Faces

Sadly, the face you are born with determines an extraordinary amount of the rest of your life. The way people see you, the way you see yourself, is so much a physical determination that I think we wouldn't really know what to do with ourselves if we woke up tomorrow morning with a new face. It would be like losing an arm or a leg. It's true. Most people have pretty normal faces. Sometimes, though, I see a face and I think...wow, I can imagine her being a mom. or, wow, she really looks like cruella de vil. True story, a prefrosh came in and sat in on my lit class who had these deeply hooded lids and sharp archey eyebrows. The entire class, I couldn't focus because I kept thinking, wow...she looks so much like cruella. I still can't get over it. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that in order to be brilliant, you have to look distinguished. It's either correlation or causation.


Leo Tolstoy. In youth, he looked like Matt Damon, strangely, cute/hot. In old age, he looked like this. Wild child with hair growing all over the place. He looks...intense, barbaric, wise. I feel like if I talked to him, he would be a very gruff man that would tell me to stop reading books and go farm.


Gustave Flaubert. Oh, Gustave the gourmand with his pudgy cheeks and admirably groomed mustache. He would be french... If he were a professor, I would take his class. He looks like the type who would enjoy listening to himself talk. And he probably has a very jolly laugh...as opposed to Leo who probably never laughed.


Bertrand Russell. Possibly one of my fave faces. what a baller! he got married four times and wrote a book bashing on all the other great philosophers ever, and his writing makes sense! and he smokes cigars despite the fact that tobacco makes wrinkles! He probably wouldn't deign to talk to me (him being an aristocrat and all), but one can worship from afar...

ps he is also dead, so that might be another reason he wouldn't talk to me


omg kant...ridiculous in so many ways. let us just consider how much of a worm of a man he looks like. geez. it's voldemort!


oh alexis de tocqueville...such kind eyes. such a gentle soul. what a young, brilliant man writing about the nature of democracy and prophesying about the future of all civilized peoples. marry me!

American Beauty

"I don't think that there's anything worse than being ordinary."

In the film, American Beauty, when Angela Hayes says these words, I think the viewer is meant to hear how paltry and trite these words are. No one wants to be ordinary. Yet, there's something slightly pathetic about saying, "I'm not ordinary, I am extraordinary." Because the odds are against you, and for you to believe otherwise is all a grand delusion.

So true

this is a copy and paste from
http://confessionsofaboytoy.onsugar.com/

"It’s last call. I shouldn’t keep focusing on who approaches whom, who is the predator and who is the prey, who is worthy of the attention and who deserves better. There’s something surprisingly empowering about wearing our hearts on our sleeves and hoping for safe landing.

Maybe I should just start walking in his direction. Not think about what I’m going to say. Not worry about coming off transparent, silly, desperate or drunk (or all of the above). Because I can assume all night long, but I’ll never really know his side unless I ask.

Sometimes, we forget that going out should be about having a good time, not about proving you can find a tipsy guy that will let you shove your tongue down his throat—making the first move as meaningless as casting a net and settling for whatever you catch.

But if we genuinely feel the sparks and believe that the scruffy guy to our right is right, right now, then what’s stopping us from going for it, not like a mindless missile but like on a mission? The worse that can happen is old and rusted rejection. But we’re all big boys here. We can deal.

Any given code of conduct is pointless if it’s rigid, final and fixed, without exceptions and footnotes, especially if sticking by the rules leaves us standing alone, in a closing club, frozen yet reluctant to make a move.

Right after last call, if you still can’t come up with the clever words that will impress… then just kiss him. Anything’s better than watching a guy that makes your heart skip a beat walk out at the end of the night, leaving you regurgitating empty “what if’s” and regretting all your subtle, indirect, absurd moves and thinking: “I should’ve said hello.”

Every first move we make might very well be our last."

Libraries

Some people worry that books will one day go the way of newspapers. As in, people will stop reading them because of various substitutes (ie the internet and tv) that don't get your fingers smudgy and aren't so annoying to fold up again. I personally don't like newspapers. They are boring. I wish someone would start writing news that was more punchy and fun to read, some kind of beautiful hybrid between hard-hiting news and trashy tabloid.

Whatevs, newspapers could go extinct and I probably wouldn't even notice for about a week.

But books...

omg books.

Now, I know there's this newfangled contraption called a kindle which I understand to be like an ipod for your books. It sounds dumb. I hate it. I hate machines, they are taking over the world. They are so evil, and I haven't charged my sonicare toothbrush, so I just use it like a normal toothbrush, and I haven't charged my camera, so it just sits in my drawer, and I broke my laptop cord, so it doesn't always charge my computer. Also, I have an ipod with no itunes. This is why machines suck.

There's also movies made from books, which are pretty cool. But if the movie's good, I always want to go read the book. Which always turns out to be better.

There's just something so ineffably satisfying and lovely about the weight of a book, the smell of a book, the process of turning pages and making progress toward the end. Old books, especially, are so inspiring, to know that you are reading the real thoughts and words of someone who wrote them and captured them, the real thoughts and words of innumerable someones who have read and thought the same thoughts.

I especially like going to the stacks and picking random books off the shelf, books you'd think no one would ever read, only to open them and find that someone did check out that book about the Chicago census of 1892...like thirty years ago. Who? Why? I wonder.

I like books because they are real. Real-er even than life, maybe. Because how often do we go through life without being fully conscious of how we feel, of the interiority of our mind, of how things really are, of both the piercing awareness of the slightest nuances of your own thoughts coupled with the detached omniscient panorama of the big picture? Because how often do we wish we could live in a book, live with the same conviction, live as a modern-day Don Quixote who is going to rescue the cruel (technology infested) world with the sword of chivalry (and truth)?

Some cool things you may like to know about sterling memorial library:
Rogers created the library in the image of a Gothic Cathedral, even going so far as to model the circulation desk after an altar. He even required that the library be seen from the street. As a result, Berkeley College was divided into two sections in order to create an unobstructed view of the cathedral-like library.

The amount of stone transported for the construction exceeded the amount used, and as a result, myths and legends abound on the Yale campus regarding fanciful structures claimed to exist on the roof, built of surplussed stone and metal. One story has a small castle hiding the air-conditioning system. Another claims that there exists an entire miniature city up there, complete with its own stone golf course. In reality much of the fanciful design that exists on the roof was present in the original design.

In total, there are some 3,300 hand-decorated windows in the library. They depict everything from fiction to history and even small insects on otherwise unadorned panes created to look real. In 2000, one former librarian published a book about the windows.

THINGS I THINK ABOUT

when i am sitting in the library, and supposed to be studying stat

1. i wonder how come people don't miss each others faces more when they kiss. i mean, if both of you have your eyes closed, how come people don't have more kissing accidents? this perplexes me.

2. i wonder if this sentence was a typo in my psychology book, "people are attracted to symmetry. in fact, people are so attune to symmetry that they can smell it."

3. i wonder what exciting things i will do these summers.

4. i wonder how many animals have failed to die off because they are cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg

LOL moment: DS edition

I go on facebook, and this is what I see on my minifeed of status updates...

last sentence of his last DS philosophy paper: In the end, Kant failed.

is done with Kant. And DS philosophy papers FOREVER!

I don't understand

...which was met with, "you kant comprehend kant?"

is watching some guy on youtube talk about Kant and is trying to figure out how the fuck to write this paper.

...which was met with, "same, except replace 'youtube talk about kant' with america's next top model"

ich komm zurueck und der fuchs ist weg=)

...i actually don't know what this means, but i hope this is some german diss on kant

thinks the DS Philosophy professors are cruel and sadistic.

asks why kant why

...which was met with "Because Stephen, idealism assumed that the only immediate experience is inner experience, and that from that outer things could only be inferred, but, as in any case in which one infers from given effects to determinate causes, only unreliably, since the cause of the representations that we perhaps falsely ascribe to outer things can also lie to us!
Duh."

Kuck Fant.

wishes people would be nicer to Kant... he can't defend himself because he's dead. That said, he is a bit maddening.

...which was followed by "Claire, according to a facebook quiz I took, Kant is the philosopher that best fits my views!!!" which reminds me i might have to blog about what is wrong with facebook these days.

anyway, i personally think that even the fact that he is dead does not negate the fact that he is still torturing DSers from beyond the realm of the living.

::: Death by Kant.

Thats a this and thats a this and the consciousness tries to stabilize this

...this is verbatim from lecture this week, about Hegel, actually. to which i say, "this" sucks.

thinks that kant should take his categorical imperative and shove it up his you know what.

...this was met with "see my status," which I can't because we're not facebook friends. but i think we can safely assume it was another derogatory facebook status about kant.
...also met with, "this proposition is not universally supportable because if this were a universal maxim, we would all have huge CIs up our you know whats. we probably won't be able to sit down ever again.

-thanks to me and eliot"

anyway, after seeing all of this madness, i decided to change my status...

Wendy

is jumping on the kant-hate-train. choo-choo!

LOL moment

Connecting to server...

Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on.

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

You: DONT DISCONNECT

You: PLEASE

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

or send us feedback.

List of things missing in my life

I just realized that my blog is pretty much just relevant to me. What I laugh about, what I plan on doing in the next couple of weeks, what I do to waste my time. I'm pretty sure this type of self-reflection is bad blogging etiquette. Like, gurrrl, you should probably keep your thoughts in your journals.

Except I was thinking about my missing shoe, and I knew I really needed to write this unapologetically solipsistic post, if only to rant about the fact that I really miss my missing shoes. Hopefully, you can relate. If not, I will make my next posts more relevant to the general public. Promise.

1. My missing shoes. In my room, I have three "half-pairs" of shoes. I have a sneaker, a flat, and a flip flop. Clearly the missing shoes are in my room somewhere, but I've lost any hope of finding them until the end of the year. I almost never think about this except in the morning when I am looking for shoes. Then, I'm just like, darn. I wish my shoes were attached to each other right now. Kind of like how my feet are attached to my legs are attached to my torso. I mean, you can't lose a foot, but you can definitely lose a shoe. And then what are you supposed to do, right?

2. Parsa Wendywang Bastani. WTF PARSA! YYYYYYYYYYY!

3. Breakfast. I have breakfast approx 2 times a week, which means that 5 days a week I'm missing the most important meal of the day. Too bad cause I really like scrambled eggs.

4. My "marry by the time you're forty and single" guy.

5. Hegel. Never bought the book cause the book store is so far away!

Otherwise, my life is pretty complete and sweet. Will blog more later, unless Tim is right and I drop this in 10 days.

(PS I wonder if Parsa will ever read this...probably not. He made fun of me the last time I started a blog)

New Challenge

John

i have a whole different language with my friends back home and i'm slowly converting my suite

ive also created the "moosekid" trend which has about 40 members playing

4:23pmWendy

moosekid what?

4:23pmJohn

haha okay

ill explain the game to you

say frank and i are playing

if he's not looking at me and i lift up my shirt and pinch my nipple and then he looks at me, i get to punch him in the bottom of the foot

if we're outdoors i kick him in the bottom of the shoe

if he thinks im moosekidding him, he can block by grabbing his chest with both hands (no lifting of shirt necessary)

i cant do it to him if he's looking at me already. there needs to be an element of surprise

if two people moosekid each other at the same time, they have to stand on one foot and punch the other at the same time.

4:25pmWendy

WHAT IS THIS?!

4:25pmJohn

if they are outdoors, they have to attempt the kick

4:25pmWendy

i'm so confused.

4:25pmJohn

and one person (me) normally ends up falling

LOL

4:25pmWendy

this is the weirdest game ever

4:25pmJohn

its so much easier to explain to you

in person

where i can show you my nipple

er

4:25pmWendy

haha

4:25pmJohn

yes.

anyway

4:25pmWendy

wait, why are you so much cooler than me?!

i'm so jealous

4:25pmJohn

LOL WHAT?

id invite you to play

but its sorta a sexist game

i havent modified it yet so girls can play :]

4:26pmWendy

yeah i can see why

4:26pmJohn

i mean, you CAN play if you want

4:26pmWendy

how do you lose?

4:26pmJohn

haha you dont lose

you just get punched in the bottom of the foot

or kickede

and it continues

forever.

4:26pmWendy

ha i think i'll pass. i'm going to make up my own game now

i will post the results on my blog

4:27pmJohn

do it!

4:27pmWendy

after i formulate some rules etc

4:27pmJohn

make sure creativity is involved

we give each other extra points for moosekid

where we bend the rules

if someone's extra creative

= taking a picture of yourself moosekidding and showing it to people or making it their desktop backgrounds

drawing pictures of you pinching your nipple and posting it to doors

videos on facebook

and so on :]

I've decided that I can't let the boys have all the fun, so I have taken it upon myself to make up a new game. Results will follow.

LOL moment

E-mail from the library tutor (which in itself is just a funny idea)

Tobias wrote,

"Starting next Monday, you can send a reference question to the Library via text message. Just text 66746 and add the word "yalelib" (as in, "yalelib how late is bass open today?" Or, "yalelib where is the law library?") and we'll text you back. Note that normal text messaging charges will apply. Try it out. More information at http://www.library.yale.edu/reference/asklive/index.html"

what???

WAYS TO WASTE TIME 101

Tim: "this is just your way to waste time after you quit omegle"...

...am I really that transparent?

List of ways to waste time, tested, reviewed, and rated by college students
1. Get addicted to things. In the past, "addiction" was typically meant as in, addicted to drugs. But in modern society, we can get addicted to anything and everything. I think this is due to the fact that we are easily bored and pretending (or not pretending) to be obsessed with things is an easy way to put a lot of wasted emotion into things.

Anyway, there is a special art to getting addicted. It has to start out with something you're genuinely interested in. It has to give you that initial high. Then, due to diminishing marginal utility and habituation, the pleasure just goes downhill. But it's too late to stop! Habit, obsessive compulsive disorders, a panicky feeling that your life will be empty without (fill in the blank), and a continual search for that initial high will keep you going back. Additionally, we consider the sunk costs and just tell ourselves, "eff, I've already thrown so many hours into this obsession...what's a few more)

Some things to get you started:
fmylife.com-funny stories about everyday life. even though i think all the good ones are made up, and all the lame ones are about people realizing they're fat and ugly (usually due to tactlessness of young children)
failblog.org-if you're wondering where the term "fail" has gained such widespread popularity, this is the place
omegle.com-see below post. this is a case of "searching for the first high"
overheardatyale.com-a bunch of smart people saying dumb things
facebook.com
hulu.com, allyousee.org, tvlightning.comshow-links.tv-Julianna says she now spends 5 hours a day watching tv online...this sounds really bad until you realize she used to watch 13 hours a day in high-school

2. Daydream
so, this one actually requires a certain genetic predisposition that allows your mind to completely ignore all outside stimuli. (I'm really good at this, sometimes I'm so daydreamy that I don't even notice people standing right by me saying my name) But if you've got it, it's great, cause you can take it anywhere! no computer needed! This is useful in section, when Hegel doesn't make sense anyway...let your mind take you to a happier place.

3. Sit on your couch
...if you sit on your couch for a really long time, people will eventually start to associate you with your couch. then, when people want to hang out with you, they will also be hanging out with your couch, vice versa, when people want to hang out with your couch, they will also be forced to hang out with you. Obviously, this is perfect for agoraphobiacs if they want to revel in their problem rather than treat it. Also, this option allows for a lot variety seeing as many things can be placed in the vicinity of your couch (tv, microwave, video games, laptop etc)

4. Twitter updates...wtf never getting started

5. Sitting in the dining hall. Food+friends=Fun!
This one has the added con of possibly making you fat though.

6. Write a blog...

...man, that's so meta.

READ MY BLOG

10 days ago, my friend Tim introduced me to omegle.com. We were at a dinner board meeting, and I immediately pulled out my laptop and logged into the cult website, omegle.com

I spent the entire dinner omegling with people. I mean, the first person asked me to cyber, but even the initial creepiness did not deter me from the allure of talking to strangers (not him, don't worry). I actually had a really nice conversation with a senior from UIowa who offered some heartwarming advice: "Go out. Have fun. Because the nights you remember will be way better than nights spent studying in the library."

WTF. i've spent every night this week in the library. fml.

anyway, needless to say, i heard 0 sentences of the meeting. except something about food at bulldog days, when i made the awesome contribution that we should have bubble tea. cause i love bubble tea!

since last week, i've told like, 10ish people about omegle. the standard reaction is, "omg, that's so creepy" "wait, like you go online and talk to strangers? like that thing our parents are always afraid we're doing online?"

chill out, dudes. it's not creepy at all. it's totally anonymous, and you're an idiot if you go on posting your name social security number and credit card number.

anyway, alex can vouch for meeting some cool people online. i myself will admit that 95% of the omegle population is boring. i mean, "hi. how are you" is polite and all, but you don't actually care how some stranger you're chatting with is feeling that day, and it just makes for a boring conversation.

in conclusion, until they start an omegleelite.com where really interesting people go to chat, i'm swearing off omegle. COLD TURKEY. omg i don't know if i can cut out anything cold turkey ihavesuchlittlewillpower... but i said it here. although it would help if you would ask me occasionally if i've used omegle recently, and then slap me if i answer yes. although not hard. i hate pain. maybe just a little lovetap. (that sounds dirty. i don't even know what a lovetap is. but it sounds kind of cute at the same time).