I never would have laid
face down on the grass
spilling secrets down toward
the soil,
but I just keep
dreaming of a world
in which
the lawn
could respond.
“I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.”
-J.D. Salinger
10. M.I.A. - Kala
9. Tegan and Sara - The Con
8. Radiohead - In Rainbows
7. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
6. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
5. Over The Rhine - The Trumpet Child
4. Hairspray - Motion Picture Soundtrack
3. Kanye West - Graduation
2. Patty Griffin - Children Running Through
1. Feist - The Reminder
Push-Button Measuring Tape Retraction
He had become mesmerized by the inch side of a ruler. How silly he must have looked, his nose almost pushed into the plastic! The blurry stalactite divisions between the 7 and the 5, the 9 and the 7 were one eighth, one quarter.
He tried to use it to trace a line, but somewhere his hand slipped and he made an angular graph of the bull market, bear market, bull market. He would end up in the black or in the red.
How funny they would think it was, panels of judges, scribbling on legal pads and scrap paper. How funny! They would probably ask him questions of philosophy and pedagogy. He would tap dance, a recital smile and christmas-tree arms as birds chirped: what is education, what is education. Why does it matter to me, who cares, kick ball change, shuffle step, why do we do what we do.
As he pulled the ruler away, a three dimensional picture came into view, such precision out of all those dots: a car made of words, driving through a forest of trees that were mediocre, lacking polish.
I started writing a longer piece about this video, but decided I should wait for a few days. You see, tomorrow I’m getting a brand-new television. I’ve been waiting for a long time for a bigger TV- especially so I can play that Nintendo Wii that has been gathering dust since last November.
The video above, which I highly recommend, is a clear, concise look at our consumption addiction. It shows the problems with running “an infinite system on a finite planet.” It’s really great, and as soon as my buzz wears off from 37 inches of pure LCD flat-screen bliss, I promise that I am going to take every effort to curb my consumer habit.
Really, though, take 20 minutes and watch the video. I’ve grown increasingly disgusted with my own compulsion to own and acquire, and this really pushes me to take steps towards breaking my need for stuff.
I’ve always had a tendency to be somewhat of a productivity masochist. I think, somewhere deep down, that I love that feeling of being finished with a long project or a really intense week. This makes me put things off, so I get frantically busy for a while and then just bask in that sweet rest of a job well done.
I think I’ve pushed this to new heights with my graduate school applications. Sure, it’s a difficult process, but it seems to have become unbearable as I’ve stretched it out over the last four months. January deadlines, which seemed so far away in September, are just around the corner and I still haven’t touched my writing sample. I can’t stop picking at my statement of purpose. How do you tell your whole academic story in 300 words?
Lately I’ve started to learn that I really thrive on clear, solid goals. So, I’ve laid down the rules for myself: by Friday at 5pm, I have to be finished with these applications. I am not allowed to add material to my writing sample, I’m not allowed to visit professors anymore and I definitely cannot think of a different way of saying “I would make a great candidate for your program.”
The same day these intense Anne Frank tours end at work, I will seal all those materials in an envelope, drop them in a mailbox and breathe a long sigh as if to say “it’s over.”
Or, if all goes according to plan, it’s just beginning.
Resolve, originally uploaded by cole farrell.
History has shown that when confronted with the cherubic face of a deity, everyone will respond differently. Mule, in an act that mirrors the garden kiss of Peter, has made his choice.
He acted out of character. He has never chewed on a shoe, a newspaper, even a leftover ham bone, but he chose to gnaw with fervor on the hands and feet of baby Dolphin Jesus.
May time be his judge.
“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The first time I ever got in the internet, in 1996, it was love at first sight. I was amazed by the limitless information and the new and creative ways that people used a whole new medium. I thought it was certainly the gateway to Jetsons-style flying cars. Over time I just became more and more addicted. I was constantly finding new websites, new hobbies, new ways to while away the hours. Then in 2004, Facebook came along. It made the internet even more fun, even more interactive. It gave me a new place to waste the time that I should have been studying, reading, just being. In a little over three years, I had 1535 wall posts, acquired 891 digital friends, sent and received 303 messages and was tagged in 349 photos. It was really, really fun. This isn’t an invective against the dangers of Facebook. This isn’t even remorse. Lately I’ve just been compelled to unplug a little bit from my hyper-digital life. I feel a really strong push to just back away from the keyboard and go play in the real, physical, actual world. I want to go sit for hours on end at the Heorot and debate about politics with my friends. I want to know who my friends actually are, not the ways that they bullet point list themselves and choose their sexiest photos. In the past few months, I’ve learned so much about forcing yourself to do things you never thought you could. I never in my life thought that I would run around the block, then run ten minutes straight, then fifteen minutes, then a 5k. There is something about feeling the real wind on your real face that just pushes you to unplug from virtual reality and engage in life. I’ll miss you, Facebook, I really will. Of course, I will still be around the internet, reading my little bits of celebrity gossip and putting up my sexiest photos on myspace. If you see me on the street, please ask me about the new book that I’m reading, or the hat that I’m knitting, or the last great conversation I’ve had over a cup of hot tea. And call me out if you see that glazed-over look in my eyes.
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