I know you were waiting for this...

More Gaga videos!

Don't even pretend like you're not gonna watch them. Because you are. And you're gonna love them. Seriously.

1) University of Oregon :

I wish I could be cool enough to be in an all-male a capella group performing Gaga songs.

2) America's Favorite Dance Crew :

These guys are SO.GOOD! And they really captured Gaga's essence, I think.

(PS. They won this round on the show!)

3) Troops in Afghanistan :

I'm pretty sure this is for reals.

And if I were to make a potentially non-PC, not-that-funny joke here, I'd say something like Sure don't need to ask or tell here! But I won't.

All this Gaga just makes me want to go daaaancing. Any takers? :)

(Thanks to Jimmy, Pica, and Trav for sharing these links with me!)

Letters from the LRC

Dear boy sitting at the computer across from me,

Forgive me for accientally playing footsie with you. Repeatedly. I just like to slouch.

Dear sadly inept library administration,

Please come to your senses and realize that this congested, ventless, non-air-conditioned room is full of 300 constantly buzzing eletric boxes spewing heat. Your solution of placing two fans in the back cools down the room as much as an ice cube would in a closed oven.

Dear whoever on campus is in charge of computer lab availability,

Why are there not more Macs on campus? Don't you want me to be able to do my homework? I'd appreciate it if you could fix this Mac shortage asap.




Dear creative nonfiction class,

The selections I will read tomorrow from my essays will not be very eloquent or witty or interesting. But I will bring warm cinnamon rolls, so please make me feel brilliant and original and hilarious.

Plus, some post-it advice:

Today,

I finished the crossword puzzle.

I stayed on campus and did homework for three hours more than I had to just to skip FHE that was being held at my apartment.

I had productive conversations with quite a few, quite intelligent individuals about what I hope will end up being my honors thesis.

I learned the word somnolent : "of a kind likely to induce sleep, a somnolent sermon" or "inclined to or heavy with sleep, drowsy."


So today, I'm feeling pretty good. But after running on 3.5 hours of sleep, I'm also feeling pretty somnolent. Glad I'm not feeling frazzled and chomped anymore, like this.

chomp-chompin' on tulle. source.

Why can't I figure this out.

Does my awareness, fostered by my English studies, of both the inadequacy and power of words make me any better or worse off at truly communicating with others?

Does it at least make me more critical or aware of my ineptitude?

Is it possible that there will just be people with whom it will always be impossible to truly communicate?

Why can't I fix it?

Can any of these questions be productive?

Will I ever be able to remove the shards of lightbulb glass and black pepper from my keyboard?

Can anyone answer my questions?

Well, for now, I have a date with my down comforter, legs bare of Sunday tights, and hopefully some wordless dreams.

photo source via here

Holy Holi?

I had mixed feelings about the Festival of Colors the day of, but I think I've come to terms with it now.

On one hand, we have

(1) dumb kids mindlessly taking part of an actually meaningful religious ritual, who don't care to/bother to really understand, thereby appreciate, thereby respect this different culture.

(2) another example of Western appropriation/romanticization/orientalism of an Eastern tradition (I think I saw "cultural rape" or another phrase akin to it used to describe this at some point)

But then again, consider that

(1) the whole idea behind Holi to begin with is carnival-esque in that it's all about stripping social distinction and forgetting imposed "rules" like that, so not following the "rules" and just throwing powder at everyone willy-nilly is in line with the spirit of Holi

(2) the founders of the Spanish Fork Hare Krishna temple, Caru Das Adhikary and his wife, are white and from California (at least most recently before they came to Utah), so how culturally authentic is this Holi anyway?

However, at one point the emcee? moderator? leader? the guy with the mic directing the color-throwing did make a comment about how yes, this is a great, colorful, fun event that photographers LOVE and get tons of cool pictures from, but he wanted to remind us that thereis deeper significance behind it all.

But let's be honest.

Most of the people were only there to take fun pictures. They were only there because it's fun to throw powder at people and to get powder thrown at you. They were only there for mindless senseless fun. The VAST majority, I would say were like this. Plus I saw a total of 4.5 brown (read: non-white, non-Mormon) people at Holi: 4.5 people who were actually culturally entitled to be part of the festival. I suppose most of the other tens of thousands who were there were content with being ignorant to the cultural richness behind it all.

So I guess I'm still torn after all.

Although I did, incidentally, get some cool pictures. Don't judge me please.

Was this just nonsensical rambling to you? Have any comments or criticisms?