Be Red Today. World AIDS Day.

“World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.”

Back in the early 90s I lost my uncle to HIV. I’ve heard the stories about how he was treated in the hospital and the stigma that surrounded the disease. The discrimination he went through, being a gay man living with AIDS.

We have lost far too many good people to this pandemic. We have lost too many kids, who didn’t even get the chance to live. 2 million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV.

In the modern world, HIV is no longer a death sentence. New cases of HIV are down %17 from 2001. Although this is good news, it means more people living with HIV. As Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, said: “We cannot let this momentum wane. Now is the time to redouble our efforts, and save many more lives.”

So today, take time out of your busy schedule, stop for a second. Check out the links below and see what you can do. I will not taunt you with pictures of children, women and men suffering, especially in Africa with this disease. Help stop the pandemic.

UNAIDS
WORLD AIDS CAMPAIGN
GLOBAL AIDS ALLIANCE
WORLD AIDS DAY
JOIN RED

Someone is wrong on the internet

I feel like bitching. A lot.

I hate it when I can’t explain myself to people. Especially over the internet. I don’t have to know the person, just the fact that I can’t explain myself makes me feel like I come across as an idiot. Which I’m not.

Just the fact that we are confined to 140 characters makes it almost impossible communicate. I also use my body to talk for me. The fact that I have to type to explain something really grinds my non existent balls.

I learned in the past year or so, that I in no way can change someones religious views, faith is far more stronger than me and has thousands of years brain washing on its side. So, I decided that I should take it lightly, make fun of the situation. I decided that being bigot about the situation just helps me keep my sanity. I know what I believe in and my opinions grow and change. When I want to talk to someone about my opinions I talk to Eren or a very select few of my friends who I feel like I can have stimulating conversations with. These conversations never happen online.

I also love how when I feel agitated and I look over to Eren, and he doesn’t even have to say anything or he lets out a “oh c’mon” grunt and I go “yeah fuck it”. I get over it and write a blog post about it.

So sorry if you’re reading this. It’s totally for my personal relief.

Here watch this and laugh:

What shade are you?

So thanks to friendfeed I found this website called Beauty Swatch.

It’s basically a blog about lipstick but, it has something clever and new in it. Previews. It’s full of lipstick brands and shades and pictures of what they look like in real life. We are all (or should be) aware of the fact that the little stickers that come beneath the lipsticks are not what the lipstick looks like, and catalog pictures always have tons of photoshop. So it would be very helpful to go take a look at it before buying lipsticks online. They also have a nail polish section. You can also send in your own lips and previews.

Yes, this was a very “women” oriented post, but not to worry men. The chick has total blowjob lips. Hawt I tell ya…

And… here is the part that annoys me. The chick has full and awesome lips, why the hell is she pouting? I just can’t get over the fact that she is putting tremendous effort towards making her upper lip (which is already on angelina jolie level) look gigantic.

Anyways, boys and girls, go enjoy the lips. But since it has other people contributing to it, there are some gnarly lips to be aware of.

New Prank War Awesomeness

Prank War #8 was just released and it’s awesome! (still not awesome as #6).

What is prank wars you say? Well, it’s a war between collegehumor.com workers Amir and Streeter. It all started when Streeter pranked Amir and put the video online. Now it has turned into a full on hardcore war (the pranks now are sponsored by AXE).

If you haven’t watched the series yet and haven’t followed it’s progression into a monster ball of awesomeness,
Start here: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7

But less talky more watchy.

Bearded Lady in the City

I know, I know. I’ve completely been ignoring my blog for a while. But, it’s not you, it’s totally me. So, this is me trying to blog more.

I’m taking a make up class. Not a “ok now this is how you put on mascara for the club” class but a class for students in the mpt department. So it’s basically make up for the movies.

The class has been exiting and fun and hopefully you’ll get a how to/look what I can do/aren’t I awesome post soon.

Last class we learned how to lay a beard on someone. It takes annoyingly long and the process is a pain in the ass. But as usual everyone had to lay beards on their partners. I gave my partner a macho man mustache and he gave me an amish beard.

So the amish beard made me look like a crossover between a metalhead and jesus.

Here is a classmate’s after shot.

I have to tell you. I love beards (well on men). I think beards are hot and awesome. I also thought Salma Hayek looked hot as the bearded lady in Cirque De Freak. But again, that’s just me.

Every class we joke about leaving the class with our current make ups and then never follow through and clean up and leave. The beard just sparked something in me. I just wanted to see how people would react to a girl with a looong beard.

So I left class like that. And here is the picture, Eren has advised me against putting it online :) but I decided not to listen. Can’t hurt to put a few smiles on a few faces. Oh, and I have really long hair so it’s like they’ve merged into one. I kinda look like cousin it.

The walk out of school was fine. These are art students who live in San Francisco, a beard on a girl has no shock value. Even with out the art students. This is San Francisco. I’ve been to Castro st on halloween and I’ve been to the Folsom street fair. I’ve seen naked men and bondage mistresses on the street. How bad could the response be.

The first thing I’ve noticed was that I could NOT get a cab. A cab stopped and when the dude saw me he raised his hand and told me to stop. He then continued to stare at me. People in cars were slowing down to look. I felt naked. Like something was wrong with me. Keep in mind that there are women who are born with disorders that make them develop long beards, they are basically bearded ladies, and we know them as sideshow/circus freaks.

A friend of mine stopped a cab for me and I got in. The driver had obviously not seen me before we stopped (he later admitted that he hadn’t). The first thing I told him was that the beard was fake. This was probably me trying to compensate the fact that I could be anything but outside the social norms of beauty.

We got to talking with the driver and had a nice conversation all the way home. I got out and saw the owner of the downstairs market, i told him I was taking a make up class for films and had to get a fake beard.

I won’t tie this to any psychological or sociological conclusion. All I can say is, I chickened out. I am not an “edgy” person. The only thing that shocked me was that I could some how make San Franciscan uneasy.

Also, here something to make you forget that I haven’t been updating the blog lately.

Epic Comment Win

I usually don’t read comments online, since it makes me loose faith in humanity and is bad for any human being’s health. But today, tonight, StumbleUpon brought me a website, where out of boredom I scrolled down to the comments and read one of the most awesome comments ever. It was just so plain and simple and #win that it made me want to share it with you guys.

It was written by someone called Ates. Here is what it read:

Quoting from the Bible when making an argument against rational thinking is in the same lines as:
–
A – I don’t believe in Santa Claus.
B – You fool. Listen to these words: “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.” See? Santa is real.
A – Ah, I see now. Thanks for the quotation!
–
Oh, an there’s always CAPITAL LETTERS to win an argument:
–
A – I don’t believe in fairies.
B – YOU FOOL. FAIRIES ARE REAL!!!
A – Thanks for changing my mind with those huge letters.

bonus:

Oh Yeah! Bottle My Water Baby

I grew up in Ankara. Capital of Turkey, with the population of roughly 5 million people.
It’s not by the seaside. It’s not the most unique or beautiful city, but I loved growing up there.

By the time I was 6 we moved into this awesome gated community next to METU. It was filled with professors. Long story short, it was awesome.

Ok so, I only lived in Ankara and Istanbul in Turkey, and spent my summers in Bodrum and Antalya. We NEVER drink tap water in the big cities. We can’t. It’s not safe nor is it clean.

Our gated community had clean tap water, at least that was what they told us. I got really sick and it turned out it was from tap water. We stopped drinking it. After that, anytime I drink tap water I get sick.

We don’t buy bottled waters for our houses in Turkey, we buy them in carboys. Also, 17 oz bottle of water costs around 25¢, maybe less.

People get really agitated with bottled water here in the US. It freaks me out. You can’t expect someone in their 20s who grew up scared of getting sick from tap water to just automatically start drinking tap water. The thing is you did not grow up in a developing country. Tap water smells and it tastes like.. sickness, wherever you are.. I’m serious. (I kinda feel like I’m over reacting, Eren drinks tap water both in Turkey and in SF, so the issues are probably a bit personal)

But, not finished yet. Listen to this. A few years back there was a drought in Ankara. They started shutting of the waters every other day. People were freaked out. At this time I lived in Istanbul. So, anyways, Melih Gokcek, who I find to be an utter failure, decided to merge Kizilirmak into the cities main water pipes. He did this without telling any of the residents.

People bathed in that water, drank the water. After almost a month he came out and told the people that river water was mixed into the main water supply. Mind you that people were getting sick -nothing deadly but violent diarrhea seams pretty serious to me-. It was then that we learned the river had elevated levels of arsenic. I got sick by just taking showers in the water.

That should be enough for me to have a freaking phobia.

So, please stop giving me that disapproving look when you see me buying bottled water. I’m not being smug. STFU and mind your own business dammit. Also, bottled water does not suck. It is awesome. Live with it. It becomes very annoying when you go on about how horrible bottled water is. It saves lives.

Who to Check Out: Anıl Duran

Anıl Duran is a Turkish artist/graphic designer/photographer from San Francisco.
Before anything take a look at his website.

This man is an amazing artist and I am in awe with his work.

I just watched his 2004 showreel and wanted to share it with you guys, so check it out:

I’m so happy that I am surrounded by such talented friends like Anıl, Azizk and Mitra.

I want my TV back!

If it weren’t for True Blood the summer tv schedule would be horrendous. There is 4 episodes of True Blood left and I am in major withdrawal. So here’s what to look forward to.

Wednesday, Sept. 9
America’s Next Top Model, 8 p.m. (CW)

Thursday, Sept. 10
*The Vampire Diaries, 8 p.m. (CW)

Monday, Sept. 14
Gossip Girl, 9 p.m. (CW)

Thursday, Sept. 17
Bones, 8 p.m. (Fox)
Fringe, 9 p.m. (Fox)
The Office, 9 p.m. (NBC)

Monday, Sept. 21
Heroes, 8 p.m. (NBC)
House, 8 p.m. (Fox)
How I Met Your Mother, 8 p.m. (CBS)

Thursday, Sept. 24
Grey’s Anatomy, 9 p.m. (ABC)

Friday, Sept. 25
Dollhouse, 9 p.m. (Fox)

Sunday, Sept. 27
Family Guy, 9 p.m. (Fox)
The Simpsons, 8 p.m. (Fox)
American Dad, 9:30 p.m. (Fox)
*The Cleveland Show, 8:30 p.m. (Fox)

*New shows worth checking out.

I’m still waiting for the release dates of Lost and Chuck.

For a complete list go here.