Everyone is Everything

Have you noticed a sharp increase in the number of people who are releasing their own recorded music? Who are starting their own photography businesses? Who are writing their own nutrition advice blogs? Everyone's a musician.

Everyone's a photographer.

Everyone's a nutritionist.

Indeed, everyone is everything.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the end of the world is upon us. It feels like it's only a matter of time now before we can't turn the volume on our stereos up anymore. There won't be any more room left in the glass and it will overflow.

Could it be our individual-centric society? And before you write this off as left-over Christian propaganda, it is a well-known sociological phenomenon, ushered in by self-help and psycho-therapy. Psychologists are the new priests as religion is slowly becoming stale and defunct. Everything is on you now. You have to make your life better. As the old saying goes "If you want something done right, you've gotta do it yourself". And so, if we're suddenly alone in a sea of people, we'd better become everything, right? And if we're going to become everything, we need all the "me" time we can get. If the streets of our cities are cracked and in disrepair, it's certainly not our fault. It has to be Joe Government's fault. Why should we have to tell them our streets are messed up? Why should we rally for the community? Why hasn't our neighbor done something? Why hasn't the city come and fixed this so we can get back to curling our hair? Life can be so taxing!

Maybe we're raising a generation of people that cannot be denied their "due payment". I remember back in my younger years, we had an athletic event of sorts at my preschool. If you lost, which I often did, you didn't get anything. If you won, you got a prize. I lost, yes. The winners rubbed it in everyone's face, yes. My feelings were hurt, yes. Par for the course, is what I say. It seems like children these days cannot lose, but I feel like we can only shelter them for so long. I've seen churches with youth programs where there are no longer winning prizes, but prizes for everyone because they were breathing! God forbid we hurt anyone's feelings. Of course everyone deserves a candy bar! My mother's elementary school seems to be following the same vein as I'm sure many places are. This isn't just happening in the community either, but within families as well. Did your mother ever walk you from the car door to your teacher's room everyday? Did she maybe hang around for a little while just to make sure things were ok? Did she take you to the doctor for a common cold so they could drug you up? Wouldn't want you to feel a thing. Ever. Well, I happen to know from experience that life isn't going to be as nice to them as we are. Whether anyone wants to believe it or not, there are some things you cannot change. One is positive and negative. Win and loss. On and off.

I feel like we're in some kind of 70s movie about a future dystopia. Does anyone else feel like this? I can't be alone. Where everyone wears white onesies. Nobody touches anyone else because no one wants germs or cooties. Everyone is on like 50 medications so they stay in a nice calm state. Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming innocence, nor am I against some aspects of socialism and equality, but this is getting ridiculous, people. Ridiculous.

Alright. I'm done.

Pablo and the Blizzard of 2011

The past 24 hours have been awfully interesting and at this point I simply MUST blog.

Yes, friends, I have survived mother nature's snowy slamfest over the past day. Yesterday morning I must admit I was a non-believer but she soon convinced me that her threats were anything but hollow. Soon the blizzard would cover just about everything and I would wake up this morning to snow on snow on snow. Early this morning, cabin fever got the best of me and I walked to my favorite Sycamore hang out, the public library. Unfortunately it was closed but no matter! I took my usual spot in the vestibule, figuring that if anyone questioned my presence I'd say I was just taking shelter from the bitter cold for a bit. After I'd finished my internetting (throw that one in, Webster), I walked back home and made my self a wicked egg + ham scramble with cheese. Not the mark of a true dietitian, but to quote Sun Tzu, the military strategist, "Know thine enemy". Next, a friend sent out a text saying she would be at a restaurant about a mile away if anyone wanted to brave the elements and join her. I'm always up for an adventure, so I set out on foot. A mile wasn't that far and I'd done it before. I was about halfway there when she texted to say the restaurant was closed and she'd actually settled in at Starbucks which was 1.5 more miles down the road. "This is going to be interesting", I thought. So, to draw more external wisdom, I'll quote Forrest Gump, "I figured, I've come this far... Might as well just keep on running". So I kept on walking, the wind biting my face and the sun reflecting off the blinding snow. I had just hit the one mile marker when a Honda Accord stopped in the middle of an intersection about 200 feet in front of me. The driver was waving frantically at what I soon figured out to be me. I waved back and he backed up and signalled for me to open the door. "You want a ride?" "Yes, yes I do". I didn't even look at the guy's face until I got in the car, which probably wasn't smart, but it turned out ok. His name was Pablo and he was an international student at NIU from Chile. We had almost arrived at Starbucks when I said "Listen, man, I really appreciate this" and he replied "This is what the Christian life is about. Helping other people". Intriguing, I thought. I'll be honest, I didn't expect this guy to be Christian, much less announce it. Suddenly I felt like I was part of a book you'd find in the "Inspirational" section at Barnes & Noble. So anyways, we exchanged names and I got out and joined my friend inside Starbucks, where I find myself now.

Yes, an interesting day it's been. I hope everyone else is having a lovely hump day/groundhog day/snow day. It seems it's a good day for humanity.

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

Boredom on a Saturday night turned into a music video massacre.

To IKEA and Beyond!

There's nothing quite like an early evening Toy Story reference. Take it in...

Ok, so today's venture was one of desperation. Unfortunately, my parents had to cancel their trip out this weekend, and with them in Arlington stayed all my furniture. SO, today it was off to Swedish/Chinese furniture giant, IKEA, to find a desk.

Now, I know what you're thinking, and don't worry, I'm still thinking a bed is more important than a desk, but the desk just happened to get ahead on the queue somehow.

Anyways, to put it mildly, IKEA was overwhelming. It was a nightmare. I mean, it was neat but it was so big and full of so many things! I don't know. I had trouble wrapping my head around the whole thing and could only focus on things like how hard it was to find the escalator and why I couldn't get from one side of the building to the other without going all the way around.

So, I went through several desk types, looked at some other things like hanging shelves (awesome) and pencil cups (awesome), went out to measure my car, looked at more desks and chairs, went out to measure again, came back to look at desks one more time then bit the bullet and bought the Expedit desk with a chair that I don't remember the name of. Needless to say, after all that deliberation I made the right choice. It is fantastic and is now sitting proudly in my living room, already adorned with books, computer stuff and a wire-mesh pencil cup (awesome).

And now for the philosophical portion. As my brother was comforting me and advising me through this IKEA journey, the subject of beds came up and he said something like "You don't have to get the most expensive bed. When you get a real job you're going to want a nicer one anyways. Trust me." This statement did not sit well with me. I love my brother to death and back and he was only trying to be helpful, but it was in that moment that I realized I'd been pushed off the edge and into the pool of American consumerism. I feel like I'm up to my neck in it, trying to figure out how to swim. Will I always desire more? Things have always been so easy because hand-me-downs have been provided. I've never had to worry about how much I want to spend on a bed, or which model I desire, or whether I should upgrade. It's always been clean-cut: I have this twin bed from home and that's it; I have this desk from home and it's great. done. But now it's like, well, will I want a better bed later? And how bout after that? Maybe a better bed. Maybe one with a fancy iron head-board or the latest in trendy platform beds. I can see this snowballing into something awful. Not just beds, either. I want to be financially responsible and I sure don't want to be spending money on myself all the time just because I might want a better bed. Thoughts? Comments?

Ready to Start

Hello!

Yes, it's quite soon after my last post but social starvation is starting to set in and blogging tends to work as an outlet. On the left is a picture I took last night of my favorite Illinois town at night. Very nice! I've been here, there, and everywhere in search of free wifi because I don't have the internets at my apartment (yet?). Last night I was here at the library for a while doing some teachery things and I'm here now doing some emaily things. Things are still going well. If we're friends on facebook, you'll know I had a nice little rant about the severe technology deficit between BSU and NIU. A lot of Ball State students don't know how great they have it. New buildings, new computers, super nice wifi, etc, etc. So. Yeah.

On a slightly unrelated note, I read an interesting article this morning (courtesy of my sister) about the rise of narcissism in our society. According to a few studies, the average college student would rather be complimented or receive a good grade than engage in their favorite sexual activity or eat their favorite food. The article went on to give more examples but the question in my head is this: Is this an age of narcissism or an age of neglect and apathy? Are we choosing compliments because we want them or because we need them? In other words, are we in fact craving excess praise and affirmation or are we scrounging for it because no one is handing it out anymore? Two very different situations in my opinion. And even further, this question in itself could encourage self-absorption. Can we trust ourselves to answer it accurately? Oh boy, so much to think about...

Sycamore: 14,900

Good Evening America!

I'm blogging to you from the Sycamore, Illinois Public Library! It's a place where community members come to read, learn, listen, and use the wifi because they don't have internet at home. It's an older building and the quiet room (where I currently find myself) is in a large turret on the corner of the building. Awfully romantic. *swoon* I'd just gotten back from a long day on campus and didn't have much of anything to do after dinner so I trotted on over here so I could update everyone on what's happening.

Last Friday I moved into my new apartment here in Sycamore and it's absolutely fabulous. No leaks in the walls, doors, or windows, a working fridge, hot water, soft, clean carpet, nice walls, and working heating and air conditioning (i.e. everything a boy could want). It's not far from campus which makes for a short car/bike trip and it's far enough that I don't have to worry about drunken bros smashing my windows on Friday nights. Beautiful.

Ever since, I've been settling in, meeting new people, learning about my responsibilities as a graduate student/teaching assistant, and soaking up my new environs. Heck, I've been tooling around so much these past few days, I know this place almost like I've lived here for at least a week!

I'm really enjoying my time here, that's for sure. Living alone certainly has its perks and...non-perks. On the upside, I get to run my own show, which is a luxury I've always treasured. I feel best when I am in control of everything from the cleaning of the dishes to the choice of bathroom scents. I know it sounds obsessive and maybe it is, but it works! On the downside, social interaction becomes a little more of a challenge. It requires more proactivity than would living with someone else(s). So sometimes I'll find myself sitting in my living room (which is still furniture-less) without that person on deck to talk to or do something with. Once school picks up and I start meeting people I don't see this being as much of an issue.

Finally, and perhaps foremost on my mind, I've started to wonder how to feel about all this. I'd say literally nothing has gone wrong in the past 5 days. On the one hand I'm petrified in fear, wondering when my good juju is going to run out. On the other hand, I'm wondering what caused all this in the first place? At one point, my mother mentioned how miraculous it was that everything was falling together so perfectly and for the first time in a while I gave some thought to miracles. I'm still not convinced they're real, but this is an awful lot of chance working out in my favor. Also, remembering back to conversations with a good friend of mine in undergrad, the immediate response is to jump to the Judeo-Christian God as the only provider of metaphyiscal/supernatural anomalies but I don't see why the Fabulous Ghost of Freddie Mercury couldn't have been responsible. Or Buddha or whatever. I don't know. Just some food for thought.

Needless to say, this post has gone on long enough and I need to get to planning for class next Tuesday. I hope this post finds everyone well and I'll be back sometime later!

*note: the building in the picture is actually the Dekalb County Courthouse. Notice the lack of "a large turret on the corner".

The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

No, this is not an homage to the late, great Smashing Pumpkins. This is my send-off entry. The beginning of this journey is the end of an era is the beginning of a new era, ya dig? In almost exactly 12 hours I plan to be getting on the interstate heading cross-country to the great state of Illinois. I've never worked so hard or so diligently to get packed, loose ends tied up, and future things in motion. It's been a whirlwind but it's finally happening. And so, with my nifty new coat, handheld robot, and incorrigible resolve, I will set off into the unknown. Thanks to everyone who's helped me get here and let's hope this car doesn't bottom out when I get to the mountains :-)