illusions

i've had the past couple of days off ~ giant sigh of relief ~ and just completed my last final. i'm using the library computers one more time before i say goodbye to north seattle campus.

every day, i see more news about the presidential race and so many beautiful signs of political revolution with the prospect of bernie sanders winning the presidency. in stark contrast to this, there is a pit in my stomach with each article published about donald trump. he is terrifying. i find myself googling, "why is trump still relevant in presidential race," in search of answers. i can't understand it and, even further, i can't understand why big money (hillary clinton) still holds the democratic lead.

regardless, register to vote, and vote this year. we're at a pivotal moment in the history of planet earth and i want to see humans have a future long enough for many generations to comfortably enjoy. we need climate change reform, we need racism, hate speech and fear mongering to end. we need to join together as one global community to pursue a healthy future.

anyways. here's a good cypress hill song

end of term

my first term in seattle is done! i feel as if i have 123892652384 more, but here's to chippin' away.

@ilovekotbonkers

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feeling uninspired

prompts are a great way to get writing. i like writing essays because it doesn't come as a serious struggle for me... usually. today, i'm trying to write my last essay for my english class and the prompt is this: "I want you to write an essay that says something important about how to live in the world." pardon me if that isn't the broadest essay prompt you've ever read. i have this problem where i take on a project and, rather than having a concise yet fluid point, i creep into every minute crevice that involves the topic because i'm worried that i won't hit each valid and crucial point. if you were to write a four to six page essay on how to live well, what would you write about? which texts might you choose to reference? i'm limited to the texts in my class but i would still love to hear where the ideas of others may roam.

but anyways, i'm feeling uninspired and am referencing a required reading in our class that was also required in a similar class i took a whopping five years ago - and it's just a beautiful as it was then. have a read of the closing paragraph if you're in the mood for some existential sadness.

"So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment. We are utterly open with no one, in the end -- not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, not child, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart. When young we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this is the dream of a child, that all hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn, repaired by time and will, patched by force of character, yet fragile and rickety forevermore, no matter how ferocious the defense and how many bricks you bring to the wall. You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant, felled by a woman's second glance, a child's apple breath, the shatter of glass in the road, the words I have something to tell you, a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die, the brush of your mother's papery ancient hand in a thicket of your hair, the memory of your father's voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children." (Joyas Volardoras, Brian Doyle)

mood music

it's been a mellow week and now i'm looking forward to a mellow weekend. my place of work went out of business (lol) but i just accepted two part time positions and start at one of them tonight! yay. i don't have too much to say but i've been really digging the music my most recent set of moods has brought me to so i thought i'd share a lil playlist with whichever human actually reads this (whoever u r, thank u <3 ). the above video is from a local band that, at first listen, i wasn't in love with, but i'm so glad whatever mindset i had been in then changed because they are in fact amazing. chastity belt is playing a local christmas party that is only $3 entry, but you have to rsvp, so go do it! XOXO TGIF!!!!! playlist after the jump.

wish lists

swim good

Essay #3: Response to Poetry: Work

by Maggie Gray | November 12, 2015

Since the Industrial Revolution, Americans of all ages and social classes have become “slaves to the clock.” Chad Walsh, Theodore Roethke, Paul Walker and Marsha Major have written poems that evoke a sense of melancholy regarding the working class American using similar techniques. These poems give their readers a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of the American worker who, while subscribing to the life society has structured for them, is not finding a greater fulfillment in their craft but is passively wishing for something more gratifying. Through phrase structure, creative adjective and verb use, colorful (or a lack of colorful) imagery and rhythm, these poets create a sense of incompleteness, repetitiveness, and wistful wonder of what may be in store for any that can escape the daily routine of the masses. (More after the Jump)