put out the fire boys

does anyone know where i can recycle plastic shopping bags and magazines? i've acquired so many of either that i suspect my room may explode at any given time. (i solved this same problem with my overabundance of clothes, by donating huge garbage bags to goodwill.) shame on me, but i just can't stop buying things.

highlights of my days since new york:
- watched religulous while consuming strawberries and cream with the bestie. since watching the film, i've come to the conclusion that the problem with religion is that the majority of followers aren't educated enough about their faith. in the u.s. alone, religion has become such a taboo subject that we can no longer openly discuss it in a public forum. as a result, people become uneducated and vulnerable to blind obedience to fanatical individuals. particularly problematic because those individuals are usually the ones who alter scriptures for the benefit of their own agendas. anyways, bill maher is great. highly recommend for theists and atheists alike.
- cold war kids last night at the orpheum. fun.
- i got bit by a dog. there is a brutal mark on my wrist. i secretly think it looks kind of cool. maybe i'll acquire supernatural canine powers. (such an attractive image, i know.)
- bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon. or better yet, salmon cream cheese. my sister should go to vancouver more often.
- more shopping with the sister. to my delight there is a new madewell store in glendale. i'm so in love.

currently waiting to go to venice beach. there's a daddy long leg inching towards me, about ten feet away. time to abandon this room.

march 26th

i originally intended to briefly recap my trip to new york, but it's so hard to pick and choose highlights when everything felt so amazing. so in short: i love everything about the city (minus rats in the subway... puke) and i will move there one day. oh, and the cupcakes from magnolia bakery really are as good as they say. then again i can't imagine ever objecting to cupcakes.

i never felt any sort of affinity towards rembrandt until i saw this image in the met. i particularly love self portraits because i think they are windows into an artist's mind. i can't think of anything as personal and intimate. there are literally thousands of works in the met, if not hundreds of thousands, but i think just their collections of rembrandts and pollocks are enough. so beautiful.

life list

i somehow lucked out with only two finals this quarter. one down, one to go. (then new york!) none today so i'm just wasting time. waking up to sugar ray and devendra banhart, and taking my time with everything feels so so so good. to be fair i do plan on spending the afternoon and tonight on calculus in preparation for tomorrow, but i like to just enjoy my mornings. the weather could not be more beautiful in santa barbara today as well.

to do list:
- change major to middle east studies and art history.
- learn arabic. (arabic I, II, III next year!)
- 8 weeks arabic intensive program in marrakesh, morocco, summer 2010.
- make the $4000 necessary for said program.
- internship at an art establishment of some sort. (currently in process of applying... what does 'brief biographical statement' even mean?! so vague.)
- ace as many classes as possible, for purposes of next point.
- go to grad school in NYU.
- score an amazing job at the MET or MoMA.
- have an apartment in brooklyn.
- travel to india, turkey, france, etc etc etc etc. i want to experience the world and all its beauty.

- have a fulfilling life.

...now go!

perfect week

- kimya dawson at the biko garage (donation-based venue just outside of campus) on april 15th
- coachella sunday on april 19th (yeah yeah yeahs, the cure, the kills, and devandra banhart!)
- fleet foxes and blitzen trapper at the hub (on campus) on april 20th


so much fun. sometimes i think my taste gets weirder and weirder, but i love the obscure. (ps i recently watched 'rachel getting married' - i want my future wedding to be just like rachel's.)

islam (with many edits)

my religious studies course on islam & modernity triggered a fascination with islamic culture. so much so that today i briefly contemplated changing my major to middle eastern studies. (this was until i realized that i had to learn coptic, hebrew, arabic, AND persian for the major... uhh i don't mean to underestimate myself but let's not kid ourselves here.) it really is a shame that islamic culture is so grotesquely misrepresented by the media... a lot of the tension between the west and the the middle east could be alleviated, if everyone would just take the time to educate themselves a bit more, to learn how to look past superficial and biased portrayals.

we point fingers at the taliban for being destructive and oppressive, but many fail to recognize how they rose to power in the first place - through u.s. military support during the cold war era. the point isn't that the taliban isn't oppressive, the point is that a) we should stop putting ourselves on a pedestal, and b) we need to stop making judgments about cultures that we barely know anything about. islamic fundamentalism and terrorism are not the same thing. (side note: you want to know what i think consists of terrorism? i think invading a country under the pretense of 'liberating' the people is an act of terrorism. i'm not trying to be anti-american, but the statistics are there - how many dead iraqi civilians to how many dead americans? honestly, who's doing more terrorizing here?)

i hope i'm not sounding pretentious, all i'm saying is that the course definitely changed my view of the world. anyways, my new goal is to learn arabic next year.

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another side note - i dream of seeing:
- hagia sofia
- st. mark's cathedral
- taj mahal
- versailles


edit: correction, you pick ONE of the mentioned languages for me studies.

recurring theme

apparently, according to the attachment theory, there are three primary attachment styles amongst people, each formulated (and set in stone until death) before a person reaches the age of five:

1) secure - generally at ease with becoming emotionally close, rarely worry about abandonment or rejection.
2) avoidant - uncomfortable and nervous from emotional closeness, often suppress attachment needs as a safety net.
3) anxious-ambivalent - constantly in search of emotional closeness with others, often worries that others do not return same sentiments.

spring break

twenty more days of hard work and then it's off to nyc. life is great.