I keep one with me all the time, because, well, there are times when you will wish you had it with you. Besides, how will you know what times those are if you don't?
*
I go here twice a day, or maybe four times a day. Or six. Unless, of course, I just go home across the border.
*
I'm always telling you things, but don't try to tell me things back, because I'm not a good listener. I don't make a sound, but I try to be very loud. Sometimes I make you angry, but I can make you warm inside with a hug if you really need it. What am I?
*
I'm often well dressed, but I wouldn't be much fun at a party... At least I can keep you ready for one! What am I?
*
People look at me all the time, but I feel like nobody is actually paying me any attention. Maybe I need to open up a bit more. What am I?
*
Some people love me by getting rid of me, some people love me by hiding me away, and some people, well, they just don't deserve me. You'll sure miss me when I'm gone, though. What am I?
*
You only leave me behind when things are messy... but eventually, I'll be gone. Unless of course, you're on the moon. What am I?
*
You won't find me before 11, and if it's afternoon, you're out of luck. What am I?
*
Everybody has one, and everybody knows it, but some people do not like to admit they do. Some people want some other person's, and others are happy with what they have. The ones who haven't had it long aren't aware of how good theirs is. I get a new one every now and then, and sometimes it's a big deal, and sometimes it doesn't really matter.
Sorry if these are too vague, too obvious, or too... well, you'll know what I mean. I've never tried to make riddles before. Ask me if you want answers.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
I think that I haven't been able to blog as much (or at all) because I don't read books anymore. My main inspiration for writing is reading, and I've been stuck on page 157 of Dune Messiah since sometime during the summer, and on book 2 of The Brothers Karamazov since last December. I haven't determined if I enjoy being tortured by Dostoevsky or not.
*
Recently I was pondering why some things are so transient and others are so permanent. I was looking at my plate of finished spaghetti, and thought to myself about how if i put the plate outside for a week, the left over sauce would be gone, but the plate would remain. In fact, after a hundred years, the plate, or at least bits of it, would probably still be there, barring somebody going out of his way to destroy it. This lead me to wonder about permanent objects and transitory objects on a grand scale, a cosmic scale. If the spaghetti sauce and the plate are only separated by their differing transience, then any two objects or substances or merely "things that exist" are only thus separated. At the farthest ends of the spectrum lie pure energy like a photon, and pure matter. I concluded that energy and matter are only separated by transience, and that they are otherwise the same. Then I realized that this was also concluded many decades ago by Einstein.
*
One of my major concerns during the winter is of how to keep my feet warm in my apartment. The main problem that I face is that my feet, and in particular, the area around my toes, tend to sweat when they are covered. If I do not cover my feet, they become cold. If I cover my feet, they become sweaty, and then the effect of the cover diminishes until they become cold anyway. I have tried every combination of the following: socks, wool socks, fuzzy slippers, long pajamas which wrap over my feet, and placing a blanket over my feet. The most effective thus far was long pajamas and fuzzy slippers, since there tends to be enough cover, yet aeration as well. This was still not completely effective, though. Suggestions? Anything short of turning on the heat is good.
*
Last month one of the fire detectors in my apartment (not the one in my room) started making an intermittent beeping sound, indicative of waning battery power. The first day I heard this, I was lying in bed at about 11 in the morning trying to fall back asleep to avoid again realizing that I have a life to which I am enslaved when a loud and unexpected beep sounded. I was confused, but I did not allow the disturbance to rouse me, and I lay in bed for another half hour, waiting for this beep which occurred at an irregular interval of roughly every 140 seconds. Eventually, I got up, closed my door, then fell back asleep until 3 in the afternoon. When I woke up, the beeping had ceased. Of course, it continued again the next morning, and did not cease. As of today, the beeping has been going on for about 3 weeks, and I have grown so accustomed to the sound that I can sleep with my door open and not even notice it. It is as if the sound does not even happen. If I can learn to ignore something so obvious and irritating which could be easily solved by removing the battery from the ceiling contraption, I am probably one of the most lazy and accommodating people on the planet.
*
Skim milk tastes like blood.
*
Interesting things on my desk at this current moment: used Jasmine tea bag which I intend on reusing, two combination locks for which I do not remember the combination (Both are open, and I am afraid of closing either. This is ironic, since they are useless to me open or closed. Surely this means something philosophically.), a post-it on which I have written "Don't wait to be brought low, before you try to reach higher.", Dune Messiah dogeared on page 157, 4 packs of mint-flavored floss, both a N64 controller and a PS2 controller connected to their respective consoles (which are on the ground), half a can of cashew "halves & pieces" (Did you know that buying "halves & pieces" is cheaper than buying "whole"? It's cashews regardless of how complete they are... madness, I say.), 3 contact cases each containing a set of contacts, 4 sheets of loose-leaf with the 12 cranial nerves written on them repeatedly (I've already forgotten them), a bottle of prescription medication for migraine which actually worsens my migraines, my mouse on a mousepad on a mousepad (the bottom one has better traction with my desk, the top one has better smoothness for my mouse), and a random toothbrush, of which I do not know if it has been used, and if so, by me.
*
I've taken to watching movies like an addict in order to replace any sense of purpose or direction that I once had. What started as a desire to increase my film vocabulary (and kill time before going to sleep, like a young child who says "just 10 more minutes!!" while hunched over a book, flashlight under the pillow to continue whenever his mother's patience runs out) has become a necessity, as if not entering the world of a film with absurd plot twists and dues ex machinas would prevent me from moving forward into sleep and the next day of repeatedness. In some ways, I feel like more of a film connoisseur; I can understand why directors would take certain shots to help the audience understand a plot point, or the way that the camera is aimed a certain way in order to change the audience's impression of a scene, or how the music or the colors or the positioning of extras emphasizes or alters the mood. Unfortunately, life is not a movie.
*
I think what has changed in me since college is my vision of the future. Before, I could look in any direction and visualize a career, a family, a community, a life that I was in and had worked toward and enjoyed. I did not look at the present moment and extrapolate it. This is no longer. In some ways, I have become a man without hope. The feeling of knowing that something really exciting waits up around the next bend is no longer in me, nor has it been for some time. When I was young, the thought of watching cartoons after school kept me going during the day, the thought of a play date on the weekend kept me through the week. There are no such cartoons or play dates anymore, nor do their equivalents bring about the same sense of anticipation. Perhaps this is what is meant by the term "jaded", a concept which I had once considered impossible. At least I have something to do which takes up most of my time. I can't imagine what I would do if I did not even have that. I would like to think that I would find something interesting to look forward to, that I would find a goal and work toward it. Instead, I wonder what carrot-on-a-stick can bring me into the next month.
*
Recently I was pondering why some things are so transient and others are so permanent. I was looking at my plate of finished spaghetti, and thought to myself about how if i put the plate outside for a week, the left over sauce would be gone, but the plate would remain. In fact, after a hundred years, the plate, or at least bits of it, would probably still be there, barring somebody going out of his way to destroy it. This lead me to wonder about permanent objects and transitory objects on a grand scale, a cosmic scale. If the spaghetti sauce and the plate are only separated by their differing transience, then any two objects or substances or merely "things that exist" are only thus separated. At the farthest ends of the spectrum lie pure energy like a photon, and pure matter. I concluded that energy and matter are only separated by transience, and that they are otherwise the same. Then I realized that this was also concluded many decades ago by Einstein.
*
One of my major concerns during the winter is of how to keep my feet warm in my apartment. The main problem that I face is that my feet, and in particular, the area around my toes, tend to sweat when they are covered. If I do not cover my feet, they become cold. If I cover my feet, they become sweaty, and then the effect of the cover diminishes until they become cold anyway. I have tried every combination of the following: socks, wool socks, fuzzy slippers, long pajamas which wrap over my feet, and placing a blanket over my feet. The most effective thus far was long pajamas and fuzzy slippers, since there tends to be enough cover, yet aeration as well. This was still not completely effective, though. Suggestions? Anything short of turning on the heat is good.
*
Last month one of the fire detectors in my apartment (not the one in my room) started making an intermittent beeping sound, indicative of waning battery power. The first day I heard this, I was lying in bed at about 11 in the morning trying to fall back asleep to avoid again realizing that I have a life to which I am enslaved when a loud and unexpected beep sounded. I was confused, but I did not allow the disturbance to rouse me, and I lay in bed for another half hour, waiting for this beep which occurred at an irregular interval of roughly every 140 seconds. Eventually, I got up, closed my door, then fell back asleep until 3 in the afternoon. When I woke up, the beeping had ceased. Of course, it continued again the next morning, and did not cease. As of today, the beeping has been going on for about 3 weeks, and I have grown so accustomed to the sound that I can sleep with my door open and not even notice it. It is as if the sound does not even happen. If I can learn to ignore something so obvious and irritating which could be easily solved by removing the battery from the ceiling contraption, I am probably one of the most lazy and accommodating people on the planet.
*
Skim milk tastes like blood.
*
Interesting things on my desk at this current moment: used Jasmine tea bag which I intend on reusing, two combination locks for which I do not remember the combination (Both are open, and I am afraid of closing either. This is ironic, since they are useless to me open or closed. Surely this means something philosophically.), a post-it on which I have written "Don't wait to be brought low, before you try to reach higher.", Dune Messiah dogeared on page 157, 4 packs of mint-flavored floss, both a N64 controller and a PS2 controller connected to their respective consoles (which are on the ground), half a can of cashew "halves & pieces" (Did you know that buying "halves & pieces" is cheaper than buying "whole"? It's cashews regardless of how complete they are... madness, I say.), 3 contact cases each containing a set of contacts, 4 sheets of loose-leaf with the 12 cranial nerves written on them repeatedly (I've already forgotten them), a bottle of prescription medication for migraine which actually worsens my migraines, my mouse on a mousepad on a mousepad (the bottom one has better traction with my desk, the top one has better smoothness for my mouse), and a random toothbrush, of which I do not know if it has been used, and if so, by me.
*
I've taken to watching movies like an addict in order to replace any sense of purpose or direction that I once had. What started as a desire to increase my film vocabulary (and kill time before going to sleep, like a young child who says "just 10 more minutes!!" while hunched over a book, flashlight under the pillow to continue whenever his mother's patience runs out) has become a necessity, as if not entering the world of a film with absurd plot twists and dues ex machinas would prevent me from moving forward into sleep and the next day of repeatedness. In some ways, I feel like more of a film connoisseur; I can understand why directors would take certain shots to help the audience understand a plot point, or the way that the camera is aimed a certain way in order to change the audience's impression of a scene, or how the music or the colors or the positioning of extras emphasizes or alters the mood. Unfortunately, life is not a movie.
*
I think what has changed in me since college is my vision of the future. Before, I could look in any direction and visualize a career, a family, a community, a life that I was in and had worked toward and enjoyed. I did not look at the present moment and extrapolate it. This is no longer. In some ways, I have become a man without hope. The feeling of knowing that something really exciting waits up around the next bend is no longer in me, nor has it been for some time. When I was young, the thought of watching cartoons after school kept me going during the day, the thought of a play date on the weekend kept me through the week. There are no such cartoons or play dates anymore, nor do their equivalents bring about the same sense of anticipation. Perhaps this is what is meant by the term "jaded", a concept which I had once considered impossible. At least I have something to do which takes up most of my time. I can't imagine what I would do if I did not even have that. I would like to think that I would find something interesting to look forward to, that I would find a goal and work toward it. Instead, I wonder what carrot-on-a-stick can bring me into the next month.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
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