I Feel Like An Unmade Bed

This is my 100th SITP blog post.  Damn.  I created this blog freshman year, sitting in the common room of The Ocho because a few friends made blogs also.  I never thought that I would keep this going for 2 1/2 years, but I'm really glad that I did.  Looking back at my earlier entries is like opening up a short-term time capsule and discovering a photo of myself when I had long grimy hair.  Actually, I still have long grimy hair.  But I think I'm gonna cut it tomorrow because I'm about to head to Croatia for spring break, and I heard that the cool Croatians all have short hair.

I just re-read the previous paragraph and am in minor disbelief.  If you told me all this when I was 18, I never would have believed it.

I had been planning on doing something special for the 100th post, like throwing a walrus party or something.  But in order to do that, I would first have to find out what that means and then I would have to actually set it up.  Maybe for the 200th post.  I think I'm just gonna chill on the walrus party for now.

Today I went inside the Colosseum and the Forum with Ryan and Travis.

I would really like to write something wholly coherent and meaningful, but my mind itches whenever I try to concentrate and plan out my thoughts.  It's easier and more realistic to type the words as they take shape; unfortunately, this results in several quasi-paragraphs of incompletely intersecting ideas and aspirations.  And sometimes phrases that don't make sense, like several quasi-paragraphs of incompletely intersecting ideas and aspirations.  And repitition.  Also, walrus parties.

 Naples

 Pamphili (Rome)

 Florence

 Naples

Amsterdam

But Really it Doesn't Matter

Stale thoughts/Housekeeping

It’s unusual that most truck drivers aren’t multilingual, considering that they have countless hours to listen to language-learning cds.

Do I know stuff more than Socrates did back in the day?

Sunglasses company:  Tinted Vision

Is there a law that says don’t break the law?  If not, then can’t we break them?  

My age group always matters to me the most.

What does it mean to be mature?  Is it necessarily a good thing to be mature for your age?

An emergency is something that emerges.

We read Mark Twain in school and the teacher had to explain to us that it was ok to say “nigger” when reading the text in class because it was in the context of the story.  There was always one kid who didn’t feel comfortable saying it.  He probably became the most racist one in the class.

I see so many people, but so few pregnant women.  

RFD:  14.5% of men are at least 6 feet tall; 58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are at least 6 feet tall

It feels good to not be nervous.

If Martians abducted Seinfeld and let him perform stand up, they wouldn’t think he was very funny.

Soundtrack

• There Is Love in You - Four Tet
• Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins
• Be the Void - Dr. Dog
• When You Land Here, It's Time to Return - Flake Music
• Unreleased Basement Recordings - Iron & Wine
• In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
• Days - Real Estate

View Finder

Lines Dissecting

Some things I’ve done so far:

·        listened to “The Zephyr Song” in a car with 3 Italians that barely spoke any English

·        arrived (very) late to my first class

·    got a free orange from a friendly fruit stand lady

·    said "I'll meet you at the Coliseum"

Some things I haven’t done so far:

·         slept for more than 6 hours in a night

·         paid to use public transportation – apparently this is the norm

·         washed my clothes (Italians don’t use dryers, this makes me nervous)

·         memorized my roommates names

“this new convection has left no wondering why

i can't concern myself with ordinary tripe.

like what's this morning's paper got to say

and which brand of coffee to make”

-James Mercer 

Gastromancy

"Don't try."

-Bukowski's epitaph

We can never really know what it felt like to be alive a couple hundred years ago; we can only make inferences based on available artifacts, like texts and photographs.  In the future, people will have a much better understanding of what it is like to live in this time period.  

Our society spends increasingly enormous amounts of time inputting information online.  This data creates a sketch of our thought processes and thus, who we are.  Think about the last few things you typed into Google, or your most recent tweet.  The internet is collecting unbelievable amounts of information, all the time.  

I’m not sure exactly how future humans will be impacted by the accessibility of historical data, but it will certainly allow them to become more in tune with the human culture as it evolves.

Guess what the colors represent (answer below)

“Can I ask you a question?” means “I’m going to ask you an uncomfortable question.”

I have trouble cutting my fingernails because they fly everywhere, instead of falling straight into the trash can.  There should be some kind of mechanism that solves this problem.

What "beg the question" actually means

I don’t know anything.  Or, more precisely, I don’t know whether or not I know anything, or can know anything.  I am enslaved by my ignorance, I think.   

RFD:  Lauryn Hill and Zach Braff went to the same high school.  Apparently everyone really liked Lauryn, but Zach was kind of a jerk.  And Lauryn went to Zach’s Bar Mitzvah.

The starving African children don’t give a shit whether or not you finish your vegetables.

Tattoos?  I can barely commit to a haircut.  

The Better Business Bureau is bullshit

Z e n t i p:  Spend the first and last 5 minutes of every day meditating.

The more I learn, the more wonderful things become

The graphic above shows which side of the road countries drive on.  Red is right, blue is left.  What did you think it was?

Sonic Smoke Rings

“There seems to be no alternative to accepting some sort of incomprehensible quality to existence.  Take your pick.  We all fluctuate delicately between a subjective and objective view of the world, and this quandary is central to human nature.”

-Douglas Hofstadter

Open Your Mind

When I’m actively listening to music, I tend to start bobbing my head and dancing to myself; I let the song move me.  Unfortunately, the more I dance, the more difficult it becomes to focus on the music.  Enjoying music is a struggle between focus and dance.  Reminds me of life…

A typeface is not a font.

One man’s brainwashing is another man’s education.

My Plan

1. Find out the full name of a stranger
2. Make a shirt with his name on it
3. Sit down across from him in a public place
4. Act nonchalant and avoid eye contact

Prices should be listed post-tax.  I don’t care how much money the store receives, I just care about how much I have to pay.

Stephen Hawking's Kids Book

Is it legal to not have a name?

RFD:  The title of this post comes from a Pitchfork article.

As a kid, I was shocked to learn that the computer processor – not the monitor – was the brains of the machine.  I only had experience dealing with the big bright display screen, and had given little thought to the dull box tucked under the desk.  This is similar to learning that although the eyes take in light, it is mostly the brain that is responsible for interpreting it into meaningful images.

The heath bar is the most underrated candy bar.

No Fat Jokes

Anti-Mimetics

In between thinking and typing, I'm staring at the wall, directly above my laptop.  My class schedule is taped to the wall, ever-so-slightly tilted clockwise (but not flamboyant enough to warrant repositioning).  Six different classes are listed on the schedule, three of which are color-coded.  Management is green (for money),  Information Systems is yellow because it makes me slightly uncomfortable, and Transportation is pink because of how serious the material is.  The rest of my classes are unhighlighted because I only had three colors.


"Die 666 Kill Murder" is scribbled fiercely on top of the schedule.  I assume my friend - who has pseudo multiple personality disorder, one of whom is a sociopath - did this when I stepped out.


The white board on my desk is blank, my schedule is open, my pockets are empty.  Well, to be fair, I'm wearing pajamas.  In addition to being more comfortable than jeans or khakis, pajamas put me at ease.  The clothing that you wear affects that way that people treat you and how you feel about yourself.  Suits force others to take you seriously (to an extent), and pajamas allow me to embrace being done with work for the day and enjoy the rest of the night.


There is a poster of Tommy Sandoval ollieing a huge grass gap, hanging directly above my schedule.  Suspended mid-air, the photograph capture's Sandoval's brief weightlessness atop a piece of plywood.  With the paved run up behind him and the parking lot landing ahead, he is able to appreciate a split-second equilibrium where the present is the only thing that matters.


Our possessions are an extension of who we are.  The way we interact with our environment defines us.  Is there a reality independent of perception?

Source

“Smart phones are only as smart as the owner”

-Andre, Facebook status

Searching for Service

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are even dumber."

-George Carlin

Originality

I don’t want to change the world, I want to become it.

Good idea

While eating a chewy granola bar, my jar started getting tired.  I reasoned that the more I ate, the more energy I would get from the nourishment.  So I kept eating.

Putting the wrong key in the door is like nails on a chalkboard.

Tattoo idea:  "here" on one side, "now" on the other

There’s a big difference between doing good and doing well.

The original salute for the pledge (the Bellamy Salute) involved sticking one’s arm straight out, diagonally toward the ceiling.  The Nazis adopted it later.

The Sleeping Beauty Problem

There is a service at my school that allows students to participate in a mock interview in order to improve their interview skills.  I wonder what the interview process is like for the person applying to be a mock interviewer.  Does the applicant ask the questions?

"Inclination" is pretty popular, but no one uses the word “declination.”

Maybe cognitive inertia only exists because of cognitive inertia.

Oddihear