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This reblogged from my quote blog, Dichos y Vida . I am feeling to INSPIRED by Cornel West in this interview with Tavis Smiley.  You have to watch the video to really FEEL this quote- I love Cornel West!  The entire interview can be found here. He talks about his break with Harvard, the role of academia, and the fetishization of success in America.  (thank you Tanya and Jessica)

My favorite part of this interview is this quote below - I also translated it into Spanish.

You have to have a habitual vision of greatnesssssss. You have to believe in fact that you refuse to settle for mediocrity. You won’t confuse financial security with your personal integrity. You won’t confuse your success with your greatness or your prosperity with your magnanimity…..You have to have a vision of something that is luring you all the time that for something grander than you….[What is] the quality of your service to others? Do you find joy in your service to others? Do you actually believe in fact that living is connected  to giving?

Now some people may not believe in that. I’m the hedonistic narcissistic individualist type. That’s just not who I am. I am not into that kinda stuff.  I say that’s fine, that’s fine. I chose to attempt to pursue this role.

———————-
Tienes que tener una visión habitual de grandeza. Tienes que creer en el hecho de que te niegues a conformarte con mediocridad. No confundas seguridad económica con tu integridad personal. No confundas tu éxito con tu grandeza o tu prosperidad con tu magnanimidad…Tienes que tener una visión de algo que te esté atrayendo a algo más grande que tu…[¿Qué es] la cualidad de tu servicio a otros? ¿Encuentras alegría en tu servicio a otros?  ¿Realmente crees en el hecho que vivir está conectado a dar?

Quizás alguna gente no crea en esto. Soy del tipo individualista, hedonista y narcisista. Eso no es lo que soy. No me interesan esas cosas. Te digo – está bien, está bien. Yo escojo tratar de seguir este tipo de vida.

this is a great example of how there’s always room for exciting innovation in everyday objects- even the mostly seemingly mundane can become layered with meaning and knowledge. Maphole is a guide to pedestrians (invented by Jiae Kwon). I wonder if a cut will make these real!

IWhat I would love to observe is the use of these map-holes in a city and to see how power and narrative is reinforced through these map-holes.

Who are these map-holes for? Who controls these map-holes? Who makes decisions on what is being pointed to - what kind of information will these show - where will it lead a pedestrian?  Will they be for tourists? Will they be for the urban citizen? Will the location specific map-holes, such as in an art district? Who benefits from the map-hope?

how do they maps-holes respatialize the city? How do map-hopes reconfigure pedestrian movement?

I think that these mapholes could work to reinforce existing class-drawn boundaries in city.

For example, when I spent a few weeks in Stockholm a few years ago  - for a social welfare country known for its social equality - I had a difficult time finding the low-income parts of the city. When I arrived, with a little online research about the hip-hop and yummy international food scene - I found out that a lot of undergrounded artists were from Rinkeby, a area of Stockholm that has lots of new immigrants, newly accepted Iraqi refugges, and older immigrants from countries such as Turkey. But after trying to look up information on Rinkeby online, talking to local residents, researching local guide books - I still had a  difficult time finding any info on Rinkeby other than people’s advice that “you don’t need to go there.” Which of COURSE anytime someone tells me that I always take as a great indicator for me to go there.

My point is that the absence of information on Rinkeby, or any neighborhood can render it an invisible place.  I was being told the dominant narrative that local citizens gave to outsiders - here are beautiful parts of Stockholm that you should see and here are the parts that you don’t need to see. But that very narrative is laced with assumptions of what kind of outsider I was and what I valued. My moment illustrates how the dominance of one platial (yes I made that word up) narrative can render another place invisible. Could map-holes work in the same way? By only pointing out some places, other places get left out.  Could map-holes become map-hopes - pointing people to a version of the city that you can’t find in tourists books?  Or could these map-holes become wired with blue-tooth and tourists could beam the hole for information that they were interested in finding?

Well if I start seeing these pop up in NY,  I will put up stickers that say “Bed-Stuy” over the arrow pointing towards “Soho” or stickers that say “yoga center” over “Macys” or a sticker that says “Fresh Food” over “McDonalds.

Here are some other bloggers who have commented on map-hopes, Yankodesign, GIS-Lounge, Inventor spot, and DoGizmo.

oh and I had a GREAT time in Rinkeby. I visited a local school, met residents, ate great turkish sweets, and hung out with some newly arrived iraqis. It was just as great as my day wandering around in Gamla Stan. My photos from a day in Rinkeby and photos from my time in STockholm.

zadi:

culturemodding:

“Map Hole is a new road guidance tool designed to direct pedestrians and travelers to their final destination using existing elements in the urban landscape. It locates the pedestrian with a starting point and provides information on the exact distance or average walk time to the listed landmarks.”

- Yanko Design (h/t The Daily What)

OMG OMg I’m addicted to rock climbing! I am becoming a lizard  - my sticky hands scale the wall to reach the mountain top.  I am a wolf with magic paws!

This was the best physical and mental high I’ve ever experienced AT the SAME TIME!. I swore I was going to die on the rope - it looks so much higher once you are in the air - but I didn’t! after one climb, I tried another and just kept challenging myself. Liane took me on my first climb and it was awesome! I wish I could do this everyday, everywhere! What I loved that is was all about partnership - when I thought I couldn’t reach my next rock - Liane would encourage me to keep going. On one of the last  climbs of the day I had to take a break and hang mid-air cuz my hands were shaking - I couldn’t imagine how to get around the corner - but I did it!  I FREAKING LOVE IT!

The crazy part is that I have a slight fear of heights and while it didn’t go away, I did become more at peace with my fear after each climb. I became my own therapist in the air - cuz you’re just hanging in there on the rope and you either say to your belayer that you need come down or you figure out the next rock to place your foot and hands - only TWO DECISIONS and you HAVE to CHOSE ONE.

Everytime I would panic - I would scream outloud - and then I would tell myself that it was ok - life was going to be ok - graduate school will be ok - family will be ok - the world will be ok - just figure out where to place your foot. it was a very practical mind and body excercise. I loved it. absolutely loved it and can’t wait to go back.

Even just by looking at these pictures and writing about this my hands are now sweaty cuz I’m reminded of how high I was in the air. breattttthe

and through it all, I never felt alone. you know how when you do yoga or other sports its’ all about you? or like when I kickbox it’s all about the intensity of taking your opponent down - even in badmitton there’s a competitive aspect to it - just like any point-keeping sport.  Well in rock climbing it’s about a partnership. at least that’s how I view it. Your partner holds your life in your hands. your partner has to work with your pacing - or else someone could get hurt  - the rope can get in the way. And my partner was my awesome friend Liane - so thanks for being the BESt belayer ever! and it was also really cool to watch Liane scale the wall - I learned a lot from watching how she chose rocks and pathways. Rock climbing is awesome for team building, listening, and loving.

I really felt that I could use my dance and yoga background when I was scaling the wall - I imagined myself floating up through space. Before I rock climbed I wanted a pair of Vibram shoes - now I want them EVEN MORe because they would be perfect for climbing. So now I’m officially addicted to dancing and rock climbing. oh and badmitton.

I found this old blog post of me having a bowl of pho back in 2006. I was recovering from an emotionally stressful week and I wrote this text accompanying the pho photo:

A friend told me that Rabbi Lisa at UCSD Hillel says that a lot of times its so easy to be compassionate with others that we forget to be compassionate with ourselves. Be compassionate with yourself.

And I do remember that I truly felt better after my pho therapy session at Pho Ca Dao.

That’s why pho is life - having a bowl of pho is equivalent to 3 hours of therapy. The only way to enjoy pho is if you SIT DOWN and spend TIME eating it - it’s not like eating a sandwich pr hotdog were you can shovel it into your mouth. You can’t rush eating pho - it’s got a built in culture that facilitates slow-food eating meditations - kinda like wine - but with pho it’s an actual meal! Casualties can happen if you rush with pho - like burning your tongue.  Pho is life.

This has to be the best Know Your Meme episode yet! great rhythm with the editing. informative historical contexualization.  masterful weaving in of popular culture. and freaking WEIRD AL is in it! COME ON! this is tooooo cool. I grew up on Weird Al!

This is American culture at its best - only Weird Al could exist in America - everything about this episode speaks to the unique experience of growing up with pop culture in the US.

Appreciating this episode requires one to understand the technological feats of audio engineering, iphone apps mania, misogynistic off-tune popularity of *some* rap artists, hip-hop’s intimate yet under-appreciate relationship with technological innovations, Weird Al as as cultural commentator long before South Park and John Stewart, internet memes as a cultural phenomenon, kanye’s popular tantrums, and satiric political commentary with popular media.

Essentially, this episode won’t make sense unless you know where to culturally place/appreciate all these aspects - yes there’s even a place for a rapper like T-Pain who can rap/sing (badly) about his love for the strippas and strippas and more strippas.  Oh and T-Pain twittered this Know Your Meme homage to his cultural legacy.

If I EVER forget why I love America - which often happens sometimes when I’ve traveling/living in other countries and fetishizing their health care system or affordable non-organic hormone pumped food or political participation levels or slower non-materialistic lifestyles - REMIND me to watch this episode of Know Your Meme.

it also looks like Sony is releasing a Weird Al compilation album. awesomeness.

elspethjane:

As Jamie Dubs just said, WE BEAT THE INTERNETZ, GUYS!  So, T-Pain just tweeted our KYM episode.  :)