Under a Sea of Thoughts

      "The enormous, pungent, and extremely well-marketed" North Carolina Potato Festival is held every May on the state's very coast, meaning it is rooted to the second largest source of water in the world, the Atlantic Ocean. With more than 18,500 acres of golden, fresh-out-of-the-ground potatoes, the festival sees more than 35,000 potato-loving fanatics in attendance, seemingly just popping out of the ground(1) ! At the festival, you can enjoy "Spudtacular rides", fireworks, a farm show, and the National Potato Peeling Contest. Need a ride? You can roll around with the "'tator shuttle"! More information can be found at www.ncpotatofestival.com.         As a dish, potato can be saladed, souped, baked, fried, oven-fried, french-fried, Au Gratined, Hasselbacked, chipped, hash-browned, latked, skinned, tater-totted, gnocchied, roasted, and of course, mashed. Potatoes by themselves are nutritious and high in potassium, but also high in potenti...

Throughout history, they've been chained to their defining characteristics as tools and servants to their husbands. From the time of the publication of "I Want a Wife" to even today, their status as second class citizens has changed only marginally. As shown in Brady's essay, wives-the integral component of every marriage-are not just objects to be used, but are, above all else, people. Her choice of rhetoric uses consistent cataloging of the many roles of women: they are wives, "not altogether incidentally" mothers, appointment trackers, caregivers, "nurturant attendants", workers, house cleaners, cooks, cleaners, sympathizers, listeners, typists, and, of course, sex dolls. This listing is meant to support the once-upon-a-time fantasy she has of subverting gender roles and show everyone a profiling of the entire current female gender. The requirements of wives are astronomical, almost biblical in effort and energy, but she does not expect every wo...

If you've played video games for a while, you'll notice trends in the way games are made, the cliches, the quality of game play, the mechanics, the graphics, and overall level of fun. You'll also notice that in many realistic video games, there are trends in the representation of characters that you can play as. Specifically, the difference in gender representation between males and females is staggering. Take a look at these two images of characters in the game League of Legends: On the one hand, you have "Garen, the Might of Dematia", who "is a warrior of Demacia who has devoted his life to defending his kingdom and its ideals." On the other hand, you have "Miss Fortune, the Bounty Hunter" who is "a bounty hunter, and used her feminine charms and expert skills to get her own crew and ship at the young age of 16." Clearly, there's a discrepancy in how these two characters are portrayed as. Their costumes alone are enough to t...

In Just Walk on By, I've learned a little bit about what it's like to be a black person. I've learned what it's like to be marginalized, to be labeled off, and associated with robbers and muggers. The racial profiling that America has adopted is causing black people and marginalized groups to be silenced in society. Not surprisingly, the problem is growing as society has become increasingly racist. Specifically, marginalized people often feel silenced in voicing their opinions in public meetings. One of the interesting, and honestly stupidest strategies to combat this issue is something called progressive stacking. The basic idea is that minority groups (colored people, women, LGBT, young people, old people, etc.), are given greater priority to speak than groups of majority (whites, men, young adults). This idea is part of the Occupy movement, which is dedicated to advocating justice through "new forms" of democracy. The "stack" is a list of people ...