happy Easter...

from Larry "The Peep" Craig!

It may be inappropriate to joke about Craig and his cruising for sex on Easter, but you have to admit that is an incredibly funny picture. The Huffington Post online has complied some political peeps and some other random peep dioramas for your springtime enjoyment.

This morning I drove home to enjoy a beautiful Easter service with my parents. I am not sure what I believe, I have my ups and down with faith, but I do know for sure that I will always support my church in Pasadena because of it's progressive work. It applies religion to real things in a good way, usually liberal and political, which I love. My church does not encourage conflict, which is often the real world application of religion (depressing I know!). My church pushes for gay marriage, peace in the Middle East, community, pro-choice, kindness and acceptance.

Ed Bacon, our rector, gave a wonderful sermon today. He mentioned Rowan LeCompte, the man who created most of the stained glass windows in the National Cathedral. Bacon spoke about the recent NPR story on LeCompte, and told the following quote:

When asked if he believe in God, Mr. LeCompte responds, "I believe in kindness and love, if that is God, then yes."

I agree with LeCompte. I also believe in kindness and love. Often I am turned away from religion because of negativity and hate, which is completely contradictory with the foundation of religion. I continue to support my church because is remains more open and kind than most religions I have experienced. That is unfair, it isn't the religion. It is the people who practice it. At today's service we even had some of our innerfaith friends attend. Oh, and Kenneth Turan was there too!

Here are two fantastic quotes I tend to identify with when considering religion.

"Lighthouse are more helpful then churches." - Benjamin Franklin
"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature." - Frank Lloyd Wright

I believe that most of religion is a show. Secular humanists are generally right in their views, but religion has an additional power of organizing people into a community. So, if done right, religion has the power to do great transformational things. Unfortunately, it often doesn't. For example consider the cartoon below from someecard.com.

That is one of the problems I have with Lent. People give up soda or other superficial things and don't really change or reflect on anything! It is like a vegetarian who refuses to eat meat because of how they treat animals but doesn't actually advocate for reforms. I try to buy good products - organic, fair trade, environmentally friendly... to encourage better treatments of animals and the environment, but I still eat A LOT of meat. The market is built on supply and demand and if you don't demand something better it won't happen. Anyways, back to God. So, that is why I don't give anything up for Lent. I just try and reflect and am better about things. Do good things instead of starting the Christian equivalent of failed New Years resolutions.

Here is my favorite Easter related e-card from someecards.


Really hard-hitting. I love it. If you want to know some of the history about why peeps and pastels are associated with zombie Jesus (phrase courtesy of my friend Zack, absolutely genius!) check out this article. It is pretty interesting.

The best part of Easter today was seeing my dad's illuminated manuscript suspenders. Classic. Literally.


Enjoy your peeps.

kp's life update

According to mapquest.com, USC is 17.52 miles from my parents' house. I live near campus, but even with that short distance I go home less than some of my friends who live on the east coast. My mom kindly mails me hand written letters, probably weekly, because of my absence and her love. For Halloween this year, I received 3 different spooky themed cards. My parents show me lots of love but I remain a terrible child and simply contact them by phone - sometimes. Ok, I am exaggerating a little bit, but it is a pretty embarrassing situation considering the short distance apart. I guess it is a good sign that I have established some sort of life here at USC - sorry parents.

So, my dad called me twice while I was in class today. Apparently, he forgot I was a student... low age joke again? Maybe. (Love you dad!) While talking, I casually dropped the hint that I had to hang up because of an induction ceremony I had to attend. In response to that, my dad told me that I was a bad child and didn't know how I could forget to inform him about such a thing. This blog post is for you family members, here is my current life update. Again, pretty sad that I am writing this and not calling, but some of you will see me Sunday and I will tell you more personal stuff then. (My parents guilt me into coming home!!! Palm Sunday, :) bah big deal.)


USC stuff:

I was just initiated into the Lambda Chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honorary. / I am still working as a designer at USC's Spectrum Design studio. / I am still the Editor in Chief of USC's yearbook. We just restructured it so I am not the only student leader. I now have additional minions (section editors) I get to control - bwahahahaaaaahhh. / I am doing additional design work on campus - Greek Service Day, Disability Awareness - Wheelchair Basketball Event, USC EMS, AIGA, and Canterbury USC. / I am working on passing the UCLA/USC Rivalry Blood Drive torch to URSC. / I am still participating in the Roski School of Fine Arts Workshops funded by an NEA grant. / Class is fine as usual, just too much work.

Outside of 'SC:

I received an Honorable Mention in the Steal this Idea Design competition. / Mark just promoted me to COO of Momentum. / Last night I saw the band, Get in More Fights!, in concert because one of the members went to high school with my friend. Listen to their song Back and Forth (cute lyrics). They have better stuff, unfortunately it isn't posted on their MySpace page. They sound like Architecture in Helsinki meets The New Pornographers. / I tried the most fantastic tacos the other day in a completely shady area of LA! It was probably violating loads of health codes and I wasn't just a minority, I was the only white girl in the area, but it was all worth it. 6 awesome carne asada tacos. / My social life is really busy, I can't keep up...

Future stuff:

Tonight I am helping organize an apartment complex party here in Mardi Gras. / Tomorrow I am going to see Beautiful Little Fool, a School of Theater play, and after I am going to a 90's themed party. / Saturday is Springfest at USC - lots of good bands will be performing like Brand New. / I turn 21 soon!!! / I am going to Coachella the weekend after my 21st with a few friends including Eric who has the same birthday as me. / I bought tickets to see Spinal Tap in concert - so great! I wish Aliviana wasn't in Europe. Spinal Tap was our freshman movie. / I am going to Rome this summer to study Italian. / During winter break next year, I am going to Egypt with my family!!!! (My grandparents are amazing because they take my sister and me to incredible locations to teach us about different cultures and science. I am truly lucky. It may be cliché, but I can honestly say that I am the person I am today because of many of my travel experiences with them.)



I am definitely forgetting things, but that list is the stuff that first came to mind. When I recap my life, my school friends usually freak out. I am known for outrageous life stories and my friends usually try to predict my shenanigans... but often they can't, I am too, well, crazy.

Carpe Diem, man! Go big or go home!

My biggest pet peeve is people who take things for granted. Life has too many fantastic things to offer.

(This must be a terrible post to read for any non-family members or people who don't care about my personal life. I kind of apologize if I have wasted your time. This is a pretty random entry.)

ciao bella

ciao bella = hello beautiful

I enjoy the saying.
It is a beautiful day.
I am trying to learn Italian.
And Ciao Bella is the name of some wonderful gelato. Yum.

Unfortunately, even though it is beautiful day, it has been a tough week. Not only are midterms still lingering, but there was also a tragic hit and run accident involving two USC students early Sunday morning and the student body is filled with sadness and shock. The car hit two students; killing one and the other student remained on the car until the passenger and driver decided to remove the boy from the hood. I am utterly disgusted by their actions and I hope they get caught. My roommate got hit by a drunk driver last year, fortunately she was only bruised and we caught the guy. Hit and runs involving people are terrible situations, and it is heartbreaking that this one ended in death. Both students are in my thoughts and I wish their friends and families the best.

I wish more people would do good deeds in the world. Everyone is always so wrapped up in their lives that they forget little things that can be done to make things better. Compliment people, smile more, hug your friends... simple things like that can make you and other people happier.

I recently discovered freerice.com. It's an educational web game and for every answer you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated through the UN World Food Program. The internet is my favorite method of procrastination, so if I can claim I learning or doing good things for the world, I can rationalize my wasted time. Last night, while avoiding one of my research papers I practiced some math, geography, art history, and most importantly Italian. By the end of the night I raised over 1,500 grains of rice. Go me!



This summer I will be studying abroad in Rome for 5 weeks, so hopefully I can master some more Italian by then. When reading Time magazine this morning, I saw on their Pop Chart that "Rome plans Ancient Rome theme park. Get ready for Crucifixion Cove." For those of you that don't know about this Pop Chart, keep in mind that it is full of sarcasm. This theme park is not going to be like The Hold Land Experience. For example, under shockingly predictable on the pop chart, "Kiefer Sutherland to enter either season, second week of 24." (I thought that was pretty clever.)

Apparently, this theme park idea is inspired by the film Gladiator. (Great movie!! I remember being angry when it didn't get two thumbs up.) The city of Rome needs tourists and this is their solution to the Euro Disney competition in Paris. But I feel like this is the wrong solution...



"The planned park will strive for historical accuracy while offering family-friendly attractions based both on life during the Roman Republic -- which ended with the assassination of Julius Caesar and the civil war -- and during the Roman Empire."

It seems right up my alley, but it's hard to compete with Mickey...

"Mommy Mommy, can I see Caesar get assassinated again?!"

Bad.

my day of rest

So, a few Catholic bishops want people to give up technology for lent. According to the Associated Press, the Modena diocese stated, "It's a small way to remember the importance of concrete and not virtual relationships." Their argument is completely understandable, but I am going to follow the Pope and continue YouTubing. Apparently Benedict updated his YouTube channel this past Wednesday. I guess he prefers virtual relationships. Maybe he finds it similar to his connection with God...

Gizmodo phrased the contradicting request quite well, "The bishops stated that they hoped a ban on text messaging would "draw attention to the conflict in Congo, which it says is fueled by a struggle over mines that supply minerals used to make cellphones." That's sort of reasonable and at the same time also totally unreasonable, in that nobody is going to make that connection unless their phones are inscribed with 'MADE WITH THE BLOOD OF CONGOLESE MINERS" on the front.'"

If anything just give up Twitter. In the spirit of God and worthless tech applications.

With Lent in mind, or really genius publicity stunts, Vanilla Ice recorded an apology video stating, "I'm sorry for the hairdos, baggy pants, the scandals, the lies, the gangs, and I am sorry about the music. I was young, manipulated and I was a puppet."



I am sorry this video came out 20 years too late.

I am sorry he is a poor actor.

And I am sorry he didn't apologize for sampling Queen's "Under Pressure."

My photo of the week:
Sorority artistic appropriation at its best! I know I was a creeper for taking this snapshot with my phone, but I could not resist, it was too good! Viva USC.

oh my, pigeon?

At lunch yesterday, a pigeon walked up to me and my friend Leah. Easily distracted, I redirected our conversation to the fact that doves are pigeons. This fact always amuses me because in Christianity the Holy Spirit (aka: the spirit of God) is usually depicted by a dove. And if doves are pigeons, then the Spirit of God is a dirty bird. Pigeons are pretty much at the bottom of the hierarchy of birds. I know this is blasphemy, but a devout person could stretch my pigeon fact to fit Christianity by saying - the truly religious are humble and do not value material things... like pigeons on the street.

Scientifically, getting a pure white pigeon does take some time, but they are still pigeons. Leah said that this is why she is Jewish.


Wikipedia's description: Pigeons and doves constitute the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerine birds. In general parlance the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for "dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied.

There are lots of things misunderstood about religion, just look at current events!! One of my favorites, besides the pigeon, is the Cross of St. Peter (known as the Petrine Cross). It is believed that when St. Peter was sentenced to be crucified he requested to be crucified upside down so he would not die in the same manner as Christ. However, some people believe that inverting the cross makes it the opposite of Christianity. So often you will see St. Peter's cross as a Satanic/anti-Christian image. If only those Satanists went to bible school.

Here is another adorable animal video to follow the kitten video I posted yesterday. This is by far the cutest animal video I have ever seen because it doesn't involve creepy family members or strange dialogue/music. Instead, it includes a variety of baby animals and Samsung phones!!! It is part of a new viral marketing campaign. But this does raise the question: what are humans suppose to do with this phone? Because I am definitely too big to use it as a dance floor or a computer monitor. As much as I love this video, it would have been better if iPhones were used.