Blogging about blogging, caffeine, and being a bad friend.

Of all the shit I have purchased since my arrival in Paris, the €20 coffee maker was probably the best. (In perhaps a bit of a contradiction, I would say that splurging on a nice duvet was probably the second best purchase.) I have very little to report on life in Paris because I spend […]

December 17, 2011

twenty-three red fish (a birthday post)

I remember sitting in my back yard with a bucket of chalk, long after the sun had set, drawing nonsensical things and trying to make jokes about my impending move. At 14, being told to leave LA for a small town in Missouri was roughly equivalent to my life coming to an end. My best […]

December 10, 2011

There is no funnel cake in the International Media Circus

My phone rings and I know it’s my mom — she’s the only one who has my landline number, aside from the automated French recording that calls every so often. “Derrik was arrested in Cairo.” I didn’t know how to respond to that information. It was a short phone call — she wanted to make sure that I heard […]

December 1, 2011

Copyright, culture, and the need for new frameworks (or the time I said something legitimate)

Last week was nothing short of insane. It was an emotional and informational roller coaster for my entire family. While I have lots to talk about on that front…that’s not what I’m going to do today. I will, soon, I promise, but not today. I want to talk about censorship and regulating the internet, and […]

November 29, 2011

This is not the post I meant write today.

If you know me at all, you may have heard that it has been a trying day. My family is exceptionally close. My siblings are my best friends. My younger brother is currently in the fall of his junior year at Georgetown University, double majoring in Arabic and Psychology. Last night he was arrested in […]

November 22, 2011

VLOG: Parisian Apartment Diaries, part 2

As research paper writing begins to consume my soul, my will to actually type things for this blog is waning. Instead, I spend free time I don’t have tinkering with the layout and recording silly videos. (Admittedly, I’m a little giddy about the product of the layout changes.) Today I bring you a brief look […]

November 18, 2011

Notes on visiting Auschwitz

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Lieber, made our class of 34 kids stand up. One by one, she read off the list of reasons that people were killed in the holocaust. We were told to sit down when the description applied to us. In the end, I was one of two people left standing. It’s […]

November 14, 2011

This post is as American as pumpkin pie spice

Let’s take a breather, shall we? I sat down to start typing and there are a million thoughts, and I couldn’t seem to find the focus to pick one. This is how my entire life feels right now. This is when I start baking. Even though I was only in Budapest for five days, I […]

November 10, 2011

Eating pizza in Budapest

I wasn’t kidding when I said that my camera contains an inordinate number of food pictures. Food, beer, and some communist statues. That seems to be the crux of my photographic evidence of visiting Budapest. You know what I didn’t realize Hungarians were so good at? Pizza. I ate a lot of pizza, and it […]

November 8, 2011

Hungarian Halloween

Halloween has a special place in my heart. I worked in several haunted houses (and I grew up in LA where every such operation has at least one person who knows someone with an inexplicable treasure trove of awesome props). Since 2007, my Halloween has been defined by The Rocky Horror Picture Show — I was in […]

November 4, 2011

Exhausted, Shirtless, and Freezing: The fun of finalizing my visa continues!

I was exhausted, shirtless, and freezing. I stared at the papers spread out on her desk and couldn’t answer questions any more articulately than mumbling because I was afraid I might start crying if I opened my mouth any wider. After the countless hoops I had to jump through to initiate the visa process in […]

November 1, 2011

So what exactly are you doing with your life?

Today we are going to play a game called, “It’s my blog and I do what I want.” This post is long and devoid of pretty pictures and contains only tangential references to Paris. It’s filled to the brim with WHOTHEHELLAMI questions and a tiny bit of “This is what I think about the world.” […]

October 27, 2011