kanye countdown.

2 weeks til Graduation.

cognative dissonance.

recently (and by that i mean today) i have taken a liking to going to not only my own classes but the classes of some of my good friends as well.

i went to a social psychology class today that was possibly one of the coolest class periods i've ever experienced. this is frustrating for two reasons: 1) i'm not a psych major nor do i ever plan to be and 2) i'm not in the class.

i was sitting there listening to the professor (and the rest of the class...it was a rather dynamic group) talk about cognative dissonance, and perhaps it was simply the excessive psychological vibe i was getting at the time, but i got really confused by my interest level. i'm not changing my major or anything, but i was so surprised at how attractive the topics were.

situation:
a guy is told to do remove four pegs from a peg board in order from right to left, and then are told to replace the four pegs in the same order they removed them in...and then repeat for half an hour. yes. seriously mindless activity. then, as if it isn't horrible enough already, after a half hour the examiner switches it up a bit: take the same four pegs and turn them each a quarter turn clockwise...then repeat for another 30 minutes. by now this guy is likely pondering a way to kill himself with these pegs. what a horribly terribly awfully wasted hour.

at the end of the hour the guy gets up to leave the room. before he goes, the man running the study tells the guy to tell the next test subject (an absolutely gorgeous female) that the test was really fun and enjoyable even though everyone in the world knows the thing sucks big time. so the guy does. he tells this chick that the deal is fun and that he liked it and everything. THEN, in the next room, another dude asks the guy if he liked the survey...and the guy says "yeah, it wasnt bad."

they ran this test a number of times, always with a guy first and an attractive female next in the waiting room, and an overwhelming percentage of guys say "yeah, sure, it was okay."

WHAT. this is horrible mindless torture! no one would be okay with spending an hour removing, inserting, removing, inserting, removing, inserting, twisting, twisting, twisting - even now i'm already growing tired of typing those words. but what idiot would lie about that!? if i'm in that room and some guy says "how's it coming?" i'd probably tell him i'd rather be at the dentist.

but here's what happens: there is an inconsistancy between the guy's thoughts and actions. he thinks it was lame. he says it was great. these don't coincide. because the guy tells the hottie in the lobby that its fun he starts to feel guilty because of this inconsistency, so what does he do? he decides that if he makes himself actually think that it was kinda fun then he wont feel guilty anymore. he obviously can't change his actions, so he has to change his feelings to cope with the situation.

i learned that today for fun.
nerd.

-ap.

most recent church sign.

many folks will give God credit.
but very few will give him cash.

(read: you need to tithe.)

monsoon of music.

music i'm simultaneously digesting:

- timbaland
- beck
- rhymefest
- amy winehouse
- n*e*r*d

i'm not sure if i like throwing down so much flav at the same time. it is so nice, but when i grab at them one at a time i can pace myself. for example, timbaland is terrific, but he'll take me a while to come to terms with entirely. however, miss winehouse i feel is one who i can understand and enjoy in minutes. she doesnt take much scrutiny.

however, the bigger downside is that i dont have time for MY music anymore (justin timberlake, gnarls barkley, john mayer, guster, ben folds, david crowder, etc.) but i still feel super motivated to find out if any of these artists will find their way into my tops - i mean look at john mayer and how he has developed in my eyes over the last year. last august = not a fan cause i never looked past "wonderland" and "no such thing". now = can't get enough.

i feel like the monsoon of music isn't going to stop soon either. i'm living with two gentlemen who are very much into music, and i feel like i might even have the opportunity to make some with them sometime this semester. anyway. i need to start pacing myself and allowing for some jt time. and some jm. and some bf and gnarls and crowder time.

but anyway. i guess thats about all i have to cover today.
late.

-ap.

science rules.

apparently they pumped this case with hydrogen, which is less dense than the rest of the air. but that whole pouring the hydrogen into the boat thing is way awesome. science rules.

-ap.

85/97 and sunny/strong tunderstorms

i love it when i go to weather.com and it says it is 85 degrees with strong thunderstorms and then i look outside my window and the sun is shining.

at least the 85 degrees part is about right. the bank down the street said it was 97. i'd believe voldemort was real before i'd trust that bank marquee.

-ap.

Apologize - Timbaland feat. One Republic

i'm planning on picking up Timbaland's cd "Shock Value" tomorrow sometime. it looks pretty tight - there are some guests on it that you'd expect (Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliot) but there are some interesting pairings as well - One Republic (this video), Fall Out Boy, Elton John, The Hives. It looks way too interesting to pass up. The Way I Are is the single that some of you may have heard. It features Keri Hilson, (imagine Beyonce lacking a little soul and badonk). Its a pretty dece track.

i think this video is tight - and i love the song too. i wish there was a bit more Timbaland in it - i feel like its just a good One Republic track - but that doesnt mean its bad. i'm looking forward to the rest of the cd.

so far the only song i've heard a sample of that kinda bugs me is the Fall Out Boy song. and not because i'm not a huge FOB fan, but because Timbaland's opening lyrics have the EXACT same sound as a section of "Dance Dance". but thats a very fall out boy thing to do...maybe Timba is making fun of FOB in the track without them even knowing. that'd be silly.

but dont hold me to that - its just the sample and tracks have a way of growing/fading on me. take futuresex/lovesounds for example - used to love "my love" and think "summer love" was so average. now i like SL more than ML (still a big ML fan though).

anyway. i think i'll go pick it up tomorrow after i pick up my paycheck. hawt.

a review can be anticipated in a few weeks.

-ap.

ps. everyone should hop on itunes and purchase "Make Me Better" by Fabolous & Ne-Yo. big fan of the strings combined with Ne-Yo's voice.

a kc/'hattan juxtaposition?

so i'm currently updating this mug on my sister's macbook in kc. she's apparently moved into my old room (slash using it as storage for all her pre-leaving-for-college stuff). sometimes it feels strange coming home to kc; it hardly even feels like home anymore. my "room" is basically a closet now and my "bed" is a pull out couch. anything i own that is remotely important to me isn't here - it's in my room in manhattan. basically all this house provides me that i dont have in 'hattan is my family.
well. and copious amounts of food. jackpot.

one of my best friends gets back in town today and i'm about to burst with excitement. she has a macbook too. man i need one of these.

things are changing rapidly now. the first few years of college it was all subtle change - well, i guess i changed a lot as a person early in school - but my surroundings are changing so much faster now i feel like. friends are leaving/coming/disappearing from my life/becoming more important to me by the day.

i think maybe its that th friends i've made in college are nearly as meaningful as the ones i've had my whole life. i used to give them no stock and only consider my TRUE friends the ones i've had forever. kinda neat how things change and such. odd. but neat.

anyway. i'm going to go run some errands now. thats what i do in kc. just get crap done. in manhattan i have to work so hard to fill my free time - here i feel like my days never stop and i dont have any time to spare. (harry potter would NOT have been conquered as quick as it did had i been living in kc...so i guess 'hattan has its perks). weird that i'm favoring manhattan somewhat.

obviously if i had to pick a place to live i'd choose here (kc)...i used to own this city and i never see myself in a city any smaller than this for my life - but for now, while things are changing and people are coming and going so quickly (wizard of oz reference) it's nice to be in a place as stagnant and constant as 'hattan. i dunno. its comforting regardless what else changes.

okay. lunch with my dad and then running errands with anna and then karlie flies into the town.
see? busy busy busy. yes, they're all great things that i have no problem doing - but where on earth would i have time for hp here? i dunno. i love it here. but i'm starting to appreciate being able to sit around and do nothing/play my piano/read about minerva mcgonagall all day.

-ap.

edit: turns out her flight was delayed and life isnt odd or neat. it just sucks.

and now a few church signs.

chris brown on sesame steet.

apparently this is supposed to air on August 17.

i am becoming more and more impressed with chris brown every day. i used to just be a "gimme that" and "run it" fan. you know, the type of guy who knows the popular radio songs and has no idea of the true talent behind the studio editing and all. well, i'm not hating on those songs - big fan - but i didnt really realize the stud chris brown is until recently.

not only did he appear for about 4 episodes in one of my favorite tv shows ever (the oc), but i've also discovered that he's got one of the best voices ever. he's like usher and omarion combined...only better. plus he can dance like its no body's business. oh, and he's 18.

anyway. he's dropped his single on itunes already - which i was actually surprised he did after the recent trend in withholding tracks until actual cd releases. but anyway. the single is "wall to wall". if you liked run it and gimme that then you'll like this too, but i encourage you to dive deeper than the radio tracks - cb has style that i think everyone ought to be aware of.

-ap.