In the Rain

peripatetic \pair-uh-puh-TET-ik\, adjective:

1. Of or pertaining to walking about or traveling from place to place; itinerant.
2. Of or pertaining to the philosophy taught by Aristotle (who gave his instructions while walking in the Lyceum at Athens), or to his followers.
3. One who walks about; a pedestrian; an itinerant.
4. A follower of Aristotle; an Aristotelian.

I think I am peripatetic. I wander and work, wander and study, wander and take pictures. It's nice.

Who Needs 'Em

I sit in my chair, looking down four stories to the bricks, and wonder: Why does anyone ever pay $2 million for a playground? All these kids really need to have fun is a paved/bricked/cobbled area, covered in leaves and leftover rain.How different these steps look with college students utilizing them. Standing, talking, rushing. Whatever happened to sliding, running and laughing?

Fall Study

Artificial and Natural VegitationHalf and Half

Favorite Colors

What Dreams

People sometimes speculate or throw about theories regarding dreams.
If you have a favorite, have a go at this:

I was at a birthday party for this girl I know - it was as slumber party. For some reason her mom was in the living room with us (it was supposed to be her mom, but she actually was, in real life, the mom of another of my friends). And Josh. After a lot of boring details, it came to about 3 or 4am, and there was a knock on the door. The side door. And who might it be but John Kerry, trying to break into the house. BUT - he did not in any way resemble John Kerry, but rather, Benjamin Clark-Mitchell. Yes. Ben/John breaking into the house. Somehow we made him go away, but that is not important so I don't remember. The curious part is the Ben as a politician / politician as a robber part.

Hypochondri-Anatolia

Well, Stuart has a little glitch and freaks out. I think he's a hypochondriac. No big heart attack or anything. Good grief. But no matter, I'm still just happy he works. Silly thing.

As much as I complain about all the papers and assignments I have, it really is quite wonderful learning all the things I'm learning. Today I have immersed myself in Turkish history and culture. Very enjoyable. Since 4 years ago when I took the Western Survey (Art History) I have been interested in Turkey. In the first section of the survey I was introduced to the Haghia Sophia.
In a word: amazing.
It sparked my interest in Turkey, if nothing else but to make me put Istanbul on my top 5 places I would really like to go. It was built in the Justinian era, under a (somewhat) Christian rule. It was rebuilt in part due to earthquakes, and added on to due to the course of history, but it is still primarily the same as it was when it was built. This place is huge. And beautiful. I love the thought that something so beautiful, powerful, massive and inspiring was built for my King. As is the unfortunate destiny of so many beautiful places of worship, it has been reduced to a mere museum. Like Turkey itself, the Haghia Sophia has experienced a kind of ridiculously diverse history, and, as a museum, stands for a little bit of everything with the Bible as an insuppressible foundation.

Fingers and Toes

I was pondering the phenomena of how inactivity seems to lower one's body temperature when I realized I had slightly wet socks on, leftover from my brief stand on the corner of Broadway and Hall in the pouring rain. I walked into my room to remedy this misery, but forgot my mission, distracted by the cold, and put on my hot pink fleece pants instead. And grabbed a second mug of SpiceTea. This worked for a bit. Until I decided to post pictures and write a paper. Typing always leaves my fingers frozen. Hm. Still cold er.
Then my mom came in and announced the heater hadn't been coming on and the house was 60 degrees. Ohhhhh.
My socks are still wet.

Eek!

[I would fix the red eye on these photos, but I don't have a program for it on my parent's computer, and.... sadly, Stuart is rejecting his heart transplant and is currently in a coma. Or, at least, refusing to turn on. (It goes something like this: compaq screen, bluescreen, windows screen, black screen with words, compaq screen, black screen, windows screen, blue screen... you get the picture.)]

But!
There it is: proof of a fantastically fun party. I was impressed greatly by my friend's costuming abilities.
Amazing.
Rad.
Amazlingly rad.

Surreal

I hopped on the bus at a different stop than usual, a good third of the way down the line. I walked to the back, as is my good citizenry custom, and promptly engrossed myself in Under the Jaguar Sun. The timing of the line already disoriented, I lost myself in a London of the 1950s or '60s. Sensing myself emerged from the forest of cement and glass and steel, I glanced up to find myself on the bridge, face turning first to one window then the next in unison with all the other passengers, all surprised at the sunset. Sunsets are always beautiful from the bridge, even if they are invisible, smothered by clouds or purpled by smog. This evening's was circular - hence the looking around occurring as I looked up. All around the city was a darkish pink ring. A sunset for all people, no matter the easterly direction of their window or movement. A sunset everywhere you looked. It gave the particular sensation of being on the most western edge of the world.
I fell into my book again in hopes of finishing it before I reached my stop. So engrossed was I that I almost didn't make the connection between my location in the line and the necessity of pulling the yellow cord.
Upon getting off, the world shifted again, not to the most westerly point of all points, but to the place where all bus 8s converge. Three busses in a row stormed by: 8, 8, 8.

Happy Sigh

I just had to turn up my music to hear it over the rain. Such a lovely mix of soothing sound.

In the Name of Homework

"For quite a while already, a procession of motorbikes and cars and bicycles and children had been following the tree that was moving about the city, without Marcovaldo's becoming aware of them, and they were shouting: "The baobab! The babobab!" and with great "Ooooh's!" of wonder they watched the yellowing of the leaves. When one leaf dropped and flew off, many hands were raised to catch it in fight."

-from "Marcoaldo, or The seasons in the city", Italo Calvino

*Kronk Scared Face*

You get a weird variety of results when you search the library catalogue for "veil".

Dia de Ecuador

Today felt like Ecuador day. You know those days that feel themed? Like the stars aligned and there was a cosmic theme party? Well, today I found out that one of my classmates grew up in Ecuador and Costa Rica. And I was wearing my beautiful, soft alpaca scarf from the amazing Pamela Joy. So that's only two things, but still, nothing else was really consistently interesting today - except that for the second day in a row my second class of the day was cancelled. And I'm watching my second documentary of the week. Maybe I was wrong and it was "Seconds Day".
Oh well.

"Seven months after President Bush, flanked by a "Mission Accomplished" banner, declared the Iraq war over, British Journalist Sean Langan singularly chronicled events and interviewed parties on both sides of the war. Along with footage of suicide bombers and various battles, Langan's gripping documentary features interviews with both resistance fighters and American Troops, providing a unique perspective of the war from both sides."

This is what I am watching for homework right now. I had an assignment to choose a documentary on the Middle East and write a response to it. Most of the documentaries I came across were just war ones and looked rather unpleasant and, how can I put it - propaganda. But then I found this one. So far it is interesting and thought provoking.
I don't like war, but I like documentaries.

Now I Know.

I could be a political strategist:

It won't work.
People will die.
There will be an uprising, perhaps a coup d'etat.
People will blame others.
There will be a huge World Bank debt.

And I request a salary of $1.2 million per annum with 2 months vacation.

Thank you.

Art on a Saturday

What do these images have in common?
(This is you little weekend pop quiz.)

Been a Little While

...since I posted a "good trivial things" list.

So.
Good Things:

-The Police (music, not institution).
-Bargains (Buying $100 worth of clothes for just over $5).
-Sunshine and news of snow.
-Josh and Austin and World of Warcraft.
-Natasha saying "Oh - I love sewage." with so much passion.
-A clean room.
-A free evening and day tomorrow (to fill with 3 papers and a lot of reading).

Almost Awkward

You know those moments - we all have them - when you find yourself so intently staring off into space that all of a sudden your face is unbreakably transfixed in a look of possession: the face straight ahead, the eyes wide and glazed, the eyebrows slightly arched, forehead wrinkled. Your mind then resurrects before your sensibilities and you have a strong sensation of being zoned but have no faculties for fully awaking into reality, space and time. And then you're back, blinking and mildly confused, wondering what you missed and who noticed.
During class this morning I caught someone across the room from me frozen in this state. His features grew more and more exaggerated and comical till I almost started to laugh. In my comfortable state of listening, not quite bored yet fiddling with my paper and pencil, I proceeded to make a quick almost anime style sketch of him in his humorous state. Then I had a sensation of my classmates on either side noticing my doodlings. A sudden sense of fear that they might recognize him and realize my exploitation of his tiredness, I quickly turned my page over and resumed my squiggles and squares on the other side.

October Afternoons

This is how I feel
about the rain this
after noon.
And about my hair.
(Happy)

October Fridays

In the middle of all the books I have to read today, I started browsing the internet for pictures of hairstyles - just for fun and because I'm getting my hair cut today. Then I saw this and thought: Why don't I just get a wig?

Back To School

Allison's ABCs:

Adolf Gotlieb, Decent into Darkness
Barnett Newman, "Genesis"
Cliff's Notes
Damien Rice
Eat Drink Man Woman
Fernand Leger, The City
Gnu
Hanna Hoch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife
If You Want My Body
J. K. Rowling
Kandinsky, Several Circles, No. 323
Laszlo Malholy-Nagy, Light-Space Modulator
MLA documentation
New Yorker
Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein
q
Rauchenberg, White Series
SIGG switzerland
Town Lounge, Portland, OR
uk
Valerie Jauden, Tallahache
Warhol, 12 Cadilacs
x
Yves Tanguy, Mama, Papa is Wounded
z