Vanity

I'm working on my final paper for my English/American Studies class. I've chosen a topic on how vanity transformed America in the Gilded Age era. Does that sound exciting or what?

Well...just to give you a little more exciting insight into the subject I thought readers would be ecstatic to learn that...
-department stores came out during this time. What would we ever do without a department store telling us what exactly we need to fill our homes with and to dress and adorn our bodies with?
-skyscrapers started to appear in the late 19th century. Bye-bye pretty stone buildings (it's all a pretty facade now) but hello strength and height.

But my favorite insight into this subject of vanity comes from a passage in Theodore Dreiser's novel Sister Carrie. The following passage tells me that first, vanity has been around for a while and second, that women have always been drawn to the beautiful-especially in regards to fashion.

"Your bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked maiden, over whom a poet might well rave for the flowerlike expression of her countenance and the lissome and dainty grace of her body, may reasonably be dead to every evidence of the artistic and poetic in the unrelated evidences of life, and yet not lack in material appreciation. Never, it might be said, does she fail in this. With her the bloom of a rose may pass unappreciated, but the bloom of a fold of silk, never. If nothing in the heavens, or the earth, or the waters, could elicit her fancy or delight her from its spiritual or artistic side, think not that the material would be lost. The glint of a buckle, the hue of a precious stone, the faintest tints of the watered silk, these she would devine and qualify as readily as your poet if not more so. The creak, the rustle, the glow-the least and best of the graven or spun-, these she would perceive and appreciate-if not because of some fashionable or hearsay quality, then on account of their true beauty, their innate fitness in any order of harmony, their place in the magical order and sequence of dress."
(Dreiser, Theodore. "Sister Carrie." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. Ed. Nina Baym. NY:W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 2007. 950.)

Patriot's Day

Oh man was Flat Stanley in for a treat or what!!! We convinced him to stick around for Patriot's Day. It is such an awesome holiday! One of our favorite traditions is eating ice cream at Kimball's Farm. Yum! Notice how big the ice creams are. Amazingly they are the kiddie sizes!

Flat Party

It just so happens that we have had two interesting visitors at our house, Flat Stanley and Flat Kelsie. They were not aware that their visits would coincide. What a surprise that they ended up at our house at the same time.They are both from Utah out for a visit and a little sight-seeing. Actually, they seem pretty pleased about the whole situation. Look! They can't stop smiling!

Guess who I met?

Will. I. Am. of the Black-eyed Peas payed Zac's lab a visit on Friday. He and a couple of lab-mates had the opportunity to talk about their research and give a small demonstration. It was pretty cool to hear Zac talk about his project and the lead singer seemed attentive, kind and interested. I was able to snap a picture of Zac and Tyson alongside Will. I. Am.
Too cool...too cool...

Wazzup

Me and the boys just watched the funniest youtube video. Check it out here.

How to start?

I'm writing a paper on this work of art. I have collected plenty of information; I even have a thesis, however I'm stumbling over how to start the paper! I'm pretty good at pushing out a paper once it is started, but there-in lies my current problem. How to get this thing started? One good sentence...that's all...one good sentence...

Learn Something

(picture from Nov. 2008)

Tomorrow starts my next spring semester. Exciting, right? RIGHT! I am excited. There is something exhilarating about holding a pile of new books and entering a new classroom for the first time. There are amazing subjects and problems just waiting to be studied. I love learning new things! Awhile ago I came across a quote that always intrigues and inspires me. It's the perfect statement to start my new semester. It's taken from T.H. White's The Once and Future King. This particular quote comes from "The Sword in the Stone" section. Merlin is speaking to young Arthur. It reads:

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then-to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you."

And it's definitely the thing for me!