The Evolution of Dance

This video is freaking awesome! Hahahah.

Suddenly, I Feel Peace

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell
The guilty pair, bowed down with care
God gave His Son to win
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song

The Love of God - MercyMe

Summertime and the Livin’s Easy

WRONG.

Summer officially started a week ago and I am dang exhausted. I’m currently taking two summer classes; Political Science and Women in American Society. Both classes are very interesting because I did register into these classes for fun, but both professors require a lot of reading/work (and they’re both 16-week courses crammed into 6).  I’m at school every Monday through Thursday from 10 AM to 5:30 PM and normally have a meeting or rehearsal after as well. The weather is scorching hot, so that doesn’t help either. But anyway, I don’t want to keep complaining. This summer is just staring off differently than I expected.

And, because my summer is already consumed with school, school, school, I’m going to leave this entry with a very encouraging quote I read in one of my Women in American Society readings:

“Becoming a better person meant paying less attention to the self, giving more assistance to others, and putting more effort into instructive reading or lessons at school. When girls in the nineteenth century though about ways to improve themselves, they almost always focused on their internal character and how it was reflected in outward behavior. In 1892, the personal agenda of an adolescent diarist read: ‘Resolved, not to talk about myself or feelings. To think before speaking. To work seriously. To be self restrained in conversation and actions. Not let my thoughts wander. To be dignified. Interest myself more in others.’”

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, Joan Jacobs Brumberg

Useless Consumer Product/Must-See Movie!

Final 1 = FINITO!
So, after my first final and running a few errands, I decided to go to the Santa Anita mall to eat lunch and stroll around. After a two hour long final, I did not want to think about anything serious/important. I just wanted to look at clothes or shoes and say whether they were pretty or ugly. For the first hour, I was able to accomplish my surface-leveled thinking. However, when I passed by this Armenian man standing next to a little cart in front of Hollister, I became bombarded with hundreds of thoughts. So, what did he do or say?

“Excuse me, miss. Take a look over here! A small straightener for your car!”
So, you’re probably wondering what the point of this entry is. “A small straightener for your car!” A SMALL STRAIGHTENER FOR YOUR CAR? What the heck? Who would need or even want to straighten their hair in the car? First of all, the name of their cart is Herstyler, which is #1. A lame name and #2. Somewhat sexist because they are only gearing toward women with the “her” in Herstyler.

I couldn’t help but think about the people that would actually buy that for their car. It just says more about our society and how the majority of our population cares about appearance way more than their own life and safety when it comes to driving on the road. Is a mini, portable straightener really necessary? I say just wake up earlier to straighten the hair. Anyway, I’d share more about what I was thinking, but it’d take a while. I don’t want to bore you with my lame thoughts.

—

Anyway, TOTALLY irrelevant, but I am so excited to see Wall-E! I just watched a few trailers/sneak peak scenes and it only continues to hype it up even more for me. All the past Pixar movies (Toy Story, Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo) were funny and had great story lines, so I’m sure this movie will be the same, if not, even better.

Wall-E is so cute! The movie is in theaters June 27, 2008!

That is all. Good day.

1984, 1985, 1987, 1959-1969, 2008

Kevin McHale and Robert Parish double-teaming Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during Game 1 of the 1985 NBA finals. Celtics won, 148-114.

Lets go, Celtics! Woooohoo! : )

I Feel Like This Right Now

3 More Months Until Departure

Four big final projects and two long, cumulative finals. I have two more weeks, but that’s the least of my worries (well, not really. I’m still pretty worried/stressed, but it’s not my biggest stress factor).

I was collecting some of my thoughts together a moment ago and I just realized that I have 3 more months until I leave for South Africa. THREE MONTHS. That might seem far away to many of you, but to me that is fairly short. I still have SO much preparation to do like: renewing my passport, raising money (I’m still short about $4,000), turning in more paperwork, taking millions of shots, etc. In addition to that, lately I’ve been feeling very dry and tired physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It’s not just because of finals coming up, but a mixture of many things. I can’t recall exactly what and why (because I really don’t know), but I feel like God is putting me through this because He wants me to be re-kinder my love, passion and knowledge for Him so I can give my all when I go to Africa.

But anyway, besides my constant worrying, I’m looking forward to some things to learn/do for myself when I’m there! With nothing to worry about academically (besides applying, I guess), I’ll be able to spend the time that I would normally use to do hw/study to do the things I want to do/learn! Here are a couple:

Learn guitar (and be able to play and sing at the same time)
Write songs
Read through the whole Bible (within 9 months I am there) and analyze/research the text
Video/documentary updates
Photos, photos, photos!
Express my thoughts more by blogging about LIFE.

Yup. I’m really excited! Yes, some of those things I could have done or learned already, but I much rather want to be able to really devote myself to doing these things almost like like “have to do” tasks instead of doing them when I have time. Okay, I know, I’m weird.

Anyway, while I’m still here in CA for the summer, I plan to accomplish some things here, too!

Learn to skateboard!
Watch Wicked!
Finish my last two PCC classes with a BANG (meaning, getting A’s in both classes)
Famfriends, famfriends, famfriends.

I think that is it. Fairly simple.

P.S. Most of my updates will be in my AIM Adventures blog when I’m in South Africa. Subscribe to it! : )

“Git In The Gym, Son!”

I pay $31.99/month for my 24 Hour Fitness gym membership.

Around Fall ‘08 finals, I started getting really busy with school work/finals, so I decided to take a “little” break from the gym. Winter break comes, Winter ‘09 intersession comes, and Spring ‘09 semester comes and I’m still taking a “little” break from the gym.

It’s been about 5 months since I’ve gone to the gym on a daily/weekly basis and I’ve paid a total of $159.95 within those 5 months.

I think it’s time to “git in the gym, son!”

…as soon as I find my iPod and gym membership card. Hahahaha. SAD.

Mo Money, Mo Problems

I had some time to kill before picking up the kids, so I ended up going to Wells Fargo to grab a couple of coin inserts to organize my spare change. After separating and counting the quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies, and foreign coins (I have no idea why I had some), I ended up with $52.50! Amazing how I found over $50 with all the coins lingering around my room, hmmm?

Anyway, after counting all those coins, I couldn’t help but think about the issue of “money” and how our idiotic society conceives their ideas to distribute salaries within each profession.

According to the “Salary Wizard“, people with MD degrees (psychologists, pediatricians, family physicians, psychiatrists, anesthesiologists, dentists, surgeons, etc) make on average (also depending on the specific field) $76,000 to $440,000. The lowest is $76,000? That’s still a lot, right? Of course (at least I think so)! Doctors deserve to be paid that much because they’re physically and even mentally helping to maintain and/or restore human health.

It is true that we can say every single profession is needed and helps shape our world into a better and brighter place, but in my opinion, I think doctors are one of the most important professions needed. People are constantly getting injured and without the labor of the doctors, things would be very different and ugly today. Therefore, I believe doctors should be paid the most.

So, are they? Well… you probably know the answer. NO. You also probably know who does, right? Yes… the “Celebrities”. I found this article on Sports Illustrated written in July 2006 about the “The Fortunate 50“, the 50 top-earning athletes in the United States. The #1 top-earning athlete of the U.S. is Tiger Woods, with a total earning of over $97,000,000. What in the world? That’s $96,694,000 more than an anesthesiologist that makes $306,000/yr! That anesthesiologist makes .32% of what Tiger Woods makes! A little absurd? I think so. So you might say that Tiger Woods also gets that much because of endorsements, but even if I don’t include the endorsements, he still makes about $10,000,000, which then means the anesthesiologist would be making 3.1% of what Tiger Wood makes (I even rounded down Wood’s salary).

Anyway, I also found this really awesome and informative website, Visualizing Economics, by author Catherine Mulbrandon that publishes information about the US and World economy through graphs, charts and maps. Why is this website relevant to my entry? Well, in her “celebrities” category, you can find four entries about the 2006 Highest Paid Celebrities. I can’t even visualize all that amount of green paper. It’s ridiculous how much money “celebrities” earn. I also love Catherine’s tags under each entry which include: income distribution, US income distribution, US income inequality, income inequality, celebrity, super rich. Hahaha. Worrrrrrrrrd.

Be Kind

(Picture from Post Secret)

Word.