Tiff has some new plants!

While I'm having such a posting spree, I thought I would let you know something about my life rather than just my thoughts: I have new plants!

Today, I finally planted four lemon seeds which I am hoping will become seedlings within the next couple weeks. Finally getting to plan the seeds is very exciting for me as they have been sitting in a paper towel in my fridge because someone on the internet told me that's what they should be doing for a while after you've taken them out of the fruit.

Anyone who actually knows me knows that I have a little bit of a brown thumb, which is a source of sadness as a biology major. If growing a plant successfully was the initiation rite for a society, I would fail miserably. My first dorm plant(a sunflower named Bob) tragically died during Spring break 2012 while my Rhoeo plant Ferb needed serious rehabilitation by Mama Chan after Spring of 2013. (Ferb is now in good condition and even has a few flowers).

However, I'm hoping that these little ones will thrive in spite of it all because apparently lemon leaves smell heavenly, according to Pinterest. Also because I have a single this year, I will inevitably get lonely so the more the merrier.

Hopefully I'll have a pleasant update in the near future!

An Open Letter to my Readers

Hi Lovelies,

First off, I want to thank you for reading my blog! That in and of itself means a lot to me and I want you to know that I appreciate that you took the time to read my viewpoint about...anything really! So far I've posted about a lot of different topics from YouTube to music to Mad Men. I'm grateful that I live in an era where I have the opportunity to disseminate my opinions.

While the responses to my posts have on the whole been positive, there has been some negative feedback. Personally, I love it when people disagree with me and I really do mean that sincerely. Ever since I became a college student, I've had the realization that my viewpoint is much more limited than I previously thought and any opportunity to broaden my horizons is greatly appreciated. However, I do want to bring your attention to a couple things:

1) My blog writing is a lot different than my normal writing. By nature, these posts are much more casual than any paper I would hand into class or one that I would submit to my editors at the Wellesley News. I can write about things that interest me, things that are happening in the news etc. Inevitably, there will be some mistakes(there are probably some in here) and if you see them, please do let me know! I want to improve my writing; that's the whole reason I started the blog-to practice. But do keep in mind that while I do edit these posts fairly rigorously there will be mistakes.

2) I'm not an English major. If you didn't know, I'm actually a Biology major! While I do still write a lot of things for my science lab courses, the writing is bit different from the writing I would be required to do in, say, a Milton class. I don't consider myself a writer but I do consider myself an observer of the world and occasionally I reflect upon things here. I do try to read things whenever possible to expand my vocabulary and what not but if you have something you would phrase differently or think should be reconsidered, let me know! However, please remember that my college education isn't focused primarily on becoming an expert wordsmith.

In short, I just would ask that if you have a criticism that you would first remember that this is something I do for fun on the side. I'm not being paid to write posts and this type of writing is not what I do normally. Most of the times, I just write about something that I care about or that I thought was interesting. I am only human though so I do make mistakes. I only ask that if you find something wrong with my writing that you are both respectful and constructive so that I have an opportunity to learn from the experience. It may not seem like it but sometimes writing these posts is incredibly scary. I would argue that it's on the same level as performance art because in a way you're exposing yourself to the world. However, I believe enough in what I'm doing to continue on in spite of it and I hope that you can respect that when you read and critique my writing. Furthermore, if we have an ideological incompatibility I hope that our opinions can still coexist happily.

If nothing else, I hope that these posts cause you to think about something more deeply than you would have otherwise. If I've achieved that, I think I can continue on happily. :)


Bises,
Tiffany

This is not a feminist post.

She's having so much fun, you can just see it in her eyes.

The song Blurred Lines has been ruling the Billboard Top 100 charts for a significant part of this summer and a couple of days ago I finally got around to watching the music video.

For the record, I am certainly not a music elitist when it comes to pop music-I listen to Taylor Swift and One Direction. Most of the time, pop music is innocuous at the very worst but occasionally can be catchy even if it's not particularly good. (My conservatory colleagues are probably rolling their eyes at me right now). But really? This entire endeavor was just really sloppy. It's as though the producers just got really lazy and decided to throw together a bunch of random footage of the guys messing around with models(that they paid to be there and do this stuff) and try to pass it off as a music video.

As far as the song itself goes, the lyrics are pretty standard(guy trying to get some action) but people are up in arms because the lyrics have implications of rape and heavily objectify women.

Is it offensive? Of course! But so it about 70-80% of all music out there if you bothered to listen to the lyrics.

But the supposedly "anti-feminist" approaches to both the song and video are not what I find most offensive.

It's just not a very good song.

You can't tell me that this is art. It's compensation.

Yeah, I said it. Like I said, I'm not really a musical elitist but I do have some standards left. The aural aesthetic of this song are seriously lacking. From a purely artistic standpoint, this is simply not compelling in any way. The lack of bass in general makes the song sound pitifully anemic. Pharell's "Whoo!"s gave me a migraine. And what's up with those weird 3 note modulations? This song is literally made up of these tiny bursts of vocals interspersed between long stretches of that God awful backing track. As the song lacks a clear melody, it's left the realm of tonality but I don't even think it deserves to be called atonal either. It's just annoying.

What's hilarious though is that so many other reviewers have been saying that it's a "catchy dance song with a good beat" which I could not disagree with more. Are we even listening to the same song right now? I had to try approximately 5 times before I could make it through the entire thing and even now I wouldn't be able to sing you the melody(because there isn't one!)

Seriously, what is with the goat?

As far as the video goes, I feel like to get recognized in the industry your videos need to be over the top ridiculous or absolutely ooze sex and if you see the unrated version, you'll see that the produced managed a really bizarre mix of the two. At times I questioned if I was watching an American Apparel ad or a music video. Thicke apparently tried to defend the video saying that's ironically feminist because one of the models winks, which we as the audience are supposed to interpret as her being tongue in cheek. She's in on the joke therefore everything is supposed to be okay?? That doesn't stop this from being a really weird video. Why is that model cradling a taxidemied goat? Why are there girls throwing gigantic dice at your head? I'M INCREDIBLY CONFUSED.

Point blank: this is a weird song with a weird video. When I see the types of music videos that are coming out today, I always have to think "Future generations are going to think that we were really messed up".  I think that they do it for the controversy-Thicke and Pharell knew the video was going to be talked about and publicized to death and now it's at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 because people have been obsessed about it. Not because it's good but because it's absurd. And as long as we keep consuming what they're dishing out, they're going to keep making stupid things like this and profiting from it. But this is me saying no. No, I will not continue to listen to this so that you can get more money for very little work. There is little if any artistry being displayed here and the only way to end this monstrosity they're trying to call music is to not give these "artists" the power of your ears, your attention and your money. They only have worth while they're relevant, they derive power from their audiences. So no, Robin Thicke-after this moment, I'm going to forget about your ridiculous and slightly macabre video. You do not pass Go and you certainly do not get my $200.

Because capitalism, betches.

Who is on Tiff's YouTube feed?

I spend a considerable amount of my time online and a considerable amount of my online time on YouTube. I'm somewhat of a YouTube addict-I get a little grumpy if there isn't something new for me to watch within a 6 hour period and extremely grumpy if there isn't turnover within a 24-hour period. 

I have been using 2006 but I only really started using it with gusto in the last 2 years. I originally had a channel in middle school that I posted videos that basically just combined different songs/pictures for a variety of shows. It had a mild success(a couple thousand subscribers which in 2008 was not too bad) but has since been deleted because YouTube used to be much much more strict about copyright. For most of high school I used YouTube mainly to find music/TV clips that I cared about. The spring of my senior year though(Spring 2011) I started caring much more about the people creating content, a deviation from traditional media which is still something I care a lot about today. So, in honor of Vidcon which is taking place in Anaheim this coming Thursday, I thought I would share with you how YouTube came to be such a substantial part of my online life. 

The Vlogbrothers were my gateway YouTubers. I think I had heard of the concept of them from various different friends but it was only in my senior spring that I had enough free time to finally go through Brotherhood 2.0. For those who don't already know, John and Hank Green go their start on YouTube by eliminating their textual communications and making video blogs everyday for a year.  It only took me about 2-3 days to watch all of B2.0 and another day and a half to catch up on the rest of their videos. They were entertaining and educational. There was also the novelty of feeling like you're getting to know the content creators rather than just seeing the final product which was compelling. And thus, a baby Nerdfighter and YouTube addict was born. I've since also started watching HanksChannel and HankGames which are just more channels in which the Green Brothers do stuff. 

Aside from the Vlogbrothers, my current subscriptions fall into several different categories and while this is obviously is not an extensive list they are as follows: 

The LA YouTubers: This is actually a fairly diverse and large group but it includes: ZeFrank, TheFineBros, Swoozie, Daily Grace, Hannah Hart, Jenna Marbles, Davey Wavey(I think he actually lives in Rhode Island but it seems like he spends a TON of time on the West Coast). The reason this list is so huge is because most American YouTubers live in Cali because it is the country's media capital.  Jenna Marbles is technically the one I discovered first of the above list because I remember her "How to Trick People into thinking You're good Looking" video being featured on a fashion blog that I follow. Her videos are just generally entertaining and she's capable of talking about more serious issues (like Thoughts on Being Yourself) while not sounding really corny and preachy. TheFineBros were the YouTubers I discovered next due to their Kids React to the Harry Potter trailer and I've followed them fairly steadily since. Then was Swoozie after I saw his "Confessions of a Former Disney Employee" video. Davey Wavey came next once I found out he was the one in the "Day in Our Life" movie that came out to his grandmother on camera. He does TONS of entertaining videos about LGBT issues and fitness which are just fun to watch. ZeFrank was the next on the list to be "discovered"; his series TheShow was the inspiration for Brotherhood 2.0 back in the day but I wasn't watching him back then. Ze's had some interesting videos but I enjoy some of his more thoughtful vlogs and he's been an inspiration for previous posts. DailyGrace and Hannah Hart are recent discoveries, after I saw their videos on the Vlogbrother's channel during John's paternity leave this summer. Grace makes videos every weekday which is great because it fulfills my need to have new content everyday I'll admit, it took me a little while to get adjusted to her style but I think her videos are entertaining on the whole. Hannah Hart had been making "My Drunk Kitchen" which I hadn't realized until recently that I had seen an episode featuring Jenna Marbles a while back. I've started watching some of her vlogs and she is fairly positive in general which is just nice to watch, especially if you've had a bad day. 

The New York Youtubers: The Gregory Brothers, The Key of Awesome. Unintentionally both of these channels do music based comedy. The first Gregory Brothers video I watched was an Autotune the News I believe though my favorite still has to be the one where the toddler learns to ride a bike. I haven't seen too much recently from Schmoyoho but the Key of Awesome pops up every couple of months as they parody a top 40 hit. These videos are always timely and scarily accurate which is something I really appreciate. I think the first video I saw from them was the Katy Perry Cali Girls Parody. 

The British YouTubers: Charlie McDonnell, Nerimon, Emma Blackery, JacksGap, Caspar Lee(I know he's from South Africa but he lives in London now so he still counts). Charlie and Alex were my original pair of Brits because I discovered their channels approximately when I started watching the VlogBrothers seriously. Both vloggers' videos covered a fairly wide range of subjects but they've slowed down a bit since I first began watching. Luckily for me, I discovered Emma Blackery and JacksGap this past winter! Emma is from Essex and the first video I saw of hers was this one. I'm not entirely sure what drew me to her but I find her to be pretty compelling-kind of like a British Jenna Marbles yet still unique. JacksGap is a channel run by the charming twins Jack and Finn Harries. In addition to being ridiculously good looking, they also travel to a lot of places and since I'm currently not at a point in my life where I can do that, it's nice to see other people getting that opportunity and then living vicariously through them. The last British YouTuber that I want to mention is Caspar Lee-a friend of the Harries twins. I recommend him with caution, he has a very vibrant personality however he is somewhat of an acquired taste. Watch with caution-at times I feel like he's way too over the top but nevertheless entertaining. Occasionally I watch other Brits as well, like Dan Howell and Oli White. 

Educational Channels: VSauce, CrashCourse and Sci Show(and occasionally Khan Academy). If you didn't know already I'm a huge nerd who likes procrastinating productively! VSauce is one of my all time favorite channels by which I achieve this because I feel like I'm genuinely learning new things every video, whether the videos are about taxidermy, deleted files, or nostalgia. CrashCourse and SciShow come in at a close second only because there is some overlap with either AP/College introductory material that I've already covered or sometimes I've already heard an extensive piece about something from NPR. Still, CrashCourse and SciShow are run by John and Hank so they are still pretty entertaining. I discovered Khan Academy a long time ago during the summer of 2010 because I had no idea what parametrics are and I continued to use the channel to help with some physics work. KA is a lot drier than the other channels but definitely very well researched and presented. I think this channel is the closest I've seen on YouTube to the style/format of lectures that I receive at Wellesley.

News Channels: As mentioned in a previous post, I've started taking an interest in getting my news from YouTube rather than mostly from NPR. The Channel I've turned to is TheYoungTurks which I had actually started watching back in 2008 but stopped because life just got cray. I had always felt intimidated because I felt like I never had a solid enough background to understand things, like the conflicts in the middle east, so it was much easier just to ignore the news. TYT's videos for the channel definitely can stand by themselves which is something I love and it makes me feel like now I'm at least like a semi-informed citizen which is always good. I also follow the BBC and PBSNewsHour but the former is mainly so I can keep an eye out for Sherlock updates. 

The Asians: KevJumba, Nigahiga, WongFu, ClaraC, Michelle Phan, and Chriselle Lim. I haven't been following these channels as closely in the last few months but the content they used to put out was a little bit more contrived than your average vlog. There were a few series that KevJumba, NigaHiga and WongFu put out as well as some fake music videos and situational videos. ClaraC was an artist I discovered last summer and I occasionally see a new song from her. Michelle and Chriselle were make-up and fashion channels that I followed more closely in high school(when I cared more about things like that). They still create quality content but 1) I don't wear as much makeup as I used to and 2) Pinterest is my new fashion inspiration board(sorry, Chriselle!).

The Talk Shows: Conan O'Brien, Craig Ferguson, Ellen DeGeneres. This is the last category of channels I want to discuss here-these channels are mainly comedy and celebrity driven which is refreshing because it's a change of pace from some of the other channels. Of these three hosts, the one I came across first was Ellen-she's funny and upbeat and has really entertaining segments. Also, I was exposed to her name a lot earlier so I just naturally gravitated towards her first. I started watching Conan and Craig because of their interviews with Game of Thrones actors this summer but after watching their monologues, I realized that they were also comedic geniuses in their own right. +1 to Conan because he's had a long career in comedy and was a former SNL writer and +1 to Craig because he interviewed John about his novel The Fault in Our Stars. 

Again, the above list is by no means an extensive list of everything I've encountered on YouTube, there are still other people with whom I check in occasionally or channels that don't fit into these categories. YouTube has also been the platform for a couple webseries that I really enjoyed including the Lizzie Bennet Diaries and I think its a sign of the changing times that most of the media that I enjoy(especially at school) comes through YouTube now. It's fairly important to me that I can watch Phineas and Ferb at Wellesley and YouTube makes that possible among many other things. It allows me to know about people that I would otherwise never meet on my own. This was a long post but I hope you enjoyed it; I've tried to link as many things as possible but let me know if I've missed something you really want to see. Best wishes! (:P)

"What does the World need more of?"

Tricked you...this post isn't about puppies.

I've decided to branch out some more and find another YouTube video to which I can respond(I'm kind of a YouTube addict but that's a post for another day) and today on the chopping board is this video from SoulPancake which is produced by Mr. Rainn Wilson.

The Soul Pancake crew went out onto the streets and asked passerby what they thought the world needed more of and the answers ranged from better teachers to lilypads to humility. Personally I was surprised at the breadth of answers, I was expecting a lot of "Love" and "Happiness" type answers... so, good on them.  You have exceeded my expectations, SP.

There are a few things that I wish we had more of in the world. I actually have a longer list but at this moment, these are the ones that are jumping out the most. My first instinct was to just say that we need more kindness in the world towards one another. However, as I thought about it more I realized that there needs to be a substance behind kindness. Yes, it would be nice to have people be more courteous in general but that seems rather surface. The two elements that I think would ultimately increase kindness in a way that matters are:

1) Empathy: I think that having more empathy in the world would solve a lot of problems. To be able to put yourself in the shoes of another more easily and more often would lead to a much more understanding world in my opinion. With everything going on in the news currently, I feel like a deeper understanding and consideration for your fellow human beings is incredibly important. It has been made abundantly clear from recent events and articles that I've read that a lot of people still don't quite understand people of different opinions, beliefs, ethnicities, races, gender. People are prejudiced either consciously or unconsciously and that results in people witholding a respect that should be an inherent human right. The fact that people are different doesn't mean that you are wrong but it also doesn't mean that other people are wrong either. Everyone that you see has their own battles and history and the more empathetic we can be, the more thoughtful this world would be.

2) Forgiveness: I mean this mainly in the sense that people can let things go and find peace with things. One of the things that I've learned in my time on Earth so far is that things do not always go as planned. Now that my peers and I are starting to get beyond college, that has incredibly real and scary implications. People don't get their dream jobs, or into their dream schools or for some reason things really just don't work out. In these situations, the blame goes to two places.

The first option is that you can blame yourself and think you're not worthy of being successful, that you weren't good enough and that you may never be good enough. More often than not though, people are blaming themselves for having emotions and not being a robot who is perfect at everything on the first try. In this case, I think people should have more forgiveness for themselves and realize that it's okay to have moments(or even longer periods) of human weakness because everyone is struggling.

The second option is that people might blame the cosmic/karmic forces of the universe: "I have been placed in a bad situation". Sometimes, this really is the case and it sucks. There really was nothing that you could have done to change it and while it may help to feel angry for awhile, I think it is worth "forgiving" the universe for not being ideal conditions for you to do whatever it is you wanted to do.

Lastly, we should also have more cream puffs.....because cream puffs. 

The Mad Men has lost its glitz

Season 1 Optimism

Mad Men finished it's sixth and penultimate season earlier this summer and all I could think of was:

"What happened to this show?"

I remember being sucked in to watching the first season of Mad Men because it depicted one of my favorite fashion era's: the early 1960's. Cue the sheath dresses and pill box hats, I loved it all! The show was absolutely scandalous to modern audiences because it tried to depict the sixties(an era of profound social/ideological changes) realistically, meaning that it contained moments of blatantly politically incorrect moments to the modern viewer. Day drinking, affairs in the most luxe New York Hotels-it's like how Gossip Girl would be if it were set in the 1960s and the characters occasionally acted like adults. I respected the boozing and smoking that the show depicted because it made a strive to make something real. I wasn't alive in that era so I have no idea what it was actually like but I can speculate that the things we now find scandalous were actually more commonplace in that time. And above all, it was stylish. The clothes were sophisticated and the characters played the gender binary to perfection. Men wore suits, drank whisky with abandon and boozed to their hearts content. Women were young, beautiful and impeccably dressed and coifed. Everything was young and hopeful and completely idyllic. 

Six years later, everything has changed. 

He's also getting kind of pudgy.

Don Draper-what happened to you? Don used to strut around the agency and moreover, he used to be good at his job. Roger in the pilot told company execs that Don Draper was "the best ad man in New York". He was suave and charming which distracted us from the fact that he stole a man's identity and cheated on his wife time and time again. He used to be in completely control or at least pretended to be, which was just as good in his eyes. In the 6th season, I don't think Don had one good sales pitch, he was drunk a lot and wallowing in self-pity from his failed affair with his friend's wife. He even got fired from the agency-they took away the ultimate marker of who Don Draper was. Don used to be "the ultimate man" but now he's been reduced to a shadow of his former self-an older man trying to play a young man's game. The finale gave hints that there might be some redemption to our favorite anti-hero but he will never be the guy he used to be. 

Joan contemplating life as a single mom

Don isn't the only character who has seen better days. Remember Joan's first appearance in the pilot? She was the smoothest operator and definitely had the most power out of all the secretaries. Everyone paid attention when she walked into the room. True, she is now a partner at the firm but because of the way that she got to the top, I'm not sure if she will ever be truly accepted. It's actually tragic since she's definitely capable-she proved that time and time again as she helped manage the company from the beginning and even did some creative research of her own in season 3 but was overshadowed by a male colleague. She also has a child to support on her own which is likely to be physically/mentally/emotionally draining(though that's not to say I'd prefer Greg stuck around-he's a pig). I would say that she's definitely managing but it's a struggle and the conversation she had with Don last Christmas indicates that she's also a little wistful of the times she used to have. 

And then there's Betty. The sixth season ended with her in a better place than we've seen her in a while but it started out with her in rock bottom. She's on her second marriage in a McMansion out in the middle of nowhere. She and Sally have been at odds since season 2 and the scene where Sally closes the door in her face hit home Betty's greatest fear: that she is irrelevant. Betty is a character who has previously been defined by two qualities: her attractiveness as a woman and her ability(or lack thereof) to be a mother. She was the first female character on the show to be shown as a wife and mother and the writers have made obvious references to the fact that it was her being a model that caught Don. Over the course of seasons 5-6, Betty gained weight and even changed the color of her hair, making her virtually unrecognizable from the svelte blonde beauty we've come to expect her to be. I remember feeling like it was karmic justice before that her beauty got taken away from her when she had her first weight-y reveal but I ended up feeling sorry for her because she just seemed incredibly lost. The question of "What do I do now?" seemed to loom over her and consume her. She's in a better place now but I was worried for a little bit. 

Season 1

Season 6

Also worth mentioning is Pete Campbell who was introduced to us as the young and ridiculously ambitious Ivy Leaguer who was about to be married. He was trying to be Don. He gained a wife, child and house in the country over the course of the first four seasons, spent the fifth season trying to get out of his suburban prison and the sixth realizing that getting out was a terrible idea. He ended season 6 separated from Trudy, one mother shorter and with his advertising career hanging at a delicate balance. Not to mention his hairline is now higher than Mount Everest and his sideburns are ridiculous. Get it together, Pete. 

Appearance snarks aside, it seems like a majority of the characters have lost a lot of confidence. They've lost some of their confidence in themselves as well as in the world around them. 1968 is a much more uncertain, violent and gritty year than 1960 was and I think these changes in characters is Matt Weiner's way of showing the effect of the changing tides of the country on everyday people. While the fifth season showed the beginnings of mod culture as modern and chic, the sixth season has proven to be much darker and grittier than we've ever seen from the show. This season was a lot more honest and real but lacked the style and charisma of the first few seasons. It seemed like the breakdown of everythin the first few seasons built up. I'm curious to see what will happen in the final season, what direction will the writers turn to resolve the many different conflicts that are currently standing. One thing is for certain: the characters had better brace themselves, because the times are a changing. 

You've come a long way, baby.

5 Things I learned this summer by(finally) watching the news

During the school year, I think most people would agree that except for HUGE news stories, we live in a kind of news bubble at Wellesley. This isn't because we're indifferent to what's going on in the world right now, it's just that we don't usually have time to do much else other than concentrate on our studies and maybe an extracurricular or two. Yes, I usually have to peruse PubMed for the latest articles but the newest discovered bacteria has little to do with everyday life. But for this Wellesley student at least, this is the summer to change that.

I'd always been intimidated by the news because I never thought I had the background to understand what was really going on. It's hard to think about the implications of an event on the future if you don't know the history but the history usually spans hundreds of year so why bother? Over the course of this summer though, I've started watching TheYoungTurks and following the BBC and NPR again to finally start understanding what's going on outside of the Bubble and boy is there a lot.

1) What are drone strikes?: Drone strikes are bombings authorized by the US government(most predominantly in Pakistan but I think they happen all over the Middle East) using unarmed aircrafts. Drone strikes were started during the Bush administration but the numbers have only increased under the Obama administration. These incidents usually involve a lot of civilian deaths, possibly as many as 3500 since 2004.

2) Massachusetts uses the Stand-Your-Ground law too(kind of): The Stand-Your-Ground Law is a self-defense law that allows people to use whatever force necessary if they feel that they are in a position where their life is at risk. The law gained a lot of attention as it was one of the factors that contributed to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin investigation. States that currently have some form of the law include(Links in the citation section): Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming....and Massachusetts. Massachusetts law states the following:

Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 278, Section 8(a): In the prosecution of a person who is an occupant of a dwelling charged with killing or injuring one who was unlawfully in said dwelling, it shall be a defense that the occupant was in his dwelling at the time of the offense and that he acted in the reasonable belief that the person unlawfully in said dwelling was about to inflict great bodily injury or death upon said occupant or upon another person lawfully in said dwelling, and that said occupant used reasonable means to defend himself or such other person lawfully in said dwelling. There shall be no duty on said occupant to retreat from such person unlawfully in said dwelling.

Basically, within your own home you are permitted to use a more expanded means of violence in self defense. However, this only applies in the case where you're actually in serious danger-you can't just shoot people breaking into your house, they need to be acting violently against you first.

3) Bees are important: Since 2006, higher percentages of bee colonies have been dying after the winter, an example of Colony Collapse Disorder where there is no discernible source for the deaths, the bees just vanish. There is a lot of speculation for this decline of bee populations from the Varroa Mite to the combination of insecticides to climate change. In addition to the obvious decline in the amount of honey that will be making it onto supermarket shelves, this has disturbing implications for agriculture because plants that cannot be pollinated cannot reproduce. This means that the price of food will go up but more than that, if bees are mysteriously dying everywhere, what if we're next?

4) Don't lick anyone else's eyeballs: But really, just don't do it. Eyeball licking(known colloquially as worming) is a fairly recent fad in Japan that ranks somewhere between the first and second romantic bases. Apart from being slightly weird, it turns out that there are some serious consequences of doing this. The tears in your eyes are considered part of the surface barriers component of your immune system. This is the first line of defense against pathogens because they contain lytic enzymes but also help to lubricate your eye. Normally they are pretty good an insuring that your eyes are protected. However, the human mouth is actually a nasty place. After the gut, it is the most microbial rich part of the body. Your saliva is well equipped to deal with this normally but your eye doesn't usually see this type of bacterial action which is why many cases of eyeball licking result in conjunctivitis(pink-eye) which is just unpleasant. In more extreme cases though, if the cornea of the eye is scratched, there can be more dire consequences, the most extreme cases leading to blindness.

5) The United States is kind of behind on gay marriage: As of the writing of this article, gay marriage is legal nationwide in the following countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uruguay and most recently in the United Kingdom.  The current states that perform same sex marriage are California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Thirty-seven more states would have to legalize same-sex marriage for the United States to join that list. But there's some hope especially after the Supreme Court overturned the passage of DOMA.

Although some of you probably knew all of this prior to this summer, but for someone who is usually uninformed, it's been really fun to read through the headlines and to see something other than the news about celebrity scandals. I hope you learned something here because I did, let me know if you want me to do more of these and thanks for reading.

Know what song is stuck in my head right now?

The abomination that accompanies the image to the left.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who wants to vilify Miley for her choices in life, even if I don't agree with them personally. I will defend her right to be an artist as she sees fit, even if she makes repetitive music with seriously bizarre music videos that are strangely reminiscent of Lady Gaga/Rihanna's. I actually don't understand why parents in particular have their knickers in a knot because she's changed her image. She never claimed to be a role model so parents should stop expecting her to be Hannah Montana again-it's her prerogative not to be the same way it's your prerogative not to buy her music.

BUT MY GOSH IF I COULD ONLY GET THIS SONG OUT OF MY HEAD. I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS.

Seriously, I clicked on the video link by accident a couple weeks ago and for some reason my brain thinks it would HILARIOUS if it would just keep playing the chorus over and over again. It's slower than most other songs on the radio right now but that's really the only distinguishing factor. I actually could not think of a more unfortunate earworm(short repetitive segment of music that gets stuck in your brain).

And while we're at it let me just throw out something else that has also has been circulating my brainwaves:

This is actually pretty kosher by pop music standards and that fact is further emphasized by the fact that they overlay Disney melodies with tracks from the 1960's/70's/One Direction. When I first saw this, I thought "Huh, that's actually kind of charming and kind of neat that they did that."Cinderella and Jackson 5 is not the first combination I would have thought of when creating a mash up and I appreciate the fact that they featured "True to Your Heart" instead of "Reflection" like most other artists like to do. It also doesn't hurt that they are all fairly attractive. (Disregard the fact that IM5's target audience is usually like ten years younger than me).  At first I didn't mind this cohabitating with "We Can't Stop" because it was kind of pleasant by comparison but it's getting kind of ridiculous at this point(Prince Charming, I am looking at you).

Both of the above songs were completely involuntary cognitive itches-I came across them by accident but for some reason I can't let them go. These songs aren't of exceptional quality but whoever is responsible for their composition is obviously doing something right.

What is the "rhythm" of your life?

Recently, a video by Ze Frank caught my attention. Ze discusses how most things in life have inherent rhythm, outside of the obvious examples of music. Speech, comedy and even life itself fits into a cycle of ebbs and flows. He identifies three main mechanisms of jokes. The first is expectation, the explanation the comedian gives to the audience, the context, the setup. The second is the silences, the moments endowed by the comedian for the audience to process a certain unit of comedy. And he considers finally the surprise, the brutal punchline and the satisfactory resolution of all its precedents.

Ze broadens the discussion by postulating that in many ways our lives follow similar cycles. And similar to the comic's perceived skill is in balancing the three elements, so too does our happiness depend on our balance in our life.

And what a tenuous balance it is. Similarly to Ze I distinctly remember consciously developing my knowledge of rhythm. When I was in 4th grade, I was told that I needed to practice my syncopation as well through a torture device known as "The Rhythm Book". As a budding Classical musician it was absolutely imperative that I learned how to divide rhythm mathematically to the point that it was almost second nature(though for anyone who ever actually heard me play that never actually happened :P).

But from what I've seen so far, life-rhythm is much more unprecedented and intuitive than trying to play three notes against four. It's not nearly as precise as music and while there is inherent structure, I'm not sure whether we can truly call it rhythm. Musical rhythm is supposed to be precise and mathematical even if the delivery(i.e. Jazz) is not. Rhythm by nature is predictable and life is anything but.

But I think the "rhythm" vein of thought is an interesting one to consider(even if I don't agree with it wholeheartedly). Ze poses the question to the audience of "What is the rhythm of your life and are you happy with it?"

According to Ze, the life-cycle analogy of expectation is supposedly regularity; jobs, traditions etc, habits. Silence is "the ability to live between the beats, to be quiet" and Surprise is "the ability to try new things and become uncomfortable." The key is to balancing those three elements to lead a happy life and if you let one dominate, the entire thing falls apart.

So what is my rhythm? Anyone who knows me knows that I have the expectation down to an artform. New England born and bred, we have tradition here in spades. But I also do consider my family, school work and swimming things that have grounded me and I can't really see that changing ever. And as an introverted person by nature I can keep myself entertained and would usually prefer to stay in with a cup of tea and Sherlock episodes than go out to a club. But then that leads into the element of surprise. I don't think I'm unique in having issues with trying new things and being uncomfortable. It is a far easier thing for me to lounge around on my bed and watch BBC dramas than it would be for me to walk into a crowded bar and strike up a conversation with a stranger. But the fact that "surprise" has its own category suggests that it is equally as important as traditions and silence, an implication that I agree with even if I have difficulties executing. How else would you find ways to grow?

I guess in summary I am very grateful for the fact that traditions and solitude are things with which I am inherently comfortable. I feel like I'm in a good place with those. But for this future school year(and I never thought I'd ever say this), but I want to be more uncomfortable. Viva la vida.

What's the rhythm of YOUR life?