An airbag saved my life.

Even best friends fight sometimes.

2011-04-26T00:19:00.002-04:00

The extent of white lies in parenting

2011-03-28T20:25:00.003-04:00

Reverse Moore's Law

2011-03-03T14:08:00.001-05:00

Battery expansion.

the makeshift cartography of culture

2010-12-19T15:58:00.014-05:00

a representation of reality projected by two aligned mirrors. a quick and impulsive transaction between me and a distant foreign location. hello, record, goodbye. repeat. then find more bridges to build and burn. i started a collection of unfinished experiences; its non-linear and nourishes left-brain thinking. forget baseball cards, flimsy cardboard, and the patented molds of convenience.

the mashup of routines.

2010-11-09T14:47:00.004-05:00

In a long life, everything is chance.

2010-10-18T11:19:00.000-04:00

i don't care about anyone else
i'm a strong dead man, looking out for himself

let's get known/

2010-10-14T23:00:00.004-04:00

2010-09-20T12:04:00.004-04:00

Just lay the ring on the rail for the wheels to nullify.

The privilege of art.

2010-09-17T14:31:00.004-04:00

Pensive frame.

2010-09-17T10:55:00.004-04:00

I talked for hours to your wallet photograph, and you just listened.

You laughed enchanted by my intellect, or maybe you didn't.

Yard-sale leftovers.

2010-09-12T20:10:00.005-04:00

Someone's entire childhood summed up on the curbside.

igzz

2010-09-07T18:26:00.002-04:00

visual feedback

2010-09-01T18:11:00.003-04:00

urbanscape.

2010-09-01T14:58:00.001-04:00

Anyone else catch this?

2010-08-29T22:09:00.006-04:00

When Jon Stewart exposed Fox News' reporting fallacies some nights ago, his show played a brief video clip that has an analyst of the Fox Business Network holding up this makeshift kindergarten display.

Environmental Noise.

2010-08-29T20:44:00.005-04:00

Spent on rainy days.

2010-08-24T14:02:00.011-04:00

Buffer the distractions - a primitive mp3 player paired with Bose headphones to satisfy the occasional audiophile. Currently listening to the latest from blonde redhead, of montreal, and sufjan stevens. omitting the new interpol

I wish I saved up for rainy days because they're the hardest to be dry.

A beautiful day for driving.

2010-08-08T23:38:00.005-04:00

[via helmutsmits]

Noise Pollution Regulations

2010-08-04T17:16:00.005-04:00

What I really liked about working at the Geology Library at Syracuse University was that no one was allowed to talk out loud. However I was a charitable librarian so I let people whisper for free.

Current Resume:

1. Geology Library Noise Management President.

2. Yadda

The intersection of opinionated truth.

2010-07-26T21:34:00.003-04:00

@gay pride parade, 5th ave.

no love for the sis

2010-07-21T22:40:00.002-04:00

Misanthropic Transaction.

2010-07-19T22:10:00.003-04:00

the alphabetical ratio of

toy-yoda : toyota

1.0 : 1.1

poor lady

The solution for addictive drug problems.

2010-07-13T22:57:00.002-04:00

Makem look like candy.

Poverty-Stricken PostSecret

2010-07-13T16:14:00.002-04:00

2010-07-02T10:26:00.001-04:00

[via glitsche]

Painting with flavors.

2010-06-28T18:08:00.005-04:00

delicious. should be guixe's cookbook.

Representational Drawing

2010-06-28T14:21:00.002-04:00

Gotta practice on napkins.

the partitioning of lifetimes.

2010-05-29T22:03:00.006-04:00

Defining local cultures through its perspective of time. I wish I could be better informed of my individual culture for every quick glance aimed at the face of my analog watch.

storytelling schematics.

2010-05-06T11:22:00.007-04:00

the difference between stories from movies and real life is that one is prone to spoilers the other should just be told.

Google Maps visualization for envelopes.

2010-04-01T15:56:00.009-04:00

A weekend side project, collaborated with friend and classmate Rahul Mahtani, has been receiving a large wave of national attention due to some prominent blogs. Thank you to Darren Murph, Engadget, Yanko Design, and Mashable. If I knew it would have received this amount of exposure some things would have been made appropriately clearer:

The map can be adjusted in any orientation to accomodate for recipients located west of deliverer. In this case it would include a printed compass, to indicate the cardinal directions of North, South, East, and West. Only the text should retain original orientation for legibility.

Let me know what you think!

Blurring the health-wealth gradient.

2010-02-28T22:47:00.003-05:00

Formal rants.

Recent studies have shown that the effectiveness of placing calorie labels on fast-food menus to curb obese consumers' calorie intake are mixed with varied results. Only one conclusion was drawn - calorie count labels are effective for consumers of the upper tier of the economic spectrum. This leads to a general assumption that lower-income consumers lack adequate health awareness, citing deficient education as the root problem.

The timeline of social status indicators.

Physical body > physical clothing > Updates (digital clothing)
We now wear our status updates.

Obesity, like whiter skin, was once sought after for its socio-economic status of prosperity. This has dissolved when the relationship between the condition and poverty became convoluted. Now, its the logo on your sweater that is the indicator of status, not your body. When the primary indicator of social status through physical appearance expired it was replaced by branding through threaded logos. That green crocodile badged on your sweater symbolizes opulence. Tomorrow's indicator of status will be more aligned with the twitter ideology - its the optimized convenience of micro-updating.

McHealth

So how can we prioritize the service of education above awareness campaigns in America's never-ending battle against obesity? Awareness campaigns against crime are effective to some degree of course, but isn't it ironic how education is provided once detained and shoved into jail-cells? The root problem is directly tackled only after a misconduct has been committed. What if these awareness campaigns were more attuned to the culture and methodology of educating? Can the McDonald's playground become the much-needed platform for an innovative tutoring service for children of lower-income households? Instead of calorie counts on fast-food menus, why can't it be an educational fact? What if the unwrapping of whoppers was made more tedious so it may fit in step-by-step health education? Conceptualize a hybrid of hospitals and fast-food restaurants. Imagine if we made a drive-thru to quickly and conveniently get healthy, not unhealthy.

The specialization of basic human needs.

My German-designed Jetta can only fit an American cup in small size. But it is big enough to hold a large cup from Europe. What I am suggesting is a revaluation of our fundamental needs to tailor towards basic necessities in our eating lifestyle. It can parallel the course of netbooks which reached large commercial success by ironically stripping down features and specs to better accommodate the fundamental uses of a computer - email and web-browsing. It's customization for universal accommodation. How can fast food meals specialize in a stripped down meal sizes that is tailored for most of us who dont "need" the king-size proportions and extra-large soda cups and actively promote a healthier diet? Is the 99 calorie menu the next 99 cent menu? The 99-calorie meal could be a successful advertising campaign - studies show Starbucks with nearby Dunkin Donuts actually have increased sales when both vendors have calorie counter labels (the former having healthier options). It's similar to how in recent years many companies opted to wear the green badge to increase sales. It's the simple economics of green capitalism.

The evolution of urban function.

2010-02-17T13:45:00.007-05:00

Our existing public infrastructure is resistant to quick changes and modifications. As political and social agendas evolve, clever ways to update existing infrastructures are needed. This is NYC's attempt - their initiative involves converting parking meters into bike racks.

Decapitate meter heads> weld circular rings> remove parking spots> unclog nyc streets> encourage greener transportation> play catchup to the efficiency of urban european lifestyle.

The human medium.

2010-02-12T15:50:00.010-05:00

An artist had recently started an innovative fundraiser by tattooing a dot for every casualty in the Operation Iraqi Freedom. Civilian casualties will be marked with ultraviolet ink, which is invisible until exposed to ultraviolet light. This creatively uses the human body as a medium for data visualization. What do we want marked on our body and for what purposes? Personal achievements? Social statements? Secrets? Advertisements? This is the single-generation heirloom - a self-given inheritance that transcribes personally important values into both tangible and intangible properties.

The rising currency of focus.

2010-01-20T22:54:00.019-05:00

I wish I invested more into focus several years ago before it got big. Rushed decisions in investment planning have left me in the red, gasping for a perceived useful value to make for myself. I'm desperately seeking a billion dollar bailout to recuperate, function, breathe.

The following is a paragraph extracted from a source that I cannot quite remember. However, I decided to share it without due citations because it brought up a very interesting point:

"Before the Internet, most professional occupations required a large body of knowledge, accumulated over years or even decades of experience. But now, anyone with good critical thinking skills and the ability to focus on the important information can retrieve it on demand from the Internet, rather than her own memory. On the other hand, those with wandering minds, who might once have been able to focus by isolating themselves with their work, now often cannot work without the Internet, which simultaneously furnishes a panoply of unrelated information — whether about their friends’ doings, celebrity news, limericks, or millions of other sources of distraction. The bottom line is that how well an employee can focus might now be more important than how knowledgeable he is. Knowledge was once an internal property of a person, and focus on the task at hand could be imposed externally, but with the Internet, knowledge can be supplied externally, but focus must be forced internally."

Wait, so is knowledge prone to not being future proof? This is something that no analyst could have forecast. The skill of maintaining focus will increasingly become more important as access to knowledge becomes more convenient. In this age, complex information architecture that houses an infinite weight of knowledge can be managed and accessed by a simple interface of a text field, a "search" button, and an easy click conducted by your index finger. As useful knowledge shifts toward external sources, our reliance on the internal capability to focus is heightened to an uncharted level. This was unpredictable until only very recently, but has me very well regretting not investing more heavily into the aptitude bank of focusing when growing up. So how long can you focus for? I, for one, cannot even wait to eat this slice of cold pizza that I just put into the microwave. Why can't it warm up any faster? I swear my stomach is going absolutely crazy.

The art of museuming.

2010-01-19T11:24:00.018-05:00

De Stijl, as demonstrated by this Piet Mondrian piece, has a style strongly dictated by rectilinear shapes and primary colors.

Cusbism and Picasso's variable perspective.

This exploration of primitive art by a forward-thinking Cezanne was one of the more famous pieces exhibited at the Philly museum.

Classic Van Gogh.

A Rosso sculpture in a glass cage, with an added layer of glare for extra protection.

From Monet's poplar series. These trees would be cut down shortly after he painted them.

Degas' ballerina sculpture - the incorporation of other materials made it very innovative for a sculpture.

Another Monet piece. My lens is very sharp and the picture is in focus, but it's hard to tell when photographing impressionistic paintings.

This is what Van Gogh saw when he peered outside of his asylum window.

Whistler, with an added bright dot from the focus light of my camera.

Urban Experiences.

2010-01-11T00:44:00.024-05:00

Adjusting the gradients in living transparency. Its quite often that we find the juxtaposition between public and private spaces prone to tension. There is an interesting fluctuation between personal and private spaces in urban environments.

A visual biography. A more authentic avatar of a person is forged when studying living spaces with higher object density. In such case, the relationship of object placement and the designations of "zones" that appear in wall estate helps to create a visual biography. It's storytelling through the prioritization in layering.

An observational introduction. In America, the quickest way to get to know someone would probably be opening his/her bathroom cabinet. (this ones mine)

Social buffering. Awkward elevator rides with strangers often have us scrambling for our cellphones to set up a social buffer. I wonder how these Tokyo subway riders protect themselves from the feeling of vulnerability in tight spaces when reaching for pockets to grab a cellphone wouldn't really alleviate any of that.

photog credit Michael Wolf (excludes bathroom pic).

Thoughts that look good on paper

2009-12-31T16:23:00.008-05:00

The self-discussions of the mind, the typography of thoughts, the veins of cognitive articulation, all penciled in on a spiral-bound notebook. Beautiful.

The mathematics of metaphors.

2009-12-29T13:39:00.007-05:00

T0 unleash the mind's creative energy, multiply metaphor by the speed of thought. Author James Geary discusses the subtle connections between literal and visual metaphors and how it affects our behaviors, perceptions, and trends.

Downtown ruralism.

2009-12-28T03:44:00.019-05:00

Some snapshots from Boston.

There is something about this city that is quite indescribable. Every street corner is a living memoir of contemporary urbanism that seamlessly blends in its rich history. It's a successful city judged by a metaphorical resale value by somehow retaining the American dream - it successfully provides a healthy urban lifestyle that is conventionally prone to the many symptoms entitled to metropolitan degradation.

New York is such a lonely city. I know because I worked there last August.

The privilege of net subsidization.

2009-12-27T03:00:00.002-05:00

Internet service providers and prominent websites will soon begin to offer subsidization services that bypasses moneymaking inconveniences, such as advertisements, offering affluent users an E-Z Pass in web browsing. Who will pay for such services? To what extent are we willing to streamline the access of information, which can ultimately be obtained for free? What is the price of convenience?

Those who are financially privileged will pay more money to harness the fullest extent of the internet. As a result, the richer 10% will have access to augmented reality while the rest of the world copes with the constraints of normal living. Normal living, youre just not satisfactory anymore.

Environments that shift purposes.

2009-12-23T17:01:00.022-05:00

My sisters maintain a cluttered room. If they sell all their clothes they could be millionaires! I wish I could drop out of school for instant retirement. Or invent the silent velcro and be content with the rest of my life...

More imperative and pressing tasks can be found closer to the front edge of the desk, creating a taxonomy of least-to-most important and least-to-most ignored tasks, through thoughtless sorting.

13" laptop, 24" monitor, sennheiser headphones, electric blanket, cellphone, post-it notes, sharpie, a good source of light, and a comfortable pillow. All on my bed. Set it up in a corner, and close all the curtains - it's a makeshift winter break workspace. Or sleep place...

Certain spaces can accommodate the fluctuation between active and inactive states. Being on top of a comfortable bed is only temporarily suitable for working on the computer. As my posture gradually devolves, the body and mind is repurposed, almost unknowingly, to a handicapped state of physical and mental immobility. I turn into a living sculpture. I am assuaged into sleep - a college student's bedtime story. As I drift away into unconsciousness my computer detects my inactivity and the dual screens turn black as they join me in my sleep. Who needs a teddy bear to sleep with when you have two computer monitors? Expensive, rectilinear, inorganic, and fragile, they are the perfect buddy to accompany me, and sometimes the remedy for a night of good rest.

Can you feel the music? Can you see the words?

2009-11-24T00:02:00.015-05:00

How can we allow the visual and tactile sensory to participate in the evaluation of music? When looking at these 3-d printed models, what kinds of sounds can you hear with your eyes? Can you locate the sequencing of the conventional verse-chorus-verse-bridge model from its texture and form? Can music include a physical aspect and enhance the personal listening experience? One of my favorite times to listen to music occurs when walking down a busy street and simply observing common activities that take place on a cold Syracuse street. If the input relayed from my eyes can heighten the quality of the music listening experience, then listening to music can be a more holistic experience when partnered with more than just one physical sensory.

computer crash and burn.

2009-11-18T17:31:00.015-05:00

My eyes are always burning because I've been staring too long at the screen for the past two weeks. It's a rectangle in landscape orientation, with the luxury of adjustable brightness, a glass cover for more prominent colors, and a relatively wide-viewing angle. We are all viewing extremely slight pixelation right now, but it's just really hard to notice because there are thousands of them. It's an urban neighborhood of pixels, with a city ban on skyscrapers (pixels can't poke out of the screen!). What I really want out of looking at my laptop screen is a window - perhaps with some light autumn breeze blowing in, and the occasional moment when a stronger gust of wind gently wraps a cloth curtain around my face. I want to feel the local outdoor temperature projecting onto my fingers as it types a digital message on facebook. I want to feel and experience the elegance of physicality in the digital domain where it is hostilely omitted. Instead I get this feeling that digital information is spewing all over me whenever opening the web-browser. Should there be a regulated gatekeeper to assist the world-wide-web consumer in their browsing experience? But then who and what has the authority to regulate the dissemination of information? I think this is what the internet-neutrality issue is coping with right now actually. Maybe the answer for enhancing the digital experience isn't contingent on a gatekeeper, but relies more on the harmony of physical and digital interfacing. Do you want your relationship with the internet to be streamlined but proprietary? Or decentralized but open-source? Nothing is clear, but it still needs to be re-thought. Out of my own frustration I would like to have my computer screen cut out and have the screen-less laptop pasted onto my bedroom wall. After doing so, I would then carve a hole through the wall to make a real window where the screen should be. Surely, that must create the optimal conditions for computer-human interaction. I want to truly view whats out there and maybe even go outside.

The perpetual cycle.

2009-11-15T23:20:00.001-05:00

Arizona curled up with California, then she tried to hide the whole thing from New Mexico.

New Mexico has always hated California even though he knew that Arizona wore the pants. He got loaded nad he started throwing punches, the poor Injun never had a chance.

Scissors cut paper
Paper covers rock
Rock crushes scissors
Scissors fall apart.

metaphorical 100th post.

2009-11-14T23:23:00.001-05:00

i was getting ready to be a threat, i was getting set for my accidental suicide, the kind where no one dies, no one looks too surprised. and then you realize that you're riding on the para-success of a heavy-handed metaphor and a feeling like you've been here before. cause you've been here before, then a word washed to shore.

It was anything but hear the voice that says we're all basically alone.

2009-11-03T02:41:00.006-05:00

And despite what all his studies had shown,
that what's mistaken for closeness is just a case of mitosis.
And why do some show no mercy while others are painfully shy?
Tell me doctor, can you quantify?
He just wants to know the reason why.

- chicago's best-kept secret, andrew bird

fictional history or silly fact?

2009-11-02T14:14:00.000-05:00

I read an article just earlier where someone ridiculous was claiming that the first shoe was invented because someone during the ancient times stuck his/her foot inside a rabbit and became a faster runner.

silly i know, but world-changing.

The way doors can open and people just walk in.

2009-07-05T18:53:00.006-04:00

It's been way too long but many doors are finally opening, and many of them are the automatic-sensor type where you don't even have to lift your arms to push open so its actually really easy to walk through. If it isn't I push the handicap button.

Something that I very much regret.

2009-05-22T03:36:00.002-04:00

Ever since first term of sophomore year, I get a weekly email from the GreenBuilders student council. I only signed up to get an oatmeal cookie at their information booth and to be honest it didn't even taste that good. I was young and naive, now I know better.

I am an American acquarium drinker.

2009-05-07T00:26:00.002-04:00

One of the best songs ever written. Ever. Did I mention ever?

Take off your band-aids because I dont believe in touchdowns, what was I thinking when I said "Hello". I am trying to break your heart, I am trying to break your heart.

Reverse globalization.

2009-04-28T17:06:00.010-04:00

I envy those futuristic thinkers in corporate positions who are allowed to roam around with their creative minds and conceptualize how the world might possibly be in 15 years. If I were in their shoes I would tell my company that the world will finally be united - in panic that is. Everyone is attempting to imitate the United States culture of excessive consumerism, but this ideal is sustainable when only a minority of the global population are involved. Backwards engineering and second-hand consumerism will be very important for products and ideas in the near future. In fact, it wouldn't be too outrageous to say that the United States will begin exploring efficiency in consumer practices and adopt business models that are naturally adapted by poorer nations. Their adaptation and implementation of modern technology is often ironically more efficient, innovative, and inventive, than what their wealthier inventors had originally intended it to be.

We live in the age of empowerment through the form of digital media. Billions of people will have joined the the global middle class, thus exposing the flaws of traditional social hierarchy - the world is becoming flat once again, sorry Columbus but your world-changing insight has expired.

Two letters of separation.

2009-04-28T09:12:00.007-04:00

Humor and Human. Also, the in-between "and" includes the two differing letters so it makes it seem like they were always meant to be together.

Understanding social etiquette on campus.

2009-04-26T14:21:00.007-04:00

This morning as I walked onto campus some girl smiled at me. then she said, "oops, wait. nevermind, totally thought you were someone else." Did she really just take back a smile from me? is that even allowed? I guess smiles are pretty rare these days - it should never be used accidentally to prevent wasting them.

Connectivity empowers?

2009-04-22T18:07:00.011-04:00

Cellphone = 73% of my identity. However, I would still like an excuse to switch off my phone every once in a while because the fact that anyone can reach me at anytime is a daunting notion. But what would I then do with just 27% of the remaining identity? I might as well change my name from Yofred to 5087350340. But then how do you create a nickname from an impersonal list of 10 digits? Nicknames would then cease to exist. Okay, so I may be joking, but isn't it ridiculous how much privacy we forfeit for convenience and standardization's sake?

inventing a language.

2009-04-19T18:46:00.009-04:00

I can't freestyle this.

2009-04-16T23:33:00.008-04:00

I want to say so much more than I have the capacity to, but billions of words are held hostage by my incapability to speak basic sentences. These unspoken words could have been stringed together to create sentences which would eventually form spoken paragraphs, and maybe even have snowballed into something so big that it could have changed my entire life course. Since I can’t say “time-out” to temporarily pause life, like a fourth-grader on a school playground, and don’t have fingers nimble enough to quickly browse through a thesaurus, the representation of myself is largely dependent on my confidence, or lack of, in oral communication. Forget personal fitness trainers - people like to judge you more by words than physical appearance. So, how much does it cost to rent a personal teleprompter for the day? Every day?

Loopholes in psychology.

2009-04-13T00:48:00.003-04:00

They say that the best way to cure a depression is to clean up your room, because by doing so it naturally makes you feel more optimistic about the future. Well, my room is dirtier than ever but I don't think the future has ever looked this bright. But I do wish that my room was clean enough for me to find my car keys in this mountain of mess, that would be kind of nice.

repost.

2009-04-12T03:29:00.001-04:00

Compiled autobiography [6-10 years old]

When I was six I envied my grandparents because I thought that the oldest people were also the happiest, just because they lived longer than everyone else and had fun for over a hundred years. Eventually, I would learn that no one truly wants to age and that the eldest are among the loneliest, but when you’re young time wasn't mean to be understood.

When I was seven I thought that shadows were an indicator of how tall I would eventually grow up to be. To this day, depending on the time and how close the sun is to the horizon, I still wish that this childish claim would come true.

When I was eight I lied to my six-year-old sister that she was adopted. But it was only after I explained to her the definition of “adoption” that she ran to “our” mom and started crying. Karen is not an adopted child.

When I was nine I made sure I didn't rub my eyes during sad movies even when they were in a desperate need of an itch. Otherwise people might have assumed that I was crying, which of course was reserved for little boys and I was much older than that.

When I was ten someone gave our family a jack russel terrier named coco. My two sisters and I had decided to make up a birthday for her since it was unknown and we felt so bad. "Everyone deserves a birthday!" "Yeah!" We unwisely picked July fourth, which turned out to be a horrible mistake because we were always too distracted with the upcoming fireworks, resulting in us forgetting her birthday year after year. Sorry Coco. About seven years later we would give her away to another family. After a short while, she ran away from them and rumor has it that a wolf ate her. Sorry Coco.

Maybe a really late joke?

2009-04-07T18:55:00.003-04:00

Someone I barely know said that my breathe smells like fish today. I am looking at my calendar right now. It is not April 1st.

It's really smart to plan for emergencies.

2009-04-02T17:50:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, my friends family had to evacuate from their house because it started to fill up with smoke. Luckily, the fire was put out before any serious damages were inflicted. It wasn’t my family that evacuated, but it made me think of what I would have had grabbed before if I had to run out of a burning house.

1. Macbook
2. External hard drive
3. Ipod
4. Wallet
5. cellphone
6. Baseball card collection
7. Designer shoes
8. 24” flat-panel monitor
9. shoebox of tickets and stubs
10. pets if I had any
11. lucky shirt
12. lucky blanket
13. lucky pillow

That’s thirteen friggin things! I'm starting to think if I would have even escaped before the roof collapsed and the flames engulfed me. If each item takes an average of 10 seconds to find and collect, it would take an entire minute and thirty seconds just to finally start running out of the burning house! This made me think that I should only take the things that are really important to my own personal life, instead of just saving the things that hold the most monetary value. I could also increase my chances of survival if I just didn't value anything in life at all, but that's not very realistic, or maybe it is. For the sake of increasing my chances to escape from a burning home, I edited my list of things to save to just 4 of the more personal important items.

1. lucky shirt
2. lucky blanket
3. lucky pillow
4. pets if I had any

What would you save if you only had forty seconds?

population: 0

2009-03-24T22:53:00.008-04:00

i used to keep journals. id rather not reread it, but i do remember how at one young year of my life i wrote a detailed step-by-step plan on how to make my room its own legal state, but gave up on this ambitious goal when i couldn't figure out how to fit the 51st star on the american flag. it just sort of looked too awkward to make it worth giving my room the privilege of being its own state. to fix this problem i had to make it its own country instead, and it still exists today although no one lives there anymore.

I don't get it.

2009-03-23T11:31:00.002-04:00

Today I woke up extra early to do morning stretches, brushed my teeth extra hard, and took vitamin C, D, T and Z.

but somethings still wrong.

i might be wrong.

2009-02-09T13:26:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, during a phone conversation with an old friend, she began to recall her experiences in an earthquake some time ago, which had served to be an important life wake-up call. She claimed that if she had not survived right then, she knew she would not be going to Heaven and have ever since then changed her entire life around. While she was telling me this, the first thing I did was curse at myself for leaving my MacBook sitting on a very high desk and for just picking up a glass table from the local second-hand store.

Awkward.

2009-01-29T17:08:00.003-05:00

I don’t understand why because I haven’t watched an episode of Happy Days since 2001, but for some odd reason I always say “hey” exactly like the Fonz when I am caught off guard with a greeting.

Brewing ignorance.

2009-01-22T19:57:00.013-05:00

We live in an information revolution. The massive dissemination of information on the internet has changed so much about the way we live and how news is being perceived. Online information aggregating websites such as Digg and Wikipedia provide a democratic method to the distribution of information. And it wouldn’t be too farfetched too hint that Obama won because of YouTube. The recent advancements in the field of GPS technology will prove to be huge in the coming years as location awareness tools are predicted to be as useful as cell-phones in the near future. Potentially, such technology could inform you which bathroom requires the least number of steps to reach. Very nice, thanks GPS machine!

I hacked and modded my iPod Touch and have turned it into a massive information outlet. I can now browse facebook, make online bank transfers, update my twitter, chat on aim, access my gmail, check the weather, watch youtube videos, read RSS feeds of my favorite blogs, check basketball scores, and of course, listen to music. Also, I could probably find George W. Bush’s favorite Christian hymn with a single google search. Scary isn’t it? While I realize that my involvement in the digital culture has streamlined so many of life’s tedious tasks, I am slightly afraid that the rapidly escalating accessibility to digital information will ironically reverse the habits of soaking in knowledge. The point is that people are increasingly grazing on information every day to an unhealthy degree. Soon to be upcoming is an inevitable tipping point when the increasing access to information backfires and leads to information-consuming ignorance. It’s bound to happen. Hasn’t convenience always stimulated inaction, laziness, and ignorance? For example, with the introduction of mainstream cell-phone use, anyone can reach anyone else within seconds. This is incredible considering pre-millennium times when cell-phones were confused for bricks and no one used them. We used to use landlines [or landmines I forget what they were called] to try to contact someone and have much smaller success rates doing so.

From my own experiences with cell-phone use, people now have a very high-degree of access to me, which naturally leads me to comfortably ignore calls that I don’t want to answer. There is no guilt attached to ignoring a phone call that I’d rather not pick up. It’s subtle, but I can see some ignorance brewing inside of me.

The high accessibility of information could eventually foster human ignorance and change human behavior for the worse. Possibly maybe.

I actually know a Google intern. He’s a Harvard student but he flew to California for his summer internship and never came back. Maybe Google ate him for his information, which may be another sign that bad things may come from the advancements of information technology. But this is entirely speculation.

did you see the words.

2009-01-21T14:00:00.009-05:00

its really annoying how people in love have to walk so slowly on sidewalks. do they really have to hold hands and walk extremely slow - why cant they walk a little bit faster? they must have nowhere to go and have nothing going on in their lives. dont they realize that by holding hands, they are actually forming a barrier from letting people pass - blockading those sidewalk pedestrians that have many more important things to do with their lives.

im always in a rush.

2009-01-05T03:24:00.001-05:00

did you know

2008-12-28T11:54:00.004-05:00

one of my biggest pet peeves is war.

Portishead and Björk

2008-12-23T00:25:00.018-05:00

are two absolutely amazing female vocalists and songwriters. i especially think bjork is the most musically expressive artist today. she doesnt have much musical influence other than her classical training she received during childhood and often attributes her inspiration to spending a lot of time listening to the nature of the cold icelandic outdoors. but for some mysterious reason, contradicting her image of a small icelandic woman, she has a powerful voice and writes the most boldly eclectic style of music that i have ever heard. the way she pieces together song structures rebels from so many conventional musical molds that even when it feels so obviously strategic and planned, she catches me off-guard too many times.

portishead:

and bjork:

ps the first and third videos are directed by michel gondry. the second video, which is extremely hilarious and one of my favorite music videos ever, is by spike jonze.

It's bad news but I don't blame you.

2008-12-18T00:50:00.005-05:00

About 9 weeks ago Sarah told me that I need to stop spreading so much bad news around. She said that I watch too much ten-o’clock news and that I should just stick to prime-time reality television. Since following her prescribed advice, I've fell obsessively in love with the 425 horsepower Hummer. I also decided to support my local McDonald's.

Proof that Geico does false advertisements.

2008-12-10T19:41:00.021-05:00

Some social scientists are saying that the English language is slowly but surely dying. This is because the number of foreign users of the language is growing exponentially and far outnumbering its native speakers. Chinglish may overtake English as the prominent language currency before you know it. So I was thinking about what the most effective way to communicate to people of all backgrounds would be right now. As a multi-linguist, I do not care much for the preservation of the use of language in its proper form. I often find myself in frustration while visiting a foreign website because of the high level of difficulty of navigation. I think with the internet being the biggest intersection of the world languages, it will become the first platform that will explore the use of visual language as its main mode of navigation. Just imagine the first website that's missing texts and instead relies on graphical languages through the use of smartly-designed symbols and icons. Each letter of your keyboard could be replaced from a universal set of symbols. Imagine a facebook wall with postings of just drawings and symbols. It may not seem so believable right now, but that could soon change. The range of social networking could become 1,000 times larger and the internet may begin to resemble modern day cave-paintings. The Geico caveman must be feigning dumbness then. That is false advertisement and a lawsuit should be filed against the popular car insurance company. The caveman is apparently smart and way ahead of his time.

We currently have a 14-year old Korean foreign exchange student staying at the moik residence. Although his main purpose to his stay in America is for the sake of learning the English language, my mom would sometimes randomly speak simple words of Spanish to him. Why? I don’t know, but we all throw out a couple of words of a different language sometimes just for fun. I just think it’s hilarious if you look at it from the Korean boy’s perspective.

Korean boy struggling very much to speak in English: Can I play the games family's computer now?
Mama Moik: You must first clean your room por favor. Then, si.

The guiltiest thing I've ever done in my life.

2008-11-26T22:05:00.009-05:00

When I was fourteen, I was on my way to an arcade when a beggar approached me for some change. I pretended that he was invisible and ignored his honest request. I wasn't concerned about an old man's hunger - what was more important at the time were that my coins were used for placing my initials on the top scores list for Pac-Man 3. I thought that people actually looked and cared about that, now I know better.

1.YTM
2. FFD
3.HBF
4.TDR
5.SGR
6.CPF
7.KOW
8.AEK
9.LBG
10.CWF

You think after twenty-two years I'll be used to the spin.

real problems that cant be solved.

2008-11-17T18:59:00.005-05:00

there are lots of things in this world i dont understand and never will. everything can get so complicated when it's not ever supposed to be that way. but what im really having a very difficult time understanding is why it has never worked out for jim and pam when they obviously like each other.

im so glad that she moved back to scranton.

the UNITED states.

2008-11-11T20:15:00.005-05:00

i love you irony.

I dont want to support McDonald's

2008-11-11T11:33:00.001-05:00

but I love how they carefully wrap a yellow napkin around my ice cream cone for me every single time. What else can make me feel so special for only one dollar?

beth, portishead/

2008-11-02T20:43:00.002-05:00

her voice sends shivers down my spine.
and when the strings are playing in forte during the bridge, i tell myself it's good to hear real music again.

Relying on other ppl.

2008-10-30T13:53:00.015-04:00

It was just last week when I would have to ask others to tie my shoelaces and rely on piggyback rides as my main mode of transportation. I've stalled for so long and have refused to grow up until recently, overwhelming myself with a very high amount of catching up to do. To do this, I had to squeeze in a lot of growing up into my already hectic daily schedule (not physically of course - I'm stuck at 5'5.5" forever). Do you remember your first step? Because I easily do.

You shut your mouth when you're talking to me!

2008-10-28T11:01:00.003-04:00

When everything hits at once.

2008-10-22T18:03:00.010-04:00

My roommate's father lost his life to cancer yesterday morning. His family knew that his condition was irreversible and it was only a matter of time. To experience a loved one slowly losing his or her life is surely the strongest test of human faith - you must learn how to accept death on the spot. Death is inevitable for all of us. We all start dying on the day we are born. Life is a gift, but we treat it as a disease - we all want find the cure to live forever. But it's through not being able to pause or reverse the sequences of life that we find good in other people. If I were to live forever, I would sit on the couch forever watching reality television. But in reality, life is too short to waste time sitting on my ass watching reality television (even the good ones). It's because of our limited time of living that we encourage ourselves to do altruistic things for the world. No one realizes death as a happy or beneficial event. But it certainly serves as an important reminder that we must keep fighting to do good things with our lives.

Love is watching someone die. So who is going to watch you die?

bad news america.

2008-10-07T21:14:00.002-04:00

It keeps a fat man feeding in Beverly Hills

2008-09-28T15:36:00.004-04:00

Article

The ultimate cost of the rescue plan to taxpayers is virtually impossible to know. Because the government would be buying assets of value — potentially worth much more than the government will pay for them — there is even a chance the rescue effort would eventually return a profit.

Some Democrats had sought to direct 20 percent of any such profits to help create affordable housing, but Republicans opposed that and demanded that all profits be returned to the Treasury.

That last sentence made me laugh. I guess the cause of this financial crisis is rooted elsewhere, and the inability to pay off mortgages is not a serious problem. Besides, foreclosure isn't really that big of a deal.

I guess it just really sucks if you aren't rich. This is bad news America.

GraphJam

2008-09-18T16:09:00.004-04:00

I submitted a simple excel chart to graphjam and they have put it up on their voting page. My current favorable to unfavorable ratio is 42-24 (as of 9/21).

more song chart memes

graphjam.com

Nothing to steal.

2008-09-16T20:28:00.006-04:00

There have been a lot of reports of theft recently, which makes me scared to walk down Euclid Street alone at night. I’m very new to this heightened sense of security on campus. At my family’s house in Holden, Massachusetts, our doors were never locked, even at nighttime when we were all fast asleep. I think it was because my parents figured that we didn’t have anything worth being stolen. Our 22” television weighs over three-hundred pounds and our family computer has never upgraded from Windows 98. My mom was sometimes concerned about her plants being snatched but I don’t think there is such a thing as tulip or cactus thieves. Sometimes I would wake up at night believing that I heard footsteps or a door slowly creak open. But I would tell myself that its not a big deal because I don’t really mind if they steal my Nintendo 64 or my original Gameboy. Sometimes I would secretly leave the front door wide open at night, and strategically place the Nintendo 64 at the entrance to encourage any passerby to steal it. I planned to feign sadness the following morning so my parents would buy me a more expensive gaming console. This cunning but genius plan was never successful. However, I wasn’t always evil and trying to get my own house robbed. If this was thirteen years ago when I was eight and I had woken up from a mysterious noise, I would’ve made a half-awake effort to roll out of my bed to find my pet dog, Coco. I would then carry her back to my bed, and hide her underneath the bedsheets with me to shield her from potential thieves. But Coco ran away when I was nine so I haven’t had to worry about anything in my life since then.

On a different note, I was interviewed by pitchfork.tv the other day at the soco music festival. Justice headlined. And Lotus jammed hard. And matt&kim were amazingly fun again.

At the end of the day the trees all get wheeled away, and you'll be standing alone in a blank, blank space.

already resting in peace.

2008-09-07T19:50:00.002-04:00

Every time a motion-sensor faucet doesn’t work when placing my hands underneath, I have to make sure that I’m still alive and haven’t turned into a ghost. In this situation, I usually find the closest person to me in the bathroom and ask him questions like “how was your day?” or “what’s your name?” just to get him to talk to me, making sure that I’m still there and living. Bruce Willis forgot to do this.

It happened today, so I asked a guy on the urinal what his name was.

He didn’t answer me.
It was a good life.

Cheney's favorite holiday.

2008-09-01T19:20:00.009-04:00

I've always thought that Dick Cheney was a good man. He has served our nation for many years and helped protect the freedom of its citizens. Cheney gives a very obvious impression of being a very caring and helpful man, like when he kindly helped out George Bush in killing another country. His keen sense of detecting which country is hiding a knife made him a very useful tool in American military operations. By servicing his God-given talent for the sake of American freedom, he became a living template of what all politicians should embody. But today I found a credible news article that made me realize the dirty truth.

link.

Busy dealing with important paperwork and other vice presidential duties in recent weeks, Dick Cheney was forced to put off until the last minute a cherished annual tradition: gift-shopping for his favorite holiday, 9/11.

Although Cheney himself has never received any Sept. 11 gifts, with the exception of a pair of silk pajamas from his wife and a second term in office, he insisted that he gets more joy from giving than receiving.

"I have a feeling this is going to be the best Sept. 11 ever," Cheney said with a grin. "I just dread the day I have to tell my kids that 9/11 isn't real."

Sometimes truth is communicated better when fictionalized.

Re-elect Bush 2008.

2008-08-26T00:43:00.014-04:00

I'm back at Syracuse University and ready to force myself into enthusiastic study mode. My academic life is re-inspired because I've forgotten how painful all-nighters were. However, I must admit that I am academically out of shape. My handwriting has visibly devolved and is dismissible even by kindergarten standards. After a long summer of infrequent writing, it's almost like starting from scratch. I'm pretty sure that I was always right-handed but now its very very questionable. I may be neither-handed.

I've missed my old friends and the college lifestyle. It's senior year so it gives me privilege to look down on most everyone, especially the clueless freshmen who are infamously bothersome for asking too many questions pertaining to campus directions. Typical answers from me: "Oh, yeah, Sumner Avenue is only two blocks down from here." "Robert Shaw Hall is at the next intersection, you can take this concrete sidewalk there" "Flint Hall is at the top of the hill. A hill is a big mound of dirt" Thanks for asking.

I'm learning how to cook new recipes and relying less on external sources for meals (the dollar menu almost ruined my life). Cereal with whole milk is not the only thing I know how to cook anymore. I've actually learned how to prepare a variety of meals. For the first time in my life, I don't feel like I'm shoveling self-made disaster into my mouth.

When I used to go out I'll know everyone I saw. Now I go out alone if I go out at all.

Lost in translation.

2008-07-30T18:24:00.004-04:00

Bob: Can you keep a secret? I'm trying to organize a prison break. I'm looking for, like, an accomplice. We have to first get out of this bar, then the hotel, then the city, and then the country. Are you in or you out?
Charlotte: I'm in. I'll go pack my stuff.
Bob: I hope that you've had enough to drink. It's going to take courage.

...

2008-05-04T21:07:00.010-04:00

After listening to a mind-blowing song, I am usually committed to becoming a humanitarian and doing volunteer work for the rest of my life. Of course I change my mind just as quickly.

If you always wake up late you'll never be on time.

2008-05-01T23:11:00.003-04:00

If you hadn't noticed, I'm using a new font. I feel as though this is an appropriate post to shift into a san serif typeface. I think it can serve as some sort of silly metaphor that I'm capable of making a real change to my life.

I'm starting to think that I'm kind of shy, or at least I'd like to be.

Untitled #2

2008-04-25T05:56:00.029-04:00

Perhaps it's the warmth of spring, the late night runs and exercises, or the ending of the semester that has given my mind a continuous inspirational boost. What's funny is that I should have always felt like this.

A whopper a day keeps the doctors away.

2008-04-14T22:24:00.011-04:00

I am angry. Is it really so difficult for everyone to simply read my mind and give me what I want before I have to even ask? Sometimes, everyone needs to stop what they're doing and dedicate their lives to me. I'm only saying this because everyone is entitled to my opinion.

Jaykay.

I'm actually mad at myself. It has come to my attention that my recent addiction to fast-food is at a very frightening degree. I love it so much! Despite it's unhealthy consequences, I have a hard time resisting it – sometimes I wish the employee behind the counter would refuse my order and trick me into believing the Whopper is sold out for the day. Bad habits, such as a whopper addiction, form when there is no order to my life. I’ve always been a goal-oriented person, but lately I’ve been aimlessly wandering from one place to another. There are so many things to juggle in life, like school, work, love, and religion that it’s so easy to get consumed into things that I’ve never even wanted. To prevent growing further bad habits and to promote a healthier lifestyle that conditions physical and mental health, I will commit myself to these 10 daily goals to keep myself aligned to where I want to be.

Lift weights, play basketball, or run 1 mile.
Brush my teeth 2 times [sadly isn't a given].
Read at least 3 articles in The New York Times.
Get at least 4 wallposts on Facebook.
Give a high-5 to an old friend.
Smile to 6 passing by strangers.
Drink 7 cups of water.
Reach level 8 in slayer skills for Halo.
Spend less than 9 dollars.
Practice guitar or air-guitar for 10 minutes.

Edit: I can definitely air-guitar for ten minutes daily. But the other goals are not as feasible as I originally thought.

People are songs.

2008-03-15T14:51:00.008-04:00

There is a very good chance someone that you know thinks of you as a song. It might be a forgotten friend, the guy who sits behind you in history class, or the girl you made eye contact with while waiting for a flight at Kennedy airport – someone anyone. My ipod is not full of mp3s. Instead, I have a library of people that are filed as songs. Weezer’s “only in dreams” is nambo, the pixies’ “velouria” is karen, radiohead's "black star” is jabe, daft punk’s “around the world” is paige, elliott smith’s “the biggest lie” is joe, and so on. Similarly, I associate songs to different periods of my life. The beatles’ “michelle” is sophomore year of college when I rediscovered rubber soul, rilo kiley’s “portion for foxes” stories the teenage drama of three summers ago, and the cure’s “boys don’t cry” is relatable to when I got this really unsightly haircut last October.

I need a dependable joke. I used to memorize useless mathematical computations to impress someone that I like: “hey, did you know that 13 x 21 = 273???” But this silly attempt to make a good impression is as unconvincing as George Bush on television. I just need a reliable joke that would make for a good icebreaker because I’m terribly shy and meeting new people requires a high degree of friendliness. I am a very mean person.

Homeward bound

2008-02-21T18:36:00.003-05:00

My mom always used to tell me that I should smile more. She told me that she had a friend who used to practice smiling in front of the mirror every morning for four minutes after brushing her teeth, and now she is a changed woman. My mom has these nameless friends that fit perfectly into her little lessons – the one who made a million by thinking positive thoughts about her future for five minutes before she went to bed every night, the one who became physically fit by stretching every morning for three minutes, the one who never sneezed again after wearing long-johns for the rest of his life. My sisters roll their eyes and stop listening whenever my mom begins a sentence with, "I have a friend who...". But I continue to listen to her, and wonder if devoting one’s self to these conditions can actually change the course of someone’s life. I know I get frustrated at my mom sometimes and I feel bad, because some of my friends treat their mothers amazingly when they’re not even that great.

I love my family and friends, I truly do.

Current listening obsession: If you're feeling sinister by belle&sebastian.

A dying man in the living room.

2008-02-17T23:54:00.004-05:00

Elliott Smith died in 2003 from two self-inflicted stabs to the heart. Ironically, he deeply inspires me to live today. It's amazing to see how Elliott managed to touch so many people from completely different backgrounds. Many people can testify having a simple Elliott Smith song change their perspectives on life.

I miss my old friends. Nostalgia is a pathetic parachute, I thought I learned that. I hate the fact that there are so many college students out there praying earnestly for their exams to go well, students who are more deserving of a good grade than I. but i would like them all to shut up about their worries so God would only receive mine. The tension between wanting everything and not having anything is aggravated even further when I try to make a dependable connection between the here and now, and heaven. and the more I try to bridge this gap, the stretch of distance and effort in the journey is only prolonged. Good grief! Charlie Brown said it best.

We all have habits that need to be fixed - I have many including overpriced coffee and not holding the door for the person behind me. but there is one I'd rather not fix - spending myself to these cold syracuse nights I love and waking up during the afternoons, reaffirmed by this wonderful weekend.

I have a friend who recently picked up smoking cigarettes. I don’t typically mind when people smoke because it is their own decision to do so. However it is a pet-peeve of mine when I see drivers toss away their cigarette butts out their car window and onto the road. It’s not so much about the act of littering that angers me – I secretly allow the wind to blow candy wrappers out of my hands all the time. But I do think I recall watching a news report many many years ago that explained how a tree-hugging hiker dropped his cigarette into a bush and it burned down the entire forest.

I hate those people who love to tell you that money is the root of all the sins. They have never been poor, never had the joy of a welfare Christmas.

Newfound inspiration.

2008-02-12T11:14:00.000-05:00

Only blur can pull off a alt-country-gospel feel to their songs.

I love meeting people you haven't talked to for the longest time and you're almost thankful that you had that much time apart only to be even gladder to see their faces again. and yesterday was that

You can do what you want to, whenever you want to. You can do what you want to, there's no one to stop you.

Pleasing people is so predictable.

2008-02-10T20:15:00.002-05:00

I tend to write in this whenever I feel the urge to convey something meaningful, so I guess recently I haven’t had the chance to speak out publicly and that’s why I’m so susceptible into writing into this small little box.

At times I wonder how different, for better or worse, my life would be if I had rearranged my priorities a bit. We don't always [and most of the time hardly ever] make the right decisions in regards to our lives because as human beings we are self-involved to a frightening degree. Myself not included. You see, it doesn’t necessarily apply to me because my priorities are always in common consent of others, thank god. Sometimes I contemplate publishing an autobiography for the sake of winning a pulitzer. But oh no I wouldn’t want anyone to read it, because I really like blurring the details and fiction is what I do best.

A year ago, I wrote a story. I stumbled across it the other day, and I suppose it's just one of those retrospective things where you're nostalgic to the point you can pick out what you were thinking, wearing, listening to at the moment you penned those paragraphs. My life is so different now than I found it to be then. My influences, expression, and surroundings have changed monumentally. However, everything is still relatable. Likewise, when I was fifteen I fell asleep to pinkerton every night for three consecutive months. I'm twenty-one now but it still gives me the shivers

At ten I shaved my head and tried to be a monk. I thought the older women would like me if I did.

Forgetting how to sleep.

2008-02-08T05:02:00.002-05:00

5am was made for situations just like this one, and I can do anything I want by this point. I just don't know how many times I've wished I had more friends with insomnia.

I'm not even sure what I've been doing for the past 6 or so hours. But I do recall listening to this radiohead cover by vampire weekend maybe twice.

My wallet is very empty these days. Although I'd admit my dislike of having a fat wallet in the back pocket of my jeans because it can sometimes be uncomfortable to sit on during classes, I think I may permit that small annoyance to have some money right now.

I've concluded that in order to become rich when you grow up, you have to save at least one hundred dollars per month. I think I can do that if I can just cut off my social life and the thought of ever getting a decent looking car. But if you adhere to this philosophy for the rest of your life and not spend a single cent of it, think about how much money you’ll finally have accumulated when lying at your deathbed.

Love is watching someone die. So who is going to watch you die?

Viõrar Vel Til Loftárasa [edited]

2008-02-02T12:14:00.000-05:00

This is one of the most climactic and emotionally stimulating music videos I have seen.

According to this quick survey on this website, the presidential candidate is ranked to my preferences on certain social and political issues. If I had known about this website earlier, I would have stopped studying newspapers and blogs ages ago and would have taken the survey on the eve of the vote to determine my own. I could have not thought at all these past few months and remained comfortably undecided about which candidate to endorse, and then simply answered ten easy questions to fulfill my role as a dutiful citizen.

1. Barack Obama [8/2]
2. Hillary Clinton [6/4]
3. Mitt Romney
4. Mike Huckabee
4. Ron Paul
5. John McCain

Banking on a myth.

2008-01-24T21:26:00.000-05:00

It's almost effortless to become a hermit; the state simply sneaks up on you. And by the time you realize, it's too late too comfortable. Everything is in it's right place. Everyone that seemed to be utterly important a few days ago dissolves into a tiny sigh and is let out too easily. All this puts into perspective what really should take priority and the atmosphere is reset and suddenly pure so I can prepare myself to melt away again.

It's coming to my recognition that my pedantic approach to life is distorting my perspective of reality. Like sometimes I wonder what other people really think of me. Then yesterday some lady in the street with a cold face with one eye sort of larger than the other exhales her fish-sewage-garbage breath right into my face and her foul stench mixed with my designer blend of aroma, fresh air, and pretension and she croaks: "fuck off, bitchass” And then I realized that I'm not so curious after all.

I think Andrew Bird is appropriate for this contemplative mood that has taken hold of me on this chilly thursday night. I have decisions to make and promises to keep.

Deals in commodities of the abstract sort and buys them in bulk but then he sells it short. Talent, genius, love, even signs of affection. He floods the market, there's no price protection.

The Moldy Peaches

2008-01-21T13:48:00.000-05:00

It feels like something so important and integral to my life may be missing and I’m still trying to figure out where it is. It’s like frantically searching for a lost item that you desperately need to find but have had no luck recovering. and then for a moment, half-heartedly admitting that you wish you had been stupid enough to have forgotten the missing item in the most obvious place, just for the sake of finally finding it and resetting the collecting anxiety – like recovering missing car keys from the car’s ignition or pulling out a wallet from the back pocket of yesterday’s jeans. It’ll truly be a perk to be more absent-minded, just to finally realize that everything has been right under my nose all along. I’m so angry/frustrated right now that I feel like a character from that movie “Alive”; I can probably eat someone. Advice to self: Breathe more. You can literally never have enough oxygen and it’s about time I catch my breath in this fast-paced race called life. It’s also the lone physical element that you can’t ever overdose on. unless you pop

I saw Juno yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to hear kimya dawson on the majority of the soundtrack. I associate the Moldy Peaches to my high-school years, so it corresponded to the film seamlessly. But it’s interesting when a band that was once personal to you and had shared intimate sentiments with is now playing for thousands of audiences in theaters across the nation. It kind of feels like they’re broadcasting my deepest secrets and I feel exposed, but of course that’s very silly. I’m glad that they are receiving mainstream exposure although it may be six or seven years late. But for me, the Moldy Peaches is still about light-heartedly singing to obscure but cute lyrics in the backseat of a car cramped with friends.

There's not much else to say. Not to insinuate that a hundred of other things haven't occurred between updates, but I realized once I opened this window that I didn't really intend to speak of them.

I just could never understand why she had to go away to find herself. Why couldn't she sort these things out at home? My advice to all of those who are going to find themselves is: Stay exactly where you are. Otherwise you are in great danger of losing yourself forever. - Jostein Gaarder