When the time is right

When the stars align,
Comets will fly.
Take my hand and step into the unknown.
We'll light up the dark
And show the masses that the greatness in man
Lies in his ability to love another
In true color,
Through folly and fortune,
In this body and the next.
My heart's fickle journey has finally come to
Rest.

Mumford & Sons - Lover of the Light

I'd never forgive myself if one of my first few posted weren't about Mumford & Sons. When I found these boys on the interwebs a year or so ago, I wasn't prepared for the connection they would make me feel with not only their music, but also with the music of the bands they lead me to find. Their music is everything I love: powerful lyrics, gorgeous vocals, acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, dobros, and, best of all, their recordings are meant to sound like their live shows. Yes, I have seen them live, but knowing each song inside and out could not have prepared me for what I was about to behold. Though my ticket was for the balcony, I snuck into the ground floor area and shoved my way to the front, where I stood in awe for 2 hours and watched the masterpiece of four English men playing their hearts and souls out in a magnificent musical medium I felt was only meant for me. This band is the God that reins over my collection of favorites; some may climb close, but it's hard to reach something so divine. Search youtube for more songs. Enjoy.

While studying...

I guess it's time for something other than cute pictures and videos...
I stumbled upon this in one of the recommended readings for a biopsych course: "Love joins hate, aggression, fear, expansiveness, withdrawal, and so on, in blends designed not to promote the happiness of the individual, but to favor the maximum transmission of the controlling genes" (E. O. Wilson, 1975). If you're feeling sentimental, you may take this as a romantic quote. But what it's really trying to say is that the brain isn't designed to benefit a person's happiness or even health; it was designed to produce the maximum amount of viable offspring (Darwinian fitness). So next time you feel like you're falling and the only thing capable of catching you is the person you're all starry-eyed for, just know it's you're brain's way of saying, "make as many babies as you are capable of raising to puberty, so that they too can trip over the stones of natural selection and unabashedly fall into someone else's arms."

Vervet Monkeys

This video was first brought to my attention in a drug and behavior cognitive psychology class. Interesting fact: These monkeys have approximately the same percentage of occasional, moderate, and problematic drinkers as humans.

Adele - Someone Like You

This song has been stuck in my head for over a week now. I could listen to her all day.

The Fennec Fox

 

Hours of entertainment.

Another future companion.

The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs. -Jeanne-Marie Roland

Little Chance.

The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.
A future companion.

Phoenix has a happy.