Hear/Say

So part of “being a blogger” might include the excitement of how many people actually read your blog. This includes gloating over your Google Analytics numbers (although you might not truly understand what the numbers mean…)

One of my most popular posts is “Things That Disgust Me”, and ironically I think it’s popular only because Mario Lopez is on it. That sick sack of six pack abs has earned me some glory. I don’t know how to reconcile that with… *him*.

I saw this today:

Via merricat.tumblr: what-katie-did: spanielhearted:typed:whatsername2: joehhzeh:(via fuckyeahhappy)

…and it does make me happy. Number 1, for sure; Number 2, of course; numbers 3 and 10 don’t really happen to me, but I’d probably like it; Number 8 is irrelevant to me (in fact, most often I look up and it’s 9:11, and I remember 9/11… and feel sad); but I always pull a Number 4 and drive my friends/family crazy.

I just felt like making my own list– because things have been down lately. Some unfortunate events have occured and impacted the lives of those around me, and… well, it’s good to appreciate what little things you have.

WHAT I LIKE and what makes me happy, from the smallest to the biggest things in daily life:

. Naked alone time (ultimate freedom)

. When parallel parked cars are parked just so you can step up onto the curb with ease (and not look  like an idiot)

. String of green lights stretching out as far as the eye can see (and no cops in sight)

. Discovering new things to talk about with old friends

. Finding and using a precise word in a precise instance and with impeccable timing and delivery

. The evolution and recycling of a worthy inside joke

. Waking up to a fresh morning where you know exactly who you are

. Strangers who smile back at you on the streets

. Genuine e-mails from genuine friends

. An organized calendar

. When I laugh at myself because of how I’ve felt or what I’ve done in the past

. When you have the heater all to yourself

. Swaddling yourself in a sea of blankets

. When your tea or coffee is not hot enough to burn yourself but just hot enough

. Getting caught listening and singing to a song you normally would never listen to

. Stepping into a crisp winter day

. Finding the perfect table to lurk at a busy coffee shop

. Meeting someone new and interesting for the very first time

. Rare moments of laughing hysterically with more than one of your friends

. Cute snowboarding boys

. Passing out from a day of play

. When you remain comfortable the entire day because you were smart about layering

. In Mario Kart: When the shell you shoot goes exactly where you want it to

. Discovering a new favorite movie

. Really great beards. The ones that are thick and textured, not too groomed but perfectly hairy.

. When the juice you bought quenches your thirst, rather than make you thirstier

. Those moments where you can’t stop smiling

Enough cheesiness. Enjoy this:

<3
Graceee

… is where I am right now. AKA Odegaard.

There is a disgusting display of democracy (because of course, My Way is more Correct Than Yours) outside in Red Square– against abortion. Several middle-aged ladies are out there standing next to graphics of fetuses (and surrounded by a fence– my God, could you imagine the graffiti on those posters?) willing to barf up Christian values of saving those who are supposedly already sunken in sin. Well maybe not the last part, and I won’t get into the topic of Religion in general, but…

…If anyone’s read Freakonomics, they clearly unpack the correlation between abortion rates and future crime rates. The study done on abortion and crime was thorough and shows how Roe v. Wade drastically changed crime rates a generation later…

A hidden mechanism in my brain draws irrevocable parallels between PTSA and the church– maybe because I grew up in the suburbs of the Mid-West– and to them, I dedicate this quote of a book I’m working with for a project. Mostly because I know it would offend and shock their God-fearing, provincially narrow-framed opinions, and that makes me smile.

“In Timbuktu I once saw an Arab boy who could play a flute with his ass, and the fairies told me he was really an individual in bed. He could play a tune up and down the organ hitting the most erogenously sensitive spots, which are different on everyone, of course. Every lover had his special theme song which was perfect for him and rose to his climax. The boy was a great artist when it came to improvising new combines and special climaxes, some of them notes in the unknown, tie-ups of seeming discords that would suddenly break through each other and crash together with a stunning, hot sweet impact.” p. 122, Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs

Gracie

PS excuse my morose mood

So for my digital humanities course, I’m working on a quarter project inspired by Huxley’s Doors of Perception/Heaven and Hell.

What I want to emerge from the project:

“De-fetishization” of drug use/abuse through contextualizing the beginnings of drug culture in the 50′s and 60′s within political histoirical and socio-historical key political events and culture tropes.

What the project is:

Mapping the effect of mescaline and heroin on the brain and physiological effects beginning in the brain, I would like to illustrate these effects with the literary experiences of William S. Burroughs and Aldous Huxley in their books Naked Lunch and Doors of Perception/ Heaven and Hell

A time line of historical events may be included.

Anyway, that’s where my head’s been lately– check out this philosophy in Timothy Leary’s “How to Operate Your Brain”:

Trippy^max

Gracie