“I knew before that God gives life to men, and desires them to live; but now I know far more. I know that God does not desire men to live apart from each other, and therefore has not revealed to them what is needful for each of them to live by himself. He wishes them to live together united, and therefore has revealed to them that they are needful to each other’s happiness.” – Leo Tolstoy, What Men Live By

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In Powell pretending to study. I was reading friends’ blogs today and it made me sad. My life has split right down the middle yet again. Should I just lay that entire former part of my life – ICA and all that goes with it – to rest? I’m tired of letting people go, but I’m even more tired of fighting for them. And I’ve never been one for gradual or messy break-ups/goodbyes – give me a clean break if nothing else and I’ll be gone.

I’m planning a donut-making party for next quarter. We’ll see how that works out.

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I’ve been studying Marx, Althusser and Foucault, among other authors, for my theory class this quarter, and interestingly, all three of them saw reality/society as being split into two levels – on the bottom is what they called the base, episteme, or the covert, the hidden forces that are driving society,and above it is the superstructure(Marx) or imaginary(Althusser) or discourses(Foucault). They all seemed to sense or believe that there is something illusory or deceptive about this reality that we’re living in, and so they came up with various complex hypotheses of societal existence to explain this. Interesting, because of course this reality we’re living in is illusory, there is something flawed at the base of our system and, like Neo, most sensitive people in the world can feel that “there’s something wrong with the world” – they just don’t know what it is.

Useful links:

UCLA Calendars(the academic ones are the most useful)

UCLA Blogs:

Pacific Ties

FAST(Fashion and Student Trends)

Misc:

Ackerman store: you have 14 days to return things after you buy them, but if you ask nicely or pretend ignorance sometimes they’ll let you return it after that.

Kerckhoff Coffee House – the food is terrible, mostly organic, dry, day/s -old stuff, and wildly overpriced for small amounts of it. The only actual food item that I consider worth the money is the $3 Soup du Jour – it’s a portion large enough to fill you up and more(& tastes good & comes with crackers). Their drinks and pastries are good and the Baskin Robbins ice cream bar to the left is reliable as always.

Places to study in the Powell area:

-Powell – the library is (surprisingly, I know) a fantastic place to study – believe it or not it’s not just the place where you go if you’re desperate, nor is it the place where all the nerds hang out. Instead, anyone who’s a dedicated student usually ends up there; in fact I’d go so far as to say that if you’ve never studied there, or seldom do, you’re probably not a serious studier. The Reading Room, in particular, is excellent – enter the room to the right of the entrance and you’ll see a rather depressing area, but go through it and turn to the left and voila! rows upon rows of study tables with lamps appear, almost always at least half full of students. There’s enough light, it’s quiet, there’s always company, there’s outlets on top of every table, and best of all the chairs are wide and super comfortable(more comfortable than my desk chair at the apartment, in fact. what’s that about?)

-ASUCLA lounge – semi-hidden/secret study lounge made up of a small room beyond the art gallery in Kerkchoff and a large room upstairs(can be accessed by the stairs in the small room, the stairs across from the Kerkchoff coffee shop, and the outdoor stairs in the Kerckhoff plaza). Has both large and small tables, is always a good temperature, and has wide, deep, amazing arm chairs equally good for studying or falling asleep in. Again, only for serious studiers – you’ll only find out about its existence even if you a)are clever and b)care enough to go on the hunt for good study spots. Or of course if you read this blog. A friend showed it to me my second year and I’ve used it on and off ever since.

-Kerckhoff Coffee House – best for individual study or small groups of two or three. The tables are small and space is always fiercely contested; it’s also usually a little too warm. But there’s a decent number of outlets and if you enjoy the hustle and bustle of a cafe then this is an excellent spot. The “cool” study alternative.

-Humanities/English Reading Room – I think only humanities students ever venture in this building, but if you do you’ll find the English Reading Room on the second floor, which is a decent (and very very quiet) place to study(it’s essentially a small library) and more importantly there are wide flat couch things lining hall alcoves in a small part of the first floor and the entire second floor of Haines. When I have classes there I always curl up in one of these and get some reading done.

UCLA professors:

Sianne Ngai – she talks rather rapidly  but so clearly genuinely enjoys what she’s teaching that you are thoroughly engaged anyway, and she’s very clear in expressing herself. Also encourages class discussion/student participation, is willing to go off on tangents as long as they’re interesting, and brings to what could be extremely dry topics a bundle of energy and passion.

Mitchum Huehls – the content of his courses is challenging and he doesn’t pamper you, but what he does offer is an excellent and very clear teaching style, honesty, a dry sense of humour that comes out in unexpectedly funny quips and asides(watch for the stories about his son), and respect as a student and human being(all too rare from professors I find). One of the few professors I’ve had at UCLA whom I thoroughly respect. I took 140A with him, a class which you will love if you like philosophy and playing with abstract ideas and will hate otherwise. Fortunately, I fell in the former category, and the combination of the material with the professor made it hands-down one of my favorite classes at UCLA – that rare class which is both intellectually challenging and engaging without being impossibly difficult.

Kareem-10B-didn’t like her at all, her lectures were dry and disorganized, delivered essentially by rote without any passion at all, and worst of all she has a soft, droning voice which would kill any excitement her lectures had if they had any to begin with. I usually don’t have trouble listening to professors or staying awake in class, but I struggled through every single class with her.

Apartment-hunting in Westwood:

Essentially you’ll just have to walk around and call the numbers on the signs, but a few places at least do have websites-

415 Gayley

Atrium Court 10965 Strathmore

Midvale Plaza-527/540 Midvale

Movie theatres in Westwood:

Mann Bruin
948 Broxton Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Mann Village(previously known as the Fox or Fox Village theatre):
961 Broxton Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024 United States. 310.248.6266

Events Calendar

Winter quarter:

Dance Marathon(Feb 13th-14th,2010)

Spring quarter:

LA Times Festival of Books

Spring Sing

Dormal

Lotus Steps

Jazz Reggae Festival

Most of the cultural nights: Samahang Pilipino, Korean Culture Night, etc.