Mental Basement

by Nat Lavin

I’ve been in love perhaps a few times, but never so strongly as my first love.

The girl was far from perfect for me, but she was certainly amazing. One of the prettiest girls ever, so much so that it would be fair to say that she was so far out of my league; we weren’t allowed in the same stadium. Before I dated this girl, I had only a few emotions: hungry, happy, sleepy, and horny. Easily, what I remember most about this girl was the way she opened my…heart? mind? I’m not sure which I’m referring to specifically. The point is, she introduced me both to a level of happiness that was literally unimaginable to me before, and a level of horrible depression that left me in my room, not eating or sleeping, for three days.

I remember thinking, after the break up, that I had romantically peaked at the ripe age of 16, and that life was now pointless because I could never be that happy again. A few months of emo-ness later, I realized that was not true, and eventually I could learn to fall in love again and be happy.

Since then I’ve changed a lot. I was never particularly religious, but I would say the fact that I am now an atheist now is a big difference. I remember about a year ago, when I held a particularly bizarre agnostic view of God, the conversation of belief in God came up with a friend. She said she didn’t believe in god, but she really wants to. She wanted someone out there to convince her God exists.

I guess I too now want someone to convince me that God exists, but in a slightly different way. I want to feel the way I did with my first love. I want to be so head-over-heels in love again, that there is no possible way God himself didn’t somehow mean for her to be with me. I want a girl who makes me believe in God.

by Arjun Sharma

Check this out, via CNN.com. Maybe I’ve been watching too much of the Puppy Cam, but I thought it was really interesting. I’ve always said we give dogs less credit than they’re due in terms of their brain power.

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Dogs appear to experience a range of complex, unpleasant emotions such as jealousy and pride, scientists have discovered.

Until now, this type of behavior had only been shown in humans or chimpanzees, but researchers suspected that other species that live together could be sensitive to fair play — or a lack of one.

“We are learning that dogs, horses, and perhaps many other species are far more emotionally complex than we ever realized,” Paul Morris, a psychologist at the University of Portsmouth who studies animal emotions, told The Sunday Times.

“They can suffer simple forms of many emotions we once thought only primates could experience.”

Scientists noted that dogs hate to see their owners being affectionate to other dogs and can suffer if a new baby or partner arrives on the scene.

To test the theory, Friederike Range and colleagues at the University of Vienna in Austria asked 33 trained dogs to extend a paw to a human.

The animals performed the trick virtually all of the time whether they were given a reward or not — when alone or with another dog.

But the dogs’ enthusiasm waned when they saw other dogs being rewarded but received nothing themselves.

Dogs that were ignored extended their paws much less often, doing so in only 13 out of 30 trials. They also showed more stress, such as licking or scratching themselves.

“They are clearly unhappy with the unfair situation”, Range told New Scientist magazine. She also suspects that this sensitivity might stretch beyond food to more abstract things like praise and attention.

“It might explain why some dogs react with ‘new baby envy’ when their owners have a child,” she said.

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by Nat Lavin

This is a thought that has bothered me for a few years now.  I knew a few girls going off to all-girls colleges so I asked “why?”. Their reasons, I found to be weak and sexist.

I completely agree, that at the times of the foundings of the vast majority of these schools, they were probably completely necessary. Women deserve the same education men do, and these all women’s colleges were the only way to go about that. the seven sisters exist in contrast to the eight ivy schools.  I guess what I’m trying to say is, I understand why these schools were founded, and understand that in certain circumstances, something like these single-sex college might be necessary.

What bothers me most about these colleges is that they seem to go entirely against my believe that women and men are equal. In my classrooms in high school and college, women have had just as vocal a presence as men. women have dominated certain class room conversations just as much as men. Women in these classes are just a smart, capable, and driven as men. There is not a doubt in my mind that these women can “compete” with men in the classroom. (I put “compete” in quotes because i fully disagree with the idea that the classroom is a place for any form of competition). If one accepts that men and women are equal, which I do, that leaves women’s reasons for going to an all women’s college to these two reasons:

1) They are female chauvinists who feel they are better than men, and need to be freed from men in order to excel (ie: A class can only move as fast as its slowest members, so get rid of the slowest members (men).

2) Women find themselves to be inferior. either too quiet, too meek, too insecure (my guess is that in these cases, its mostly women being too insecure) to compete with men in a classroom setting.

I’m friends with a lot of girls. I would go so far as to say the two girls I’m closest to here in college are basically superior to me in every way. They are both on honor roll, they are both drop-dead gorgeous (at least one of them has modeled in the past), and they are both D1 athletes who recently won conference and are now seeded 16th in their NCAA tournament.  I don’t think a single girl I’m friends with is incapable of competing with men.

I have asked a few friends who attend all women’s colleges how they rationalize the decision and no one has ever been able to fully articulate it to me in a manner that has me convinced they made the best choice for their education, except when she replies something to the tune of “because it was the best college I could attend.”. Without a doubt, anyone, man or woman, should get the best education they can. Don’t these all women’s colleges  create some sort of unfair advantage for women? at that point, doesn’t the concept of the all female college become femme-chauvanist?

I attend Tulane University, which up until Katrina had “Newcomb College” as a part of it. Newcomb College was the all women’s college that shared a campus with Tulane. Now Newcomb is just the liberal arts college. I remember asking an older feminist woman what she thought of Newcomb college no longer being an all-women’s college. she said it was “A Shame” and that “It Destroyed a lot of leadership opportunities for Women”. That answer bothered me deeply. I think it bothered me because i disagreed with her notion that just because there were now fewer leadership positions that could be filled by only women. I feel that women are just as capable at holding  a leadership office and competing for that office as men, especially in modern society, on a place as liberal as a college campus. I guess in interpret her notion that this destroyed opportunities as women as a subtle way of saying “i find women to be incapable of competition for these positions”. i disagree with her categorically.

Let me conclude by saying i have one clear exception to my idea that only sexists attend all women’s colleges: lesbians. I know, that sounds funny, but I’m not joking.  Never in her life will a young, lesbian woman have an opportunity to live somewhere that open and accepting of her lifestyle. So free of judgment and ample with possibilities.

Women going to an all girls college tells me that the women who chose to do so are either:

a) Bitter, cold, women who hates men and is stuck in some bizarre mentality (that was probably accurate a few decades ago) that men are holding them down.

b) Insecure girls, who in all probability will get completely steamrolled in a classroom because they are so timid.  They will be overshadowed in a class regardless of the gender of their peers because they have self esteem issues on which they need to work.

c) Lesbians. is an amazing environment for them. I can say that the two girls im closest with who attend all women’s colleges both prefer the company of women (or at least, enjoy it the same as they enjoy the company of men). The world is harsh towards homosexuality. Its sad, but its true. These environments provide a safe-haven for these girls while they explore and find themselves. I know this may sound sarcastic, but i mean it in the most sincere of ways.

I feel the vast majority of women attending an all womens college either believe men are inferior, or believe that they themselves are inferior to men. You can not believe in equality between the sexes, yet believe that youre getting a better education by removing yourself from the male population. “colleges for young women” are an outdated and sexist institution.

by Arjun Sharma

You know, as much as I am somewhat embarrassed to express support for John Cusack at times (Must Love Dogs, anyone?) I do have to point out that I have two reasons to admire the man greatly- his closeness to Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, an idol of mine, and the movie High Fidelity.

In truth, a big part of why I loved High Fidelity was the idea of mixtapes, which for some reason I find immensely interesting. I guess it’s the idea of expressing yourself simply through a combination of songs that seems just plain cool to me.

Unfortunately, having been born in the late 1980s, I missed out on mixtapes as I entered this world during the early age of CDs. I’m not saying CDs are bad - they’re still around for a good reason - but a “mix CD” just doesn’t have the same feeling of love that a mixtape does. It’s easy to just throw ten or twenty songs on a playlist and burn them; with a mixtape, you had to go through each song and painstakingly put it on your mix. There wasn’t a SINGLE analogous medium for me to express my desire to make mixtapes and, ultimately, realize my dream of being as 80s as possible. Until now, that is. As I’ve discovered in the past 6 months, the YouTube playlist, that extremely under-utilized feature of the ubiquitous video site, is the 21st century mixtape.

Think about it- 99% of us don’t upload our own music onto YouTube (I mean, it wasn’t even MEANT for music). Instead, we have to search out music videos and other uploads, some legally put up by record labels, and some put up illegally and allowed to stay up. Once you find the right version, you have to go to the video and add it to your playlist, at which time you end up listening to the entire song anyway. I’ve found that even if you want to slap together a YouTube playlist, the process becomes longer and more involved than you intended simply because you end up listening to most of the songs as you make the list. For example, here’s my latest mixtape of chill music, some of which I’ve been introduced to recently and some of which I’ve loved for many years. Below the embed you can find instructions on using YouTube playlists to make a mixtape of your own.

Making a playlist is easy:

1) Log in to YouTube and click “Playlists” in the drop down menu that appears under your name.

2) In the top left corner, click “New,” select “Playlist,” and enter the name of your playlist.

Adding songs:

3a) If the song you want to add is in your favorites, go to your favorites page, select the song(s) and click “Add to,” and select your playlist

3b) If the song isn’t a favorite, go to the video, and underneath it select “Playlist” and pick the playlist you want to add the song to.

Things you can do with your playlist:

4) Go back to the playlists selection in the drop down menu that appears over your username

5) On the left, click on the playlist you want to mess around with

6) When you click “Edit this playlist,” the preferences appear. Here, you can edit your description, get a link to the playlist to share with other people, get the embed code, and mess around with a couple of settings

7) Underneath “Edit this playlist” there are options to mess around with the various songs / order of songs, and my favorite button, “Play All.” I now use YouTube as often as iTunes to listen to music.

Note: If you use the link to let someone else access the playlist, they have to go to the site, click on the first song, and then on the left the playlist will appear, and above it you can toggle the auto-play.

by Arjun Sharma

I’ve been living in Los Angeles for a little over a year now, and the only definitive thing I can say about it is that it’s freaking insane.

There are people out there thinking, “No it’s not…. what the hell are you talking about?”

Think about this: LA is a sprawled out desert city on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, home to some of the most diverse populations of people. If you drive down any road long enough, you’ll go from low-rent areas like South Central and Chino up to places like Palos Verdes and Beverly Hills. In between, you’ll turn a corner and find yourself in Koreatown or Little Ethiopa or some place like that.

This in and of itself isn’t crazy. What’s crazy is that this cultural convergence, rather than being the most powerful city in the world located in one of the prime superpowers with a massive population, is instead a wasteland; a black hole of rational thought. LA is where good ideas come to DIE.

Los Angeles is a city that worships celebrity- shutting down roads and businesses for people whose sole job is to act like other, more awesome people. Even more amazingly, in true black hole fashion, Los Angeles has spread its vapidness successfully in a way that only someone simultaneously selling cocaine and sex could surpass.

Look at this example. I was checking out the Wikipedia article on actress Elizabeth Banks because I couldn’t remember if she played Laura Bush in W. or not (she did.) At the top of the article read the following statement:

This article is about the actress. For the other person named Elizabeth Banks, see Elizabeth Banks (journalist).

Take a moment to think about that. In this entire world, there has only been one other person of note with the name “Elizabeth Banks.” I say that with confidence because I trust Wikipedia to contain every person and event of note; considering that contributors have time to write articles like this list of every “gym leader” in one part of the Pokemon world and a comparison of those leaders’ actions in their game, anime, and manga formats, I’d say they’ve covered the important stuff already (for the record, the Pokemon entry is longer than the entries on World Peace and Osama Bin Laden combined.)

So who the f*** is Elizabeth Banks (journalist)^{[citation needed]}? She was apparently a “fiery red head,” born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1872. She went on to become a journalist known for going undercover and writing about the plight of the lower class, and later went on to make, “major contributions to British Intelligence in developing strategies to help protect London from German aerial attacks.” She also lived at 17 Downing Street in London, which happens to be (as those of you paying attention know) down the street from the British Prime Minister. To say the least, this lady was important.

And yet, if you go to the Elizabeth Banks page on Wikipedia, you get a chick who was in a movie about making a porno for money (and a couple of other movies that vary on the same theme.)

You might think I’m a puritanical idiot, who doesn’t like to have fun or go outside. But if so, you don’t get my point.

I love Los Angeles. Living in this city is an experience that you couldn’t ever recreate, even with $300 million dollars, a studio lot, and a lot of drugs. Even though our prime export is shallowness and mediocrity, every once in a while you find someone who’s so awesome that you remember why you live in a city that has huge earthquakes and landslides every so often just for fun. That’s why Los Angeles is freaking sweet.

If you still disagree with me, let me leave you with this. There are people out there who compare LA unfavorably to Sodom and Gomorrah, although even Sodom had the occasional sane person wandering around. Rather than fight this image, the city has embraced it. As anyone in the city will tell you, it has been RAINING ASH for the past week. My city is on fire- therefore it is more awesome than yours. QED.

Photo Source: LA Times

by Arjun Sharma

One of my main procrastination tools is CNN.com, a site I check at least 5 times a day to keep myself up to date on national issues and constantly remind myself of the world outside the walls of academia. As anyone not on drugs would know, the biggest issues of the past week have been the election, and the economy. Personally, I find the former as interesting as I find the latter uninteresting. The reason is simple - $2.75/gallon isn’t a huge difference from $3.25/gallon, and my IRA is completely in cash at the moment.

The election, on the other hand, has been delicious, albeit hare-brained, in the last few weeks. Sarah Palin continues her charge to become America’s Bimbo-in-Chief, a position that she’ll hold no matter what happens on November 4th. Note that I don’t use the word “bimbo” solely because she’s a woman - anyone whose foreign policy credentials include “seeing Russia,” and who claims that an answer at a rally, which was dictated clearly and concisely, does not actually reflect what she believes, qualifies for “bimbo.” Despite being the last of the candidates named in this election, Palin is running the strongest “Bimbo-in-Chief” campaign since Dan Quayle’s “Potatoe” campaign of 1992.

That’s not to say that Obama is off the hook either. The man needs to stand up and break the mold of spineless Democrats (John Kerry looked like they had used a broomstick as a replacement spine…) I guess it’s a part of the fundamental divide in this country - Obama is too much of an intellectual for the American people, and there’s something that makes us believe that smart people make bad leaders; call it the “Carlton syndrome.” What this means is that those of us who can eat food with a knife and fork and pronounce words over 2 syllables long have to watch incredulously while the candidates make arguments unfit for a student council election.

Much props go out to Colin Powell, not for his endorsement of Obama, but for his comments on the Muslim faith:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/RGT3lcPxkKQ&hl]

It’s a sentiment I’ve felt from the beginning, and I wish the media would have focused more on this idea; when people question whether Barack Obama (or as many like to state for “accuracy” purposes, Barack Hussein Obama) is a Muslim, the proper answer isn’t “No, he’s a Christian” but “Why does it make a difference?” We’re battling racism in this election, but I’m starting to think that religious differences are a more important problem in the United States today.

I guess the ultimate point I got out of this week was- “Fuck it.” I already voted absentee for Obama anyway, although deep down inside I wanted to fill in the bubble for “Bob Barr.” Any other election, I would have done it, but this election I think we need to guarantee the Republican Party is out of the big house, and a vote for Barack is the only true way to fight for that. Fundamentally, I’m a fiscal conservative and social liberal, so both parties kind of suck; but considering that the Republicans have strayed so far from their fiscally conservative ideals, the Democrats are a much better choice in 2008. So that’s that. Now can Sarah Palin PLEASE stop talking?

by Nat Lavin

My last post wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was once I got some sleep and Arjun fixed it up. I did, however, leave out a few episodes I really enjoyed.

On the initial 12 hour leg of our trip to Dallas from NOLA, we stopped at a rest stop to let the dogs out for a walk. My friend Adriano was driving a car with only me as his passenger, and he was feeling a bit dehydrated so he went to Blaire (my other friend Tommy’s Stepdad) and asked “Hey, you got any water in the back of your truck?”

“Nah, but we got some beer if you want”

“Um….I have to drive though”

“Well, one beer wont kill ya”

I think it’s safe to say that Blaire might be the worlds worst role-model. By the way Adriano only turned 19 a week ago.

Another story worth telling was probably that of the Cyclone Corral, a BBQ place out in Temple, TX near absolutely nothing. We kept getting lost on the empty Texas back roads which were so empty we decided it would be fine to let the Australian kid try to drive. Ben, for the record, was perfectly competent except for a slight issue about which side of the road is appropriate for driving on in this country.  When we eventually got to the restaurant and sat down, the waitress asked what we all wanted to drink. Since we were so close the Waco, the birthplace of Dr. Pepper, almost all of us ordered one, except for Ben who ordered a Coke. The waitress couldn’t understand him due to his accent and when i told her “Oh, He’s Australian” I saw something amazing. I actually saw a girl swoon completely. You could see her knees go almost limp, and her eyebrows furl over puppy-dog eyes. as her hand went up to her heart and she gave an “oh” that sounded almost like a whimper. from that point on, two or three different waitresses came over just to see if they could get him to say something, asking questions specifically to him about what our table needs and such. At one point, when Ben got up to go to the bathroom, a waitress came over to ask if he was really Australian or just faking it.

I’m glad to see that Gustav didn’t destroy our home. Honestly, I kind of hope we can do this again next year. Hopefully not during the first week of school, but still. This is my first time in Texas, and I have to say its been pretty fun. Its unusual being in a place with people who are so religious yet somehow so incredibly accepting of everyone as long as no one’s getting hurt. This will easily be one of my best college memories. Kids can go out and get drunk 7 days a week, and Mardi Gras gives you many chances to sleep with girls far out of your league. But this sort of a bonding experience is something that any group of friends is lucky to have, and even though it was unexpected and incredibly inconvenient, I have to say theres not a thing I would ever trade it for, not a thing that could even compare.

Arjun’s Note: Nat sent this to me from the road at midnight Sunday night/Monday morning, and told me to fix it up. It’s late here in LA as well, so I just fixed the blatantly obvious punctuation and grammatical mistakes, but the post is still far from perfect. However, I loved it enough to put it up. I hope you enjoy it.

by Nat Lavin

Arjun inspired me to write another post. This time, I’ll make this more of a journal entry. Truly, a weblog.

As you may know, I am a sophomore at Tulane in New Orleans. I moved in to campus on Monday and was almost immediately asked “So, what about Gustav?” I foolishly replied “Who’s Gustav?” I even remember a friend joking “No one should ever fear anything named ‘Gustav’”. Classes started last Wednesday, and by noon on Thursday we received an email saying classes were canceled from tomorrow (Friday, at the time) until the following Wednesday.

My friends and I decided, although this was a horribly irritating time for an evacuation (eerily three years to the day from Katrina) that we would make the most of it. Twelve hours, three cars, five friends, two parents and two dogs later, we found ourselves on a trip through Louisiana up to Waco, TX by way of Dallas. For the most part, it was a pretty boring day. We took turns driving and sleeping. Once we arrived, we stayed in a completely empty condo owned by my friend’s overly-accommodating grandmother who insisted we call her “grand-belle”. We spent the next day or so goofing off as us college kids on vacation are wont to do. Drinking more beer than we initially realized we could, relaxing by the pool, and genuinely enjoying each others presence as we all made guesses on what would become of our beloved home. Perhaps my favorite part of this leg of the trip, besides assorted games we played on the road that are too stupid and dangerous to play anywhere but a back-woods Texas road, was when two cultures collided.

You see, one of the 5 friends I was with on this trip had at one point spent a year in Australia in an exchange program, and now one of her friends was coming to visit. Our Australian friend’s name is Ben. At dinner time, the topic of Vegemite was brought up, and I dared to try it. It wasn’t quite as bad as people say it is. Imagine if soy sauce had the texture of toothpaste. I didn’t say it was good… I just said it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Anyway, in return, I decided to make this bizarre foreigner his first peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s hard to believe that in this new millennium there is someone from a first world country who has never had a PB&J. At first he was even more hesitant to eat one than I was to eat the Vegemite, but he gave in, reluctantly at first, but then grew to love it and has now had one for every meal since. (Note: used Crunchy Skippy and Welch’s Grape)

Today we decided to drive about 3 hours south to San Marcos to go tubing down a river with, again, more beer than I honestly thought we would drink. For the record, by the end of the tubing, not one of us was even tipsy. New Orleans changes people like that. Anyway, the tubing itself was again, just sitting in a tube, floating calmly down a river, enjoying each others company but in an environment serene enough to ward off any cabin fever.

As I was handing in our group’s tubes, I noticed the ID of the girl standing next to me was a Tulane student ID. our group struck of conversation with her group, ending with “Well, i guess we’ll see you Wednesday”.

Immediately after she said that, I received a text message from Tulane stating we could no longer return to campus until the following Sunday. A week from today. At this point, I also feel it’s important to point out just how amazing it has been having an iPhone during this period. Using Google maps when you’re lost during a road trip is amazing, as is the fact that it gets service almost everywhere in the country. Never have I heard so many people say “Wow… it really does get more bars in more places”. At our lodging there was no internet, so my phone was passed through the group as our link to Facebook and email to contact parents and other concerned relatives.  Sincerely, I want to write a thank you letter to Steve Jobs. at some point in the last three days everyone has at some point said “Thank god for that iPhone”.

In 10 hours, I’ll know if I have a school or not. I’ll know if i have a home to which i can return. And considering how much I move around, New Orleans really is a home as much as any other place I’ve lived. I have a bed, a room, some of the best friends i could ever hope for, and the women ain’t too hard on the eyes either. Honestly, I can’t imagine anything in this post being remotely interesting to anyone. It’s a largely incoherent rant with an undertone of nervousness at my possible impending doom. I guess what I’m trying to say though is that these last few days have been awesome. I can’t even find specific episodes to write about, but i feel like I’m having one of those trips I used to hope for when i was little. You know? When you’re like 12 or 13 and see the older kids all hang out and do whatever they want and just have so much fun with each other and have a ton of inside jokes? I feel like I’m the little kid who saw that, wanted that, and finally got it. so yeah, Gustav, you’ve been awesome so far. It’s pretty cool that you were scary enough to make us leave campus and everything, but do us a favor and don’t fuck up New Orleans again.

I mean, you can take out the west bank I guess if you absolutely have to, but leave the parts that people care about at least? The parts that would stop me from coming back home?

Thanks, G

by Nat Lavin

When I have a kid, I’m going to make him or her write the president a few times a week. Not about anything important, but about sort of personal stuff you would keep in your diary. I would photocopy each letter before it was mailed, and that way, when the kid is older and he’s written to some president for eight years or so, or two presidents for four years each, I’ll have an interesting book to sell to a publisher. Some little kid, pouring his soul out to the president during his formative years.

Photo by Joyce Boghosia

by Arjun Sharma

As every college student will tell you, Thursday is a great day to party. This Thursday is especially awesome - Barack Obama is set to give his DNC speech (and try to top his amazing ‘04 performance), and a lot of friends are in town and have birthdays coming up. So how can I combine two of my friends’ passions (drinking and politics) and throw the best party of the week? Simple - The Obama DNC Drinking Game.

The rules are simple. It requires either beer, or light mixed drinks (perhaps Jack and Coke, Vodka Cranberry, or if you’re especially classy, gin and tonic). Make sure to go LIGHT on the alcohol. Here are the rules:

Drink for the number of indicated seconds whenever anyone on screen says the following words:

Barack - 1 second
Obama - 1 second
President - 1 second
Hope - 2 seconds
Change - 2 seconds
Unity - 2 seconds
(Any small town) - 3 seconds
Experience - 3 seconds
Diversity - 3 seconds
Leader - 4 seconds
Difference - 4 seconds
Youth/Young - 4 seconds
(Any non-Chicago big town) - 4 seconds
Chicago - 5 seconds
Clinton - 5 seconds
McCain - 10 seconds
‘Yes We Can’ - 20 seconds

How can you remember all of these? I found that a simple poster board (cost, 50 cents), which I bought while preparing for the party, works perfectly. Yes, it requires a bit of extra work, but you will throw an oddly educational party. Drink on…

The final result? An awesomely drunk political party.