Wednesday…
All along the Eastern Shore,
put your circuits in the sea
This is what the world is for:
making electricity
“Electric Feel” by MGMT
All along the Eastern Shore,
put your circuits in the sea
This is what the world is for:
making electricity
“Electric Feel” by MGMT
Last night marked my first ever trip to the urban landscape of Franklin, PA for a fireworks watching excursion. Usually we go to Clarion’s river hill for this, but there was just no way (save for teleportation) that I was going to be able to go to work and make it home in time on Thursday. However, despite changing tradition, we actually had a better time of it in Franklin. The show itself was more spectacular and the location – the back lawn of one of my dad’s coworkers – provided a much better view of the festivities. My cousin, Seth, took it upon himself to orchestrate a miniature fireworks display before the main event started. All of these sparkly lights provided me plenty of opportunity to play with the Nikon D80 work just bought me. I’ve made a really lovely Flickr set, which you can view here thanks to the wonder of Flash!
Disney and Pixar have an unbelievable hit on their hands with WALL-E. This fact is absolutely certain and was relatively easy to see even before the film had been released. However, after seeing it on opening day this past Friday, I can resolutely declare that it was one of the best films I’ve EVER had the pleasure of watching.
It wasn’t really particularly profound. I don’t think it really did anything groundbreaking as far as technical details were concerned. No major filmic accomplishments. WALL-E just told a simple story gloriously well – something that seems so rare these days. Case in point: its box office weekend competitor was Wanted which receives notoriety for looking amazing…and not a lot else. WALL-E set out with a basic directive to tell a lushly rendered story of robotic love in a consumer waste dystopia and do so humorously and intelligently.
And it excelled on all accounts. From impeccably executed geek jokes to rather dead-on science to a heart melting love story, the film was entirely ace.
If you haven’t yet been to see WALL-E in the theatre, go now. Don’t wait. And go again. And maybe again. Buy it on DVD. You’ll want to, I promise.
Kate, Dusty and I have started a brand new blog on the topic of the technological singularity. It’s just getting off the ground now, but I hope it can very quickly become a real time capsule of this dawning of a new era. Or whatever it turns out to be.
The singularity is coming: do you know where your children are?
For the first time in my life, I’ve become one of the “regulars” in a restaurant. Kate took me out for sushi last night – a “you fly, I buy” idea – and once we were seated, our familiar waitress said “You are not wearing your glasses tonight. I recognized her, but I wasn’t sure who you were!”
After the drink orders were placed, Kate and I looked at each other, chuckled and realized that we had been to Sushi Yama enough times to have made an impression. It actually felt great! Now, if we could only secure a table as our own…
…you wake up, turn your head to the side and realize that things are going to somehow, someway be alright. This morning was one of those.
Could you imagine?
Someone secretly living in your closet…for a year!
How did this man, in Japan – a space cramped country, have a closet that he never opened for over a year?! This is going to be the plot of the next Japanese movie to come here, I guarantee it.
I hate 12 hour fasting for blood tests. At this point, I’m too hungry to feel hungry and this apple is mostly making me nauseous. Oh, health!
I spent three hours of my day in the lovely Chester River Hospital Center. (Yes, that name sounds absurd to me, too.) I was there for a CT scan because I’ve recently been plagued by recurring, nauseating migraine headaches. We got to CT scan levels today because yesterday’s migraine included a loss of visual acuity in my right eye. I’ve made a helpful diagram to describe this anomaly:
On top of the awesome vision issues, my right arm went numb today while I was at my desk, prompting me to freak the fuck out and – at Alex’s commendable prodding – head to the ER across the street. So, this leads then to my CT scan, which came up normal. And this amazing look:
Afterwards, I headed back to the eye specialist in Easton that I was sent to yesterday for a “visual field” test. I entertained/alarmed Kate by wearing an eye patch back out into the waiting area. (And got kicked for my humor!) Tomorrow: MRI in Easton, hopefully in the morning. Kate’s dad seems to think I had a mini-stroke, so we’ll see what the finer imaging turns up. :/
For awhile now I’ve been quietly dealing with a nihilistic quality in the very core of myself. Maybe I was consciously aware of its presence and maybe I wasn’t, at least not entirely. This little voice deep down inside has been there, always causing me to negate the value of things I really want to hold valuable. For example, I may think “Man, that is a truly beautiful Mercedes…the lines, the color, the presentation of the design language!” but my personal Nietzche will then counter with “Think of the resources depleted to build it and the money required to buy it…it’s destroying the world! How dare you care!” I get really, really excited about art and design and purpose-built beauty – but then find myself feeling guilty because of the impracticality of these things, or the attention they may draw away from what I perceive to be bigger concerns.
Of course, some things fall outside of this sphere. Love, friendship, family, humor, sadness, sex, achievement and learning are just a few “pure” elements that cannot fall victim to my analytical dissection. They do, though, occasionally get lost in the silt clouds as I muddy the waters with near-constant mental struggles.
How sad, right? How utterly ridiculous…how arrogant to think that it’s my sworn duty to worry about “the BIG picture” at all times.
Well, enough is enough. I can’t be rid of my nihilism – indeed, I think it’s probably one of my most important characteristics, one that creates a tension that’s extraordinarily valuable for viewing my world – but I can decide that some things are worthy of passionate exploration, devotion and interest. I think I’m going to start listing these things as they come to me and I’m not going to allow myself to question them.
Today’s items that matter are:
Since I’m at work, I should probably stop and, you know…work. But, this list had to come out this morning while it was still fresh and felt important.
Frankly, I feel better already. 🙂