So although I probably won’t buy one for a while, I’m super excited for the Wii. I really hope a friend does; so I can mooch off them. The biggest problem is that I’m don’t have a TV, and although I could (responsibly) afford either the TV or the Wii, both both would be too much. What a good name, by the way.
I was sitting around last night and the tv was on with the sound off. I saw a commercial for Call of Duty, and squealed with joy (embarrassingly enough). I’ve never been a fan of console games, and I’ve always blamed the controllers. And wished that they were more realistic. Enter Wii. I keep pretending that I’m playing the thing and imagining how fun it must be.
Today at dinner someone mentioned that she’d gone with her friend to get a Wii at midnight. I pumped my fist and exclaimed, again to the derision of those around me. I don’t know what it is about this thing, but it sure has me happy. I think I’m going to have to deny myself the experience of playing one now because of how much it’s been on my mind lately. Take that super nerd materialism.
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Last night I dreamt that I was eating a sandwich of Orchids. Little purple and white ones. The dream was otherwise pretty down to earth (I also don’t remember much more of it). But I kept pointing out to people that there were orchids between the bread of the sandwiches. Nobody seemed to find it out of the ordinary.
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So I’ve lately been tiring of the internet, or at least tiring of sitting on my good old powerbook thumbing through tabs in safari all day. (I still love you internet, just don’t have enough time.) After not reading any of them at all this week, I slimmed down my bloglines subscriptions from 200+ to 75. It’s an interesting dilemma to me, what the right balance between input and output should be. Sometimes reading through things and being up to par with what’s going on is a great help and inspiration, but then it can take up enough time as to suffocate everything else that you want to be doing. Should there be a balance between reading and writing? And to transcend a level of my puny existence, a balance between computer and life?
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NFS Grundtvig on ‘the black school’: alien to everything in a higher sense natural and alive, and devoid of everything that ennobles, but full of everything that can degrade, dull and corrupt a person
. He’s referring to the university system in mid 19th century denmark, which is likely irrelevant to much in education today, but I’m guessing there’s some overlap in his laments on education and education today. I’d take a folk-school education system. Grundtvig is behind a lot of the institutions that have been mainstay so far in my life, and seems like a guy worth further looking into.
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This is a thought dump. I opened a text file this morning just to enter some things that crossed my mind while laying in bed, and voilà.
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Bluegrass. My tastes in music have traveled a ways. I think that the intersections of folkie/bluegrass (Bill Monroe, Steve Earle, William Elliott Whitmore) and more conventional rock (Ryan Adams, Mando Diao, Ted Leo) is probably the best music around right now. Glenn Gould just plays a mean piano. Listened to this past week:
I’ve also been going at the mandolin lots. I haven’t found any sort of teacher, so whatever I learn is through books or the internet. But I’m figuring things out, and although I’m really no good, I think I’ve made it over the not really knowing anything even though I practice a little every day hump. The thing that I hate the most is that I’m blind as far as reading music goes. I have tablature figured out; that’s how most mandolin tunes come anyway. But I can’t take the notes on the page and turn them into a coherent tune without hearing the piece. Thankfully I can find videos and mp3s of people playing stuff on the internet, without those I’d really be struggling.
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I used to take it as a clue that when my hair started getting into my eyes I needed to have it cut. Now, if you haven’t seen me recently1, it curls itself into near dreadlocks. So if I pull one down the hair goes about to the tip of my nose, but otherwise curls up nice about an inch above my eyebrows. I think my new hint should be people I don’t know asking me if they can touch my hair because of how curly it is. But all the same, I’m impressed enough with the curls to hesitate chopping them off. Bright orange dreadlocks might be a bit much, but they aren’t really dreadlocks yet, seeing as I can shower, shampoo, and pull them out (Only to have them dry and curl up tighter).
1 Me about a year ago I’ve since chopped it all off and it’s grown back to about the same place.
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At the dinner table one time the topic came to be how guys carry everything around in their pants. Cue penis joke. I thought about, but didn’t make one. I’m not much of a funny man, and surely I have better taste. The subject lasted longer than it should have, and the joke was inevitably made. I think it was at about when someone mentioned that boys carry their lives around in their pants, whereas girls had very little pocket space due to the tight nature of their fashionable attire. At the next lull, an unfortunate and misunderstood party, having apparently missed the meaning of the previous remarks, mentioned how his legs were constantly chafing due to all that he kept in his pants. It may have been that this poor soul was lacking in the art of conversation often enough to place himself into situations bearing such ridicule frequently, thus each time the reaction of those familiar with it increases. But it was a laugh.
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Now having read all this stuff, I’m sort of wondering what the hell you’re thinking. I’m not quite exactly sure why I have a blog website, why I write things on the internet for anyone to see. I’ve been wondering about it lately. Am I vain and looking for validation from outside parties? (likely one of the worst self-condemnations I could make, I’ve always been very proud of my righteous self-sufficiency and independence from others’ opinions.) Do I think that having a website makes me cool in some odd way? (I’m doubting that it does.) I made this site because I had chanced upon free lifetime web hosting (which has been great, btw!), but I’m not sure what’s compelling me to keep up this website. I’m not having a mid internet-life crisis or anything, just thinking about things.
If you’ve actually read all this stuff, and aren’t too shy to come out of the closet about it, leave a comment or send me an email. I’m wondering what I want to do with this place in the future.
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