"what shocks me" written by Museumchick on estrip.org

Category: news

06/04/06 07:44 - 69ºF - ID#29660

what shocks me

I found
this story online a few minutes ago. I guess after awhile, you find yourself desensitized to a lot of the violence that takes place. But this was pretty shocking to me. Sometimes you wonder what the world is coming to; but then you realize it's always been this way in some form or another.

It's interesting when I'm around people of my parents or grandparents generation and they are talking about the days when things were safer, or better for people to live in as far as violence is concerned. I'm not sure if such assumptions have a lot of veracity to them. I wonder sometimes if a heightened perception of violence is just more apparent given the increased proliferation of media sources (especially electronic and visual).

My grandparents generation, for example, is one in which millions upon millions of people died from genocide- between Hitler and Stalin. My parents generation were witness to the horrors of what went on in places like Cambodia, where a government carried out systemic violence and cultural extermination against its own people. While life in 2005 can be terrible in that people are exposed through the media to violence; it always gives the potential of making us more aware of what is going on in the world (at least in theory).

Permalink: what_shocks_me.html
Words: 218
Location: Buffalo, NY

11/08/06 11:28 - 54ºF - ID#29659

politics, tunes, and coffee

It was nice to get some good election news as far as the democrats gaining the majority in Congress. I'm not sure it will make a huge difference as far as policy goes, but, it still sends a message that people want a change.

I was surprised Tom Reynolds got reelected, though... I thought people wouldn't want to support someone like that. I was no Jack Davis fan, but I never would have voted for Reynolds if I was in that district.

Any good music that you would recommend? Lately, I've been kind of all over the place in my musical tastes. I like to try most anything except a lot of the commercial rap/country/pop that you hear on the radio or mtv lately.

I should get coffee and get back to working on the "thesis of doom". Theoretically.

Permalink: politics_tunes_and_coffee.html
Words: 141
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: buffalo

10/26/06 05:05 - 45ºF - ID#29657

Halloween

What do adult people in Buffalo usually do for Halloween? Do you usually go out someplace or just stay in? What do little kids usually do- is there trick or treating in most neighborhoods? Do they go to some kind of special kid event instead?

I moved here from Jimmytown a year ago and was curious. Last year, I sort of eschewed the Halloween thing to hang out at spot coffee for a date.It was actually really fun... if not kind of an odd day for a first date with someone.

Permalink: Halloween.html
Words: 92
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/11/06 06:43 - 62ºF - ID#29655

quiz

museumchick --
[adjective]:

Banshee-like

Jessica --
[noun]:

A person who laughs at anything (even this entry)

jess --
[noun]:

A person who has the ability to be invisible

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Permalink: quiz.html
Words: 40
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: poems

10/03/06 09:09 - 63ºF - ID#29654

sex without love

"Sex Without Love" Sharon Olds

How do they do it, the ones who make love
without love? Beautiful as dancers,
gliding over each other like ice-skaters
over the ice, fingers hooked
inside each other's bodies, faces
red as steak, wine, wet as the
children at birth whose mothers are going to
give them away. How do they come to the
come to the come to the God come to the
still waters, and not love
the one who came there with them, light
rising slowly as steam off their joined
skin? These are the true religious,
the purists, the pros, the ones who will not
accept a false Messiah, love the
priest instead of the God. They do not
mistake the lover for their own pleasure,
they are like great runners: they know they are alone
with the road surface, the cold, the wind,
the fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio-
vascular health--just factors, like the partner
in the bed, and not the truth, which is the
single body alone in the universe
against its own best time.

Permalink: sex_without_love.html
Words: 179
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: poems

10/03/06 09:07 - 63ºF - ID#29653

Naomi Shihab Nye

Kindness by Naoimi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

Permalink: Naomi_Shihab_Nye.html
Words: 245
Location: Buffalo, NY

05/31/06 06:47 - 86ºF - ID#29651

Playoffs

Some links and articles I found lately that I thought were kind of cool:

Free Punk Mp3's

superheros

(Article on myth and literature in videogames)

I've really gotten into the Sabres lately! Which is a little strange, because up until this season, I knew nothing about hockey. I guess I just find it exciting that we made it this far and might possibly make it to the Stanley Cup. I hope we win the next game in North Carolina!
(I should actually try to find a way to watch the games, but I find it more fun to call up a friend of mine and get the details from him. He's very colorful in his descriptions!). He was telling me about all the stuff that people have actually done with the "Stanley Cup" itself over the years... the stories are pretty crazy.

Another thing Tom was telling me about... there's actually a man out there named "Stanley Cup" who loves hockey. Everytime he goes into a bar, all the bartenders will give everyone there a free round because Mr. Cup came.

Permalink: Playoffs.html
Words: 189
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: dating

05/28/06 11:06 - 75ºF - ID#29650

Entertainment in my town

It's been awhile. I wish I could have made it to the e-strip party, but thanks to Paul for emailing me.

I'm back in Jamestown for the summer. I'm saving money by living with my folks until I need to be back for classes in the fall. It's definitely nice being with my family and friends, but to be honest, Jamestown is not exactly the most thrilling of places. Our big excitement is the fact that they just built a "Super Wal-Mart".

Fortunately, I get to go back up to Buffalo quite a bit because I'm doing some museum work, and I'm also taking a class to start working on my thesis. So it's all good.

You know what's kind of strange? It's when you're at a concert or something, and a guy is standing really closely next to you, or behind you... and then he'll keep smiling at you while he looks you up and down with his eyes. And he won't actually talk to you either, but he'll stand in exactly the same position. You'll turn a bit, then he'll turn a bit and so forth. Its creepy.

Do you ever get picked up in really atypical places? One for me that has always surprised me is the library. You would not think that it would be a magnet for romance. I've always wondered why I seem to meet guys in libraries like this. Plus, there's always the people who try to ask you out at bus stops or bus stations. Usually they ask you if you want to go some place where they could use their senior citizen discount or something! I mean, I'm sure we can all find true love on Greyhound, but still....

museumchick writes at 06:49:53 05/31/06 - Comment #8352: Hi kookcity2000... right now it's at Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, though I've done some work at the Albright-Knox and at the Burchfield Museum for my program at school.

metalpeter writes at 12:35:38 05/29/06 - Comment #8296: First of all sorry for checking you out at a concert and not saying anything to ya :). Seriously though I'm there to see the concert but ladies always distract me somehow. It is also kinda hard to talk to someone at a show it is loud and what can you ask with out interupting the music for your self and that person other then who is this band and that only works at a multiple band festival. Plus it is niether the checkherouter or the checkedout is saying anything to eachother, so it isn't only the guys fault. Sometimes the girl is standing next to a guy who could be a BF. Or said BF is up in the pit somewhare. Concerts are a good place to see a lot of hot people sometimes but not so good for meting someone. It may be a little creepy cause the guy is looking at you like a painting. I know it is tough but maybe you could be an interactive piece of art and say something. Some suggestings "tough choice of who to watch me or the BAnd" "Dude you are creping me out either ask me for My Number or check out some other hot chick". I'm sure you could think of some others. Most guys arn't trying to be creppy they just like what the see. But that being said still be carefull there are a few wackos out there.

zobar writes at 07:28:49 05/29/06 - Comment #8284: 'I mean, I'm sure we can all find true love on Greyhound...'

I once met a really hot nun catching the redeye from Syracuse to New York. She was escorting a very elderly nun, and when the older nun left for a minute, some frat boy started chatting her up. I thought it's bad enough I was having impure thoughts about a nun, but hitting on her is something else entirely.

- Z

kookcity2000 writes at 11:38:43 05/28/06 - Comment #8281: museumchick, what museum are you a museum chick at?

Permalink: Entertainment_in_my_town.html
Words: 288
Location: Buffalo, NY

04/22/06 11:05 - 54ºF - ID#29649

a question, of sorts

I was wondering... would anyone on here be interested in meeting up sometime for coffee or perhaps a drink? I've really enjoyed reading a lot of the entries of people on here and think it would be cool to meet some of you.

Permalink: a_question_of_sorts.html
Words: 43
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: thoughts

04/08/06 02:02 - 34ºF - ID#29646

juxtaposition

I grew up in a small town. Most of the people I grew up with are married and have children now. This probably sounds terrible to say, but anymore it seems that I feel awkward around most of my old friends. Because I can't relate to most of their experiences. I don't have children. I'm not married or engaged. The relationship that I had been in for a year and a half ended soon after I moved to Buffalo this past fall. I don't have a car. I live in a one room place. I'm this chick in grad school with a serious illness, trying to scrape by on a minimalistic income and medicaid. Maybe it doesn't make sense, but I just feel like a failure compared to them. That I've fallen behind somehow.

The truth is that most of the time, I feel like I am content with my life. I am involved with things that matter to me, and I continue to meet a lot of amazing people. I just wish I wouldn't compare my life to others this way. I want to be someone who can just be happy for them. I really do.

metalpeter writes at 11:42:19 04/09/06 - Comment #6282: First of all sorry about the Serious Illness, I hope it is something that with treatment can go away. I don't know what it is but I'm sure that dealing with that also affects how you do with people if not a lot at least a little bit.

I don't know what it is like to grow up in a small town. I have heard everyone knows each other. I'm sure all your friends being maried must at some point put pressure on you, don't let it unless you secertly want it to.

I think compairing your life to others can be both positive and verry negative. Yes it is good to see people who have lives that you don't want and to think I'm glad I don't have there life. You can also see peoples lives and think man I would like to be where they are at and so you can have something to aspire to and to drive you. But at the same time if you do this you make your self feal like an outcast and like you won't be normal and that happens more often then the positive stuff I mentioned. Just try to positive about your self and know you are happy where you are and once you have that figured out, then you can figure out if there are things you want to change or goals that you have that you want to achive.

scott writes at 05:12:27 04/08/06 - Comment #6260: Don't bother judging your life by anyone else's standards. Everyone's got their own thing. Trying to compare lives is about as possible as comparing the price of milk to a good poem. (It just can't be done. I've tried... milk prices vs poem... errrr broken brain...)

Anyways, sounds like you've got a lot of exciting stuff going on... some good, some bad... that seems to me to a quite a life to live.

Keep those old friends. You may have to adapt to accept you had different goals. Diverse fiends make for interesting people. Anyone who's friends are all the same tends to be boring...

ladycroft writes at 12:09:52 04/08/06 - Comment #6243: good, if you're content, stay that way! i don't believe we should be this, that or the other by particular stages in our lives. so, be who you are in the here and now, and be ok with that. because it's all good!

leetee writes at 10:12:16 04/08/06 - Comment #6234: I understand what you mean about not being able to relate to friends you once had. It's happened to me in so many different ways.

I find it a difficult trap not to fall into, comparing my life to others. We all veiw success in different ways and finding out what means success within ourselves can be a challenge. But if we focus on what we want from our life, i think we can find our niche.

Sorry to hear you are living with a serious illness. I hope there is recovery for you in the near future.

Permalink: juxtaposition.html
Words: 197
Location: Buffalo, NY