Due to some stalker that copies my writing and some "well-wishers" that take the trouble of visiting my pages to critique, I am moving my blog to Wordpress. If you are one of those rare, almost non-existent, readers of my blog, let me know. Enjoy the rest of summer! Un beso =) 

Urban Outfitter is one of the many things I have mixed feelings about. Look at this rug, for instance. It costs more than $15 and the design is a collage of small little pieces of cloth. The idea seems to be that of frugality, echoing the hippie/boho culture characterized by ethnic influence, floral patterns, thriftiness and minimalism. But you would pay $15 for this? I remember when my grandma hadn't broken her legs, she used to collect pieces of extra cloth from blouses for my aunts and uncles, and make rugs, blankets and pillow covers. I used the same blanket for ten years and still have it back in Yangon. Seeing the granny rugs at Urban Outfitter for $15 is utterly funny and absurd to me. The commercial rugs simply defeat the design purpose. Environmentalism is being exploited in consumerism. The hippie/boho philosophy is merely becoming a fashion play. How I disgust the world of consumeristic fashion..
 

New York City is the center of the universe, some people say. It is a hip vibrant city with "exotic" restaurants, night life, fashion and a mix of people. But I much prefer Washington, DC. I see people engrossed in books at parks. I find people reading at fusion restaurants at DuPont Circle. Lin thinks there is a better chance that people in DC know where Myanmar is than New Yorkers do. I like NYC for its energy but I despise the image of consumeristic "fashion"  and "trendy" display of brands, thanks to Sex and the City or Gossip Girl. Some of my shallow girl friends dream of drooling over New York shops and partying all night, which is not a bad thing if done in moderation. On the other hand, however useless and symbolic Washington, DC is, however many crooked politicians and lobbyists there maybe, it has an air of intellect and knowledge. What a wonderful luxury to have parks at the center of the city to sit down and read a book while tiny cafes are readily available whenever you fancy some snacks. People tend to be more updated with current events and well-informed, at least along Massachusetts and Connecticut Avenues, with all official looking people and think tanks. I'd love to travel to NYC for holidays and visit every once in a while but I'd love to live in a city like DC, which I am doing now for the summer!

The most recent cafe I have been to is Teaism on Connecticut Avenue, relatively close to the red line metro station. As the name suggests, the cafe is where many tea lovers in the area practice their devotion. The restaurant menu offers bento boxes and curry dishes with such Asian cold beverages as lassi, ginger lemonade and green tea. One of those fusion restaurants that prepare Asian dishes and serve in the American way. Vegetarian friendly and wallet-friendly, starting from $8.50.

One aspect of the cafe that intrigues me is the informal chatty ambiance, characterized by wooden long stools, a tiny attic and an external sidewalk area with benches but without a formal set of tables. Not an awkward place to come in alone and eat, but a great place to invite friends over for a informal social gathering.

Teaism claims that their cafe is a response to the tea bag culture in the US and an inspiration to tone down the Asian rigid formalities with American casualness. I agree with the former but the latter is pure bullshit to me. Tea, correct me if I am wrong, is used in both formal and informal settings in Asia. These days more than ever before, informal aspects of teashops are becoming more and more prevalent thanks to the spread of Western coffee cultures. A group of educated American tours have come to remote teashops in downtown Yangon to get a taste of informal Burmese tea culture - normally not a touristy habit. What more can I say?

Michael Branch is one incredible person and an articulate teacher I respect greatly. He marked me down a full letter grade for the papers I submitted 1-2 hours late. The first time, don't ask...Lin was visiting me. The second time was beyond my control amidst final exams and research papers. Thanks to these late papers, I might end up getting a horrible grade and have caused my GPA to sink further downwards. What I learned is to work flexibly. One great advice seniors give me is to know how to work within the system to rock college. If you are taking a class with a professor that set deadlines, don't hand in late. It's that simple but I still messed it up. Oh well. The bottom line is, this was my favorite class for the semester.

I jotted down some notes from reading as I was studying for the final. I was supposed to identity the passage, its writer, the book title and the significance. I don't really expect anyone to read them but I might one day look these back and see if I can remember.

The central task of science is to arrive, stage by stage, at a clear comprehension of nature, but this does not mean, as it is sometimes claimed to mean, a search for mastery over nature. Lewis Thomas, 153, Humanities and Science. Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony.

Technology is nothing like the first justification for doing research, nor is it necessarily an essential product to be expected from science. Lewis Thomas, 153, Humanities and Science. Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony. ~~ Anthropocentrism.

...the human mind, and I see no reason why this strange puzzle should remain forever and entirely beyond us. But I would be deeply disturbed by any prospect that we might use the knowledge in order to begin doing something about it, to improve it, say. Lewis Thomas, 153, Humanities and Science. Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony. ~~ Loren Eiseley (I wish science never finds out the secret of life)

Perhaps it is only in the dark times that the pale light of intelligence, going out from the eye, can make its way in the world without being washed away by the fierce light of the sun. Chet Raymo, 20, In a Dark Time. The Soul of the Night. ~~ Space for individual wonder

The brain is a continuation of the spine, an accretion of tissue at the top that burns with a pure blue flame, but the wick runs the whole length of the candle. Chet Raymo, 25, Faint Lights. The Soul of the Night. ~~ Induces a sense of wonder, star-watching as both an art and a science, literary allusions common in his writing style

And finding the answers is just a matter of working backwards, reversing on paper the outrush of the galaxies, mathematically sticking the toothpaste back into the tube. Chet Raymo, 47, Beginnings. The Soul of the Night. ~~ The use of metaphors to explore the beginning of the universe/the Creation.

I turned to my science books and got on with the business of life. But something was missing - "the thing with feathers." In God's absence I have tried to make a sort of theology of ornithology. Chet Raymo, 56, An Ancient Brilliance. The Soul of the Night. ~~ Emily Dickinson referred "the thing with feathers" to hope, the use of literary allusions, Raymo not satisfied with either religion or science as a youth.

The physicist has proved nothing. He only observes that his wildly improbable universe exists and it is the only universe we could possibly observe. If that is a mystery that holds us in thrall, then so be it...What the physicist has learned enriches and deepens those venerable mysteries; it neither proves them nor negates them. Chet Raymo, 93-94, Far Down a Billlowing Plain. The Soul of the Night. ~~ He's not really contradicting Jay Could because he sees a connection between the two magisteria, is he? Physics cannot prove God. ~~ comparable to Lewis Thomas and Loren Eiseley here. 

Science is a discipline, and disciplines are exacting. All maintain rules of conduct and self-policing. All gain strength, respect, and acceptance by working honorably within their bounds and knowing when transgression upon other realms counts as hubris or folly...We live with poets and politicians, preachers and philosophers. All have their ways of knowing, and all are valid in their proper domains. The world is too complex and interesting for one way to hold all the answers. Stephan Jay Gould, 429, William Jennings Bryan's Last Campaign. Bully for Brontosaurus. ~~ Limits of science. Misuse of science and religion. Non-overlapping magisteria. Using science to justify ideology, social darwinism. 

When I hold in my hands a tube of my own amniotic fluid, I am holding a tube full of raindrops. Amniotic fluid is also the juice of oranges that I had for breakfast, and the milk that I poured over my cereal, and the honey I stirred into my tea...When I look at amniotic fluid, I am looking at rain falling on orange groves...The blood of cows and chickens is in this tube...Whatever is in the world's water is here in my hands. Sandra Steingraber, 66. Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood. ~~ Oneness of nature and humans. Relevance of the environment, food and you. Comparable (maybe, we'll see) to Michael Pollan in this regard.

 




Struggling with heels, first rehearsal with them.