Ancient World Civ

I love Ancient World Civilizations. I love history, world or American.

Our most recent project assigned was to research a world religion and report on it. Not sure if it's a paper or a presentation yet, but I'm in the middle of the notes process.

Anywho, I chose Taoism/Daoism. We're on the ancient China unit in class and the book barely touched on this subject, but I decided to dive deeper into the research. When I told my dad about my religion of choice, he said, "alright, but you should have picked Judeism or something easy. Taoism is hard to understand..." I replied, "Good, I don't want something easy."

The opening words of the Tao Te Ching, or the Taoist bible basically, reads:

"The Way that can be described is not the true Way."
"The Name that can be named is not the constant Name."

It's been open for interpretation as long as the Tao Te Ching has been translated into English. Most philosiphers understand this as preparing the reader for things unteachable. Basically, even limiting the religion to a name, Tao/Dao is dangerous, because it's binding something which is all things to a name.

Taoists believe that we are all made up of stars, just like everything else in the universe. There are no Gods, just the ancestors. Tao practices the heavy influence and worship of ancestors past. Just like a peach tree grows from the earth, we are all just products of the earth also. And our stressors or anger are disrupting the flow of the earth, because there is a natural way in which everything is supposed to work out.

I find the religion to be very influencal. I mean, it's already shaped China for several millenia. Many things have been driven from the ancient religion, like astrology and horoscopes, yoga, many forms of martial arts, and even Pokemon!

If I were to be reborn again I would have definitely picked to grow up in this religion. Why do you think the Chinese live to be so old and wise? It's because of all this meditation, one with the earth, self-healing stuff. Obviously they're doing something right...

Dreams, Superstition, and the Unnatural

(Yes, this is my journal. But all you'll ever see of it.)
I had a super weird and unrealistic dream about prom last night. Which got me thinking; I should share some of my supernatural obsession with my blog readers.

I've always been super fascinated by dreams and what makes us have them.... since as long as I can remember. As I was reading up on them one day this year, an author said that he keeps a journal of all his dreams. Some days may be vague, and some days he might not have any dreams at all. But nonetheless, write them down. I have my own dream journal. I notice that day by day after writing in it, my dreams get clearer and are easier to remember. From there I spend a few minutes researching in various dream dictionaries, looking for what subconcious emotions are bringing up certain imagery. As weird as I may sound for doing all of this, I'm merely just intrigued by the way our minds work. (and I have discovered a lot about my subconcious than you'd think...)

I've had some instances where I write my dreams down, and have to revisit them later in the week, because something that I saw looked or felt familiar. Like a month ago, I had a dream in which we were standing in an empty house of my friend's, because he was about to move to Logan. I wrote it down and didn't think anything of it. That Saturday we stood in the same friend's house, emptied, because he was getting ready to move to Logan. I'm trying to think nothing more of it than a strange coincidence.

Though I could go on this tangent for hours, I'll spare you. You're probably already thinking, wow Liz, you are extremely weird. But who cares, World of Warcraft or excessive dream researching, we all have some strange obsessions.

This Weeks Faves:

Geisha - Cyberoptix by DubHead
Pro Nails (Rusko Remix) by Wall_Dac
WTF!? & Dead Prez - It's Bigger Than Hip Hop UK by Hypetrak

Sweethearts continued!

We had possibly THE funnest photoshoot ever. Here's the pics from rubberball. My date's dad took them at his studio here in Orem. Ch-ch-check em out!

President's day

Glowsticks by the handfulls found while cleaning my room...
At the mall last night looking at a pair of earrings and thought, "hey, we could have some cool second piercings with those."
So we took them back to my crib, with a piece of ice, and pierced them. Pretty neat.

Two fer

Two posts in one day? Scary.

But this is for Tessie. (Sorry I couldn't copy the image from the site.) Just click and select the cream color.

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=19459015&pushId=SALE_W_DRESSES&popId=SALE_W&navCount=513&navAction=poppushpush&itemCount=80&itemdescription=true&parentid=SALE_W_DRESSES&startValue=1&sortProperties=+subCategoryPosition,price

For everyone else:
Spread this all over your toast.
Jelly (Coma RMX)-Vaski by Jacob Coma

SWEEThearts

Maddie showin off her florals.

Between the legs?

Friend snuggle.

At least 5 outfit changes before the day-date.
(Dance pictures as soon as I get them.)

Well, we had sweethearts last night. We dressed up as TRON! We were the sickest people there no doubt. (not cough cough sick...) We wore all black and shirts that were printed white with the Tron logo. Minutes before the dance we decked out in a bunch of glow-sticks. It was Disney themed, so you know there were those couples decked out as Disney princesses in ballgowns and such... Princess Belle costume < Tron = Major outfit success.

For my friends that read this, no need to re-cap the night entirely. But as my dad likes to refer, remember the 6 P's: Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

No school tomorrow, and snow on the ground... great. I'll probably use the day to get caught up on school work. I'm falling behind a bit.

I was informed today that I'm going to have to wear scrubs to college next year. Also, no nail polish unless it's clear or neutral, one watch that cannot be electric, hair always pulled back, and running shoes. Nothing in my closet right now complies with any of that. Might as well live up my remaining time in high school wearing whatever the dang well I please.

Adios.

Chopped and screwed

My priorities are all out of order and I can't seem to sort them out for the life of me.

Track was alright today, I ran a lap of in and outs and then we had a timed flying 30. My 60m was like an 8.2 today. Which was alright, seeing as how the coach told me one of our fastest girl sprinters got a 8.4 last time they had time trials. I'm expecting a lot of pressure, stress and utter exhaustion out of this season... but I can't say I've got my whole heart in it this year.

I'm running just because everyone around me; coaches, parents, peers are expecting to see me run.

Sluffing has become my weakness... and we're only at midterm. Left during third today. I've gotta go the whole day tomorrow.

I really want a job. I want my own money. Bree's getting her $200 paychecks and I can't keep up.

Between track, keeping up good grades, finishing off these last two stupid packets to be on track to graduate, going to class, home life, social life, $$$, and college crap I am going to explode. There needs to be some serious changes here soon...

Mr. Orem tonight, then our last rivalry game against Mountain View at home tomorrow, so don't expect a post.

Bassnectar - Cozza Frenzy (Archie Cooper's 4 Story Drop Mix) by Archie Cooper

Poppin bottles in the Sweet Shop

For approximately one hour today the heavens were opened and I saw the sun. Thank the lord, because I have been in an AMAZING mood for the remainder. I scurried my behind home during lunch to change into some shorts. Which of course by the end of class I realized was a mistake, because it's currently shady outside. Cruel Utah, real cruel.

Sy took my longboard home to tighten the bearings... my cruise on Saturday was dangerous nonetheless.

I came home to my online orders sitting by the door. I finally got my combat boots... yesssssss.

Tonight I'm going to the intramural bball game. My friends' team "the homies" are playing, and named the first play of the game after me so I'd come. It's an alley-oop to Steve. I'll be happy to hear them shouting "Liz" down the court regardless of whether the play actually works. Haha.

It's Sonic happy hour. Liz is out.

Vinnie Maniscalco - Poppin Bottles in the Sweet Shop (Lil Wayne & Birdman vs. Doctor P) Dubstep D/L Link In Description by vmaniscalco

Today I feel...

Valentines and other scary items of business

It's V-day yet again... and not to be confused with any other "V" words, although, it might as well should be. For my college writing class I had to free-response on a quote from a little pink piece of paper given to us. The quote I chose was one by Cervantes, it reads:

"Lovers are commonly industrious to make themselves uneasy."

I basically just related it to high school, and how dumb we are sometimes. People are always worried about what the other is thinking of them, and how love only exists to make partners question their abilities. I thought it was good, anyway.
Tonight is the night Aubree and I purchase Ke$ha tickets for Friday. I've been heavily contemplating it since the SaltAir was now open with more seating. I don't care if she sucks live, I want to be in spitting distance of her glitter cannon. People probably think I'm weird, but she's kind of my idol. I love how she could care less about what anyone thinks, and if you give her crap she'll kick your ass. About as real as you get. (Not to mention, I would kill for any of her clothing. Who DOESN'T want to wear an Indian headdress to school!?)

English today was about the most Valentines-y my day got. We had to write notes to every person in our class, saying nice things. Mine got a little repetitive between the "let's bang" and "I <3 ur style GURL." Okay, maybe that's a little exaggeration, not everyone in college english writes text speak. But you get the point.

Before I hit the books, here's a lil something from our friends Excision & Datsik...
Excision & Datsik - Swagga by Excision

Never wanted a boys shirt so badly...

I know I steal my brother's shirts a lot, and generally, just like the loose fit a lot better. But I've seen some kids at school with these shirts on lately that I am absolutely nuts for. They run about $30 at Zumies... and I might just have to go get one.