Potato

I can climb the West and South sides of the Turlington Potato. Still working on the North side. I don't think I could ever do the East side.

Read

I read for the first time in months two days ago. It was two really interesting essays about art in primative societies. The first essay was about the purpose and view of art in particular African tribes. The second was about "defamiliarization" in various tribes across the world. Basically, the study found that tribes that lived in circular dwellings tended to prefer art with rectangular shapes, and that the more "rounded" a tribe's dwellings, the more "rectangular" their art preferances tended to be, and vice versa.

McDonald's

I love working for McDonald's. It is very rewarding and challenging. I am extremely proud of my work, my job, how well I serve people, my coworkers, and how I get to spend 8+ hours a day brightening people's lives. It's hot, greasy, hard work. But I enjoy it.

Devalued

The more sex is devalued, the easier it is for someone to take it from someone else.

Drains

So apparently they put a ton of thought into figuring out what size/material/shape storm drains to use. You figure out the maximum volume of water per second you want flowing through the drains, then you can figure out the diameter, pitch, and depth of the storm drain to use. Ditto for the rooms with manhole covers. Who would have thought? I kind of figured maybe they just sort of guessed. Apparently not.

Denominations

Why do denominations that believe things really similar to one another end up disliking one another so much? Ex. PCA vs. PCUSA

Punk

I wonder whether my punk roots is where I get a lot of my apathy from. Punk (the type that I listen to) generally tends to do two things in the face of trouble: 1) Stop caring 2) Direct anger outward in an unfocused manner at everyone and everything.

Missions

It's so cool that there are lots of women in America that want to and are able to do missions work outside of the States.

Def Leppard

Def Leppard kicks ass.

Fail

I think I just failed a class. We had a final paper and I basically didn't write it.

-Edit-

The professor gave me a B in the class even though I clearly did not deserve it.

Rest

In order to do anything a lot for a long period of time, you have to rest from it regularly.

Obsession leads to injury unless it is kept under control and permiated with rest (in which case, some might argue, it is not obsession).

Borrow

Things I would like to borrow if anyone has them:

- Shadow of the Colossus
- The first season of Battlestar Galactica
- Book one of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series

Sleep

It's amazing how much a good sleep will cheer you up.

Cheesy

I like cheesy things; it's hard to take serious things seriously, so I usually don't try.

Low

At the lowest points of my life (junior year of high school, senior year of college), my defense mechanism is apathy. In high school, I just thought to myself over and over the lyrics of the Ramones song "I Don't Care." (The lyrics are "I don't care" over and over again in the verse, and "I don't care / About this world / I don't care / About that girl" during the chorus).

Right now I just keep saying to myself over and over again "I don't give a fuck."

Feigning apathy is a strange response to trouble. I wonder why I do that. I'll probably never know.

Mysterious

Life is hard. I have no answers. I've never seen healing from anything major. I do not see clear indications in the Bible that God tirelessly loves/pursues individual Christians. Nor do I see indications that God has control over all bad things that happen to people. He is mysterious.

Advice

Find someone who loves you. Not someone who is intelligent, shares common interests with you, is pretty, has a great personality, walks closely with the Lord, is respected by her/his friends, etc. Just find someone who loves you. For whom you do not have to be a different person. Of whom you are not constantly afraid.

Maybe "find someone who loves you" should read "find someone you love well enough not to fear or try to be a different person for."

Job

It's weird to go into McDonald's and covet the job of the person at the cash register. All I can think is "Man, I wish I was better qualified to get her job."

Architecture

The way I look at architecture is now totally ruined. I just try to find cool things to climb. My aesthetic sense is gone.

Wages

I've been thinking a lot about labor regulations in the U.S. We are very proud of the fact that workers only have to do a 40 hour week, while in other parts of the world, looser restrictions mean people have to work 50-60 (even more) hours per week without overtime. (Of course, I'm basically just referring to low-income jobs; high-income jobs like doctors and lawyers often involve much more than 40 hours a week).

We in the U.S. are happy, even smug, to know that our low-income laborers are not being taken advantage of, and are not having to work unreasonable hours.

However, what nobody mentions is the fact that minimum wage in the U.S. is barely enough to support one person. Most people, even single people, really need more than one 40 hour per week job in order to subsist. At least in other parts of the world, people can work 60 hours a week at one job, unlike in the States where people have to spread 60 hours over two or three jobs in different places.