NOT FUNNY THINGS

1. I've felt different since the Obama win. I've wanted different things and realized I have beliefs I didn't know about. We partied on the streets of West Philly for hours that night, with African drummers leading the gyrating crowd in shouts of "Obama!" and "Dahlak the vote!" Everybody knew what it meant, because we've come to believe we're intelligent enough to understand subtlety and seeming contradiction. That night, race was exposed for what it was: a construct designed on nothing, no predictable biological factors or inherent value of individual human beings. The truth is, many such superfluous social constructs exist only to give more power to certain individuals and to deny it to others who are equally deserving. So the way that I changed last Tuesday was simple: I wondered what we've all been doing for the last eight years (or the last twenty-eight years). Obviously, we were cynical about activism, intellectualism, and risk-taking because we knew we couldn't win. Now, though, it seems we can.
Please don't think this was an epiphany for me. As Kingsley Amis wrote, "Nothing short of physical handicap ever made anyone turn over a new leaf." Consider it as a starting point I've chosen for meditating on how I can be more effective as a citizen. I know I can't go from Party Queen to Abbie Hoffman overnight, and anyway, I don't want to be Abbie Hoffman. But hey, you know, baby steps.
This Saturday there's a protest about the big issue affecting my people, the gheys:



Find me there. My goal is to party when I have a reason to party. In the meantime, Alabama got me so upset, Tennessee make me wanna lose my rest, and everybody knows about California Goddam.

Maybe you've missed this video. Remember how when Obama won, it felt suddenly not like just a win for African-Americans, but for all Americans? Well, guess what. I don't even ever want to get married, but this is my problem, and it's your problem too, as citizens of an unjust land:



I love you guys. Let's do this, and when we win, let's party for real.

2. Acing my classes.

3. Happy birthday Kimmy.

4. Mar, I love your hair.

5. Sarah, that was the best dream ever.

6. Hey you-know-who, stop farting at the Barbary. I wasn't there, but I keep hearing about it.

7. The electricity isn't working in half of my house. If I burn to death in my sleep because of an electrical fire, know that I love you all and Dan gets what's left of my CDs and records, to be distributed amongst you as he sees fit.

8. Anybody who can get me all the "True Blood" episodes within the week gets a kiss.

9. This blog isn't so much Ten Funny anymore as probably whatever I want to throw up here, hopefully still funny most of the time.

10. Miss youse guys.