Working for the Weekend

Someone (Adam) finally explained the Lenny and his rabbits reference to me. Now we have "Literary Reference Sundays," which are a really nice complement to "Thirsty Thursdays," "Forties on Fridays," and "That Thing We Do at Christiania Wednesdays." (continue with the alliteration)

Needless to say, I was pretty Wednesday-ed last Sunday, and Thursdays and Fridays are often indistinguishable. Saturdays are now just unproductive and weird, and usually involve me throwing up.

It's good to be home for awhile...

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm baking a cake in the morning.

I wrote this before going to Copenhagen. Enjoy

20 Day Countdown
Monday, August 4, 2008 at 10:23pm | Edit Note | Delete
In 20 days, I will officially be out of the country, landed in Copenhagen... 20 Days!!

It's hitting me now that I am taking my first planned trip out of the country. I'd been to other countries before... well, one other - the motherland, and that was years and years ago in my long, lost childhood. I don't remember much at all about it except it was hot, I woke up in a different place every morning, and I was harassed by members of my huge extended family whom I was sure weren't all related by the sheer impossibility of numbers. I have to say I've had more experience in the last three years - flying from dirty armpit state that i love to the not-so-deep Southern state that I more than occasionally enjoy - than in the previous years combined.
That's not to say I'm not cultured. How can I not be, living in the most cosmopolitan city: New York. In fact, this summer has been a culturally diverse experience. I'm working in what my cousin has dubbed "little Bangladesh" right here in Queens. And just 6 stops on the E takes me to China town, where hustle and hassle is the name of the game. I've enjoyed some night-outs in K-town, had my share of "mami-cita" cat calls, and regularly encounter the city's not so elite bunch - the anti-gossip girls and boys, if you will - of uncultured bums and alcoholics.
I can't imagine any other... cliché to say, there is no other city like New York City. Winston-Salem aka "the Dash" surely does not represent - not even close. As for Dallas, I had higher hopes. Miami, sure it's got night life.. but its lacking (note: I recently met these Spanish twins tourists from Miami - Gian Carlo and Jon Paul - who told me I was the first "Asian friend" that they had ever made). Then there's Washington DC - dickle city - our nation's capital cannot even compete.
Blindly, I signed up for a study abroad. I knew it'd be a good experience wherever I went. The truth? I had no idea where I wanted to go since I'd never really been anywhere. At the same time, I didn't care where I went. The only specification was somewhere where English is spoken - now that's real "cultured" of me.
Somehow though, I already feel like this is the right choice for me. Back when I applied to colleges, it was this same mindless decision- my only specification then was somewhere far, far away from home. With luck or fate, whichever you choose to believe, I ended up where I was supposed to and met who I was supposed to (cheesy, but true). As I've researched the country and city (after my application was approved because I didn't think to do so before) I've come to learn some fun facts that I can relate to and enjoy.

(1) Denmark is the happiest country in the world. (relates - I'm usually happy)
(2) The country is environmentally conscious. (I try)
(3) It rains all the time. (while most people hate the rain, I enjoy it.)
(4) Anarchist state (a hippie town, perfect)
(5) Famous cuisines include sandwiches. (my newly proclaimed favorite food!)

This pretty basic trivia isn't much, but I have no idea what to expect. Alls I know for sure is that it won't be New York, but I will find something about it that I love. I always do - The Dash's charm, Dallas' hospitality and steaks, Miami's heat and party-goers, and DC's gorgeous monuments and national pride - just to name a few recent visited cities. However it is that I ended up with this opportunity, I'll never know. As for my feelings? Its not in my nature to worry, so at this point, I'm just ready to take it all in for all that it is. I'm optimistic that the romantic notions that I've picked up from travel guides will stay true to the real Copenhagen. Wish me luck.

Weekend at Harvard

I met my hero David Edwards, author of Artscience: Creativity in the Post-Google generation, founder of La Laboratoire, Cloud Foundation, and The Laboratory. Upon leaving the Datamatrics concert (which was amazing but extremely difficult to explain), I awkwardly kissed him, the cheek to cheek kind, the French way. I realized later that it was probably inappropriate, but I was too deliriously happy to care. I also approached the most inspiring scientist in the book. This meeting was also very awkward. I approached Don and told him he was great, and he basically tried to find a way out of the conversation. I'm sorry to say that I did not figure out what I want to do. Nonetheless it was a successful weekend. Lots of great brainstorming, including Pickle martinis. Recipe is in the works.

Blah

So remember when I had swine flu? LAST TUESDAY?! Turns out my swine flu had babies named pleurisy and pneumonia! hooray! and I'm in the hospital since yesterday! hooray!!
Anyway, there's been no lacking of the good stuff here. And I don't mean cookies and ice cream (though those aren't lacking either) but morphine and xanax (for my anxiety, haha)

I apparently have a lot of anxiety. I think my new nurse "Kathleen" thinks I'm exhibiting drug seeking behavior so she's switched me to motrin, but I'm going to see what can be done to persuade CNA Terry.

Lots of visitors, including my dean (I'm sure just to make sure I'm faking).

Anyway, that's mostly it. I think the Ambien is kicking in. Time to sleep

People are generic

Oh Jane,
Just move to Maine and audit classes at Bowdoin, so we can do what we do at christiania and ponder these things for days at a time. Because these are the things I've been thinking about!

I am constantly amazed at how generic people and personalities are!
If you look at ancient grafitti from Roman cities such as Pompeii or Herculaneum, these people are saying the exact same things we ourselves scrawled on the walls of our bathroom stalls in high school. "Corelia is a whore, Brisius fucked here," various love notes, insults, and cheesy campaign slogans are all over the walls of these cities! Our thoughts and personalities have not evolved, only our language has.

Consistent with this, I also agree that many of our problems and daily minutia are essentially similar to those in the time of the ancients. If you strip away context and technology, problems always come down to things like morals, work, money, health, politics, etc. like you mentioned.

I had a similar realization when started taking latin courses, in that I questioned the ability and intelligence of moderns versus ancients. When you read latin poetry and start to understand enough about the language to truly see how english limits you, it's hard not to have your mind blown and come to the conclusion that the ancients were simply smarter. Ultimately what I've wondered is if it's just a factor of uncharted territory. Perhaps its just that there are no fundamental truths left to discover? and all that's left is to build upon and improve the base of knowledge that exists? It's not that some among us don't have the capacity to be great thinkers, it just that in our age of freely flowing information, discovery is not so easily facilitated. Now the only things left to think about are things that can only be discerned using out technologies.

Basically, People are generic. They take the information they have and go from there. I don't think we're smarter, dumber, or more advanced. Just better at typing and playing guitar hero. We're definitely not as good at drinking (and we're pretty good).

Does that make sense at all? How off-topic did I get in order to get my own agenda forward, haha.

Oh and as far as assuming Sophocles was aware of astrology, I'd be careful there. it seems to me to be more of an eastern tradition (though I have no real idea) and you know how the Greeks regard the Persians (not highly, haha).

Classics

So glad that I'm taking this Greek Tragedy class.

It's so intriguing. I propose Drunk Tragedy, a play on Drunk History.

Right now I'm assigned a paper on Sophoclean agents that I'm actually kind of excited to delve into. I was a firm believer that people back in the day were all silly/stupid, but without the extreme complications of current life (money, job, economy, systems) that we face today*, I feel that people were better able to perfect their crafts. Are we really smarter than we were 1000+ years ago?

Preface: The next part is on a different level and may not make any sense to you so just beware. I'm bad at communicating my ideas in a way that is comprehensible to most people, but I am aware that you are not most people. Also, I admit I will feel a little crazy if you don't publish your own thoughts about all this.

The Q: Are we really smarter than we were 1000+ years ago?

This is relevant to philosophy especially - when you don't have a 9-5 job and your role in society is to simply think, philosophers came up with really universal topics that are relevant today. I'm beginning to think that if I could just figure out how to communicate these universal truths, conflicts, etc I'd be able to better navigate through life and also write a movie script that appeals to the general public. I've applied this question to what we think today of our intellectual capabilities in the scientific fields as well. Yes, it is true that we've come up with technologies that are advanced, but we're just building on existing knowledge base. People say that it should have technologies have exponentially advanced, but when machines are doing more of the thinking/work for us, that is expected. In turn, I want to make an amendment to this notion that growth has been exponential. I feel that we've been giving too much credit to man. Yes, man is the manipulator/inventor, but machines and numbers deserve some credit for our advancements. Anyways, that is another theory for another day. Now I'm off topic.

What I started off trying to say was that Sophocles really figured out the personalities and interactions between these personalities in conflict within tragedy. Am I wrong to assume/believe that he was educated in astrology, the beliefs of which explain various personalities. It was a prevalent idea at the time** (still is in some circles) so it could have very well been? I feel very uneasy about publishing such false statements. The point is, personalities don't seem to have changed very much throughout the years. We can still relate to the personalities of these characters and their actions. I find that really intriguing. It would be interesting to study the evolution of personalities, but this task would prove so daunting in the human species given the myriad of extrinsic factors. Factors such as: personalities are adaptable to situations and undergo a type of evolution that is dependent on time/age. Again, I'm getting off topic. Simply put, I find it fascinating the degree to which Sophocles understood human interactions and personalities. He understood it so well he was able to create a play revolving around these characters and invoking a greater message through them.

I am still thinking about the accepted standard societal codes of conduct, as I've just named them. I'm referring to the left-right dance, method of ending a conversation comfortably, etc. Sophocles surely has the answers to this. If only he wrote down that you must go right in one of his poems. Perhaps it was in the lost section in Aeschylus's Suppliant Maidens.

*This was to imply that we face more today then back then, but I'm beginning to think the degrees to what we face are pretty similar. Sophocles lived through a war, much like we are. These topics of life and death, politics, and morals are so relevant. I suppose these a universal human conditions and topics to be explored.

** I have no idea when astrology came about, or if it originated in the East or West. It was surely during polytheistic times.