[while listening to the rest of veckatimest]
began the dismal process of looking up a map of gainesville, locating the political science department and trying to find someplace to live near there (it should be noted that this process was made that much more dismal by the frequent cutting out of the wireless network at my job); planned what i was going to have for lunch

[while watching twilight]
ate my delicious asian sesame chicken salad

[while replaying radiohead's in rainbows in my head]
participated in a focus group for the program i’m in at the job

this is a picture of the ever-amazing vampire weekend. wherever they are right now…this is where i would rather be. than @ my desk, filling out my job reporting and looking over my tax/FAFSA papers. help me out, fellas…

[to get through work today, i made a playlist comprised of the following albums: jenny lewis' acid tongue; daft punk's alive; vampire weekend's self-titled debut; select songs from the catalogue of rilo kiley; and the whitest boy alive's dreams.

shining stars:

jenny lewis, "next messiah"
rilo kiley, "close call"
vampire weekend, "oxford comma"
daft punk, "robot rock/oh yeah"
the whitest boy alive, "burning"]

what was surprising to me most about the past couple of days, as i sit back and reflect on the retreat, is how much i enjoyed it. yeah, i liked the people i was with, including the director and manager of the program. but i was surprised to find that the substance of the retreat helped me more than i could have possibly expected.

one of the best exercises came yesterday morning, when we discussed vision and mission statements, and how to take the personal goals that we envisioned for ourselves and turn them into personal declarations of purpose. the following are my responses to being asked to establish a vision of my utopia, my goals which can help me achieve that utopia, my understanding of the world as it is now and my personal mission statement which will help me to attain that vision. hokey though it may sound, i am still riding the high.

-VISION: i envision a perfect world in which people actually do celebrate their differences and diversity of experience in a way that fosters a true love for individuality and a tolerance for distinction.

-goals: to continue studying the things that separate and divide people – if one focuses on these differences, you can see that our humanity underscores us all and we can develop a collective appreciation for the identities of others and find more worth in ourselves without belittling these other experiences

-the world as it is now seems to be constantly in a state of flux. each big change resonates with a sort of tidal wave of cultural identity. people dislike the idea of their reality changing, and therefore hate the differences they see in others. hatred and fear are the manifestations of our theories about “other people.”

-MISSION: to further the learning process and construct a constant attitude of respect for diverse experiences and celebration of differences to eliminate the perceived threat to collective identities