Running

Wait all night for morning. Maybe the sun will rise and drag my stomach out of my toes.

How to Live Given the Certainty for Death

By Shelly Kagan - Yale

LECTURE DESCRIPTION

"In this lecture, Professor Kagan invites students to pose the question of how one should live life knowing that it will certainly end in death. He also explores the issue of how we should set our goals and how we should go about achieving them, bearing in mind the time constraints. Other questions raised are how this ultimately affects the quality of our work and our accomplishments, as well as how we decide what is worth doing in life."

Watch it on Academic Earth

The Universe in Us.

“Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. It’s not that we are better than the universe; we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.”

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Basement Jewelry!

Check out MacKenzie and my new shop on Etsy!

Take a look at what we see:

Filmed in Lake Taupo, New Zealand. September 2011

By: MacKenzie Avallone

The Real World.

She convinced me she was in love. She convinced me she was growing. I flew home to see if it was true. I fell in love almost as fast as she did. Nervous in an old shop listening to four changing young men make beauty which seemed to pour out of their eyes and fingers. You never knew how to talk. But you talked to me. And it was about things that matter and things that made me wrap heart strings around you and never want you to be far away again. You were as close to the person you pretended to be as I had ever seen before. I tried to fly. I couldn't. Then I tried to run away again, and I saw her face and stopped. We made our first dream come true. We had a 24 hour flight to the land of magic and long bus rides and dirty clothes. I loved you so much, blood had nothing to do with it. You were my mother and my sister and my best friend and I tried to be my mother so I could love you better. I love so many God damn people, but you are not other, you are me. I am you. I watched you grow into a flower and promised to help you grow straight. I watched you learn how to speak and sometimes looking at you felt like looking in a mirror. My mother knew each of you were the reason I was coming home, and she loved you for that. My father was happy and I saw him trying and I softened because of it. Everyday I wake up in a rainbow with crayons laying on the ground and don't feel right sleeping until I kiss every one of you.

Waterfall in New Zealand

This was at the end of one of our longest hikes in New Zealand.

Filmed in Paihia, New Zealand. September 2011

By: MacKenzie Avallone

The best picture ever.

The only thing this is missing is my sister. It's perfect.

My dearest Nellie Dunlap has graced us with her presence all the way from Los Angeles. And my mom and Courtney :] The best photo ever.

This is happening.

"It's in the works. A massive Occupy Wall Street gathering with delegates from all over the country. And if these plans are carried out, Occupy Wall Street will be a major force to be reckoned with on Election Day 2012."

The TEN steps:

(Click ME)

It's this good.

It's like a, "I can't believe you exist" feeling.

It's all in your mind.

Yesterday one of my best friends was in a panic when she couldn't be near someone she loved when she felt scared and insecure. She fell hysterical and as my sister and I sat and tried to calm her down, we kept repeating to her, "you're safe, you're in bed, you're warm, we have food, water, everything is going to be fine." Right before this experience, I was reading "epiphanies" someone posted on the Internet and one of them explained how most of your life happens in your head. You make up most of your own problems and most of the time don't have much to be worried or complain about at all if you sit down and realize all you have. Once she sorted things out in her own mind, she was fine, and we ended up having a wonderful day because she was mentally ready to.

Around the same time I felt upset about the communication in one of my relationships. After talking about it and seriously thinking about what I was actually saying, I realized I was making up the whole thing. Not only had I never really tried to express what I felt, but I didn't even actually need a shift. It seemed like I was looking for something to be upset about. Are we all just making up dialoges and problems in our heads that don't exist, while the fact is all that is really going on is usually far less dramatic and troubling?

I bet if we could all tweek the way we thought about our lives, friends, and lovers, not only would we be happier, but we would lead more positive and fulfilling lives.

Love Their Servitude

There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.

—Aldous Huxley

Ramble On.

What is a good person?

Someone told me once that being a good person was being able to deal with many different kinds of people. I didn't get this at first. But every time I try to put it to the test, it seems to hold true. What a better definition of a "good person," then one who can love and have patience for all kinds of people? Finding parts of yourself in others and trying to empathize is so hard sometimes. The more I learn to love myself, the more naturally loving others becomes. It's easier to see the good in them because I want to see it. It seems like the more you treat people the way you want to see them, the more they become what you project. See beauty.

The Thinker of Tender Thoughts

Jon Stewart - Fox News Sunday

Fresh Eyes

My friend Aisling is visiting me from Galway, Ireland. It's been so wonderful. We've been doing so many things that have made me appreciate where I live and see it in a new way. It's so easy to take for granted the people and things in your life that make it unique and beautiful. We've been to Philly, where she ate her eat her first cheesesteak, the beach, wine tasting, and today we're going pumpkin picking before she leaves for NYC tomorrow. Not only has she opened my eyes and let me appreciate how wonderful a place central Jersey can be, but she's also helped me see my life more clearly.

It feels very healthy to have an outside perspective shine light on my new life here in Jersey. Loving and new insights tend to be unbiased and emotionally invested in all the engulfs those on the inside in their the daily lives. In some ways she made me appreciate those closest to me even more, by seeing them as beautifully as I do and pointing out how special and wonderful they are. But what she's given me most is a more realistic view on my life, the good, the bad, and everything in between. She also helped me remember all the things I still need to do and all the dreams I still want to accomplish.

I love looking at all the pictures of Aisling and I, because they span two continents and a handful of countries and experiences. You're lucky if you meet one person who is as beautiful of a friend as I've found in my Irish roommate. I'm a lucky girl.

The Best Place on Earth.

Feeling lost?

What do you usually do when you're at a crossroads in your life? I just got back from New Zealand yesterday and after usually feeling absolutely secure with being gone or lost or whatever and all the other the uncertainties of my life, I find myself having a hard time deciding what to do next. It doesn't seem like a problem to not look for a career yet, I know traveling is in my future and a career is not...for the time being. I think the problem is not having any immediate goals. Maybe it's time to come up with some kind of list, things I will have done by this time next year, or Christmas, or something. Let's start now.

By this time next year I want to have:
1. Begun a certification in yoga.
2. Learn the flute and piano.
3. Have at least 2 new adventures planned.
4. Have visited the Red Woods in California.
5. Have learned a new language.
6. Built up "Castles In The Air"
7. Done research on how to start a non-profit
8. Remained a vegetarian
9. Have saved enough for a Macbook Pro