MLK Day, Excerpt from Letter from a Birmingham Jail

‎"Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively... Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men [and women =)]willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation." Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Last First Day

So today began what I think might actually be my LAST FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL EVER! That's right, ladies and gents I've decided that after 20 years in the education system I am announcing my retirement from school, effective May 5, 2012. I guess retirement announcements are less exciting when the person making them is not a famous sports star, however unlike many of them *ahem Michael Jordan Bret Favre *coughcough* I plan on sticking to this retirement.

As I explained to a friend earlier today, I really like the idea of school I just always find I don't very much enjoy the actual thing as much as I thought.  It's kind of the way I feel about tigers.  I like tigers, I like their fur, I like their tenacity, basically, I like the idea of a tiger.  But if I had to spend the next 14 weeks in a library daily with one, I don't think I would really enjoy it.  This kind of sums up my experience in law school, intriguing from a distance, safe behind glass and a sign that warns DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS.

Family Visits Violin Shop & A Banjo Dream Comes True

This Christmas my grandpa Tony came to visit, which was awesome in itself, but we also got another adventure out of it, a super-special-spectacular Christmas Eve Adventure!

On Christmas Eve, my family had the wonderful chance to catch up with some extended family who lives super-close.  Tony's 'lil sis, my Great-Aunt Aggie lives in Fredricksburg now, and just a few blocks down the road, my Aunt Elaine (who is really I guess my second-cousin once removed, but who's keeping track of that) lives with her husband Bill.

We had a great lunch together and then went to visit Elaine and Bill's home, which happens to be above his violin shop...

The store-front

where he sells violins... some of which he makes himself, AND WE GOT TO SEE HOW SOME IF IT'S DONE!

Molds for making violins and bridges to go onto them

The equation for making a violin, it's all math and physics, how cool. Also, the quote beneath the drawing is:

"NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP" SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

They throw glitter on partially carved backs and fronts and then place them above a special sound machine where he adjusts the tone.  The vibrations move the glitter and there are pictures of what pattern should emerge to know where more carving or shaping is needed.  Knives, glitter, sound-making-machines, and physics: what more could a girl want?

Partially completed violins with the molds still attached

Bill showing off wood he is carving into a mandolin neck

A mother-of-pearl inlay that will go into the neck of a mandolin

Making/repairing bows

I'm sad because I thought my hair was long, obviously this horse had me beat!

More supply things and a mandolin

Electric guitar in for repairs

Their home was so lovely!

A beautiful flower-piece for old bows

Even the storage room was photogenic for crying out loud!

A teeny violin for the young prodigy 

The corner where banjo, guitar, violin, and mandolin lessons take place

We even got to play some instruments:

A $10,000 Violin, Rah got to pluck a string... apparently the "E" string is gold

Big sis on the mandolin!

We sight-read a couple christmas carols, I feel a new up-and-coming band!

AND A DREAM CAME TRUE: 

Finally I get to play a banjo: dream come true... although unlike in my dream, I'm not very good

Although being horrible is not stopping a smile creep over my face...

In the groove baby! BEST BANJO EVER!

It may be wrong but I judge people based on their ability to appreciate the sound of a banjo.

I'm gonna get really sappy here and say the best part of the whole visit was reconnecting with family over the holidays, I couldn't imagine a better  Christmas Eve Adventure!  than with these people!

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...