New Year, New Endeavor

This winter break I keep telling myself the goal is to finish the final paper for which my wonderful professor granted me an extension, prepare for my last semester of law school,  and most importantly get a job. Instead (and oh-so-obviously), my mind is filled with all the wonderful other things I could be doing with my life.

The conclusion I keep returning to is that as a person-on-the-go, I am constantly filling my schedule with things to do but not taking the time to properly reflect and meditate about them.  The problem with sitting and meditating is that I am an extrovert! While I enjoy time alone to reflect, I re-charge my batteries through interaction with other people.  This means all the withdrawal, alone, focus, study time involved in finals period wreaks havoc with my inner balance.  I become emo-Julia with pensive philosophical thoughts that lead to sadness and inertia (and a lot of web-browsing).

This particular finals led me to a Quarter-Life crisis, (for anyone who was unaware, 24 is almost 25, a shocking conclusion I reached just days ago) where I tried to examine what made me happy in life and how I ended up in law school of all places.

I also had random, not-productive-to-actually-share-because-I'm-sure-other-people-have-expressed-it-much-better meditations on how we as humans shape our own lives through Production vs. Consumption as well as the roles Reflection and Dialogue can play in our lives.

So in order to have a creative outlet, produce something for the world and have time to reflect I have created a YouTube channel that will work like a vlog, which I will connect it to this blog.  The overall goal would be to use it as a platform for connection and dialogue with other people but more than likely it will just be some sort of public outlet for my creativity until law school makes me too busy to keep up with it.

It will be about things that interest me, and I understand the whole idea is somewhat selfish/narcissistic, but really it will be a way for me to explore who I want to be and what valuable connections exist in my life to allow me to impact the world more efficiently.  This means I will examine my relationship with myself, my relationship with my peers, my connection to the activities that interest me (yoga, soccer, performing), my relationship with random people on the internet, my relationship with my environment, and my relationship with my lord and savior Jesus Christ.

Basically, there are multiple goals: reflection, and dialogue, expression, connections, sharing, creative outlet, and my favorite: productive procrastination.

Here is the first entry/welcome video:

you can go to the channel and check out what else I have up but just know the first two things I uploaded were college art projects and also happened back when YouTube videos had to be supercompressed and you can't see everything... who am I kidding, they're just weird!

Study Music (and videos)

So since it's finals week, I am prone to think about all the other wonderful things I can do with my time besides study.  I've really grown to like the idea of promoting music on my blog, since that's what i spend the majority of my time doing when perusing the internet.

What's ironic here is that in my procrastination I'm going to highlight the music I most enjoy when studying!

So here are some of my favorites to listen to while writing/studying/reading/absorbing knowledge.  Hopefully you can put these on in the background and enjoy some great, mellow, transportative (OK, well I know it's not a word and there's an actual word out there that means the same thing but it's finals week and my brain is fried so give me a break!). Sometimes it's hard not to watch the videos as well...

Sigur Ros "Glosoli"

There are a lot of great videos combining the beautiful music of Sigur Ros with breathtaking footage from Planet Earth, I have to keep the window minimized when watching this one

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Soundtrack "At Wit's End".   Gotta love the sweeping dramatic songs Hans Zimmer composes

Explosions in the Sky "The Only Moment We Were Alone" Epic Post-Modern Rock

Bon Iver "Towers"  Off the self-titled sophomore album, in my opinion the song ends way too soon.  The video is also hypnotic

And a pick-me up song for when you realize you've dozed off cause it's 2:30am and you're nowhere near finished writing/studying:

m83 "Midnight City" the driving back beat is more effective than coffee when it comes to keeping my eyes open late-night.

And an appropriate song for the season that ALWAYS gets me through December Finals Week:

Vince Guaraldi Trio "Christmastime is Here (Instrumental)" Oh Charlie Brown!

Finally, a treat for those who have made it this far:

This is what I did as a study break on Friday... 

 I really need a creative outlet and felt inspired to sing. There may be more coming...

Musical Endorsements

FYI: most of this was previously published as a guest post on another (semi-anonymous?) blog. you can check it out here:

http://pinkypersistence.blogspot.com/2011/11/guest-post-babyspice.html

So the big dilemma I have every time I sit to type a blog post…what to write about?  I never can quite commit to just one topic so I end up with multiple half composed blog posts in my head that never make it to the blogosphere (a big reason that I average only 1 post per month). But since I'm already about half-way through this post I might as well just use this as my own personal soapbox to talk about some awesome music that's out there.

I don't know if she's done it on this medium yet but Pinky likes to give me a hard time about my alternative taste in music… and then one to three years later come back and say, "Wow, you were right.  This band is pretty good."  But to her credit, I give her a hard time about listening to Britney Spears but then dance along to it when it comes on in a club.  

Anyway, the musical artist I've become obsessed with since I discovered him around March of this year is an Australian act Gotye (pronounced, oddly enough: "Gore-ti-yeh").  He recently (as in last week) won 6 ARIAS (like an Aussie Grammy) his single "Somebody That I Used to Know" which has gone viral on YouTube and features an amazing artist from New Zealand Kimbra.  While this album actually isn't available in the States yet (unless you buy it from his website and pay to have it shipped) you can buy his earlier album Like Drawing Blood which is fantastic as well (highlight "Your Heart's A Mess").  He also recently announced a show in NY in february (YAY) but tickets sold out so fast today I missed out on getting a ticket (SOOOOOOOOOOOO BUMMED, YOU have NO IDEA!) 

There's the AMAZING Somebody That I Used to Know video:

And the two of them performing the song live at the ARIAS:

Before this becomes a full-fledged advertisement I'll suggest a couple other acts/songs which deserve a look on YouTube or vimeo and can help broaden your musical horizons (if nothing else, checking them out will give you a little break to your work/studying):

Kimbra - Two Way Street (super-talented vocalist, I also recommend the videos for Settle Down and Cameo Lover)

Dawes - When My Time Comes (out of CA, toured with Mumford and Sons, similar sound)

Apparat Organ Quartet - 1,2,3,Forever (Icelandic group of four organists and a drummer, fun claymation video)

Oh Land - White Nights (Swedish former ballerina who looks like the younger sister of Heidi Klum, Molly Simms, and Gwenyth Paltrow)

The Love Language -  Heart to Tell (throwback 60s vibe of the music as well as the stomping)

Angus & Julia Stone - And the Boys (Aussie, brother and sister duo off their latest album Down the Way)

Sia - Clap Your Hands (another Aussie, used to sing with Zero 7, has collaborated with Xtina, a fun an crazy video for a song that's easy to jump around to)

Absurd Things I Never Knew I Needed Until SkyMall Showed Me So

Last weekend I flew to Vegas for the most intense kickball you've ever seen. Except before you start getting ides into your head, nothing is on fire or ridiculously sharp, it's just highly competitive. Who are these adults who take a quote kids' game unquote so seriously you might ask. Well they're the fine ol' adults of the Circuit Cup. You can find out some more about this weekend by checking out www.kickball365.com/thecircuit/.


I got into it because my sister was (umm, really just the story of my life, most oftern I will either like something simply because a sister likes it or simply because a sister hates it), and they needed players for a tournament this summer.


You can check out this video from the D.C. Tournament this summer where our team, iB, came in second behind Meatballs (the team who also won the Circuit Cup) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9slLrHlYlvQ&feature=related (I kick at 4:22).

So anyways, let's get to what this post is really about, the wonderfully ridiculous things you can find, and then justify reasons for buying, in Sky Mall Magazine.

For instance,

If I ever had a cat, for sure I would absolutely have to be able to potty train it "faster than most people can potty train their kids":

Or if you cannot bear to shovel 1-2 inches of snow this is a must-have this winter season

This next one is only semi-joking, I actually do really need this and it "makes a Great Gift"

DO NOT GET ME THIS, I WILL CUT YOU

Again, this one only semi-joking

HARRY POTTER WORLD! Fave: "Have You Seen This Wizard?"

Magnetic Dress-Up Squirrels? Yes please!

Who doesn't want Happy Feet?

PLEASE get me this for Christmas... seriously, need, want, must have!

Can I please be this cool?

Think of how awesome it would be to wave a wand and change the TV channel...

The Perfect Housewarming Gift

I'd get this just to make K feel short =)

Actually, the concept of this is awesome, I'd love some hair bling... just the picture is a bit ridic

I didn't even realize these guys were still alive, or relevant.  But I loved their show eight years ago...

Back to Blogger

So this is blog re-vamp attempt #2, as this summer I allowed other minor distractions in life to get in the way of blogging. I have a tendency of filling up all my time with work and activities that when I have downtime I just want to spend it doing something that has nothing to do with a computer.  Plus let's all face it, I get distracted quite easily and while I had all the greatest intent to blog during my vacation in August, there were things like sisters, skiing, cousins, nail polish, books, foosball, wakeboarding, dancing and maybe a little bit of wine that got in the way.

Enough with excuses, what's important is how much stuff has happened since my last post:
Beginning of 3rd year of Law School (Aug 22):

oh this place... how I want to run away

Began Externship with AMC (Aug 23):

good people at this place

EARTHSHAKE (Aug 23):

i know this pic is overused but it still makes me laugh

Hurricane Irene and subsequent 7days w/o power (Aug 27):

not my house but I was inside when this happened

NASCAR (Sept 10):

The group at tailgate

CHAMPION Laser-Tagger (Sept 17): (no picture required, just take my word for it)

King's Dominion (Sept 18):

I'm related to some Gooberheads

BiRThDaY (Sept 19):

at my B-day celebration at Republic

and this weekend, I head out to the Smith Mountain Lake for my first Wine Festival!!

I promise to make an effort to blog a bit more, (and with a certain someone's blog to inspire me it shouldn;t be too hard) although with only 3 followers I can't imagine too much disappointment if i don't =)

Stay Enthused,
Bitz

Haitus Excuse

so, I know I slacked in the month of June, but in my defense I started working at Central Virginia Legal Aid Society and it's kept me rather busy. Additionally I've found various activities, like teaching an Abs class and a Yoga class in the evenings as well as soccer and picking up a bti of sand v-ball and rugby.

Also, what has kept me away is the intern blog Kevin and I started to document our summer for anyone cool enough to follow along. You can check out what Kevin and I have been up to at:http://cvlaspetersburg.blogspot.com/ . The Richmond office interns followed suit and you can check them out at http://cvlasloft.blogspot.com/.

Here's a picture of all the interns (minus Catherine) at the VA State Bar Legal Aid Luncheon at VA Beach:

aren't we adorable!

FINALS!

"It's that time of year again. When a paper jam elicits panic, 1Ls dash madly about, and my internet history reveals how many new shows I discovered on Hulu, videos I repeat on YouTube, and basically any great distracting website I can find (aslpro.com, cuteroulette, BBCamerica, and YIKES: Twitter). That's right, it's finals!

With just one exam left you think I would have it all figured out by now. Sadly, that is not the case as I slowly come apart at the seams..."

So I had types the above passage right in the middle of finals week, after having completed 4 of the 5 classes I enrolled in this spring, and I do think I was starting to ever so slightly become unhinged. Luckily, in the end, it was nothing that celebrating with good friends, seeing the extended family for gpa's bday, dancing around by myself in the house, and a two-week period of nothing but babysitting, teaching fitness classes and catching up on oscar nomiated DVDs couldn't fix (all AFTER finishing my last exam of course).

Law Revue: I throw my hands up!

So today was the University of Richmond Law Revue, and it was a blast.

What is Law Revue you ask? Well, every year the law school has a variety show called Law Revue. It’s a way for the law students to let off steam. It allows us to have a laugh at our own expense gives a creative outlet for those of us who miss Art classes. Some professors even perform songs and skits.

This year I performed a song/dance where I re-wrote the lyrics to a popular dance song to reflect how much time we law students spend in the library. I had spent about a month or so on the lyrics after picking the song around spring break. A week before, I began practicing and being who I am, I decided the day of to make up some choreography.

There are a few glitches, the mic overpowers the background track, sometimes I turned away and you can't hear me (next year I'll request a Britney-style headphone mic), and I make a couple mistakes with the timing and lyrics, cause let's face it, I'm in law school so there wasn't too much time to practice. But I had a lot of fun performing it and other students said they liked it a lot.

I got a copy of my performance from the AV person at the law school. I posted it on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-nFadn3iIU

Hope you enjoy, and maybe feel compelled to throw your own hands up!

No Shoes Tuesday

April 5 2011 is TOMS "One Day Without Shoes."

I found out about it on April 4, and while writing a paper in the library deliberated on the potential consequences of going shoeless for a full day, especially one where the weather forcast called for 40 and rainy. After watching some of the videos I figured that any potentially negative outcome: weird stares, being told to put on shoes, stepping on rocks, any cuts on my feet were minimal and that it was something I could definitely do. I stayed pretty late in the library that night composing my final short paper for law of war.

Getting home, I set out my outfit, deciding to wear a long, hippie-ish skirt to pull of the whole look, made sure my toenails were painted, and went to bed. I either forgot to set my alarm or somehow it malfunctioned because I ended up waking up at 8:25am when the yoga class I teach starts at 8:30. I raced to the gym as responsibly as possible, praying that I had not only packed my outfit but proper undergarments as well. Luckily Yoga is practiced barefoot so there was no conflict with shoes there. After a slightly more chaotic than normal class I decided to wear my flip-flops in the shower for obvious hygienic reasons (the only other time I wore shoes was at a talk by a UVA law professor where members of the UR board of trustees were in attendance and I wore my cleats when playing soccer (mainly for common sense reasons).

What I found highly interesting though was that I went barefoot in the law school *all day* today to raise awareness for One Day Without Shoes; however, only 3 people asked about it. Conclusion: a) people just think I'm a hippie/weird enough to do that on my own b) law school makes people not notice rather obvious things or c) people noticed but were either too polite to say anything or thought law school made me crazy enough just forgot my shoes.

Never Before...

Never before has a University of Richmond Track and Field female-athlete thrown a javelin farther than 47 meters. Since the inception of the program the best competition throw by a member of the women's program was impressive, but this Saturday, for the first time ever, someone threw 48.08. Heather Roush threw approximately one whole meter farther than the historic best that UR had to offer. This is even more impressive considering her penultimate throw set her own PR to day of just over 44 meters. It's such a great concept to think about, not only continually improving ourselves and our own best efforts but being able to build upon every one else before us and to be better than they're ever been.

This is not the first time I've witnessed people surpass the historic "best-possible" level set by all other people who've tried before. Everyone likes the idea of human progress, surpassing what has been the best effort of mankind thus far. We've all read an edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, there are people who have made it a goal to jump more times on a pogo stick than anyone else ever has before. My sister, who swam at GMU, broke records while she was there, and is friends with a young woman who holds a world record in distance swimming. It's mindblowing really, when you think about it, that thought that for a time, that is the best time that recorded history has ever acknowledged.

I guess I just love this thought, that we can continually improve and build upon and expand what others have set before us. This ability becomes so apparent in sport, in quantifiable measures of human body and its athletic feats, but its application in the world around us causes me to hope.

My Own Cherry Blossom Festival

So the Cherry Blossom Festival will be this weekend in D.C. For the past 6 springs I have missed it due to schoolwork/living in Richmond, however I get my flower fix in by the UR Campus's lovely manicured landscape (darn all those parking tickets going to something I appreciate, makes it harder to hate the parking attendants). Periodically, when I feel like I might explode from lack of creating art, I wander around campus with my Sony Cybershot and try to capture the beautiful flowers. Many a Picasa album has been dedicated to this venture, and this is the first year I've consciously decided to capture the cherry blossoms.

The shots are varied in thier ability to aesthitically please, but some of them are totally worth the stares I recieved from various undergrads (oh, did I mention my shoes are the exact same style but different colors? cause they are, and that in itself might account for the staring). This one currently graces my desktop background. Hopefully in two weeks I can get some great shots of other flowers.

DayUno

This is actually my second blog and fourth attempt at blogging in general. I had two blogs in High School, each of which I deleted, after the passing of time made me ever so embarrassed of what my irrationally emotional teenage self thought was appropriate for others consumption on the internet.

I re-vamped one of them (it can by found at www.julesville.blogspot.com), which focuses on my travels when I studied abroad in Santiago, Chile. Unfortunately the more I did down there -- where I had to pay for time in internet cafes or buy coffee at one of the four Starbucks in the city (and entire country) -- the less I actually found myself having time to record and share my adventures via Interweb.

I'm not exactly sure what prompted this last compulsive need to share inner thought with potential strangers, especially since I am a law student with a limited amount of time and poor written composition efficiency. For example, it could take me four hours to compose a singe thank-you note after birthdays and Christmas (it just has to perfectly convey my excitement over the new gift!). I guess it's just to unleash any sort of edited-stream-of-consciousness-creativity that cannot exist within the confines of class assignments. I think I also masochistically just like to sabotage myself by filling my time with unnecessary ventures. Or maybe I enjoy the idea of having more than 140 characters with people whose judgment it distant and un-affecting to my daily life.

In short: I now reintroduce myself to the blogging community, in an experiment to see how long this will last.