Awesome.
Back to School Shopping
I'm dreaming of a new fall wardrobe. I made a few purchases this week of inexpensive, staple items, but my grad student status will prevent any shopping sprees for the foreseeable future. What to do when you can't really shop? POLYVORE! Besides, it allows me to add YSL to my wardrobe.
From the left:
- Blending softness and structure for work. This outfit would work great on an Indian Summer day when it's not cool enough to require a sweater.
- I love this cashmere sweater. I'd like to put on this outfit and head to Hood River to pick up some fresh apples. The aviators would be perfect for the weak Autumn sun.
- This outfit reminds me of the clothes I remember seeing fancy ladies wear in movies when I was growing up. It would be a fun getup for a cocktail party and the sleeves and tights would help me cope with the chilly weather.
- Be still my Parisian heart. I wish I could put this on and stroll down la rive gauche to the Musée d'Orsay. I would gaze upon the gorgeous impressionist paintings then linger a bit in front of Emmanuel Fremiat's sculpture of St Michel slaying the dragon.
What I'm reading
I received How we Decide by Jonah Lehrer as a birthday gift a couple of months ago and I've finally started to read it. The book explores what happens in our brain when we make decisions and why some of us make better decisions, or make them more easily than others. This book is to brain science what Freakonomics is to economics. It's approachable and fascinating.I heard Lehrer do an interview on NPR a few months back in which he explained his inspiration for the book:
The revelation occurred in the cereal aisle of the supermarket. I was sent to the supermarket with what seemed like simple instructions, which was buy a box of Cheerios. And it wasn't until I got the supermarket that I realized that there were 20 different kinds of Cheerios. There were original Cheerios. There were honey-nut Cheerios, apple-cinnamon, multigrain, the yogurt-with-the-berry thing, and then of course there are all the generic varieties of Cheerios.Lehrer went on to describe how it took him over 30 minutes of deliberation in the supermarket to decide on some cheerios. He describes himself as "pathologically indecisive." We all know people that suffer from the "paralysis of analysis" (some of us are people like this) and I've never read anything quite like this.
I am less than halfway through the book and it is blowing my mind. One of the most compelling things that research has shown about decision making is that emotions are a positive component to our ability to make decision. This is evidenced by victims of brain damage, specifically those who have damaged the part of their brain that exhibits emotions. They don't associate feelings with good or bad choices, so they often make strictly rational decisions, which often have negative consequences. Lehrer asserts that without the emotional sting of failure attached to their decisions, success becomes impossible.
The best part about reading a book about behavior or the brain is that we often receive scientific evidence or confirmation that our instincts were correct. Think of all the little sayings we have about failure building one's character and making success all the sweeter. Turns our there is a dopamine explanation for all of that. Gotta love a little brain science.
Inspiration
"Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical and expecting more than others think is possible."I first read this quote at a friend's house who serves in the United States Army. It has stayed with me and every time I read it I am reminded of what it means to excel. It is so easy to become complacent in life, to want things to be easy. But in order to be more than that, to be extraordinary, we need discipline. I believe that discipline is the highest virtue because it makes all other virtues possible. It allows us to be focused and dedicated. It allows us to give our best to ourselves, our families and friends. It enables us to live in the present with the promise of our future goals.
That's enough, Lady Gaga
The first time I heard of Lady Gaga, I am ashamed to say, was a couple of years ago while channel surfing when I landed on an episode of The Hills. She was an unknown back then and had recently been signed by Interscope Records and the company obviously partnered with Kelly Cutrone and the Hills folks to promote her. My first thought was "Ick. What a name." It was a foregone conclusion that "musicians" who debut on (non-performance based) reality tv never achieve legitimate stardom. Oh wait.
Turns out Lady Gaga is actually quite the legit musician. I definitely love a little pop music now but I didn't immediately fall into the Gaga obsession. Eventually it wore me down. As an acquaintance of mine stated "If you are of our generation and aren't a little bit into Lady Gaga you probably don't have a pulse." Fair enough. But then there's the fashion. I have generally found Gaga's fashion to be, (pardon the pun) gag-inducing. The colors, textures, overexposed skin all just kind of gives me the creeps.
Obviously when the VMAs happened and she showed up in her meat dress I thought: of course. This is just gross. Think about it. Homegirl sat on a a bunch of steak all night long. Steak on her hair, cold animal flesh on her hips and everywhere else. I really don't object to the dress on any moral grounds. To a certain extent, I feel that animal products are animal products and at the end of the day it's no different from leather. I guess what I really want to know is this:
When does fashion stop being fashion and just start being mental illness?
Living a good story
I recently had to write my bio for my graduate school program. After all the writing I have done, my statement of purpose, dozens of cover letters, this blog, 100 words about who I am and what I've accomplished was shockingly difficult. I wrote my educational information, then a general sentence about my career and I was stuck. I took a break from it for a day. During this time I contemplated why it was so hard for me to summarize what I have done and came this conclusion:
Maybe it's so hard to write about where we've been because it forces us to re-examine where we want to go. When we do this, we are forced to ask ourselves what we really want and evaluate whether or not we are on track to getting it.In essence, our bios tell us in a concise paragraph whether or not we are living the narrative we have imagined. We seldom think of our lives in terms of a story until someone else asks us to tell it to them. We also have to sift through years of experiences and decide what were the most important events and accomplishments were. I know ten years from now it will probably be easy to pinpoint the most significant events in my early career, but when they are so recent in history, sometimes it's hard to pick them out. So for now I'll do the best I can, and in a few years, I'll have a whole new bio.
Thought of the Day
Don't expect your friends and family to be on board with every dream you ever have. Some of your ideas will be good, some won't. Be smart. Be discriminating. But when something captures your heart and won't let go, pursue it with all that you have. And the people in your life who support you, hold onto them forever.
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