Nudity in Combat

It has taken me a while to be able to get to this point, but I can now honestly say that, despite how intrigued I am by ancient Rome and Greece (Classics), I find that I just can't get into the subject. I truly enjoy the process of learning about life in ancient worlds, cultures, customs, etc., whether in the West or East, but the sole factor which must be present to allow me to remain interested in study of aforementioned ancient worlds, cultures, customs, etc., is the revelation of the fact that ancient peoples were not so different from myself. Until I can draw a connection between life at some ancient time and life currently, I find it challenging to remain interested. The prevailing feeling is, "It's over. It's done. Let's move on and live life right now." I have been hooked before, though; while learning about Tang Dynasty Chinese culture and life, I was hooked. I would now willingly take a course that exclusively outlines life in China during the Tang Dynasty.

I am in a Classics class currently. Not so hooked. Yet.

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10 weeks left in the semester/my undergrad career. I feel happy.

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I have only once been in an airport in China and, lingually speaking, felt comfortable in my life, and that was understandably when I moved back to the U.S. after living there for a year. I feel that the next time will be better than that one.

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I feel that it's not so much what we do with people that matters with regard to connection-making in it's most profound sense. It's the intangibles: music, theatre, the arts in general, the ways that we look at each other, how we speak (as opposed to what we speak) and the corresponding attitude toward one another- these types of things are connection-makers. Words are only the vehicle by which connections are made. And I feel that it is very nearly only those things which foster connections with others that are truly worth spending time on or putting effort into. This explains why seeing a movie with friends is not a fulfilling experience unless it is accompanied by time spent speaking with those friends, perhaps, before or after the viewing of the movie. This may explain why some teachers are better than others- they are establishing connections with students, thereby making their classrooms places worth going, making their classes become classes worth attending, allowing students to enjoy learning. This may explain why small talk is very nearly worthless and unhealthy unless it is followed immediately by a deepening of the subject of conversation; small talk seems to be the ironic antithesis of connection. It may play it's role, but that role is minuscule.

That's what I think.

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This makes me miss China.

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Observation: Old people writing e-mails put commas in hella weird places. I don't think comma rules have changed that much sense they were in elementary school.

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"I hate when pretty boys play lawyers (in film/TV); most lawyers are fat and ugly."

"I'm not going to subsidize your stupidity"

"I lose memories all the time, but it's not because of recreational drug use."

-Philosophy Professor

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Haley vs Deadmau5- Falling in Love with Brazil (Kaskade Mashup)

Yuri Kane- Daylight (ft. Melissa Loretta)

Tiesto- Kaleidescope (entire album, especially...)

Tiesto- Here on Earth (ft. Cary Brothers) and

Tiesto- I Am Strong (ft. Priscilla Ahn)

Kings of Leon- Only by the Night (entire album)

Sara Bareilles- Kaleidescope Heart (entire album)

Daft Punk- Alive 2007 (entire album)