Oh, look. My first curation post. Let’s get into it
This recurring piece of content is basically a debrief of my past week. What I’ve learned, what I’ve seen, what’s good, what’s not good.
As a reminder, here is a short explanation of these recurring series.
Cool Things I Saw Online - I am chronically online and I am (unfortunately) not afraid to admit that. I’ve been chronically online since I made my first email address at Yahoo! when I was five. That being said, I come across a lot of cool stuff precisely because I spend so much time online. In this recurring piece of content, I’ll share all the cool things I saw online lately.
What I Learned Last Week - As a highly curious person, Google is my best friend. I research random facts & tidbits and sometimes I want to share all the information I learned with other people. That means that my mom gets to hear all about how occlusives prevent rapid transepidermal water loss and what the first helicopter on Mars found on its first flight. In an effort to be less of a burden to my mother, I am going to share my weekly findings with y’all instead.
What’s Good (With Me) - A life update! What I’ve been up to. Products I’ve tried that I liked (what’s good). Products I’ve tried that I didn’t like (what’s NOT good). And everything in between!
What’s Good (With You) - I wanna know what's good with you too! What have you learned? What have you accomplished? What do you wish you could have done differently? This community discussion is a great place to hold yourself accountable, share your random musings, and updates about your life!
1. This beautiful photoset of an audience during Egyptian national icon Umm Kulthum’s concert in Cairo, Egypt.
2. This practical guide to balancing a body’s proportions with clothing
(I’m in the short torso/long legs club, wbu?)
3. This Twitter thread of old vaccine cards from the 50s and 60s
4. This YouTube video exploring ‘The Day the Dinosaurs Died’
5. This article about how the pandemics of the past influenced architecture and interior design
Last week I learned about D.B. Cooper, an unidentified man who hijacked a plane and then jumped out of it
Okay. I’m not sure if this is common knowledge and I’m late to the party, but I just learned about a man, who in 1971, hijacked a Boeing 727, requested a $200,000 ransom, and actually received the money in cash from the airline. But that’s not even the craziest part of this story. This man jumped out of the plane (with the money) while it was mid-air, to escape. Now if that ain’t the wildest shit I’ve ever read. No one knows if he survived, no one even knows who that man was—D.B. Cooper is not his real name. The FBI believes he didn’t survive the jump but regardless, shit is crazy.
Last week I learned that two Miami-Dade cops were caught protecting cocaine in a drug sting
These two cops (who are huge fans of the movie Bad Boys) were sentenced to a year and three months in federal prison for accepting a bribe to protect a load of cocaine from one end of the county to the other.
Last week I learned that a former slave became the world’s first drag queen.
Super cool video about LGBTQ+ and Black history.
Last week I learned that kpop idols wear hip pads
I don’t know why this never clicked for me but just a good reminder that not everything is always what it seems when it comes to social media or the entertainment industry.
I was on a podcast.
On Sunday I appeared as a guest on the P.S.S.T Podcast (Pilipinx/o/as Sharing Stories Together) about how COVID-19 has impacted mixed Filipinos specifically. There’s a convo that we had that I wanted to share with you all because I think it’s important.
We all know (or should know) that race is not a biological reality. Race is a social construct. Despite this, a lot of our medical system still bases a lot of treatments largely on race. But what does that mean for a mixed person?
Andrea Mackey, the mixed white/Filipino host shared her experience getting screened for pre-diabetes as a mixed person:
Since this podcast was streamed live, listeners were able to interact with the show. A listener named Erin shared this recent paper about why we should abandon race and focus on racism when it comes to public health. It’s a great read; would recommend!
On that same episode, I shared my own personal experience. I grew up hearing “African-Americans and Hispanics are at a higher risk of diabetes” and I heard that all the time. So, to me as a teenager who hasn’t learned that race is a social construct yet, I assumed that this was some sort of genetic thing. I thought, oh well I’m African-American so that means I’m at a higher risk of diabetes! It wasn’t until I got older, did more research, and learned about race as a construct that I realized it was actually a set of socioeconomic factors that affected this data, not a race’s biology. In addition, I’m also Asian. And there was no mantra that suggested Asians were at a higher risk of diabetes. So what does this mean for a Black and Asian mixed person?
The American race classifications have always annoyed me, anyway. Latino and Hispanic are not races; you can be Black and Latino or white and Latino or Asian and Latino, etc. A lot of Latinos that I know are mestizo—they are not definitively white, Black, Asian, or indigenous. So what does any of this data mean for them?
And don’t even get me started on:
I filmed a really cool project.
Last Friday, I filmed a project that I’ve been planning since the first quarter of this year. I can’t give you all the details yet, but here’s a sneak peek.
Now, I wanna know what’s good with YOU! What have YOU learned lately? Anything you wanna share? Any cool things that you’ve shared online? Working on any cool projects? Let us know!
The vaccine card reminds me of the vintage telegraph I have set as my twitter header on @baetoul it's soo interesting to think of the documentation that survives us and serves as anthropological relics lol. Super excited to see the video project you're working on, and the apple really did do it's thing right there purrr. Um Kalthoum's music is truly poetry both in words and sound! I'm so curious how it sounds to non-Arabic speakers, have you ever listened to any of her songs? If not, "Enta Omri" is on youtube with English subtitles!
I've been trying to get into a routine of doing passion things outside of the work day so hopefully that works out, and I just got a robot vacuum and it's AMAZING I feel like a Jetson.