Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

I have a confession; I love to read. I have another confession; I hardly ever read anything that's not a book for school. It's not that I don't have time, it's that I don't make time. Back in august, I wrote a blog post on my other blog that listed 18 things I hoped to accomplish by my 18th birthday which happens to be this Saturday the 10th. One of those things was reading 5 non-school books. I finished only one. I feel extremely disappointed because I know I could have read five easily over winter break, but in true Jordan fashion, I didn't.

One book that I have ready recently was: "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns)" by Mindy Kaling. This book definitely fits into the genre that I've been interested in recently which is comedian biographies. Isn't that a genre? If not I just created it so there. I'm currently also reading "Yes Please" by Amy Poehler, and hope to start "Seriously, I'm Kidding" by Ellen DeGenres soon. I'm not sure why I've been so into this genre lately. Perhaps it's been my incessant watching of both The Office and Parks and Recreation on Netflix. Both are a slippery slope folks. Consider yourselves warned.

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I knew immediately that I wanted to read this book based on the title. I know, I know. They say never to judge a book by it's cover. But this cover was just so cute, and I immediately connected with the title! I'm not going to lie, I was half suspecting this book to be the chronicles of her time acting in and writing for The Office and The Mindy Project, but it's so much more then that. Although she does discuss her time on both The Office and SNL, she talks about her childhood and adolescence as she grew into the comedy world.

The book is sectioned off into little bite sized pieces. Some discuss her discovery and growing love for comedy while others display that comedy by for example, listing fashion advice for guys. I found this style to be very easy to read, and extremely relatable. I would categorize this book as a "Beach Read." It's content and writing style make it easy to read in a long weekend. 

I think one of the most striking themes from the book however, is the idea that celebrities lives are not all that they're portrayed as in the media. Sure, we all know that, but Mindy does a great job of not just telling, but showing us what it's like to go on a crappy first date, or not fit into a sample size dress. 

I would highly recommend this book to any girl (or guy) wanting a good laugh, and, I got a paper copy for Christmas, so if anyone wants to borrow it, feel free to ask!

(It's also availible electronically at the GPL - that's how I read it initially)

fear

• When you're done, read my friend Ruhi's response to this post here!

Ebola. It seems to be a word that is being used almost as much as "like" these days. The fear of getting the disease is almost paralyzing for some, where others joke about it constantly.

A photo of a man protesting flights from affected countries in order to quell spreading of the disease.
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*Let me also preface this post with the fact that I am absolutely not an expert of any sort and am going off of information from various articles on the web, and from my own personal experience*

The actual disease of Ebola is something to be feared in my opinion. With a survival rate of around 30% and the fact that it ravages your body for two weeks making your internals organs essentially bleed out. It's not exactly a pleasant experience, so I understand the fear that some people have.

One thing I do not understand however, is the constant joking about the disease. I feel like this joking may be a way to cope with the fear, no matter how small or large that fear is, in the back of our mind. It has come to the point where "Ebola!" seems to be the punch line of every joke. This shouldn't be a joke, it should be viewed seriously, although perhaps not with the intense terror that some are currently afflicted with.

I feel like this current outbreak is sort of a humbling experience. The US, or at least many people in the US, like to believe that we have complete control over everything that effects our country and that, come a global issue such as this one, we will be 100% protected because, 'Hey! We're the United States of America!' It's a bit of a control complex if you think about it. When something like Ebola comes upon us [the US], we're often taken by surprise that such a horrible disease could be carried to the States.

Although the US is currently taking steps to prevent the spread of the disease such as equipping the Pentagon with a deployable medical response team, or setting up check-points in major airports through out the country, I feel like there is more that could be done, or that should have been done sooner. But similar to the fact that you simply cannot incarcerate every criminal, we cannot catch every case of Ebola that enters the country before the victim is even suffering symptoms because it's simply impossible.

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I could go on and on about this for weeks probably, but I'll spare you from that for now.

A great resource for quick info on topics such as Ebola is "The Skimm" available here.
I hope everyone has a safe and healthy weekend!
Jordan