#8: Put your iPod on shuffle. What are the first 10 songs that play?

1. Under Pressure - Queen

This has been a longtime favorite of mine. Bowie + Mercury is a match made in rock heaven. 

2. L.O.V.E. - Frank Sinatra

Sinatra is good for a lot of things, one being L.O.V.E. and its puns, no matter how corny it is (or how many movies it gets used in. I’m talking to you, Little Rascals)

3. Wonderwall - Oasis

Kind of ruined for me by Rock Band. But who can resist the ease of which you can slip into Liam Gallagher’s voice? Because maaaaaaybaaaaaay

4. Mexican Dogs - Cold War Kids

I love the Cold War Kids. I wouldn’t have chosen this song - I’m a big fan of Saint John and Hospital Beds, off the same album Loyalty to Loyalty - but the recurring dissonance and strange melodies make them an unparalleled act.

5. December, 1963 (Oh What a Night!) - The Four Seasons

Oh yeaaaaaaah. Who can help but dance?

6. Delirium - Motion City Soundtrack

Justin Pierre, I want to steal your voice and put it in a seashell like Ursala does from Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Everyone should go listen to Even If It Kills Me, the title track from their third album. I’m really not as stubborn as I seem / Said the knuckle to the concrete - fantastic.

7. Rococo - Arcade Fire

Yes, they won the Grammy for The Suburbs and it was well-deserved. I’d highlight Modern Man as well.

8. Pour Me Another (Another Poor Me) - Atmosphere

What can I say, I have a thing for great lyricists, a list of which Atmosphere is right at the top. (Shoutout MPLS!)

9. Paint it Black - The Rolling Stones

Classic.

10. Crimson & Clover - Tommy James & The Shondells

Guilty pleasure, probably because this song is so damn repetitive.

#7: Something you’re proud of from the last few days

Well, I’m tentatively proud of this because it is still not set in stone: I selected my thesis topic and set a working reading, research and writing schedule for the whole year!

My thesis as I currently envision it is an exploration of existentialist philosophy through the works of Christopher Nolan, starting with Memento and working up to Inception. This is an odd thesis topic to choose since I’m not a Film Studies or a Philosophy major; yet chosing an Honors Thesis topic is sort of carte blanche in a way that a departmental major is not. I didn’t originally intend to write a thesis. 

You could say I got scared off after flipping through the archives in Bapst and reading titles like “Mitochondrial DNA, Black Light and the Work of Mahler,” or “Sound Waves and Colluded Cross Sections of Noam Chomsky’s Brain as Cancer Cures.”* Luckily I found something that (I hope) will keep my interest piqued for 8-9 months. 

My plan is to cross-examine Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Inception with Kierkegaard, Nietzsche (the handsom fellow pictured at the top), Sartre and most likely Heidegger (tricky little guy, not my favorite) or Simone de Beauvoir. I’m leaving out three movies Nolan directed. He has a relatively small body of work, but I think four movies will give me enough fodder for this task and frankly, the other three won’t work as well with this topic. I’m nixing Following, Insomnia, and The Prestige. 

Existentialism is a hard body of thought to define because each existentialist writer differs from the last. Kierkegaard was all about reconciling temporal being with eternal nature with a “leap of faith,” Nietzsche was obsessed with doing away with the veiled world of absolutes and Sartre with the absurdity of existence. Generally when they get lumped together a few main points bubble up: modernity leaves man disenchanted with a new mechanistic and meaningless world, man feels deep uncertainty and loss of meaning, man feels anguish and nausea at the lack of meaning and his inability to attain it, man realizes the only way to live a meaningful life is to make his own meaning rather than find it. Thus, existentialism is the philosophy of the self-creating human being. I’m still working out all the kinks here, but if you’ve seen Memento or The Dark Knight, you can see how the main characters are both self-creating.

In any case, I’m proud of myself for committing to such a large project (2 semesters and 80+ pages!) and getting everything prepared to start it.

*These are not real theses. No undergrad at BC has cured cancer using sound waves.

#6: Name your favorite superhero.

I didn’t watch a lot of superhero cartoons as a kid. I watched Rugrats and Loony Tunes. I really didn’t have a fictional character that I idolized and wanted to be, so this selection comes from a slightly more objective perspective than a long-standing nostalgic tug. 

A hero is someone who puts the needs of others before their own; a superhero is someone with powers that are beyond human.  After watching five seasons of Dexter, it never occured to me to consider Dexter a superhero, but he fits the bill here. 

Dexter kills bad guys, which undoubtedly prevents them from doing any further harm. Dexter does have a special skill set that could be considered beyond human: he has an advanced understanding of forensics and a key job within the police department which allow him to evade detection. Hey, Batman doesn’t have any special powers. He just has expensive toys that give him an edge beyond normal vigilantes. Dexter has knowledge, strategy to give him that edge beyond a regular killer with a “dark passenger.” 

But…an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind. There is obviously an issue with Dexter’s philosophy and his vigilanteism is not possible in real life. It’s a little sick that a TV show has “inspired” several vigilante killings around the world. Superhero ≠ role model! Look at Batman, he’s miserable. He lives alone in a cave with an old man. He doesn’t get to have a family or function well in society; Bruce Wayne has a pretty limited social circle. Kids idolize Spiderman for his special powers, not for what happens after he defeats the big bad guy. 

I guess if you’re looking for a role model in Dexter, it would be in his restraint. He has a problem and he found the best way possible to cope with it. A monster with a code. When you think about it, isn’t that the whole goal of civilization? We learn how to restrain our urges in order to be civilized, to live in groups or for whatever reason. We get potty trained to hold our bladders until we get to a bathroom and avoid peeing our pants. Dexter holds his dark passenger in until he finds a suitable outlet…eh, victim. Morality and social custom aside, Dexter’s urge to kill is not unlike other human urges. The biggest difference is that it isn’t common to all humans and therefore stigmatized and easily called immoral. If we continue following this argument it would include pedophiles, binge eaters and fetishists. I suppose the Dexter: Good or Evil? or even Dexter: Normal or Deviant? question boils down to perhaps the most-debated question of all time: how do we define what is right and wrong?

If it comes down to sustaining a population, then murder doesn’t fit the bill of approval because it decreases the population. Binge eaters and fetishists only hurt themselves, which is probably why we more or less accept them into our society. Pedophiles hurt children, but in a largely psychological way which is harder to quantify - so they get ostracized largely based on disgust. Which, I’ll add, the gay population was as well up until the last few decades.

So then why do we feel okay, even triumphant, when the antagonist is beaten to death in the end of every teen horror movie? Is it because the cost of taking a human life is outweighed by the benefit of preventing the life’s potential future terror and harm?  If we settle on this, then Dexter is a superhero. Dexter is a superhero because he usurps the damage inflicted on normal people when they are forced to kill in self defense while using his “super” powers of knowledge, need, and strategy. 

#5: A photo of a place you’ve been.

This was the view from my balcony in Monteverde, a neighborhood in the southern part of Rome.

This is very well-timed considering I just got back from 4 months of studying abroad in Italy and wandering around central Europe.  I studied at the American University of Rome and I absolutely fell in love with Italy while I was there. We would travel on the weekends and go to incredible cities and countries and see the sights, eat the food, talk to the people, learn the history…but no city put a spell on me quite like Rome did.  While Italian is a romance language and definitely easier to pick up than, say, Czech or Dutch, I still argue that Rome was the most different and culture-shock-inducing place from the US than any city I visited. 

Even though we are exposed to Italian culture, or at least some sort of stereotype, every day in the US, we don’t exert the same influence onto their culture.  You can get pizza everywhere here and Italian restaurants are very popular (any combination of cheese, pasta and tomatoes really seems to tickle our obese taste buds in AMUURRRICA) but in Rome there are only THREE McDonald’s. This probably sounds reasonable, since it is a foreign country that has its own well-defined culture; why import in french fries and apple pies? Rome is different because every other city I visited was pocked-marked by McDonald’s on every corner, as well as KFC.

Rome has resisted globalization by protecting Roman food and the traditions surrounding it in the Slow Food Movement.  Romans favor pranzo and cena that last for several hours and several courses in order to socialize and spend time with family, the second cornerstone of Roman culture. 

This resistance led to the preservation of a relaxed mindset that rejects the Western adage that “time is money.”  People linger to chat, take their time selecting tomatoes, and literally stop to smell the roses while strolling around the neighborhood. People are more important than things or time, and relationships and family are the most treasured thing in Italy.

Of course, this did present some problems for us when we arrived in Rome.  Stores close over lunch for several hours, shut down early and most are never open on Sundays or Monday mornings.  Also, in an effort to preserve small business and trade, there are no large convenience stores or catch-all places where you can buy applesauce, a hair dryer and contact solution all at once. The apple sauce is at the supermercato, the hair dryer is in an electronics store, and the contact solution is at an ottico(optician). 

Despite the convenience-roadblocks, there is a solid reason that people dream about visiting Italy, sipping wine while watching the sun set and strolling around on the cobblestones in the low lamplight. We associate the slow, people-centered traditions with romance and relaxation. 

While staying in Italy, I traveled around the country (mostly the southern half; I sadly never made it to Milan or Venice) and the isle of Capri was my most favorite place. It’s a short ferry ride from the Bay of Naples and is unreal. It looks like the island from Jurassic Park, complete with cliffs that soar into the clouds, circling birds and Kool-aid blue water.

Capri was paradise. If you ever get a chance to go to Italy, make SURE this island is on your list, and make SURE you take a small boat ride around the island. 

Oh, and make sure you stop and smell the roses.

#4: A habit you wish you didn’t have.

The first thing that comes to mind is nail-biting. I’ve done it as long as I can remember and it drives me nuts! It’s gross and destroys any of the weak nails I manage to grow. I don’t chew them down to nubs or until it hurts or anything serious like that. I really only do it when I’m nervous or absorbed in something else, so I don’t even notice I’m doing it until it’s too late. Recently, I’ve found that painting a thick layer of nail polish helps because it makes me aware I’m doing it right away. 

Another bad habit I have is the abuse of artificial sweeteners. I love my Diet Coke and Crystal Light and Splenda in my coffee…enough to consciously ignore all of the negative studies of aspartame and other articificial sweeteners. Probably not a great decision, but day-amn…an ice cold foundtain Diet Coke is like heaven…

#3: A photo of you and your friends.

It turns out that the 30 Day Challenge that I’m building on is not the one that has been all over Facebook. I suppose that’s alright with me.

Bouncing back and forth between Minnesota and Boston is tricky. In some ways, it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.  In others, it blows. Boston is the perfect city to be a student.  Every fall, Boston is literally overrun with students pouring in.  I’m pretty sure one statistic put it at 250,000 people migrate to Boston in the fall and desert it in the spring. There are so many students living there that the city has to cater to us! You can walk everywhere, the transportation is impeccable, the city is beautiful, the student discounts abound.

 In other ways, this long-term commute is revealing itself as a problem, particularily when I find myself in airport after airport and constantly on the offensive for overhead space.  The travel I’ve gotten used to; the problem comes with the post-grad dilemma. Do I stay and work where I went to school? BC is far more recognizable to hiring managers in the Northeast. In Minnesota, BC is mostly known for it’s hockey (and football, however poor they’ve been doing lately) team instead of its academics. My boyfriend and my family are in the Midwest; my potential career, the Northeast. As of now, I’m planning on retreating to Minneapolis in preparation of student loan attacks in order to save on rent and travel, but there’s no guarantee that I’ll find a job. 

The silver lining to the commute and split loyalty is that the unavoidable distance from one side lets you know who your real friends are and who you consciously maintain contact with.  I’m lucky to have two BEST friends: my boyfriend Kevin and my biddy Kelly.

Here we are for Kelly’s 21st in NYC this July, and below, in Boston spring 2009.

Love you both!

#2: The story behind your tumblr name.

My tumblr username is walkerkq, and the name of this page is k.walks.

Walkerkq comes from my school email address. Boston College gives everyone last name-first initial email addresses, so most turn out like smithj@bc.edu. If there’s someone with the same last name and first initial, they put in the next letter of your first name to help distinguish, like smithjo@bc.edu. There must be a lot of someones with the last name Walker and first name K-A-something, because they tossed in a Q for me: walkerkq@bc.edu. It has stuck with me since!  My friend Kelly decided that my middle name is Quest (which is the story behind my twitter name, @kaylinquest.)

K.Walks. is a abbrev my totes awesome abbrev-loving r-mate invented during shitters ‘09 in the penthouse of Wills. (My excellent roommate who loves to abbreviate words invented it during sophomore year while we were living at the top of Williams, our dorm.)  Abbrevs are weirdly catchy. Soon you’ll be saying some of her gems like the libes (library), papes (paper), fings (fingers), etc. etc. 

Aside from those tags, I don’t have many nicknames, other than the occasional T people throw in there to make it Kaitlin.  Usually I don’t correct people, but here it is: NO T.

Hey! 

Other than a failed travel blog, this is my first real attempt at keeping a steady blog.  I’m hoping to keep this updated to chronicle my senior year and all the internal conflicts that come with it. You know, trying to make the most of my time left on campus while dreading graduation, but also the excitement and possibilities of a new beginning but fear of unemployment…

We’ll save that for later.

For now, to ease into the blog habit, I decided that the 30 Day Challenge is a good way to start off! (Holla at my biddy Kirstie for the inspiration! http://kirstielikethirsty.tumblr.com/)

Day 1: A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

This was taken on my 21st birthday out to dinner with the family.  My boyfriend Kevin is on the left and my mom on the right.  Yes, that is the famous and delicious Texas Roadhouse…but no, I didn’t sit on the saddle and yell “Yee-ha!” like they make you do on your birthday, although the kid turning 11 in the booth behind us did.  I ususally make a point of avoiding birthday songs/dances/chants/cheers from restaurant staff. 

Alright, 15 interesting facts!

1. My eyes change color with the seasons. I have hazel eyes that get greener in the summer and browner in the winter.

2. I deal playing cards with my left hand, but I do everything else right-handed.

3. I know all of the lyrics to Salt-n-Pepa’s “Shoop.”

4. I’ve never broken a bone.

5. Some peopole describe my humor as in league with Laffy Taffy jokes…

6. I love watching Jeopardy.

7. The best thing you can buy with $1 is an ice cream cone from McDonald’s. MMMM

8. I am a terrible driver, but mostly just when I’m in reverse. I tend to hit things.

9. When I’m bored or nervous I bake and clean.

10. I am 6 feet tall.

11. I love traveling. I just got back from a semester abroad and I already wish I were back.

12. I split my time between Minnesota and Boston.

13. ’m terrified of driving in snow storms. And behind trucks carrying big logs.

14. I know basic French, Spanish and Italian but I’m nowhere near fluent.

15. I want to get SCUBA certified as soon as possible.

Well, that’s a wrap. If you know all the words to Shoop, too, let me know. We need to make some karaoke rounds.