words of encouragement

this is my closet. it took about five hours.



I got the idea from Keri Smith

[click to see larger]

Nellie McKay, Audrey Hepburn, Amanda and Abby, Richard Avedon, Douglas Adams, John Lennon, Bret and Jemaine, Tom Waits, Winter and Wolf, Billie Holiday, Pink Man, Marilyn Monroe, Wayne and Garth, Steve Irwin, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Cera, Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke, Tegan and Sara, Elif Karakoc, Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, Joni Mitchell, Rose Parks, David Sedaris, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, KT Tunstall, The Beatles, Kristan Schaal, The Janitor, Jenna Malone, Shia LaBouf, Kristen Bell, KT Tunstall

I'm alright if you're alright
I'm alright if you're alright

secret message

today I got a letter from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I got in. it's my favorite school. the first thing my dad said was, "you know, we can't afford that." thanks dad, but I've decided not to ignore you and listen to Keri Smith instead.





this is why I don't like to talk to my parents

I really like what you're doing, keep up the good work

today I got an acceptance letter from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. the only problem with going there, besides the fact that I can never remember the order of the name, is that I don't have enough money. I recently found a artist, though, who makes me feel a little better about that. her name is Keri Smith, and she's a wonderful, inspirational illustrator and guerrilla artist. her artist's survival kit is so incredibly helpful, it made me feel so much better. the best part is she has so many other things like it. check out the play section on her website, and her flickr, you will be inspired to be happy and creative.






the trees can hear you if you talk to them

dance-a-long

some of my favorite music videos

Kelly Clarkson's Walk Away

I can relate. I lip sync songs and pretend I'm in music videos. also this song is so much fun to sing. 2:18 makes me smile.

The Shins' Australia

silly things can be absolutely brilliant.

Christina Aguilera's Candyman

the best of the old with a new twist. just fabulous.

The Thermals' Pillar of Salt

I feel like if I made a music video, it would be something like this. there are so many great references, cameos and shots, but my favorite is at 00:42, they're doing the chicken dances from Arrested Development.

The Ditty Bops' Wishful Thinking

it's been my very favorite since I first saw it. they're just the definition of my thing.




Oscar predictions:
best picture: No Country for Old Men
best actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
best supporting actor: Javier Bardem
best actress: Javier Bardem
best supporting actress: Javier Bardem
best visual effects: Transformers
best documentary: Javier Bardem

humor

Kevin Van Aelst creates conceptual, minimalist photographs using everyday food and objects arranged in patterns found in mathematics and science. I lurve them.

chromosomes

cantor set


right middle finger




that's ferosh

uh oh

I'm posting from my upstairs computer.
this is so bad...




o chit! o chit! o chit!

the wall

this graffiti is all from the wall between Israel and Palestine. I find it inspiring.















all we are saying is give peace a chance

telling stories

today I saw a speaker during my econ class talk about her experience in the West Bank and some of the current events happening with Israel and Palestine that aren't brought up much in this country. how is it that I've been going to Hebrew school since third grade, studied to become a Bat Mitzvah for over a year, taught at Hebrew school for four years, went to Midrasha for four years, a whole year of which was devoted to studying Israel, and didn't know about half the things she taught us? it's not fair. no one can tell me that I was ignorant to all those things because I didn't put myself out there. I specifically took the time to learn about the Israel Palestine conflict, and thought I was hearing a rational, unbiased report of it. I was always told that when Israel declared independence in 1948 that the five surrounding Arab nations declared war on them because they were against a Jewish state. one of the main reasons they were against a Jewish state that was not made clear to me, was that in order to create a Jewish majority in that area, they kicked out hundreds of thousands of the Palestinians that had already been living there. this continued to happen not until 1967, but now. it is still happening now. Israel, according to international laws, is illegally occupying Palestine territory. the Israeli government is encouraging this by actually paying people to live on those settlements. they are also building a wall around the West Bank that is actually cutting into Palestinian territory. along with all the check points that are set up and the segregated roads, it is almost impossible for Palestinians to live a normal daily life. they can't go to universities or hold down a steady job because to going even fifteen miles could take anywhere from two to twelve hours. countless people have died because they hold ambulances and couldn't get to the hospital on time. and where does the Israeli government get the money to fund all these settlements checkpoints? from us, the United States of America. we give over 10 million dollars a day in foreign aid to Israel, more than any other country except for Iraq. yes, we fund Israel, a developed metropolitan state, more than any developing "third world" nation. we've been funding them since Israel became a state, breaking our own laws knowing that this money was being used for illegal occupation and other activities, knowing that to form the state of Israel, just as much terrorism was used by Israelis as Palestinians. we pay for their illegal settlements, we pay for their soldiers' guns. every time the United Nations tries to do something about Israel's illegal activity, the US uses their veto to stop them. this is how we've used our UN veto more times than any of the other five big countries have used theirs combined. what makes even more angry though, is finding out that these issues are discussed all the time in Israeli and Arab news, as well as European news. forget Fox, not one major news source in the US will talk about the issue from a Palestinian point of view. in August 2004, an article in the International Newsweek called "Plight of the Palestinians" was cut all together from the American Newsweek. fuck, our government isn't just hiding robots and aliens this time, they are trying to hide the fact that we are funding one of the biggest problems in the world today, and have been for over fifty years. the woman who spoke is part of an organization in the West Bank that supports non-violent Palestinian resistance. I'm so happy that I got to hear her, because this information is just so incredibly relevant. we are all a part of this, and we need this knowledge so we can decided what our part will be.





tell her what she wants to know, she'll find out anyway

anonymous

Project Chanology is a protest against the church of scientology by an internet based group called "Anonymous." yesterday they staged a protest in front of the central phoenix church of scientology, as well as other scientology churches, in honor of the birthday of Lisa McPherson.



I feel like if any of the major organized religions of the world today had been created in the past few decades, people would be questioning similar things about them, since they are just as corrupt. not to say they aren't questioned, I was just studying Martin Luther. they're just so widely accepted. I mean, even the president of the united states has claimed war in the name of god, and while yes, some people are upset about it, for some reason it's accepted. o man, I've tried writing this paragraph three times and I can't seem to articulate my point in a short and understandable way. I'll write a rant about organized religion later, for now though, I just give you Project Chanology.




I have sympathy for the devil.

to sleep, perchance to dream

every night I go to bed and dream what happened to me that day, or a feeling I felt that day. it's been making me hate dreaming more than usual, I can't tell what's real and what I dreamed.
the sad part is I usually have to add in people to my dreams, since I never see anyone in real life.



To sleep...

by Lesley Arak




imagine me there my heart asleep with no air
begging ocean please, help me drown these memories

I need a new alram clock

I'm already late for school.
I was on an island or something, in this hotel. there was a challenge because I was on America's Next Top Model, and we had to go all over the island. it was really hard because there were so many small paths and lots of dangerous rocks. at the end I figured out I had left my bag at one of the locations, but couldn't remember which one. no one would let me go back to try to find it. somehow I found it somewhere else though. then I was suddenly at the video store, as I was about to leave, but my dad came and gave me something he'd printed out to do with numbers. I was so mad at him because it wasn't relevant and I would have been home in two minutes. It was embarrassing. We walked back to our house. He had Max. For some reason we turned down Carmel and went by Andrew Sutherland's house. It was dark. My sister was in there for some reason. He wanted me to recycle our cell phones, but she still wanted hers. Then he wasn't there any more. Lev and some other people were, and I don't remember this part, but we did something. Then I was at a poetry slam with Eric and Emma. Eric preformed, and him and two other girls made it to the second round. None of the poems made any sense of course. Thomas was sitting behind us and I gave him a big hug, but everyone was weird about it. After the second round I went to the back where there was a kitchen. when I got up at first Eric got really mad at me and said something like, "you don't ditch out when I make it to the second round," but I was just getting up for a break. Ms Samonsky was there, but I think was really Maria because she was showing me something to do with makings eggs. When I looked back out, Cosmo was about to preform, as like an in between act. he was wearing a blanket wrapped around him and over his head. he didn't, and then they made me. I was going to show my portfolio, but then I thought I could remember how an old poem I wrote went. I was too shy, so I just read from my little pocket journal. it was a to do list that I made up from all the drawings in there, cliche things and whatnot. I think people liked it, or pretended to more likely. after that Cosmo had to leave, and so I left too so I could get a ride with him. he didn't want to take the bus because he had so many books in his backpack for work that he didn't want to get stolen, so we went with Mr Castle. It was day time now. Cosmo caught up with him, since he's already started walking, but I couldn't, and they didn't stop to wait for me. I kept running and running, but I couldn't reach them, it was that slow, frustrating kind of running. I finally started doing this thing that happens in dreams a lot where I can sort of fly by taking giant leaps. It was like I was swimming through air. I finally caught up, but only because they had missed a turn and gone too far and had to turn around. the neighborhood we were walking in was super nice, very rich. we went through the play structure, and I swung on the monkey bars as we walked, and then they started talking about the structure. I said it reminded me of the one at Marin they put in my last year there. I was talking about when the put in the rubber tire floor, but Mr Castle just seemed so confused, like wondering why I was talking at all. we got to his car and I asked him if I could get a ride too since I live two blocks from Cosmo. he had a van, and it was all white on the inside, with the fuzzy kind of seats, not leather. it was like white chocolate. it was very awkward t sit down because Cosmo and I got in the same door but didn't scoot down to the next seat, so I tried to get in the front, but was afraid of Mr Castle. once I had settled in I realized that I didn't live close to Cosmo anymore. Mr Castle all the sudden asked me a weird question though, except I don't know if he was Mr Castle anymore, I think he was just some random guy now. as we were driving down the freeway he asked if I had just been dating that guy in the car commercials who died. I had no idea what he was talking about, and he asked again if I had been dating some girl who's brother had been in car commercials and had just died. I had even less idea what he was talking about now.
then my mom came in and woke me up because my alarm didn't go off. again.
I hate dreaming. even when I can remember them, I can't remember them enough to make sense out of them. they always end up being really frustrating and upsetting.





Sleepwalking

by Pilvi



nobody likes to but I really like to cry. nobody likes me, maybe if I cry.

I will cry at graduation

tears of joy

School's out....

by Meropi

encircle me I need to be taken down

westworld

it's a robotic kind of week

the distant future:

In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?



KT Tunstall: more than meets the eyes