Tag Archives: Chinny

r8: Most Beloved Blogs

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I have always been a sucker for humor…good humor, bad humor, sarcasm, mockery… I love them all! This probably has to do with the fact that I, myself, am not particularly funny. This always used to be an issue at the dinner table as I was growing up; the sequence of events was routine: everyone would be talking, I would crack my best attempt at a joke, I would start laughing, and then my dad would shake his head playfully and tease, “well at least you think you’re funny.” Wah wah wahhhh. No humor points for me.

Thus, it’s not particularly shocking that, over the course of the semester, I tended to gravitate towards the blogs that made me laugh. Lindsay’s listing blog was a weekly staple of mine. I loved her blog because, not only did I know that upon navigating to her page, I would be met with a catchy title and ten succinct points on a list, but I also knew that I was in for some subtle and conversational humor. One of my especial favorites was her article entitled “Things I Noticed During the Oscars, or I’m Really Just Watching This as an Excuse to Eat Kettle Corn.”

Right from the get-go, Lindsay’s prose had me giggling to myself.

“10) George Clooney’s severely underage girlfriend IS A WWE WRESTLER, according to a Huffington Post article called “Stacy Keibler, George Clooney relationship: Where did she come from?” I googled images of this girl to show you, and literally zero of them were appropriate to display.

9) At five minutes and thirty-three seconds prior to the start of the show, the “Live from the Red Carpet” guys ran out of famous people to talk to. So they went into the control room to startle one of the sound guys, who wasn’t at all dressed for national live television and wore an Alfalfa face for his whole segment.”

To make point 9 even better, she made sure to include a photo of Alfalfa. I really admire Lindsay’s ability to bring interest and humor to everyday topics and observations, and I found myself agreeing with her commentary on countless occasions. The fact that her prose were structured in lists, in and of itself, added a unique and captivating touch to her blog.

Chinny’s blog was another that had me enthralled right from the start. I loved visiting her blog because, not only could I expect to find a different subject matter each time, but also a different voice to accompany it. Chinny’s use of multiple voices and personas is truly amazing; it brings such a unique touch to her blog and is a refreshing attribute. Chinny’s blog is also utterly hilarious. While I must say that I am actually in the sorority Kappa, I was legitimately rolling on the floor while I read her post entitled (Mor)bid day.

“It took like, ages for this day to come. We worked really hard, like, you don’t even know. It takes a lot of planning and creativity to run Rush and like, we have to make the girls like us or we won’t get any of the good ones, you know? It’s about reputation and honor and stuff. We have a name and an identity to uphold—people on campus know us and like, we can’t let down our alumni and sisters and the history and our legacy cause like, we have loyalty. Loyalty is like, so important.

It’s like, such a good thing we are so smart or else we could NOT have made a video to compete with something like this: Kappa Rap

Those girls did the best job ever. Snaps, snaps, snaps to them.”

Her exaggeration of each stereotype is implemented to the perfect degree, the content of her posts never cease to amaze me. She literally perfectly embodies and represents each stereotype, so I constantly find myself not only laughing at her comments, but marveling as her skill as a writer.

r8: notable posts

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For my first notable blog post, I am going to second the notion that Chinny’s blog is quite funny. Her use of different voices in #socollegelol is definitely an interesting approach to take, but I think it opens the doors for a lot of social criticism, which is conveniently her purpose. The blog post I admire though is B-sian, in which she talks about Brown kids being the under-recognized portion of the overachieving Asians. Indians are Asians too!

Here’s a blurb:

Speaking of class, that’s what I really wanted to talk about. I am offended when we are discluded from the group of Asians because it is just an unfair distinction. We work just as hard, achieve just as much, and are disliked just as sincerely for it! We will be your doctors and engineers one day. We will do your taxes. Yeah, sure, some of us will also be driving your taxis and working the night shift at the local Seven Eleven but hey, who better to get that slushie from?!

It was actually difficult to choose which section of this to highlight, but I finally decided. The snark and blatant use of stereotypes are just too good. The inclusion of the crazy asian mother video was also great, because I haven’t see it since high school. Turning brown asians in B-sians, which just encompasses a whole slew of jokes, is both memorable and funny. And India is indubitably in Asia.

The second notable post also concerns social criticism, but in a rather focused manner. Jabari’s blog focuses on stereotypes, inequality, and other such social injustices in his blog, “Who’s in the Fridge?” His writings include a lot of excellent points and observations about women in video games and comic books in particular. This is both something I’ve noticed and something I’ve read about and studied. I thought the post called “Pants are Overrated” was great.

Again, a blurb:

As a gamer and a nerd, it took all of my will power to remain in my chair instead of rolling around on the floor. If you have played a video game, looked at any video game art, or read a comic in the last few decades, you’ve probably seen this scenario play out. If the game or the comic is coerced, trying to appeal to its hormonal male fanbase, progressive enough to include a female character, she is automatically turned into a sex object. But this isn’t a new phenomenon; objectification is an ancient pastime. What makes the sexualizing of female characters more horrendous is the weak justifications the creators concoct to explain the need for every heroine to wear a thong or a push-up bra.

Jabari includes an entertaining clip that satirizes women’s clothing in video games and such. He talks about the visible problem at hand, but he goes further to talk about the really annoying thing that creators do: they lamely justify why women are so scantily clad. The real reason is sexual objectification, but they cite speed and agility. I particularly like the point he makes that The Flash and Spiderman are incredibly fast but wear full body suits. Really excellent.

r8: Blog Favorites

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Chinny’s blog, #socollegelol, is hilarious. The best part of her voice is that it’s not even hers: it’s the creator of a meme page, a frat bro, and the typical, overworked Duke student. From the post Food (Die)ries:

“So like, I only ate like, half a cup of granola, and then like, half a banana, like, I would have eaten like, the whole banana, but like some of it was brown so I was all like ew w ew and I took it off and then I was like yes! fewer calories! but then I like totally had a bite of Rebecca’s brownie cause like it was her birthday but like, that can’t be too many calories right? Ugh, I just don’t know honey, should I get a salad or would that just be too much?!”

Seriously. I feel like this describes a good portion of Duke girls. Or maybe it doesn’t. Maybe I’m just overgeneralizing–making a stereotype–which is the whole point of the blog. As Chinny says: it’s comedic, sarcastic, and even educational.

Contrasting nicely is Allison’s blog, A Crazy Obsession. Taking a more informative stance on blogging, Allison explores various aspects of working out at Duke. Here she offers advice, best practices, and motivational tips. From the post, Capitalize on the Chorus:

The biggest issue that people find with interval workouts, however, is motivation. It’s very difficult to motivate yourself to do sprint intervals when you don’t have a coach or a personal trainer barking at your back or breathing down your neck ordering you to go faster or to push harder. I think we can all agree that it’s much nicer to simply settle into a certain level and pace, hang on of a little while, and then leave telling yourself you put in the adequate amount of time.

…Unfortunately, it’s not just about quantity, my friends, it’s about quality.

Writing about an “obsession” with exercise can certainly scare readers, but I think Allison does a nice job of balancing information with a light tone. I’ve caught myself thinking “hey, that sounds like me!” several times.

I think the best part of these blogs is their relatability. While they both have the capability of alienating their readers, they approach the problem (in different ways) and overcome it effectively. In the end, I think that’s what made them so enjoyable to read.