Pavlov's Season

The calendar tells us when fall begins, but it is wrong. Fall is here, walking the city streets with slightly dusty jackets and newly bought scarves. It closes it's cafe windows and doors to keep the suddenly cooler breeze outside and the steam from coffees and lattes in. 

From the years of schooling that we all face, we are conditioned to associate the drop in temperature with an increase in productivity. We put on our sweaters and suddenly want to work harder than we did during the lazy days of summer. That is not to say we didn't work. New York is a strict headmaster who doesn't allow laziness within his borders. But now, fall wraps around us like our sweaters and we ache for full pens and blank papers, bright computer screens, and the need to prove ourselves. Whether in school or not, we can't stop attributing fall to getting focused and moving forward. 

Autumn found me back at school, a bag full of heavy text books on my back and new blisters on my feet. I have to readjust to the way my reading glasses slowly slip off my nose, to the way my eyes tire if I don't use them, to the way my right hand cramps slightly as I right responses for exams. People argue that time moves in a linear fashion, but I don't believe them. It is fall, I am a senior in NYC. It is fall, I am a high school student in central Jersey. It is fall, I am an elementary student a few towns east of where I will go to high school. It is fall, and suddenly all these previous years are back again and repeating. I'm still so excited about buying new pens, still walking the street so proudly with my bag full of heavy text books I have yet to read. Time moves cyclically, I am sure of it. It's a spring in your mattress, stretching and shrinking, often touching on past cycles. 

A Thought: Everyone follows their own personal "right." If they didn't believe it was "right," they probably wouldn't do it. When someone bothers or annoys you, it's their "right" clashing with your personal "right," not necessarily them being assholes or doing "wrong." Realizing this made me so much nicer to people.

A Find: I found my fall drink. It is basil lemonade and it was fantastic. I wouldn't have thought that I'd enjoy drinking basil, but I do. It's really great and really good for you!

Pigments and Personal Histories

Maybe it's because I'm in New York City. Maybe it's because I'm in a very liberal college. Maybe it's because I'm studying psychology in a liberal school and it, therefore, has a very liberal bias. Maybe it's me. 

We're all people. We have skin, it has pigment. We have history, it comes from different countries of origin. We have varying paychecks. We have internal or external sex organs. We all inhale and exhale. We all blink. We sleep and we chew our food. 

I don't watch Miss America, I admit it. You don't have to either. You can even dislike it. Dislike it because it's sexist. Dislike it because it stresses superficial aesthetics and standardized body sizes and shapes. Or you might like it. Do whatcha please.

However, though I don't watch the pageant and did not watch this last pageant, I have definitely heard more than enough about it. Miss New York, a woman of Indian descent, won. I did not know this until I heard about the repercussions from this decision and heard the racist, ignorant, completely unfounded remarks that people have been making about her. People have been calling her an arab, al-qaeda member, saying that it's a complete disgrace of a decision to be made so close to the anniversary of 9/11 (since we were obviously attacked by India, which is the same as al-Qaeda in case you didn't know - please note the sarcasm). 

I'm completely flabbergasted. Sure, I'm an eternal optimist, but the awful things that people have said sound so un-American (like it or not, we're a melting pot and always have been), so un-2013 (aren't we getting somewhere?), so un-human. This is by far the hardest post I've had to write so far for all of the constraint I'm using to not write exactly what I'm thinking.  

A Thought: Think about what you write, post, and/or publish before you do. Please. It becomes public, permanent, and is subjected to the eyes of people who may not know or understand you. You may also enrage a lot of people for a thought that could easily just stay in your own head.

A Find: A little off topic and a little nerdy, but I just received my DSM-5 in the mail and am so excited. Whether you're pro diagnoses or against them, the DSM-5 has some really awesome revisions (a sign of a slightly more progressive time) and is a fascinating look at what the human brain/mind is capable of (whether in positive ways or potentially negative ways). 

Warming up to Fall

This past summer break from school was not necessarily intended to be a break from the blog, but, so it goes. A new season (nearly), a new semester, finally a senior. So it goes.

Bushwick cools in autumn light while the days begin to shorten, making the apartment much more enticing at night than during the summer. While there is light, we fight the indoors, take to the streets and pretend this concrete means nature.Grass sprouts through sidewalk cracks and we transplants remember our hometowns. New York's the city of passers-by, of missed or random meetings, impermanence, and a hustle that just might be superhuman. But we keep climbing the stairs, keep riding the subways and walking these streets. 

Last night, a bunch of friends and I went to a friend's show of folksy, hymn-like music. While he played, I sat beside his girlfriend and watched her listen to the music she must know so well. Hardly looking at him, she sat and smiled, so happy and proud of him. There's something to watching someone while their significant other is engaged in their passion. I haven't quite put my finger on it yet.

I have also found myself lately becoming more engaged in local politics than ever before. The mayoral race is in full swing, complete with frantic lashings out, extreme promises, and a chaos that reminds me of Lewis Carroll's political race parody where the animals race around, with no start and no end, until nobody wins, much to Alice's confusion. Recently, a debate ensued where all candidates lashed out against a sole candidate, primarily for his secure place as the democratic nominee. For the people who are supposed to run things, you'd hope for better performance. We all, I'm assuming, hope for better performance from these politicians, but all we find are lies and immature squabble. As I enter into politics, I'm constantly reminded of why I've avoided the topic for so long. Ah well. The biggest question is, though, do we lower our standards to accept these politicians (as we've been doing for so long), or do we finally put our feet down?

A Thought: I'll probably say more about this later, but anywho, as everyone becomes engrossed in the Syria debate, there's the handful who support US involvement and possible declaration of war, while another handful scream against US involvement, while yet another handful outright oppose war on principle. So often in these scenarios, when involvement is decided upon, countries jump right to war, as if war is the only answer and tool one country has against another. The biggest guns and highest body count proclaim "right." But just as no man is an island, neither is any country (in our political sphere anyways) isolated. I would imagine that blockades, loss of support, freezing of imports/exports, etc… would send just as clear of a message without having to jump to military involvement. Can't we get a little more creative than guns?

A Find: Recently I've been getting really into the theories, basics, and elements of graphic design and have found a number of books by Ellen Lupton that are really amazing. Two in particular are extremely helpful for the contemporary beginner: Graphic Design, The New Basics and Thinking with Type. Both are really good finds and have been very positively reviewed in the design sphere.