Zuckerbergermeister

Okay, so the title makes no sense; it's my attempt to tie in Mark Zuckerberg's name with the tiny bit of German I know (and have probably spelled wrong). But after seeing "The Social Network," Zuckerberg keeps popping up in conversation between my roommates and I. And in honor of it being nominated for an Academy Award, I've decided to write about it.

It's a good movie - better than I was expecting. I was afraid it was going to be one of those "This is the greatest piece of technology ever made and we must worship it!" kinds of things. But it was more critical than that. Yeah, it didn't talk about how Facebook is kind of addicting and could possibly ruining our forms of communication. But the creation of Facebook (as told by the screenwriters, of course) was pretty sweet. Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg was an interesting, complicated character and (though he may be more fiction than fact) I feel like it was a unique way to express someone who's become a billionaire and Time's Person of the Year all within a few years. And it makes me realize just how prevalent Facebook is. Like I ate a Lean Pocket for dinner yesterday (because the stove was being temperamental - screw you, stove!) and there was a little icon on the envelope advertising to go on line and "follow" Lean Pockets on Facebook. Wow... Just wow.

However, the after-effects of seeing "The Social Network" has been a bit weird. None of my roommates and I can log on now without feeling odd... sort of bad, in a way. Like I'm screwing over Eduardo or something. My roommate, [mind ninja], had a weird combination of the movie "Surrogates" with Zuckerberg trying to take over the world. And yet, I'm still logging on to Facebook everyday. What the hell does this mean? I don't know... I still don't know how to feel about Facebook in general. But it's not like I can just delete my account - I still like it, and it's my only way of staying in contact with certain people. I've just got to keep in mind that there's more to Facebook than just profiles and statuses (like being "wired in" to the whole thing really seems... well, for lack of a better word, weird). If only it were that simple...

History

While doing background for a class project, I tried to find a short summary of the University of Minnesota's history. No dice. Admittedly, I was looking for something really specific, and yet I couldn't find a historical overview anywhere on the U of M's webpage. No "This is when the school started, this is when buildings were built, this is when that dude who's got a freshmen residence hall named after him died." Nothing. I'm sure it's out there, but it's apparently not as easy to find as I thought it would be. Even Wikipedia gave me limited stuff. What's up U of M? Are you trying to hide something? Just kidding, guys... or am I?

Hipsters

Considering I only learned about the phenomenon of hipsters last semester (how exactly I never noticed them before is a mystery to me) I've developed a quite an interest in their lifestyle.
Partly because of Hipster Hitler, which I found out about in one of my classes, and was simultaneously offended and humored. Then my roommates called one of our acquaintances from high school a hipster and he went on Urban Dictionary.com to find out the definition. He has now embraced full hipster-ism and is going out of his way to prove he is one, by constantly talking about music and romance and shit.

Quite honestly, I still don't know what a hipster is, exactly. It's a bit hard to define (a circulating reference, as we called it in the same class where I learned about Hipster Hitler). However, whenever I see someone in thick glasses and a woolly sweater in a cafe, I am suddenly cheered up. I think there's a lot of hipsters in Cultural Studies, so maybe that's why. Also, they just look retro and like they don't give a crap, which is oddly refreshing. Of course, I've never gotten into an argument with someone who considers themselves a hipster, so take that with a grain of salt. But I feel like I could so easily become a hipster - wear the tight pants, get some retro sneakers. I already hang out in cafes all the time, and I listen to random-ass music (some that apparently is actually popular with hipsters). On the down side, "Look at that f@cking hipster" is pretty funny to me, and I can't lie that I have no understanding of what sort of philosophy or whatever a hipster has. Truly, I'm not hipster material. They'd think me to mainstream and totally shun me.

But they are everywhere. On campus, on TV, on YouTube (check out Arcade Fire Hipster Attack - it's awesome). And I don't know when this happened. Maybe hipster just wasn't a platform of expression in high school (or at least my high school - we had emo instead). But I kind of like this whole vibe. A snarky attitude towards the 50s (and everything in general) plus some cool music and interesting fashion choices - yeah, I can deal with this. Unless they all become like my acquaintance who became a hipster because of Urban Dictionary. Then I will truly have to withdrawal my support of hipster-ism. Because then hipsters would just be lame. But I have hope - maybe they'll be like the beatniks of the 1950s. And if they aren't... well, I'll save my judgment for something else I actually dislike. Like Jersey Shore.

Slacker

I was informed yesterday of the etymology of a common word in the English language: slacker.

It was used as a derogatory name for men who wouldn't fight in World War I. Makes me feel kind of bad that we throw that around all the time, especially since it seems so harmless and unemotionally charged now. How does something like that become such a common part of mass culture? Wish I had time to research that... instead, I must endeavor to better understand the Cartesian split. So sadly etymology will have to wait.

Minnesota Weather

If there is one thing Minnesota would be especially famous for, it'd probably be it's weather. The extreme shifts from -40 degree wind chills in January and the 90 degree hot August days, and everything in between. It seems that perhaps (knock on wood) that spring has come early this year - as I slipped on melting ice this morning, skinning both of my knees. Either this is a goodbye embrace from winter, or a rough welcome from spring. Regardless, I am satisfied with the fact that I can walk to class without my cheekbones freezing, even if it means I will be limping due to the bandages on my maimed legs.

The weather here has made Minnesota a sort of awe-factor for many. We're known for being bad-ass about the snow (unless you're the Minnesota Vikings) and for wearing shorts and sandals in 40 degree temps. Which, if you're from Florida might seem insane. But trust me - 40 degrees feels really fricken warm after sub-zero Arctic winds.

Minnesota is also (apparently) not known for being very fashion conscious. If you live in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, then this is not so true. But when the wind is so cold that the very jelly in your eyes begins to glaze over with a sheen of ice, then how you look simply is the last thing on your mind. Thus sweatshirts and bulky jackets are very popular. And Uggs... I know Uggs were apparently meant for beachwear or something bizarre like that. Here, they suffice to get many girls from one side of campus to the next in the middle of a Snowpocalypse.

Why do I bother to comment on Minnesota weather? Because, geographically, we deal with shit that some other states simply don't. If you took the aquatic elements of most Great Lake states (considering Minnesota is one of them), mixed that with the Great Plains, the forests of New York and the East Coast, and threw in some muggy days that states like Georgia would be more apt to have, then that's a rough blend of the seasonal spectrum here. If we had mountains or more tectonic plate stuff, things would be every crazier, with Colorado's mudslides and California's earthquakes. Fortunately, that's not the case. However, we do have weather fluctuation that can drive some people absolutely nuts. Two weeks ago, it was about 5 degrees during the day. Now it's 36. Next week, it could be snowing (I hope not). Or it could be in the 50s. Hard to say, really. Yeah, other states have this sort of meteorological phenomenon (as my meteorologist friend would tell me). Because, in Minnesota, amongst all the wetlands and lakes and prairie (and suburbs and metropolis as well) we don't really care if other states get snow too or get flooding and severe thunderstorms. Here, we feel it's different - there's an added sense of drama. It doesn't just snow, it blizzards. It doesn't just rain, it storms. That's not to say we don't get totally mundane weather (we totally do; our meteorologist just love being drama queens). We just regard weather differently than I think other states do. Being from Indiana originally, people flip out when an inch of snow falls. Here, it snows and we complain, but things go on as normal. We could get a foot of snow and the likelihood of school being closed is quite unlikely. Culturally, weather plays a huge factor into what makes Minnesotans. Without it, we'd act less like bad-asses. And probably stop trying to one-up Wisconsin every other minute.

More crap about tea

According to one of my roommates (and this she heard from a friend in her Russian class), there is such a thing as vegetarian green tea. Apparently it tastes like bubble gum with dirt in it.

First off, I thought tea was vegetarian to begin with - it's made from plants, unless some meat extract is randomly added that I've been missing out on for the last few years. And secondly, bubble gum with dirt? Really?

Life is so weird...

Earl Grey Tea

Okay, so this isn't actually about my love for Earl Grey Tea, but it could be as I have a deep, deep love of this English-y beverage. However, while sitting in a cafe today, enjoying said tea, it hit me how much I fricken love cafes.

Really, I do. My knowledge of their history is rather scarce - something to do with France, no doubt, as my high school French class taught me. But whoever decided that a chic little place with cool music and tasty pastries should be created so that overstressed peoples (such as college students and business employees) could stop in to have a tasty beverage and perhaps discuss the meaning of life, is truly my hero. Seriously. I have had two of the busiest weeks yet this year; last week being a mad race looking at possible apartments only to have our dreams shattered, glued back together, shattered again, then oddly resurrected. I was also preparing for a debate in a science and humanities class, stop trying to diagnose myself with every psychological disorder I read about in Abnormal Psych, and trying to keep from freaking out about the fact that I speak Italian just about as well as Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds (though without the fun Tennessee accent). Then this week, it hit me that Valentine's Day is coming up and I was thrown into a deep melancholy (for reasons which I will discuss elsewhere) from which I only emerged through joy of realizing that next year I will actually be living in a sweet 1940s hotel renovated into apartments (the outcome of all this very complicated and totally irrelevant at the moment) and through the delight of discussing exorcisms with one of my professors. Yes, exorcisms made me happy - deeply twisted, I know. But it's been one of those weeks. So a reprieve in a Dinkytown cafe while discussing why Bernard Marx from Brave New World is pretty whiney was sorely needed.

Perhaps it's the sort of people who are drawn to cafes that I like too. Hipsters may be a mystery to me, but there's something about those large-rimmed glasses and "that's so mainstream" cynicism that makes me feel oddly warm and fuzzy. I really need to spend more time away from caffeine, but honestly - where else can scribble away and stare off into space without being stared at as a total freak? There's a reason why writers hang out in these environments (the stimulants of coffee and sugar being, of course, an obvious great addition). I feel at comfortable there, like it's some sort of strange extension of the living space I've always wanted to have (with rough brick walls and fun lighting techniques). Of course, then there's the statistic I was given as to how the number one job for Cultural Studies majors involves being employed at a cafe. I wonder why... :)