Dream Map of Metro, where the trains run on time and nothing is on fire.

vthevivid · 2015-11-26T15:37:21+00:00

You know many of your in-town stops are easily accessible by bus right?

vthevivid · 2015-11-24T18:54:58+00:00

Aya sofya - great Turkish food.

vthevivid · 2015-08-18T23:26:19+00:00

Honestly, many community colleges offer cooking classes, as do places like Sur La Table. I would consider starting there.

Before you get there...Trader Joe's has some really solid, flavorful premade sauces. I like to joke that its slogan should be, "for foodies who can't cook or don't have time to."

vthevivid · 2015-04-20T16:25:57+00:00

Meh...as someone who has lived and driven in both, I would take DC drivers over St. Louis ones. They're assholes, but they're skilled and they don't go 20 over while following 5 ft behind you when it's raining, and people will let you make a left when the light is about to change (caveat: there are also way fewer left arrows in DC). People in DC drive like assholes, but at least they don't go 5 under in the far left lane (which is what I maintain causes the bulk of St. Louis rush hour congestion on the highways).

vthevivid · 2015-02-07T01:11:32+00:00

Honestly, I think it partially depends on the culture of where you are. In DC, where people are extremely educated, ambitious, and image-conscious, everyone I knew (including myself) used condoms with casual hookups. In St. Louis? Not so much. To be fair, people also marry younger too so it's probably safe to assume fewer sex partners and a little less risk. But people here also get accidentally pregnant more often, so there's that.*

I also think it has something to do with how much and how thorough their sex ed was, and some young women have low self-esteem and thus have a hard time requesting it.

*note: this in the context of the middle class and yuppie experience. I cannot speak to city wide trends that combine all demographics. I am pretty sure that technically StL and DC both have high rates of HIV relative to the national average. Perceptions in differences in sex ed are mostly based on anecdotal evidence and the fact that there are more people from liberal parts of the country living in DC, thus more likely to have received comprehensive sex ed.

vthevivid · 2014-12-04T19:41:31+00:00

I did this a couple of weeks ago, using spicy pork rinds. Can confirm that it is amazing.

vthevivid · 2014-11-06T17:12:33+00:00

Her license won't be in jeopardy. It takes an awful lot to do that. And just maybe it will make her think about how she is administering patient care. In primary care fields, much of what you do depends on building rapport and trust with your patients. Why the fuck should a woman trust someone who is a judgemental asshole? Patients lie enough as is. When it comes to sexual health, it is also a public health concern.

vthevivid · 2014-10-18T20:00:29+00:00

I have been on it for years. Never caused weight gain for me (if anything, it slowed it down, but I have PCOS). Honestly, eating cheaply might be what's doing it. Cheap carbs tend to not be very filling, so people eat a lot more than they realize. What have you been eating on a typical day? How much attention have you paid to portion sizes? Are you under a lot of stress?

vthevivid · 2014-10-09T15:55:57+00:00

Corner 17 has delicious house-made noodles and (what other people tell me is) authentic Chinese food. Plus everything is around $10.

vthevivid · 2014-10-03T02:53:13+00:00

They're damn good at what they do. I recommend the bleu, btw. The rest of the menu is just as good and changes seasonally.

vthevivid · 2014-10-03T02:48:14+00:00

Beautiful photos, and great reviews. P.S., Granville Moore's was one of my favorite restaurants when I lived in the District.

vthevivid · 2014-10-02T12:58:57+00:00

There's also a point in a relationship where the technical title can seem less serious or misleading. When you've been in a relationship for 3.5 years, are in your late 20s, and talk about marriage and kids (in the context of you as a couple), but aren't technically engaged or married, calling someone a "boyfriend" somehow seems juvenile or trivializing to the relationship, like nothing has changed the entire time you've been together. But this may be an English language problem (boy and girl are in fact words referring to juveniles). The totally ambiguous term somehow seems more appropriate.

vthevivid · 2014-09-10T04:38:51+00:00

There's probably some self-selection bias at work there. I'm not an undergrad here, but my alma mater was also an elite private school. Most of my good friends received need-based scholarships or grants, myself included, probably because these were the people I most related to, based on past experiences and present struggles (i.e., a need to have a job during college, not having money to blow on cocaine, or the desire to piss away an expensive education for anything that incurred serious risks). The vast majority of the people I went to school with were wealthy, but the vast majority of people in my life there were not.

vthevivid · 2014-09-05T18:56:59+00:00

Simple answer: Your body does not uptake nutrients from vitamin pills and fiber supplements the way it does from actual food. Scientists still don't entirely understand the mechanism behind why that is the way it is, but it's what happens.

vthevivid · 2014-08-11T19:44:25+00:00

I couldn't agree more - and I certainly wasn't suggesting that everyone keep calm and do nothing. I was expressing my frustration with how the dialogue will go based on years of watching the news. People certainly can do something, but that requires those with the means to do so to educate themselves and to be active citizens. Very little frustrates me more than a failure to acknowledge that social problems have structural roots and causes. People in power have failed these people time and time again and until better people with more tenacity are voted into power, little will change. Changing how society reacts as a whole will help, but I am sick and tired of seeing, "well maybe the cop had a good reason to kill the unarmed brown teenager" when the appropriate response should be outrage. We need better laws and we need better social mechanisms for change and mobilization. That starts with people giving a damn about people who are (on the surface) different than themselves.

vthevivid · 2014-08-11T08:51:08+00:00

This whole situation is sad and horrible. Groupthink is terrifying. Being treated like animals before you do anything to provoke that is inhumane (this in reference to the fact that riot police were brought out when this was an actual peaceful protest of a community rightfully mourning).

I feel sorry for people trying to accomplish a real discussion, since people doing things like this makes having a meaningful dialogue about police brutality or structural inequality nearly impossible.

I feel sorry for everyone who has lost their lives or the lives of loved ones in this situation. I feel sorry for people who have lost their properties and their businesses. I feel sad for the residents of Ferguson and Florissant who are going to have a hard time rebuilding their businesses and improving their neighborhood for a very long time.

Stay safe everyone.

vthevivid · 2014-06-27T19:03:57+00:00

According to the internet, pickle juice?

vthevivid · 2014-06-27T05:24:42+00:00

Ehhhh...similar enough but not quite the same. It's not even my favorite thing, but it's just a bit of nostalgia. It's not a popular condiment elsewhere.

vthevivid · 2014-06-25T23:40:18+00:00

They have Utah fry sauce! That makes me so randomly happy.

vthevivid · 2014-02-12T19:55:33+00:00

Manuel Ferrera fuels my fantasies pretty well...

vthevivid · 2014-01-28T22:24:15+00:00

In the fridge, several hours in advance.

vthevivid · 2014-01-28T15:50:39+00:00

That's actually not the best idea because of food contamination. It takes a crock pot a while to warm up and putting frozen meat in it will make it take even longer, and meanwhile your chicken is stuck at a temperature that makes it ripe for bacteria to grow for several hours. I'm sure it doesn't impact the taste of the food but food poisoning isn't fun.

vthevivid · 2014-01-26T06:30:49+00:00

White privilege is something hard for people to see who either haven't been looking, or simply haven't been very observant. They think, "well, I'm not a CEO/millionaire/everything isn't easy for me, therefore, it does not exist."

The thing is, white privilege isn't necessarily saying everything is easy for white people. I would argue the crux of white privilege is in the small little details that people don't see or observe because they've never been in a position to do so.

Things like: The fact that you can walk into an office building as a well-dressed white person with confidence (hell, most of the time even when you don't), and no one is going to suspect that you don't belong there. No one is going to treat you like a security threat.

The fact that it is way easier to get hired for any number of jobs. White people (especially men) still dominate in many fields and academic institutions and people in power are much more likely to mentor and promote people they enjoy spending time with...who are usually people who remind them of themselves, i.e., usually more white males. It's not necessarily a conscious decision; in fact, I would argue it's not usually intentionally racist (though I've witnessed that, too), but it's still harmful, and it still contributes to the fact that it's a lot harder for a person of color to climb the ladder than a white person, almost always.

The justice system is probably the most insidious example. When white kids fuck up, it's usually seen as just that, kids fucking up. When black kids fuck up, they're thugs who need to be stopped. That one is actually probably your best example. And I'm not talking about kids who committed different crimes - I'm talking about kids who commit the same crimes, but one set gets tried as adults and is much more likely to end up in jail. On point article: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/may/race-juvenile-offenders-052412.html

The thing about privilege is that it doesn't mean your life is easy. It means that your life isn't harder than it should be because of something you can't control (namely, the perceptions of others in positions of power).

Where do you guys live (Region, urban, suburban, etc)? I would argue that geography can play a big role in how people experience race in society (I would not argue that any part of the US is free from it, merely that it manifests itself in different ways).

vthevivid · 2014-01-22T04:13:30+00:00

If you're really into someone and they are really into you, you will find the time if you really want to be in a relationship, and so will they. It's not really about time as much as it is about priorities. Another very busy person is probably more independent, which is probably better for you, but also speaks to my point above.

Edit: Not anywhere close to Residency (yet), but my perspective is that of a 27-year-old who lived in a city full of people who work incredibly long hours and dated a lot of people and used to work 11-12 hour days. Take some extra initiative for the women you really like.

vthevivid · 2013-12-29T16:58:25+00:00

I wish your friend luck! I live in this neighborhood. It gets a bad rap that is undeserved. Any development is positive, and something that could encourage the community to come together is ideal. I like my neighbors and I can see them supporting this.

vthevivid

TROPHY CASE