Drabble Geeks

Geeks…Being Total Geeks.

Tag: books

Dismantling the Everything

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My original thought was to title this post “Dismantling the Patriarchy,” but let’s all be honest: we need to dismantle everything and just start over. Yes, I’m being hyperbolic and extreme, but I’m sometime just tired. I recently read the heavy anthology Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates, after her online project by the same name.

While the book was originally published in 2014, there were times reading this book where I could swear that the stories from the many others on the pages where from a month ago, if not for the fact that the sacred bird Twitter logo was on the pages. Also, in 2014, I was still in high school, if anyone was here back in those days, so I wasn’t very in the know of many of the journal articles discussed. I was too busy watching magical girl anime and procedural cop dramas and trying to survive high school. Super busy, as you can see. Even though at this point the stories are over a decade old, it was still as horrifying as if I would have opening the newspaper that morning.

Through the headache and tears, it should be a reminder of everything we have to do. No matter what you identify as, this book throws in your face things that even I try to ignore just to get through life, but it should be recognized. If you are able, and have the mental capacity to go through this heartache, I would. Figure out a way that you can make the world a little bit brighter for everyone today.

I Will Teach…

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Well, it this post, I will not be teaching you anything in this post. Look out for another post of which I may teach you something. In this post however, I will be telling you to get your finances in order. I am in my last year of graduate school, so I need to make sure I’m ready to really start adulting. I’m mean guys, I’m been on the job search grind and trying to teach myself new skills to make myself look more useful. It’s been stressful. However, since I’m getting ready to get a pay raise off of a student break, I figured it’s really time to learn to handle my money by reading I will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

First, a couple of disclaimers. I have previously listened to his podcasts while being on of those people who never read his books, after watching the Netflix docuseries about how other people spend their money. What can I say other than I’m sure nosy. I have been learning a lot about personal finance in the last couple of years, so while there wasn’t much “new” information for me to learn, it was interesting to learn about some to the systems that others put in the place. It was also very comforting for someone to tell me that my system can be “good enough” as a recovering perfectionist. Yes, there is probably more that I could do, but do I have to? No.

I will also admit that I don’t get Ramit’s difference between a budget and a conscious spending plan. I’ve heard him describe it a couple of times, and I just don’t get it. I’ll continue to not get it as something that works for some people since “budget” is often seen as an ugly word. Either way you look at it, you should also get your finances it order, and remember that just because the holiday season is upon us, doesn’t mean its the perfect time to get into debt.

An Entirely New World pt 5

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So……….

I’m at the fifth book of the series, with two more left to go, I think. It was struggle to get through this book. Something I mentioned in the last review, may have been slightly incorrect, as I need to consider that I’m reading the books in publication order instead of chronological order. Anyway, we do hear from a couple of our familiar characters as The Horse and His Boy takes place during the decades-long hiatus that took place during The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. However, that does not make up for the lack of anything happening.

We spend the entire time moving around Narnia as our two protagonists travel the desert and we are supposed to be convinced that they actually like each other. That, and maybe their two horses, who are want to go back to the land of which they are from since they are the only talking horses in the journey’s starting point. Honestly, I was bored the entire time, and there was no reason for this book to exist, in my current opinion, unless something happens in the next couple of books that requires what happened in this one. We can only wait and see.

The Grad School Decision

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Every year, I get the opportunity to mentor undergraduate students and lead them through a summer research project to introduce what grad school could be like. I find this rewarding and an informative decision, given that I would love to teach at a university and mentor students in the context of my own lab. During this program, I also give a presentation about my complicated route that led me to my current position as a graduate research assistant. During this talk, I usually give tips and a list of things to consider. Recently, a new book was released called _Is Grad School For Me?: Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students_ by Yvette C. and Miroslava Chávez-García. Of course, I am never one to either recommend or denounce a book without even trying to read it.

For full context, I have listened to Dra. Martínez-Vu’s podcast, “Grad School Femtoring,” and I was aware that she was in the process of writing a book based on the graduate school application process. I do enjoy her podcast content; however, I was worried that someone not from a scientific field may not understand that specific process of giving a scientific application. I’ve seen this sometimes where the disciplines just do not translate. I did not need to be worried, as I felt that this was a great book that gave enough specifics and generalized information to be useful. There were also example statements from different fields to give an idea of what different applicants said in terms of their different fields of study. Also, there was a lot of informational content that surrounded all of the material presented. I anecdotally noticed some of the aspects of being an underrepresented student, but I would always shake it off as it “just being me” or that “I’m reading too much into the situation.” It was very validating that it was not just me and that there is actual research into this field.

I think this is an amazing book whether you think that further going for higher education is for you or you are trying to help someone make that decision. I’m just upset that this book was not written soon as this would have been a relieving experience to read before making this step in my overall education journey.

I Hope You Get Better

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As a scientist, I think that the more we try to understand the world, the better, no matter what other things someone may believe. I am also a strong believer in understanding history so that it hopefully doesn’t rhyme. Diseases are interesting to me, not just as someone who is currently studying cancer, but as someone who always seemed to get three colds a year. Taking my getting colds every year to the next level gives you plagues, which then of course led me to reading the book Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright.

Prefacing this with being just four years after the initial shutdown after the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, and as someone who did everything the CDC told me to do, it was such an interesting read. Over and over again, we saw people doing everything they could while others discounted those efforts, some for good and some for bad reasons. Post-COVID, I was just face-palming and trying to hide my face with my hands in second-hand embarrassment. I completely agree with the author and that there are key takeaways we should take from these ancient diseases in order to protect ourselves in the future. Even the little things we can do on a personal level can significantly affect our health. Because let’s face it, there is going to be another plague someday. I would hate for history to continue rhyming.

One Crazy Week in New York

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I’m back to reading more of the classics, because I want, not because I’m being forced to for some high school class. I don’t know why, but I hated every single book I was forced to read for school. Now that I’m reading some of these “perfect high school reading material,” I feel like maybe I would have been slightly wrong about my hatred. Maybe it’s not trying to find every single little hidden meaning or being able to take my time. Mainly, for this one book, I would not have been able to keep up with whatever schedule my teacher would have decided. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger would have been one of my nightmare books.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good book, and I enjoyed reading it. I’m usually not a fan of stream-of-consciousness writing, but I think it really works in this case. Instead of the thoroughly laid-out endeavors of a protagonist, we have the dirty ramblings of a teenage boy. I did have to put the book down a couple of times from the intense secondhand embarrassment. I feel that every page had the hair standing up from my neck, me constantly thinking, “Yeah, I can definitely see a teenage boy stupidly doing all of this if they had the time and money.” Cringe aside, it was a very intriguing read that kept me involved with the story and coming back to it. I enjoyed how the conscious stream altered over the course of the book. Don’t think someone who have taken this short amount of time to have the transformation held within, but who knows with teenagers. I could change my mind at the drop of a hat when I was our protagonist’s age. But, feel free to dive into the mind of a teenager again. I really hope that I won’t have to for a while longer.

Wars on Nouns

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If you are anything like me, as in born within five or so years of me, you probably do not remember a world where the United States is not at what with… something. For example, I have no memory of a pre-9/11 world. My parents did a decent job of not really shining a light on the subject. I just knew that airport security is very serious.

(Story time: On my most recent plane trip, one the the TSA agents yelled to the entire line, paraphrasing, “Guys, y’all know you can’t have water bottles and get through security. Don’t act like you don’t know. This has been a rule for like 13 years.” I almost died laughing in line. There is always that one person. Alright, story time over.)

Anyway, like lots of people nowadays, I do have an almost morbid curiosity for what you could call true crime content and wanting to understand the thinking behind people doing the things they do. Now, when I came across a book discussing the United States’ role in the Middle East for the last twenty years, I was very interested since there have been conflicting views on the topic since I remember. In this century’s version of the Pentagon Papers, we have The Afghanistan Papers by Craig Whitlock of The Washington Post.

If you are interested in political history but do not care for much discussion of military strategy, I think you will enjoy this book. Rather than discussing the nitty-gritty of planning operations, we are able to see the big picture overview of how the American government was selling the “war” to its citizens versus what was actually said behind the scenes. One of the most interesting things to me was how Whitlock discusses how he genuinely believes that we would not have been in the Middle East as long as we were, and maybe still are, if there wasn’t what seems to be the intentional disregard for the culture of the area. Given the evidence laid out, I have to agree. From my admittingly lack of information on some of these procedures, there seemed to be a better way.

If you are interested, like I was, to see what we have been doing for the last twenty years as a country, I believe that you will like this book. Even if you do not agree with the takeaways Whitlock makes, I still think it is important to see how the information the general public was told was very different from what was being said behind closed doors. If nothing else, you can see how these continuous wars on nouns, don’t work and leave society wanting.

The Invisible Cost

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Book two of the nonfiction grind includes more information that I feel like I should innately know. This week, I will discussing Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez. This book discusses the many different ways in which women are not accounted for, whether it be everyday living, work, and gaming. There were many aspects of which I had never even thought. Ever thought thought about how you are always cold in the work place? Well, women’s metabolic rate may have something to do with that. Ever thought about motion sickness? Well, there many be differences there as well. Again, is just these things that you never thought about, as well as things that are common, such as the unpaid labor that is often put onto women. Yes, I did know that, but I did not realize some of the downstream effects having the burden of much of the unpaid labor has on women. It was a fascinating read, for those who are interested, but also brought up was in which I personally could close the gap, because these were also things I never thought about. It’s definitely something to think about.

From the Lower Rung

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I’ve been on a slight nonfiction kick, so be prepared to learn for a bit. While I entered this book knowing I would most likely learn something, I never expected to learn as much as I did. Sure, I read the summary and synopsis, but that did not prepare me for the brain blasts I had multiple times and the profound effect this would have more me. The most recent book to add to my list was Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson.

For those who don’t feel like reading the summary, this experience argues, quite effectively, I might add, that America was built on a caste system. It does this by comparing the historically well-known and long-lasting caste system found in India, as well as the short-lived one that is the Nazi occupation of Germany, by bringing up the eight pillars: divine will, heritability, endogamy, purity, occupation hierarchy, dehumanization, terror as enforcement, and inherent superiority. This book discusses many historical facts that I had never heard about but is both surprising to never hear about and not surprising that it was covered up. One surprising fact was that the dehumanization of people in Europe during the Nazi occupation was based on the horrendous Jim Crowe laws that proliferated through society after the American Civil War, but then again, why not copy a system that has been shown to work.

Yes, there are some antidotes directly from the author, but I agree that this is necessary since history is built on the human experience. As another African American female, I felt many of the antidotes on a spiritual level, as I have felt many similar feelings in similar experiences. On top of hearing this compelling argument, it also speaks to my experiences, which probably made it a more profound experience for me. There are also other perspectives that should be heard from this book. That is why I would recommend anyone interested in the systemic racial structuring of the United States to read this book. It is a perspective that I never thought of before, and it completely made sense to me.

Along that Yellow Brick Road Pt 7.5

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I’m back in the land of Oz, and this time, we are back with short stories. Unlike another one with a certain bug at the forefront, this one wasn’t complete nonsense. This one was in-universe for the entire series and actually felt like a children’s book.

Little Wizard Stories of Oz is exactly as the title says. They are short stories, bedtime stories if you will. There is no timeline that you have to keep up with, no characterizations that you need to remember, nor any thought to be had. It was cute, simple, and straight to the point. I could definitely see this short book being included in a stack you put on your child’s bedside table to read them asleep. It was cute. What more could I say?