Amazing Music Video

I feel like music videos these days are all the same - set in a club, people dancing, the singer singing in various locations and outfits. This is one of the most imaginative music videos I have seen, well, ever. I think it may be one of my favorites of all time. I had never even heard of this song or this artist, but as soon as I saw this, I loved it.

Futuristic...Or Not

While reading my LAS (Liberal Arts and Sciences) text book, I learned that the Inupiaq language, a dialect of the Alaskan Inuits, has no future tense. This idea struck me as crazy at first. I didn’t know it was possible to not have a future tense. I didn’t know a language existed where it was impossible to talk about what you are doing tomorrow, or even a minute from now. The more I think about it, the less I can fathom the concept. We live in a culture where everything is centered around the future. From a very young age, we are prompted to think about what we want to be when we grow up. As we grow older, the decisions we make often center around how they will affect us in the future: What kind of classes do I have to take to get into my college of choice? What college will give me the best education, and therefore the best success in my future life? Now, I am sure the Inuits think about the future, but to have no way to express it in words, that is such a crazy thought. At the same time however, how wonderful to think about. These people care so little about the future, about what will happen later, that they do not even have need for words to express such ideas. When I think about it, it might be nice to live so in the moment that I don’t need to talk about what will happen tomorrow, or in a year, or in five years. What a different life these people must live.

This tidbit of information was in what they call “Cultural Connections” - little side stories about interactions between people of different cultures. The Inuit man tells his visitor “Too much think...That’s what makes you nervous.” How true. I know I personally spend way too much time thinking, and it certainly does make me nervous. Just as it says in Matthew 6:34: “So don’t worry about tomorrow,for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” That is definitely something I need to remember more often.

Vote for Me!

Vote for my pictures!!!

Planet Beautiful Brickfish

Planet Beautiful Brickfish

Planet Beautiful Brickfish

The Top 100 Brands of 2008

Guess what made the top 10:


That's right, rolling in at number nine is High School Musical in all it's tweener-ific glory.
Click here to see the full list.

One of my biggest fears in life is settling. Picture courtesy of twentythree.

Crazy...

So I was scrolling through my new favorite blog when I found this picture:


I'm not sure I really believe in "signs" or whatever, but I thought it was really weird that this came up considering what I am going through in my life right now. It kinda freaked me out.

Taking Risks

I was reading a quote on this site that was saying something about taking risks, and I came to this conclusion. If the only way to achieve something is by taking a risk, then by choosing not to take a risk, you are essentially risking the fact that you may not get anywhere in life. So really, whether you try to or not, life involves risk taking. So really, why not take a purposeful risk and see were it gets you? Well, as we all know, that is much easier said than done.

Quote It!

So, basically, I have an obsession with quotes. I could probably sit around all day and read quotes. Today, however, I have found a strange amount that apply very specifically to my life right now (courtesy of twentythree)...it's kinda weird.

“I guess it’s gonna have to hurt. I guess I’m gonna have to cry and let go of some things I love to get to the other side. I guess it’s gonna break me down like falling when you’re trying to fly. It’s sad, but sometimes moving on with the rest of your life starts with goodbye.”
-Unknown

“Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong”
— The Truth About Forever

“I don’t know what’s worse; to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”
— Flowers for Algernon

“I guess that’s what happens in the end… You start thinking about the beginning.”
— Mr. & Mrs. Smith

The same sight also has some great pictures. This is one of my favorites, because it represents my ideal life:

Amazing Animals

I'm not a big animal person, but in the past few months, I have seen two different videos on YouTube that really just make me smile.





(The music on this one is somewhat annoying.)

Procrastination

It's amazing how I can put things off until the last minute. I had four whole weeks of winter break, yet I decide to cram everything I need to accomplish before I go back to school into the last week. If procrastination were an Olympic sport, I would totally win the gold medal.
On second thought, I do know some pretty stellar procrastinators.
I definitely would make it on the podium though.

I love when I take personality-type quizzes online, and the results I get back are totally spot-on. Today I took this "Career Quiz" on princetonreview.com, and my results were probably some of the most accurate I have ever gotten:

Your interest color is: BLUE
People with blue Interests like job responsibilities and occupations that involve creative, humanistic, thoughtful, and quiet types of activities. Blue Interests include abstracting, theorizing, designing, writing, reflecting, and originating, which often lead to work in editing, teaching, composing, inventing, mediating, clergy, and writing.

Your usual style is: BLUE
People with blue styles prefer to perform their job responsibilities in a manner that is supportive and helpful to others with a minimum of confrontation. They prefer to work where they have time to think things through before acting. People with blue style tend to be insightful, reflective, selectively sociable, creative, thoughtful, emotional, imaginative, and sensitive. Usually they thrive in a cutting edge, informally paced, future-oriented environment. You will want to choose a work environment or career path in which your style is welcomed and produces results.

Living FOR something

"Dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something...is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition."
-Donald Miller

This quote is from a great book called Blue Like Jazz. I had been wanting to read it forever, and I even started it once a couple years ago, but I finally read the whole thing this fall. So many things that Donald Miller wrote in that book totally hit home for me. I'm glad I didn't finish it the first time I started it, because I don't think I would have gotten as much out of it as I did now. It's amazing the difference a couple of years can make. It's amazing the difference not being in high school can make. Haha.
Anyway, back to the point of all this. This quote really stuck out to me, because it put so perfectly into words the thing that I, that we all, struggle with our whole lives. It's one of those things that you read and just say, "you know, I never thought about that before, but it is so true." When you die for something, your suffering and pain are brief, but when you live for something, especially something controversial, you face a daily struggle to stay true to what you believe. I totally admire people who have figured out how to really live for something. It is something that I have yet to figure out.