One of our study breaks was a field trip to JJ’s- because if the deep-fried everything doesn’t energize you, the music certainly will. We periodically freaked out about the time (although one would think that, by now, we’d be desensitized -or at least accustomed- to the fact that it gets later each time we check) and finally decided to leave. ( Read more... )

I opened the document called “media 30pg paper” and browsed my 5 pages, guiltily trying to ignore the deceptive file name.  With my headphones plugged into Natasha’s computer, I noticed that the ceiling pattern of the Butler lounge has little Columbia crowns.  Equipped with that knowledge, I proceeded to write my paper.  "Write my paper” implies, “ ( Read more... )

Over-caffeinated and excitedly awake yet quite conscious of an underlying exhaustion. Drowsily fighting for every bit of focus, but the awkwardly-existent amount of energy renders sleep impossible. Restlessly and incessantly shifting positions on the library lounge’s cushioned bench (extended couch-chairs?), but, with upright movement, ( Read more... )

Yet, after all, let us acknowledge it wiser, if not more sagacious, to follow out one's day-dream to its natural consummation, although, if the vision have been worth the having, it is certain never to be consummated otherwise than by a failure.

Hawthorne

I think most MTA patronizers have been confused at least once, or, if they’re lucky, several times [a day] as to whether they were simply riding the subway, or were stuck in some kind of absurd case study based on an amalgamation of psychological disorders, casually erratic behaviors and other charmingly curious abnormalities ( Read more... )

When does it come to the point when you’re drilling yourself into the same circle - dynamic, moving, but simply deeper into the hole already difficult to emerge from. Can you think “outside the box” when the walls have become too high to see beyond them? Identifying irrationalities won’t erase them, and rationalizing out of them in the safely ( Read more... )

Ultimately, what’s going to count? Fickleness of memory, selectively sorting- discarding or shelving far away some experiences, prominently displaying and periodically pushing to the front others. Ambiguously leading to an intentional nervousness, background restless to fill in gaps blanketed, half-heartedly, by mundane concerns, daily ( Read more... )

There was a lone nail sticking out of the wall in what is now my parents’ upstate bedroom. It had been there since we first started going upstate, 16 years ago, and probably many years before our arrival, too. When we were little kids (no, a little before last year), the four of us -2 cousins, my sister, and myself- stayed upstate with my ( Read more... )

I’ve read the works of enough sociopolitical theorists and have enough of an intuitive sense to understand the need for shortcuts, generalizations, cognitive cues. Most of us do ( Read more... )

Some people peek from behind the pages of their journal, careful to reveal more than a glimpse of themselves. What their readers learn extends beyond the journal’s content, but not enough to create an accurate image, one that reflects the author more than it does the reader’s impressions. Others cautiously approach increasingly private ( Read more... )