The full article is here but I wanted to post a few quotes as well.

“I know it sounds bad,’’ said Wallace, of Roslindale, as she worked on her laptop at Panera in Brookline, “but seeing if I had an e-mail was more exciting than looking at the sunset.’’

She’s 22, the same age as me. I’m pretty sure if I were in her position, I’d totally be taking photos of that sunset… (Whether or not I’d be using an iPhone and then posting them to facebook is a different matter because I don’t have one yet)

The article goes on to describe how people are demanding wireless wherever they vacation, even if it’s camping. Did you know 5,000 of our 13,000 campgrounds now offer wireless? It boggles my mind. We have become so connected that we can’t function even on vacation unless we have our Kindles, laptops and smartphones with us.

I remember packing a backpack of things to keep entertained during a trip – either a plane or car ride. There would be coloring books or a sketch pad, kids puzzle books, a magazine as a treat, and a book or two for me to read. As I got older the bag included a gameboy and then an iPod (the kind that just plays music). But now it’s either my laptop or my iPod touch or both. (I’ll still have the books though.)

If the kids build a sandcastle on the beach and mom doesn’t update her Facebook status, did it happen?

I love this quote – reminds me of our generation’s insistence that nothing is official until it is on facebook. But there’s a difference between using the site to record memories – like the first sandcastle of the season, and live blogging every sandcastle of the summer. Some people know the difference and can leave their technology at home while others remain tethered to their smartphones.

Just something to keep in mind now that vacation season is starting up.

Everyone had different ideas about right and wrong and how vague or specific the commandments should be. There was debate over whether or not we had the right to tell anyone how to live on a personal level or if we could only say how people should interact with others. Words had to be chosen carefully and concepts chosen had to be something that everyone agreed on. The commandments weren’t chosen by majority, they were chosen by consensus.

I would not have been surprised if the group only came up with one or two things that we all agreed on. In the end, we came up with a list of six commandments that all nine of us agreed are a good set of general rules for life.

The Six Commandments 

1. Be Compassionate towards others

2. Don’t hurt other people against their will

3. Do what is right for you (While still following the other Commandments)

4. Respect what is right for you may not be right for others

5. Do not forget the value of everyone

6. Everyone has a chance of forgiveness and redemption

These didn’t come from one person or a majority vote. These six commandments were created and agreed upon by every person in our widely diverse group. It was truly an experience that I’m sure we’ll all remember. A lot of people think that different cultures and faiths will never be able to come together; that people are too different to unite. This group proved that theory wrong. People may argue that this was a small scale experiment and that such harmony could never happen on the large scale. In the words of my dear friend Ken, “We don’t know that.”

Now, let me start by saying that I absolutely LOVE this movie. It’s one of my all time favorites. That being said, this animated film has plot holes a sonic screwdriver couldn’t fix. Most of them revolve around the curse placed on Prince Adam (the Beast) and the rest of the castle. The terms of the spell are that the palace will stay enchanted forever unless the Beast could find love by his twenty-first birthday, inferring that the people placed under the spell age while enchanted (otherwise the age limit would be unnecessary). During the movie, it’s stated that the palace had been enchanted for ten years, and at the end of the movie the final petal on the rose falls meaning that time’s up and the prince is twenty-one (don’t worry, they were saved, literally, last second).

I’m not a math major, but I do know that twenty-one minus ten years equals eleven. Eleven! That means that the prince was eleven years old when the spell was made! Which leads me to ask: was he really selfish and unable to love like the enchantress said, or was he just a little boy who didn’t want to let the creepy old lady into his house? I’d vote for the later. Eleven’s a little young to make judgment calls on who he’d grow up to be.

That’s the most dominant of the plot holes that bother my brain. The second: the cast were living as objects for ten years. Chip, the teacup, is seven years old. Need I go into deeper detail why this is a problem? Then there’s the trouble of where Chip’s brothers and sisters disappear too, and what happened to all of the un-enchanted household object before and after the spell was placed on all of the servants (who’s numbers greatly change between the big song and dance scene and the finale).

All in all, Beauty and the Beast is a GREAT movie and it’s message isn’t found in the small details but in what the characters learn along the way. Still, you can’t help but wonder, did the writers know their math was as weird as the spelling of “Weird”, or did they not care?

TTFN!

Boston has long used veteran’s preference to get returning vets into jobs such as the police and fire departments. This year, Boston Fire Department has asked to set aside 15 of 50 spots in their academy class for people who speak Spanish. (And yes, they actually have to ask for an exception to sidestep the law)

And well, I let the quote speak for itself.

But a group of military veterans, normally given preference for the jobs, has challenged the decision. Alleging in legal documents that the bilingual requirement is being used to “recruit people of color into the uniformed ranks,’’ the veterans have asked the state Civil Service Commission to investigate.

So when did knowledge of a language determine your skin color? I’m sure this wasn’t the only line of reasoning the veterans put in their legal documents, but this quote makes them seem very racist. Later on in the article, the lawyer for them complains about how they came back from serving in Iraq/Afghanistan to find the rules have changed on them.

And there’s even more background, like how the BFD was legally bound to hire/diversify at a one to one ratio meaning for every white candidate they hired, they needed a black or Hispanic one as well. That rule was disbanded less than ten years ago and since then the department has hired a group that is 88 per cent white.

I don’t really understand why the veterans are so angry. The department finally realized they need more staff who speaks Spanish when they respond to calls from Spanish speaking people. Boston has a huge Hispanic population in one neighborhood, and significant populations in other neighborhoods that are on the other side of the city. In other words the Hispanics are basically all over. It’s time the department diversifies again.

The veterans can always apply again next year, right?

As you might have guessed by that introduction, I love useless trivia. I feel like knowing random facts about the world purely for entertainment’s sake, is great! True I may never need to know any of this in any situation other than to inform other people who love useless trivia, but the point isn’t to use the information. The point is to enjoy the information. To revel in just how cool and interesting all of this is.

My newest trivia obsession: words we don’t have in English, or foreign words that can’t be translated into English. They’re called lexical gaps, or lacuna. For example, the word “Hygge” in Danish means “complete absence of anything annoying, irritating or emotionally overwhelming, and the presence of and pleasure from comforting, gentle and soothing things.” Also I’ve heard that there is a Romanian word for “not a virgin” but I’m having a lot of trouble finding out what it is. And English isn’t the only language with lexical gaps, they all have them! Going back to Romania, they don’t have a word for “shallow”.

I think what’s fascinating me about lacunae so much is the idea that the concepts that these words mean are concepts that we as English-speaking people have thought of, but rather than giving it a word we’ve given them phrases or explanations (and it’s a lot harder to talk about something if there’s no word for it). The fact that other cultures also have these concepts but they’ve given the concept words is really sends my mind into a spiral of thought about language and communication and it makes me want to learn what all of these words are so that I can better communicate, not only with people who also speak these languages, but with other English-speaking people who want to talk about these concepts more easily. It’s useless trivia that has a very important use. Also, lacuna’s just a great word!

P.S: A strawberry isn’t a berry. But a banana is.

So, did I learn anything from Week Without the Web? I guess you could say that. I’ve learned that I need internet far less than I thought I did. Since WWW ended, my computer use has decreased significantly. Instead of constantly logging on to check email accounts I know are empty just because I’m a little bored, I’ve been catching up on my reading list and mastering card games. Also, I’ve learned that my internet priorities are a lot different than I had thought they were.

What did I miss most about the web? Google. I missed Google. A lot. I am endlessly curious and every day I would think of random and purposeful things that I would want to look up and couldn’t. Song lyrics, release dates, random trivia, names for characters, more trivia, etc. Forget email, forget Facebook, forget YouTube. What was the most annoying part of WWW was having a question and not being able to jump online, type in what I wanted to know, and be given a well of sources I could click through until I found my answer. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from going a week without the internet, it’s that Google is my favorite thing about the web.

Except it lasts over a year… I’m talking about election season. This week Obama officially filed to run for reelection. *Name for Election* 2012 has officially begun.  Depending on where you get your news from, it could be called Indecision or

So get ready for 19 months of campaign fund raising, social media outreach, baby kissing and the inevitable mud slinging.

It’s quiet right now, because caucuses and primaries don’t kick off until January 2012 but that hasn’t stopped the media machines from rolling out rumors that Michele Bachmann (who gave the Tea Party response to the State of the Union) will file soon, or my favorite, Donald Trump will run. Trump has been on several TV shows recently making his stances known. He is completely anti-gay not even supporting civil unions or domestic partnerships for same sex couples. He’s also pro-life.  The startling fact is that a poll conducted in February showed that Trump was ahead of Obama by two points. You can read more about it here.

A few relatively unknown people have filed to run under the GOP banner. Perhaps the most promising is Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota. But he isn’t well known outside of his state. A highlight is Jimmy McMillan, from the Rent is Too Dam High party. Even though he is technically a democrat, he filed to run as a republican so he wouldn’t directly challenge Obama. McMillan ran for NY Governor but obviously lost. (He did get 41 thousand votes – 20 thousand more than the mistress of Eliot Spitzer)

What I love is no matter how much we hate and complain about the process, once Election night actually comes, we love to stay up and watch the results as the come in.

1. Attend a Haha Hofstra event and laugh out loud!
2. Play games in the Student Center Game Room
3. Sip an herbal tea at Java Connect         
4. Memorize a silly saying
5. Massage your face
6. Schedule five four minute breaks a day, and then take them
7. Take a fitness walk with Recreation & Intramural Sports
8. Talk with people you care about
9. Write down your frustrations
10. Spend some time each day alone
11. Listen to your favorite music
12. Organize your closet
13. Read from a book or site with inspirational quotes
14. Go “out to eat” right here on campus at Tapas Restaurant
15. Meditate at the Saltzman Center
16. Draw something
17. Have a bubble gum blowing contest
18. Exercise regularly
19. If you feel like crying, cry
20. Keep a journal
21. Make a to do list
22. Take a different route to class
23. Get some clay and create a masterpiece
24. Eat breakfast
25. Experience the wonder of nature on campus and have a sweet surprise with our own Honeybees and Hofstra Honey “Arboretum Amber”
26. Make a new recipe
27. Grab a camera and start snapping
28. Be early to your classes and appointments
29. Enjoy a frozen yogurt at Red Mango
30. Read the newspaper all the way through
31. Take 5 slow deep breaths
32. Try something new
33. Sit in a quiet place
34. Get enough sleep
35. Reconnect with an old friend
36. Play the kazoo – or any instrument
37. Call a family member just to talk
38. Take a yoga class at the Fitness Center
39. Skip to your next appointment (instead of skipping your next appointment)
40. Rent a funny movie
41. Take a walk through the Pinetum on South Campus after a snow fall
42. Learn to speak pig Latin
43. Rinse your face with cold water
44. Shop without buying
45. Handwrite a long letter
46. Kick a ball hard
47. Watch cartoons
48. Take a few minutes to relax and view Hofstra’s four seasons of flora
49. Keep your bank account balanced
50. Complete the CV Starr Labyrinth
51. Swim
52. Hold your breath, let it out slowly
53. Do some really messy finger painting
54. Play tag
55. Stretch throughout the day
56. Look in the mirror and tell yourself three things you like about yourself
57. Take a leisurely bike ride
58. Make a gift for a friend
59. Be honest and respectful with yourself and others
60. Go to a Pride sporting event
61. Enjoy the art and the NYC landscape from the 10th floor of the library
62. Express your appreciation to someone
63. Allow yourself some free time
64. Lift weights
65. Read old emails or letters from friends
66. Blow bubbles
67. Ask for help when you need it
68. Make a stress ball and squeeze it
69. Imagine sitting by a stream and each problem you have is a leaf floating by
70. Take a minute to relax while walking through the Bird Sanctuary (schedule a tour at (516) 463-6623)
71. Sit and enjoy the Hofstra Sensory Garden
72. Take a self guided walking tour of the 75 years of history at Hofstra
73. Enjoy the multitude of statues and flowers throughout campus
74. Relax your mind with Hofstra’s own visualization videos
75. Enjoy a play at the Adam’s Playhouse

Why did I love this store so much? Several reasons actually. One: books! Two: it was in the basement of a larger building which I thought was just a really cool set up. Three: books! Four: when we walked in it had that old book smell which I absolutely love. Five: books! Ok, I’ll stop doing that now. Six: the guy that was working there was really nice and helpful. He seemed really happy to see so many people coming in at once and said he could use more customers like me. Seven: books!

Ok, the last one I didn’t mean just books in general, but the kind of books that were in the store. There was a large variety of categories (fiction, non-fiction, children’s, mythology, fairy tales/folklore, religion, philosophy, psychology, cooking, crafts, language, etc. etc.) to choose from. The books were all reasonable priced and they were mostly really old volumes.

I love old books. I love the feel of them, the look of them, the smell of them, all of it. I love that the older a book is, the older its history is. I always wonder what an old book would say if it could tell its story. Where was it made, how many owners did it have, how has it’s story affected those owners. Browsing through the shelves I a book on greek mythology which is great. I also found a tiny brown book called “Be True” by Mrs. Maxwell. It’s pages are yellowed and stained. It’s binding is worn and you can see the print pressing through the other side of the page. It was printed in 1848. This is a book with a long history.

I love bookstores. Whether that be Barns and Nobel or little used bookstores, they’re all places that I could get lost in for hours. And every time I do, I find a new treasure to take home. Then I can get lost in my treasure for hours.

From my experience, a lot of people (both outside and inside of the LGBTQ community) see bisexuality as something that doesn’t really exist. They see it as either the last stepping stone toward becoming gay, a gay person trying to stay in denial, or a straight person looking for attention or acceptance. Well, I’ve identified as bisexual since eighth grade and I can tell you that none of these are true. Believe it or not, it is possible for someone to be attracted to two genders. Trust me; I’m not the only one.

That’s another thing most people get confused about with bisexuality. Being bisexual doesn’t necessarily mean that you are attracted strictly to males and females. Bisexuality means that you are attracted to two (any two) genders. That’s where the “bi” part comes in. Whether these two genders are cis-males and cis-females, cis-females and trans-men, trans-women and agendered people, etc. etc, it doesn’t matter! If you’re attracted to any two of the many, many genders out there, you are bisexual. Congratulations!

None of this seems so hard to believe right? So then why is it so hard for people to believe it when people say that they’re bi? I have a theory: there’s no stereotype for it. Face it, whether you mean to or not, if you see someone act or dress in a certain way, you’re more inclined to believe that they’re gay, or straight, or trans, or whatever. But there’s no “tell” for a bisexual person. Some of us act straighter, some of us act gayer, and that’s fine. But I’ve found that a lot of people I’ve come out to have reactions like “You sure you’re not straight?” or “Wow! You don’t seem gay.” Yes, I’m sure. And guess what. It’s because I’m not gay. I’m bi. It just so happens that there’s no stereotype for it so anyone who’s not in the loop would never be able to look at me and say “Oh yeah, that’s a bi right there.”

I’m not saying that we need a stereotype for bisexuals. Personally, I’m kind of glad there’s no one way people expect me to act or dress. What I’m saying is, if someone tells you that they’re bisexual, take their word for it and don’t jump to conclusions. Life will be a lot easier if you just believe them and move on. Trust me.

Edit: Just to clarify, I’m talking about physical attraction in this rant. For thoughts on emotional attraction (yes, they are different things) please see comments bellow. Thank you and TTFN!