Thoughts on Uncharted Festival, Day 1

October 31, 2014October 31, 2014 karenalin6Leave a comment

One of the main perks of working for the Daily Cal is attending mind-blowing events, such as the ~$300- per- ticket Uncharted Festival of Ideas, for free. A quick description of Uncharted, courtesy of their website:

OCTOBER 24-25 2014: “Uncharted brings you together with some of the world’s great thinkers for two thrilling days of discussion, debate, and workshops designed to engage and inspire. Hosted in downtown Berkeley’s thriving Arts District and highlighted by a hilltop bash in UC’s exclusive University Club, Uncharted promises to be stimulating, surprising, and fun.”

Here were some thoughts I had about the talks I listened to on Friday, Oct 24.

Cough, cough, it’s essay season

October 22, 2014October 31, 2014 karenalin6Leave a comment

This time of the semester, people around me start disappearing into their apartments or the libraries, saying “Oh, I can’t have dinner with you tonight. It’s midterm season.” Or “sorry I haven’t really been on top of things. It’s midterm season.” For those of you who have not yet experienced college, midterm season is like the holiday season in every respect, except instead of getting presents, you get to sit in a cramped desk-chair with 500 other students and face multiple choice questions, “short” answer questions, and debilitating panic attacks. You would expect nothing less from a UC Berkeley class.

Philmont Journal

October 14, 2014November 22, 2014 karenalin62 Comments

It’s been over two months since I boarded a plane to New Mexico with my Venture Crew, and I still miss hiking with my 35-pound backpack and listening to crazy staffers play banjos. I’ve decided to post my Philmont Journal, which is a collection of scribbles I wrote down during the 66-mile wilderness trek. Hopefully I can return someday as an adult adviser, or go on other amazing Scouting adventures.

Philmont 2014

The modern paintbrush beckons

October 10, 2014November 22, 2014 karenalin6Leave a comment

Haha butts

I swear that art is getting weirder. I’ve held this opinion ever since my parents told me about a Chinese painter who created beautiful images of peaches by dipping his rear end into paint.

A recent visit to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York left me with no doubt: avant-garde artists are pushing at the boundaries of normalcy. Some works were so bizarre, simplistic, or abstract that my friends and I had many “What is this doing in a museum?” moments. I’m not sure if our world is just getting bored, or if normalcy really is evolving. In any case, the “advance guard” of artists is marching ahead into the realms of eccentricity, and we must catch up or be assaulted by accusations of ignorance.

Why I have two "useless" majors

October 6, 2014October 14, 2015 karenalin6Leave a comment

Now that I’m halfway through college, I become increasingly nervous when others ask me, “What are you going to do after you graduate?” College students love to ask each other this question, just to contribute to the overall atmosphere of sheer panic.

Most humanities majors suffer judgement to some degree from naysayers who look pointedly at us and ask “What do you plan to do with that major?” I’m always psyched to be a double humanities major, so I can suffer double the judgement. But I am not here to answer the question of how my degrees will help me in the “real world,” because I am still cooped up in my Berkeley bubble, degree-less and jobless.

MUSIC REVIEW: Linkin Park’s Living Things is as good as ever

October 3, 2014October 25, 2014 karenalin6Leave a comment

Courtesy of b-sides.tv.

Linkin Park is back in their full pessimistic glory with the release of their most recent album, Living Things. Unlike their last album, A Thousand Suns, which made references to political statements with short clips of speeches–including Mario Savio’s “bodies upon the gears” speech in the powerful track “Wretches and Kings”—Living Things features lyrics that are based on personal experience. Linkin Park always had a gift for writing lyrics that were general enough to make every person feel as if they could relate, yet specific enough to distinguish each song from one another. Rest assured, listeners will experience more of the band’s raw rock power in Living Things.

Oops, I'm a rabbit

On being human

Month: October 2014