Sunday, March 21, 2010

Miracle on Mercer St.

Good karma has finally found it's way into my life.  This last week has been freakishly full of phenomenons.  The first regards a great percentage of my daily life: finding parking on Capitol Hill.  Depending on the time of day it can take a huge chunk of time, and I end up listening to loud music, yelling some words I shouldn't when I see a space being taken, and driving way too fast on one-lane streets.  On Wednesday evening I drove home, expecting a similar situation.  What I saw really confused me, though: there were cars parked on the south street parallel to my apartment building.  Why would 5-6 people decide to park there illegally one day?  Upon closer inspection... the "authorities" have now allowed parking on this side of the street, and there was even a space waiting for me! 6 more chances for a good parking space! Other miracles:

  • One street over, parking is going to open up again on April 2nd.
  • Construction noise has been severely reduced/stopped! They are almost done! Naps during the day in my room are now possible! 
  • I was moving my car from a 30-minute space, when I realized I left my house keys and phone inside. Shucks. My plan: watch the balcony for Jenny to come back home and let me in. Actual: within a minute, Jenny showed up in the downstairs lobby to check the mail and I was saved!
  • I got a paid internship with probable promotion to a job after graduation at Banyan Branch as a social media analyst!
  • I'm on a super health kick, I ran 10.5 miles on a beautiful sunny beach day, I discovered legit biceps, my booty's not really soft anymore (kinda sad about that), I am addicted to finding new muscles.  The human body is amazing!
  • I continue to have a fantastic roommate, who is currently singing whimpers in her bed.
With these spikes of blessings amidst a life of continuous despondency, I'm waiting for a huge trial to come along any day...

Dontcha want Jenny to write another blog?

Friday, March 12, 2010

The Boob Tube

"Hmm, what TV show should I catch up on while I eat my breakfast today?"

A question that sparked a debate, this morning.

Jenny is under the impression that 30 Rock is the new show for "intellectuals." How does this match up with your experiences? It certainly didn't match up with mine.  Trying to conjure up what meaning the Seattle population/culture might put behind the experience of an intellectual TV show, I came up with some semantic possibilities that are generally mutually exclusive and seem to cover most outlying cases:

  1. To be watched for the purpose of elevating ones intellect; it must bring to light new information about a culture, maybe a past historical culture, a hidden culture somewhere in the world today, or a hyper-specific micro-culture such as among the astronomical, musical, or zoological community.  (Bill Nye, NOVA, National Geographic, Bill Moyer)
  2. To be watched to merely feel smarter than another person or another group. Two subsections:(a.) it must be clever and witty, with humor which may take a few moments longer to process. (Frasier, many Britcoms like Are you being served?, and maybe this is what Jenny wants 30 Rock to fall under)(b.) or, by merely portraying a lifestyle that we perceive as being made up of the most intelligent types of people in our society, it makes us feel like a part of it, and thereby, smarter. (E.R., House, Alias)
  3. To be watched because it is highly involving and cognitively stimulating; perhaps it has gone on for many seasons and has a myriad of plot twists and mysteries which prompt speculation and logical reasoning. (24, LOST, Monk)
  4. To be watched to try to find meaning in life, to be enlightened to ways of living and being; maybe it transmits values or lessons that one will apply to one's own life, or by witnessing another lifestyle portrayed in a meaningful way, it will give perspective for one's own life. (Modern Family, Punky Brewster, The Cosby Show)
I watch a lot of stupid TV shows.  I need to have a certain amount of stupidity in my life, and that's not the role of an intellectual TV show, so 30 Rock would be appropriate to fill that void.  Unfortunately, I only watch stupid TV shows, courtesy of hulu.com.  A new goal I am setting here and now, is to eliminate at least 50% of the stupid ones, and replace those with better ones, the next time I'm eating breakfast and catching up with broadcasts.  I want influences in my life to be a better person! An evaluation of my vices:

The Office - Senseless and absurd. It used to be ok, but it has gotten so incredibly unrealistic and ridiculous that I can't bear to waste my time on it. I realized this at the wedding episode - but it is so hard to stoppppp, I want Erin and that other guy to get together! Sigh.
30 Rock - Bone-headed, vacuous and insipid. How can this possibly be intellectual? Now, trying to see Jenny's side of things, I did some research to see if anyone else on the web publicly claimed the show as smart. I found "25 Super Smart Shows..." which had reasonable explanations for the intelligence factor of most of said 25 shows, but all they had to say for 30 Rock was: "This comedy is the brain-child of Tina Fey and documents the goings-on of a fictional live sketch comedy show in New York. Based on Fey’s work at Saturday Night Live, the show includes a cast of ten major characters." Very good, mister - it is making you count the characters, and therefore makes you feel smart?? All I come away with from watching this show is Jenna referencing her disgusting asexual sex life, Tina Fey drooling and using grade-school body jokes to conjure up a laugh, big ol' beerbellies and people under-appreciating their families. Yuckity yuck.
Parks and Recreation - Meh. I watch it when I run out of watching the other stupid shows. But, I find that it's more appealing to me in its ludicrousness.  It's slightly more realistic, there's usually a good moral, and nice characters outweigh mean ones.
Community - Pretty stupid, but I'm pretty sure I like it. Good lessons.
Modern Family - Amazingly wonderful. This show is the savior of today's comedies. Thank you so much for existing and teaching us all about family - though we can be 50x more messed up or 50x more perfect, we're all in it together and we need to love each other!
Ugly Betty - Betty is a super-woman! The cast is diverse and though the plot is crazy, there is love!
Glee - No comment. But I just need to know what happens.

Ohhh myyy gosshhh I waste so much time!  K. I am keeping the shows that make me want to be nicer at the end of watching them.  Wish me luck! Nova, here I come!

"We Miss You"

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is structured brilliantly. I learned a load of blank about contacting people persistently (being an annoying pain in the neck) at WashPIRG to get them to volunteer, and this religious organization is able to do it with 10% of the effort because of its adherent nature!
 
Last Sunday, Jenny and I went to an earlier ward, so I could sin and sing at the NATS Artist Awards competition during our regular time.  (If you are curious, I did not make it to the next round, but I was definitely the youngest and I am proud of myself for having an entire recital program prepared that the judges could choose from! and Jenny is such a saint to come watch! She is awesome! K, Morgan came, too; he is equally awesome in that regard.)

Within 24 hours of missing church, you're going to get at least 3 contacts, depending on the dedication of your leaders. I have yet to compare e-mails with Jenny, but it might include the following. (1) Relief Society presidency member (female): "Hi [name], [business they need to unload on you to achieve their visiting teaching goals.] [nice comment.] Love, [name]." (2) Another member of the Relief Society presidency (female): "Hi [name], [nice comment about you.] [nice comment about you are missed.] [announcements for the week.] [another nice comment.] Love, [name]. (3) Home teacher (male): "Hey sorry u wrent at church today."

Aren't they great? Thanks Coralee and Whitney and all of the people that miss us. :) They make regular ol' Ceciles like me feel like they are worth something, and that is certainly a good way of compelling someone to come back to church.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Acoustic Exploration

The acoustic exploration of a residence is an important step that is not acted upon by most homeowners or renters.  As Jenny detailed in her last post, this is extremely high on my daily priority list. These" groans, screams and melodious melismas" each have a very special purpose... sometimes that purpose being to NOT have a purpose, in a beautiful paradoxical contradiction which creates a paradigm of love.

The other day, for example, I discovered an interesting resonating space in the doorway of Jenny's room which only occurs when one's jaw is parallel with the doorjam, facing 45 degrees away from the closet. Who could have discovered this phenomenon without intense exploration?

Other noises serve as discovering universal linguistic communication. We don't all speak English, but we all experience "waking-up-wishing-we-hadn't-yet-and wish-we-could-stay-under-the-covers-all-day," for example.  I'm pretty sure I've pinned down the exact 2.45 minute melismatic whine that communicates this exact sentiment across all human populations.

Acoustic exploration is not limited to apt. 410.  The residents in apartment 510 (directly above us) like to explore the different squeaks a bedframe can make, in a steady and repetitive way, at 8am or 11am some weekdays.  Jenny is sure that they only listen to one type of music, involving rainforest flutes.

Jenny's sonic utterances not only depict human emotions, but those exerted by other mammals, arthropods or larvae as well. That is all.


Moral of the story: You should think about accepting, instead of ridiculing, those who are interested in acoustic exploration, the next time you see someone screaming down the street. It's a real thing. Explore the airwaves around your home.