Why I don't celebrate birthdays

History?

I should seriously be a college counselor. I've sampled more majors than anyone else I know, and I have a very good idea of what most north campus majors are like.
I've taken an intro course in:
-Communication Studies
-Sociology
-Statistics
-Acting/Theatre
-Psychology
-Macro/Microeconomics
-Physics


My UCLA timeline looks something like this:

Music -> Comm, maybe Sociology -> Psych -> Econ -> Stat -> History?


I'd be surprised if people didn't roll their eyes at that. That's not even slightly amusing. It's just ridiculous. Not something I'm proud of, but hopefully once I graduate (whenever that is) I can look back and laugh.

Here are my thoughts on each major:

Music
Ethnomusicology is probably the easiest major on campus, but Performance is far from it. Music Theory and History are both a pain in the ass, and on top of that you have to take your GE's and rehearse for Philharmonia 6 hours a week (which blows too). Majors are supposed to practice at least 3 hours a day (I averaged about 40 mins) and this doesn't include chamber ensembles. If you don't practice and you suck during your lesson, you get bitched at. If you DO practice and do well, you raise the standards of the professor. It's a vicious cycle; a battle I always lost.


Communication Studies & Sociology
I think it's fair to lump these both into one category. Both are pretty much bullshit majors. Sociology majors admit it, but Comm Studies majors tend to get butthurt when you tell them this. They're convinced that since Comm is so hard to get accepted into, it must be legit. The only reason it's so difficult to get into is because a ton of people know it's a joke once you're accepted, all the dumb hot sorority girls who dream of being in the entertainment industry think Communications will lead them down that path, and naturally the combination of these two groups leads to thousands of applicants. I don't really care for the counselors at Murphy Hall and I'm sure it doesn't take much training to do their job, but when I told them I was considering Comm Studies, even THEY say it's a waste of time.

How to become a Communications major in 3 easy steps:
-Don't take Comm 10 til you've been admitted. It's the only hard class in the major. (Maybe avoid Comm 1 too, unless you get a good professor.)
-Stick with upper div Comm classes til you've been admitted. Counterintuitive, I know. But very true. There's an entire class dedicated to "body language." I took an upper div Comm class called "Principles of Argumentation/Debate," literally didn't do half the work, and walked away with an A.
-Remember Comm 10? Yeah. Treat this class like you treat the people flyering on BruinWalk and avoid it like the plague.


Economics
Combine this department with Political Science and you've pretty much got 90% of frat row. Then you got all the Asians in the Business fraternities. The majority of people that major in Economics don't really give a shit about Econ, they just figure it's the fastest way to a six figure salary. Half of them are douchebags set on becoming investment bankers. Most of the material you're educated in is theory, and rarely seems applicable to real life. Like Comm and Sociology, majoring in Econ seems like a huge waste of time. But unlike Comm and Sociology, nothing in Economics is particularly interesting. Plus, majoring in Economics doesn't even give you an edge if you're planning on going to business school. I don't think a lot of people realize that in comparison, engineers, English and Psych majors have just as good a chance (if not a better chance) of getting into a decent business program.

Psychology
I have respect for Psych. I feel like when you get to the core of most north campus majors, it all boils down to Psychology. It's a good balances of the social sciences and the natural sciences. Given that Psych is the most popular major at UCLA, I'm guessing most of the people who decide to major in it are the ones who have no idea what they want to do with their lives. Nothing wrong with that. Plus, I feel that learning about the way people think is generally a good thing to educate yourself in to prepare you for, you know, life? This department is potentially saving socially awkward people from themselves!
So yeah, I can appreciate Psych.

Statistics
Useful!
Marketable!
Boring as hell.
I realized the only thing I found interesting in Stats was probability. I thought it'd be useful in gambling at some point. The association of Stat with gambling made it temporarily cool. Then I realized everything else it concerns is lame, and I can learn about probability in my spare time if I want to. I don't need to major in f*cking Statistics to do that.


Honestly, in general most north campus majors aren't very marketable, so it doesn't matter what you major in anyway. A lot of this stuff you don't need to be taught. Professors are just there to force you to learn it on your own. Students end up teaching themselves most of the material anyway. (I can only speak for all the majors I've experienced, can't speak for engineering or life sciences.) School makes me bitter sometimes.


And this is why I'm considering History:

"The advantages found in history seem to be of three kinds; as it amuses the fancy, as it improves the understanding, and as it strengthens virtue.

"In reality, what more agreeable entertainment to the mind, than to be transported into the remotest ages of the world, and to observe human society, in its infancy, making the first faint essays towards the arts and sciences? To see the policy of government and the civility of conversation refining by degrees, and everything that is ornamental to human life advancing toward its perfection? To mark the rise, progress, declension, and final extinction of the most flourishing empires; the virtues which contributed to their greatness, and the vices which drew on their ruin? In short, to see all the human race, from the beginning of time, pass as it were in review before us, appearing in their true colours, without any of those disguises, which, during their lifetime, so much perplexed the judgment of the beholders? What spectacle can be imagined so magnificent, so various, so interesting? What amusement, either of the senses or imagination, can be compared with it? Shall our trifling pastimes, which engross so much of our time, be preferred, as more satisfactory, and more fit to engage our attention? How perverse must that taste be, which is capable of so wrong a choice of pleasure?

"But history is a most improving part of knowledge, as well as an agreeable amusement; and, indeed, a great part of what we commonly call erudition, and value so highly, is nothing but an acquaintance with historical facts. An extensive knowledge of this kind belongs to men of letters; but I must think it an unpardonable ignorance in persons, of whatever sex or condition, not to be acquainted with the histories of their own country, along with the histories of ancient Greece and Rome.

"I must add, that history is not only a valuable part of knowledge, but opens the door to many other parts of knowledge, and affords materials to most of the sciences. And, indeed, if we consider the shortness of human life, and our limited knowledge, even of what passes in our own time, we must be sensible that we should be forever children in understanding, were it not for this invention, which extends our experience to all past ages, and to most distant nations, making them contribute as much to our improvement in wisdom, as if they had actually lain under our observation. A man acquainted with history, may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions in his stock of knowledge, in every country.

"There is also an advantage in that knowledge which is acquired by history, above is what is learned by the practice of the world, that it brings us acquainted with human affairs, without diminishing in the least from the most delicate sentiments of virtue. And, to tell the truth, I scarce know any study or occupation so unexceptionable as history, in this particular. Poets can paint virtue in the most charming colours; but, as they address themselves entirely to the passions, they often become advocates to vice. Even philosophers are apt to bewilder themselves in the subtilty of their speculations; and we have seen some go so far, as to deny the reality of all moral distinctions. But I think it a remark worthy the attention of the speculative reader, that the historians have been, almost without exception, the true friends of virtue, and have always represented it in its proper colours, however they may have erred in their judgments of particular persons. Nor is this combination of historians, in favour of virtue, at all difficult to be accounted for. When a man of business enters into life and action, he is more apt to consider the characters of men as they have relation to his interest, than as they stand in themselves, and has his judgment warped on every occasion, by the violence of his passion. When a philosopher contemplates character and manners, in his closet, the general abstract view of the objects leaves the mind so cold and unmoved, that the sentiments of nature have no room to play, and he scarce feels the difference betwixt vice and virtue. History keeps in a just medium betwixt these extremes, and places the objects in their true point of view. The writers of history, as well as the readers, are sufficiently interested in the characters and events, to have a lively sentiment of blame or praise; and, at the same time, have no particular interest or concern to pervert their judgment."

-David Hume
Scottish philosopher

You wanna major in history now too, huh?





Pet peeves of the week:
-Below-average-looking girls who think they're hot
-Girls with mustaches

God forbid I meet a girl with a mustache who thinks she's hot...

Worth reading.

'Remember ... that human life is the journey of a day. We rise in the morning of youth, full of vigour and full of expectation; we set forward with spirit and hope, with gaiety and with diligence, and travel on a while in the straight road of piety towards the mansions of rest. In a short time we remit our fervour, and endeavour to find some mitigation of our duty, and some more easy means of obtaining the same end. We then relax our vigour, and resolve no longer to be terrified with crimes at a distance, but rely upon our own constancy, and venture to approach what we resolve to never touch. We thus enter the bowers of ease, and repose in the shades of security. Here the heart softens and vigilance subsides; we are then willing to inquire whether another advance cannot be made, and whether we may not, at last, turn our eyes upon the garden of pleasure. We approach them with scruple and hesitation; we enter them, but enter timorous and trembling, and always hope to pass through them without losing the road of virtue, which we, for a while, keep in our sight, and to which we propose to return. But temptation succeeds temptation, and one compliance prepares us for another; we, in time, lose the happiness of innocence, and solace our disquiet with sensual gratifications. By degrees we let fall the remembrance of our original intention, and quit the only adequate object of rational desire. We entangle ourselves in business, immerge ourselves in luxury, and rove through the labyrinths of inconstancy, till the darkness of old age begins to invade us, and disease and anxiety obstruct our way. We then look back upon our lives with horror, with sorrow, with repentance; and wish, but too often vainly wish, that we had not forsaken the ways of virtue. Happy are they ... who shall learn from thy example not to despair, but shall remember, that though the day is past, and their strength is wasted, there yet remains one effort to be made; that reformation is never hopeless, nor sincere endeavours ever unassisted; that the wanderer may at length return after all his errours, and that he who implores strength and courage from above shall find danger and difficulty give way before him. Go now ... to thy repose, commit thyself to the care of Omnipotence, and when the morning calls again to toil, begin anew thy journey and thy life.'

Monster.

I'd imagine this to be true:


I feel like in the event of a nuclear holocaust, 3 things would survive: cockroaches, Hot Pockets, and Monster drinks.

I wish these goddamned drinks actually worked for me. They never make feel anymore awake than I did before consumption. All I get is a increased heart rate and a bouncing leg. I could fall asleep after downing an entire can if I wanted to. I'd probably end up with a dream like something out of Crank 2: High Voltage, but I'd still be sleeping and not focusing on these f*cking stat notes.
Eff being a south campus major and having 2 sets of midterms.

The Meaning of Life?

"I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out."
-Roger Ebert

The master of the art of living makes little distinction
between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure,
his mind and his body, his education and his recreation,
his love and his religion.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does,
leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.
To him, he is always doing both.
-Laozi




Oh yeah, new poll. Vote! It's anonymous.

Art

So I've been through Music, Comm/Soc/Psych, Econ, and Statistics, and I still don't know what I want to do with my life. I think I'll inevitably be led back to some form of art. What's interesting is that many things can be viewed as an art, depending on how you look at them. When I think of the arts, I think of language/poetry, drawings/paintings/etc, and music. I guess theater is kind of an art too. And dance.
I'm sure some people regard engineering and computer programming as an art?
Anyway, the two I appreciate most are language and music. The thing that bothers me about language is that it seems to have intrinsic limits, while music seems capable of "expressing the inexpressible." But at the same time, that's what makes language so interesting to me. I want to push those limits. I have a long way to go before I reach that point. I feel so clumsy with words sometimes. How do I fix this?
Practice, practice, practice.
And I guess I should read more too?


Bring it, life!




P.S.
New pet peeves:
-People who buy expensive water
-Fat people eating McDonald's. It's like watching someone smoke through a hole in their throat. Or watching a diabetic eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch soaked in Sunkist. They need to be slapped.




Flight of the Conchords!

These guys are like the opposite of a pet peeve.
I know. Eloquently spoken.