Nooma

This is exactly what I needed to hear this weekend. I've been struggling to come to terms with me declaring a major. I've talked to professors, friends, family, mentors and all I seem to feel is pulled in different directions, tempted to please one person or the other. I have yet to make a decision because I need to see how I like my classes this semester, but I think it is important to ask yourself the question, "What is it that I have said yes to?"Rob Bell also states in the video something really profound: Do not do anything out of obligation.

• "We need to examine the rhythms of our lives if we are ever going to will the one thing in our life..."
• "Being busy is a drug that a lot of people are addicted to."
• Focus your energies
• What's my path?
• Withdraw, listen to God/myself
• "May you drop your shells in the pursuit of a simple, disciplined, focused life in which you pursue the few things God has for you."

Nooma- where Rob Bell posts his videos

East Coast Weather

I'm back in two feet of snow, below freezing weather and blue skies. I got back to my room late at night and realized what a luxury it is to live on quiet Bainbridge Island-no noise from fans or lights outside, no 5:30 am wake up by beeping trucks coming to take out garbage or deposit food for the dining hall. The weather here is so cold and dry that it took me a total of perhaps 30 minutes for my skin to dry out and my hair to flatten out. At least there is sunshine.
My friend and I went on a walk around Upper Lake and stomped around in the snow, which was quite deep.

Italian Politics

"Whatever it is, it is very Italian. This is, after all, the culture that invented the Baroque, with its trompe l’oeil ceilings, false doors, facades that disguise multiple layers and facades that disguise nothing at all. In his years in public life, Mr. Berlusconi has blurred the line between image and reality. Or rather, he has made a brilliant career on the fundamental Italian truth that image is reality." -Donadio, Rachel. Surreal-A Soap Opera Starring Berlusconi, New York Times

Merchant Ivory and E.M. Forster

I absolutely adore Merchant Ivory's adaptations of E.M. Forster's novels. A Room with a View is breathtaking. I've recently viewed Maurice with Hugh Grant, James Wilby and Rupert Graves and it is another masterpiece. One aspect that I like about these two films is the familiar faces of characters interpreted by Patrick Godfrey, Simon Callow, Denholm Eliott and Helena Bonham-Carter (who is uncredited in Maurice, but appears for a brief scene as a guest).