code June 3, 2008

Here is something weird about me: I think of words and numbers and rearrange them and add them up in my head sometimes to make patterns or figure out new math rules…I have no clue why; my brain just works that way.

So…

On my way back from shopping in Richmond (this is such a girl’s blog but w/e), I was really sleepy. My dad’s girlfriend, Valerie, was driving, her daughter, Fran, was sleeping in the back seat w/ her head resting straight up on the seat (still wearing her sunglasses), and I was drifting off in the front seat. For some reason, though, the word “LOVE” flashed in my mind in blue letters.

As pictured and rearranged the word in my head, I noticed that “LOVE” backwards is “EVOL,” the start of “evolve,” “evolution,” etc.

I thought this was so cool, b/c I think that’s what love is: feelings evolving into something deeper. I’ve never been a huge fan of the concept of “love at first sight” and I think this little subliminal puzzle says it all.

I looked this concept up, and I came across the play “Love is Evol,” (evil) which provides a whole different take on the letter arrangements; however, I think I’m gonna stick to my original hypothesis.

“LOVE” rearranged also spells “VOLE” but we won’t go there.

Anyways..just something cool that I noticed.

Luckily there are no more cookies I could possibly be baking. So –> pack pack the clothes!

I’m so tired March 25, 2008

This year has just been exhausting.

It’s been great in many ways, but also just draining.  And here’s what I’m most tired of: rules.

Growing up, I admit I was a bit of a  brown-noser in school. I totally followed all the rules, etc. etc. When I wrote my lil honor code essay for college I meant every word of it, and still do. I think some rules are important.

However, until recently, I had never really been acquainted with the rules of friendship. You see, to me, friendship has always been a sort of gift, a privilege, a cherry-on-top if you will. Never an “obligation,” as the word has been so bluntly put to me several times this year.

“Friendship is an obligation.”

That sentence has been ringing in my ears the past several months and has really made me analyze what that obligation could be exactly…

I mean, if one were to answer the enigma with something cornball like “you’re obligated to love and care for your friends” then I would have to laugh. Naturally, you should love and be kind to your friends, if they are your true friends. But “obligation” has such a negative connotation to it. It shouldn’t be a cumbersome effort to be friends with someone, and if it is, then that friendship probably is not natural.

But what if obligations do exist? And how “deep do they roll”? Like, for example, if I believe something is the truth, the true key to life, is it my obligation to share it? But, if I ever were to discover this, I would want to share it. Therefore, is it still an obligation? So we move back to the point I’ve been evading, which is: who really knows what an obligation is, and could it ever be truly objective?

If sharing a deemed truth with someone is not an obligation, but going to band practice (for example) is an obligation…then what kind of society is this anyways? And when did it occur that friendship = activities? In my opinion, there is no fine line in existence between the two; friendship and activities are two very different things. The latter can contain obligations, whereas the former can only contain the giving of oneself.

Therefore, a more relevant statement could be something like: Friendship is Giving.

Here, note the difference. Though friendship cannot = activities (another noun) it CAN equal actions, because you cannot look at something (like…for example…band practice) and say “that’s friendship right there.” But, you can look at people enjoy performing together and have the same statement be true.

Now here’s where it gets really confusing. Activities, as I stated, can hold obligations. For example, I join a horseback-riding club (which, by the way, if I ever do, someone needs to come give me a good talking to). To be in this club and to be on good terms with its members, I am obligated to a.) pay my dues and b.) come to club meetings and horseback sessions.  This club, though not a #1 priority in my life, holds obligations that I am required to follow.

Friendship on the other hand, which is usually a very high priority in one’s life, holds none of these rules. How then, are we supposed to keep the pure concept of friendship in our minds when we are struggling to simply make sure we “don’t mess up” with our less significant “obligations.” If it’s not something we’re anxious about (or keep a word pad skedj about…), how can we keep it off the backburner?

Well, my friends, as far as I can see it, the solution is this:  bend the rules.

a dilly-dally in Pickadilly September 16, 2007

Today I went to Pickadilly Square. It’s not the Pickadilly Square you might think you know in England, but it is the Pickadilly Square to me.
Another name for it is Four Square.

Today I reacquainted myself with this amazing, legendary sport. I soon learned that I missed it but was also reminded that I am not very good at it.

Clare and Josh decided that silly rules needed to be made up about it. Josh thought it would be a real hootinin if we had to name all the states surrounding Tennessee. Clare made us give a Michael Jackson “whooo” whenever we hit the ball.

Hopefully it will become a regular activity and shortly I will dominate all.

words August 29, 2007

back back. haven’t written in forever, but that’s ok b/c no one reads this cept me n’ bradley n’ clare.

now I shall attemp to write a bittersweet evocative poem

treeeees

leaves

sway

back at the homefront… May 7, 2007

Something kinda weird happened during exam week. Clare’s roommate Liz gave me this bag from the BCM w/ treats little kids had put in there. The little girl who gave me mine wrote on the bag “Do your best!” and for some reason that made me think.

Caution: if you seriously hate cheesy stories, read no further…

So I was goofing off on my laptop and that’s when I say the note she’d written on my bag. For some reason, I have no idea why, it really touched me and I immediately got off my laptop and set off to work and try my best. I don’t care who thinks it’s corny, because I think it’s corny, too. But the point is…she had better priorities than me and I kind of just wanted to make that little girl proud, even though we probably never will meet each other.

So there you are. I’ve now successfully written TWO sappy stories for absolutely no reason at all. What am I doing?

It’s been a while… April 25, 2007

…but I think I’m gonna try to make this a regular thing again. The last time I tried to keep this blog it was purely for class purposes. I think I really do need a place to write down my thoughts though. I’ve tried keeping a journal…but the one I have I usually just write songs and drawings in it. Maybe this is less personal, since anyone can read this blog…but I’m going to try to write my honest thoughts here. Anyone who cares can read them; life shouldn’t always be about secrets and introversion, I think.

So. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the end of my first year in college. I say this every year, but it really has flown by. It scares me to think that I only have 3 years of college left (not counting grad school). I’m not sure I’m ready for the “real” world. That sounds super cliche, but it’s true. Lately I’ve been playing the Ben Folds song “Still Fighting It” over and over again. One line in it is, “Everybody knows it hurts to grow up.” haha. True in some ways, completely false in others.

I’m also scared about the fact that I’ll be leaving my friends in fewer than two weeks. Some of them I’ll see over the summer, but others I may not see again until August, and I really don’t like that at all!! What if we grow apart over the summer? I can name a handful of friends right now that I know I’ll keep for life. But the thought that something like distance could change that really stresses me out…a lot. I’m ready to go home in some ways though. I’m ready for a break from studying and a chance for catching up with the people I love back home.

In an effort, not to make this post too sappy…I’m gonna switch to a happier subject: food. In just 1/2 an hour I’m gonna be dining w/ my Cx and my Bx and that is always a happy thing! I’m sure gonna miss those two…definitely some of the best people I’ve ever met and two of the best friends I’ve ever had. They’re are such genuinely good people. Bx and Cx are kind, they’re honest, and they’re real about who they are. I love that about them. I am SO lucky to have them in my life, I can’t even put it into words…I’d put them before myself any day. Hmm I did say this was gonna be about food though, didn’t I? Well, back to that subject, I’m going grocery shopping tonight for Supper Sem, Power Breakfast, AND Grad Mass. Needless to say, that is a LOT of food to buy. I think I’m up to the challenge though. I’m pretty excited about being a Social- cooking one of my only cathartic activities. Another one is church and prayer. By being a Social I can bring these two things together! It’s really great

I feel like this year alone has given me abundant life opportunities. It’s really helped me to explore who I am and what I believe in. Coming into college, I’ll admit I thought I had a lot of it figured out. And, in a way I did, I guess. I’ve always held my values close to my heart. But, this year has opened me up in different ways. I don’t know if this makes sense, but college has made me calmer. You’d think it would be the opposite, because the workload and classes can be really stressful. But…I’m calmer in a different way. I think it’s just that I’m really happy with where I am in life right now and with the people that are in my life. I feel like before college I was kind of holding my breath, and now I can finally just let it all go…

and I’m sure these next few years it’s gonna keep going and going and going

Research Planning Thus Far… November 15, 2006

1. For my research project, I’ve chosen to trace the advertisements of the Campbell’s Soup Company. I will look at all the various advertisements over the decades, as well as articles written about the company to find how the advertisements have changed or not and what this says about the marketing strategies of the company.

2. Given by my research thus far, I’ve found that the can and the slogan “mmm mmm good” have stayed the same. Also, the various advertisements have changed over time (i.e. in the sixties the cartoon children in the ads were portrayed as “flower children,” whereas recent ads appeal to soccer moms on the go), however the company has still been able to net that family appeal upon which the company was founded.

3. The Complete Encyclopedia of Advertising from Simpson Library contains various Campbell’s ads over the decades, as does an online article tracing the history of both the company as well as various ads.

4. I need a few more primary sources, and articles about the company, but I think I have my argument pretty set.

A Second Reading of “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education” November 8, 2006

1. Freire give many theories about the classroom but does little to back them up. This leads us to draw from our own experiences. He describes, “Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor” (p. 257). A “problem-posing” class would be one where the teacher does not engage students in lectures. Rather, he or she would simply stand in front of the class, voicing his or her opinions for a couple of hours. An “authentic form of thought and action” would be by contrast shown in a situation where classes are filled with group discussions and places where it is acceptable for students to question the teachers, while still being respectful.  Freire presents that “reflection” is a positive goal and that it would entail both students and teachers learning from one another. He writes, “Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students” (p. 257). A time where I personally was “conscious with consciousness” would be in eleventh grade, when one of my teachers was very arrogant and assumed that she was better than all of her students. This affected me greatly, because she made me feel stupid at times for asking questions. This is not the type of learning environment which Freire encourages. When Freire makes comparisons between himself and the objects on his desk, he does so by generally stating, “Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between human beings and the world: a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; the indivdual is spectator, not re-creator” (p. 260). When he applies this generalization to the books and coffee cups on his desk, he explains that you can only enter consciousness (as opposed to just being accessible to it) by realizing the true connection between yourself and everything around you.

2. Freire uses “alienation” when describing the separation of roles of the student and teacher and “praxis” in terms of describing possible relating solutions. For example, he writes (about teachers who distance themselves from their students), “Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity” (p. 257). Alienated, here, is used to show that the teacher is alienating the student. It’s almost like the teacher creates a well-read people only club and the student is rejected from joining it. He juggles the idea of praxis around by writing, “Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it” (p. 262). Here, praxis is used as a way (through again the use of reflection) to join people as one. Totally stepping away from the teacher-student alienation. Rather, in terms of in the education system, students and teachers would here work together to resolve the issues of barriers between them and found within the learning system.

3. Freire does enact his own principles in this essay, without making the reader feel distanced from him. Though there aren’t many question marks used in the essay to which the reader feels compelled to respond, there are implied questions asked by Freire. This is definitely not a piece to simply read and take as it is. It is meant to be explored and questioned. An implied question which is one of the main components of the piece, is how to be conscious of the fact that we are conscious. He explores this by mentioning the enigma of whether a world would exist with no people, since there would be no one to call it a world. Also, Freire engages the reader by continually mentioning integration between people, especially the teacher and student. He does not give an exact answer for the method of this integration, leaving the readers to answer it for themselves and to apply it to their own lives. Freire casts the readers, therefore, as questioners, not only of what he has to say, but of the situations of their own lives.

Research Planning November 1, 2006

I have decided to switch gears from Barbie to Campbell’s Soup Company. My rationale for doing research on Campbell’s for my project, is that it is a company that has been around for over a century, with long-standing popularity. I’m focusing my research on how Campbell’s advertising has adapted to the various times and decades, while still possessing the “hmm hmm good” family appeal to it. So far, I have found some information through Google and through The Encyclopedia of Advertising, Volume I (A-E)in Simpson library. Both of these contained many Campbell’s ads from the turn of the 20th century to the present.

Research Paper October 25, 2006

I have not come to a final decision about what my research paper will be. I do, however, have some brainstormed topics. I think it would be interesting to explore how ads for food products have changed over time. This would embrace the changing gender roles and diet-consciousness in our society. Also, it could be fun to see how fashion has changed, especially in a particular clothing store that has been around for awhile (such as Abercrombie and Fitch, Sears, etc.). Also interesting could be the fashion and appearance of the Barbie doll over-time, and how it has become increasingly risque and negatively influential in young girls’ views of what it means to be pretty. I would go about my research by googling, looking up advertisements on adflip.com and in the library to find images demonstrating the obvious changes. Also, I would look up the changing political and cultural aspects of society in the various decades to compare and contrast time periods and their effects on advertisements.