refresh! triggered. I am driven.
the shifting planes and dimensions of all my focuses, passions, and interests are intercorrelated into a comprehensive and singular goal. a tangible profession, life occupation.
Today in Global Studies 1, we had a guest lecturer, Steve Commins, Ph.D (a UCLA alumnus and current professor in the Urban Planning Dept), speak to us about the World Bank and its mission in assisting "the poorest of the poor." From his experience working in the World Bank, he had been exposed to its shortcomings and weaknesses, which he spoke openly about in his lecture. Among the many points he touched on, some key ones were that governments should be held accountable to their citizens, there is a need for transparency and involvement of citizens for decision making and such, and money in the end is money at face value, not a complete solution to poverty. He was a very good speaker in that he could communicate to the students on their level, communicated with a fair bit of wit, and presented novel ideas that are unexpected from someone in his position and generation. I feel that "my generation" is more action oriented, aware of worldly issues, and innovative, compared to previous generations. In my discussion section, a friend of mine commented that she felt that he was the best guest lecturer that we had had so far.
ANYWAY. to get to the point of this post, I must fast forward...
I spoke to my T.A. afterwards and went to his office hours, a sum total of perhaps 30 minutes, in which my career goals were realized in an applicable sense. I want to work in, with, and for the World Bank or the United Nations. My T.A. is the a kind of person I hope to meet throughout my academic career at UCLA, one who derives knowledge outside of assigned readings, lectures, and textbooks. Expansion, absorption. Hardly do I ever meet/bump into/come across/find these people! So I exist as an island, self-sustaining through my customized google reader, online newspapers, books, and steady stream of chance sites.
BACK TO THE TOPIC (oykk.. too much straying.)... I was keeping my T.A. from another student who dropped by office hours and I was late to my meeting.. soo i went- bursting, full of energy, excitedd, with many thoughts clashing/merging/blending/reacting in my mind. elated elated! yep. oo and i have a connection to possibly work in the UC Regents office! action action! make change for the better. for the whole.
afterwards i visited the Broad Building to see an undergrad art exhibit, "Colors and Lines" by Jenny Ko.
Then I headed back to my dorm, walk/run since my phone died during my conversation with my mom... re-forged with my uncle/cousin in NYC who is applying for film school (one being UCLA). He says that he would hate himself forever.. or a really long time if he didn't pursue film. I hope he gets in! Good luck!
Browsing through my reader and such, I chanced upon another link to Tobias Wong! (He is a conceptual artist. recent installation art being "The Wrong Store") He's collaborated with the "ultra-curated store" Citizen:Citizen to make the ccPhone. Upon browsing the site, the non-linear side, I chanced upon a quotation by Michael Foucault about curiosity. Then I lost the page! but refound it. yes! harr go:
"Curiosity is a new vice that has been stigmatized in turn by Christianity, by philosophy, and even by a certain conception of science. Curiosity, futility. The word, however, pleases me. To me it suggests something altogether different: it evokes "concern"; it evokes the care one takes for what exists and could exist; a readiness to find strange and singular what surrounds us; a certain relentlessness to break up our familiarities and to regard otherwise the same things; a fervor to grasp what is happening and what passes; a casualness in regard to the traditional hierarchies of the important and the essential.
I dream of a new age of curiosity. We have the technical means for it; the desire is there; the things to be known are infinite; the people who can employ themselves at this task exist. What are we suffering from? From too little: from channels that are too narrow, skimpy, quasi-monopolistic, insufficient. There is no point in adopting a protectionist attitude, to prevent "bad" information from invading and suffocating the "good". Rather we must multiply the paths and the possibility of comings and goings... Which doesn't mean, as is often feared, the homogenization and leveling from below. But on the contrary, the differentiation and simultaneity of different networks."
yees.... and now it is halloween... hmm
