To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. -Oscar Wilde So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. -Christopher McCandless

I put these quotes on my facebook wall so I can remind myself every day of the things I am inside, that I am failing to live out in my life. I hope that someday I can look at those quotes and say, yeah, that's me.

I read somewhere once that a wise man speaks when he has something to say, and a fool speaks because he has to say something. Sometimes I feel like blogging makes me a fool. Like I am writing something just because I have to say something, sort of like a facebook status, a brief moment of attempting to get the attention of others. A small part of me has only recently been feeling the need to journal, or do something similarly cathartic, and since at this time I prefer typing to writing, perhaps I shall fill this blog again with words. With any luck they might turn out to be something worth reading.

Also. I was thinking today about how I failed to keep my new year's resolution this year, at least so far. But I think that perhaps next year, instead of one drastic resolution, like to suddenly lose 100 lbs or become a better person, I'm going to resolve to 12 smaller things. One thing every month that I need to work on, that I need to spend those 21 one days required to make a habit. I can think of a lot of great examples for this. Like not leaving clothes all over my bed room floor, or taking care of an email or bill as soon as it comes into my hands, instead of putting it down and waiting until later. Maybe I won't wait until new years. Maybe now is a much better time.

Caitlin

Blogging

I remember when xanga used to be the shit. Quite literally, the shit. Everyone was on here, all the time. We updated all the time, about everything. After all, this is (or was, at the time) the 21st century. Anyone, provided they can turn on a computer, can have a blog, and everyone on the planet deserves to know that I had spaghetti for lunch. Times change. Now it's all facebook (because I need to be able to stalk your interactions with other people), twitter (because not only do you need to know that I had spaghetti for lunch, but you need to know what I am thinking about it while I am eating it. RIGHT NOW), and the more sophisticated blogging websites, like blogger, because heck, we're grown ups now. xanga is for your little sister, and myspace if for the angst ridden and the musicians. Now this place is empty. No one has updated in months. I forgot I even had one of these. How strange it is to think of these places. Still saved here on the internet, as testaments to who we were 5 years ago. We are the first generation to really have something like this. I remember when people didn't even know what a blog was. It was once that new. I thought about deleting this site, seeing as I never use it. I am not much of a writer. I don't like reading what I write, and don't feel like I have much to say. I don't feel the need to tell someone that I am eating spaghetti for lunch, but I don't feel like sitting down and writing something that will contribute to society either. What happened to not telling everyone everything we are thinking? What happened to maintaining some sense of mystery about ourselves? I wonder what we will think of these words, left floating here in the void, if we are ever to look back on them. Quote of the day: The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much. - Germain G. Glien

I was just thinking about this quote today.


If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely
challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn
between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day. -E.B. White


I wish I could be that motivated. I can't decide whether to enjoy the world or improve it, so I
end up just sitting here. I guess I better get up and do something.

Do not have children after using this product.

So. I am sitting in my new testament survey class last week. The teacher is leading us in a lovely
discussion about Calvinism and Arminianism. I was listening.. but I was sort of zoning out.

The teacher is using the projector, and the projector is sitting in the middle of the room on one of
those rolly metal card thingies. So I am staring at the side of the little rolly metal cart thingie, and on the side
of the little rolly metal cart thingie is a warning label. This I found to be very exciting, because
there were pictures/drawing type things. There were three pictures on the side.

The first drawing was of a man pushing a little rolly metal cart thingie from behind, and then a man
pulling the cart towards him while he is walking backwards. The second picture has a large red X through it
obviously showing that the first is the proper/safe way to move the cart, but the second is not. Then there
was another set of pictures showing which part of the cart to hold when pushing it, one with a big X through
it, showing that you should push it a certain way.

The last picture was the one that I found funny. It was a single picture instead of a pair, and it was a little
stick man, just like in the other ones, but in this one he was holding the hand of a very small stick person,
presumably a child. The picture has a large red X through it.

Now most would argue this means that you shouldn't allow small children to push the rolly metal cart
thingie around, but then why wouldn't they have shown a kid pushing the cart with an X throught it.
What if you were from a foriegn country and you for some reason saw this cart? What would you assume?
Don't hold hands? Don't let kids push the cart? or perhaps something else. The first thing that came to my mind
was a line from a Dave Barry book where he talks about dangerous paint removal products... Do not have
children after using this product. I do not know why I thought if this. but that was my day, and I thought
you should know.

Quote of the day:

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.
To put to route all that was not life, and not when I came
to die, discover that I had not lived. ~ Thoreau

I saw this tombstone last weekend.

Me and my roommate had a conversation about famous epitaphs only a few days earlier.

Wyatt Earps head stone says "nothing's so sacred as honor, and nothing's so loyal as love"

Robert Frost's says "I had a lover's quarrel with the world"

Virginia Woolf's says "Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!

Have you ever thought about your epitaph? What do you want your tombstone to say about you?

A new semester.

So as this semester is getting underway.. I would like to share some of the more exciting things that have happened to me thus far.

1. Someone on campus is riding to class everyday on a unicycle. It's pretty swell.

2. There is a guy in my Hebrew class that has studied "circus arts" for 9, yes 9, years. wow.

3. Last week I went on an adventure and at 1:30 am on friday morning I was running around campus in a cloak, carrying a lightsaber.

3. In one of my classes I got to read "Out of the silent planet" by C.S. Lewis. I was very happy.

4. Tonight I am going to a guy's floor open house for their toga party thing. hm...

5. Some one in one of my classes called the Bahamas a third world country. hmmmmm...

Ok. I will share more exciting things later. I just felt like typing something right now.