the best is yet to come

1. saw avatar today...it was amazing. like, life-changing.
2. my friend is here visiting, yay! 
3. went out for mexican food--delicious. now it's time for a fun night!

 so i want to post about avatar. but i don't really have time tonight to say everything that i want to say about it, so that post will be tomorrow night. but for tonight i'll talk really quick about family. my family is my life. i love them more than i can ever express and am beyond loyal to my family. they have shaped me and made me into the person i am today--i don't know where i would be without my family, my whole family, my FAVORITE family. each member of my family has made me into the woman i am and continues to change my life. how i was raised is so important to me. i try my best to make them all proud and people know that they don't mess with the people in my life. loyalty is immensely important to me--this goes for my friends too--you mess with my people, i mess with you. it's a very la familia concept (i just wish i was italian though...) anyway, i guess this is just a shoutout kind of to the people who are most important to me in my life. so thank you, i love you, and i wish i could post a picture of you all, but that's not safe!

this life

1. passed the treasurer's test, what-what. only after failing it once...by doing one math problem wrong...whateverrrr. so now i can start my intensive treasurer-ly duties. but really, this is not like high school--college treasurer's are legit.
2. enjoyed a yummy lunch with a friend. ice cream was deferred, although it may have been our last chance to eat it...
3. did no homework and it felt great! that means the paper writing will happen tomorrow (probably not). 

c'est la vie. my mother is always insistent about how life changes. how much do i hate this fact? a lot. i know, i know, i've posted about how i want change in my life and how i need change in my life, how we all need change. that could have been a bit hypocritical considering i can't even accept change in my life--so who am i to preach about other people needing to accept change? i just like routine and i like knowing how things are and how they're going to end up. this is not the best thing considering no one knows what will happen. so i've chosen something impossible to be concerned about--what will happen. but maybe i should just rip the band-aid off (or the strip--hahaha). i guess if i actually do make a major change then it will get easier? i mean, college has turned out well so far, right? talk about a major change. so i can do this right? right? i need some verification here....yikes.

waves

1. walked around all day in the "winter" weather. rainy. cold. gross. not fun.
2. decided that i want to study abroad somewhere like hawaii. looked online, of course, no programs in hawaii. fiji? no thanks, i'm not into 24 hour plane rides. 
3. oh, and i got the job at starbucks but probably can't take it because i'd have to miss classes to train--not happening. so i'm still looking.

i want to talk really quick about the ocean. this discussion is precipitated by two things. 1) the jersey shore season finale tonight, and 2) wanting to go back to hawaii. the ocean has always been a favorite place of mine. i love the  hugeness of the ocean, as well as the consistency. the ocean will never let me down--the waves will always crash. what kinds of things in life are dependable like that? things in nature. the ocean at sunrise is possibly my favorite place to be on vacation.

ruffling feathers

1. so. busy. life is moving at a pace faster than...a cheetah! meetings, classes, homework, job opportunities, my future plans (!), liiiiiiife. it all takes so much time.
   
2. i like being busy, but i also like having a life and downtime--which i have started to just...create...by not doing homework or by postponing it or something. for example, the 55 pdf pages that are do for my 2:00 class tomorrow are getting finished (only 15 left!) tomorrow during my break from 12:30-class time. this is my brilliant plan to get to sleep on time and have social hour with my friends. 
3. hoping that this weekend will work out and my best girl can come visit me! also hope that spring break works out and i can do something fun like visit my other bestie! yay for trips and friends.

i want to talk (briefly, again, sorry) about...politics! haha, dangerous waters, i know. but i just want to leave a brief note or two about the...republican party. i realize that each party sees the other as close-minded, unable to accept change, blatantly refusing to accept advice or help, etc. but really, i truly believe these things and get immensely frustrated by people who accuse liberals of being close-minded. really?! the proponents of gay marriage, woman's choice, legalizing pot (in some cases), and extending help to foreign nations, just to name a few, are close-minded? how, how, how is that being narrow?! i become upset and over-emotional and too involved in political discussions, but that's just my nature. i can't see how republicans/conservatives/whatever label preferred can claim that i am ignorant or weak-willed or idealistic (as if that's a bad thing) for being liberal/democratic/etc. i support a woman's choice, so i'm a babykiller? right. i kill babies. i am a proponent of environmental awareness and protection. so i am a lily-livered treehugger who believes fake science? uh-huh. the earth isn't in danger of drastic negative change. i believe in providing assistance to those less fortunate than myself. so i'm an ignorant and money senseless bleeding heart? okay. sorry i want to help people. my point is that because my political views are a certain way, broad and drastic statements about me are not okay. yes, i do the same thing. and because i don't see eye-to-eye with conservatives, i can never truly see an issue from the other side. but when i hear over and over the criticisms i listed above, my faith in the republican party isn't exactly bolstered. sorry if this post has been erratic, but it's hard for me to clearly articulate all my feelings about this partisan issue. on that note...

bored and busy

1. I like all my classes except one; it is very boring and so hard to care about/pay attention to. 
2. so busy and have so much work, onto of trying to apply to have more work (paid, at least).
3. doing my best to try to remember my mantra "to fly."

so I just watched the movie Paths of Glory for one of my classes. unnamed friend in my class, you know who you are, this post is for you. I brought up a point that I have come to believe about the military and all related institutions. they operate on the principles evident in all humans that Milgram and Zimbardo revealed in their infamous experiments about authority, control, role-playing, and domination. while the claims I made after the movie seemed to ruffle some feathers of the more militaristic in my class, I stand by my point. I am not arguing that the military institutions do not need to run like well-oiled machines and that these institutions are evil or inhumane or anything like that. I am simply arguing that the experiments run revealed fundamental truths about humanity. as an example, I like to use the nazis in hitler's germany. while the convenient thing to assume is that "they were all evil and horrible people who truly believed in the nazi dogma and the extermination of Jews," I like to argue that NO, they were people, citizens, humans, just like you and I. what I have learned from psychology classes is that people like to assume that they are different from those in these experiments or those living under dictatorships. welcome to the beauty of random selection and assignment. random selection: for a psychology experiment (or any experiment), each participant had an equal chance of being picked as every other person from the representative sample being studied. random assignment: the process by which any participant has an equal chance of being assigned to a condition as any other participant. by these stipulations, the people in the control and experimental groups are essentially the same. because of this, the people who shocked the learners to supposed death in Milgrim's and the guards in Zimbardo's experiment are more alike each of us than they are different. now I made this a long post for two reasons: it was indirectly requested, and I have a lot to say on this subject. please feel free to comment with your thoughts or if you would like to continue this discussion. in the end, judgment cannot be passed on the "evil" participants or the "evil" nazis. yes, their crimes were committed and they were horrible (trust me, don't get me started about justice being served), but it is not because they were inherently evil people! final scene of Paths of Glory is a great example...

fly

1. did homework all day! 
2. did my best to help get a friend on the student body president ballot.
3. mentally prepared myself for this upcoming week--procrastination is not my friend and being uberbusy isn't a great thing either...

this is what I want--to take flight. I want to turn into a woman who can take this world. only by taking risks and taking chances will I reach this freedom. breaking away from things in life can be scary, but also necessary. isn't this what these years in my life are about? being a new and free person? how I define freedom isn't something I can explicate right now; it's just something that needs to happen. my new mantra will be to fly. short post, I know, but some of the things I want to say are still wrapped up in my mind and can't quite make it out on paper yet. but soon, everything will come together.

i gotta feeling

1. tried to see avatar 3d today--fail. it was sold out 45 minutes before the movie was supposed to start. ugh, next weekend will be try #2 to see the movie that will change the face of the movie industry. 
2. did homework. reading consumes my life. but it's okay--classes should be pretty good this semester. let's hope I can continue my dean's list record...
3. joined a lot of efforts to help haiti--donating money, items, showing support, etc. btw: wear red on tuesday for haiti. you'll notice if you look at golden globe pictures that some stars wore red bows on their outfits--for haiti. also, some stars are auctioning off their entire outfits for haiti relief efforts. 

 this blog post is titled after the song "I gotta feeling" by the black eyed peas from their newest album, the e.n.d. (energy never dies). the song is basically about how tonight is going to be a good night out on the town, partying and such. my post refers to a slightly different topic. essentially, I gotta feeling that things will turn out OK. this earthquake is just another demonstration of how large scale tragedy brings humans together. the tsunami in 2004 was an example of this, as was hurricane katrina in 2005, and now the haiti earthquake in 2010. what this shows me, amidst immeasurable tragedy, is the human capacity for compassion and love. what I have been struggling with lately is the unfairness of this life--I have a hard time accepting the c'est la vie mentality. but this earthquake, strangely enough, has renewed my hope in humanity. what becomes hard now is understanding why it takes extreme suffering to bring about compassion. is it that so much bad stuff happens in this world that we have become numb to the sense? this is my main hypothesis right now--when people have so much on their plates anyway, it's hard to be concerned about the 15 people who died in a suicide bombing in afghanistan, the village wiped out in africa, the ice species dying in the rainforest, etc. but such huge tragedy that is so impossible to prevent wakes up people. I feel, however, that there is hope; this outpouring of help of all types demonstrates to me (an optimist who is buried underneath a realist) that humans aren't dead inside; a part still lives that allows us to grieve for others like us. tragedy is a leveler in this world--it strikes all people at one point. but I gotta feeling that this sign of life from the world community is a good sign. perhaps this decade will bring about...a change.

another bucket list item: meet with a President