Tickets!

As you may know, Nine Inch Nails is disappearing for awhile. Trent Reznor is to me as Morrissey is to some people (although I do love Morrissey, he can’t come close to Trent for me). I remember being so excited about The Fragile and With Teeth. I’m a member of NIN Remix. Although my taste in music has grown and changed throughout the years, Nine Inch Nails has consistently stayed my favorite. Trent’s music, his vision, his viral campaign for Year Zero, his music videos, his amazing voice, his views on DRM and the RIAA… I love the guy.

However, I’ve never been able to see him live.

Until now.

I’m depressed that Nine Inch Nails is going away. Although he’s said it’s just “for awhile,” his actions have been speaking loudly and they say it’s going to be for a VERY long time, if not forever. Trent may be retiring. I knew that if I wanted to see him, this would be the time to do it. I mentioned briefly to J how badly I wanted to see him but how difficult and expensive finding good tickets would be. He agreed and went back to his computer. An hour later he sat next to me and showed me what he had gotten: 12th row tickets to see the last tour NIN may ever perform, the NIN/JA Tour, at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

I’m dying over here. I can’t WAIT for May so I can finally see Trent live. You are all jealous. Yes, you are.

In other news, you may have noticed a change in lunsh.net. I’m thinking of changing my blog and portfolio around. I know this sucks for the few people who have actually subscribed to my feed, but I promise this change will most likely be permanent (no more moving around after this). I don’t know yet. We’ll see. I’ll let you guys know.

March 30, 2009 @ 11:49 am . Comments (3)

Culture — Tags: bliss, lunsh, music

Goings on

We’ve not quite decided on the house yet. We put down a deposit to keep it for now and we received the lease but we’re still considering. It’s been such a stressful situation for all of us, because of how big of a decision it is. I’m tired of big decisions. Ever since August it feels like I’ve been making them every single month.

No one ever told me how hard graduating and moving on from school would be, and I feel sort of betrayed. Everyone said how weird it was to go to college and I felt almost prepared for that. This, though. This is different. My mum keeps saying, “Welcome to the real world,” but it’s the real world on a student salary, with a student mindset, and I have known nothing else outside of what I see when I stand on the corner of Speedway and 24th Street. School.

So I’m not sure what to do right now. And even though we got the lease Friday night they’re already sending us reminders to sign it.

I wish everyone would stop talking about the economy. Talking about how bad it is can only make things worse, because everyone gets terrified and then they don’t spend money and right now the best thing everyone can do is act like everything is normal. But it’s like you can’t even read a decorating magazine or an article about bunnies without hearing about it. It’s enough to make you scream, especially for a “just-getting-out-of-school-20-something.” It’s as if people are obsessed.

It’s raining for the first time in a long time. Hot and rainy is the weather for today. Hot and rainy and therefore disgustingly humid, but it’s the first time we’ve had rain in awhile.

Tomorrow is J’s and my one year anniversary.

I’m not one to sit and mope these days. But sometimes you just need a weekend to be a bit bummed out about how fast your life is moving.

February 9, 2009 @ 9:10 am . Comments (5)

Culture — Tags: bad luck, Future, the world

For us, for all the world

Have you ever had it when you’ve been thinking a lot about one particular thing, or a bunch of little things that all relate with one overarching theme, but you’re having a hard time putting it into words? I’m sort of having that problem, but it’s more like I know what I want to say, but I don’t have time to say it.

But kind of what I was thinking about was Mill’s idea of the worst kind of tyranny that a majority can impose upon a minority: the kind that gets deep into your soul. Like people in older times or different places that were or are locked up for differing beliefs - at least they still can hold firm because the government cannot lock up their mind. But when you go to a party or post a blog post online and say you like something different from the norm … it’s weird how people just make you feel so bad. And they do it from all sides, in all places, with all opinions. That’s the sort of feeling that gets deep within you, makes you either change your mind or shut up about your different opinions.

My biggest thing right now I think is the fact that I am not enchanted in the least by Obama, and that I didn’t really like McCain either. And the fact that I chose not to vote (before you jump down my throat on THIS, yes, I am registered, yes, I was considering it, yes, I vote in local elections, and my ultimate choice was not to vote in this one). I just had so many people tell me I was crazy or give me the silent treatment or do this weird thing where you could tell they were really annoyed at me but they didn’t want to show it. THAT’S what I’m talking about. I could feel it getting to me - it made me upset, it made me feel like I was weird for being different, for thinking different. People made me feel terrible for not really liking Obama all that much, and people made me feel awful for not voting.

It gets to you. It really does. Even if you brush it off in your mind, when someone says, “What is WRONG with you?” or implies it, you can’t forget it, not really. Everyone has had this sort of thing happen to them - and eventually they either change their mind or stop talking about what they feel. I stop talking. If someone has something to say, I’ll listen to them and respect them and even encourage them to talk, but I don’t say much back. In fact, I hardly ever talk about my opinions - I do it more in the online community because I’m bolder online, but in real life it’s just easier to say nothing.

And, if it’s the only way I can truly hold onto what I believe, then I must stay quiet. I don’t want people getting to me like that.

My thoughts and opinions are challenged nearly every day because I don’t have very mainstream ideas, at least not today. I’m a minority in a lot of my opinions, but I have very Mill-ian ideas about how the world should work. It’s very comforting, though, to know that I am not the only one, that some of these great thinkers warned against or encouraged the very same conclusions I’ve arrived to now.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, you’ve all had this happen to you, where someone thinks you’re stupid for feeling a certain way. And you KNOW it gets to you. And the worst part is, we all do it. Like, the Obama thing. Liking Obama is clearly a majority thing - he received the most popular votes. And I had some of my closest friends treat me like I was insane. The months leading up the election were very painful for me - very painful. It’s hard to admit that. Hard to admit that people get to you like that. Every single time someone would mention Obama I would tense up. Worse, every single time someone would bring up the election, I would feel that all over again, deep down inside. I had to start avoiding news. I didn’t want to be treated like an outsider. I still don’t.

So I come to you, bearing my soul out to the world. I have minority beliefs - we all do in at least one respect. Some of us here are the weird ones, the ones who thought differently in school and were teased for it. Now that we’ve grown up it hasn’t gotten much better even though we think it has. Adults have more subtle ways of making people feel bad for being weird or having weird opinions.

I implore you, all of you. This is even a reminder to myself. The next time someone says something that’s stupid or weird or different, don’t tease them. Don’t make fun of them. Don’t roll your eyes. You can disagree to them, say, “I see what you’re saying. I don’t know if I feel the same way though, but you have a point.” But don’t make them feel bad for the disagreement.

Embrace the differences for the sake of the weirdness that is in all of us. By stifling us you stifle yourself.

November 15, 2008 @ 11:02 am . Comments (6)

Culture — Tags: insecurities, lessons, living, the world

Upset

A president is NOT a monarch. Stop giving him so much power in your minds. Yes, he has power. But! There’s a body of people who make decisions for you every single day and most people don’t even care. They have more impact on your daily life than the president. They’re called Representatives and Senators and Mayors and Comptrollers and City Councils and even Neighborhood Councils, and if everyone paid them a fraction of the amount of attention that they paid this presidential election, change can happen.

Have you ever voted in the off-season? How about locally?

Maybe you should consider it.

November 5, 2008 @ 9:00 am . Comments (2)

Culture, Media — Tags: annoyance

Obsession with sports

As many of you are aware, my bike is pretty old. I bought it for $40 at a garage sale down the street. It’s an old women’s one-speed Huffy with a chain guard and basket on the front (which my mum gave me). It squeaks when I ride and doesn’t go up hills. The tires go flat quickly. Sometimes it makes weird metal clanking noises.

It’s not a perfect bike but it does the job and I use it to ride to school almost every morning. I used to take a shuttle to school but they’re not just crowded, they’re usually full. I’m getting to the point where I can’t wait to get out of school, and so I’m rather jaded to being cram packed into a bus with a million other university students, most of which are on their cell phones and none of which will give up their seat for someone who needs it more, like a person juggling five bags and a musical instrument.

But that’s a different complaint. So, my bike is great and I ride it everywhere. Did I mention it’s slow? My bike is so heavy I can’t lift it more than a couple inches off the ground, and I’m not exactly petite. So it’s really slow, because it’s so heavy. If I get a good speed going and then stop pedalling, it’ll roll to a stop really quickly. It’s ridiculous.

Anyway, so, I’m not the sort of person who rushes around anyway so it suits me fine. I tend to be late to class and late to dates and appointments, so a slow bike is perfect. I’ll be riding along, keeping up a decent pace, and all of the sudden, some douche on a mountain bike or racer bike, wearing a helmet and shorts, will go whizzing by me, his backpack tight against his back and no trace of a bag or basket.

Which is fine. You know, if he wants to get out of breath, that’s his business. But he’s GOING TO SCHOOL. Not biking in a marathon. Where’s the fire?

I’ve been reading Copenhagen Cycle Chic and it exactly talks about how I feel. Americans have turned cycling into a sport, just as they’ve turned running into a sport, walking into a sport, and every other thing they can possibly turn into a sport… into a sport.

Now people feel like you can’t just bike to work or school without having the Right Gear or the Right Bike. I see clones… ahem, sorry, I mean girls at my university wearing running shorts all day. Running shorts? What, do they expect they’re going to suddenly have to race each other? Or do they think by wearing athletic clothes to history class they’re going to look skinnier and more toned?

My point is exercising is such a big deal here! Everyone goes to the gym, buys fancy clothes and equipment, and then wears their running shorts to go grocery shopping. People give me weird looks because I bike in a skirt. To school. Without a helmet. Without any “bike equipment.” Wearing gold flats or Converse with no arch support. Oh no!

Like, I said, I’m always late. Sometimes it’s a big deal. So I run. Seems like a good idea to me, but I get stares because I am the one of the few people I have ever seen running on campus. Everyone else walks briskly. Wearing running shorts.

You don’t need fancy equipment to ride your bike to school or work and you definitely don’t need to dress funny. You just need to do it. Or, just go for a walk in whatever you’ve got on. I see these ladies walking in gym bras, shorts, and caps, and it just looks funny to me. I think if you’re spending that much time looking athletic you’re missing the point of just going for a walk. Or riding your bike. Or even swimming or hiking or camping or whatever.

Trust me on this - if you go in what you’ve got on, you’ll be fine. Unless you’re seriously jogging for sport or running a marathon or whatever. I’m just saying that if you want to walk you don’t need to wear something special. If you want to bike to work just enjoy the ride and don’t worry about the difference between spandex and nylon and chamois or whatever the heck. Unless you are planning on participating in a marathon or you take it VERY seriously, if you don’t have the gear, don’t WORRY about it. Just get out there and do it anyway.

Too long didn’t read:

Dear America,
Stop turning every single way I get from one place to another into a sport. I can’t afford spandex.
Thank you.

October 19, 2008 @ 9:55 am . Comments (6)

Culture — Tags: annoyance, fashion, trends

A serious problem

I recently did a project for geology where we were given the biocapacity of the Earth, the population of the Earth, and a few estimated average yearly footprint (resources we as an individual consume). In the United States, the footprint is about 7-10 hectares. In other countries, the footprint is more like 0.5 or 0.6 hectares. If that doesn’t make you stop and think, maybe this will.

Based on my calculations of REAL, ACTUAL data, there is a good chance we’ve already reached our carrying capacity. Global warming may hit us within 1000-2000 years. Carrying capacity is happening today or it will happen within our lifetimes.

What does this mean? There was a famous experiment where around 30 reindeer were dropped off on an island up north. The reindeer began to breed and populate the island. The biocapacity for the island was around 1,500 reindeer. Within a short period of time, there were 6,000 reindeer on the island. They peaked at this point, and then began to starve to death. There weren’t enough resources to exist at the numbers that they were at. Resources replenish themselves but the grass and berries and stuff couldn’t grow back fast enough. When the researchers returned, there were 21 reindeer left - 20 females and 1 sickly male.

The reindeer went extinct on the island because there were simply too many of them at that point. The two reasons a species can go extinct are: 1) the more common reason, which is environmental destruction (meteor strikes, ice ages, bulldozing the rainforest) and 2) the reason people don’t talk about - when there are too many creatures in an area (or on the entire planet) - there aren’t enough resources to maintain those levels. When the number gets way too high above the carrying capacity, resources can’t replenish themselves fast enough and nature takes over. Sometimes enough creatures will die out that the species can maintain an equilibrium. Sometimes most of the creatures are killed, but enough survive so that they can still exist. And sometimes they go extinct.

Something has to give when an organism goes above their carrying capacity. Nature FORCES this to happen. What’s most likely to happen is that we go above the carrying capacity (population is an n^3 equation, which grows very rapidly), people began starving in record numbers, and they die until we get back down to 6 billion people (which is about what the population needs to be).

People are going to die.

We need to stop consuming so much. We need to reduce our yearly consumption. And then we need to desperately reduce the world’s population. I hear people all the time talking about how other people need to do it, as if we in the United States are always exempt from everything because we have money. Guess what? The human race could go extinct if we keep ignoring the problem and letting population get too high.

Nobody talks about this because population control is such a sensitive subject. Everyone loves to imagine their genes being passed on, little tiny them and their husbands or wives. Nobody is willing to make the sacrifice to adopt instead of having children or simply opting to not have kids at all because they feel like other people should do it. They feel like they deserve to have children. Other people can take care of reducing the population.

I know some of you will think I’m beastly for encouraging you to make the choice to not have natural children of your own, but I hope maybe we can fix what’s going wrong. This is bigger than global warming. I did the number crunching - I worked those numbers and I found out what’s really happening through my own research.

I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t be pressured in to having kids if you don’t feel like you 100% want to. Try to adopt a child who needs you - that child will be YOURS in every sense of the word. There is no need to doom our future when we can stop this now.

I’m off my soapbox now.

ps: if you want the numbers I used, feel free to ask and I can provide you with the data so you can work through this yourself.

October 14, 2008 @ 1:27 pm . Comments (5)

Culture —

Who you are

I have a lot of books. Above is the second bookcase I own - notice how the rows of books are nice and neat? Notice how there’s room for my roommate’s DVDs and even some boxes at the top that has my art supplies in them? Yeah, the only reason for that is because I haven’t moved most of the books from my other bookcase to this one. My other bookcase has books horizontally on the shelves so I can stack them up. Then there are stacks of books in FRONT of each stack of books. So, essentially, they’re double stacked and stacked horizontally instead of nice and vertical.

Then I have two boxes of books in my closet.

I have a LOT of books. But I don’t have a LOT of stuff. I find what’s important to me and I keep them because I USE them. But just because I have a lot of books doesn’t mean I have a lot of things I don’t need. I don’t have a fancy TV, I don’t have tons of clothes and makeup, I don’t hoard things from my childhood. Every year I go through my stuff and give a fair amount of it to Goodwill.

So apparently we’re going through some economic/financial crisis right now. Apparently people are freaking out because they think there’s going to be another great depression and so they’re hoarding stuff. To me, this doesn’t sound any different from what people normally do. You DON’T need all that stuff. You can live without your junk, even through a financial crisis.

I know people who keep everything - I know people whose cars look like a trashcan and you can only fit in the front seat because the back seat is completely covered in stuff. People get unreasonably defensive about it, too. They talk about how they NEED that chipped vase because it was their great-grandparents’ and how if they get rid of the ten thousand hangers they have in their closet, half of which aren’t even being used, they might need them later and won’t have them and will panic.

What is up with this fear? You have to choose what’s important to you, and even then you can’t be unreasonable about it. I love books but even I give away books every once in awhile because I will never read them again. And if I do decide to read it later on down the line, well, that’s why libraries exist.

And that’s the whole thing - people are so terrified of not having exactly what they need when they need it, and I ask you, why? Why are you afraid? Also, why do you NEED this stuff? Does it make you feel better as a person to have it? Do you keep it because some day you might look at it again and relive those memories? Take a picture of it and throw it out.

Unclutterer often talks about these ideas but I’ve noticed it often pushes this to an extreme. What I’m saying is you don’t need to get rid of everything - I have two bookcases, for goodness’ sake. But that’s because books are important to me and I read a lot. I have a lot of art supplies as well - they fit nicely in four boxes and I have a fold-up easel too. But I don’t have a lot of junk that I keep around just for memories. I don’t have a lot of furniture, I don’t have a big bed, and I don’t have electronic junk. I don’t have an iPod, I don’t have a stereo, I don’t have ten million DVDs that need their own separate container to store them all. I don’t have a file cabinet - just a magazine holder that holds recent files. Everything older than six months to a year is shredded and thrown out (sometimes scanned first).

The point is I don’t spend the money on this stuff and I don’t fill up my cozy apartment with it either. The first thing most people say when they walk into my apartment is, “Wow, it looks really nice in here! But it’s so small!”

I think Americans in general are used to humongous living spaces. It’s this vicious circle - we buy too much stuff and then we buy a bigger place to fit all our stuff and then we realize we have more space for more stuff so we buy more stuff, and then we think we need a bigger place, and so on. I read somewhere (can’t find the original source) that Americans have much more space than Europeans, and they feel uncomfortable living in small spaces. I don’t think my place is small because I don’t have so much stuff that it feels cramped. There isn’t a lot of square footage but I don’t need a lot of square footage. When did we start valuing more space than we need? When did we start feeling more secure financially when we have a lot of things?

Which brings me back to my original point. You will be able to better survive a financial crisis if you learn to stop relying on material goods, sell the things you don’t need, get out of debt, and stop buying things you can’t afford. Wealth does NOT equal How Much Stuff You Have. Start with one thing at a time - throw something out and don’t look back.

You don’t have to live in a house with nothing. You’re allowed to have hobbies! You’re allowed to keep things you use. But sever that attachment with your material goods. These things do not make you who you are.

October 8, 2008 @ 11:39 am . Comments (5)

Culture — Tags: lessons, living, trends

Cold

It’s seventy-six degrees outside. 76F. SEVENTY-SIX.

I’m freaking out. It’s so cold! People were walking around campus wearing jackets. It was as if the ice age had descended upon us. Hurricane Ike didn’t hit us, fortunately, but it left behind freezing weather.

Okay, maybe it’s not freezing outside, but it’s a bit brisk when yesterday it was 95F. It looks like this weather is here to stay, at least for now - this entire week is going to barely creep into the 90s.

The good part about this is I can walk places without dying. The bad part is they’re still air conditioning the buildings. I have issues with air conditioning in Texas. Yes, it’s hot outside. Yes, we all hate it. But do you really have to crank the air conditioning down to 65F? You’re just wasting money and making everyone really, really cold!

I used to work in the Flawn Academic Center on campus. This place is always frigid inside, which is a shame, since it’s got beanbags and is really pretty nice. Every single person in there would complain, save one or two. Unfortunately, those two people were always the most vocal, complaining about how it was so hot and if we turned the temperature up they’d die.

I’ve often heard people say to me, “Well, you can always put more layers on. I can’t take my clothes off.”

This is ridiculous. I can’t carry a parka to work when it’s 99F outside - jackets are often too bulky and I shouldn’t have to carry something extra JUST so I can not freeze when I’m inside a building.

I, and others like me, have to suffer every single day just so the one or two vocal people in the building aren’t hot. What ever happened to just dealing with it? I used to know a girl who would crank the air conditioning so the temperature was as low as she could reasonably make it, and then she’d blow fans in every single room. This is insane, folks.

But really, what’s going on? Why is it that every single store, building, and house has to be like walking through the north pole? Why is it I have to brace myself every time I walk into Target because I know it’s going to be freezing? If they were to put the temperature up just a few degrees, they’d save tons of money. So why don’t they do it?

I just don’t get it. And I don’t get why people are using air conditioning when it’s 76F outside. Urgh. I’m going to wrap up in a blanket to THAW myself off.

September 15, 2008 @ 5:48 pm . Comments (7)

Culture — Tags: annoyance, trends

Obesity

Speaking of height as in my last post, this post is going to be about the dreaded subject - weight. I’ve been reading a lot of stuff about airlines charging more for larger people and it’s really making me think.

I’m not fat by any stretch of the imagination - my entire family is tall and skinny, except for my mum, who is short and skinny (sorry Mum!). My dad is 6′2″ and lanky, and I got all my genes from him. I’m like a walking rail. But I’ve watched my friends struggle to lose or maintain weight, and although I haven’t got first-hand experience in this, I can feel their pain and sympathize.

But there’s some things that really bother me. I’ve heard people say that people don’t choose to be overweight, they just are. But although there are a few people with illnesses and a few people with slow metabolism, I still have to wonder - in the 1970s, these same things existed - so why are people much fatter now? You can’t blame everything on that. And, furthermore, you will become powerless to lose weight if you believe that you cannot choose to be the weight that you are or want to be. Although it takes some measure of forcing yourself to admit that maybe you haven’t made the healthiest choices, it is also very empowering to know that YOU are responsible for your own change, and YOU can make it happen.

The fact of the matter is we as a nation are fatter and you can’t blame all of that on bad genes or illnesses. It’s not about image, it’s about health. Did you know that people are getting shorter? One of the main reasons that Americans are getting shorter is because of diet - we eat mostly junk and sugar and processed food, while our European friends eat homecooked meals with lots of vegetables and milk and vitamins. It really makes you think, huh? It’s such a harmless repercussion of our unhealthy eating habits, but it’s a repercussion you would never expect. Nowadays we scrutinize calories - we drink water instead of milk, which definitely cuts down the calories but also cuts down the amount of calcium and vitamins we’re getting. Why not drink both? Why not watch what you eat and ensure you’re eating just enough to make you full and no more?

Thin people need surprisingly little to stay happy and healthy. When I think about the food I eat every day I realize I don’t eat that much at all usually. For breakfast I have an egg and either a piece of toast with jam or a small bowl of oatmeal (plain, thank you very much). For lunch I pack a peanut butter sandwich and a slice of cheese, and for dinner I have something light and little like a plain salad with a sprinkle of vinegar and pepper or some vegetable dumplings. In the evenings I usually have a snack - often times it’s salted stove-popped popcorn, and to drink throughout the day I have juice and soy milk (sometimes water at work because it’s free). To me this feels like a lot of food but I realize it’s not. I don’t think people realize that you really don’t need a lot of food to feel good and to be healthy.

I also completely believe that my habits began in childhood. I was lucky enough to grow up loving vegetables - my mum tells stories about how I would sit in the cart in the grocery store and eat broccoli straight out of the bag. But my parents also forced me to eat lots of different types of foods - I remember hating pancakes and omelettes but I had to eat them almost every weekend. Now I love pancakes and omelettes are delicious too. I’m still not a huge fan of breakfast - most cereal makes me queasy and I can’t stand the thought of waffles or French toast (gross), but the point is my parents got me to like a wide range of foods.

Also, you could never keep me inside as a kid. I was always out and about, running and playing. Nowadays running is often banned from playgrounds at schools and so is tag. In my grammar school we would organize huge games of tag and spend the entire recess running around, and I was the fastest in the entire school, which made it even more fun. Kids don’t do that today. Everything is so sterile.

Kids stay inside and watch TV and eat terrible, terrible food for whatever reason. It’s like we prioritize all the wrong things and buy expensive cars when we can’t even afford to feed ourselves vegetables. People substitute meat as the most important part of their meals when vegetables are more healthy in general (and less fattening). They buy the cheapest food they can find that will fill them up quickly. It’s as if our bodies are less important than clothes and TV and movies.

And you know the worst part? They do it to their kids.

What do you think? Is obesity a choice? Why does this happen? What can we do to make it stop?

August 14, 2008 @ 5:32 pm . Comments (4)

Culture — Tags: Health, trends