New Year's Eve

     Every year I celebrate New Year's Eve with my family, everybody does their own thing while keeping the dogs calm as our neighbors set off fireworks. Occasionally my sister and brother and I will go over to the neighbors' house, but for the most part we don't do anything more than watch the fireworks and listen to the music on the news--kind of like the Fourth of July. But this year is going to be different.
     This year I am going to attend a party for the first time, well, a party that isn't a family get-together. And that's just kind of sad. Our party is going to be New Years themed, and I'm sure there will be an insane number of people being idiots, but what's a better reason to be silly than the end of the year? There will be music, movies, and the requisite game of beer pong. We've all made the decision to have fun and ring in the new year with some of our favorite people.
     I'm excited, Happy New Year!

Just a thought...
Stephie

End of the World

     Why is everyone freaking out about the end of the world? I'm only twenty-two and I've lived through more "end-of-the-world" scenarios than nearly any other era of history: Y2K and the electronics apocalypse of 2000, 9/11 and the terrorist attacks on the United States as well as the ensuing war, about twelve different dates for Armageddon, and now this--the end of the Mayan calendar. Is it that we have a fascination with death and destruction? Is it that we see something morally wrong with where we're all going? Or is it that it's really entertaining to propose a world-wide event and make believe that it'll happen?
     When I took a class on Fairy Tales, we discussed the stories as ways of coping with the moral dilemmas of our daily lives. The stories allowed us to live through these terrifying and traumatizing events without actually being physically harmed in the process, they were entertainment for the dark side of the human psyche. Is that what we're doing now, with these end of the world, death and destruction stories? Movies like 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow have become manifestations of our fear of the end of the world, and turning it into something that fascinates and entertains us. Decades ago, these same stories would be the Grimm versions of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, Iron John, and so many more myths and legends. They've been extended beyond the individual level--a single person's world is falling apart--to the destruction of all peoples and their worlds.
     Long, rambling, story short: these stories of Earth's destruction are the modern stories that help us deal with the problems of society and the fear of what's coming next. There is a place for such stories, but we, as everyday people, do not need to believe them in a literal sense.

Just a thought...
Stephie

PS. We're still here.

School Shooting--Make Your Own Decisions

     This past Friday, there was a terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut: a classroom of kindergarteners and fourth graders, as well as some of the professionals at the school were killed. Now everyone is taking stances on the American Constitution's second Amendment--the right to bear arms. We seem to think because there is gun violence and people are going to abuse their right to protect themselves that taking away the ability for the average person to have a weapon is going to stop the people breaking laws.
     Here's my question: If people are going to use guns in the process of breaking the law, what makes our society think that the illegality of possessing a gun will stop gun violence and the breaking of law? If someone is going to break the law, making gun ownership illegal is not going to stop them. For example: one of the main arguments for why pot (marijuana) should be legal is that people are not going to stop using it.
     Yes, what happened Friday in Connecticut was a tragedy, twenty-some people lost their lives, parents lost their innocent children, and there will be a generation of children terrified and traumatized because of this experience. But, as sad as it is, this happens every day around the world: that same day 22 children and an elderly woman were stabbed in China outside an elementary school; July 20th of this year 12 people were killed and an additional 58 were injured when a gunman released teargas in a crowded theater release of the new Batman movie, then fired shots into the audience; a man near Newport Beach, California opened fire at a mall both Saturday and in a similar instance November 16th; and December 11th a man opened fire at the Clackamas Town Center mall near Portland, Oregon killing two people and severely injuring another.
     We live in our own little worlds, ignoring all the unpleasant things in our society until the media brings them to our attention. The local news may pick up on more of the tragedies that effect us directly, but this "head-in-the-sand" method of dealing with the dangers of life in a world where people don't respect each other is what will get us into real trouble. Be aware, not only of the 'crazies' that are out there killing people, but the people who are doing good in the world. Be aware of where you are and what you're doing. Be aware that the greatest dangers are of letting someone else make up your mind for you.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Does it Hook You and Drag You In?

     In reading for Capstone, I came across a literary critic who, just after his mother's death, used photography and photographic theory to try and recapture his mother. that was Roland Barthes' (said "Bart") foray into photography in Camera Lucidia, which was originally written in French. The fact that it was translated helps to understand why the actual words on the page don't always make sense.
     The main things Barthes talked about were the punctum, studium, and unary photograph. When he talked about these different ideas he used the word affect to describe the emotions it made him feel. The punctum is described as a detail in a photograph that hooks into the reader and draws their attention. Studium is something that you notice, but the attention doesn't get caught on. A unary photograph is a photo that is so perfectly composed that it doesn't do anything to the attention--the observer says "hmm" and walks away--like the pictures that come in picture frames.
     My argument is that everything has this sort of element--it's not in the art itself, but in the observer's experience. The three parts are dependent on each other to exist, but without the observer there is nothing for them to relate to and create the affect that Barthes seems so stuck on. I understood affect to be the emotional meaning that creates the three responses, when you look at a wedding photo you're usually happy because weddings are happy occasions.
     It's difficult to make my argument make sense to other people because I'm not applying a photographic theory to photography, so I have to explain as well as show that what I'm saying is not only possible, but also plausible. I'm enjoying the application of my take on Barthes's theory, but no matter how interesting I find it, explaining his theory is a pain.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Do I have ADD or is it my Generation?

     So I'm working on a giant paper that shall be the bane of my existence until it is complete, but I've noticed that lately I just can't focus for more than fifteen minutes at a time. Even when I can get those fifteen minute bursts to line up and form more than 45 minutes, there are three things I have to have on hand: 1. A cup of hot tea, 2. A clean working environment, and 3. My earbuds and music. The first two are more necessary when I want to sit down for more than twenty minutes, but the third is necessary for any work to be done. My question is: Why can't I work unless I block out the world with music?
     When my brother was little, his teacher wanted him to be checked out for ADHD (Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder)--he was seven and hyperactive as any seven-year-old boy is--the doctors concluded no, but a couple of the symptoms of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) linked with some of the behaviors that both my sister and I have been experiencing in the last couple years at college. Mainly the inability to focus for longer periods of time. Now, none of the doctors I've seen have said anything about having ADD, but I've noticed that when I can't hear the world around me, it's easier to focus. I've also noticed that I'm not the only one this works for.
     You can take a look at nearly any college library to find students listening to music while they study. This is the same group of students that can text and walk, listen to the television and hold a conversation, and play a video game while socializing with friends. Multi-tasking seems to be what we've been trained to do. I can keep track of four conversations at once, as long as I'm not actively involved in any of them, but why can't I just sit in a quiet room--even if I have my cup of tea and clean environment--and get anything done?
     There are a couple theories circulating that propose this inability to work without extraneous stimuli is a result of the multi-tasking my generation has been asked to do from such a young age. So why is my generation so different? We grew up with the computers, with the internet and all the flashing colors trying to get your attention, we have our portable music devices and our phones that all keep us going going going, and we've had them since we were little.
     I wonder about the children who are already experiencing what I've started going through in the last couple years: the lack of concentration without stimulation, what are they going to do in fifteen years when it all starts getting more pronounced? Will we have to have those sci-fi technologies where the computer display is in your head, just so the everyday person has enough background brain stimulation to focus on the foreground?
     Whatever happens, I just hope we realize that we're doing this to ourselves and our kids. Take the time to turn off all the electronics and interact with real people: they're way more stimulating and it eases the go-go-go of the brain.

Just a thought...
Stephie

Existentialism

     Nearly everyone I've talked to about existentialism has been confused about it. I'm a little confused how they can be so confused. From what I understand it's just the belief that existence is created from the choices and experiences of a person. Every person has the right to make their own decisions--this is where liberty and freedom come into it--and if a person doesn't have the freedom to make their own choices you're experiencing oppression. That's my understanding.
     Part of it though is a willingness to live with the consequences of your actions. I think that's where people get confused. We talk about how life isn't fair and how bad things happen to good people, which is true, but at the same time it's because the good people take responsibility for their actions that bad things happen to them. People I've classified as 'bad' in my life have had the tendency to let other people take the blame for their mistakes and missteps. And I've noticed that because the other people (the good people) are more willing to take the blame, even when it doesn't belong on their shoulders, the people I've always labelled 'bad' don't have to take responsibility for themselves.
     What happens when the 'good' people no longer are willing to take responsibility for someone else's actions? I like the ideas put forth by the school of Existentialism, for the most part, they make the world make sense.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Perception

     Charles Bukowski once said something about the world being smeared with the color of forgotten love. I thought it was a beautiful image, but something about the color stayed in my head. What color is forgotten love? Is it a murky kind of purple, or a deep clear blue; maybe it's a rich red, the color of blood, or a rust red--dried blood.
     I'm working on my senior project, my capstone, and the theme is "Image + Words = Picture". This confusion about what color Bukowski's forgotten love is plays into this idea. Every single person makes a judgement when they see an image. The meaning derived from the image is connected directly to the  culturally agreed upon definitions and personal experiences of the viewer.
     There are things the brain filters out of what we see. The biggest example of this is your nose. It's always there, right in the middle of your vision, but you don't ever see it (well, unless something about it changes like a scratch or make-up). Your brain knows it's there, but it filters it out because there's so much more that you should see. I wonder if that is where the term "right under your nose" came from? You don't see it because your brain has erased it from what you realize you see.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Relationship Miscommunication

     So one of my really close friends was trying to talk to me about her boyfriend the other day. The boyfriend happens to be one of my friends from high school, so I know him reasonably well and don't really respond how she wants to her complaints about when he does the things that are truly unique to him. At first I just took it in stride--he's my friend and she's my friend, the two of them as a unit are my friends, not a huge deal.

     Apparently it's a much bigger deal than I thought. He and I decide to take a break from the shopping of a recent trip we made to visit her and go to dinner. We're sitting there in the pub in Portland, it was a really nice pub by the way, and he brings up that she complains to him that she can't gossip about him with me. I'm sitting there thinking, Well, duh, I've known you for about three years longer than I've known her, and he brings up the same point! I don't quite understand why it's such a big deal to everyone else that I know him as well as I do. We continue talking, and the girlfriend calls. She and my sister (who came down too) are done in the mall and want to know where we went, he gives them directions and they walk over. It's still not a big deal to either of us. 

     When they arrive she's obviously angry, or frustrated, or out of sorts with him and neither he nor I understand why. At first we just think it's that we didn't stay at the mall, then it's that he had a beer and she didn't want him anywhere near a car, then he suggested maybe jealousy; it wasn't until my sister explained that my friend's plans had been completely changed and taken out of her control that made her so out of sorts. I still don't know if he ever figured out what was going on with her, but they were pretty deep in conversation when we skedaddled. 

     My question is: how can something that is so small or innocent become a big enough deal to ruin one person's entire evening? I'm not a shopper and my friend and my sister are, he and I haven't had one-on-one time since they started dating and we were catching up. If we had known that she intended to continue with their double-date plans (even though the other couple had to cancel/postpone) the entire night would have turned out differently.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Lost Friends

     It's getting on toward graduation season again. All you high-schoolers and college kids know what that means: the loss of relationships. But why does it have to be that way? With Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and all the other facets of the internet, why do we still lose all those friends? Were some of them just friends of convenience, or was it really just time to break off the connection? I had friends that I spoke to every day; we knew everything that was going on in each others' lives, but when school got out and we went our separate ways we just stopped talking.
     On the other hand, I've had some of the same friends for years--despite moving away, graduating high school, and going to schools in different states with different focuses. Is it just that our personalities matched better, or was there something else going on? I had a graduating friend promise to keep in touch, swears that he's not very good at it, but says he will. I know he'll try, but what methods would keep everything together?
     Was it easier to keep in touch back before all the social media of the internet when everyone had to think about keeping in touch and take the effort writing down thoughts, emotions, experiences in letters? My grandmother receives something like two letters every day from people she went to school with, or people she knew while she taught in Japan.
     Maybe what's happening is just a natural transition: as a person moves to different chapters in life, they give up friendships and relationships to create new ones. When we move from chapter to chapter, we change as individuals, and the friendships from one portion of life don't fit together with the new person from the new chapters.
     I've known my best friend for nearly sixteen years (a lifetime, I know) and when we meet up it's like nothing has changed. Recently she met one of my new friends from college. It was a strange arrangement: the friendship we've shared for years is much more innocent than the newer one, but we communicate on a deeper level for the most part. Not to say my newer friend and I don't talk about the "deep stuff", but it's done in a more immediate manner.
     I guess the question I'm grappling with is: what makes a friendship or relationship last? Is it the constant communication or a deeper connection? Is it all thing things two people have in common or is it just two personalities fitting together like puzzle pieces?

I don't know. It was just a thought....
Stephie

Elections!

     My parents have a saying: If you don't vote you can't bitch. When I was younger I didn't quite understand. Even if you don't vote you can still complain about what's going on... how does the statement work? But since I've gotten older I understand more what they meant rather than the words they were saying.
     When you vote, you have the ability to change the world, you can determine whether or not a law passes, who goes into office and what policies are important. Even a "no' vote is effective decision making and a contribution to the welfare of the world. If you don't make that choice to influence the world, you can't complain about what goes on it.
     Where the right to complain comes into play is when what you've voted, or put in your two cents on, is declined or doesn't go as planned. There are still limits in what you can do to change the world, but voting is the easiest way to get your thoughts out there and have some impact on the rest of the world.
     This year all I hear is the hype about how one candidate is worse than another and how their candidate is the best thing for the country (from both sides). What I want to hear is what they'll actually do; if they can get their plans implemented then there's more of a chance I'll actually care about what they're supposedly fighting for. However, I don't quite understand how each of the main candidates became more and more extreme while running for office. At the beginning of this mess they both sounded somewhat okay--they were more about the people's opinions than the party lines.
     With only four more days to figure this all out, I'm getting sick of both candidates' trash ads. It seems like every single place I go (television, radio, online, the newspaper) has some sort of ad bashing the other side and their politics. Why can't we just state what we want to do in government and get over the egos?
     Good Luck and go vote!

Just a thought....
Stephie

Happy Halloween!

     Halloween is one of those holidays that not everyone participates in. I remember growing up a friend from elementary school and her family didn't celebrate Halloween because it was a day of demons and the dead walking. Another friend didn't celebrate Halloween because her family had a big celebration around the Day of the Dead.
     My family never did big parties or anything, but the three of us kids would go out and Trick-or-Treat up and down the street; then we'd trek over to my aunt and uncle's house and walk around their neighborhood. We always had fun, and it was a great time to dress up and be something that, normally, we weren't.
     I enjoyed the costume part of the holiday. Some favorites were Aurora/Sleeping Beauty, Porthos of the Musketeers, Jasmine, and Anna Valerious from Van Helsing. I was also a tavern wench, Laura Croft, Tinkerbell, and a princess (several different times) on top of the usual little kid ghost costumes. I think the ones that are my favorites are the ones my mom made the costumes for: she sewed together both Aurora's blue dress and Porthos' musketeer poncho, and we gathered together random pieces of costumes for the rest of them.
     The costume I was looking forward to the most, at the time, was a princess complete with the Miss United States Tiara. I never got to wear that costume because I got in trouble and grounded, at first. Then, to make everything worse, I didn't even get to dress up and hand out candy because I got strep throat the day before Halloween. (It was not a good year for me.) It's not as big of a deal anymore because I was a much more legitimate princess my sophomore year of college, then a mardi gras masquerade dancer last year.
     For the last couple years I've been at school for Halloween, so I missed getting dressed up and handing out candy to the kids of the neighborhood. Instead I was helping one of our Residence Halls with their Haunted House. It's so much fun! There are scenes where different terrifying moments from horror movies happen: a operation scene, the creepy child playing in blood scene, a zombie dog & owner scene, and a witch, to name a few.
      This year we're going with the much more creepy and realistic side of things: when your tour guide just vanishes, when a family scene goes insane, a super freaky classroom, and a zombie wedding. I get to be the creepy tour guide (I'm not sure how creepy I'll really get) and I'm looking forward to it.

Some tips for a great Halloween:

• Only eat the candy that's been professionally sealed: while there are myths and rumors about people putting razor blades and other dangerous things in candy, 99% of the population is just trying to help the kids have a great Halloween. If you're suspicious, don't eat it. 
• Only go to the houses with a porch light on. It's the universal symbol for "We have candy!! Come and get it!" Unless you know the people, there's really no point in going to a house with the lights out, even if the windows are lit up, it makes people angry.
• On the other side: If you don't have candy, don't turn on your porch light. When the trick-or-treaters come, don't hide in another room: your lights are on, you're home. Don't feel obligated to give them something, just turn off the light. 
• Beware allergies! I don't know about the rest of the world, but I've encountered more kids with allergies in the past few years than when I was a kid. If you're not sure, a simple Hershey's candy bar without almonds is usually a good choice. 
• Most of all: HAVE FUN! It's not about getting the most candy or going to every house on the block, it's about getting to be something you're not, scaring your friends and siblings, and enjoying yourself. If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong.

Have a happy, and spooky, Halloween!

Stephie

Sasquatch

     I live in the Pacific Northwest, I have my entire life, and I still don't understand how people can't believe that there is something out there that we don't understand. I'm watching whatever this is on the History channel about Bigfoot. They keep talking about skunk apes and mutant gorillas, or even the missing link between humans and the apes. They've gotten a group of "experts" together to look into whatever the sightings might really be.
     They wonder what Bigfoot eats, where he lives, why he is secretive or hides, where did he come from, and what is he doing? They look at what Bigfoot had to evolve toward in order to survive. They mapped out where sightings have been reported, they're focused along the western coast in North America, and the experts compared that to what they believe to be the best climate for a large omnivorous ape. Supposedly they match almost perfectly. The sightings describe a tall, broad, hairy-looking man that walks on two legs, can run like a man or an ape, makes calls into the night and hunts in the forest.
     The scientists compare the Bigfoot sightings they're researching to the Loch Ness monster and to the Yeti as mythic creatures. When they compare the Bigfoot to creatures we know to exist they usually compare them to humans or to chimpanzees or gorillas. They talk about the Yeti living in the snow fields and being compared to the Mande Burung and the Yeren in Asia, and to the Oreng Pendek in Indonesia. These are creatures that have been seen for thousands of years and match a human ancestor called Heidelbergensis.
     The name Sasquatch is a native american term and the tales match up with each of these different ancient human examples. There is another theory that the Bigfoot creature is a modern human that has become the "Wild Man" and evolved to live in the wild. It wouldn't necessarily be a future example of humans, but a parallel species. They cite the similarity to humans in diet, shape, possible rituals, and purported sexual desire (apparently Sasquatch has an attraction to human women and the tribes of the Pacific Northwest take care to protect their female guests) to draw lines between human ancestors, giant apes, modern human cousins, or even modern homo sapiens.
     I'm just interested in what's out there. Is it a spiritual location for the native tribes where the shamans become wild people and transform into a completely different kind of person? Is there a cousin or ancestor to modern humans wandering the forests? Or is it just a trick of the eye? I think there is something out there; I know of at least one person who has seen something like the typical image of Sasquatch, and I'm sure there are more.
     There is some magic in the mystery of Sasquatch and the other Bigfoot, as well as in the Loch Ness creature. I don't understand why we, as a human collective, insist that there isn't something in the forests and waters of the world. One day we might know what's out there, but I hope that we still have some of the mystery that pervades our planet when we do discover what it is.



Just a thought...
Stephie

Managing Group Politics

     So I deal with one of our Residence Hall governments and we've been dealing with the politics of hiring a DJ and planning programs. We just finished an event and were going over what went well and what didn't go so well.
     The biggest thing we've discovered as a problem is discussions happening outside of the official channels. One student had asked to do music for a function and another student, one with the authority to say yes or no, didn't object. The hopeful DJ took that to mean he had the job, but the miscommunication contributed to an unsatisfactory result.
     It turns out the DJ was willing to use any music we wanted, but something stopped him from using his own music, and what we provided. So, he had a buddy bring in music. The friend's music was all of one type--dubstep--and it began to influence the event. In the end, the dance ended early because people weren't enjoying themselves or the music. An event that has been one of the biggest events of the year became a mediocre replica of what it had been, only because the lines of communication became blurry.
     Is this a normal thing that plagues all sorts of organizations? Or is it because we are inexperienced in this sort of thing? The group I'm working with is an amazing collection of passionate people working to make both their own college experience and their classmates' the best it can be.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Cussing

     My dad used to tell us kids a story about his grandmother: one of the kids would cuss in front of her and she would say "There's no such thing as a bad word, only bad intentions." I always liked the story (even if Mom and Dad didn't agree in being so laissez faire about the whole cussing thing) and remembered it when I came across an article on how cussing isn't the biggest problem in the world; God has bigger things to clean up in our lives.
     The basic premise is that Christians shouldn't cuss. But to get around cussing they create a language that is "acceptable" yet still stands in for the same thing. Then the article delves further into the concept of sinful and non-sinful language for example, a close friend gets an amazing gift for Christmas and you say "I hate you", it's joking and expressing your jealousy in a way the friend understands. But in a different situation, someone hurt your feelings and you want to return the favor so you say "I hate you" it becomes sinful--because of your intentions.
     The article goes on to talk about intentions as opposed to actions and how people who flaunt their language as a way of sounding cool aren't as cool as they think, but the writer notes there is something about using foul language that is unacceptable in and of itself. I just got to thinking about what we consider cussing and what is acceptable language, but I always come back to my great-grandma's philosophy: there are no bad words. Only bad intentions dirtying the language with which they are expressed.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Brownies!

     My roommate and I love to bake! We'll make anything from cookies to cakes, from pies to brownies, and anything we can think of. Last night she made brownies. They were good, but not quite the amazing either of us was expecting: they came out dry. Now, that's not going to stop either of us from eating them in one sitting if we don't stop ourselves. But still, is there a reason a perfectly good recipe turned sour?

     The first thing I thought of was the oven. It's new to us both, having just moved into the dorm, and we haven't exactly worked all the kinks out. Then there was the fact that rather than using the (super expensive) baker's chocolate we used powdered cocoa and vegetable oil (as suggested on the box of cocoa). A final, but unlikely, reason for the dryness was overcooking. We both came down on the side of using the powdered cocoa as the cause.
     How are we going to fix this? Easy answer: we don't know. We talked about taking the brownies out early, adding more oil or other liquid, or even using shortening rather than oil, but none of them are known fixes. This isn't going to stop us, but it was an unexpected first bite into a fresh brownie when it crumbled down our faces.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Vanished!

     When I started watching Warehouse 13, I fell in love with the acting style of Joanne Kelly. Then, when my friend and I were surfing Hulu we came across another show starring, well almost starring her. It's called Vanished.
     In the show Joanne Kelly is the wife of Georgia's Senator Collins. She is kidnapped from a gala celebrating her charity work and the search begins. The series chronicles the search for her and the secrets that come with the investigation.
     So far I like the show, but there are some characters that drive me nuts. The reporter for one, all she cares about is her story no matter who it might destroy. She strikes me as a "Regina King" from Mean Girls.  She uses the people around her to get what she wants, and that isn't necessarily Sara Collins found.
     The daughter is one of those whining brats who thinks her parents hate her. Yes, there are things her father and stepmother, and mother, aren't telling her, or letting her do, but there are more productive ways to go about getting attention or her way.
     The brother isn't high on my list of favorites, but neither is he the clueless dupe everyone else seems to think--he held on to his relationship with his mother when no one else would give her the time of day, he kept his sister's secrets, and it doesn't seem like anyone has noticed anything he has done - pretty well flying under the radar.
     I don't really have an opinion on the senator one way or another. He loves his wife and yet they kidnap her, at first we don't know what for. But as the story continues he appears to hinder the FBI investigation more than help it. I'd hope if I were married and missing my husband would do more to help.
     My favorite character is probably the FBI agent, Kelton. He cares about his mission and wants to get Sara Collins back to her family. When the audience meets his family you can understand how he feels so deeply for the Collins family.
     It's an interesting show and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Novelistic Settings

     I was getting ready to write about a book I read years ago, The Secret at Shadow Ranch. It's a Nancy Drew Mystery, short and sweet, but I just couldn't remember the plot so I decided to search the internet for it. I came up with a Wikipedia site for Shadow Ranch--it's a real place!

     I was shocked to discover this so I continued reading, only to find that the ranch in real life is in California, while in the book it's in Arizona. All interest lost. But then I got to thinking: how many places in books have existed in real life (other than what we expect to be on the map) and how to people come up with them? 

      Then I heard about a book that's become extremely popular lately: the Fifty Shades books. My friend was complaining about how they're set in Seattle yet nothing about the setting is realistic, other than the rain. Another friend chimed in that it was because it's Twilight fan fiction and the author lives in Australia. While that's all good and fine, there are so many other, good books that have a better description of Seattle than the Twilight series and so many other ways to discover more about the area than to use another fictional book. 

     I know Jayne Ann Krentz lives in the Seattle area. Her books are usually set in the Pacific Northwest and have a pretty realistic setting. While you can't go to a particular part of town and say "Oh, So-and-so lived in that building on the fourth floor" you see parts of the city that the characters walk through and live in. 

     Why is it that some authors write much more realistic settings into their books than others? The mythical realms are usually the most detailed: Narnia, Middle Earth, Alagaesia, and so many other worlds have more dimension than places that really exist. But why? Is it so much more difficult to paint a picture in your reader's mind of a place they could actually go and visit than one only you can see?

Just a thought....
Stephie

The Wild Man

     I took a Fairy Tales & Fantasy class last year where we looked at the psychology behind some of the common fairy tales. It was a great class and I finally got to look into the history and motivations commonly thought to be behind the stories I've been hearing and reading for years. The story we looked at in the most depth was the story of the Wild Man. Now, the Wild Man is a wise man who lives in the forest. In the story he is known as Iron John, a man who lived in a pond and mentored a young prince.

A basic retelling of the story:
     Something strange is happening in the forest near the king's castle: people go in, but they don't come out, so people stop going into the forest. A mysterious hunter shows up and  asks the king if there's anything dangerous around. The king points out the forest and the hunter goes in with only his dog. When they pass a pond, something reaches out and grabs the dog. The man returns to the castle, gathers some people, and returns to empty the pond. They find Iron John, tie him up, and lock him in the castle dungeons.

     One day the prince is playing with his favorite golden ball when it rolls away and into the Wild Man's dungeon. Iron John says he'll give it back if the prince releases him, the boy runs away and returns twice more before saying he couldn't release Iron John even if he wanted to. To which the Wild Man replies, "the key is under your mother's pillow."
     The prince steals the key when his parents are away, and tries to release the Wild Man, but hurts his finger in the process. When the man is free he cries, "don't leave or they will beat me" so Iron John takes the prince up on his shoulders and they escape together. The King and Queen notice the escaped prisoner and missing prince and scour the lands for them without success.
     Iron John feels compassion for the prince, who can never return home, and sets him to the task of watching a spring, not letting anything fall into it. The boy sees golden fish and creatures moving in the pure water, and unknowingly slides his hurt finger into the pond. It turns to gold! When the Wild Man returns the prince is given two more chances to right the wrong, but he allows a single hair from his head, then the entire shock of his hair to fall into the pond. The Wild Man sends the boy out into the world to experience poverty because of his failure.
     The boy went in search of work, having no skill by which to earn his living he wandered until he found a large city. He went into the palace and asked for work, and while they didn't know what he could do, they liked him and set him to fetch and carry for the kitchen. One day the cook sent him to deliver food to the king's table, but the boy didn't want the king to see his golden hair and kept his hat on. The king found this disrespectful and ordered him fired.
     Instead of firing him, the cook took pity and traded the prince for the gardener's boy. One summer day he took off his hat and his golden hair sparkled and glowed in the sunlight. The princess saw and demanded the boy bring her flowers, when he arrived she tricked him into taking his cap off. He tried to escape, but she caught him and gave him a bag of coins. The prince handed them over to the gardener for his children. On the next day the princess tried again to see the boy's hair, but he held his cap on and she gave him another bag of coins that he handed over to the gardener. On the third day, he held onto his hat and refused the bag of coins.
     Soon a war broke out in the country. The boy decided he was man enough to go to war and declared his intention. The soldiers mocked him and left him a lame horse. The boy called at the edge of the forest three times "Iron John" and the Wild Man came. "What do you want?" the boy replied a strong war-horse. So Iron John provided a magnificent war horse and a band of iron-clad warriors. They drove back the enemy force and won the battle for the King, but rather than riding directly back to the castle, the prince returned the gifts to Iron John and rode the three-legged horse home.
     The king decided to host a festival to bring out the mysterious knight ending with the princess throwing out the golden apple. The prince went back to the forest and asked Iron John to catch the apple, the Wild Man gave him a chestnut horse and red armor to protect him. He rode onto the field and when the princess threw out the golden apple, he caught it, immediately riding away. On the second day the prince wore white armor and rode a white horse, caught the apple and rode away. The king became angry and told his men that if the mysterious knight didn't come and report his name, "chase him and give him a blow with your sword." On the third day Iron John gave the prince black armor and a black horse. He caught the apple and fled, but the King's Men followed and knocked his helmet off. They returned and told the king all.

     The princess went the next day to the gardener and asked after the boy. He replied, "he went to join the festival and got home late last night. But he showed my children three golden apples he won." She returned to her father and the king called the boy. The princess took his cap and his golden hair astounded the court, the king asked if he was the knight. The boy replied yes, revealed he was the mysterious knight from the war and that his father was a notable king, and when the king offered a reward, asked for the princess in marriage.
     When the two were celebrating their marriage feast, a baronial king burst through the doors with his attendants, hugged the young man and said, "I am Iron John, enchanted into the Wild Man, you have freed me and all my treasures are now yours!"
And they all lived happily ever after...

     There are so many things we talked about in this story, like the golden ball. The class discussion came up with the golden ball as innocence. Around eight years old, something happens that the world is no longer a happy-hunky-dory place. For some people this is sooner and for some this is later, but for the most part, something happens at eight. The time in the king's kitchen is reminiscent of the work that everyone has to do to figure out their own identity and who they want to be in the future. It continues over into the work with the gardener, only that is more of the busy work that you do until you've managed to put into action who you want to be; like a first job before you start your career. Finding the princess is, in this case, finding the inner female or the anima. I was fascinated that Iron John's spell was broken because he mentored another young man in the ways of the Wild Man, and in doing so helped him to achieve his fortune and destiny. It speaks to the idea that you're not completely done with your life's work until you've helped and led another into the beginning of their life's work. A resounding advocation of mentoring programs. I enjoyed the story, while it isn't my favorite myth or fairy tale it does show how these stories are reflections of the society and time they came out of.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Comfortable Relationship

     I was checking out my Tumblr today when one I came across a post one of my friends had re-blogged. It was about comfortable relationships and how they're the ones that matter most because they're the relationships in which you are the most true version of yourself.
     It got me to thinking of my closest friends. They're the ones that I can be my crazy, wacky, not-so-normal self with, and they get it! Then I got to thinking about the various guys in my life--the ones I've liked, the ones I haven't been able to stand, and the ones that I've loved--how many of them are worth the effort of making them understand?
     There's the best friend from high school that I only talk to sometimes because it's awkward now that he's married. There's my cousin, the twin I never had, the one I can tell anything and he'll respond in the way I really need: make me laugh at something stupid, remind me that something really is important in the long-run, and be the one man who can remind me that I am loved, whether I like it or not. There's my dad. He's Dad, the rock that I can stand on, the storm that challenges me to become better, and the meadow clearing where I can recover after either success or failure. And there's the guy from college that I never told how I feel.
     He's probably the one that I first thought of when I read the post. He's the friend that, now, whenever I walk the paths at school I can't help but imagine him walking toward me or when I hear someone say his name, I start looking for him. He was a friend that I immediately wanted to share my successes with, and the one who made the failures seem less tragic. He would smile and I couldn't help but smile back, he would hug me and my entire day would be better, all he had to do was be in the room and my silliness was alright. But because of my own fears I never told him any of that.
     Is that was love is, being confident enough to step over those fears and share a comfortable relationship, making it more than it is? I don't know. I just hope that if there is ever a 'next time' I'll have more courage.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Triangles

So many different types of triangles! Here's a couple:

     Isosceles triangles have two sides that are the same length, the third is a different length. They also have two congruent (I love using math terms from middle school) angles that are opposite each other and adjacent along the third side.

     There's the Equilateral or Equal-angular triangle that has sides of the same length and with the same angles. They're not really as interesting as some triangles.

     There's the triangle that has sides of all different lengths and angles of all different measures. The sum of all the angles must be 360 degrees, something about the sum of the angles creating a circle. No one angle can measure 180 or more, something about a straight line can't be an angle...

     Then there's a love triangle. They're the BEST! (note the sarcasm) One of my friends recently stopped waiting for the guy she'd assumed was her 'one and only' prince charming to date a guy she'd just met. A normal occurrence in college, right? Apparently the former prince charming didn't see it that way and is trying to convince her to drop the new guy and commit to him, without a commitment on his side. While the new beau wants to give her the world, and commit to whatever she wants. I understand relationships are hard, but add in another variable to the two-point line just makes everything more complicated.

Sometimes triangles are fantastic, other times they're not the right situation.
Just a thought....
Stephie

Bucket List

     A couple years ago, more like five, The Bucket List came out. For me it was a life-changing movie; the idea of making a list of things I wanted to accomplish in my life was completely new (I was also seventeen years old). Since then I've made many different "Bucket Lists" but I haven't been so good at the checking-off part. I finally went through all the paper and put the different lists on my computer.... it was a long document. But I decided that I wouldn't delete things as I checked them off--only put a line through them. That way I wouldn't put them on the list again. It still hasn't helped me with checking things off my list. And the list just keeps on growing, despite how often I "check" things off.

     Here are some of the things I've got left:

1. Learn French
2. Run a Marathon
3. Visit Graceland
4. Read the classics for fun
5. Buy a house
6. Tailgate at the Superbowl
7. Ride the elevator up the Eiffel Tower
8. Go to the Olympic Games
9. Ride the Orient Express
10. Meet James Garner

and there were so many more. I crossed off a good number of them in my first years of college, but I've still got more to go, and I keep adding more, like I said. It's crazy how much I want to do with my life and how much I probably won't ever accomplish from that list (I had "Meet Andy Griffiths" on it, but then he died). It's wonderful to have something to strive for.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Inheriting Music

     I was listening to the introductory music of Copper, the new television show on BBC America, and something about it spoke to me. It sounds like a mixture of bagpipes and a fiddle, in the Irish style. It's a beautiful tune, and I wish I knew why it speaks to me.
     Is there something about the music someone's ancestors listened to that can speak to them? My parents haven't ever really listened to Celtic music, but I've discovered that I enjoy it just as much as the pop and country and classic rock I find on the radio. Maybe I should mention that my family is most significantly Irish, there is English and Scottish mixed in, but is definitely Irish.
     There's something to be learned from the diets of families--over years of not eating grain, people lose the ability to digest gluten and their descendants become gluten-intolerant or allergic. I wonder if the same happens with music. Over generations of listening to the same music, does a family develop a preference for it?

Just a thought....
Stephie

Lights, Popcorn, Action!

     I recently saw the new Avengers movie--LOVED IT! It was a great blend of the hilarity I've expected from Joss Wheedon since Firefly, and the action adventure that comes with creating a movie based on comic books. I'm not much of a comic book aficionado, but I did have some of the back story from the earlier movies. My next question is: Will they make a movie for the Black Widow and Hawkeye?

     The combination of various directors' vision to create the one movie was really interesting to watch, at least for me. The producers and Wheedon did a wonderful job of staying true to the characters that were portrayed in other movies (I really liked the cameos of Black Widow and Hawkeye in Iron Man and Thor).
     I just wish that Hollywood would take such care with other movies and follow the standard they've already created in this grouping of movies. I'm looking forward to watching The Dark Knight Rises.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Capstone Begins!

     I started taking my capstone class, the one that's supposed to be a culmination of all my work in college, and it is fantastic! I absolutely love who I'll be working with and our professor/mentor is supportive and cares about both the product and the experience. We'll be looking at "Words + Image = Picture" as our theme and I got really excited to work with movies and children's adaptations and all sorts of combinations of literal images juxtaposed against words and the images created through text.
     The first thing I thought of was "It's like when they picked Daniel Radcliffe to be Harry Potter!" Now, I do like Daniel Radcliffe as HP, but he isn't what I pictured when I read the first book in my head. I don't remember anymore what I imagined him to look like, but it certainly wasn't like in the movie. Similar things have happened with other stories I've seen turned into movies: Eragon, the Lord of the Rings series, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days, just to name a few.
     Now we've received the syllabus and had a chance to look through the books. There are books about photography, there are short essays, there are long essays, there are works about works about pain, there are photographs, there are novels: the scope of the writing is amazing and I am so excited to take the class and start working on my final project that I don't know what to do with myself.
     We started work right on Day 1, collecting work from throughout our lives and condensing it into a single portfolio that will be the "Portrait of a English Major". From this work we will develop our personal statements to be read when we present our final papers--the climax of each student's work in the English Department. So far my portfolio was 99 pages long, and I still can add to it (for which I am grateful, I'm taking a couple classes I want to add into the mix).
     I am nervous that I'll get too wrapped up in the fun of this work and lose track of my other classes, or that I'll swamp myself with more than I can chew. But this is what life is about: taking the chances and making mistakes while there's someone who can pick me up and say "Might want to try that another way." I go to Day 3 in the morning and have my first conference with my professor after class. I'm excited, nervous, and ready to get rolling on this project.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Patriot Day

     Today was an interesting day: eleven years ago four air planes were hijacked in flight and used as weapons in an attack on the United States. Now, I know that most of what I truly know about 9/11 is filtered through a childhood lens and what I've since been told by the media and my parents, but I did live through one of the most traumatic events of the last thirty years.
     Everyone says you remember where you are when it happens. It's true: I had just turned eleven years old,  my sister and brother and I were at daycare while my dad was at work and my mom was in Turkey on a trip for work. We were just getting to the "big kid center" when our supervisor/teacher got a call. It was the daycare's main base--where the younger kids stayed while the school-aged kids waited for time to leave--telling her to check the news. She turned on the television and the image of the smoking towers was everywhere.
     We stood in shock: what happened? What did that mean for a bunch of kids living three thousand miles away? What was going to happen next? It was a bigger question for my sister and me; what would happen to us? Both of our parents were in the military and any attack on the United States meant they could be sent anywhere around the world. The most difficult part for us was that neither of our parents could be reached... All military bases were on lockdown--nothing goes in or out (people, equipment, non-military communication)--and even they couldn't get a hold of some places overseas.
     It turned out that my dad wouldn't be going anywhere (he had three children at home and his wife was overseas) but my mom wouldn't be coming home either. Mom ended up coming home several weeks later than expected, and no one knew how long anyone was going to stay. My siblings and I ended up going to school as normal, going home, and staying with an aunt while Dad worked.
     We later learned that there were more than just the two planes we'd seen on the television: one landed in the Pentagon wiping out thousands of lives, and another was commandeered by the passengers, who diverted the plane from its destination in the White House to a field in Pennsylvania. Those passengers are now considered national heroes and are remembered for the lives they saved.
     It's sort of terrifying to think that all of those events, events that have driven our country into a decade-long military conflict and caused a significant change in how we live our daily lives, were so long ago. I am now twenty-two and have spent half my life living in a world where the people are scared to death of anyone different. If the attack on the United States hadn't happened, would we have moved beyond caring about what a person looked like or where their ancestors lived? Or would we still ignore the actions of truly amazing people just because they look or speak or come from somewhere different than us?

Just a thought....
Stephie

Tea! The Morning Pick-Me-Up

No, this is not my tea set. But I do wish it were.

     Some people drink coffee, some people drink soda, but I am one of those people who drink tea. I love my tea, but I kind of fell into it by a process of elimination. Soda is all well and good, but a little too sweet. Coffee has something in it that gives me migraines. Tea is only as sweet as you want it to be, and has the necessary caffeine to wake me up. I was just a little curious about the different types of tea. Here's what I came up with:

• tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world (the first is water)
• drinking tea is good for you -- it's filled with great stuff, even some anti-inflammatory
• tea can help regulate food intake
• it can produce a meditative state and causes an alert and focused calm
• there are white, yellow, green, oolong, black, and post-fermented teas
• most teas in tea bags are blends of different types of tea (but you can get "single estate" teas too)

There's so much more to know about tea, but I'm not going to bore you with it all. I'm off to enjoy my cup of Earl Gray.

Just a thought for a good night...

Stephie

Busy Busy Bee!

I will miss you, bed. 

     This week has probably been the craziest week of my summer. I was supposed to move into my apartment on Wednesday, but stuff happened and that didn't end up working out. So I moved in on Saturday, yesterday. But in the midst of all this packing, moving, unpacking and reorganizing (stressful and busy on its own) I was attending a leadership institute at my university--so much fun, and a really great learning experience--then training for Orientation! The next time I have actual free time is after school starts: September sixth!
     It's going to be a crazy couple weeks. I am totally excited about what I'm doing, but I will need sleep sometime in the next couple days and it's not looking likely.

Superman!

     It's summer break. I am taking the time to laze about and watch television and I just rediscovered a show I loved back when I was a kid. It wasn't a cartoon (while I loved them too), or even a kids show; it was Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman.
     I always loved how they're friends, how Clark has more of a character role than in the movies, and that someone other than his parents know that he's Superman. I didn't see the movies until I was in high school, so everything I knew about Superman was based on this TV series. It's kind of amazing how I could have grown up knowing so little about the quintessential American hero.
     I've made up for my ignorance since I discovered that Superman isn't the only one with a TV show: Batman, Wonder Woman, The Green Hornet, The Six Million Dollar Man, The X-Men, and Spider Man have been popular over the last few decades. While they're not always my first choice to watch, I prefer a superhero show to the dramas like Desperate Housewives and reality shows like Big Brother and Survivor.
     Lois and Clark is still one of my top superhero shows, and I'm thrilled that it's back on the air.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Sliding Doors and Alternate Universes

     I watched a movie the other day called Sliding Doors. Gwyneth Paltrow played the main character, a young Englishwoman who has been fired, but it's right after that when the two worlds separate. In one she makes it onto the tube (the subway) and meets a charming man, then reaches home in time to discover her boyfriend in bed with another woman. In the other she misses the train and is mugged on the street trying to take a cab home, she doesn't discover this other woman at all.

     From there the stories take two completely different paths. In the first, she befriends James (the charmer from the Underground), their relationship grows, she develops her own business, and life goes on. In the second she stays with the boyfriend working pointless jobs to support him while he writes a novel, and cheats on her over and over. 

     In the end the two lines re-converge, but it reminded me of Doctor Who and that got me thinking: What happens every time we make a choice? If it's a yes/no sort of choice and we choose yes, does a separate world split off where we chose no? 

     I'd like to think so. I guess my conception of time is a little strange, but I see time like a tree where the branches split into different paths, but where they touch you can still hop from one path to another. Some people view time like a one-way road. Other people see it as a river where choices create only one reality. And still even more people think that there isn't really a choice, that everything is pre-ordained. I kind of get frustrated by that viewpoint because it takes away the individual's ability to change, either for the better or the worse.

     If time is pre-ordained, does that mean that Charles Manson was destined to be a serial killer from birth? Or that Mother Theresa couldn't help but be the model of a saint? I don't like the kind of world that theory creates. It's a world where we can't hope to be better people, or accomplish anything through effort--it all depends on what was decided for your life. It's depressing! I like the idea that every time someone makes a decision, a little bubble appears off our universe parallel to their decision where somewhere along the line you could jump back into the other universe, change your decision, or merge the two. It's hopeful and opens a world of possibility.

Just a thought....

Stephie

SWAT Standoff

    So, a couple weeks ago I was driving home from dropping my sister off when I ran into a police roadblock. So I went around and tried to get home the back way and ran into half the neighborhood standing in the middle of the road. At this point I gave up, parked and walked the rest of the way home.
     I got home and shared the news, apparently they had heard some explosions. So, we looked it up--according to the paper's website there was a SWAT standoff. Apparently some guy beat up two women a couple weeks ago and escaped when the police tried to arrest him. Somehow he landed at his mom's place in our neighborhood, somehow the police found him, and everyone just had to stand in the middle of the road to watch them work.
     That night the SWAT team picked the guy up after filling the house with gas.
Justice is served!

Just thinking....
Stephie

Lucretia Borgia

     Long ago, in a far away land called Italy there lived a countess. Lucretia Borgia was a countess best known for poisoning the people around her.
     Her family was from Spain, and contained Popes, a saint, and the model for Machiavelli's Prince. Lucretia was the illegitimate daughter of a Pope. She was well-educated and twice-engaged by the time she was eleven. She eventually married an illegitimate prince in a massive ceremony.
     After a few years the family no longer supported Giovanni (her husband) and forced an annulment. She next married Alfonso of Aragon who is attacked and killed a few years later. Lucretia is devastated and marries for a third time to Alfonso of Ferrara, her final husband. They manage to make a partnership of it and she becomes more respectable.
     When her family fell from grace, Lucretia survived the scandal and became even more respected. All around her, people were falling like flies, but Lucretia made it through everything safely. While she is supposed to be the heartless murderer, it is her brother and father who poisoned the men around Lucretia.
     But why does everyone remember Lucretia Borgia as an evil poisoner? I hadn't ever heard of her brother or father until I decided to look further into her life, instead I'd heard that she was a princess of an Italian principality and a black widow. I recently learned from my brother that she's featured in the Assassin's Creed video game (and follows the stereotype of femme fatale). Where did all the mystery come from? and why doesn't someone debunk the perception?

Just a thought....
Stephie

Gettysburg--A Battle Over Shoes?

     So, in addition to the "Stuff Mom Never Told You" podcast I listen to, I listen to "Stuff You Missed in History Class" and I ran across their Civil War Series. The first episode is about the Battle of Gettysburg.
     Now for anyone who doesn't know, Gettysburg is considered the turning point of the American Civil War. Confederate General Lee had been moving further and further into the North when he came upon the Union Major General Meade near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It is also the battle with the greatest number of casualties in the war. The battle took place July 1-3 in 1863.
     It's kind of funny how it all started; Lee needed shoes for his men and heard there was a stockpile to be had in Gettysburg. The two generals of the Union and Confederacy didn't know where the other was so the entire battle was a coincidence and started because of shoes.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Glasses...

     Lately I've been getting headaches when I read (not fun for someone who loves their books as much as I do), so I decided to make an appointment with the eye doctor. It went well; they've decided that I've got good vision, the only problem is that my eyes work too well together.
     A normal person's eyes sit angled slightly away from each other when they gaze into the distance. Mine don't, they angle slightly toward each other. That'd be okay, but when things get closer your eyes point closer together to meet in the middle on the object. To compensate the lens within the eye tightens or loosens up to focus on the object. Where I start having trouble is that the lens in my eye wants to focus at the same rate as everyone else's eye (over-focusing) while turning in further. This causes eye strain and then headaches the longer I read.
     To help out with this, I have to wear glasses. The glasses help the lenses in my eyes relax to focus at the same point as someone who doesn't have the same "over-cooperation" problem my eyes have. The optometrist explained that the +1.00 on glasses means they force the lens to relax, and the -1.00 makes the eye tighten and focus. I've been wearing reading glasses for about a year now, much shorter than my best friend's fifteen years or my mom's thirty-some years, but now I get to wear them any time I'm reading or focusing on little things, or really anything up close.
     So far, it's helping. I've been on the computer for a couple hours and before that I read my book and I still haven't gotten a headache, whereas without the glasses I'd have a full-fledged, nap-requiring headache. I'm just a little wary about having to carry them around with me and worry about scratching the lenses. Oh, well... I'll figure it out eventually.

Just a thought....
Stephie

Columbia, California

     So I was off roaming around the country this last week and visited some family in Central California. It was great; there was a wedding, we went to see Magic Mike and Brave (two great movies for two completely different audiences), and we did the touristy thing and visited Columbia.

     Columbia is this great old-time mining town that has been preserved as a California State Historical Park. There are all sorts of things to do, including mining for gold, riding the stagecoach, making your own candles, watching the blacksmith at his craft, and watching the Nelson's Columbia Candy Kitchen make their homemade candies. We've been going as a family for years and still love to walk around and see the sights. My favorites are the Candle Courtyard and the candy shop. 

     At the Courtyard you can buy candles that have a basic shape, and dip them in hot wax to add color and your own unique spin on the candle. They have the traditional taper-shape and other shapes, like roses. It's great fun for kids, though you'll want to be careful with the wax . 

     Nelson's has a great selection of old-time candies: chocolate dipped honeycomb, fudge, divinity, hard candies in all sorts of flavors, jellies, lollipops, gummy candies, and even sugar free selections. Most candies are made in the shop, but there are a few that come from elsewhere. 

     There are other saloons and shops as well as street vendors. This last trip there was a cart selling old-fashioned root beer floats and lemonade and another with popcorn and other goodies. There's Brown's Coffee House & Sweets Saloon, the City Hotel, Kate's Teahouse, Columbia Booksellers & Stationers, and many other shops and eateries. 

     My favorite part of the town is that it started out as an actual mining town and has been restored. There are mini-museums throughout the town as well as a bowling alley from the 1800s and citizens dressed in era clothing. All the while, the town has grown up around its historical center and incorporated the park into the life of the town. 

     Columbia is a great place to visit for a touch of the California Gold Rush, but by no means the only attraction to the area. Nearby are Sonora, Jamestown, Angels Camp, and Murphy, California. Each have their own touch of history including Jamestown's Railtown 1897 State Historical Park. Stop by and enjoy what Tuolumne County has to offer. 

Just a thought...

Stephie

Social Media

     So I gave in this week and got a twitter. I have no idea how it's supposed to work, but I'm following nearly anything and everything that looks somewhat interesting. I was thinking that maybe I want a clever tag - you know, that name that other people reference you with. I asked my sister and she suggested an inside joke that we have. It was a clever name, but I wasn't sure people would get why it was attached to me. Another friend suggested that I use "theincrediblesteph", which would be alright, except for it just doesn't feel like me. In the end I just used my school-assigned e-mail username. It's not very clever, but I can always change it later if I want.

     But it got me thinking; there are so many different social media sites that we use to talk to each other and they've become a hassle. One of my friends got a position managing the social media for a non-profit and when she and I were talking about what all goes into it, I didn't realize how many different medias we use. Within the same conversation, another friend commented on how many applications he has on his phone dealing with things like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media. Why do we need so many? And why are the different platforms' interfaces so different? I would almost rather use something to keep track of them all for me. 

     We all act like we're so connected with each other because we know when Joe-Schmo finished his book (because of GoodReads) or when Suzy-Sunshine got a promotion (LinkedIn) or even when Molly and Mike got engaged (Facebook) but we don't know what's going on in their everyday lives. What does it matter if  Suzy got a promotion? The observer doesn't know how she feels about it: maybe she was going to quit, but now she feels an obligation to the company and can't follow her dream of backpacking through Timbuktu. 

     It feels like we've traded the deep and meaningful relationships with other people for the superficial knowledge of the overarching themes of their lives. I talk to my grandmother sometimes about why she's always writing letters. She receives at least one each day and they're all filled with day-to-day reactions and thoughts on what has happened. There's no question that Aunt Jean is frustrated at the neighbor kids because she writes out that they ran into her fence, learning to drive, rather than just posting a Facebook status that her back gate is broken. When did this shift from wanting to truly know another person to wanting to know about another person happen? 

     I've tried the whole writing letters to friends, but my generation just doesn't have time, or the energy, to write out a letter. It seems like we don't know how to make the connections anymore, simply because we share such little bits and pieces through our various social media. The bits and pieces are like a piece of a puzzle with letters and in-person conversations making up the picture from the box to put them into place. Social media will never make up for what it has taken away from us, but it is making strides to put the pieces in a recognizable pattern we can then read from. I still miss getting the whole picture. 

Just a thought....

Stephie

Imagination

     It's amazing to see how pop culture can take literary references and make them popular once more. I was watching Doctor Who this afternoon and Charles Dickens featured. Some of the greatest minds of all time re-imagined by our standards--Dickens starts out as a close-minded fool but learns to accept that the world is not as it has always seemed. The implication is that it wasn't until after he opened his mind to the possibility of angels and aliens and more that his writing took off.
     What does that mean for us? Sheldon, or probably Leonard, makes a comment about how science is focused on facts. We live in such a science focused world that we don't take into account the mysteries of the supernatural or just the unknown. And the people who do are considered crazy. Why can't we understand science and still allow our imaginations to explore the unknown? We've started to allow our minds to explore with shows like "Life After People," "Mega-Disasters," shows like "The Tudors," "Merlin," and even "Doctor Who," but they're mainly based in what we already know, or in myths from centuries ago.
     What happened to humanity's imagination? Will we ever be able to let our imaginations run lose, or will we be trapped between our nightmares and science forever? Shakespeare wrote: There are more things of heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. I hope we learn to accept that there will forever be things people don't understand, and things we don't need to understand.

Just a thought...
Stephie