Category Archives: Wellness

Why Boobquake is stupid

Posted on April 24, 2010 | 3 Comments

I’m a woman and an Iranian Canadian so this particularly peaked my interest.

What is Boobquake?

Help fight supernatural thinking and the oppression of women, just by showing your cleavage!
“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Sedighi is Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader.
I have a modest proposal.
[...]
On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts.

Let me make it clear that I  do not support the regime politically or spiritually.  They are obviously dictatorships in both senses.

But I cannot support this event!

It sounds like a pathetic excuse for women to show off their breasts and bodies.  It sounds like an event that men will eagerly support because they can ogle freely and seem “feminist” while doing so.  It sounds like people who are misusing a human rights issue to benefit their own sexual fantasies.
In other words, it sounds like another one of those internet phenomena that will do NOTHING but satisfy the selfish and sexual desires of North Americans.

So what, you may ask?  It’s an awareness event, and it’s supposed to be fun and creative,  right?

Sure, but it’s not pro-woman at all.
I say let women use their BRAINS, not their BOOBS.
We are more than just objects to be ogled at.  We are more than just sexuality.
We have words, we have ideas.
Why emulate the women being sexually objectified in advertisements and pornography?
Why not emulate the Iranian human right’s activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi?
We are lucky enough to have the CHOICE to show off our womanhood the way we want to,  so why do we choose the one that objectifies us?

I say we don’t listen to fools like Sedighi.
I also say we don’t listen to people who think dressing down will help women.  Both ideas are contrary to real equality amongst men and women.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Wellness

Chillin’

Posted on April 11, 2010 | 3 Comments

I took a stroll down to Tower Beach to relax today (trail is across the Chan Centre.)  It is really quite gorgeous and so open and free compared with all the people who congregate at Wreck Beach.  As I walked across, a strong smell of marijuana came under my nose from some guy behind a log.  And I really do have to wonder: why?  When I look at that beach, I can see atomic particles bouncing around in spacetime, every single one, jampacked into the crashing waves and blue sky, with an intense force infinitely more powerful than the gravity pulling down the heavy rocks of the beach to the core of the earth.  Isn’t this high enough?  I really want to know why you’re escaping into the recesses of your own mind, when the whole universe is a mind, and it’s so high by itself?

But anyway.  I pretty much finished my essay on a Saturday.  12/12 Arts One essays completed.  It feels good.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Spirituality, Wellness

Laughter Yoga at Irving K.

Posted on January 12, 2010 | 1 Comment

I was going to write yet another review of the Student Leadership Conference (and may still do) but,  just to get this blog revitalized…

Laughter Yoga:  Mixed Emotions

The fourth floor commons at Irving K. was packed with students (On a Saturday!) to take part in one of the SLC’s lunch activities.   Who hasn’t heard of the apparent therapy of laughter yoga?  I was slightly skeptical joining in, but I thought it would be interesting,  laughing with random strangers.  It basically consisted of a few breathing exercises, lots of fake laughter probably meant to lead to real laughter, and strange activities that would try to get us laughing.  Honestly, I had more fun trying to get others laugh than truly laughing myself.  I actually felt about half way through that I had run out of laughter in the laughter tank, and there was no point continuing.  The only thing that kept me continuing this strenuous work-out was thinking about funny memories.  Perhaps the fact that I had run out of laughter means I should be taking more laughter yoga.   But somehow I think that one experience was enough for me – being in a room with people who all wanted to laugh felt good, but it wasn’t all that magical either.

On another note, I’ve had a pretty good start to my second semester.  I still love Arts One, French 123 is full of brilliant students, I’ve been waiting for Poli Sci 100 all year, and I’ve packed my schedule with extra-curriculars.  I have also noticed that I have become entrenched in following UBC affairs…yes, I actually do read Stephen Toope’s emails, the Ubyssey has (somewhat reluctantly) become my staple newspaper, and I think I might go to a Thunderbird game eventually.   Good times.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Involvement / Leadership, Wellness

The Sleepover

Posted on November 7, 2009 | 4 Comments

This Friday night, I invited a couple of ol’ high school friends to my super single room in Totem (or as my friend calls it, The Bachelorette Pad.) Instead of singing along to the reknown and catchy ‘I’ve got a feeling’ by the Black Eyed Peas, we partied hard over the original: YouTube Preview Image

Actually, we didn’t.  I just thought you should listen.

Anyway, of course I wanted to impress these friends from UVic and CapU with the splendours that UBC and its neighbourhood have to offer.  Don’t get me wrong, but it was actually really hard to come up with things to show off.  I tried to come up with a list of places to visit, but when you get past the natural beauty, the goods of UBC can’t be summarized in a few landmarks.  How was I to capture the atmosphere, the nature and variety of the people, the environment in class?  Think about it, and come up with some places to visit that can capture the everyday experiences and oddities of UBC (especially on a weekend when the streets are empty) for your visitors.  Although I’m sure they enjoyed the stay, here are a few of the the UVic student’s complaints:
-how clean-cut and well-dressed the students are (?)
-how people smoke cigarettes way more than marijuana.
-how ginormous the campus is. Ginormous is in the Oxford Dictionary.  (Giant + Enormous).

On Pandora and her wretched box of disease:
I went from 4 hours of sleep to prepare for an in-class essay on Thursday, to 6 during our sleepover.  Still an improvement, and those two hours of sleep felt really good.  I am frightened for my health because my friends pretty much purposely coughed all over me last night, I had been really stressed out with actual physical effects this week, and I slept little.  Oh yeah, not to mention running around in mud with flip flops in the freezing cold midnight air with nary a jacket on.  I just hope that the people in the SUV outside Totem with the music on at 2am had a good time together. Besides, everyone else seems to be getting sick and my amazing immune system coupled with my ever cautious habits need to be conquered sometime or other.

Off to continue reading Gulliver’s Travels.  I can finally understand those many Simpsons references to a giant man strapped down on a beach and being climbed upon by little men.  I am disappointed in the Internet’s lack of a screenshot of this, but here is the original to jog your memory of the Simpsons references:

gullivers-travels

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Recreation, Wellness

Residence Life and Independence for Introverts 101

Posted on September 21, 2009 | 4 Comments

Residence Life and Independence for Introverts 101

Tools for dealing with everyday residence life experiences including avoiding awkward introductions.  Critical examination of interaction in socials and meetings.  This course is restricted to students who would rather think than talk.

Unfortunately, this course isn’t being offered anywhere on campus. I also haven’t quite acquired my PhD yet, so I will not be teaching it any time soon, but you can check out how I’m doing so far.

Like any freshman, there have been good days and bad days, moments filled with delight, and moments void of any joviality these past two weeks.  In terms of the social environment, it can be difficult not being assertive enough to ask for someone’s number after conversing over lunch or dinner.  It means another lunch meeting someone new.  OK, so it doesn’t sound as bad as it may feel.  But sometimes you eat alone when you don’t feel like eating alone, and need someone to complain about the food you’re eating to (speaking of which, I still like it, but there are definitely dishes to avoid.)  UBC is a big place.  This means you’re not alone in feeling a particular way, but it also means that it’s difficult to search out those who do share your sentiments.  And interests, and ideas of what constitutes a good time…These are the difficulties, but hey, we’ve only just started the journey, and the month.

On independence, it is something else altogether.  Recall the days when you scorned the routine of life, the set hours of school, and cyclical repetition.  Now imagine class hours all over the timetable, no one to tell you what to do, a massive and beautiful campus, and an alarm clock.  While some may convert this realization into yelps of “chug chug chug”, it can mean so much more than conforming to the second occupation of college students.  And so, the unfamiliar is beginning to feel like home, I don’t need  a map to navigate through campus, and adulthood is settling in.

I have a feeling, that if that introversion course did exist, I’d be doing pretty well in it.  And so would you, if you keep up the right attitude.

*It should be noted that introversion has too many negative connotations attached to it, and that no one is purely introverted.  It also does NOT mean the shy, silent, genius kid in the corner.  One could be open, amusing, and just plain stupid, yet still labelled introverted.

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Residence Life, Wellness

Prophecies

Posted on August 8, 2009 | 4 Comments

Yesterday was a hallway littered with upturned noses, and scantily clad children.  I’m convinced the notion of tomorrow was the super-glue that held me in one piece amidst my teenage peers these last few years of High School.  Yesterday’s tomorrow was, and now is, UBC.

In retrospect, perhaps I was a tad too tough on my High School companions, for I imagine myself just as naïve in my concept of UBC.  I envision such a grand place!  I’m not talking eternal rainbows and sun shining down on grazing unicorns (though I do not object on starting a petition! Anyone?)  Rather, a social atmosphere of acceptance and diversity of opinions and cultures.  An academic environment abound with aspiring intellectuals, at my personal disposal for a healthy challenge.  I’m not going to kid myself with the profs, I already know they won’t remember me.  The point is, I built up this great image of UBC and if one jerk shoves by me in line at the bookstore, yesterday’s whole ideal could come crashing down faster than the economy.  A hope and a concern all at the same time.

I continue to go over the worries tucked here and there in my mind.  The possibility of being lonely in a very, very large place, I’m not too anxious about, as all it takes is an awkward handshake with a fellow freshman. The -10% Rule irks me though.  I’ve heard a lot of  people talk of this downgrade from High School average marks, and while grades are not what I aim for in university insomuch as applicable worldly knowledge, 10% is still rather unpleasant.  Add to that the prospect of organizing a jammed pack schedule: while my cerebellum can balance my body (I’m an Arts student, how hot is this?), it can’t help me in balancing my life if I do end up joining all 300 clubs on campus.  How am I going to fit in a weekly visit to parents?

Lastly, I don’t feel like the typical college student coming here.  Uninterested in “crazay partays” and alcohol drenched independence, I still want to have a peachy time.  I admit, I’ve never actually heard anyone say “crazay partays” so it is a baseless quote.  I can hope that the whole worry is rather baseless too.  If I can look back and smile four years down the road, on tomorrow’s yesterday, I’ll be satisfied.

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Wellness