tumblr

I caved and got a tumblr.

So long, Blogger. You've been good to me for the year we've been together. But I must now move on.

http://raining-words.tumblr.com/

Procrastination

I like Emile Durkheim. I think we'd be friends if he was still around.

I feel like sociology is such a relevant topic. Arguably it's the most relevant topic in the world. Everyone is literally living sociology, they just don't think about it.
Yet it is not a subject taught in high school.
I think it's because we like to believe we are special. We are all independent of each other. We are all individuals. We forge our own paths, make our own decisions, and have our own ideas.
Sociology states that we are products of society. Or, if you are Durkheimian in your views, EVERYTHING is a product of society.

It's quite the brain fuck if you really get into it.

I went to a concert yesterday. The drummers were banging, guitarists wailing, singers singing so hard, you can see the protruding veins in their necks. People were clapping, screaming, singing along, dancing to the music reverberating through their very being.
And in the middle of rocking out, I thought about how we are moved by the simple aggregation of music enthusiasts to act in manners removed from our everyday selves. Our emotions evoked by the live music are echoed and magnified by the thousands of people in the stadium, making us scream louder and dancing harder, completely losing our individual selves and becoming part of a grander experience.

Collective effervescence at a rock concert.

Take a sociology class or two and you can't see anything at face value ever again.

EDIT:
The next time someone starts touting about the superiority of his religion, I am going to chuck my copy of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life at him. Hopefully, that person would pick it up, read it, and cease to be a religious bigot. If not, having a book flung at him would probably leave a nasty bruise. Either way, I win.

Growing Up

I've been catching up with people lately. This semester has been pretty busy so I feel like I haven't been keeping in touch with people as regularly as I usually do.

It's weird, how our conversation topics has evolved. Or maybe it was just with the people I was talking to, I don't know.

In middle school and high school, we gossiped about other people, giggled over boys, and complained about school.
First years of college, our sentences started out with, "oh my gawwwd last weekend i got soooooo wasted," gossiped about other people, giggled over boys, and complained about school.
But now, amidst the "oh my gawwwd last weekend i got soooooo wasted," gossiping about other people, giggling over boys, and complaining about school, we'd get into broader subjects, topics that extend beyond the college bubble, beyond our own lives. We talk about nations of people, not just cliques of people. We talk about feuding countries, not just a feuding couple we are friends with. We complain about the state of our world, not just the state of our minds after a grueling paper or midterm.

I think it's so cool that we have reached that age in life where we've lived enough, experienced enough, and seen enough to have something to say regarding what we believe in and what we're passionate about. It's pretty awesome that I now can get a whole new perspective out of someone over lunch or dinner. Something more than who has a crush on whom, or who slept with whom, although those are fun and interesting to know in their own right.

Speaking of gossip, I heard that since the development of the Facebook newsfeed, couples have been breaking up left and right.
"Why are you commenting on that bitch's status?!?! Are you getting back together with her?!?! We're OVER!!!"
Hahaha I hate Facebook.

C'est La Vie, Mon Cheri

Ah, Life.

When I am wrought with a conundrum of some sort, I tend to plan things out. Everything I am going to say, everything I am going to do. What I would do if this happens, or if this person says this, or does that. I work out all the details down to stance, posture, and pregnant pauses. I think of all possible scenarios and what I would do for each.

Never once has things gone according to plan. Never. There is always something I forget to do, forget to say, some minute detail I overlooked, or, as is often the case, a pop fly comes soaring over from left field, conks me in the noggin, and jars me while I fumble around for the ball. In the confusion and probably while suffering a mild concussion, I fling the ball towards first base just as the batter crosses home plate.

But I was so readily centered in, well, center field. Knees bent. Mitt ready. Cap cocked jauntily to the side. Acting all cool like I knew what I was doing when in reality I don't know a damn thing about baseball. I even got the tobacco chewing down. Granted, it was black licorice but it sure as hell looked like the real thing.

Not following sports doesn't stop me from making sport metaphors regarding Life.

But the Universe has been peculiarly kind to me this week. There were quite a few chance mistakes that just so happened to work out in my favor. My music library has been revived and I swear to God, it speaks to me. I aced my pop quiz, bonus questions included, without doing any of the reading. I discovered a new secret location to get coffee on campus. I found out I don't have to cover the language requirement to go to China this summer. I think I can actually listen to Christmas music without wanting to stab something now. Oh, and I discovered my favorite chord on the guitar. It goes likes this:

Capo 1st Fret
----0----
----3----
----1----
----0----
----2----
----0----

I play it between a C and an A minor chord followed with another A minor chord, then repeat.
And the chorus is F, A minor, favorite chord, A minor switch G at half measure, then repeat.
Strum pattern D/D/DU/U/U/DUDU.
Too bad I'm not much of a lyric writer.

(Note: I am quite aware I didn't "discover" this chord. It's just some variation of the E chord but I don't know/care to know enough about music theory to discern the exact name of it. But I've never played it in a song before, therefore I designate it MINE.)

That was quite the sidetrack.

Anyway, I think the Universe is compensating me for the shitty month of November. It's saying, "Whoa, Joanne! Shit man, I totally forgot you existed. My bad, really. Let's see how you fared without me...Holy fuck! November sucked major balls for you! Let me give you a hug full of fortunate fortuities and advantageous events."

So thanks, Universe. You are forgiven. Don't fucking desert me ever again.

Still. Having your mom telling you there are plenty o' fishies in the sea is kind of awkward.

So, cheers to December. It could really only get better.
^Ohmigod. That rhymed. Clearly, I am on my way to songwriting.

EDIT: I just found out that the title of this post is also the title of a drama flick from Hong Kong. That was purely unintentional.

Who's University? Our University!

I hate talking about money. Money is an awkward topic. Nothing good ever comes out of a conversation about money.

But the 32% increase in undergraduate tuition fees is just plain ridiculous.

I know my parents aren't going to happy about it, especially since they have two kids going to universities in the UC system. Financial aid only goes so far, especially when you are "middle class."

But that's not really what bugs me. I know we'd have to be a lot more frugal, but we'll probably pull through okay.

What bugs me is how it would affect the student population.
The students I respect the most aren't the people who are getting straight A's, in a bunch of student orgs, doing a bunch of research, and/or interning at a different company every summer.
The students I have the most respect for are those who went to shitty high school, who are working to put themselves through school, who were never expected to go to college but ended up in the same place as well, me, who was expected to go to a university like UC Berkeley since I was in the womb.
And I think these students deserve to go to a place like UC Berkeley or UCLA the most. I mean, I worked my ass off in high school to get here, but I was expected to. I was nurtured into it. I have friends whose families didn't even want them to go to college. They were the ones who took the initiative to pursue higher education. They applied, they got in, and they feel/are responsible for paying for it because their family can't or don't want to. I mean, fuck, my parents are happy to pay for my education. Well, not happy per say, but it's like an intrinsic fact of life to them. Raise healthy kids, infuse them with ideas of being a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or business person, make sure they are doing well in school, put them through college, and drop subtle hints that they should buy them a yacht.

You could argue that the fee increases isn't going to affect the student population because this just means more financial aid for those who need it. But think of it this way: If an admissions officer is trying to decide between a well off high school senior who can afford to pay all of the tuition sans financial aid and a student who is of a lower socioeconomic status who needs the aid, all other qualifications (grades, SAT scores, etc.) being about equal, who's it going to be? Oh and take into consideration that the economy is in a shitty state and we are undergoing budget cuts and financial crises as it is. It's really not rocket science which one will get the pretty big envelope.

Fuck. We are suppose to be a public university. This means that we are suppose to be financially accessible to those who worked to be here, who wants to be here, who deserves to be here.

Ugh. Just thinking about it makes my blood boil.

I hate talking about money.

EDIT:
There was a sit-in in the Wheeler building.
Some students ran around pulling fire alarms so the students who attended class had to file out and stand in the rain.

I am not sure where the line was exactly, but pulling the fire alarms definitely crossed it. In fact, I'm pretty sure pulling a fire alarm when there isn't an actual fire is illegal. Yeah. Il-le-gal.

I know you're angry. So am I. But the 32% increase in tuition fees already passed. Keeping students from going to class isn't going to change that. Breaking laws isn't going to change that. If it was for the media coverage, then congratulations you got it. And you look like fuckin' juvenile delinquents on TVs across America.

Jesus.

November

Wow. November sucks.
And I don't even mean just for me. I'm pretty sure it sucks for everyone. This November is just plain sucky.
I don't want to go outside in fear of happening upon more misfortunes. I just want to hide under my covers until November ends.
Well, that and it got really cold.

One of the kids at a clinic I volunteer at was writing in her journal. She's seven and a half. She would ask me to spell out every other word she wanted to write. She wrote, "A person called me a," then paused and asked me if I knew what the "b word" was. I half-smiled, faked innocence, and asked her what the b-word was. She proceeded to spell it out in a whisper. Each letter in the right place. B-I-T-C-H.

She wrote it down, then crossed it out because she knew it was a bad word. She turned it into a star. I suggested that now it says, "A person called me a star." The rest of what she wrote went off of that.

At age seven, I was calling my enemies "sunny bozos." And that is hardly even an insult.

Music Therapy

I love it when I have something on my mind, then this song comes on my ipod that addresses the situation perfectly. It's like the ipod is saying, "I'm feelin' you gurlfriiiend."

Thanks ipod. For all the grief you've caused me due to technical difficulties, at least you know how to make me feel better.