05/01/2008: "Concerts and inequalities"

music: Jimmy Eat World - "Electable"
mood: Jittery

Last Saturday I went to my first concert with Josh and his brother - Paramore and Jimmy Eat World. It was amazing! The experience itself was not very enjoyable with 14 year old emo girls everywhere and the incessant crowd-surfing, but just being in the presence of live music is what gives me the thrill. Now I can't get Paramore out of my head! I did not realize that Hayley Williams was younger than me... It's kind of interesting because when I was a young teen, all my favorite artists were much older than me. Now I'm heading into the reverse pattern, a signal that I'm getting older... yay. By the way, I turn 20 in 2 days.

Tomorrow I am finally getting my rose finished on my wrist to cover up the rainbow completely. So excited... I've been waiting 3 weeks for the final product! I'm planning to get a vegetarian quote tattooed on me somewhere as well, but I need it to be in a discreet location because of the controversial nature. I don't want to have to comply with this, butI need to be reasonable if I want a successful career. Speaking of careers - I have an internship with a watershed group this summer!! After getting rejected from several, I'm really glad to have this one! Hopefully I will do well... I'm pretty nervous.

In case I forgot to mention, my veganism is going really well and it's been over 3 weeks now. No slip-ups or anything. Last time was such a failure. Today I almost gave into some cheese, but as long as I remind myself why I'm doing this, I think I will be ok.

I miss having Mango with me! I was scared to keep her in the dorm anymore for fear of getting caught so now she's staying with Josh. I'm glad I'll get to be with them over the summer!! I also miss my puppies. They are getting older so fast and I feel like college has taken me away from them for the past 2 years... The other day I went home and took a nap with Lexi for several hours. It was nice.

Today in my Environmental Ethics class we were discussing the cost/benefit analysis of economic growth and its measurement in Gross National Product (GNP). The professor asked us our opinion of the growth overall. Some people were saying it was good, we needed to expand, keep our dominance in the global sphere, etc. And their focus was entirely on how our economy compares to other economies based solely on our total measure of GNP. Then I spoke up and said that GNP is a poor measure of a nation's successes because it fails to take into account the huge disparities between the rich and the poor, as well as individual health/well-being. We are so focused on accumulating more and more wealth that we forget this. People believe Adam Smith's notion that there is some sort of "invisible hand" guiding us and that as we pursue our "American dream" it will benefit the rest of the public. But this is not so. The Gini Index is a measure of economic inequalities, and for a developed nation, the US has a VERY high Gini coefficient, higher than the countries of Europe. We have so many internal problems but are so concerned with being powerful in the global economy. People in my class were thinking on the lines of, "Everyone in the US has an equal chance to succeed," and "There is equal opportunity for all." So after I had that little rant, the professor responds, "Well..." and we proceeded to move back to the global economy.