OBX

I'm excited, we're leaving for the Outerbanks today. It's crazy that of all the places I've been, I've never been there...I feel like it's a Pittsburgh place to go. I love going to the beach.

Pittsburgh

Today I turned another out-of-towner into a Pittsburgh lover. That's 3 so far. People need to give the Burgh more of a chance, it's a great place.
Steve and his mom went to Lin's Asian Fusion on Carson St in the South Side with my me, my parents, and my aunt tonight. I got chicken curry again, it was so delicious! I love Pittsburgh.

Idea, and PSU scandal

I had an idea today. For the past two years, my New Years Resolution has been to write at least one sentence on some sort of paper every day. In 2011, I got to February 2 and then I missed a day. I tried for a few more weeks, missing more and more days at a time before I gave up.
In 2012, I don't think I made it to the end of January before I missed multiple days in a row.
My idea is to change my resolution, and start it in July (Christmas in July, right?).
Sadly, it was extremely difficult to write a sentence every day on paper. Writing it online or typing it in my phone is easy, especially after I got an iPhone last November. I didn't want my resolution to be an online thing, but maybe I can do the last 5 months of 2012 online, and my 2013 resolution can be carried out on paper.
I'm going to try to use this blog to post everyday. Maybe it will only be a sentence, maybe it will be unfinished...but life goes by too fast to not have a memory from every single day. Plus, I love to write.

Today I've been thinking about the PSU scandal and NCAA punishment.
 In Pittsburgh at least, the Penn State and Joe Pa story are blowing up the news. Everyone is arguing about whether PSU deserved its punishment. Many angry college students are posting their thoughts and complaints on Facebook.
For the most part, I like to keep an open mind about it for now and hear what people have to say.
 One thing that I don't hear people talking about is the precedent that this punishment sets in terms of the seriousness of child molestation. Many college students are complaining on Facebook that instead of punishing the school, the NCAA (and others) should set out to end child molestation in all situations. However I think that this punishment is aiming to do that, at least in some part. I think that this punishment, though it may be unfair to past, present, and future students, illustrates that the NCAA takes this crime very seriously.
I understand the argument that taking away the wins from the school punishes the football players that won the games, as well as tarnishes Joe Paterno's legacy. I don't think that punishing the players is fair, not in the least. Those players worked hard for many many hours to earn their victories. They should hold those victories and their hours of sweat close to their hearts.
I also see this punishment, and the other sanctions placed on the program, as a statement. A very serious crime was committed, and this punishment shows that the crime will not be tolerated in any capacity.
I've heard different arguments about the level of Joe Pa's involvement in the scandal. What exactly did Joe Pa know, and who did he tell? Was it enough?
You could convince me that Joe Paterno did what was required of him, and he had no obligation to do more than to report the incident to his superiors. However I will never commend the man for his actions, nor view him as I did before this scandal. Previous to this scandal, I would say that I was a PSU football fan in that I rooted for them in most of their games. When the scandal broke and Joe Pa's picture circulated all over the news, I scolded my roommate for not knowing who he was. PSU students will always hold him to high esteem, but I think that is a very skewed perception.
This man was the leader of a football team, a university, and an entire Penn State community made up of thousands and thousands of people. No leader should fulfill the bare minimum of what is required of him/her. A leader should lead by example, with supererogatory actions.
Joe Pa led by example in doing what he could to preserve the PSU football program. The NCAA is doing the same in enacting these punishments.
If Joe Pa, or the PSU AD that was informed of the incidents, had stopped these crimes from continuing and enacted necessary punishment, the NCAA would not have had to step in. The NCAA would not have had to punish the school and football program if a leader would have stood up against these crimes in the first place. If someone would have stopped this before, or took action against it earlier, the punishment may have been less severe.
 If the NCAA does not put its foot down and condemn these actions, how do we know that another "great leader" will not do what Joe Pa & the AD did, and look the other way? A lot of good preserving the football program did for those 46 years Joe Paterno was coaching; it's now tarnished forever.

"I feel fine," she said. "There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine."

This summer I've been trying to read as much as possible because I figure in a few months I won't really have that much free time (hopefully!), and plus I wish I were more familiar with more authors.
I went to the library to take out some books and realized that I don't have a library card anymore. I guess that's what happens when you go to college. Anyway, I got a shiny new library card and checked out way too many books for two weeks. I checked out at least 6, three of them being "25 Short Story Masterpieces," "Love in the Time of Cholera," and "Fitzgerald's Short Stories."Obviously there's no way I'm going to finish more than one by next week when they're due, but there's something about checking out books at the library.

So far I've read Anton Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog," Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Joyce's "Araby," and Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants." I just started "King of the Bingo Game" by Ralph Ellison.

I love short stories. I've taken two short story/creative writing classes for my English major. I wish I could've taken more English classes. It's actually sad for me to think that I won't be assigned papers or reading to discuss anymore. I'm thinking of signing up for an English class at Pitt this fall, but even if they're not all filled, I'll be in a pickle if I get a job this fall. Can going to school for the rest of my life be a job?

"Hills Like White Elephants" is the bomb. I absolutely love that story. I've made at least 3 other people read it since I read it. I think I read it in high school or sophomore year of college, but I'm positive I didn't appreciate it the same way that I do now. Now catch this because I'm saying something monumental and completely new: Hemingway is a dialogue master. Haha. Just kidding. You knew that. if you didn't know that, go read the story.

I heard recently that when Hemingway turned 22, he basically dedicated the entire year to writing. That's what writers do I guess. I'm thinking I can dedicate the whole year to my writing when I turn 23.

Speaking of turning 23, I've also decided that it's going to be the deadline for me moving out of my house. I have a little over 3 months to get out of here! A full time job better come through in the next two weeks, or I'm upping my hours at Panera x500.

Go read "Hills Like White Elephants" now.

Pinterest

I think Pinterest is the coolest form of social media yet. It's my favorite kind at least.

I jumped on the Pinterest straight away. When Facebook and Twitter came out, I was very reluctant to join either of them. I joined Facebook in 2006 or 2007, sometime during my junior year of high school. I was way behind all of my friends. I joined Twitter in 2010, but I rarely tweeted and just recently signed up for a new account and have been tweeting from that one. (@ma_farley) But I signed up for Pinterest as soon as I was invited - that's a good thing about being a member of a sorority, I was able to easily find someone to invite me - and have checked the site almost daily since.

Of course, Pinterest is good for planning your future wedding, laughing at your e cards, and looking at cute animals (my favorite), 

but the site has caught my attention for another reason.

Not only do I follow 50+ people that I don't know, but I also follow 100+ people that I do know. Of these people, I'm probably really good friends with about 30 of them. The rest are people from high school, or people I know from my freshman ACS class. What's really interesting about following my acquaintances is that they pin the most unique pins. 

In real life, I know which of my friends to go to when I need cheered up, to go shopping, or to laugh. The same is true on Pinterest. I love following the people that I'm not very familiar with because they always show me something exciting. From my acquaintances, I see the coolest pictures of India, or the cutest baby elephant playing in the ocean, or the most creative way to make a picture frame. Not only does this give me great ideas and things to look at, but it also is a way for me to get a sense of the person's personality. I might not have said more than "hello" to the girl who sat in my row in Intermediate Spanish II, but on Pinterest I see that she loves memes and movies with Jason Segel. I would've never known these things without Pinterest because honestly, and this may be a fault of mine, I can't see myself randomly talking to someone three seats away from me for no reason. 

Without Pinterest I also would've never had the idea to make my mom a mirror/quote board/wall fixture if it weren't for my second cousin in California. Boy does my mom love that mirror.

A lot of adults say that our generation doesn't know how to communicate with one another, that we can't really get to know each other through technology. I'd say that Pinterest directly contradicts that. 


Happy pinning :)

The Lens of Sex

I haven't blogged in a really really long time. I guess I haven't come across anything that's been worth putting off homework or going out (or eating) in order to take time to write about it. That's obviously changed though, because there's something that's bothering me and I want to write about it.

I was at the bar with my friends, sitting at a table trying to avoid getting elbowed by drunk people - I'm the perfect height for an arm rest and an elbow to the head - casually discussing people we know. We weren't talking about them in a bad way, more or less just talking about them to talk.

I have a close friend that I work with, and it's easiest to describe her as a stereotypical hard-ass, all business, working woman. She's a great person, awesome to work with, and super friendly, but I've always wondered what is it about her, generally, that makes her attractive to guys?

Now, this was a dumb question. I shouldn't have asked it, obviously, partly because I knew the answer (I didn't want to admit it to myself) and partly because whatever answer it was would probably upset me. I guess I just wanted to hear it from a guy's point of view.

The conversation went something like this,
Me: I guess I just don't get it. I like her as a friend, but I almost feel like her personality would scare most guys.
Guy: I've heard from at least three guys that work with her, Blah, Blahh, and Blahh, that they think her aggressive, dominant, no shit attitude she has when she works would translate over to the -
Me: Ok ok ok stop, stop I don't want to hear anymore.
Guy: What? What did I say what's wrong?
Me: I just don't want to hear it.
Guy: Why?
Me: I don't know. Just don't.

Maybe it was because of the alcohol, but it took me a while to figure out why I didn't want my friend to finish his sentence. I stopped drinking after that and immediately got in a worse mood because of that conversation. I finally figured out why I was so appalled at what he said, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

I admire my friend on a number of different levels. One of those levels is her leadership and work skills. She is a very hard worker and gets things done on a schedule. In many ways she embodies the stereotypical bitchy corporate woman. Outside of work, she's much more frantic and disheveled, so I think that I know her differently than a lot of people do. However, I know that because of her work ethic and attitude that she'll do great in the real world when she starts her job in the fall.

What's disappointing to me is that she won't be seen purely as a co-worker or an employee. Before this conversation, I had the idea that women in the work world, unfortunately, could only be viewed as one of three different types. A.) Bitch, hard ass, boss, dominant etc B.) Subordinate, flimsy, overpowered, etc C.) A woman who uses her sexuality and appearance to her advantage.

I'm not sure if this idea is naive, just plain wrong, or a combination of things that could be the truth. But what I realized yesterday is that it doesn't matter what stereotype a working woman fulfills. It doesn't matter if she doesn't fulfill any of them. No matter what she does, others will always use sex to define her. Men, women, every person around her will view her, at least partially, through the lens of sex.

I tried to explain this to my friend, and he said that men are viewed the same way. He gave the example that athletes on campus are viewed as sex objects or objects of desire because of their power.  I disagree that these two things are the same because I think that men are still in the position of power in our society.

And on that note, it's not even necessarily men that are in power. It's the idea of the heterosexual male and his family. This concept drives our society and drives others to view women, or men, through the lens of sex.

Run Run, As fast as you can

Today I was walking to one of my two jobs and I realized: I have two jobs. Then I realized, not only do I have two jobs, but I have two jobs, an internship, and am taking a class. Not only do I have two jobs, an internship, am taking a class, but it's summer. Summer. I thought that was supposed to be time off to, oh I don't know, relax.

How quickly I've realized that the word "relax" is not n the vocabulary of an East coaster, let alone the phrase "slow down." I love the East coast, but have I really turned into one of them? Why do we never stop moving?

Now, I'm sure two jobs, an internship, and a class is normal for plenty of people during the summer. I do like to keep myself busy, I've only met one other person that juggles as many activities as I do on a regular basis and does it well. But I'm all for taking a break as well. Walking from one job to the other this afternoon, I realized that this go-go-go mindset of the East coast is catching up to me, leading me to be my busy, excited, driven self 365 days of the year.

I'm 21-years-old and have had the privilege to live in three major (at least well-known) cities in my life: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and London. I'm also lucky enough to have a dad that loves to travel, so I have been many places throughout the country and to other countries on my own time. I haven't quite found a place that is as non-stop as the East coast.

Pittsburgh isn't on the East coast? you might ask, or argue. (More likely argue.) No, it is not. Whether or not the location is, the attitude definitely isn't. I do concede that we Pittsburghers have an attitude much more similar to Philly than to NYC, but that's irrelevant for my argument. Things are laid back in Pittsburgh; we watch football and make steel. We're practically a bunch of hicks, West Virginia is only about 2 hours away after all.

I've decided that the East coast is so unique because it is the epitome of capitalism and competitiveness. This is enabled because it is part of the corporate world, and because travel is so simple. The ability to travel from D.C. to Boston to NYC all in one day for various business meetings in a short amount of time is clutch. Don't forget your staple trip to the Jersey/Maryland shore or the Cape. There is always a tight schedule to get from A to B, faster and better than your opponent so that you can achieve success quicker and more so than they can.

I can't claim that this is solely a big-city thing. I lived in London and didn't experience this competitiveness. I was actually surprised at how uncompetitive people were, almost not driven. But that's a post for a different day when I can explain myself better.

I can't claim it's an American thing. I also lived in Pittsburgh, where people were more willing to help you tackle the Cleveland Browns fan to the ground, rather than race you to him.

The East coast, quite a unique place. One that I've grown to love because of its opportunities, yet hate because its caused me to feel like my life is a quick blur in front of my eyes and I have to do everything I can to catch up.