Purpose

Whenever I think of the word 'purpose' I think of the song, by the same name, sung in Avenue Q. That song is particularly important now because I am, like Princeton, graduating with my BA in a seemingly useless major. However, I, unlike Princeton, have in fact "found" my purpose. I choose to "" found because I think that one's purpose, if a person decides that one needs this, is partially chosen by the person and partially something mysterious(ish). I mean that to a degree you need to work to obtain a "purpose" but you know when you've found it because things are easy for you to do in that field. The right opportunities just fall into place. Or at least that is what I have found with my "purpose". I have met really good people and been exposed to tools that I understand well and can execute well partially from me going out and searching for them but also because they seemed to fit right. Small changes, such as my ability to take criticism, would have completely changed who I worked with and what projects I was interested in. Thinking about those makes me realize how unique an opportunity I've had in my undergraduate degree and how good a fit my interests really are.

After some Criticism

After getting some critiques about the formula of this blog, aka basically me rambling on for no reason, I have decided to think more about that idea. Why do blogs have to have a specific theme at all? I guess it makes sense to a degree, have something specific in order to attract an audience that is interested in that topic. So, like most writings, it depends on what your purpose is for the blog. I make these silly ramblings public in case anyone were to find them useful. An average person with regular readers who are robots from Siberia I think represents an average blog. If anyone were to do a digital survey of blogs of regular people, aka not blog sensations or celebrities, they'd probably find this information useful, possibly.

To my Drama Teacher

Dear _____,

I wanted to thank you once again for four years of excellent teaching. There were many important concepts that I learned through drama that have helped me in my studies. Particularly, the concept of play. Your encouragement to have a playful mind helped me narrow down the field of archaeology that I hope to pursue, which is the study of childhood. Drama also helped me realize that many of my academic interests came down to an interest in studying people and archaeology is how I choose to pursue that. Anyways, I hope to see many more quality drama productions and once again thank you for being such a strong influence.

To More Specific People

To a couple really great Math teachers, it will include the previous paragraph and this:

I wanted to thank you for being a great math teacher. I loved how much passion you had for math and how much you cared about learning. Although archaeology may seem unrelated, the logical thinking and understanding of basic mathematical principles have become invaluable, even in my undergraduate study. Many people who go into Anthropology are afraid of, or bad at math, and so having the strong background in math that I did, because of you, has helped enormously. I am grateful that I had such great teachers and hope that you inspire many more students.

To General Teachers

The Generic one to good but not personal teachers:

As the announcement says I will will be graduating with my BA, majors in History and Anthropology. If you would like to attend, I will be participating in three different commencement ceremonies the one listed on the card at CenturyLink Field, a History departmental one on June 8th at 3pm in Kane Hall room 130, and an Anthropology departmental one at 7pm on June 9th in Kane Hall room 130. All three have limited space but if you would like to attend please e-mail me at pprzystupa@gmail.com as soon as possible. As for what happens after graduation, I will be in living in Washington until the end of July. After that I will be moving to New Mexico to pursue a PhD in Anthropology focusing on Archaeology. I will be attending the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I wanted to thank you for being a great high school teacher and encouraging me to continue my education. I hope that you continue your good work and inspire many more students.

To General Family Members

The Generic Thank you note Announcement for Family members I don't know well:

As the announcement says I will will be graduating with my BA, majors in History and Anthropology. If you would like to attend, I will be participating in three different commencement ceremonies the one listed on the card at CenturyLink Field, a History departmental one on June 8th at 3pm in Kane Hall room 130, and an Anthropology departmental one at 7pm on June 9th in Kane Hall room 130. All three have limited space but if you would like to attend please e-mail me at [REDACTED] as soon as possible. As for what happens after graduation, I will be in living in Washington until the end of July. After that I will be moving to New Mexico to pursue a PhD in Anthropology focusing on Archaeology. I will be attending the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Thank you for being part of my life and for the continued support.

Open letters

So later today, not now since I really should be getting to class on time, I will be posting my "thank you" letters to some of my friends, teachers, and family which includes a run down of what my graduation is going to be like and what is going on in my life. While this may seem silly, I feel that it is an important thing to do in order to show your appreciation for teachers, and family, who are often not given as much credit as they are due. I hope to print out some postcards with me on them, I know sort of silly, and then write on the back just short thank yous to each teacher or family member or family group so they know what I have done and what my life will be. I think its cool, and a good way to make up for not visiting in years.

EDIT this also is because I forgot to write earlier this week

Week's End?

Its only day two of this week and I am already ready to be done. I really have no idea why but it just feels like it should be over already. I have the same amount of work due this week, maybe even less, and so I feel lazy. There are things that I need to do today specifically, like check my work schedule, but it feels as if the rest of the week will be lacking in interesting activities. I will have time to clean my room, which is TRASHED, but that is not a particularly exciting activity. Neither is studying. Perhaps I will drive a bit more this weekend or take my dog on a walk or play some Uncharted...I think it will be Uncharted.

n00b post

I have a lot of other homework to do this morning and so this post will be minimal. I need to turn in a reflective essay for a scholarship today by 5pm and will be editing that for the majority of this time. I also need to check and see if there is any My Spanish Lab that I need to do before tomorrow morning. I also need to edit my bagels game to see if everything works correctly but that won't be touched until I am safe at home. Gah! Also I need go to my driving class and pick up my prescription. Silly day, why are you just filled with errands?

Drives

I just took a second to think about the word 'drive' and I'd say that it would be defined as "a movement usually forward". If you think about driving a car it is a vehicle that generally propels people forward and gets them where they would like to go. If you think about one's "drives" or inspirations they do that exact same thing, minus the vehicle. Or well, the person becomes the vehicle that is moving forward. I think that they idea that the person, who is filled with ideas like a car is filled with gasoline or electricity, moves forward on under their own choice or direction is an important thing. We have to choose to engage with the things that can move us forward rather than assume that they will take us where we want to go.

Perhaps too philosophical and gramatically incorrect but whatevs.

Forgetfulness

In the last couple of weeks I have lost a few important things, like my planner and, over the weekend, my paycheck. The things that were, I guess, most important came back to me, AKA my paycheck, but my planner has still not appeared. This forgetfulness has become a problem on a daily basis since I take things that I do not need out of my backpack every night. This morning I forgot my USB port. Why was that important? Well it has the two ongoing projects that I need to work on, a scholarship essay due on Monday and my Java programming project due on Tuesday. This leaves me nothing to do between classes time and forces me to do that work when I get home, which will be rather late tonight. I find that annoying but its my fault that I forgot those items. Some have suggested that I start storing essays and other digital project on the Cloud but I am often too lazy to keep my Cloud documents well named, organized, and properly updated. For me, these instances just show how I need to pay more attention to what I am doing, in general. Though, I do often find a good excuse for most of my actions. Such as yesterday night, my dog peed on my bed, a very good reason I think to forget to put a USB port in a backpack.

Eventually I will...

I have realized over the years that I am very susceptible to the people around me and will occasionally mimic them in their actions. How so? Basically I go "Wow that was a cool idea and I'd like to that" and then think about how I would do it differently or better but never come close to actually doing it. Some of these things include: making a Steam Punk outfit, Cos-playing, and most recently writing a novel. A couple of my friends, or others I know, have written novels and some have gotten them published. I would not call them commercial successes but at least they were able to finish something like that. I, on the other hand, have never come close. In seventh grade, I started to write a fantasy novel by hand during my classes. I am sure it was pretty bad and I still have the pages so maybe someday I will type it up and see where it goes. Currently, I have been revisiting a story inspired by one of my friends but one which he never wrote either. I think that more than any of my other ideas this has some fruit, sort of. Unlike my other story, the seventh grade one, its not as limited age wise. Where I wanted the plot to go can still fit the age group that I am thinking of using and of course, like many novels, it could parallel personal successes and failures. But of course, be more awesome. So maybe, sometime in the future, when I have time as a graduate student ( HA HA) I will sit down and do this.

Join In

So there are zillions of types of social networking available on the internet. This week I joined two new ones, one in order to join the other. While I like the ideas behind both of them, sharing your thoughts or ideas or art, part of me is like "Who cares?". I guess it allows my friends, if they were to feel like it, to look at what I'd been Pinning lately and maybe buy me related gifts or to show them what I like in general, giving us more talking points. However, I am not an artist or celebrity so I hesitate to use some of these things. It would be nice if anyone cared to actually look at what I liked or how I felt but I am rather sure that if I don't tell them in person they probably aren't that high on the caring about it list. Not in a sad lonely way, but in the sense that we perceive our lives through our eyes and our perceptions come first.

Sherlock

I, of course, love the Sherlock series from the BBC. It’s really great fun but as an introspective, perhaps to the point of narcissism, person I wonder about my fascination with this character. What does it stem from? Well, as a heterosexual female, he dresses well and is rather good to look at. However, Watson in the series is much more attractive, at least to my taste. My theories suggest that I am attracted to his mind OR (boolean operator!) that I am actually jealous of his sociopathic tendencies. Meaning, I wish that I was less emotional and am basically attracted to his brutish and honest persona since it is the opposite of my emotionalism. Some articles I have seen on other blogs have discussed this idea and I think it could fit my bill. More in-depth analysis will come later, possibly.

Marvel's The Avengers

Rocked! I would say that it was: better than Iron Man II, mostly because of the villain, better than Thor, no stupid giant robot only fight scene, better than Captain America, good but once again silly villain problems, and better than The Incredible Hulk, I watched it because my friends wanted to go and because Tony Stark was there at the end. However, the question I now face is: Was it better than Iron Man? According to IMDB, it is lower ranked than Iron Man II, probably due to villain problems, but the important thing for me, generally, is the laughter quality. The main reason that I enjoy Marvel films is the humor. Quips such as: Thor, "Where do you think we are?" Tony,"Shakespeare in the Park? Dost Mother know thou wearest her drapes?" have me rolling on the floor. The Avengers also fixed the villain problems, to an extent, because they chose Loki as the villain and they were able to balance advance all of the Avengers' personalities, grow the Avengers team plot as a whole, and keep it funny. There were still things I would have liked to see more of: Scarlett Johansson moving her face a bit more when changing emotions, or maybe that's her spy character, personally, I couldn't tell, and a little bit more of that fish out of water humor with Thor. Do those detriments weigh more than the giant terrible lack of a villain in Iron Man? Probably not, but, I think I still enjoyed Iron Man more. Why? Probably the laughs or my mild obsession with RDJ. This also probably relates to the fact that I was basically a Marvel Virgin when I saw Iron Man, I expected nothing and got a whole helluva lot in return. My interest in Iron Man launched my interest in the American comic book genre and now as a mildly more informed audience member I see the movies differently. So as much as The Avengers fixed the problems of the previous films and kept the good qualities, I don't think I can, in good conscience, say that I enjoyed it more than Iron Man.

Mind Bloggling

I think a zillion people have actually explored the fact that there is a helluva lot of information on the internet. (la uva is Spanish for grape! and always sounds funny to me...). With that large amount of information I think one can find evidence to back almost any current opinion. However, there are still many things that do not exist on the internet. There are thousands of historical documents that will lie in boxes for years with no one giving money to digitize them. There are foreign language histories that are not thought to be important enough by the often western-oriented proprietors of the internet to be translated or made available online. Those things make me sad but also encourage me to continue my interest and pursuit of a graduate degree. Following reading another thought-provoking (in the sense that it made me mildly angry and then made me think about the issue) from Gawker. Academic research is the first step towards knowledge that the entire populace can benefit from. It opens the way for non-academics, starting as undergraduates, to be involved in a never explored topic and to show its importance. An attack on graduate degrees could then be taken as another extension of the obsession with now and that only the information of today will further the future. Thoughts like this remind me that all humans build on the things that came before us and without studying those things and utilizing what they give us will will not be able to advance much farther.

Doctors

So after getting into college I realized that there are many ways to be a doctor. One can be general practicing medical doctor, a jurist doctor, or get a PhD in any particular field. I want to address the sort of "fear" that I think many people have of going to the medical doctor. This comes in response to an article on Jezebel a site whose articles I generally like. The particular post suggested that many doctors, who they identified as being specifically male by the use of the pronoun "he", are making it difficult for women to obtain birth control by making them come in for yearly check ups. My question is, why the hell is this a problem? A yearly physical can be really good for you since most people are not aware of the warning signs for certain illnesses. Also its a good time to check up on other possible STDs since, although clearly written on the label, not very many people acknowledge the fact that the pill does not stop STDs. It gets women into a clinic to make sure that they are actually as healthy as they think they are. It is also I think a good idea to realize that not all doctors are men and that not all of them are in it for the money. I have been going to my GP who prescribes my BCP for years and we have a good working relationship. When I had problems with the type I was prescribed we worked out one that was a better fit for my body. The problems that the article outlined suggest a problem not with "doctors" as a whole but with communication. If you don't like how your doctor acts, get a new one if you can afford to do so. If you can't afford to find another doctor then you probably are not in an income bracket to really worry about this problem. While I don't think its a problem to make BCPs more widely available, from my own experience I know that just getting a generic kind, without the aid of a doctor who knows what they do, is not the best way to go. They are still medicines that react differently in different people and it is much more comforting to have a person specifically knowledgeable about the topic explore why than just asking the internet.

Whether the Weather

So, I have to commute to school every morning. I leave at about 7:30 am to get to school and need to make quick decisions on what I wear. It is also possible that I have already addressed this problem in a previous post. Nonetheless, this little commuting fact makes it difficult for me to choose appropriate footwear for the day. If it looks like clouds are coming my way I put rainboots on because, more than anything in the world, I hate having wet feet. However, just as regularly I put those boots on and end up traipsing around campus in boots that are not appropriate for the sunshine. To top it off as well, I didn't bring sunglasses. Those days, which occur so often in spring, make me sad. Today is one of those days.