Teen Drama Nostalgia, Personality Tests, Pandemic x Olympics
”California” by Phantom Planet ♫♪ (yeah I know you just started singing the chorus in your head)
My weekends usually consist of shutting myself in from the outside world (and heat 🥵) for as long as my heart desires. Weekends are also for unashamedly blasting music from my bluetooth speaker nearly around the clock (my downstairs neighbors have yet to complain), whether it’s some relaxing Chopin or thumping Charlie XCX. Yesterday I was deep cleaning my house and found myself bored of the songs I had on rotation when I remembered a recent conversation I had with a friend about our hometown, Orange County, California. I typed “the oc” into Spotify and immediately struck 2000s gold. From Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek” to Mazzy Star’s “Into Dust” and Placebo’s cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” I was instantly transported back to the playlists of my youth. It kinda scratched a part of my brain that I forgot existed.
I didn’t actually watch The OC until I was far from Orange County; it was the lockdown of 2020 that made me exhaust series after series of shows like never before. As someone who grew up in the very environment that the popular 2003 show dramatized, I have to admit that I found many of the details–from class and race dynamics to the “outsider” high school experience–to be relatively accurate representations of what it was like to grow up in Orange County, specifically the coastal cities. I was in grade school when the show was running, so it wouldn’t have been appropriate for me to watch anyways, lol.
However, I did watch executive producer Josh Schwartz’s other blockbuster, Gossip Girl, while it was broadcasting, as I was in middle and high school during its glorious five year run. I don’t think I’m alone when I admit that the show was one of the many reasons that drew me to New York City and the fashion industry. It undoubtedly shaped my early career goals and nurtured my love for fashion and style, I mean hello allll of Blair and Serena’s moments (including Serena’s most confusing disheveled ones)? Thank you v much Eric Daman.
We obviously can’t forget the equally as iconic soundtrack for GG, consisting of bops like “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John, “Apologize” by OneRepublic, and “Kids” by MGMT. I can licherally recall the exact episodes where these songs were playing–talk about real influence on your formative years. That Kristen Bell whisper and dramatic ass musical intro got us ALL hooked.
Did Josh Schwartz lowkey catalogue my early life?
Last week, my childhood friend posted a link for a page simply titled “What Vegetable Are You?,” featuring adorably drawn vegetables with faces (I mean that’s my thing). The initial page holds no information about the unexpected journey you’re about to take. Consisting of a series of situational questions and multiple choice answers where the user is asked to respond to things such as “What snacks are you bringing?” and what their reaction is to a fellow veggie friend screaming in another room lol (choices: 1) Scream, 2) Ask them “You good?”, 3) Wonder “Oh no, is he ok?”), the test seems like a fun way to break from scrolling mindlessly. I won’t leek the progression of the questions, but let’s just say the answer you receive - a “Veggie ID” that details your strengths, weaknesses, alignments, and hidden talents among others - seem to be relatively accurate, according to people I know who took it.
As soon as I finished the quiz and got my result (Broccoli), I sent the link to like ten of my friends and everyone shared their answers. Most of them found them eerily accurate. I was flabbergasted by the artistry, the whimsy, the sheer intelligence of Sophie Liu’s work–that such seemingly unserious questions could accurately generate a personality profile like the MBTI (the ubiquitous Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) or DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness) tests.
texts exchanged between my sister and her friend
Have fun and spread the good veggie word! https://sophie006liu.github.io/vegetal/
I wonder what was going through the “post-Pandemic” public’s minds when they saw some of the world’s most premier athletes and coaches donning high quality respirators at the 2024 Olympics. I know I was relieved. For one, it’s an acknowledgement that the pandemic still exists and is raging in many parts of the world, and two, it shows an understanding of why they need to protect themselves and others around them.
It’s been a deadly and disabling four years, and the last three have seen ungodly relaxations of pandemic safety measures like never before. The very second we announced cloudy language around vaccination protection, tossed free testing, and removed mask requirements in public settings including healthcare (I will never live this down), we lost any ability to properly reinforce measures like we did à la spring of 2020, ever again. I mean, even that wasn’t even that draconian—God forbid Ryan not be able to leave his apartment in Kip’s Bay for happy hour with his PE buddies. Unfortunately, I think we ~might~ only ever see a genuine return to strong enforcement of safety measures when it’s too late–and it may very well be when we are forced to face another beast head on (all signs point to H5N1, sigh).
A group of about 100 Olympics volunteers issued a statement in mid July prior to the start of the games, demanding proper precautionary measures such as enforcement of masks, air filtration, and testing, stating they would resign from their assignments if no further steps were taken. This comes on the heels of the Tour de France’s reinstatement of masking protocol in response to cases surging in the country. More than 12 athletes have tested positive for COVID already, which means this number is likely to rise steadily in the coming days, given the highly infectious quality of these new mutations.
Did you know that athletes that test positive are still allowed to remain and compete, according to the official Olympics protocol? Liiiiiike….BFFR! I genuinely feel like I’m going insane every. single. day.