April is a busy, busy month. It's the last month before finals so I've had to write all these papers and do presentations every week this month. If my hair wasn't so strongly attached to my head I would pull every follicle until I was bald.
I wish I could attend the Tribeca Film Festival this week. Since I know I can't go, I decided to have a film festival of my own over the weekend. I saw Sideways and Thumbsucker. They were both good, I liked them. For some reason I expected Thumbsucker to be really funny because it had Keanu Reeves and Vince Vaughn in it and those guys usually do funny roles. Vince, at least. Any role Keanu does is funny even if he's trying to be serious. Vincent D'Onofrio was also in it and he did a convincing job playing the kid's father.
I also saw Bride and Prejudice today and oh man do I love it! I knew i'd like it because it's based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice but with a modern and ethnic touch to it. Plus, the Bollywood singing and choreograph dance scenes are excellent. I need to see some Bollywood movies because I just love the peoples' energy and enthusiasm. Plus the bright colors of the wardrobes! And not to mention the most beautiful woman in the world is in it. Honestly I've been missing out all this time.
Ok, if you look at my Flickr photos you can see some new photos taken last week. My friends and I attended an 80s dance party which was part lame because they only allowed residents to go and I didn't know that and I invited everyone I knew. I did the preppy look and you can't see but I wore matching (fake) Keds.
The day after my friends came over for a pancake party. Pancakes were made and fun was had. I now love buttermilk pancakes with peanut butter chips and topped with chocolate whip cream. Delish!
Hey good news! You are now looking at (or reading) one of the new secretaries of the Psychology Club. Yeah, I'm awesome.
So, you know how I love listening to music. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Bright Eyes, The Arcade Fire, Tracy Chapman, new tracks from Nelly Furtado, and a bunch of bands on MySpace. Look up Madjkut, Ken Oak Band, Sucka Brown, and Voxtrot. Gotta love cello rock.
Tonight I performed in one of two choral concerts this week. I was terribly flattered by all the compliments thrown at me afterwards. I have to thank the violinists from Yale for helping my self-esteem; your comments mean a lot to me coming from you guys. Good job! And thank you for playing for us!
I am looking forward to spring weekend. I've got friends coming in from New York City and Providence to see The Roots play at my school. That's about it. Actually there's more campus events that are related to Spring Week/End but that's all I'm planning to do. I also have the other concert on sunday and then right after I'm beelining it down to Mohegan Sun to catch Lisa Loeb play. Should be fun and gas-guzzling! I'll take pictures, you know it.
Ok! I should be working on a presentation. Honestly, telling me to stop procrastinating is like telling a baby to stop crying. Not gonna happen.
I missed the opportunity to buy tickets to Jason Mraz's show at Foxwoods on May 17th and I'm kicking myself for not being on top of things like I usually am. He's got a contest on his page to win two tickets to various locations but I'd really love to get tickets to his Foxwoods show! If anyone is a Myspace friend of his and would like to enter the contest and help my chances (if you're nice and wouldn't mind, unless you want the tix for yourself) please enter!
Or... if you've got connections to miraculously get tix that are apparently already sold out, connect me and I'd love you forever!
Or again, if you know how I can snag at least three tickets to the show, let me know! I'll enter every contest available, I'll call radio stations, I'll work my connections, anything. I really really really want to go and if I have to drive my roommate and I across the state just to stand by the stage door only to catch a glimpse of him from afar, so be it. But I'd rather try to get tickets first.
you need to trust yourself in whatever you're doing and do it. Because you can.
All I feel like doing is watching movies. Honestly. In the last week I've seen: Chocolat (so adorable and inspiring for my inner domestic diva), Elizabeth, Me and You and Everyone We Know (so weird but I loved it), Phantom of the Opera, Murder by Death, The Notebook, part of S.W.A.T., Beautiful Girls, The Fan, and I'm watcing To Die For right now thanks to On Demand. I'm probably going to pop in The Man after class tonight then cuddle with Ocean's Eleven because I always forget how it ends.
I don't know what it is, but watching movies has proven to be therapeutic for me lately. I'm forced to sit, be patient, and focus on one thing for more than 5 minutes. This is great because my life is everything but sitting and focusing on one thing. Also the idea of seeing scenes living out other people's lives, especially ones that are worse than mine, makes me feel a lot better about myself. For once I'm thanking the academy and the motion picture association of america. I salute your cinematograpy. Oh and Netflix. Thank you for supplying my sister an unlimited amount of DVDs each month!
I've been thinking. I did research for a presentation on Music Therapy and I found a study on music therapy and autism. Research on the effects of music therapy with autistic children is very limited but I hope the treatment is widely available wherever austistic children are being treated. I'm interested in learning more about autism and I'm glad to find out there are various organizations in Connecticut. Hopefully I can find a place to volunteer, I'd love to get involved in some way. Here are the links to local organizations:
Connecticut Autism Spectrum Resource Center
Autism Society of Connecticut
Connecticut Center for Health
Friends of Autistic People
CT Families for Effective Autism Treatment
DMR statewide/national links
For more info about autism and the latest news and events, visit Autism Speaks.
Do you want to be more involved in charitable events but don't know how? Here's a start. You can use your virtual voice to help your fellow people, animals, and the earth.
Stop Global Warming
The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is a non-partisan online effort to bring all Americans together to acknowledge that global warming is here now... and it is time to take action to stop it. It is urgent that we get involved now.
It affects everyone. Young, old, rich, poor, urban, rural, right wing, left wing, those in the middle. Global warming is a national security problem, an economic problem, and a public health problem. And it's not going to get better unless we act now.
Our mission is to use the strength of our numbers to urge:
1) Our government to join the rest of the world in solving global warming, and
2) American business to start a new industrial revolution and develop clean energy products that will reduce our dependence on oil and other pollutants that contribute to global warming.
With the ASPCA
Local issues in Connecticut:
+ HB 5795 and HB 5743 Will Help Both People and Animals
+ HB 5443, Humane Education Legislation, Headed to Education Committee
Federal Issues:
+ Help save avenal prison cats
Protect Nonhuman Primates! Support the Captive Primate Safety Act
Please visit the ASPCA website for more federal issues.
And I found this interesting website: The Name Campaign - Each dogtag sold from The Name Campaign bears the name of a child abducted by Joseph Kony for his rebel army in northern Uganda. All proceeds go to programs that support the children of Northern Uganda. Also, send a letter to congress here.
Once again, our wild forests are at risk. In 2005, after the Bush Administration repealed the historic 2001 Roadless Rule, the Forest Service said they would "provide interim protection to roadless areas," while they decided on the ultimate fate of our wild forests.
But instead of fulfilling this responsibility and protecting our forests, the Forest Service is moving forward with proposals to allow logging, oil drilling, and road building in our roadless areas.
Tell Mark Rey, Under Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, to keep his word and to halt development that will harm pristine forests. Then ask your friends and family to help out too by forwarding this message to them.
Take action by clicking here.
To read the Heritage Forest Report, "Broken Ground" which details development plans in threatened forests, click here.
Background:
In a September 2005 New York Times letter-to-the-editor, Mark Rey, Under Secretary of Agriculture, wrote, "We are providing interim protection to roadless areas, pending the development of state-specific rules provided for in our 2005 rulemaking."
Sadly, that is not happening. A Heritage Forests Campaign report, "Broken Ground," analyzes the Federal Register, news articles, and the Forest Service's own website to reveal projects in the pipeline, including:
* Logging and road construction in Alaska, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming
* Oil and gas drilling in Colorado, Nevada, and Utah
* Roads, phosphate exploration, and mining in Idaho's Sage Creek Roadless Area
Since taking office, the Bush administration has steadily undermined the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, an initiative to protect the last unroaded 58.5 million acres of national forests from most logging, road-building, and other development. A substitute policy was put in place last year, which created a process requiring governors to petition the Forest Service if they wished for roadless protection in their states.
States are doing everything they can to assure these areas will be protected. Attorneys general of six states have joined in a lawsuit against Bush's rollback and several governors have filed, or have announced their intentions to file, petitions for the complete protection of roadless areas in their states, even as they voice their opposition to the administration's uncertain process.
Outdoor recreation companies like Patagonia and North Face said in a letter to U.S. Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth, "In order to ensure that no actions are taken which might preclude a full range of options for protection of these areas, we write to request that the Forest Service agree to avoid proposing projects in inventoried roadless areas that would alter the roadless qualities of the areas, and to halt and withdraw all such projects under development."
Tell Mark Rey to keep his word and protect roadless areas. Click here to take action or paste the link into your browser. Then ask your friends and family to help out too by forwarding this message to them.
To read the new report which details development plans in threatened forests, click here.
Things that are freakin' awesome:
- Good movies: The Corpse Bride and Death to Smoochy
- Opening day for the MLB today. Go Boston!
- Podcasts. I'm addicted&subscribed to NPR, Ricky Gervais, Brini Maxwell, and VH1's Best Week Ever.
- Music from KT Tunstall's Eye to the Telescope, Tracy Chapman's Where You Live, and Earth, Wind, and Fire's Illumination albums
- Finding out my history professor loves Harry Potter films and my psychology professor watches Family Guy
- Finding a cute sweater at H&M and a $4 bag from Aeropostale.
- Going to see Ted Alexandro at Mohegan Sun on friday night
- Confirming that I will be receiving my B.A. degree in December. Praise God!
Things that aren't awesome: Having a paper due tomorrow and wednesday and presenting a psychology lecture on friday. Boo!
BTW- I'm going to see Munich on campus on friday afternoon with a lady friend. If anyone wants to join us let me know!