This Would Be Going On While I'm Stuck In Wethersfield

     Glad Eddie Leeway was rescheduled to play this show nine days before I get back to Philadelphia (sarcasm)! My journalism teacher is working on collaborating with students to cover shows of every kind of genre happening in Philadelphia's music scene for a magazine. It'd be nice to be able to say that I have to go to certain shows. I'm thinking I need to look into being part of this magazine so I'll meet people to go with to stuff like this, you know, assuming I'll be around when the shows I want to go to happen.

Going Back To Philadelphia Today

     I haven't spent much time on my laptop since I got home and my blog has suffered a little bit because of it. This is the last day of Thanksgiving break though and this blog serves as another outlet for me to procrastinate on, therefore, there will be many a post following this one once I get back to Temple. Procrastination is inevitable - finals are coming up. Should I just kill myself now?

What Every High School Student Needs To Know

     This morning I rolled my lazy butt out of bed at around 1:45 P.M. and went out to get some breakfast or lunch or whatever it should be called when you eat at that time. On my way to the food court, I saw a group of high school kids and their parents going on a campus tour. This isn't the first time I've seen campus tours going on, but it's still so weird to me that I was taking tours of Temple about a year ago or so. And now I'd say I'm very accustomed to living here. One year doesn't even seem like it's that long of a time!

     To everyone still in high school, regardless of what you think now, things are going to change after you graduate. Not everything, but things will change. Ask anybody that's already graduated. It doesn't matter if you're going to school across the country, twenty minutes away from home, or if you're not even going to school at all. This is a thought that's hit me like a huge metaphorical truck as of late. 
     There aren't many things in my life that are the same now as they were a year ago. Some of these changes are good, some I could have done without. Although it's cheaper in most cases to go to school in-state, I know I would have been absolutely miserable if I stayed in Connecticut and went to one of those "suitcase colleges" where everybody goes back home on the weekends. I can easily say that Philadelphia is polar opposite from my hometown in Connecticut. Within the three months I've been here, I've met so many different types of people. I've learned new things about my personality and interests. I've taken the initiative to do things myself. None of these things would have ever happened unless I experienced life outside of the tiny bubble that is my hometown. The environment I'm living in has completely changed and that's exactly what I wanted.
     Along with the many good changes came the not-so-good ones. Some can be expected: I miss being able to cook my own food, being able to eat food and not having to anticipate a stomach ache afterwards, the amount of work I get per week is tremendously higher than it was in high school, and I'm not able to see my friends from home unless it's some kind of important holiday. I was beyond confident that my high school relationship would work out, but that hasn't exactly gone as I planned it would. I'm going to be vague about this in particular because this isn't livejournal and it's my business. Basically, if I could go back in time, I'd tell my naive high school self that I needed to be more open-minded about the possibility of certain things not working out the way I wanted them to.
     Anybody trying to decide where to go to school right now, I wouldn't say to go as far away from your town as possible. I'm completely aware that what's right for me may not be what's right for someone else. What I would say is to get out of the environment you're so used to living in, especially if you've been living in the same town your whole life. I personally felt like I'd be depriving myself if I didn't go extremely far from my hometown.
     One last thing I think is important is to not settle on a school that's close to your significant other solely because you don't want to be far from them. People need to learn to put themselves first when it comes to such a huge decision such as choosing where they're going to live for the next several years of their lives. If things are meant to be, they'll find a way. If things don't work out, you're stuck at a school that makes you unhappy. Please know that I think you're an idiot if that is/was the deciding factor for you. 


TL;DR - Brace yourself for changes because they're going to happen whether you like it or not, choose a school that puts you outside of your comfort zone, and if you choose a school just so you can be close to your boyfriend/girlfriend, I think you're stupid.

What I Hated About High School?

     The abundance of shitty teachers. Every year of high school I would have at least two classes I dreaded going to because I didn't like the teacher. In college, you don't get better grades if you go up to the professor and ask them how their day was. They'd be able to see right through all that ass-kissing. And that's the way it should be everywhere, not just in college.
     That was one of the many things I really hated about high school. To me, it seemed like some teachers would dole out good grades that were somewhat based on whether you were their favorite, and how you had done on previous papers. 

     My senior year, I decided to take a creative writing class. The teacher seemed like she was part whack job, part free spirit, and a little part teacher. There was really no point to sitting in class, all we did was listen to her lecture us about sentence structure, writing devices that authors use, and lots of other writing mumbo jumbo that everyone learns in fourth grade. But still, I showed up every single day, whereas, a favorite student of hers skipped class (and got away with it) on a regular basis.

     After being in that class for a while, I definitely noticed a trend going on with the grades of the kids who sucked up to this teacher compared to my grades. Huge difference. I've never been one of those students that sucked up to their teachers. I don't really care if my teacher had a good weekend or not or how their son's basketball game was, etc. I'm not going to sit here and obnoxiously claim that I think I'm the best writer in the world, but I know I didn't deserve C's and D's on the majority of my papers. This teacher never specified what she was looking for. One of our assignments was to write a story where you focus on character development. You could write about anything.

     Students that had an A- or higher were exempt from taking her final. I remember the last day of class before finals, she went up and down the rows telling people who had A's that they didn't have to take the final. I saw her making her way up my row, telling all my friends that they were exempt, then when she got to where I was sitting, all the way in the back of course, she gave me a weird look then turned her back.

     Sitting there taking her bullshit final was a time when I was super discouraged. It just didn't feel right. Looking around the room, I saw people that would regularly skip class and hand in papers late every time. I started to tell myself that I must be an awful writer if I actually tried on every paper she assigned, came to class, and I still had to take the final among people who didn't try at all.

     At the time of my college orientation at Temple, I was a communications major. Frankly, I was hesitant to switch over to journalism, which is what I really wanted to do. At orientation, I had to take placement exams - one for English and one for math. The English placement test was part reading comprehension, part sentence structure/grammar, and part essay. After taking that awful creative writing class in high school, I assumed I didn't do well on the essay portion because I was used to getting bad grades on all my papers, even if I thought they were good. And I've always been pretty bad at reading comprehension. I was dreading the results of that placement test for sure.

     On the second day of orientation, we got the results of our placement tests. It turned out that I was the only person in my group of 30 people or so that was exempt from taking freshman English. I know that couldn't have been because of the reading comprehension part - it had to be based off the grammar section and essay. 

     The first thing I wanted to do was run all the way back to that creative writing teacher that had pretty much destroyed my confidence in my writing, hand her a copy of the essay that got me exempt out of a college English class, and I'd probably want to throw in a "fuck you" as a personal parting gift from yours truly. That same day I switched my major to journalism, what my major should have been all along.

Is It Really Fall?

    I haven't noticed. In Connecticut, it's pretty obvious when fall starts because there's trees everywhere you look. I guess I took that for granted. Temple's campus is awesome, but in the fall it doesn't look much different. The trees here are all strategically placed to look pretty, and some of them don't even change in the fall. On a side note, it was 60 degrees a couple days ago which I completely appreciate when I have to walk at least ten minutes to get anywhere worth going to around here. 

     I've come up with a few things that I have to do when I'm back in Connecticut over Thanksgiving break, which include cuddling with my dog, buying Edy's pumpkin ice cream, getting my hair highlighted again (for the first time since June... oof), and now I'm adding visiting Giuffrida to this list. Giuffrida is this really awesome park about 20 minutes away from where I live. I've never seen it in the fall before, only during the summer when it was hellishly hot outside. I wish I had better pictures, this picture on the right was the best that Google images could come up with. Although I totally suck at hiking, going to Giuffrida seems like such a fallish, New England-y thing to do to make me feel a little bit less deprived. 

     Don't get me wrong, Philadelphia isn't all concrete, and I'm in love with the city atmosphere where Temple's campus is located. Or should I say ghetto atmosphere. Philadelphia is huge and includes a network of suburbs, center city, tons of neighborhoods within center city, and Fairmount Park with an approximately 19 mile long bike trail running through it, located right outside the city. I wish I had more time to go check it out right now, I bet it looks awesome in the fall. This picture doesn't do it any justice, only a tiny portion of it is showing. The park stretches all around the Schuylkill river. However, if I could choose between going to Fairmount Park and Giuffrida, I'd pick Giuffrida. Fairmount Park is a little bit more manicured and tends to be a lot more crowded than Giuffrida is. Sometimes when I went to Giuffrida, I'd only see one other group of people. Sometimes I wouldn't see any other people. I associate it with home and nothing beats New England fall foliage in my opinion.

(These pictures are not my own. Each one links to the source I took them from.)

Currently Kicking Myself

 When I was searching for the picture in the previous post, I found this picture and was reminded of how I didn't buy that dress. Please excuse the dumb-founded look on my face. I tried to find a better picture on their website of one of their models wearing it, but no such luck because Free People doesn't sell it anymore! Currently kicking myself. Hard.

College Work With High School Habits

     My eggnog latte is almost gone. Now what am I supposed to do? Actually do the work I came to the library to do? It's only 9:10, I can put it off for a bit longer and then, of course, regret it. I need to stop letting myself put off work so much like I did in high school. Old habits can be hard to kick. It's also not helping that I'm sitting next to a humongous window. I keep finding myself being creepy and staring at people walking by outside. I have the attention span of a squirrel sometimes. I probably won't be posting anything of much substance here for the next week or so since I'm expecting it to be hell for me and I've got enough writing to do for my classes.

Models in Caskets

 

     This past Tuesday, Jesse Pearson, editor of Vice magazine came to speak in my journalism and society class. If you don't know what Vice is, it's a free magazine where literally anything goes - cursing, nudity, and all that good stuff. It's almost impossible for me to come up with some sort of theme for the magazine to better describe it. They are the farthest thing from conventional, with stories about burly, bearded, gay men ("Bears vs. Vikings") as well as coverage on the war in Iraq. I am completely in love with the fact that there's a magazine out there that hardly has any restrictions when it comes to publishing that is able to reach the amount of people that it does. 
     Because the magazine is free, it's been hard to find up until recently. I've unfortunately never heard of it up until I heard Jesse was going to be speaking to our journalism class. American Apparel has been a sponsor for Vice for years, so they carry the magazine in their stores, but if you're not near one, you can now subscribe to it online.
     I had such high hopes before Jesse came to speak to our class but I ended up being a little bit disappointed. He was very monotone when he spoke, and didn't really say anything about how he came to be the editor of Vice or anything about the magazine industry, something he really should have done considering he was speaking to roughly 300 journalism students. In fact, right off the bat, he admitted that he didn't have any kind of plan of what he was going to say. 

 

     That being said, it wasn't a complete flop. He ended up talking about, in great detail, several of their biggest recent stories. One that really stuck with me was an article in Vice's fashion issue, "Requiescant in Vestitus." The article featured models in caskets. When I first saw a picture I didn't think it was anything more than just a way to show off clothes in an artsy, unconventional way. However, I quickly abandoned this initial reaction when I learned it was a portrayal of unhealthy lifestyles that models lead in order to get call backs. For some reason, our society has glorified the ideal image for a girl's body to resemble that of a walking toothpick. Some girls will do anything to get this body type, whether or not they're trying to become a model or just trying to be "perfect," whatever that's supposed to mean. I remember reading a quote from Janice Dickinson, the self-proclaimed "first supermodel" and agent, where she stated that she specifically looked for and hired models that had eating disorders. I'm sure she's not the only agent that does that, she's just the only one that has the balls to say it. I love the whole idea of photographing models in caskets. I have no idea how anybody could have come up with it but I think it's brilliant and gets the point across. Jesse said that his original plan was to photograph actual female corpses - he even had several families agree to let Vice photograph their deceased family members - but there weren't enough volunteers to do the entire story. Nothing is too controversial for this magazine.
     Jesse announced that he's no longer going to be the editor of Vice towards the end of his little speech to our class. Can I be the new editor pretty please?


Photo on right via http://www.j1111.blogspot.com ; Photo on left via http://www.viceland.com/int/v17n3/htdocs/requiescant-in-vestitus-374.php 

Girls And Hardcore

     At least a month ago I remember walking home with a group of people. This one guy I had been talking to happened to ask me, "What kind of music do you listen to?" Naturally, I got really excited because it's one of my favorite questions and I'm kind of nerdy when it comes to talking about music. I can't quite remember what I said, but I probably named a few bands like Inside Out, Cave In, Judge, Strife, Floor, and a few others. When he asked me what kinds of bands those were,  I replied that they were hardcore. What I do remember was his response. He said something along the lines of, "So you like fashion, you dress really feminine, and yet you like hardcore? Why? Stop liking hardcore!" 

     Of course when he said that, both of us weren't in any kind of normal, functioning state of mind and I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt my feelings, but still. I'd like to know what's so wrong with me being like that. The majority of my best memories aren't from my hometown, but from shows at the Wallingford American Legion. There was just something about that place - the adrenaline rush you get from it all, all of the familiar faces you see, the overall sense of community. I didn't mean to make that rhyme, that was totally unintentional. Every weekend I possibly could while I still lived in Connecticut, I'd try to go out to shows, even though it was a good half-hour drive from where I lived. The only two things I really had to look forward to during my senior year of high school were shows and seeing my boyfriend. And what I really love about hardcore is that I can listen to it no matter what kind of mood I'm in. If I'm sad, listening to Elliott Smith and wallowing in my sadness doesn't make anything any better! 

     So of course, when that guy told me to "stop liking hardcore," it kind of hit a soft spot. It makes me wonder: Would it be acceptable for me to like hardcore if I had one of those huge chest pieces, a bunch of piercings, and all I wore were band hoodies? I would never do any of those things. Anybody who knows me knows how passionately against chest pieces I am. Just... no. I have nothing against girls that get them, but I certainly don't want some huge tattoo on my chest to be the first thing people notice about me. I'd rather spend my money on some kind of statement piece that I can ditch when I get sick of it. I'll wear a band's shirt every once in a while, but I love shopping, putting together outfits, and wearing dresses at the same time. Basically, I don't feel the need to showcase the fact that I listen to hardcore just because I'm a girl. Image isn't what it's supposed to be about, not for me at least. It's an interest of mine. But if someone tells me it's wrong, there's something wrong with that.

     I found some really great pictures, but couldn't include them in this post due to copyright issues. I'm not sure who took this one, but this was a My Heart To Joy show at the Wallingford American Legion sometime in July I believe. For more pictures of Connecticut shows, click here.

Wah

 







= 

Do You Like To Laugh?

A few nights ago I discovered this website where people send in all the stupid texts they've accidentally sent out to their friends because of the autocorrect option on their phones. I was literally crying with laughter at some of these. What I'm trying to say is that if you like to laugh then go to this website. If you hate fun, laughter, and all things happy, then I feel bad for you and you should probably ignore this post/website altogether.

Are TU Alerts Just A Way Of Getting Worried Parents To Shut Up?

     After coming across numerous articles written by the Temple News, a student-run news source, I'm beginning to regret my decision to google "temple university crime." With titles like "Public cautioned after attempted abduction of Temple student," "Gun violence takes student's life during botched robbery," and "Two Philadelphia Police officers shot, one fatally, blocks from campus," all written within 2 years from today at most, of course it's a little bit unsettling. But what really bothers me the most is Temple's 'TU Alert' System. Temple police are supposed to send out alert texts to cellphones and/or emails about shootings, break ins, and all that pleasant stuff that's going on within or near our campus in lovely North Philadelphia. Seems like a good system, right? Wrong. At least in my opinion it's not the best it could be.
     I've been here for over two months and from what I can recall I've only received five alert emails. I'm not living under a rock, and I know that within the 2+ months I've been here, there has definitely been more than five incidents that students here should at least be aware of. 
     One of the first articles that popped up when I googled "temple university shooting" was one that occurred on November 2nd. Apparently a man was shot in the chest multiple times right off the edge of Temple's main campus. Glad I'm finding this out 8 days later. Ray Betzner, assistant vice president of university communications, said that a TU Alert was not deemed necessary for this situation because "no students were involved in any way and students were not near the vicinity." I find this particularly entertaining because I received an alert email before about a shooting which happened inside a residence, off-campus, which involved no Temple students.
     As if that's not sketchy enough, on Halloween, while tons of Temple students, including myself, were all spread out at different parties, or uh, "friendly get-togethers," (Hi Mom) I got a text from Temple police about a shooting that took place in a neighborhood I was in at one of those friendly Halloween get-togethers. I'm glad it didn't happen where I was, and it's a great thing that they notified everybody about what happened that night, while so many students were still out, wandering around - you know, except for the fact that they didn't send out the notification until sometime around 5 in the morning, three hours after the shooting happened. So meanwhile, 15 minutes after this poor Temple student was shot, I was standing outside an apartment completely clueless. Thank you, Temple police. 
     My discontent for Temple's student advisory system is nothing new, but something in particular sparked this whole rant. When I was walking back from dinner tonight, I saw two police cars and one of those scary white police vans that I find super intimidating gunning it to get to the side of my dorm building, where they proceeded to sit there with their lights flashing. I had to include a picture of one of the vans, whenever I see one accompanied by several other normal cop cars I get so intimidated. Don't they just seem scary? Eek. But anyways, I thought it was a little weird nobody at least told our building the reason for this. For the record, I have nothing against Temple police, and although I've heard Philadelphia police can be assholes sometimes, I admire them for putting themselves in dangerous situations on a daily basis in such a crime-filled city. I know I could never do a job like that. And it's not that I'm afraid to go places and walk around outside. The whole point of this post was to rant about how Temple's alert system appears to be more of a mechanism to get parents to stop worrying about their kid's safety rather than an actually helpful tool. I like to let myself get carried away with rants sometimes.


Quote from Ray Betzner taken from http://temple-news.com/2010/11/05/nov-2-shooting-near-main-campus-results-in-death/.

Things I Wish Were In My Closet

 

Really wish I could afford this dress. I don't care that it's cold as hell outside, I would brave the elements and/or allow myself to freeze. Free People's actual boutiques have let me down the past few times I've been there, I never seem to find stuff like this. Not that I, nor any typical college student, could afford this dress or 95% of the things they sell anyways.

 

 I also definitely need to buy a new pair of patterned tights. Preferably these. I wear the same one pair every time I wear a dress and it's starting to get embarrassing. Now if only I could wear those shoes with it and not be the height of a giraffe.








(Both pictures are links to where you can find these items on Free People's website)

Ever Wondered How Big The Earth Is Compared To The Rest Of The Universe?

If you haven't seen this video yet, or have ever wondered how big the universe actually is in comparison to earth, it's completely mind-blowing. Do your best to ignore the unnecessarily dramatic music:

     The whole reason I posted this video was not only to blow your mind but to make a point about how wrapped up people get in their own petty, first-world problems. Everyone does it, I know for a fact that I'm a huge offender. Seriously, you should see how I react if someone cuts me off while I'm driving. It's not pretty. Every now and then we need to remind ourselves that finding out the person you like doesn't feel the same about you, getting stuck behind a slow old person while you're driving, or having a ton of schoolwork are all not the end of the world. There are so many bigger problems happening on just our tiny planet alone.  

     Living in an urban atmosphere on a campus with over 37,000 students, I see people in a huge rush every single day on my way to class, all preoccupied with getting to wherever it is they have to go. I'm shocked I haven't seen anybody get hit by a car or a bike or something as of yet, hopefully I never do. Sometime last year I remember my brother, who also lives in Philadelphia, saying he was hit by a car while he was on his bike. As if that's not unfortunate enough, the guy who hit him drove away as if nothing had happened, not even asking if he was okay.  

     So, if you ever feel like you're stuck in a rut or you find that you're being consumed by your schedule or what have you, then remind yourself how microscopic you and your problems are compared to the rest of the universe. Either you'll get really bummed or things won't seem as bad, depending how you look at it.

Death Row Prisoners' Last Meal Requests

"A series of photographs documenting former Death Row prisoners' requests for their last meal before execution." Some of these creeped me out for some reason, others are just plain funny.

The photographer: http://www.jwgreynolds.co.uk/ Go check out some of his other stuff!

Cannot Stop Listening To These Songs

Heard this song on the radio in my brother's car recently, instantly was stuck in my head in the best way possible.

I don't really listen to Hopesfall but Matt Talbott, lead singer of Hum, does guest vocals in this song so naturally I'm in love. (Thanks to Kathleen for showing me this!)


This remix is so catchy it needs no explanation.

It's Been Well Over Two Weeks

I've heard so many times about that two week mark after you go away to college, when you realize that you're not just on a fun vacation, you're actually at school for a reason, and as a result, you get homesick. It's definitely hit me, minus the whole being homesick part. I hardly saw my parents when I was home anyways, and whenever we talked it was usually because we were arguing about something dumb. I do miss my parents but that's nothing a phone call can't fix and I'm not in some huge rush to go home to see them (Sorry mom!). I feel like when I go home for Thanksgiving, aside from seeing my friends, I'm going to be insanely bored and want to go back to Philadelphia. When my brother used to come home occasionally to get his car fixed or some other reason where it was absolutely necessary for him to come back, he would complain so hard within an hour of being home and I never understood why. It makes so much sense to me now. If your friends aren't around when you come home to a boring suburb, what do you do with yourself? Watch soccer moms drive around in their vans? Stare at a wall? Sit outside and watch little kids ride bikes? That sounds creepy... I wouldn't do that, for the record. The only reasons I have any desire to go home to Wethersfield are for my mom's cooking and to cuddle with my beloved dog Madison. I wish my parents could mail that adorable white ball of fluff to me, I would be totally set. I think the fact that I'm not homesick is definitely a good indication that I chose the right college. When I checked out Temple for the first time, it was the summer before my senior year and the campus was completely deserted, yet, I knew it was the school for me. It's so cheesy but so true. Being a student here is one of the first times I actually don't feel like a black sheep. I don't want to say "fit in" because nobody here really fits in. I feel like I'm totally rambling right now which is always what happens whenever I'm writing down anything. In short, Philadelphia is my new home and I couldn't be more stoked on it if I tried.

Fan Pages On Facebook

I know I cannot possibly be the only person noticing the abundance of shitastic facebook fan pages lately. This is nothing new but lately, I find myself being more and more... I don't even know the word for it. Happy to be out of high school? Surprised at some of the disturbing fantasies of preteen girls? Some of them used to make me laugh, not so much anymore. Sometimes I find myself going through those websites where people (mostly butthurt 14 year old girls) can create fanpages or whatever for pure entertainment. I'm probably going to sound like a huge asshole dissecting all of these and how they piss me off in their own individual ways. Oh well.

Girl:Do you like me? Boy:No Girl:Would you cry if i died? Boy:No Girl Runs away crying Boy:I dont like you i love you i wouldnt cry if u died i would kill myself ♥♥♥♥♥♥  Well first of all, the awful grammar displayed here sure isn't helping anything. But aside from that, this is pretty fucked up. True love: being completely dependent on somebody when you're 14 years old and if that person isn't part of your life anymore, might as well just kill yourself. Yeah...

Teacher: Can you see God? Class: No. Teacher: Can you touch God? Class: No. Teacher: Then there isn't a God! Student: Sir, can you see your brain? Teacher: No. Student: Can you touch your brain? Teacher: No. Student: So you have no brain! Where do I even start with this one? This reasoning is absolute bullshit, but that goes without being said. I thought everyone knew by now that there is scientific evidence that humans do, in fact, have brains, but I guess I'm mistaken.

F**king Hate Mosquitos OH, DO YOU? I f**king love them, it's so pleasant being bitten by mosquitoes. Those little asterisks you put in between the "f" and "k" are also completely necessary. Oh, and you spelled "mosquitoes" wrong.

 

"fuck you" "fuck you too" "can i have a kiss?" "yeah" So, is this how relationships are supposed to be when you're in high school? I guess I was doing it wrong all that time!

 

girl: hang out tonight?
boy: i cant. im hanging out with someone else.
girl: who?
boy: the most beautiful, special, amazing girl in the world.
girl: oh
5 minutes later the doorbell rings
girl: why are you here?
boy: i told you i was coming over. Do girls actually think this shit is cute? If this scenario happened to me I would be thoroughly creeped out. You wonder why guys don't do "cute" things like this? Because it's creepy. It also makes me really sad that apparently 10,000 people like this particular fan page. Ugh.

Girls need to stop making fan pages about guys and get back in the kitchen NOW THIS IS A GROUP I CAN SUPPORT.

Wish I Was At This Right Now

I really need to find someone who will go to shows like this with me.

So, These Are My Parents

...and some random awkward-looking guy who apparently likes the Yankees. I love checking my email and finding gems like this from my dad tucked into my crowded, neglected inbox. I should probably be really embarrassed to call these people my parents, but fuck it, this picture makes me love them so much. I love being able to say that my dad's favorite movie is a toss-up between The Hangover and Hot Tub Time Machine, and I love how my mom doesn't act completely naive about what I've been doing in college. It sucks that it took me until now to fully realize how lucky I am to have them. Sure, they didn't let me do everything I wanted to do in high school, but compared to other extreme, over-protective parents, I had it pretty damn good. I took them for granted in high school so many times, never again.

Note to self: I should really check my email more often.

24 Songs for 1.5 Million Dollars?

Today, I checked my Yahoo email account which is an extremely rare occurrence. On Yahoo's homepage, my attention was automatically directed towards the headline, "Minnesota Mom Hit With $1.5 Million Fine for Downloading 24 Songs." You don't even have to read the article to recognize how over the top this is. This woman is being forced to pay $62,500 for each song which normally would cost $1 on iTunes. In my dorm building I can spy on other peoples' iTunes libraries who live near me. I remember coming across one person who had around 27,000 songs or so and I highly doubt that person spent $27,000 on those songs. Illegally downloading and sharing music online has become such a common way that people obtain their music nowadays, or so I thought. The fact that the government is suing this one woman for a mere 24 songs is a little crazy. There are so many worse offenders out there, but even besides that, file sharing websites such as Mediafire, Megaupload, Demonoid, and Limewire, which has recently been banned, are all accessible to anybody who has Internet access. I don't think making this woman take the brunt of this popular way of obtaining music is going to solve anything.

Also, I find it pretty hilarious that this is "the public face of the record industry's battle with illegal downloaders." Really? Maybe it's just me, but when I hear about somebody illegally downloading music from the Internet, I picture a broke college student like myself, not a soccer-mom of four from Minnesota.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/148/minnesota-mom-hit-with-15-million-fine-for-downloading-24-songs/

First Post!

So, I figured this would be a good opportunity to explain the url/title of my blog and see where that takes me. "Ascension is ours" is a quote from the song "Puppets" by Hum. It's one of the few songs I can listen to all day on repeat and it will never get old for me. I've grown pretty obsessed with this band, which is ironic since the first time I listened to them I totally dismissed them. I wish I could go back to when I used to think that and beat myself up for it. Every time I listen to this song, I can't help but to picture myself and my best friend Kathleen listening to it on her record player on repeat in her quaint little colonial house in Old Wethersfield talking about literally everything... but mostly complaining to each other because we were such pessimists in high school. The song definitely has a negative tone to it, but I don't see it that way. I see the line "ascension is ours" in a much more positive light. From what I can make of it, it's technically talking about ascension into death or heaven or whatever. I kind of see it as more of a "the sky's the limit" ordeal. It's short, sweet, and to the point and I figured it was only fitting to name my blog after this line.

Here's the song, which I demand you listen to even if you didn't read a word in this post: