How all of life is like a DJ Khaled snapchat

Because I interface with millennial students on the daily, I use phrases like "on the daily" and think I can hang. When really my students just humor me enough to answer my questions about the snapchat platform. In fact, that sentence I just wrote? Embarrassed them. They would never permit themselves to say that, The Snapchat Platform, which is why I'm apt to say it all the more. It's also the reason why I love me some DJ Khaled on snapchat because he posts on the daily and teaches me all sorts of meme-worthy expressions so that I can better hang. So I can win more. So I can show my fan luv.

If you are not acquainted with DJ Khaled and his place in the snapchatosphere, allow me to introduce you. Or if you are acquainted, tell me whether we the best.

How DJ Khaled's Snapchat is an Everyman Story

1. When you're the hero, you're DJ Khaled.

DJ K's positude is irrepressible. He never goes negative. Every other snap is dedicated to a positive lifestyle (weekly mani-pedis, thinktime in the hammock) or a pep talk in which he appears to be coaching both his fans and himself on the keys to success. When you're the champion of your own narrative, when you're so convinced of your own comeuppance, you are DJ Khaled.

2. When you're the enemy, you're the They.

DJ K knows They are always lurking. They don't want you to enjoy your balanced breakfast (and of course, water). They think you're fat. DJ K never thinks about that evil force, he says. His positive energy is so persuasive that you can almost forgive him for saying things like "Stay away from They," (and printing a line of clothes with this motto to boot). We all know it should be "Stay away from them." If you gravitate too close to the They, though, or you gaze too far into the eyes of They, then the abyss may become you. Stay away from They.

3. When you're the accomplice in the story, you're Chef Dee.

The script for DJ K's personal chef, Chef Dee, does not shift too much. Her lines are fairly easy to memorize. Responding to the question, "Chef Dee, What's good?" She simply recites the menu du'jour which always looks amazing and mostly healthy indeed. But you can tell this woman does not mess. She has no time for play. Her affect is pretty flat because she is the all-important hero sidekick. Hustling. Helping our hero win more.

4. When you are the backdrop, you are Lion. The garden statue, Lion, is iconic to the DJ Khaled snapchat featurette. Whenever DJ K needs to issue a lion order--which,...whatever--he visits upon this great cat of the garden. Everyman's story needs a Lion. It needs a setting. A backdrop. A place where you can look over your dominion and consider how it is so verdant.

5. When you reach the Everyman's destination, you've blessed up. Once again, I would otherwise be opposed to superfluous prepositions but DJ K just snatches me aboard on his proverbial jet ski (or literal jet ski would be fine, too) on the journey to success. He knows that our ultimate goal is to give glory to God, and to bless up. Even if that's inviting all of your fans to cash mob a restaurant you own--which,...whatever--is part of blessing up.

Show up. Show fan luv. Stay away from They. Bless up. Win more. And of course, water.

Photos from Fusion Snapchat takeover by DJ Khaled, Chef Dee's Twitter

Multi-cultural Monday: Aziz Anzari is schooling me

I don't know if it was better or worse to listen to the Fresh Air interview with Aziz Anzari and Alan Yang before I watched "Master of None," but I did. I approached the show perhaps a little bit more cerebrally and a little bit more prepared for the gags than if I went in with fresh eyes and ears. "Master of None" is somewhat of a broad comedy in that the character of Aziz Anzari orbits in a world that is pretty non-specific. Young single guy in the city. I believe this is quite intentional: he's an American guy. Not an IT guy, doctor, or a convenience store owner as he points out again and again throughout the season. Just a guy trying to make it as an actor and navigating a world that still wants to type-cast Indian-American dudes into a limited set of occupations and personas.

Loverpants and I laughed and we laughed hard. We laughed the laughs of people who could identify so closely with the Asian parent representations. My husband, obviously, as the son of first generation immigrants from Asia, and I as their daughter-in-law.  I may not have been raised by parents who emigrated from Asia, but I am not immune. I relate to my in-laws as elders and want to know them and be known by them just as every kid wants of their parents.

The struggle for me, though, is checking where I am laughing the laugh of those who know - OR -  laughing the laugh of those who should know better.

Anzari tells Terri Gross of his chronic frustration with Indian-American actors who will effect an Indian accent just for a role. Anzari says it is one thing if the accent is genuine, but when it is put on like a mask, it is clearly for sport. It's to amuse a mainstream white American audience, an audience that should know better. We should know now that accents from Western European countries are often esteemed as charming: England, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy. But the Vietnamese nail salon worker is endlessly entertaining, and the slapstick of Long Duck Dong in Sixteen Candles is something of a template for Asians in American movies--even 30+ years later.

Why are we charmed by certain accents and amused by others?  The easy way out would be explaining away the similarities in Romance and Germanic languages to American English.  But I think familiarity lends itself a measure of understanding. When we find someone familiar, we may open ourselves to learning more about their joys and their struggles. Whereas if someone is unfamiliar, we may presuppose that we might not be able to understand their human experience.

It has taken me a long time to confront my own discomfort with unfamiliarity. Just because I am uncomfortable doesn't mean something needs to be unknowable. Take learning Sanskrit-based languages. I don't hear them or read them except in, say, a Thai Restaurant or in a foreign film. There are characters for some of these languages, letters for others. There are pronunciations that require my tongue to contort in formations that feel impossible. Learning Korean has been so damn hard. It's just altogether unfamiliar and my brain is filled with all kinds of other trivia. So instead of pushing past this unfamiliarity, I am often happy to reside in a place where I can regard Korean as an unfamiliar unknowable. Thus I am free to laugh and poke fun from my vantage of the unfamiliar, unknowing, but I should know better.

Wwhat I know, more and more, thanks to Loverpants and Anzari and "Fresh Off the Boat" and Margaret Cho, et. al. is that I miss out on a great bunch of awesome people when I maroon myself on the Isle of the Unfamiliar. And that's not a laughing matter.

The Allume conference...and a giveaway!

My long-held dreams of attending the Allume Conference for Christian women bloggers came true. Thank you, Workplace, for funding my opportunity! It was easily one of the best conferences I've ever attended: well-organized, substantial in content, deeply spiritual, and dang, girl. That goodie bag. I will not weary you, dear readers, with a play-by-play of the conference like this is an entry on Cruisers Forum.

I will, however, share one epiphany.

Growing up as a girlchild who knew she wanted to pursue a career someday that was heavy on the interplay of words and people, I felt as though I had a limited set of female leaders. You know those she-idols doing that thing to which I aspired. There was Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, Candy Crowley, Connie Chung and a select array of other women in media who held those coveted top seats. I learned that you had to work a small market for awhile, and then perhaps get promoted to a middle market and work crazy long hours and never get to read the new Judy Blume book, and eventually, if you were perseverent, talented, and incredibly lucky, you might score a top tier post. But this was never guaranteed and you'd have to work three times harder than male peers and you best not ever have an eyelash out of place or else!

Allume reminded me that the landscape has changed. The coveted top spots for women in media aren't the only mansions on the cul-de-sac. There is a beautifully vast and seemingly borderless industry producing media in which women can creatively steer careers in whole new ways. They can be the CEO of Yahoo or the servant leader of a small cottage industry and it's all within their reach. I met so many amazing women at Allume who are girl-bossing their way in the blogosphere, running happy homes, and leaning in to Lord's unique calling on their lives. It was so encouraging, especially as a journalism professor trying to encourage young men and women to think beyond just the job offerings on mediabistro.com but to think of the lifestyle they want to lead, to envision the kind of philanthropic legacy they want to have.

To celebrate being filled-up full from Allume, I've got a little giveaway for you, dear readers. I received many a good thing at the conference, most of them priceless. Some were tactile, though, and they can be yours. Just enter the rafflecopter below and a winner will be announced on Tuesday. Woop!

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