HEARTC♡RE

My persona isn't about the aesthetic, but my "eye candy" radar is all about it. For the last couple months I've been following some ladies with a good eye and skills. I love having these cozy, colorful, cute, and clever posts on my feed throughout the day. Here's my top three, along with a sample of their posts. If you're interested in checking out their complete feed or following them, you can do so by clicking the photo of their profile to be re-directed. Enjoy.


I think I followed Hina when I was in Oman the last time. I live vicariously through her feed 😩. Wish I had this talent. Her photos are so simple and elegant, not to mention look so yummy. She also posts photos of her travels, as well as come cute candids of herself.







She popped up on my popular page and I'm so glad she did!! I love all her ideas, puns, and how she brings everything to life. I think she is most popular for her #PantonePosts where she chooses 6 pantone colors and pairs them with either a full recipe or different fruits, vegetables, and foods.

Now am I going to sit here in and lie and say that I've read all the chapters up to where we are now? No. But I do go to class and the professor does a pretty good job on explaining each assigned reading section. Pretty much, and will try to explain with the best of my mediocre abilities and frail understanding of the text LOL, Bloom says that the American university system, especially in the social sciences, is no longer as life changing as it should be. It's just where students get trained for careers, it is essentially just an extension of the market. He believes it's supposed to be somewhere where you can explore ideas and ask questions like "what is man?" and "what is the purpose?" He wants to bring back the Socratic method to the classroom. Now, philosophy is almost non existent in the universities. He says that if the university does not reflect Socrates and follow his method and legacy, then it is like Church with out God. It doesn't make sense. .

He blames German philosophy quite a bit for bringing a lot of these ideas to the US. He, only naturally, puts classic philosophers on a pedestal and praises classical music while absolutely criticizing rock and roll and popular culture to the upmost degree. He places music under the drug category, says it creates false communities, is part of the commercial culture you think you're against (lol, guilty), creates this euphoria that you exhaust in your youth that then leaves you high and dry in adulthood (did I just get depressed writing this). Seems he really embodies the cranky old man upset at the youth "obsessed" with technology and not having the same values and morals as "back in the day", afraid of change. We had this conversation in class, but the professor shut down all our thoughts on Bloom being that cranky old man.


Again, he blames universities for instilling the idea of relativism, multiculturalism, the idea of a being a "global citizen". He says concepts like these derail and dilute democracy. Since we start to believe everything is relative and everyone is "right" in their culture, there is no room for an ongoing, personal journey to find the absolute truth. Students just accept everything blindly and live their lives being "nice." Don't say the wrong thing, agree to disagree, and therefore education is replaced by self comfort because they don't want to take the extra effort to think critically, debate, or clash with someone else. According to him, under multiculturalism you are under the impression that you are openminded, but it actually realizes the opposite since you have no willingness to learn. This leads to an inability to be a good citizen since we are all sheep🐏  in a herd.

In part three of his book he reflects on Tocqueville's ideas of "Democratic Intellectual Life." Tocqueville considers "Enslavement to Public Opinion" a great democratic danger. Democracy says that every man has his own rational, well thought, opinion of all the issues. Unfortunately, because of what is mentioned in the paragraphs above, we are unable to think for ourselves and because in politics you have to reach consensus sometimes you have to abandon your own thoughts (unless they are very strong, challenging opinions), and join the majority. As Tocqueville continues, he says the majority will always win and that tyranny of the majority is an even greater threat than physical oppression of the minority. This is because it breaks your spirit, your inner will. If you aren't part of the majority you face isolation and we all know how powerful being unpopular is. You're shun and ostracized and I think that it's a really powerful tool in in self destruction. He goes on saying that the U.S. is a very conformist nation, there isn't a lot of room for discussion and therefore Americans aren't aware of the alternatives and don't seek them. My professor said something funny about America being the land of opinion polls, it's an example of Americans being highly dependent on others to do the thinking for us.

In the beginning of the semester I was not very happy with my professor at all. I felt he was making racist and xenophobic remarks. I was uncomfortable at some points to say the least and even my classmates and I made eye contact with some of the comments he made including one from a student that seemed like the professor encouraged. So it was ironic when I was thinking of him as a professor and what others might have thought of him. I decided to search him on ratemyprofessor (if you're not familiar it is a site where students write online reviews for professors they've had). There were some poor reviews, but those that were positive really praised him. Comments like what an amazing professor he was, how his class should be a requirement, thought provoking class, "greatest mind on campus", you get it. And you know, I thought about it more and came to the conclusion that he was pretty intellectually stimulating and although sometimes I don't agree with the things he says  it's because he's teaching the books on par with what the authors would say and plays the devils advocate to foster discussion and only accepts your rebuttal if it is properly backed up (I've seen him shoot them down pretty savagely).  This made me laugh thinking of how ironic it was that I was essentially reading other's opinions and using those to help me come to my "own" conclusions of my professor. AKA Tocqueville's warning about the public opinion. Well the enslavement really, the complete dependence on it, because it can't be so devestating to weigh your opinions against other's and see their points of view and reasons thereof. I don't think I am threatening democracy for seeing my professor in a new light. 😜

I forgot to mention that in the beginning of Part Three when Bloom introduces Tocqueville, he makes this observation of his students reactions.

I think this resonated with me, because this is how I feel about this book (to a certain degree). Sometimes you start off a little stubborn and when you hear something you don't like you're like *eye roll*. But give it a chance and as he says, you can become alarmed by it. I don't agree with all of what Bloom says so far, but I do concur that there is something missing from the university. A more theoretical approach to learning, to think on higher more complex levels, and work to really think deeply on your ideals as a person. I know that I myself couldn't think or create on these levels by any means. But that is what the university should be about, to help enrich and promote individual thought. It reminds me of what another professor said this morning about him not wanting us to be "unwashed heathens" meaning being a part of the mass ignorance. If we have a foundation of being able to think critically on theories and classical questions, it can overall further our understanding of politics and current events and help us make the proper decisions on where we should stand and how to act.


When I began my university career, I wasn't sure what my end career goal was and I still don't. What I did know going in was that I wanted to study international affairs for what would be taught in the courses needed to complete the program. I feel I still haven't reached a level where I am comfortable with expressing the content even though I've enjoyed the classes. Though I do acknowledge that half of it is not the universities fault, but my own for my own lack of effort in delving into the information. For the social sciences, It also can't be all philosophy and theory since at the end of the day, we do have to enter the work force one way or another. Maybe other students are there for just that, but is it because they have not understood what else universities can be offering or according to Bloom, what their purpose really is?

There is so much more the book expands on up until the point that we have read, but this is really all I have the time (and mental capacity) for. In the beginning of the semester I began with some pretty negative perceptions of my professor and our book author, Allan Bloom. Slowly as our class reads and discusses more and more what Bloom believes about the American university system (and culture), the more some concepts catch my attention. Still, I will say that some of the points Bloom makes I just can't see eye to eye with.
I am excited to finish the rest of the book and hear what else he has to say and how relevant his observations from the 80's are today.
Hopefully I can make a follow up post on my thoughts at the end of the book.

Melissa

PS. Is me writing my first unnecessarily lengthy blog post about a concept in class mean that my professor is doing his job?

One of my life goals is to be proficient in Arabic by the time I'm on my death bed, but preferably within the next several years. I have a microscopic vocabulary and listen to music and poems in Arabic to help me out since I'm not really interested in a formal education at the moment and don't mind just working on Omani Arabic and slang. Lucky for me, my boyfriend is a Muskateer (lmao I hate that, but couldn't help myself) so I pester him multiple hours a day with "how do you say *** Arabic" and "what is *** in Arabic". So I have my personal tutor. 😉

So don't ask why, but yesterday we were talking about toilets and 💩.. I probably shouldn't be admitting that since he is shy, but it's me you know. So anyways, I was trying to do the Arabic "hahaha" as a response (ex. Mexico has "jajajaj" or Brazil has "kkkkk"). I'm still trying to learn the alphabet, but on the phone keyboard it's much easier because you just press around until you get it.
What I mean by this is Arabic is like cursive, it's connected. The letters will change shape and form depending on the letters that do or don't surround it. You'll see what I'm talking about a few paragraphs down.

 So I tried هرره which actually cracked him up because it turns out it's slang for shit? (& apparently cat too.) I'm not sure I typed it properly now because used online Arabic keyboard and it's hard to see the letters properly. But it was my perfect, unintentional reply. 🙀💩

This: ههههههه
Is actually their hahaha, or in Latin alphabet they'll do "hhhhh." By me just clicking around the keyboard, only knowing the shape of the word, you would see why I would get the initial (vulgar) "هرره" confused with (the appropriate) "ههههه". You want to know why even more?? Because ههههه is actually just one letter (multiple times of course). ONE LETTER. . . . . I DARE you to tell me it doesn't look like three different letters.

So this goes back to my earlier point on how they change form.
Same letter:  ه
And different form depending if they are in beginning, middle, end, or its position with another letter: ههه



A few days before that. he was teaching me a phrase I asked for.. ..  something along the lines of:
"I was calling for you earlier."
& it goes something like: "ana knt anadeek qabl shueye"
but I kept saying: "ana knt anadeek KALB shueye"

We were on the phone and I am a visual learner so I had a hard time grasping it (I got it down once we were texting) THE POINT IS, kalb in Arabic means dog. And calling someone a dog is definitely insulting. And he was making fun of me saying I offended him. Of course he was joking because given it's context, kalb wouldn't make it through as an insult. .. . . unless of course my bad grammar bad accent combination made it seem as if I was saying "I called you a dog earlier" or "I called you dog".

I also have a few words that I can confuse with each other and it could be very dangerous. 😛 I'm probably cracking up more than anyone reading this every will, but hope anyone learning a new language gets it.

In conclusion learning a new language is dangerous 😜.

It was my mom's birthday right towards the end of August. I thought it would be a good idea to have a sort of mom's day out as celebration. I decided to include a trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens since we had talked about going for the longest. I made sure to go over the plans with my mom the night before and she was like finally!! Since, again, she's been trying to go for forever.

We decided to go early in the morning to avoid both the crowd and the sun. The gardens are adjacent to Piedmont Park so it was quite an easy find. We found our parking, put our caps on and made our way to the ticket booth.

photo is as we were leaving

As a gift, and because it was a good deal 😜, I got my parents the year membership. Because it is close to fall, maybe the plants were not all in full bloom and it would be nice to return in Spring or Summer, or even just to enjoy a day out with the flowers and plants.

The garden is separated into quite a few sections, we first entered through the more woodland side, that was. . ..  well woodland/forest-y. You could say it was more natural and unattended bit still maintained. Lucky for us, there has been blown glass art installations throughout the garden. As you can see in the promotion picture above, it is by artist Chihuly. The woodland area was fun, but a little bare. I blame the fall season.



At one part though there was one absolutely beautiful installation! The woman is there year round,  and only the glass is temporary. We really enjoyed reading about the projects.

We then moved on to the edible garden where they plant and grow fruits and veggies.




After that came the Orchid Center. WOW. I absolutely loved it. My mom is a big fan of orchids and we've always had them at home, and do you ever notice how your parents taste will rub off on you? Anyways, it was absolutely amazing. Orchid is a flower family and there are so many kinds! The center was also full of Spanish Moss which is absolutely one of my favorite plants since I was little. I will try out my green thumb, bring the Spanish Moss to Muscat and force it to grow there. Maybe in Salalah during monsoon season.... if that's even close to the appropriate season. OMG what if it became an invasive species and I am become solely responsible for Oman's ecological demise. . . . . anywho. . . look at these beauties.

















After the Orchid center we entered glasshouse exhibits that showcased plants and flowers from both tropical, desert, and high elevation climates. When I entered the first house which was the high elevation, I was blown away! Just how accurate the feeling was and the tropical sounds that accompanied it.










And of course there was more throughout the gardens, but you can see it all for yourself 😊.













melissa