this is why i'm in south dakota.

"In South Dakota, the majority of the Native American population lives in extreme poverty, with unemployment at 88%, only 47% of the population having graduated from high school, and alcoholism directly affecting 80 - 85% of the people. Surveys show 27% of Native American high schoolers smoke marijuana, three out of five students drank alcohol in that past 30 days and 14% of high school students attempt suicide.  According to the US Census Bureau, Pine Ridge Reservation (Shannon County) and Rosebud Reservation (Todd County) are, respectively, the second and fifth poorest counties per capita in the nation, with a correspondingly high rate of serious social problems; suicide, drug-and-alcohol abuse, family violence, family breakup, and teenage sexual activity." 

-Lakota Circles of Hope, and Elementary School Prevention Curriculum

girls will be girls...and i'm a girl.

psst! ladies! i am always on the hunt for new & improved mascara. this stuff is amazing. you wont even believe how awesome it. It's COVER GIRL's LASH BLAST. and it amazing, the brush is plastic, er, or rubber, but whatever. it doesn't clump! yeah! do i really need to tell you that you can get it a Target or any drugstore? nope.

and when you're finished applying it, you'll look like this! RAD! TOTALLY HOTT!! LOL! OMG! TGIF!! (this is a photo i took of myself after i put on LASHBLAST):

okay, okay, okay, so here are some photographs of SoDak.

wow. this is such a huge blogpost for me - so much anticipation. so much pressure from you dear readers & friends to show you what it looks like here. wow. i am so stressed out. and this is all i have wanted to do since i moved to Rapid City, show you photos that i have taken, of course. seeing that it was a super long work week, i was able to go out shooting today. and maybe tomorrow. but i do have to say that i run out of photoshoot steam alot faster when the i am the only one out doing this...so, needless to say, there is ALOT of photos of just ME. surprised you ask? well, i know Na'im isnt. 

So i will totally be posting pics after photos after pics after photos while i am here for six months. but i have to tell you two readers something: you MUST come out here to visit so we can go shooting together. no casey, not guns, not animals, but one another...YAAAYYY! I'M GAY!!! (that's english for happy, fyi).

gosh, i dont know what photos to put up...but i know i have to do it fast, as the music in this cafe is driving me nuts; its made for 14 year old christian chilluns...ugh oo.

this one is for baki, because i miss him:

that cornflower blue sky, those marshmallow clouds, that golden horizon, this is why i love south dakota:

this is my town, Rapid City:

this is for all of the old, white men who killed and stole from the Native Americans. (this was actually at a rest stop as artwork) :

this for all the white, old dudes that have dominated and colonized the world:

this is my office "building", its so so RAD:

this one is for my father, Douglas Patrick & Amanda:

this one is for my grandfather, who's name is actually Bob Moore (OMG!! what a coinkeedink!!)

this one is for all you old

 dudes, cos i'm sure there is atleast fifty samimi-extremie blog readers who drive RV's:

this one is for Na'im (both Moore + Peef):

this one is for kylie, my photoshooting comrade.:

this one is for my mother, as that is her scarf:

more soon, good buddies. i have so many more! i know i am not giving you the best idea of what the city itself looks like, but to be honest, i spend more time in the middle of nowhere. but i will, soon. 

i miss you guys.

xoxo.

for shirin (booboo), jorma, baktash & cindy

This comic/blog called A Softer World, was introduced to me by my sister. it is really awesome, maybe even totally tubular.(thanks booboo for sharing your totally tubular-ness with the world) but this comic is the best part:

p.s. what colours should i use for my blog entry font?? In other words: which ones would hurt your eyes the least??

Rapid City, South Dakotee

well folks. i made it. here to beautiful south dakota. who knew. that i'd be living in south dakota. may i just say that it is REALLY under-rated. this place is awesome. there is so much to do. so much to see, so much to experience here. 

for those of you that don't know, i moved here for six months to fulfill my internship/practicum for graduate school. I am getting my masters in Conflict Transformation. and I've had a strong desire to serve the Native American population of the US. as Americans, we forget that there is SO much work and service that needs to be done on our own soil. we think we need to go abroad, somewhere exotic...we don't. not that its bad to do that, but come on people. there is SO much work that needs to happen here in the US. so much change needs to happen!

I am working for SANI-T (the Society for the Advancement of Native Interests - Today) and the Restorative Justice org. here in Rapid. I am really really stoked about this opportunity. I will be facilitating dialogues between the Native pop. and the Rapid City comm., doing reconciliation and mediation work as well as all around using my Masters degree to best help serve this community. 

this work is going to be fruitful, but also extremely challenging; the racism here is extremely overt. and very painful to see...

Rapid City is amazing. well, south dakota is. i have slowly been taking pics. but until then, allow me to highlight some of the best highlights of my trip so far (without images, i know, i'm sorry, for those of you that love photos, as i do too):

1. a man in the mall with long thinning hair wearing a suede leather fringe jacket.  the fringe went ALL the way around his jacket. and he walked with his shoulders REALLY swinging. so you can only image how amazing the fringe looked; bouncing all over the place, swinging almost parallel to the ground he was strutting on. CLASSIC. Credence clearwater revival was blasting in the mall hallways. but the BEST part is that he was talking on a razor phone that had a BEDAZZLED phone jacket. so it was all pretty and sparkly. the BEST EVER.

2.  a van  with mickey mouse spraypainted on the side of it. (it was really bad)

3. a billboard that says, "Manage your wildlife: wear fur!" (wow. seriously?)

4.  my "landlord" talking on his phone (a truly amazing, wonderful, elderly Baha'i man) saying, "i like to think tears are like angels, expressing what words cannot."

5.  how lame mount rushmore is.

that's it for now, i will most def. take more pics so that i can do a whole blog post on the area that i'll be living in...

i cant help but think i can really see myself living here for a while...i hope baktash likes it. ;) 

SONGS I'VE LISTENING TO OVER + OVER :

1. "CAPE CANAVERAL" - CONOR OBERST

2. "BRAINY" - THE NATIONAL

3. "HOW DEEP IS THAT RIVER" - MASON JENNINGS

XOXO.

if you don't know, now you know...

hip-hop-hooray! for agavay!!

 i must say, agave is my most favorite little treasure treat in the whole world. its way better than sugar and way sweeter and way better for you! the reason i am posting a whole blog entry on agave nectar is because, well, basically it is the best alternative to sugar out there. it tastes like brown sugar. and it was on sale today at the co-op so i stocked up for my move to S. Dakotee which happens on thursday...who knows if they have agave out there. and i cant live without it. so i bought four bottles. hee hee! i bring a bottle with me in my purse, for my coffee and teas...yummy.

 

p.s. this will be the last of my geeky blog posts. lord knows i aint no geek. this is just all something i thought you should become acquainted with. no apologies. 

p.s.s. and as for the underlining, don't ask me, i am not techie genius. 

PLEASE president bush, fix the economy & oil prices!!!...for Diddy...

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT DIDDY HAS A VIDEO BLOG?? WOW. i ask myself every minute: WHAT THE HECK DID I DO BEFORE I KNEW DIDDY HAD A VIDEO BLOG?? i mean COME ON, what did we all do before diddy had a vid. blog??? dont you think that we will all be better human beings if we subscribe to his blog??? oh well, i am totally going to subscribe to it. i mean, come on, that guy is a walking comedian/genius. 

i must say, this was too funny to pass up. take note of the part where Diddy makes a shout out to his "Saudi Arabian brothers and sisters", etc. it is pretty amazingly priceless. i usually dont put swears on my blog, and i may delete it soon, but for those of you that read my blog frequently, i didn't want you to miss out on this ridiculousness. i cannot accurately put into words my feelings on this clip, it is kinda beyond genius it is so bad. it is so bad that it is hilarious. this youtube clip was supposed to be removed from youtube, and it hasn't been yet, so count yerself as luckyducky.




Diddy should follow suit:

(image taken from superbomba)

tell me, my dear two readers, did you:

1. like this clip?

2. LOVE this clip?

3. HATE this clip?

4. get angry at this clip?

5. wish i hadn't posted this clip?

6. thank me for the rest of your life and give me your first million dollars clip?

love love and more love.

p.s. man that made my day, my month, possibly the best blog post ever. 

its bound to melt your heart...

mr. larry robinson. 

baktash and i were running down the beach, chasing waves and i saw this gentleman standing so peacefully and watching the waves and taking it all in. my heart kind of sank, because i wondered if he was lonely and wishes he had someone to share the moment with. so i ran up to him and asked if i could take his portrait as a way of talking to him. he was so so so wonderful and we talked for 20 minutes while baktash beachcombed. his was the kindest, most loving and wonderful gentleman. i need to do things like that more often. i think we all do. you never know how lonely people can be sometimes and how much it might make a difference to go show love to a total stranger. it made my heart feel good. 

p.s. his trucker hat said "home is where you park it" with a drawing of an RV. totally rad.

introducing: bakattack (!!!)

well some of you may already know that my man is an extremely talented "human bean" (coined by my lovely sister in law: shirin sahba moore), but if you knew it and didn't KNOW it, here is a preview of some of his work, which i may add, is mostly adhoc.

take a peek:



and if you'd like more, go to his NEW myspace music page!!!! WOOHOO!! IT ROX!! ITS RAD!! i know myspace is basically low class garbage at this point, but it is still good for music. (and ladies and gents who want to hook up in a gross, dirty way)

p.s. when you go to his myspace page, you can even hear a song featuring yours truly, samimi-extremie. its titled "valium", we made it in one take, freestyling if you will, while i was setting the table for dinner...

i am now back in minneapolis, heading to s. dakota in a week.

i miss my bakattack.
(and my banjo)

♥

some tasty morsels from my time in Cali.

to my two dear readers:

i didn't bring my digital cam to LA because i thought i would just use baktash's. well, it broke after the 2nd day of me being here. and i forgot my polaroid. so here are the fisheye photos from my trip. well, atleast some of them. you can go to my FLICKR if you want to see them all! i hope you're all doing well and enjoying the last days of summer...xoxoxo.

 

bollywood + dee.oh.dubba.gee = reedickulously fantastic.

i would like to dedicate this to my new nephew Na'im Maxwell Piff!! He's one day old today!!! ♥

keep an eye out for snoop's bangle earring...i simply cannot believe this video.



p.s. big ups to banjo/elise for showing me this video.

tee hee hee

yay for LA-ay.

ok. so i'm off to LA to see my man and my buddies. i can't wait. i get to see baktash, elise, ellie (AND HER BABY!!!), theresa, umra (madeek), hun, burt, etc., etc. i'll keep you posted...

polaroid portraits of my dear grad school buddies.

i miss the bejeezus outta these folks, specifically, but not limited to... :

HUN - representing Cambodia + Socal:
THERESA - representing LA + St. Louis:FARAH -- repping New Mexico:KYA -- repping Japan + Korea:(his highness) ROLAND -- repping Cameroon: SEEMA -- repping Bahrain:

TERU & ASMI -- repping Japan + DRC, respectively:

KNOWLES - representing Maine:JEAN D'ARC -- repping Rwanda + the Congo:JON -- repping Illinois:

KYA + FARAH:

I obviously couldn't get (or afford) to take everyone's portrait, I wish I could have taken them all...cool, eh??

♥