Merry Christmas!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I've had a lovely Christmas at home with the family. My brothers and I have a tradition where we all sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve, and in my family we keep our stockings by our beds rather than by our nonexistent fireplace. Amazingly, Josh let me sleep until after seven this morning, although he kept waking me up between midnight and three to tell me our stockings weren't full yet. Thanks a lot, kid.


Anyway, this year my parents gave me my very own digital camera (I've never had one before), quite a few new DVDs, and a beautiful gold cross. They did not give me The Sims 2: Nightlife for Mac, but it was under $25 on Amazon, so I went ahead and bought it for myself. Merry Christmas to me!


Now I'm recovering from my massive food coma. For breakfast, I had eggs, a cinnamon roll, and a piece of nut ring (a pastry my grandmother bakes and sends us every year) with cream cheese. For dinner, I had arroz con gandules, green beans, and yes, a little bit of pernil (pork roast to the non-Puerto Ricans). My stomach was not happy with me for ingesting meat, for the record. This is what I get for not eating meat since Thanksgiving, and specifically for not eating red meat since early in the semester (it's been so long I honestly can't remember when). I have had chicken a couple of times since I've been home, however. Puerto Ricans eat a lot of meat, and as a compromise with my mom I told her I would eat poultry while I was staying with the family.



Other fun things I've done this week:

• I went to see Tangled with Jackie, Steph, and the Birdsong clan. We ended up going to the 3-D showing because that was the time that worked for all of us. Now, I loathe 3-D and wish the whole silly fad would go away in a hurry, but it did not take away from Tangled's adorableness one bit. So cute! It did make me miss my once-Rapunzelian hair, though. 
• Later that day, we kidnapped Jackie and took her to the Forever 21 in Calexico because it was her birthday. Sadie and her sisters blindfolded her with a Strawberry Shortcake bandanna. It was hilarious.
• The Southwest High School Science Fiction and Fantasy Readers' Club had a reunion on the 23rd. We went to see Deathly Hallows: Part 1 again. I still really like it!
• Jackie spent the night and we watched Coraline together.
• 50% off sale at New York and Company! So many new earrings, and a totally cute jacket and pink top.
• Wrote a chapter of a story. Not saying anything other than that.
• The fam and I watched Inception between meal preparation today. It was my fourth time, Richie's third, and everyone else's first. Dad seemed suitably impressed, but Mom dozed through half of it and was upstairs checking her email for much of the rest. Oh well. She'll get to truly appreciate it sometime soon.

Well, that's been my week. Hope all of yours have been just as nice and relaxing.

Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noël, and Mele Kalikimaka!

I Went Outside in Short Sleeves Today...

... and it was glorious! I'm back in California for Christmas!



The reading project has begun! I was intending to start with The Great Gatsby, but I discovered to my considerable disappointment that the book I checked out of Clemons on Friday was in fact not the novel itself but a collection of essays about The Great Gatsby. Luckily, I had also packed a copy of A Wizard of Earthsea, so I still got to read something new on the plane. I'm only three chapters in at this point, though, and quite honestly I was bored stiff the entire time. However, Harry Potter has taught me that I should never, ever give up on a book before chapter 4, so I shall persevere.


I drove today for the first time in about four months! There's no need for me to have a car in Charlottesville, besides which I don't own one and probably won't for some time. Still, I happen to love a) driving and b) my parents' new(ish) Toyota Camry, to the point where I'm jumping at every opportunity I get to pick up one of my brothers from a friend's house or to go to the store. At least the Camry gets good gas mileage, so I don't have to feel too guilty about wanting to use the car so much.


Jackie and I went to Starbucks today and I nearly forgot that I can't use my Plus Dollars here. Heh. On the other hand, it was over 70 degrees. I can't remember the last time I regretted ordering a hot drink because it was too warm outside. Oh, El Centro.

Note to Self

Aida, the next time you volunteer for a charity venture organized by your roommate selling cookies outside Clemons in the rain, don't saunter out in ballet flats instead of winter boots. Bring your umbrella. Wear a scarf, gloves, and you know, socks. Try to remember that you're not in California anymore. Virginia has 20 degree weather and precipitation. You might as well act like you know that.
Love,
Aida


P.S. Guys, I can't feel my toes. Send help!

Surfacing from Finals Momentarily

Here is the one update you will get while I'm inundated with exams. I'm only stopping to write this because I'm about to go to bed and I happen to have a few extra minutes. Finals are in full swing at UVa, which means I've been keeping strange hours and stranger habits. Today, for example, I didn't leave my room until past 5 o'clock, because I was studying for French and subsisting on Special K bars and half a hummus and feta lavosh. Yesterday I was in Study Camp at Wesley, conjugating verbs on post-it notes. The day before that I delivered care packages, researched Cesare Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments for my anti-torture paper, and took a four-hour study break to indulge in some girlish squealing over my fictional boyfriend, Gilbert Blythe, with the Sara(h)s. And Tuesday night I assigned various mostly food-inspired colors (maraschino, cayenne, honeydew, tangerine, etc.) to Supreme Court cases while studying for Constitutional Interpretation with Matt. I cannot tell you how excited I am to be going back to California in a week, where it's 70 degrees every day and there's no homework. Speaking of which, it's supposed to snow on Monday. I don't know how I feel about that.


Constitutional Interpretation final tomorrow. At least I'm not getting up before 11.

1,000 Pageviews!

Thank you to everyone who has been following my blog! It always makes me pleasantly surprised to hear from friends that they've read it. I hope you've enjoyed your daily (er, sort of) dose of Aida.


The first book for the winter break project has been chosen: The Great Gatsby. Exam time is nearly upon us here at Mr. Jefferson's University, so no doubt I shall be busy, but I shall hopefully obtain a copy by the time I hop on the plane back to California. Get excited!


In the meantime, I was thrilled to find Avatar: The Last Airbender on sale for about $23 a season on Amazon, which is about 60% off! My love for ATLA is so great that I went ahead and bought Book Two, even though I'm a broke college student who should be spending money on textbooks instead. But then, what would I procrastinate with next semester? Not that I really need an excuse to procrastinate, as daydreaming works just as well as a DVD. Heh.


Okay, better put the nose to the grindstone. Those civil rights terms aren't going to define themselves.

Possible Winter Break Project (Your Input Required)

I need your help in my quest to retain my literary spark. My goal is to read five new books over winter break, in addition to revisiting some old favorites. Here is where you come in. Please tell me which of the following books are worth reading (and feel free to recommend others). 


Watership Down by Richard Adams
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Vanity Fair by William Thackeray
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy


More on this to come later. Stay tuned!

Entertainment 2010: November 1 - November 30

So this is what I spent my time not writing for NaNoWriMo doing! Interesting.

November Update

Movies (1st viewing)

Black Swan (special advanced screening FTW)

Freedom Riders (the documentary)

The first two episodes of the 1983 Mansfield Park miniseries

The Secret of Kells

Jesus Christ Superstar

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (in Swedish)

Indochine

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

The Mission

Dead Poets Society

Movies (repeat viewing)

Beauty and the Beast

Mansfield Park (2007)

Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Inception

Back to the Future

Books (new reads)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Books (rereads)

None

Plays (new section!)

Hair

Carousel

If I have time in the next few days, I may post a review of Mockingjay or The Hunger Games trilogy as a whole. I tore through it in less than a week, after valiantly reading the first five chapters at Mark Oshiro's pace, and I certainly have some things to say about it. On a related note, it does feel good to go through books my usual way again. I'm a fast and prolific reader, but I was worried that college had somehow taken that out of me. Not so, as The Hunger Games proved. Yes!

Monday Night Update

November has been the month of craziness for me, but I realized it's been nearly three weeks since I last blogged, so here's an update in bullet point form, complete with visual aids, for you.

• I have had to write two complete papers, a composition, and an outline this month. Woe.
• On the other hand, the last weekend I spent entirely in Charlottesville was the 5th through the 7th. I went to DC for a day with a group from Brown to see a production of Hair at the Kennedy Center on the 14th, and last weekend I went to Richmond on a short retreat with Wesley.
• I have finally finished a book (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)! And I watched the film adaptation in Swedish. It made me feel cultured.
• I have started reading The Hunger Games, because Mark of Mark Reads Harry Potter fame selected it for his next project. So far it's interesting, although I totally called Katniss's sister being picked instead of her. I'm only one chapter in as of this writing - we'll see how this changes during my Thanksgiving travels!
• NaNoWriMo is a big time failure for me. I've maybe written 500 words. Yeah, sorry, just haven't had time. Maybe I'll get more done during winter break.
• I'll be going to South Carolina in March. I'm pretty excited; it'll be a Wesley mission trip and we're driving through North Carolina to get there, so I'll get to see two states I've never been to before. Score!
• Oh, and this happened:

   

Deathly Hallows: Part 1 review is also happening, but I need to see the movie again before I write it. I had a great time at the midnight showing, though!

Happy Turkey Day!

Entertainment 2010: October 1 - October 30

Entertainment 2010: October Update


Books: New Reads
None


Books: Rereads
Persuasion by Jane Austen


Movies: First Viewings
The Social Network
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
The Joy Luck Club
How to Train Your Dragon


Movies: Repeat Viewings
Lady and the Tramp
The Sound of Music (the first act, anyway)
Up
A Bug's Life

Faith

I am

• a Christian
• a believer in life after death in some capacity
• accepting of evolution, other scientific facts
• certain that these are not contradictory stances
• willing to question
• deserving of respect

I am not

• simple
• stupid
• weak-minded
• gullible
• in need of a crutch

Life Sucks and Then You Die

Congressman Tom Perriello lost his reelection bid. I suppose it was incredibly optimistic of me to even hope we had a chance, after the healthcare vote (because people in the 5th district who don't live in Charlottesville are crazy and don't recognize a good thing when they've got it), but I honestly thought that his willingness to act according to his principles and be honest with his constituents would appeal to moderates and even some conservatives. I guess a little sense in American politics is too much to ask for.


I hate - HATE - that this election will be seen as a repudiation of President Obama's policies. People must really have short memories, or they would remember how awful things were under Bush. Look, economic recovery takes time. And I know, American people, that you're used to getting your way, right away, when you want it, and acting like spoiled children when you don't, but politics doesn't work that way. It is an inherently slow process. And you know what? That's a good thing. And if you think that Republicans are somehow going to get you your jobs faster, you're delusional. They're in the pocket of corporate America, and they certainly don't have the interests of the lower and middle classes at heart. This is the party of tax cuts for the rich and cutting unemployment and welfare benefits for the poor. As much as they claim to care about the little guy, they do absolutely nothing that will help him out.


The thing is, though, if you're willing to buy the Republicans' bullshit, you deserve the ineffective and deadlocked government you will get, with a Republican House (and Speaker Boehner, gag me) and a Democratic Senate, with a Democratic president that will most assuredly veto any remotely conservative legislation. Absolutely nothing will get done in the next two years, and it's your own damn fault, gullible American public. It's called patience. Try it sometime.


I am so unbelievably frustrated right now. Eff this.

Twenty

Thank you, my dear roomie!

Sanity Stories

I'm planning on writing a more extensive recap of my experiences at The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, but to finish off my October project, here are some of the more interesting snippets of the day.

• When we were waiting for a train at the West Falls Church Metro station, some man came up behind me and put his arms around me, thinking I was his significant other. Obviously the mistake was cleared up very quickly, but as my friends pointed out, I was a lot shorter than his actual girlfriend/wife. Which begs the question: was he under the impression I was perhaps the woman he was having an affair with? I shall never know.
• It was Mary Lacy's birthday. When we finally got onto the Metro, our car filled up quickly. We decided it would be a good idea to start singing happy birthday to Mary Lacy in the middle of a packed Metro car - and all the complete strangers around us joined in! We were all full of the excited rally-going spirit, I guess. It was cool.
• When we walked onto the mall, we were handed pamphlets by vegans and peaceful Muslims.
• The one line of the Stewart/Colbert song I heard quite clearly? "Straight men who like Glee."
• We heard that UVa football had won their game as we got back to West Falls Church and started climbing the stairs of the parking garage. We burst out into "The Good Old Song," to the bewilderment of the people using the elevator beside us.

More to come soon. In the meantime, we can dwell on the fact that my 20th birthday begins in less than 5 hours (sort of; I wasn't born until about 3:30 in the afternoon in Kansas City, but November 1 is my birthday all day). And November is NaNo month. Let's see how I do!

Final tally for the October Project: 25/31 days.

I <3 MUSLIN!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

It's only a day away!


I'm staying at Chez Mary Lacy in NoVa. Her parents are gracious hosts, the food is excellent, and the house very pretty. Tomorrow is rally day! I'm enjoying a little Phineas and Ferb before bed and then am anticipating an excellent and fun-filled day.


Time to restore sanity and keep fear alive!

Perriello, the President, and Turning Twenty

My poor liberal heart is about to explode with sadness that I cannot go to the Obama rally on Friday (although I'm still REALLY REALLY SUPERCALIFRAGILISTIC EXPIALIDOCIOUSLY EXCITED about this weekend). The entire UDems meeting was about how there are volunteer spots open and there are going to be at least 7000 people at the Pavilion and the president of the United States will be on the downtown mall, stumping for Tom Perriello, the only Congressman he has devoted an entire rally to this election season. Why can't Time Turners be a real thing? Whyyyyy


On the other hand, you should definitely watch Comedy Central tonight. President Obama will be on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart at 11 PM and Congressman Tom Perriello will be on The Colbert Report at 11:30 PM. 


I will have no life on Tuesday, and may be skipping class for the first time this semester. There goes my perfect attendance record, but it's for a good cause. Perriello '10!


My birthday is on Monday. What is this madness?

See this guy? Go vote for him!

Political Crazy Week

This afternoon at work, I was checking my notifications and received a pleasant (understatement of the century) surprise: President Barack Obama will be visiting Charlottesville to stump for Congressman Tom Perriello this Friday! 


The bad news? I can't be there.


The good news? I can't be there because I'll be on my way up to NoVa with Mary Lacy, and possibly Lauren and Elizabeth, to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive the next morning, followed by what sounds like an absolutely wonderful weekend at Mary Lacy's house.


(I still really wish I could see the president, though, because he is one of my heroes and I have never seen him in person before. It's the tragedy of having lived in The Middle of Nowhere El Centro, California in 2008. Why does a Democrat need to go to California in an election year? Answer: He doesn't. And he certainly wouldn't waste his time in the Imperial Valley if he did.)


Still, this is Virginia. The president won the commonwealth, with its thirteen electoral votes, by 6.29% in 2008. It was the first time it had gone for a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. I'm guessing President Obama wants to try to hold on to Virginia in 2012, and he should definitely come by Charlottesville at some point that fall. Michelle Obama campaigned right down the hill from my dorm in September 2008, and I'm pretty sure her husband was in Cville and/or Albemarle on multiple occasions. This Friday will not be his last visit here, I'm quite sure.


And anyway, how many times are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert going to be having rallies on the Mall, conveniently located just two hours from me? When am I going to have this opportunity again? Never, clearly. And while I still get starry-eyed over the president, I won't pretend some of his decisions haven't really bothered me. Mostly because I don't think he's been liberal enough, or he hasn't done enough to discontinue insane Bush policies. But hey, I'm practically a socialist (only half joking), so I fully admit that my own expectations are probably markedly different from that of the average American. What I'm trying to say is that while President Obama has sometimes disappointed me, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert rarely, if ever, do. They are satirical love.


Speaking of Jon and Stephen, tomorrow will also be a banner day for Democratic politics and their shows, because President Obama will be on The Daily Show and Congressman Perriello will be on The Colbert Report. I'm super excited for the watch party on the Corner! There's nothing like watching your favorite political figures with your favorite University Democrats by your side.


So, awesome day tomorrow, plenty of GOTV as the week goes on, and the Rally/March on Saturday. I really cannot think of a more perfect way to spend my time. Not to mention Wesleyanos are amazing, and this weekend at Chez Mary Lacy should be bomb. Here's to a birthday week for the record books!

Nearly There

In the sense that a) I will be 20 in a week, b) The Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive is this Saturday, and c) the semester is already more than half over, which means I need to get much Sotomayor research done, stat.


Not much else of note. Had another successful prayer partner outing today (hi, Sarah!) and my West Wing class was particularly enjoyable, apart from the questionable episode choice (season five's "Access"). Looked particularly cute. My parents sent me a cross for my birthday and I've been wearing it every day since the package arrived.


A demain.

Whirlwind Weekend

I have now failed to submit posts for four of the thirty-one days in October. This time around, however, I think I had a good excuse:

Michelle, who I have known for nearly ten years now, came to visit me for the weekend. She arrived late on Friday night and would be leaving Sunday morning, so of course I had to take her to all the Charlottesville and UVa essentials:

But there was also some downtime, in which we did laundry college-style ($1.50 per machine, running back down to the laundry room to take care of my clothes right away, so no one pulled my underwear out of the washing machine to put their stuff in before I got there), watched The Joy Luck Club (such a great movie), and talked until three in the morning.

I didn't start on my homework until after church tonight, but all in all, I would say it was a weekend very well spent.

What I Want for My Birthday

I didn't do as well on my Constitutional Interpretation test as I thought I did (83/100, which while respectable is not up to my standard, especially as it's my favorite class and I'd really like to get an A in it). So, to cheer myself up, I'm going to write a list of what I would like for my birthday, Monday, November 1.

• A magical shifting of the calendar so my birthday doesn't fall on a Monday
• World peace
• Hogwarts to be real
• My own personal Ron Weasley/Gilbert Blythe/Jim Halpert/Fitzwilliam Darcy/Henry Tilney/Michael Moscovitz/Sam Seaborn (a male harem of fictional characters, basically)
• A really awesome Vlogbrothers video
• A's in all my classes
• To meet J. K. Rowling
• To meet President Obama
• A love note from a secret admirer (or, you know, someone to finally notice me. It would be nice, as I'm about to be 20 and I haven't had a boyfriend yet)

Less facetiously:

• A Perriello victory the next day
• Sunshine, temperatures in the high 60s or low 70s
• Puerto Rican food
• Hugs from all my friends
• One of those magnetic poetry sets from the bookstore. I have always coveted them.
• Someone to wish me happy birthday in chalk near Brown
• An ice cream cake, preferably mint chocolate chip
• A trip to the spa
• To be kidnapped by friends and taken somewhere awesome (but returned at a reasonable hour because I have a 9:30 the next day and it'll be Election Day)
• Pleasant surprises
• To feel loved and appreciated

In other news, Michelle is coming tomorrow! I'm really, really excited!

Restless Hearts

Every Wednesday night, I attend a small group at Wesley called Restless Hearts. It's easily the highlight of my week; I love all the group regulars and find the subject material both challenging and stimulating. Perhaps strangely, perhaps not, I find it's easier to be the me I want to be when I'm there. Sometimes I feel like, in my everyday life, I'm too quiet, and I've had people tell me I don't smile enough. But when I'm at Restless Hearts, I'm engaged and interested, and I try to answer every question. And I laugh often, because I happen to be doing the study with a group of very funny people. I like that feeling, so even when I'm stressed or my mind is elsewhere, I try to make it to Restless Hearts just so I can spend a portion of the evening truly being in the moment. Does that make sense? I'm not really at my most articulate at 11:30 at night.


This week we discussed feeling hungry for God and discovering our true names. Both subjects resonated with me. I'm a Christian, but sometimes I find it difficult to keep the faith, and my belief in God is something I struggle with. Naming, I think, goes right along with being hungry for God. It's all a voyage of discovery. I'm on a journey to find my vocation, my calling in life, and certainly I think the Christian faith is a big part of that journey. When I actually find that calling - and I don't know if I'll ever fully find that, or if there is just one set vocation, because I think people are called to different things at different times in their lives, and vocation is a lifelong process - I'll also discover part of my Name. And see, I'm quite particular about names. They should be strong, and they should have meaning. I'm named Aida after my grandmother, who died not long before I was born. It was my mother's tribute to her mother, and now that I'm older I can understand that better. My name is still constantly mispronounced (not Ada, like the counselor at my high school graduation decided so vexingly to announce when it was my turn to walk across the stage, or Aída, like Verdi's opera, but Aida - phonetically I-duh - like you might expect your great-aunt to be called. Except it's not spelled Ida, because that is nearly as dreadful as Anne without the e. Anne Shirley, as you might have guessed, is my kindred spirit), and misspelled, but I've come to appreciate it for what it is. I hope that when I hear my true Name, I'll be able to recognize it, accept it, and eventually, embrace it.


While I'm at it, I feel like much of Madeleine L'Engle's work addresses a similar subject matter. If you haven't read any of her books, please do give her a try. She was amazingly talented, and I don't think I've ever seen any other author write so brilliantly about love, loss, and vocation. She might even be better than J. K. Rowling, although the Harry Potter books will be my favorites forever and always (and Rowling is quite brilliant about love, loss, and vocation herself, just in a different way). The Time series is great, if a little strange, and specifically brings up the topic of Naming. I think my favorite L'Engle is A Ring of Endless Light, though. A more beautiful book you really cannot find.


Had an excellent day today, incidentally. I got an A on a history paper I thought I'd bombed, lost two pounds without having been to the gym for a week, had a great workout tonight, really enjoyed both Constitutional Interpretation and my West Wing class, and got confirmation from my friend Michelle that she'll be spending the weekend with me. Things have been difficult for the past two weeks, but today made up for it. Praise God! 

Tuesday

Such a creative title, I know.


Pretty normal day today. Had a minor freakout when I woke up because for some reason I thought it was past 9:30 and I was late for French, but all was well (it was actually 8). My brain tells me weird things when it's half-asleep. There was a TA lecture on Africa in Foreign Policy of the United States, then I went to work, where Leslie sent me on a mission to find images from a book on reserve in the library. I don't know about you, but I always feel more purposeful when I'm wearing a thumb drive around my neck.


Arrived for History of the Civil Rights Movement fifteen minutes early, so I treated myself to the most delicious turtle cookie I've ever had (if I don't think about you, you don't exist, calories). Professor Bond lectured about the Freedom Riders and then had the class participate in a sit-in workshop. He assigned the roles, so I ended up playing a police officer (because that's who you'd really want to be in a mock sit-in, haha). It was actually quite interesting, and it made me appreciate how lucky I am to have Professor Bond as a teacher. It's one thing to lecture about the civil rights movement based on what you've been told in the history books, but it's quite another to lecture about the civil rights movement based on your own personal experiences living through it and working in it.


Looking forward to my West Wing class tomorrow, as Professor O'Brien is lecturing. Also, my mom told me my birthday package was on its way, which of course filled me with fiendish glee. Goodness, I can't believe I'll be twenty years old in 13 days. Being a twenty-something sounds so sophisticated. Of course, that's what I thought about turning 18, and even becoming a teenager many moons ago. Still, you don't turn twenty every day.


Am pleased with the progress of my October project so far. I hope NaNo goes this well.

Another Day

The Good

• Hummus and feta lavosh at the Pav
• Constitutional Interpretation lecture
• Dinner with my prayer partner, Sarah (best part of the day)
• The progress I am making with my Sims
• A mostly clean room

The Bad

• Mistakenly going to a class that had been postponed until later in the week
• Mild insomnia last night, couldn't fall asleep until about 2
• Can't listen to NPR coverage about the midterms anymore, makes me too angry
• People are willing to vote for Republicans whyyyyy
• Missed Politics major dinner (just slipped my mind)

The In-Between

• Much homework to think about. History reading, Constitutional Interpretation paper as Justice Sotomayor.
• Birthday in two weeks ... no plans so far.
• coughcoughsurprisepartypleasefriendscoughcough

You Pierce My Soul

Better day today, largely because of:

Persuasion

Sense and Sensibility (2008)

Still feel a little like this, though:

Please be more awesome, life.

Escape

Whenever I'm feeling particularly morose about my own love life (or lack thereof), I like to pick up a Meg Cabot book and remind myself that there are successful relationships in the world. See, sometimes I find myself wondering if there is such a thing as true love, or if people are simply responding to biological impulses (to, you know, procreate). Then I have to laugh, because there's nothing I enjoy more than following relationship development in a piece of fiction. So, romantic love is one of the many Aida paradoxes; I'm not sure if it exists, but I like experiencing it vicariously.


Case in point: one of my favorite aspects of the Harry Potter series is the Ron/Hermione relationship. Obviously I read the books first for the amazing story and worldbuilding. The thing I probably cared about second most, however, was when Ron and Hermione were going to get together. It's kind of a silly thing to be so focused on, but there you have it. I have an embarrassing amount of Ron/Hermione fanart saved on my computer, which can make showing my friends my iPod pictures awkward, and they are pretty much my number one fictional couple, ever.


Then there's The West Wing, with the Josh/Donna storyline drawn out over seven seasons, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, the only piece of fiction I can think of where I didn't like the established canon relationship (by which I mean Kataang, as I liked all the others, even Maiko) and preferred another (Zutara). Anne/Gilbert, Elizabeth/Darcy, Han/Leia, Chandler/Monica, Lorelai/Luke (and Lorelai/Max while that lasted), Michael/Mia, I could go on and on. Romantic relationships are pretty much the first thing I latch onto when I'm starting a new series, and I love to recognize the tropes and predict the prolonged issues the characters will have to work out before finally riding happily off into the sunset.


I don't know why this is. I just wish my own love life would turn out as happily as any of my favorite fictional couples.

Have a Nice Day

I love college, I love Wesley, and I love voting. That is all.

"He was swerving to avoid a tree." "And what happened?" "He was unsuccessful."

I'm playing Justice Sotomayor in moot court. ¡Somos boricuas! I can now embrace my Latina wisdom with much gusto. Yes!


I'm pretty sure I aced my foreign policy midterm, although I was not in my writing zone for the essay portion. I still think my argument came across well, and as we're being graded for substance and not style, I doubt I'll be marked down too severely. Now I have to finish my West Wing midterm and start researching my Sotomayor paper. The work of a college student is never finished!


Lauren came by chez moi tonight, and we watched the first two episodes of The West Wing, my favorite television series of all time, together. I'm thinking of starting a Wesley West Wing series, not unlike our Disney series, but I'll have to gage interest and see how that goes. There is never enough West Wing love in the world, though, so the more people I can get to watch it, the better. And Lauren knows all the best lines by heart, just like me! She's a great West Wing buddy, among other things.


Voting for my man Tom Perriello tomorrow! Democracy in action always makes me excited. I have a good feeling about this race... let's hope I haven't tempted fate by voicing that opinion aloud!

The Life of a Government Major

If I never read the words Rational Political Ambition Theory again, it'll be too soon. My foreign policy midterm is tomorrow, which means I have been producing flash cards like a fiend. I actually opened a second packet of them today! Hope this raises my college student cred. The mock court assignments in Constitutional Interpretation are also being decided tomorrow, during discussion section. I'd like to be either Ginsburg or Sotomayor (left-wing ladies represent, especially the wise Latinas), but I wouldn't mind taking a back seat during the trial and writing as someone like Thurgood Marshall instead. I'll be treated to a 10-11 page paper in any case, due the week after my birthday. I am filled with joy at the prospect, as I'm sure is readily apparent.


The Stewart/Colbert rallies are fast approaching! I'm very, very excited. This is the kind of thing I always wanted to do as a high school student, but never could because El Centro is in the middle of nowhere, where nothing ever happens (I wonder how I would translate that sentence into French - so many negatives!). Michelle is coming to spend the weekend soon - can't wait to take her all around UVa, the Corner, and the Downtown Mall! Mellow Mushroom is a must. We shall have a blast, which we would in any case, because we are fellow missionary kids and she is such a fun person to hang out with.


I want to do nothing but watch Gilmore Girls and Avatar: The Last Airbender this weekend, but I really ought to be doing Supreme Court research instead. Woe. On the other hand, prayer partner event on Friday (and no class)! And by that time, my midterm will be over.


19 days to 20!

On Notice II

Line six says "T-shirts with logos/designs on the back." That is such a pet peeve of mine, I don't have words to describe the extent of my annoyance. Even though I no longer have hair long enough to completely obscure a shirt, the idea of putting the larger, more prominent design on the back has never, ever made sense to me. Don't you want people to look at your front (and in the general direction of your face) when they're trying to read your shirt? Someone please explain the logic to me.

The Social Network

The Social Network

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

The Social Network is an excellent piece of filmmaking. It is absolutely an Oscar contender, and rightfully so. You may not like the characters, but they get under your skin and make you angry and even sad. When it comes down to it, The Social Network is not a story about the founding of Facebook; it's a story about the destruction of a friendship.

Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite writers. I appreciate his talent all the more for making me care about Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg, or at least their fictional counterparts. These are not the kind of guys I would choose to befriend in my own life, but they feel real. Zuckerberg is a class-A jerk, and he's both condescending and self-righteous. Yet I got the impression that he really wanted to be genuinely liked and accepted. I thought he deserved neither, I will hasten to add. Still, though, he wasn't entirely a black-hearted villain. My favorite characters have layers (hi, Zuko!), and while Mark Zuckerberg of The Social Network will never make the list, layers he did have. My sympathies lay far more with Eduardo (who is also not the type of person I would hang out with; rich frat boys who have meaningless casual sex with girls they just met in bathroom stalls are not particularly endearing to me), which to be fair was probably the filmmakers' intention. For some reason, he saw something in Mark that no one else did. The first time we see him, he hurries up to Mark's dorm to ask if he's okay after a break-up. Eduardo the character seems to me to be a good person who was just in over his head, and whose best friend ultimately cared more about fame and fortune (and proving to his ex that he's the better person, which he absolutely isn't) than he did about him. There is clear hurt in his face during his deposition scenes with Mark; he's trying to understand why things turned out the way they did. Mark isn't really his enemy, but he stomped all over their friendship, and now there's a lawsuit and things between them will obviously never be the same again. It's a fascinating character study if nothing else.

My one huge beef with the movie was its portrayal of women. Apart from Mark's ex-girlfriend Erica Albright and Rashida Jones's character, I'm hard-pressed to come up with any examples of smart, capable female characters in The Social Network. Mark's sexism is particularly rage-inducing. He sees himself as superior to Erica. He talks down to her, tries to impress her with his vast knowledge, insults her school, and calls her a bitch on the internet when she breaks up with him. He then proceeds to hack into the webpages of each of Harvard's dormitories, steal girls' facebook pictures, and put them on a website for guys to compare their hotness. In what universe is this okay? Ours, apparently, but that's beside the point. Most of the rest of the women in the film are limited to being groupies or drunken partygoers. Eduardo dates Christy (after hooking up with her in a bathroom stall), who turns out to be utterly psychotic. Facebook is a boys' club; there are no women among its founders, and the one female intern who is given dialogue is treated only as a sex object by the male characters. It bothered me, and what's worse is that the film seemed to be implicitly condoning it. No. Just no. Women are people, not sex objects, and they're just as intelligent as men, thank you very much.

So, my verdict on The Social Network? Well-written, well-acted, well-scored, with some troubling sexist attitudes. Go see it - and then talk about it. I do hope it wins Aaron Sorkin an Oscar. And I really hope Mark Zuckerberg is not really that big a jerk in real life, because I use Facebook far too much and I don't want to financially support a misogynist.

8.5/1o.