The kids at the New School protest a war criminal and get arrested. No coverage.

The kids at NYU demand a mishmash of changes, get suspended. Lots of coverage.

Look, man, I'd really like to get behind the NYU kids, because I think the outrageous cost of college in the USA is an important issue. It sets people up for a lifetime of debt, first and foremost. Time that could be spent on critical thinking and making this country a better place instead gets funneled into working off debt and trying to survive. Having huge credit card bills, a mortgage, leased car...living on borrowed money...it all seems normal and ok, because you've been doing it your entire adult life.

But the NYU kids...they didn't even ask for lower tuition. It's 50 grand a year at their school. Oh no. These radicals just asked for a tuition freeze, starting 2 years from now. I could barely afford to pay my tuition at CUNY this semester, and these radical protesters are perfectly ok with DEMANDING a freeze at 50 grand a year.

But they were also calling for transparency. Which is reasonable, because while NYU is a private school, you can bet your ass that it is receiving PUBLIC funding via FAFSA and TAP for a percentage of its students. Is that 50 grand going to the professors, the people who make NYU the school it is? Hardly. You know those guys have middle class level salaries, otherwise people would be becoming college professors for the money. And what about all that real estate the damn school owns? The Village is a highly, highly sought after neighborhood. When I think about NYU, I think about how they own the entire area around Washington Square Park, and how I feel like riff raff trespassing on their "campus", which is actually my own city. You're telling me the value of all that land still requires astronomical tuition? What, NYU's got a mortgage?

More demands. Coke machines banned? This is an arcane topic involving a long-lasting feud between students and administration, and to most outsiders it just seems silly. Coke has violently put down unionizing in South America and privatizes local water supplies; the students want Coke products off campus; fine. It is really little more than a symbolic gesture, since there are 11,274 delis around the Village where you can buy Cokes. It really just appears to be some student's pet project.

13 scholarships for Gaza? How about for the ghetto? I know the situation is shitty in Palestine, but seriously. I see it so often. You've got a half way politically conscious kid and they're more worried about saving the children half a world away than addressing the problems in their own backyard. They could work at the local soup kitchen or teach ESL or volunteer at the Salvation Army, but no. They're going to buy red from Target, hold a candlelight vigil for all the lives lost, and change their profile photo to a peace sign to somehow protest the war.

But at least those kids did something, right? Occupying the school's a lot bigger than buying a bumper sticker or whatever. They certainly brought their issues into the mainstream media. Mainly for ridicule, but at ShopRite the other day I overheard a kid talking excitedly about the protest and how he wish something like that could happen here.

This morning, I went grocery shopping because we have a serious lack of food.

I picked up a pack of chicken leg quarters for the low, low price of 59¢ a pound. The package was even marked "All Natural". I was very impressed, since the natural stuff is usually pricier, so I decided to look up the company that fed and slaughtered my chickens.

Fieldale Farms is a Georgia-based factory farming operation that helped push through legislation that allows animals fed on non-organic feed to be labeled "organic": www.ewg.org/node/15301. Now I wonder how meaningful that "All Natural" label really is.

  Staten Island is having its first Gay Life Expo this Sunday.

www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I've worked hard to gain the community here some recognition. But I wanted things to be safer for queers on Staten Island. I certainly didn't have economics in mind. Like a lot of young queer women, I tend to be anticonsumerist, and I'm rather alienated by how commercial the scene in Manhattan is.

Go to the nation's oldest Pride march, born out of queens and butches rioting, and you're constantly assailed with advertizing and merch. In the crowd, there are tons of boojie tourists and very beautiful, cleancut men, but nobody who looks TOO out there. It's not very fun for me. I was mistaken for a boy more times in my life than ever when I went to Pride 2007, by overeager merch representatives. Lesbians or even androgynous folks were invisible, and even though I don't dress too masculinely, I didn't really see anybody else who resembled me. Staten Island Pride has always been much more of a community affair, though perhaps it was merely because we didn't have the money.

So, I'm glad that the corporations and local businesses think we're important enough for an expo, but...I don't particularly like it. I don't like being thought of as a consumer first and foremost, and I don't like the effect money has had on the mainstream gay community in Manhattan.

I am not religious, and the rampant consumerism of Christmas disturbs me. Even in "these tough economic times", to quote every half-assed journalist for the past month, I witnessed many a person rushing out to buy buy buy. Which is a foolish thing to do, even when "these economic times" aren't so alarming to the news media.

Almost everyone I know is in debt, and those who aren't have taken a conscious anticonsumerist stance. You are all but forced to go into debt in this country, it is the normal thing to do nowadays...whether it's your student loan or your credit card or your car or your house, you're owing somebody.

Actually, I shouldn't say "your" car or "your" house,  because if you're shelling out every month for it, it's no more yours than if you were driving your parent's car or living in their house.

I won't even get into the idiocy of running the ecosystem into the ground and abusing entire populations, just so you can show off your status with the latest product. That's a rant unto itself. I am merely pointing out the personal idiocy of spending gobs of money you don't have, "because it's Christmas".

As for the love and brotherhood aspects of Christmas, it is nothing but lip service. I was looking forward to having a nice, quiet day, but everyone I encountered seemed determined to make others miserable. I'm sorry if they were having bad days, but if they cared so damn much about Christmas, they offered only bitterness and spite instead of the much-talked-about charity. My friend was recently hired as a cabbie and he called me earlier and told me he's getting stiffed on tips. There's your spirit of Christmas: selfishness.

I have encountered far more charitable, tolerant people amongst the freaks and queers and anarchists than among the consumers and the Christians. And it's offered every day, not just during some obnoxious holiday season.

news.infoshop.org/article.php

So some students in New York City fight with the cops and occupy their school. You'd think that any of the news sources around me (the networks, the local rag) would pick up the story. No. Sorry. I only heard about this through a contact on, of all things, Myspace.

More:

www.newschoolinexile.com/
gothamist.com/2008/12/18/new_school_occupation_day_2_the_rev.php
news.infoshop.org/article.php

The New York Times wrote an article about it in their Sunday edition, bless their hearts.

Seriously, people, cover your mouthes. I'm very susceptible to colds. Why must you cough heartily, with a wide, unimpeded mouth, in public places?

I had two conversations this week that made me realize that I may be living what is called an "alternative lifestyle".

No, I'm not cohabitating with my dearly beloved goat Michelle. No, instead, I am living on 20 to 40 dollars a week. Apparently, this is very strange, even though in most countries, 20 to 40 dollars is a huge amount of money. I know, because Sally Struthers tells me that I can feed a child on less than a dollar a week. Or is that day? I don't remember. Do they even run those ads anymore?

How do I possibly survive on such meager means? It's quite simple. I have very few expenses.

I refuse to get a credit card (they're all scams)
I refuse to take out student loans (debt is slavery)
I refuse to get a cell phone (I don't need one and I don't trust that they won't fry your brain)
I refuse to get a car (they pollute, they're expensive, they're unnecessary in NYC...they have very few redeeming qualities)

I don't smoke
I rarely drink
I don't really have any bills at all

I am crashing at a friend's house, and clean and buy groceries to contribute. I never ask her for money, because I don't need to. My only expenses are food and transportation. Food I only buy when it's on sale, and I almost always cook at home, using ingredients that have undergone little processing and are, thus, cheaper by weight compared to more prepared foods. Transportation is trickier, because there are very few ways to shave a cent off a MTA fare. So I try to walk as much as possible to cut down on bus trips. 3 miles is about as far as I'm willing to go before I consider busing it, although I've done 7 miles when unimpeded by a bag and in good weather. I also always add money to my card instead of getting a new Metrocard every time the fares on the old one run out. Since the god damn fare hike, cards have an extra nickel or 50 cents placed on them every time you add money. Therefore, if you throw your card away each time, you're losing a few cents that could have counted toward a new fare.

For entertainment, I cruise Livejournal, Craigslist, local coffeeshops, etc. for free events. I utilize my library to the hilt, taking out books and videos every week. I only buy books, clothing, and video games used, and I buy them very rarely. I tend to research things before I spend money on them, but not always. For music, I listen to the radio or Last.fm. I carry a glass bottle with me when it's hot out, and fill it at water fountains or even restroom sinks when I need to. I take newspapers out of the trash if they aren't too skanky, and pick up cool things I find on the curb for garbage (I often find books, and once, a set of nice bowls). I try to avoid doing my laundry for as long as I can get away with, and when I do wash my clothes, I dry them at home on a clothesline. Once I even washed my clothes at home, in the bathtub, but that was only a small batch.

20 to 30 dollars for the week covers food after I've already gotten the essentials handled, like rice, beans, garlic, butter, cheese, onions, and pasta. The extra food I buy after the essentials are covered tends to be sale items that I enjoy, such as frozen ravioli, or fresh ingredients that are needed for a specific meal, like peppers or meat. The other 10 dollars goes toward extra Metrocard fares, fast food, chocolate bars for my friend, or entertainment.

Riding to another state for Thanksgiving kind of broke my budget for a while, but I'm set for the rest of December and up through March even if I don't have any positive cash flow.

I'm pretty sure she was in that episode that just aired on 55, about that guy who got stabbed with a pool cue.

Man, I haven't seen her in ages.

She's hot.

Do you like books? Do you like homosexuality? Why not combine the two?!

There's Bluestockings, a volunteer run bookstore with an emphasis on radical feminism, gender theory, and the history of activism. It's located at the corner of Allen and Stanton, one block below Houston Street in Manhattan. They have events and lectures nearly every night. Most are free or pay what you will.

www.bluestockings.com/

Then we have the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Park Slope, with a library of academic books, pulp novels, and lesbian zines dating back to the homophile movement. They also have numerous photographs, old protest signs, and campaign lit. It's practically a museum of lesbian activism. However, they aren't consistently open, so you should check their web site before you drop by. They have an open house every fall, which might be a cool trip for a New York GSA.

www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org/

Housing Works in Soho has a bookstore in support of their AIDS and homeless outreach work. I haven't visited them yet, but it seems that they also run events pretty often.

www.housingworks.org/social-enterprise/bookstore-cafe/

Bent Pages on Staten Island is owned and operated by a professor at the local CUNY. They're located across the street from the Muddy Cup, on Van Duzer, 3 blocks up from Tappen Park. They occasionally have events, but there's usually a cover. I also haven't visited them yet. They're closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, I think.

Every Thing Goes Book Cafe is another bookstore on Staten Island. Their selection of queer lit is small, but they've run LGBT events and shows and are very friendly. All events are free.

www.etgstores.com/bookcafe/index.html

We've got MIT's project: ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

Then we have OpenCourseWare, which includes dozens of colleges around the world: www.ocwconsortium.org/

These are not online schools. These are merely class materials republished for the Internet. However, they grant you access to lecture notes, readings, and assignments from some good schools, in technical and not so technical subjects. MIT's stuff includes English classes focusing on consumerism and the media, for example, as well as their many offerings in engineering.

I could imagine some young people who aren't part of the university system deciding to use one of these courses to organize a study group.

I'm currently reading through MIT's Intro to Programming myself.