Go figure.

I got them all right yet was somehow missing 5%. Was it my attitude?

Created by Oatmeal

Just your average Thursday...

We bought a car today. Don't take my nonchalant tone to be that of a spoiled brat with 3 (now 4 Bmw's to match my silver Fendi purses. I don't even own my own car cuz I share with my mom. But our family also had an elderly Ford, and my parents decided it would be a prudent investment to get a new car. Well, new to us. It's actually from 2002. But it still feels new to me. It was a really good price, for a car. But still a lot of money. My mom has had "buyer's remorse" all day today and it makes me really sad. The source of this distress? $$$. Those small symbols ruin everything. And I'm not so sure that having it is better than not having it.

Another one of my problems is: I get really attached to things. I like my current car. It's a silver Volvo S70 named Norbert Edward. He's the car I learned to drive on; am still learning to drive on. I just finally got my dad to let me put a couple stickers on it: Uconn; my college, Smith; my last name; a Danish flag for my heritage, and bone shaped magnet from sister with "I love my cairn terrier." He has scrape on his left bumper from when I backed up into my improv teacher's bug. He has a Mickey Mouse/Jack Sparrow antenna topper from disney world, sitting inside the compartment btwn the two front seats so I see it whenever I take my ipod out, but won't get lost or stolen being attached to an external part of the car. I finally got all the 6 buttons on the radio programmed to my favorite [classical music] stations. (Other music is hat the ipod is for. But Norbert is still older than Percy, the name my mom chose for the CR-V which I liked because of Percy Jackson. And they're just cars. So why am I feeling so sentimental?

How to be Smart: And Idiot's Guide to Intelligence

You know, come to think of it, a lot of being right is not actually being right. A lot of it is sounding right. I know, I know, this sounds really egotistical. But the way I see it is that you can be three things: be right, sound right, or be wrong. Sometimes when you know the answer, you just know. And that's being right. It's same with being wrong. I won't go into be right or wrong by accident because the only thing that matters is what you think, and if you think you're wrong, even if you're not, you're still doubting yourself and it makes you sound wrong. Sounding is different. It's more like a promise. When you want to convince someone of something, but you're not sure of your facts, the most important thing is to sound right at the time so you get the point across, but you make a secret promise to find out later if you actually are. If you were in fact right, then congratulations, you saved yourself from having to deal with the other person's doubts that sprang your own. If you're not, it's up to you whether or not you want to bring it up again. If it's a slight alteration of the truth, it may not matter, like if the earth is 12 or 13 billion lightyears from some other celestial body. But if it's something that will have serious repercussions because of your error, it will only make you look stupid to ignore. The smartest to do is alert the person of the truth with the most grace as possible. Because certain things go together. Intelligence and grace. Ignorance; almost synonymous with idiocy. Don't be an idiot. Look the part. Be the part.

Make your own ipod case!

Hello and and welcome back...to myself. Unfortunately I can't explain away the 7 month hiatus between this and my last post, but sometimes that's just the way some things are. I suppose I have Apple, their ridiculous prices, and my mother to thank for this, which will shortly become and Instructables-like post. To explain: I just recently caved into popular consumer culture and purchased a macbook pro to replace my 2nd withering Dell. I received a free ipod touch with it, but the package was still enormously expensive. I started looking into cases for both of the latter in order to protect my investment, but my investment was such that I do not feel comfortable enough with my current funds that I am willing to shell out another wad of cash to meet their outrageously priced protective equipment. While scouring the internets for cheaper options, my mother scoffed at the necessity and told me to make my own out of "duct tape or something," citing as her examples some of the amazing innovations people have done (wallets, dresses, etc) with the wonderful aforementioned tape. Though she was joking, she planted the seed of a brilliant idea in the mind of one tired of seeking other people's creativity. Why not have a customizable case? I immediately applied myself to Amazon's wares and found exactly what I was looking for: a perfectly clear $2 ipod case (free shipping for students ^_^). Here's where the instructions comes in:

Instead of buying a case you like with a cool design, simply print out a picture of it and affix under the clear case and voila! Instant (and protected) design for your ipod! You can put virtually anything cool and ipod-sized in there! I reccommed:

-decorated business cards

-cool clothing tags

-unique playing cards

-embellished bookmarks

-funny nametags (i.e. Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father...)

-your favorite movie tickets

-exotic candy wrappers

Just a Feeling

I've never considered myself very good at describing movies in a way that sounds intriguing, which is quite a misfortune for someone who loves movies more than any other form of electronic entertainment. Usually I just babble out a botched up summary making the film in question sound confusing or absurd, and provide the opposite effect than I was hoping to inspire. However, I'm going to give a shot here, in the hope that, given the time to organize my thought will make it better. At least, better than the fragmented description I gave to my roommate when trying to tell her why V for Vendetta is really quite an excellent film, and why we should choose for our little movie night. Unfortunately, another friend needed her this evening, but I was set on watching it myself. And over the course of the viewing I realized that it was more than just a "good movie" that I like because of the plot or the actors. Perhaps it's a product of having just watched it after completing my reading assignment for film class, but I don't mind.

It began when I saw a particularly interesting shot of the title character V, played by Hugo Weaving (Mr. Smith, The Matrix), jumping over the slanted roof of the apartment he was about to break into, and I suddenly got the idea to take a screenshot of it, now that I had that feature on my revamped pc. I observed the still frame in a way that I had never really considered before; no doubt I had been concerned with keeping up with the story. But I find that seeing a movie, much like reading a book, again and again is always a fruitful experience because each time you allow yourself to notice more and more, because you already know so well everything on the surface. It was quite a "visually stimulating" image, and as I looked for more of them, I found them. It was somewhat surprising because I had always liked V for Vendetta but had never really considered a piece of cinematic art; more just an enjoyable blockbuster. Though one is required to sit through some scenes of mildly gruesome bloody scenes, a la Wachowski brothers, it is full of little details that really make you think about how hard they must have worked to make this a spectacular movie. It's filled with pithy axioms, some that sound as though they were designed for teenage boys to scratch into desks and write in library books like "ideas are bulletproof," but also gentler ones like "An inch, it is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having." I like this one for many reasons, one somewhat silly: as the speaker was born and raised in england, why would she be thinking in inches and not centimeters. But I digress, and also don't mean to detract from it's poignancy. I understand it as the one little part of yourself that you never give up to anyone, even in the face of death.

There are numerous instances of ideas about rebirth sprinkled throughout the movie, and is indeed what the movie itself culminates in. The main characters, Evey (Natalie Portman) and V share many parallels, particularly their "rebirth scenes." V suffered a tragic fate in a biological weapon testing facility, which he escapes from in a fire on the November 5th, the day of the Gunpowder plot. He recreates the experience, dehumanization and all, for Evey who in turn loses all of her fear and faces what she believes to be her death with inner calm. It is completed with V taking her up out of his underground lair to a high balcony and she experiences her rebirth in the rain instead of fire, with the same gestures as V. Raising her arm to storm-filled sky a lightning bolt slashes down before her, and it looks as though she has mastered not just her inner self but the outer world as well. Another beautiful image, coupled with my other favorite; a shot from her with the rain falling and making circles on the wet ground below her. There are numerous other perfectly set up shots, some that last for only an instant, like a rare and beautiful but ephemeral flower. In short, it's full of beautiful photography.

Ironically, Evey and V, what with all of their religious allusions, are rebelling against an extremist religious government, whose very slogan is "Strength through unity; unity through faith" and whose symbol is cross with two crosspieces across the main beam. It's as if the British Government under High Chancellor Sutler are placing their authority only one level below the divine, a less than subtle idea that glares at you from the insidious black and red colors of the symbol itself. Even more ironic still, is that extremist religious groups, with the belief that they are moving ever more towards the will of God, in truth are moving farther and farther away from what their holy texts say. But that is a battle I won't wage here.

Finally, at the end of the movie, V reveals he intends to blow up Parliament with vast quantities of "British Fertiliser" and other household chemicals. Though I dislike the destruction of historical monuments as a matter of principal, the idea that a corrupt government must answer for its crimes, reap what it sows, at the hands of fertiliser...that's what movies are made of.

Blog on Paper #1

Sometimes I wish I grew up in a time before Television, movies, video games and all those things so that I could have been one of those kids always surrounded by Matilda-size stacks of books who did nothing but climb trees and read. Even as I reconcile myself with the growing place of technology in the world, good old paper books will always hold a unique place in my heart and head. What immediately comes to mind is a book vs DVD scenario. Don't get me wrong, I love movies and have a prodigious DVD collection myself, but consider this situation. If someone gives you a book, you can start reading it the moment it crosses your palm. Not very polite, but possible. If someone gives you a DVD, that gives you the opportunity to be a little more sociable because reading the back of the case isn't going to take long, and your not likely to open it and stare at the disc. To do what DVDs are meant to do, you need to go somewhere, find a DVD player and Television set, and electricity. Obviously, to have all of these things you must first have purchased them, and to do that you needed to have a substantial amount of money before you were even given the gift in question. Now while someone may give you a book, which you can enjoy even if you are homeless, the average-joe friend is not likely to buy you a home, an television, a DVD player, and pay your electricity bill in addition to a single DVD. At least books will have a future in economical gift options. Sad as it is, if books are to become novelties suitable only for present presenting in order to survive, I would take it, anything, over their total extinction.

On the Contrary Watson

Oftentimes I experiences what i think are particulary verbose trains of thought and wish to write them down so I can read them over and think about them later. These spells have resulted in many scraps of paper with such thoughts scrawled hastily on them, similar scrawls in a mini notebook i keep in my purse for whenever i need to write directions, grocery lists, and whatever else merits scrawling, and also a Microsoft Word folder labeled simply "Thoughts." But aside from thinking about them, I never had any other real purpose for them. So I guess that's what this blog is about now. It sounds pretty simplistic, of course; all blogs are about the writer's thoughts. I guess what I'm trying to say is that my posts aren't going to be plain everyday thoughts; thusly I will not post everyday, because I do not have the type of Thoughts I'm referring to now every day. If that makes no sense, just don't worry about.

An interesting thing I've discovered about this blog is that it has actually increased my writing in my diary. It's ironic because I started it as an alternate method of writing, like my diary but on th computer, because I've often found I type faster than I write by hand. Yet, i do not control when I have the abovementioned Thoughts, and twice now I've been in bed, eyes closed, lights off, and suddenly feel the need to write down what I'm thinking, but don't feel like getting out of bed to find my computer, wait for it to turn on, get on the internet, etc etc. So I just get out my diary, always above my headboard next to a tin of pens reserved for that purpose, and begin to write. I've decided to log these entries in here after the fact.

Distracted by dog trials now (damn you television!), so I'm ending this post before it becomes even more confusing.