Oreo's Observations

Do you ever feel like life just doesn't get you? Maybe you're just not getting life. Here are 5 habits holding you back from reaching your full potential: 1. Water is bad for you! You might be thinking, but I can't live without water! Exactly. This is addiction. Did you know that drinking water can actually kill you? Drinking too much water can cause intoxication and cause swelling of the cells, leading to headaches, seizures, and even comas. Water is like alcohol—to prevent from suffering its devastating effects it's best to avoid it completely. Instead, try a cooler alternative called ice. Its higher temperatures ensure that no toxins can survive to enter your body, and because of its chilling feeling you're likely to consume much less of it! 2. Quit your job. If you're not happy with your 9-5, cubicle lifestyle then why are you still doing it? Resignation is as easy as 1, 2, 3! As your internet big sister, I'm here for you. (I can't provide you money ...

I never had an Easy Bake oven, I'm brown. Instead I had a tiny rolling pin and board to make invisible rotis (Indian flatbread). I had a tiny kitchen with cute little pans and bowls. I even cleaned up after myself after "making a meal" just like my mom always does. She's the one who taught me how to use that rolling pin and the real one I use today.  Almost every toy I've received since then from others outside my family have been exclusively "girly". Baby dolls, princess tiaras, a Victoria's secret purse from a most likely drunk aunty. My brother ALWAYS received a science-related item, because learning is for the boyz. From an extremely young age I was awakened to the unfairness of these so-called "gifts" and I threw tantrums over it. I'd thank the adult with that sort of devilish smile a kid makes when they're forced to be polite, and as soon as they left I'd be waiting for my brother to open his gift like a curious dog. I...

I was ten years old and I'd never applied lipstick with my own hands. Couldn't walk in heels because I'd never worn them. Couldn't even tie ponytails with without my arms down and my mom running her own through my hair. The poise of this young girl is untouchable. Luckily I never had to face the demon of my girlish insecurities because it always masked itself in the makeup and pretty clothes of "I'm just a kid, I won't be judged" — that is until its nefarious face was unleashed in its evilest form: an Indian wedding.  Before we go on a trip to India, I'm required to attend training sessions of a class of me and my brother. "Be polite, these people are our elders. Respect them. Talk to them so they feel good, don't be shy." But even though it's just a lecture class, I'm still the worst student because somehow I'm the one always pulled over for an involuntary side bar. "They're going to want to dress you up, so let ...

A week ago, my mom “caught me” reading a comic book. As she started laughing at me for what would be another good five minutes at least, I shamefully started concealing the pages and laughing with her out of sheer embarrassment. Not even 24 hours go by before I realize how mortifying this novel really is.  As soon I mentioned that this book was about the Holocaust, the room was silent immediately. Because only when they depict death and torture are pictures taken seriously.  Let's examine the last panel of page 72 in volume II. Before you scroll to the bottom to see the picture, this is what is says: "Prisoners what worked there poured gasoline over the live ones and the dead ones". Such a gut-wrenching sentence formed in such a nonchalant manner. You might raise your eyebrows, widen your eyes, but no feeling compares to when you see the image beneath it. The mice are burning alive, the flames consuming them, their faces in pure agony. You feel the terror with them, your ...

                               In Maus , Spiegelman tells his father's story in an extremely vivid and captivating manner. Page 83 discusses one of Vladek's most undigestible moments of the holocaust: the hangings. Even when Art displays the gut-wrenching illustration in panel two, the faces are covered up, turned around, or tilted in a manner in which the reader literally can't look them in the eye. They're completely stripped of their identities that only Vladek recognized. To the Nazis they're merely walking targets dressed in costumes of formalwear. In the following two panels, Vladek narrates short summaries of each of the characters hanged, isolating only each of their feet. This was drawn not simply for the act of dramatizing the hangings. It once again goes to show how readers, unaffected pigs in the audience, and the Nazis are only able to see identical hanged legs with little significance. This com...

  Imagine having to close a car door- I could never. Why with my infinite supply of butlers there to drive for me, eat for me and breathe for me, I could never partake in such peasantry as living. By the way, I was being sarcastic. God I could never be like them.  The high society with sleekly polished nails canvased to perfection, much like their readymade lives served on a silver platter, no taxes included of course. We, the butlers waiting on them hand and foot, put on our sharpest uniforms in their presence, and go home to  our bills, our empty fridge, our children we couldn't take care of because we spent our day working for them.  This "us" vs "them" mentality we see so prominently in our communities is undeniable in  Sweat . The clearest example is how the factory workers refer to management. Those in charge have the power to make the rules, decide the fates of the countless workers below them, but as this power is abused, its no longer a "we" a...

  Roses are often used as an expression of romanticism, hope and harmony. Through the symbol of these flowers, Langston Hughes uses naive and hopeful word choice to display the illusion of purity in world of grim in his poem "Red Roses". Hughes begins by glorifying the season of warmth as the "sweet, sweet springtime", a noticeable manner which you might see in a young child. He says sweet not once, but twice to emphasize its innocent atmosphere dissociative with the rest of the hopeless world. In contrast, winter is a bleak period affiliated with death. The narrator even pleads, "Lawd" at the mere thought of being buried under the cold, cold snow which certainly doesn't provide the "sweet, sweet" feeling as the spring does. He builds this tone of hope, constantly "waitin'" for the springtime as if the red of the roses would color the black and white of the somber, loneliness of the world. Instead, Hughes plainly, and in fact na...