12 May 2014
New Blog
I will be resuming blogging with a new blog, Pineapple Sage, over at Wordpress. I hope you'll follow me there :)
11 November 2013
Veterans' Day Reminder
This video of a homeless veteran is a good reminder to give to others and to avoid judging others based on their appearance. Thanks to all of our veterans for their service.
08 November 2013
Sharon Van Etten: Give Out
On chilly Autumn days, when red and gold leaves litter the city streets and crunch under suede boots, I like listening to "Give Out" by Sharon Van Etten. It makes me feel nostalgic and longing and slightly sad, and I don't think that's wrong for a day like today.
What song is at the top of your playlist this afternoon?
What song is at the top of your playlist this afternoon?
04 November 2013
Winter: The Time for Home
"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch
of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for
home." - Edith Sitwell
During the spring, I lost my motivation to write. First I just stare at a blank word processor screen. I watched the little cursor blink on the draft of my blog post and couldn't find anything to say. I made excuses about writer's block and came up with reasons to stall the fantasy manuscript I had started penning.
In the summer, I stopped trying at all. Instead, I spent the days working and the evenings going out for frozen yogurt and meeting up with my boyfriend and attending English literature class at Hunter College. I spent the weekends jogging -- making my way from a measly two miles at 13 minutes per mile to five miles at 10 minutes per mile. Todd and I traveled to Cape Cod, where we biked nearly 20 miles on the Shining Sea Bikeway from Woods Hole to North Falmouth. The sun warmed the skin, the sky blazed a glorious blue, and the fresh air beckoned me away from my laptop.
At the end of August, I hurt my back. I don't know how, but since then I've barely been able to exercise. I've found myself avoiding the chill weather by snuggling under blankets indoors. Today, I realized just how long it's been since I've written anything at all. I also remembered that November is National Novel Writing Month. So I decided to write something, and to keep writing again. Maybe I won't type out a whole novel in one very busy month, but I will at least try to start up blogging again. I don't want to lose the other activities I enjoy, like exercising or eating healthy or making time to read or cooking or planning a trip to Florida or learning or studying languages or clipping articles out of magazines, but I do want to regain my inspiration to write, even if I have to go about it one word at a time. Slowly, but surely, I'll find my way back home this winter.
During the spring, I lost my motivation to write. First I just stare at a blank word processor screen. I watched the little cursor blink on the draft of my blog post and couldn't find anything to say. I made excuses about writer's block and came up with reasons to stall the fantasy manuscript I had started penning.
In the summer, I stopped trying at all. Instead, I spent the days working and the evenings going out for frozen yogurt and meeting up with my boyfriend and attending English literature class at Hunter College. I spent the weekends jogging -- making my way from a measly two miles at 13 minutes per mile to five miles at 10 minutes per mile. Todd and I traveled to Cape Cod, where we biked nearly 20 miles on the Shining Sea Bikeway from Woods Hole to North Falmouth. The sun warmed the skin, the sky blazed a glorious blue, and the fresh air beckoned me away from my laptop.
At the end of August, I hurt my back. I don't know how, but since then I've barely been able to exercise. I've found myself avoiding the chill weather by snuggling under blankets indoors. Today, I realized just how long it's been since I've written anything at all. I also remembered that November is National Novel Writing Month. So I decided to write something, and to keep writing again. Maybe I won't type out a whole novel in one very busy month, but I will at least try to start up blogging again. I don't want to lose the other activities I enjoy, like exercising or eating healthy or making time to read or cooking or planning a trip to Florida or learning or studying languages or clipping articles out of magazines, but I do want to regain my inspiration to write, even if I have to go about it one word at a time. Slowly, but surely, I'll find my way back home this winter.
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| Excited about my first blog post in about half a year. |
30 April 2013
Thoreau's Snake Metaphor
“I saw a striped snake turn into the water, and he lay on the bottom, apparently without inconvenience, as long as I staid there, or more than a quarter of an hour; perhaps because he had not yet fairly come out of the torpid state. It appeared to me that for a like reason men remain in their present low and primitive condition; but if they should feel the influence of the spring of springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life.” (Henry David Thoreau, “Economy,” Norton Anthology of American Literature, p. 1002)
In “Economy,” Thoreau not only discusses the practical aspects of a man’s life, but also his spiritual state. In the passage above, he uses the metaphor of the striped snake to warn of man’s current degradation, while simultaneously offering hope for a future spiritual awakening. It is interesting to note that the animal he chooses is a snake, hinting at the form adopted by Satan when he tricked Eve in the Book of Genesis. In the Bible, the snake represented man’s greatest downfall: the quest for knowledge that led, ultimately, to the creation of modern civilization (and the capitalism and materialism that goes along with it). In Thoreau’s metaphor, the snake seems to represent man’s state since his exile from the Garden of Eden — asleep, languid, and not aware of the potential to find inspiration and simplicity in Nature.
Thoreau ironically refers to this state as “low” and “primitive,” even though it is a result of man’s modern society and the labor economy of America at the time of Thoreau’s writing. Although many would consider this society to be civilized and advanced, Thoreau views it as backward: man should only work for himself, not for others, and he should spend the time that he is not working in pursuit of independent thought and spiritual betterment, not in squandering one’s money on the latest fashions or luxuries.
A man who has not transcended the materiality of the world is thus considered to be “torpid” — that is, sluggish and bogged down in conventions. The solution, Thoreau posits, is for such men to experience the “spring of springs.” Here, he calls attention to the season often thought of as a time of awakening, both in terms of the flowers that bloom during the spring months and in a literary sense (e.g., Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales begins in the spring, a time of rebirth and a time to go on spiritual journeys). Moreover, the spring represents emersing oneself in Nature — or, at least, in the solitude and contemplation that transcendentalists found in natural settings.
Although Thoreau advocates going one’s own way, he draws on these traditional notions of spring as a time of vitality. When man leaves behind his materialism, he awakens to this higher world of self-realization, critical thought, and spiritual goodness shared by all humans at their core. Although Thoreau’s tone can sometimes be abrasive and jarring, it is sometimes also beautiful, with vivid imagery and hints at the lessons than man can learn if only he can shake off his complacency and view the world from a different perspective, like a snake shedding its old skin for something new.
In “Economy,” Thoreau not only discusses the practical aspects of a man’s life, but also his spiritual state. In the passage above, he uses the metaphor of the striped snake to warn of man’s current degradation, while simultaneously offering hope for a future spiritual awakening. It is interesting to note that the animal he chooses is a snake, hinting at the form adopted by Satan when he tricked Eve in the Book of Genesis. In the Bible, the snake represented man’s greatest downfall: the quest for knowledge that led, ultimately, to the creation of modern civilization (and the capitalism and materialism that goes along with it). In Thoreau’s metaphor, the snake seems to represent man’s state since his exile from the Garden of Eden — asleep, languid, and not aware of the potential to find inspiration and simplicity in Nature.
Thoreau ironically refers to this state as “low” and “primitive,” even though it is a result of man’s modern society and the labor economy of America at the time of Thoreau’s writing. Although many would consider this society to be civilized and advanced, Thoreau views it as backward: man should only work for himself, not for others, and he should spend the time that he is not working in pursuit of independent thought and spiritual betterment, not in squandering one’s money on the latest fashions or luxuries.
A man who has not transcended the materiality of the world is thus considered to be “torpid” — that is, sluggish and bogged down in conventions. The solution, Thoreau posits, is for such men to experience the “spring of springs.” Here, he calls attention to the season often thought of as a time of awakening, both in terms of the flowers that bloom during the spring months and in a literary sense (e.g., Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales begins in the spring, a time of rebirth and a time to go on spiritual journeys). Moreover, the spring represents emersing oneself in Nature — or, at least, in the solitude and contemplation that transcendentalists found in natural settings.
Although Thoreau advocates going one’s own way, he draws on these traditional notions of spring as a time of vitality. When man leaves behind his materialism, he awakens to this higher world of self-realization, critical thought, and spiritual goodness shared by all humans at their core. Although Thoreau’s tone can sometimes be abrasive and jarring, it is sometimes also beautiful, with vivid imagery and hints at the lessons than man can learn if only he can shake off his complacency and view the world from a different perspective, like a snake shedding its old skin for something new.
18 April 2013
Study Break
So this week I've been doing some last minute studying for the GRE English Literature subject test that I'm set to take on Saturday. But in between, I've been listening to a new Florence and the Machine song from the soundtrack to the upcoming film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. And I've been watching the trailer. I'm interested in how many people are looking forward to the movie and how many aren't.I think it has a ton of potential, as long as one can accept that it's going to deviate from the book, which I can. I don't want to say too much before actually seeing the film, but I'll share my thoughts afterward.
11 April 2013
So I Missed Sibling Day Yesterday...
...but I still wanted to celebrate and thank God for my brother, so I'm posting this even though I'm a day late.
Although I tried looking through my Facebook for a photo of the two of us together, I couldn't find one, because he avoids appearing in pictures unless forced into a full-family snapshot. Even without a picture of us, though, I can call to mind some of the times we've spent together: playing with action figures, me watching him shoot things in early Rainbow Six computer games, listening to him talk in his sleep when we shared bunk beds, having board game nights in our basement, crying in his room when each of my relationships went sour, doing Insanity workouts......
I know that there were times I wasn't there when I should have been, and times I pestered him when he would have rather been left alone. And sometimes he's aloof and sometimes he's kind of mean and sometimes it seems like I'm the younger one and he's the older child--but no matter what, we'll always be siblings and I'll always love him with all my heart.
Although I tried looking through my Facebook for a photo of the two of us together, I couldn't find one, because he avoids appearing in pictures unless forced into a full-family snapshot. Even without a picture of us, though, I can call to mind some of the times we've spent together: playing with action figures, me watching him shoot things in early Rainbow Six computer games, listening to him talk in his sleep when we shared bunk beds, having board game nights in our basement, crying in his room when each of my relationships went sour, doing Insanity workouts......
I know that there were times I wasn't there when I should have been, and times I pestered him when he would have rather been left alone. And sometimes he's aloof and sometimes he's kind of mean and sometimes it seems like I'm the younger one and he's the older child--but no matter what, we'll always be siblings and I'll always love him with all my heart.
10 April 2013
On the View of Le Havre
The river, with its brushstroke foam
and deeper blues that hint
at tentacular monstrosity,
flagellates the golds and greens
of sailboat hulls that line
the port like crayons spilled
and put back in the wrong order
in front of the ships there ekes
blotted shapes (maybe canoes?)
and behind the soaring golden
Musee de Beaux-Arts
a gray obscured sky breathes
onto a faint outline of a city
seen from a wall of the inner harbor
for all the intricacies we cannot glimpse
in this impressionistic gaze
we substitute imagination.
and deeper blues that hint
at tentacular monstrosity,
flagellates the golds and greens
of sailboat hulls that line
the port like crayons spilled
and put back in the wrong order
in front of the ships there ekes
blotted shapes (maybe canoes?)
and behind the soaring golden
Musee de Beaux-Arts
a gray obscured sky breathes
onto a faint outline of a city
seen from a wall of the inner harbor
for all the intricacies we cannot glimpse
in this impressionistic gaze
we substitute imagination.
 |
| View of Le Havre by Claude Monet |
09 April 2013
Spring Swing
The longer one goes without writing, the harder it is to resume the practice as before. But now that I've started off spring with exercise and some time enjoying the gorgeous weather, I thought I'd revamp my blog (a little bit) and try to start posting at least semi-regularly again. Everyone has their own transition into spring, and I thought I'd share with you the song that is accompanying mine. It's an old favorite from the Hair revival that played on Broadway about two years ago, and it gets me smiling every time. If you've got some other inspiring tunes, please share them!
08 April 2013
Reconstruction Site
I am working on giving this blog an overhaul and then getting back into blogging regularly. Stay tuned.
22 November 2012
Giving Thanks for One More Thing
As you read in my last post, I'm thankful for so many wonderful things this year. I would be even more thankful if you could visit my brand new website and share your thoughts about it with me. I'm always looking for ways to improve!
21 November 2012
The Thanksgiving Spirit
Happy Thanksgiving to anyone following this blog! My lengthy absence has finally ceased. With the next two days off from work and a half-day today, I can post to my heart's content... in between all the schoolwork I have for the two classes that I'm currently taking (Literary Theory and Fundamentals of Copyediting and Proofreading, but more about those another time) and the website that I'm trying to create (I'll update you as soon as it's ready). Now to get to my actual post...
This year,I'd like to list the top 10 things I'm thankful for in my life. So here goes. I am thankful...
... that I have a loving family to support me.
... that my boyfriend is the best in the world.
... that our relationship hasn't lost its spark.
... that my family and friends remain healthy and safe.
... that we survived hurricane Sandy with minimal damage.
... that Obama got reelected president.
... that great literature exists.
... that I have a roof over my head and a steady job that I enjoy.
... that I can afford to attend classes and continue learning.
... that I haven't forgotten all of my Hungarian language skills.
What are you thankful for? I'd love to hear from you and share our stories!
12 September 2012
I Remember
I remember sitting in my eighth grade classroom. Someone came to the door and whispered a message to the teacher. I can't remember how they announced it to us. The next recollection is of all of us turned in our chairs to watch a tiny TV screen at the back of the classroom. I didn't know exactly where my dad worked, but I knew it was in the vicinity of the World Trade Center. I remember the panic slowly building in my chest. I don't remember getting home afterward. I don't remember watching the news about the 9/11 attacks. But the memory of that fear still brings tears to my eyes as I write this. I remember the relief when I learned my dad was okay.
Now that another September 11th has passed us by, I think it's safe to say that we haven't yet lost the horror of that day, even though it happened 11 years ago. And I hope that even the generations who didn't experience the tragedy will remember it through stories and news reports and photos. All of those things are painful, but I think we need them to throw salt in the wound so that it won't heal up, lest we forget. My heart goes out to everyone who lost someone.
I wish that everyone in the world could just exist in peace.
Now that another September 11th has passed us by, I think it's safe to say that we haven't yet lost the horror of that day, even though it happened 11 years ago. And I hope that even the generations who didn't experience the tragedy will remember it through stories and news reports and photos. All of those things are painful, but I think we need them to throw salt in the wound so that it won't heal up, lest we forget. My heart goes out to everyone who lost someone.
I wish that everyone in the world could just exist in peace.
11 September 2012
Brighton Beach in August
The sand doesn't get hot until noon.
We spread our sheet in a spot still
untouched by human bodies.
I don't want sunblock; you don't
want sunburn, but it's still too early
for even the brightest star to be fully awake.
We swim like tangled jellyfish. We try
to propel ourselves forward as one
entity, drifting farther toward the deep.
I can't stand out there; don't carry me,
don't carry me out, I beg and plead
so you go it alone and I watch.
But now I feel like a starfish
waiting to grow back an arm.
We spread our sheet in a spot still
untouched by human bodies.
I don't want sunblock; you don't
want sunburn, but it's still too early
for even the brightest star to be fully awake.
We swim like tangled jellyfish. We try
to propel ourselves forward as one
entity, drifting farther toward the deep.
I can't stand out there; don't carry me,
don't carry me out, I beg and plead
so you go it alone and I watch.
But now I feel like a starfish
waiting to grow back an arm.
23 August 2012
Mouse Ears
Walking Man, this one is for you. Don't worry, there will be a TON more Disney photos to come at a later date (probably more than anyone would ever want to see!).
Technological Tools
Skeptics rest assured, Disney World was an amazing time! Too much happened to even write about now, but eventually I'll share some anecdotes.
In the meantime, I'm typing this on my brand new iPad, and I'm hoping that having this Blogger app at my fingertips (quite literally) will make it easier to post more frequently. I also got a very cute cover for it based on the movie Lilo and Stitch.
And because I want to test both the photo capabilities of my iPad and whether this app will allow me to upload photos, here's one:
In the meantime, I'm typing this on my brand new iPad, and I'm hoping that having this Blogger app at my fingertips (quite literally) will make it easier to post more frequently. I also got a very cute cover for it based on the movie Lilo and Stitch.
And because I want to test both the photo capabilities of my iPad and whether this app will allow me to upload photos, here's one:
02 August 2012
Good Intentions
I don't think I've mentioned it on this blog yet, but my brother is going to Disney World too, although unfortunately not at the same time as Todd and I. He left this morning, before I even woke up (and that says a lot, because I wake up at 4:30 a.m.). I didn't expect him to leave so early, and didn't even get a chance to give him the "care package" I'd made for him and his girlfriend: a copy of the fact book I've been posting from to give them some reading on the plane, some emergency band-aids, some hand sanitizer, and a small packet of tissues. I felt really sad that I missed the opportunity to give it to them, and I regret even more that I didn't get a chance to wish them a good time. I texted them when I woke up, but it just wasn't the same. But he did leave behind a box of poptarts (he bought about a dozen for the trip), and I like to think he left them behind for me. (That's highly doubtful, but I'll pretend.) I guess I'll still give them the care package when they come home and they can read the facts afterward haha.
Because I didn't post yesterday, here are two facts for today:
"Disney employs more than 600 horticulture professionals who plant more than 3 million annuals on the property each year and care for 4,000 acres of gardens and landscapes. That's nearly five times the size of New York City's Central Park!"
"Love roses? Almost 13,000 of them can be found at WDW throughout the year."
(Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Places: Walt Disney World, Laurie Flannery)
Because I didn't post yesterday, here are two facts for today:
"Disney employs more than 600 horticulture professionals who plant more than 3 million annuals on the property each year and care for 4,000 acres of gardens and landscapes. That's nearly five times the size of New York City's Central Park!"
"Love roses? Almost 13,000 of them can be found at WDW throughout the year."
(Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Places: Walt Disney World, Laurie Flannery)
31 July 2012
Fireworks at the Castle
One of the things I'm most excited for at Disney is to see the Wishes fireworks show that happens nightly above Cinderella's castle. Ever since I was a kid, I've loved to marvel over fireworks--and I never seem to lose that sense of awe, either. I've heard that the Wishes show is fantastic, and I'll be sure to take some pictures to share when I return (or I'll finally make some space on my phone and download a Blogger app and post it real-time for once!).
Today's fact of the day: "How many stone blocks were used to create Cinderella Castle, the most photographed building in the world? None. The building's shell is actually a steel skeleton covered in fiberglass. The castle was built to withstand hurricane-force winds exceeding 90 mph." - Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Places: Walt Disney World, Laurie Flannery
Today's fact of the day: "How many stone blocks were used to create Cinderella Castle, the most photographed building in the world? None. The building's shell is actually a steel skeleton covered in fiberglass. The castle was built to withstand hurricane-force winds exceeding 90 mph." - Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Places: Walt Disney World, Laurie Flannery
30 July 2012
Facts & Photos
Here are some photos from a good weekend spent with my parents and Todd. We ate at Yard House, a relatively new restaurant in our area that has amazing appetizers (think big juicy onion ring towers and maple bacon dipping sauce with sweet potato fries) and good food. I really enjoyed dinner, as well as The Dark Knight Rises, which we watched afterward. Although I didn't think Bane stood up to Joker as a villain (but who really expected him to?), I thought this film's storyline had more substance to it and I really enjoyed the performances of both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anne Hathaway (who I usually don't like too much). Without further ado, here are the photos. Scroll all the way down to check out today's Disney fact of the day.
"Why are the elevator motors in the Tower of Terror actually sealed inside the building? Because they're so massive, at 12-feet tall and 35-feet long, that they weigh a whopping 132,000 pounds, generating enough torque to equal 275 Corvette engines. They had to be lifted by crane into place, and the building was then completed around them, sealing them in." - Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Places, Laurie Flannery
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| Todd and I outside my house before heading to the mall. |
 |
| Onion ring tower and dipping sauces |
 |
| My roast beef sandwich with au jus, soup, and truffle fries |
 |
| Todd's bearnaise burger |
 |
| My dad's burger-man creation |
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| My mom's plate |
"Why are the elevator motors in the Tower of Terror actually sealed inside the building? Because they're so massive, at 12-feet tall and 35-feet long, that they weigh a whopping 132,000 pounds, generating enough torque to equal 275 Corvette engines. They had to be lifted by crane into place, and the building was then completed around them, sealing them in." - Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Places, Laurie Flannery
27 July 2012
Dark Chocolate M&Ms
I'm about to embark on a tv show-watching spree with Todd while, of course, devouring all of the candy that I can grab. Well... I'll try not to eat THAT much.... maybe. The shows that we're mostly watching are Covert Affairs and Colony. The first is about a CIA agent who embarks on a number of semi-dangerous missions while pining for her blind co-worker. The second is a real experiment performed on a group of (coincidentally well-equipped and knowledgable) individuals who must live in a pseudo-post-apocalyptic world.
Anyway, before I go explode with yummy goodness, here's the fact of today:
"One of the hottest dinings spots in the Magic Kingdom, Cinderlla's Royal Table, originally was named King Stefan's Banquet Hal. King Stefan was a misleading moniker, since he was dad to a different princess: Sleeping Beauty. The name change went into effect in 1997" (Little-Known Facts About Well-Known Places, Laurie Flannery).
Anyway, before I go explode with yummy goodness, here's the fact of today:
"One of the hottest dinings spots in the Magic Kingdom, Cinderlla's Royal Table, originally was named King Stefan's Banquet Hal. King Stefan was a misleading moniker, since he was dad to a different princess: Sleeping Beauty. The name change went into effect in 1997" (Little-Known Facts About Well-Known Places, Laurie Flannery).
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