odds & ends

What is justice?

What is right or wrong?

Where is the dividing lin?

Is there a line?

Or is it a hazy cloud, the grey area between the black and white?

A little late on the posting, but this Thanksgiving will forever stick with me. All the good moments and laughs.

Me & my 1st snowball

North Campus

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 My dorm.

Carnegie Hall

Style is not just about clothes, nor is it something bestowed upon you if you are the correct shape or size. Style is about the way you hold yourself and move through the world. It is about paying attention to the details of you, which means embracing and taking full advantage of what you have to work with.

-Tim Gunn

Citywalk

Some thoughts regarding our minds and a peaceful, calm, well-being:

At any conscious moment in our life, there's always the choice to view anything, whether it's an idea, object, or person, positively or negatively. We often do not notice our brains helping us label our surroundings positively or negatively, but the choice is always made. Add up enough positives or negatives, and your sense of well-being will affected for the better or worse. Some people are more prone to be "happy" because they more often consciously look upon their surroundings in a positive perspective. They do it consciously more often, which equals more practice for the mind, which tells the brains that the default is to label thins positively. Contrast this with the person who more often consciously pessimistic. This is telling the mind, "Hey, the default is life sucks. There's something wrong with everything around me." And seriously, the mind will more often label things negatively, making the person unhappy. 

People don't realize how much habit can affect their minds. The mind is like a mold - keep on doing something, and the mind will shape into whatever you keep making it be.

Just so you know, I've always been fascinated about brain science/neuroscience/neurology. And relatedly, psychology and sociology. I'm particularly interesting in the human mind, because it's so powerful and influencing in our lives. I mean, studies have shown how our minds have a high influence on our health, emotions, life, etc.

I have preregistered for next semester's classes!

1. General Chemistry
2. Gen. Chem. Lab
3. Eng. 120 Literary Analysis
4. Intro o French II
5. Topics in Am. Music: Rock Music
6. Rock Climbing

I'm so excited! Especially for #5. I can't wait for that moment when everyone will be talking about how much writing or calculating or reading they have to do, and then I say: "I need to listen to 20 songs for tomorrow!" Of course, as it's Grinnell, I'll probably be writing papers and papers on the music as well. After all, the class is actually a study of American culture through music, where we'll be touchig on jazz, rock, hip-hop, and rap culture.

I just realized there are exactly 4 weeks until classes end and we enter exam week. And then it's be 3 weeks of winter break in Colorado for me, where I'm going to learn how ski and not die crashing into a tree.

02 Let It Happen

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Haha, just look at Achmed's expression. Jeff Dunham's a pretty good ventriloquist.

These past few weeks have been hell with exams, papers, papers, and papers.
College is definitely more tougher than higher school, but even if I was paid, I would not go through high school again. I just love the intellectual and communal atmosphere here. I'm constantly learning; not just from my classes and professors, but from everyone as well. Just observing can do a lot in understanding people as well.

I can't believe in less than 2 months first semester will be over. It will be Christmas and I will be going to Fort Collins for the Winter Break!

Carly & I

02 Pressing On

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I think we're going somewhere.
We're on to something good here.
Out of mind, out of state.
Trying to keep my head on straight.
I think we're going somewhere.
We're on to something good here.
There's only one thing left to do.
Drop all I have and go with you.

[Chorus:]
Somewhere back there I left my worries all behind.
My problems fell out of the back of my mind.
We're going and I'm never knowing (never knowing) where we're going.
To go back to where I was would just be wrong.
I'm pressing on.
Pressing on, all my distress is going, going, gone. (pressing on, pressing on)
And I won't sit back, and take this anymore.
'Cause I'm done with that, I've got one foot out the door.
And to go back where I was would just be wrong
I'm pressing on.

I think we're going somewhere.
We're on to something good here.
Out of mind, out of state.
Trying to keep my head on straight.
I think we're going somewhere.
We're on to something good here.
Adversity, we get around it.
Searched for joy, in you I found it.

You look down on me, but you don't look down on me at all.
You smile and laugh, and I feel the love you have for me.
I think we're going somewhere.
We're on to something good here, and we're gonna make it after all .

Relient K

I have yet to read Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, and considering how my first year of college is about to start, I don't know when I'll be able to read it. I'm not sure if I mentioned in an earlier entry, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Kite Runner. Anyway, here's the trailer for The Kite Runner movie. The background music sounds appealing - reminds me of the soundtrack for Babel.

From watching this clip, I'm not sure how good the movie will be compared to the book itself. I guess I'll have to wait for another trailer.

A friend emailed a question. She asked in earnest,
"Jim how are you, really?"

Trick Question
Jim Culleny

Not a trick by the asker
but trick by
my inner magician,
my personal convoluter,
my lithe prevaricator
who first teased Eve
under a tree
with the acid, orange
kumquat of knowledge
which he bounced
upon his forked tongue
and upon which Eve
and her shifty lover
sadly choked.

The question,
How are you, really?
is impossible for a fake
to bear.
To answer would be
to mock God
who sees through spin
no matter how sincere.

Better to say,
Gooder 'n some.
Better to say,
Badder 'n others.
Better to say,
A mixed bag complex.
A hick in a zoot suit.
A pansey in a bucket
of muck.

I keep up appearances.

I do my thing.

I balance odds and ends

as best I can.

I go not where the four

winds blow.

You want the naked truth?

Let me think about it 'cause

I don't know.