Favourite Summer Songs. Good Gracious!

Summer=

Steady As She Goes (Acoustic Version)- The Raconteurs

Hey Hey What Can I Do- Led Zeppelin

The Joker and The Thief- Wolfmother

Sway- The Kooks

Shores of California- The Dresden Dolls

Hotel Yorba- The White Stripes

The Wanderlust- Flogging Molly

Battle of Evermore- Led Zeppelin

The Girl and The Sea- The Presets

Never There- Cake

Reservoir Park- The Dutchess and the Duke

White Unicorn- Wolfmother

Yo Solo Se Que Solo No Se Nada- Jeremias

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground- The White Stripes

Michael- Franz Ferdinand

Yellow Sun- The Raconteurs

The Sounds of Silence- Simon & Garfunkel

This is What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison- My Chemical Romance

Gallow's Pole- Led Zeppelin

Jesus of Suburbia- Green Day

Tear You Apart- She Wants Revenge

Blue Veins- The Raconteurs

Dead Valley Queen- Flogging Molly

Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us- Robert Plant & Allison Krauss

Yellow Submarine- The Beatles

Midnight Show- The Killers

Mondo Bongo- Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

Mrs. Robinson- Simon & Garfunkel

And then...

I wish I were more cryptic.

Stuck In My Head:

"Sometimes I say the stupid things I think, I mean I, Sometimes think the stupidest things."

--Katherine Kiss Me (Franz Ferdinand)

Quite Camp, Really (Or: Is this a diary or a blog?)

Sitting in the courtyard at Peet's, which seems to be the only place I can really get into a happily academically productive spirit. Clearly, even this isn't working, because let me tell you blogging will not be on my quiz about mid-nineteenth century American women's rights movements tomorrow. Go figure. Also, I have set myself a really ambitious goal in the spirit of 1. boosting the economy (naturally, my most noble excuse for expenditure), and 2. expanding my knowledge of tea: before I go to England I will try every tea offered at Peet's. Last week I indulged in a fine selection of Green Teas, and at the suggestion of a Peet's employee am now venturing into Black Tea Week. Black Currant Rating: 8.5.

Anyway, mostly, I just want to point out and firmly state (to myself and the world who will no doubt relish this self-reflection) that nature is the most therapeutic tonic for troubled minds (well, mine at least). My mind wasn't exactly troubled, and what's troubling it the most is still a very significant unresolved issue, but otherwise (pretending I didn't just invalidate myself entirely), I found a lovely peace and recurring semi-epiphany this weekend.

I knew I needed a few weeks to dedicate myself to a lot of nothing, and I am very pleased that that period is now over, I have decompressed a goodly amount, and am now feeling productive once again. Step one is practice my bagpipes more. Then there's a slew of other goals, but that's number one. 

I'm just worried that I'm not doing enough. As in, I WANT to do more. Life is flying by and there's no time like the present. Of course, this sage advice I am applying to only one area of my life, and completely and willfully disregarding it (I am an idiot) in others.

In summary, I am ready to start DOING more, and with 96 ending soon, I ought to have bushels and bushels of time in which to do it. My brother (actually, everyone I know) tells me my stories are horribly boring. I want to have better stories (or get better at telling them, which is itself an accomplishment). I want to get something published. I want to make films. I want to act act act. I want to read Shakespeare's complete works. I want to continue to progress as an individual, not compromise my creative or personal production integrity, play a bigger role in the lives of others (gah, I miss Rotary), and generally feel wholly content with my progress.

This relates to camping because it was out amongst the angry swarms of mosquitoes and the rushing of Alpine streams that this periodically revived revelation surfaced once again. So there it is, NOW back to you, Elizabeth Cady Stanton...

And Now For Something Completely Different...

My dad told me last weekend I do not have blue eyes.

1. He is wrong.

2. What?

Future Plans Fomenting

Considering finding piecemeal work as some sort of impersonator... so far I've got Napoleon Dynamite, Jack Sparrow, Keira Knightley, Mitch Hedberg, and Russell Brand down pretty well. Who will pay money to talk to a faux celebrity/fictional character? I'm not sure.

I can also do a ton of accents. But again, who will pay money to talk to a faux-South Carolinian? Especially when I would assume there is a plentiful supply of legitimate South Carolinians, Yorkshiremen, and Bengalis? I'm not particularly sure of this, either.

Additionally, my favourite impersonations and characters tend to be men... I attribute this more to a dearth of decent comedic material for females, and less to any subconscious desire to be a man. I do not want to be a man. I want to impersonate them, some of them, for money. Is this too much to ask?

My aspirations could be worse. And based on my perusal of this very same document I am now open to positions as ghost-writer, since my grammatical habits seem to impersonate just as much as my verbal tendencies.

I also learned tonight that I am quite considerably proficient in impersonating my (male) T.A. He is very slight and Indian, with has rapid, furtive,  and quizzical hand movements to complement his lovely rolling accent and inability to pronounce my name. I quite like him.

The Summer Ideal

Afternoon Reflections

So in the past few days I have come to the realization that I have not been acting as confident as I feel lately. Strangely, I have been much happier and, er, 'in tune' with the essentials which generally keep me grounded, but I feel like I have not been living up to my potential recently. There are lots of excuses for this... and it is summer, which is traditionally a time I spend playing Sims 2 and sleeping at least 50% of the time... but regardless I am getting restless and feeling that I need to start doing things. Not things like, "Start your life, son, go forth and be productive and add to your 401K and get a good wife (well, you know)", but rather build my own list of personal accomplishments, for personal reasons.

For instance, there is a long list of things I've wanted to do for a long time, like learn the guitar, that I just have never completed. This is bothering. Sure, there are lots of things I do that I do complete, and generally there are so many things I would like to do that I think it would be physically impossible to do all of them in a lifetime, but I just feel like I am slacking off and not living to my potential. Fortunately, I recently quit my job and am overall very pleased with my situation and poised to develop any old or new interests with a fantastic liberty of ease and excellent state of mind.

OK, actually, this is might be the biggest thing: I have not been dressing how I like. Yes, yes, I know. I do not dress for other people, though, so it is not as if I'm feeling off-trend or anything. I just am in one of those down patches where I am floating around in a pool of crap style without the pointed inspiration that cycles back from time to time and utterly refreshes my creativity and sense of self. 2006, I might add, was a great year for this. It usually stems from a fusion of good music, good photos, and good literature. I just passed the Raconteurs/Anthropologie thing... which of course I still love, but I need a new direction to keep the energy up.

I just got my hair cut and I like it, but many people don't (haha not that I care), but on a personal note I have the only critique that I do not look as, er, sophisticated in the same way. Or perhaps it is better to say I look younger? At any rate, I have a lot of excitement about it, I just haven't figured out how to embrace it yet because it's so foreign right now. Which is, naturally, why it's so exciting. I think when I go to England this Fall I will find a new direction, fraught with vintage clothing hopefully and luuuurvly British-ness, which I have tended to fall back on anyway for years now.

Also, the space I am living in I am having trouble adapting to really fit my mood. As it is merely a room and it is a very fleeting stay, I am not too concerned. Fortunately, I predict when I have my own place after England that it will be a creative haven of all my favourite things. I.e. lots of antiques, quirky art, vintage, and products from the Urban Outfitters Corporation.

This is getting much longer than I had anticipated, but let me just leave off with saying a few parting statements. 1. Summer is a beautiful free time if you are lucky enough to be able to quit your job, love your classes, and have a car. 2. Naps are God's gift to humanity. 3. I predict very soon I will randomly take off (probably by myself, as that's half the fun) on a random adventure and it will (probably) be small, but also spontaneous and utterly fulfilling. Like my breakfast trip to Solvang to buy a cookie the other day. It was brilliant. 4. I know the things that make me happy and I'm going to do something about them. Carpe diem are words I have tried to live by for a long time now and I intend to stay true to them, as I have failed them in a few ways lately. ish. And finally 4. In addition to rosemary, England, Led Zeppelin, Celtic music, the cello, Wes Anderson, the ocean, fog, and Cambria I would like to add one more utmost favourite and essential thing to my list of these things: the oft-mentioned Jasmine Downey Pearls (iced).