscious year.

Actual Words a Friend Used to Describe My Sense of Humor:

1. Awkward
2. Horrible


In the same sentence.

And they say misogyny doesn't exist...

Ah yes, misogyny is alive and well in our country. Check out this handy little tool crafted especially for the holiday/election season: the Hillary Clinton Nutcracker.

Look, she has scary steel jaws between her legs, a very masculine-looking pantsuit, and a cropped haircut!! She probably doesn't even know how to bake cookies with all the nuts she's able to crush.

Presumably she's meant to be "crushing" her cheatin', lyin', pants-unzippin' husband, but that's not where her maniacal takeover ends. Oh no -- rich, white, land-owning men everywhere, be warned!! Hillary is on the loose and her support in the polls means the beginning of a new feminazi agenda, where Woman, freed from her domestic yolk, is taking on the patriarchal powers that be. I'm reminded of Pat Robertson's wise comment that "Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." Indeed, Hillary's "assertiveness" (read: "bitchiness" in a feminine context) is truly the #1 threat to this country's national security. Well, after illegal aliens, crazy-man Ahmadinejad, and them terrorists, that is.

In other words, our country is so scared of a woman having a decent chance to actually win the highest elected office that we resort to mocking her by calling her a ball-buster. That's just pathetic. If you don't like Hillary, fine, but let it be on her ideas and merit, and not the fact that she happens to be a powerful, rather well-spoken woman. I'll admit there may be a lot of "nuts" in government who ought to be crushed, but this whole idea just rubs me the wrong way.

P.S. Don't get me started on the anti-gay quips on the promotional website... ("Sure worked well on the pecans for my fruitcakes.” -Al Gore) Next on Krystyna's Blog: Homophobia: Alive and Well.

Now Down to Business...

OK, be forewarned: this is going to be a serious post, and maybe a little preachy. I'm in a very introspective phase of life at the moment (winter tends to do that to me), and have been spending quite a lot of time thinking about systems and how I/we/Americans/an active citizenry/young people fit(s) into them, what we can do to change them. The holiday season, with its connotations of material acquisition and capitalist-promoted nostalgia, seems to be quite a relevant time to situate myself in some of the broader issues being played out all around us. More importantly, it's been a time for me to re-evaluate my own role in perpetuating/ending/opting out of these systems. (For fear of getting "too Pomona," I'll leave that train of thought at that. I don't really have any answers to these problems anyway. They're just on my mind and bear mentioning.)

A few brief thoughts (maybe prompts for conversations to be continued with you, I hope?...):

- Tomorrow (December 5), is the day the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case of Boumediene v. Bush, the next phase of rulings on the status of habeas corpus in this country. They will debate whether the ago-old precept held that people have the right to contest their detentions in court, and to demand the government that holds them imprisoned show at least some evidence of why they are being detained, applies to "enemy combatants," non-US citizens who are for whatever reason swept up in the dragnet of the War on Terror. (For an easy to understand background on why habeas corpus protects every citizen's freedom, check out Habeas Schmabeas , a story from This American Life that prompted me to write my senior thesis on Guantanamo Bay.) Fingers crossed that the Court decides that it JUST ISN'T OK to strip anyone's right to protest their imprisonment, regardless of their nationality or citizenship. While the old system of laws on wartime are certainly going to have to be re-examined in the context of modern terrorist warfare (the blurring of boundaries between war and peace, military and civilian, where "battlefield" can be as far as Afghanistan, or as near as the Chicago airport), this is just not a right that can be waived on command. To relinquish it (the requirement that the government provide evidence for taking away a person's freedom) for anyone -- even potential foreign terrorists -- would be giving the state an enormous degree of power.

- Tomorrow is also the day that the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will present to the United Nations a case against some top officials in the Sudanese government for their involvement in the ongoing genocide in Darfur. The evidence is remarkably clear that the killing janjaweed militias are funded, organized, and supported by the government in Khartoum. Clearly, this is something that needs to be protested, stopped, and punished. I'm not exactly sure how to be involved in this as a citizen so removed from the powers that be, but my first reaction has been to look into the (hopefully not too cliched) letter-writing campaigns that exist, particularly as regards targeted divestment in Sudan.

While frustrated by feeling small and insignificant against massive systems of power, I, like so many others, keep coming back to the idea of an active population of citizens speaking out to correct injustices as a way to keep power in check; indeed, this idea is fundamental to our notion of democratic governance. At the same time, it seems SO INSIGNIFICANT to merely write letters, hold demonstrations, and pass out flyers -- but it seems like it's the only option we've got for the moment. I'll keep searching myself for a better solution to "effect change," but really, as it stands, I'm grateful that others have opened up even these meager channels of protest (kudos to some of my activist friends for doing the dirty work).

I'm challenged by something that Barack Obama said, which I think is both troubling and true: that where we put our "time, energy, and money" is the "true test of what we value... regardless of what we like to tell ourselves." Troubling because I need to continually push myself to live up to that, to fight against an inertia of enjoying the status quo. Praying that I can somehow find a means of leaving (some portion of) the world a better place because I have lived in it.

And on that cheery note... happy December!!

Back on the Wagon

I'm BACK!! See?? Updating my blog!!

New posts! Drama! Intrigue! Humor! Relevance! Poignant quips! Exclamation points!!!!!!!!

So never fear, keep reading, and sleep better knowing that Krystyna is once again connected to your life via this strange online medium.