Hey, You're Part of It!

life is pretty good as is...

natural light

my friend pat and i went on a trip last wednesday when it was beautiful outside. we went to the port republic wildlife refuge. it was fun. and beautiful. some pictures...


Natural Light


thistownhadguns

i guess thats it for now. mmhmm.

worth less

not worthless entirely just worth less than before.
school fucked me over in that i registered for classes and they said that i never saved my registration so inherently i was dropped from all of my classes. fortunately enough, they admitted more students, so, i (luckily) was forced out of all of the classes that i registered for due to classroom capping. i have one class this semester. french. and i am quickly falling into a deep ravine i like to call a funk. the only redeeming factor is i will be able to work more to pay off more of my debts. not happy, not sad, currently just being.
its all good, though drew is the only one that reads this anyway, when he is at work, on break.

i found a receipt that i wrote on in class last semester:
methodology of reading

sentence parsing: words/ syllables/ sounds. letters and punctuation are a series of synapse stimuli. painting a cerebral visual of a world. land and water, peoples and animals all interacting. there is this one person with fair skin and blond hair. that isn't the prettiest nor the smartest but for some reason or another you like them a lot, and you hope that for their sake as well as your own that what you read is what you hoped for.

then on the back, while we were talking about Mill on the Floss by George Eliot i wrote:
Dispute over water rights
I dispute over water's right to chose.
Salt or Fresh; Hot or Cold; Solid, Liquid, or Gas.
It's not YOUR water, it's water's water.

In retrospect it is kind of funny. I don't know. I failed the final for the class so clearly I should have been paying closer attention.

i have been thinking a lot about montreal of late and need to find a picture... which i will look for before i post this....

Here it is.

happy new year

"i just wanted to let you know, i am fine."

it's another happy new year. i have work at one in the afternoon today, hooray.

so for the longest time, i have really wanted to find a copy of this one song, and for some reason i decided that today was that day. the song is called "The Moldau" it's from a piece called Smetana Ma Vlast. it means my father land. I heard it once on the radio, because i only listen to NPR/ WQXR (new york times radio// classical) when i am in my home area and driving about. i heard the song when i was at an odd point emotionally. it was July 16th or 20th of 2007, it was raining, pouring really. i was in my car in the driveway of my parents house, i had just come home from Philadelphia after having gone with an ex-girlfriend who i am still close with. i don't know what it was about the music, it was like sonic exuberance hyphenated by modesty. i can still remember the day and the feelings i felt because it was this song that punctuated it all for me. i have found it on amazon.com and i think its the exact recording i heard. here it is from youtube, not that exact recording, but i think that it does it some justice. although i guess out of context and reading this instead won't really suffice, but it is beautiful none-the-less.


here is the link to the the actual CD set on amazon.

i guess i am on the right track for the new year. i am leaving to drive to florida on sunday, i am going to visit my grandparents. i am making the trip by myself, which is nice, albeit kind of creepy to drive over one thousand miles on my lonesome. i am going because my grandfather had a partial heart failure type of deal, i don't recall the details in full but long story short he is okay now. but said event brought a sense of urgency to the fact that i haven't yet talked to my grandfather about his experiences in WW2 and i know that he fought with high distinction in the navy, so i have another mission, and so early in the year! i am hoping to record him talking about everything, then hopefully at somepoint, i can but together something for my family and posterity, if luck should bring me such a thing. plus, it will be nice to see and spend time with my grandparents. the last time i saw them, i was on 'tour' with my (former) band and we stayed at their house for a day. then i will wing on down to ft. myers to hang out with uncle for a day. i then plan either to drive to texas or key west, to finish off my travel time. i am not sure which yet, a little input would help!

happy new year, again.

another time// another place

What if it were another place in time?
but instead of physical things being different, the people were different.
you would still be you, and i would still be me, but we wouldn't be
exactly the same as we are now.
who knows if we would even recognize ourselves?
it would be like the theory that everything effects everything else, only the circumstances are different. that time you hit the cat that belonged to the family up the street from you never happened. you no longer know what it is like to deal the cold hand of death. the pain and remorse that you felt that time, it is gone. and the like with your happiest day, when your little sister was born, you were 8 and you always wanted someone to play with, someone you could stand up for someday. there were complications, your father told you but everything is okay, your mother and the baby were both doing really well. at eight years old you could understand the feeling of your heart in your throat or why you crying even though everything was alright. but your father said it was okay, so it was. he brought you in to the hospital room where your mom was still half asleep from the epidural. she saw you and her face began to glow as she introduced you to your sister, and then you held her. you still remember that feeling of holding new life. the joy of being, what you had dreamed of since you were big enough to catch a ball. but that too is gone. you are just you, a clean slate. it's bittersweet. but you get to reinvent those things without knowing it.
would you trade it all away for a chance at a clean slate? to be able to control who you are but without any control. would you come out the same, or would you even want to?

sometimes i think, i would. and i think most of all that is kinda scary.

so the yesterday i caught a girl who had been shoplifting in my store for several months, we had just never been able to catch her in the act. but i got her, i am happy and sad. happy that she isn't stealing from anymore but said that it had to be right before the holiday. i guess there isn't really anything to be sad about, i didn't make her steal. she said she has a three year old son, she is my age. i guess that is a good example to set. at least he will be ignorant to it.
i went and saw good old war on friday it was a great show, i recorded some of the songs on my phone i don't know how the quality is, but i am going to try to skim the audio off of the video files and do some minimal cleaning of it. keith said that they will be taking the time from now until mid-february to get the new songs together and demo them out. i also bought him a shot of jameson. good times. thats all for now.

unfaithful

i have been unfaithful to my blog. i haven't cheated on it, but i have been into updating it as often as i should. i don't think people read it so, if you do just leave a comment, say, 'hi' or something. it's enough motivation.

lately i have had this line from a song by this town needs guns--"[...]yesteryear still rings in my ear[...]" simple enough, right? it is in the song "if i sit still maybe i'll get out of here"
so i don't know if it is just because, or if my subconscious is wanting me to rehash things for further investigation. that sounds stupid. anyway its a good song and a great band so you should check them out.

i went through my notepad in my phone today, and i found this poem. I don't know if i wrote it, or if i read it somewhere so i wrote in there. it's from tuesday, december 9 at 2:45 am:
one time.
in the incipiency.
he.thought.
that i though. passion over vision.
person over impression.

clearly i was drunk if i was awake this time. also clear through my molestation of punctuation.

i googled the whole thing, the closest thing i found to it was this: Emerson's Essay XI Intellect from Essays First Series. it is a pretty cool little read, i hadn't read it before.
but i was quite pleased with both, what little i wrote, and the plethora that Emerson had to offer.

i have started making christmas presents for my co-workers again, last year i made a collection of skulls, this year just a gnome for one person. he is sitting on his jenga blcok brother, for he is carved from one himself. the back drop is the sweater vest i am working on for myself. the picture is shitty because it is from my phone and vzwpix.com sucks.


i'm pleased with that for now i guess.

Don't believe what you read.

Life has been treating me well, and for this, I am grateful. it is unfortunate that times like this have been dampened by a poor political and social climate. the ignorance that has flagged this country only worsens. it is unfortunate that we are seemingly at our pinnacle.

just type

so i just type:

The beginning of the end of the beginning is just the beginning of something else and when something else comes along you have to go with it you have to be apart of something that is bigger than you but not so big that you drown in it some things are free some things mean something and it those somethings that mean something that make life mean everything and you can't take everything for granted because granted some things may come easy and other don't come at all it's all about what you make of what you have got and what you are given is that which is most precious like life it is a gift and for so long you think that you are doing something special and then you realize you are just another pathetic waste but to waste not is to want not so you try to make a change you try to change again and again but without a gain you see no change but you are so different than from where you started and when you started you started realizing that there was an end and that end would come when you were ready ready for something else something that might mean something to you and someone else but someone isn't someone that you thought you knew once because people change and life changes and you have changed because you wanted to be better and though you think you're not changed you are and that is was so ironic because you find yourself in new and ever changing situations where you exceed your own expectations and yet you still talk yourself down instead of being pleased with your performance you find faults in the things you should be so proud of but your pride isn't something that can be described because it is something that you have deprived yourself of like nutrients but not in terms of health just self-wealth you'd be so rich if you just let yourself go but you are to aware to do that to aware of you and those around you and that how you define you so then you would be afraid of the end result.

who the eff am i?

okay, so i have been blogging about music for a solid two weeks now, so its not like i am a pro or anything. i like what i like and dont like a lot of other stuff. but npr.org loves everything and their player is fantastic. i do enjoy my ability to pick up pieces of my favorite npr shows as well as their eyes on the music scene and my favorite wbgo jazz songs from contemporary to bix spiderman. i mean c'mon! so good.

so now that i have done that. i guess i should start a hopping see if i can find something worth listening to today.

So i guess last week i blogged about jukebox the ghost.. well today at SXSW they are playing These United States (a really good, chill rock experience. kinda funkedified folk, if you will. really, really, awesome stuff though. also featured on npr just the other day.), Vandaveer (is another DC area folk group sounding a lot like Dylan, but with a modern twist.), Revival ( the third in this trio of DC folk music, seems to be the most serious, vocals are poised with an intent to dismantle each song's subject.), From there I hit the page of Red Clay River (This is some serious modern Blues with Old Country/ Bluegrass roots, reminiscent of the J Cash but more subtle, but in a very, very good way. The production quality is lacking, but i think it gives it something, I enjoy all the songs I am hearing thoroughly. They are more of what I would have preferred out of the new Murder By Death album.)

On another note.. I was thinking of starting to microbrew some beer, but doing it in a sustainable fashion, I don't think there are any sustainable graineries in the area, and i feel like i would have to start my hop growth stat. which maybe i will do.

Dear Life

So yeah,

I think that things have been going pretty well of late. I am pretty sure that I have my living arrangements for next year sorted out which is a huge plus. I also told someone that I wrote a poem about going to A.C. when I was a freshman, so I found it and may as well post it as no one reads the blog and way.

4621

You see that old man sitting there
reading the paper of a passenger past?
His head bobs with every bump and bang
of this 1970-something train car.

He tells the conductor he's in the round
to A.C.. She tears and punches his ticket
for the end-of-the-line. His voice cracked, and
the beaten old blazer with gold
anchor-imprinted buttons he wore was
scented strong with Stetson.

He is going to gamble away
the fading glimmer in his eyes.
You see this man with large flakes of dander
in his careful combover and you know this.

With each stop he slides closer
to the aisle
to catch a stranger's fleeting eye.
to fill the void in his large seat made for three.

You view this veteran and know this is your destination--
Old and alone and still looking at
what the last rider left behind;
He buttons his blazer and you

stand up, inching toward the automatic
doors. The conductor's voice
comes through, "Atlantic City.
Final stop, all passengers please exit."

The man lifts his head as he stands,
unsteadily on his thin, sinewy legs.
He places the paper back on the seat,

dawns his thick yellowed lenses, and
disembarks only to take on thick salty air
and a game of chance.
© Sean Turner, 2007 ®

Music for the day:
Kid: Nap: Kin is a friend's from Boston they take the sounds from likes of Mewithoutyou, Glass Jaw, and At The Drive-In. The progressive sound lets the listener in on the fact that these kids know what they are doing. They beat out The Dear Hunter as the best new act in Boston at the 2007 BMA's (Boston Music Awards), which is no modest accomplishment. Take a listen, I guarantee you will find a little piece of something to take home and break bread over. So my myspace hopping will begin from their page today.
Honest Thomas is another Boston-based almost ambient sounding band reminding me a lot of Incubus, not exactly what i was expecting but pretty alright for what they are, i guess. Rustic Overtones, though at first kinda painfully similar as its prior grew in to a nice sound. and i am going to stop my hopping there because i am getting the same feel from the other bands i have listened to, all not quite as good as K:N:K, to be honest.
At work, we got Jakartah, so i am going to check them out because their sounds like was: these arms are snakes, Isis, and Fugazi. You know what, it's not bad! I can pick up on the TAAS reference and the Isis a little, actually the fugazi is there too. I feel this growing on me as I listen to it. The drums punch through creating a clear backbone, the guitar tracks are well done and quite reminiscent of Isis/ Fugazi, but where the Fugazi comes through most other than vocal delivery and style, is the bass, pushed so hard its almost distorted. This new album is really well produced for the audience it is geared toward. I am impressed.

still under the weight

i am still experiencing the worst writer's block of my life.

i can't think clearly, i don't know whats wrong with my head, the other night i was trying to go to sleep and experienced what i think doing shrooms would be like. crazy colors and things being all wavy and what not, and all without delicious cow turd taste. but anyway..

good music for today: i started on the myspace of One for the Team (Minneapolis power-pop is a good way to describe them, i would say that their older stuff is heavily influenced by STD, they just signed with Militia Group.), i just hit Mouthful of Bees from there (again Minneapolis-based but this time indie-pop got me almost to the Arcade Fire point but the sound isn't as thick, which is good at times just leave it to the Arcade. this band is good, very good, i should write more about them.), We All Have Hooks for Hands (very much like their influences listed on their Space, I like this one too, much like Broken Social Scene, but less brash and more vocals. and apparently they went on tour with Mouthful of Bees last summer, where was I?).

the new Murder by Death comes out today.
if youre feeling saucy and into the likes of Saosin/ Circa Survive check out, Secret and Whisper.

so word. have a good day.

not so faithful

so i haven't been faithful to blogger,
maybe it's that we have an astranged relationship. at any rate i have the worst writer's block that i can remember having. it is kind of frightening actually, but i am hope that i can use this as a device to cure my block for the things that i really need to write. i can't think of what my blog should actually be about now, as i don't have to blog for class any more, i will leave the posts up because i actually think that the class was interesting though in the end the blogs went bunk in the class.

i miss my friends. i have a failed relationship that causes the chink in the chain between myself and two of my best friends. i think that that is the right expression to use there. unfortunately, i refuse to swallow my pride and make amens with this former significant other because she did her best to make my life hell while we were together. plus, she isn't happy unless everyone around understands how she feels, she does not however believe in sympathy, only empathy, so she makes everyone around know exactly how she feels.

i have been out of class for three weeks and fear returning, so i sit in the library, i fear returning because i was sick the first week and a half of my absence, and fell behind by 5 papers in four classes. so i write, and i hope i feel better, in the metaphysical sense.

music of late has been pretty good. as of right now i have listened to (in reverse order): Jukebox the Ghost (sounds like: heaven if freddy mercury's delivery met mick jager's sassy tude and a touch of something i cant quite put my finger on, (or not as the new song has changed my opinion) with piano, organs, funky almost punchy tubed out guitars, and fun drum beats.), Ra Ra Riot (who is playing in Philly @ NorthStar next month and Maxwell's in April.), Vampire Weekend (new album just came out two weeks ago and it is doing really well.), the weirding (solo acoustic, not bad, somewhat reminiscent of Jeff Buckley meets Damien Rice but less with tambor.) from there i dont recall, alive in wild paint, dear hunter were in there too. also edison glass, and paper rival.
other stuff i have been listening to of late: the wonder years (they are a pop punk with group with hardcore roots from Philly its like Reggie but more catchy hard to believe.), neutral milk hotel (if you dont know just stop), grizzly bear (just picked up the friend ep, band of horses does a cover of CSS on there, pretty balls), kimya dawson (i bought remember that i love you the other day and My Rollercoaster is like a bomb track and a half for me.), radiohead, circa survive

i dont know. still cant think and now my brain hurts.

i am gonna go for now, have a good day.

My Scratch Project! (haha)

Click the picture to go through to my scratch project,
it uses random numbers!

Facebook and craigslist notes

i wasn't quite sure what B. Stef. wanted here, so i made an attempt.

Social interaction now-a-days is drastically different then it was seven years ago. The idea of e-interaction has basically altered social interaction forever. With the advent of websites designed with the intent of being a “Place where friends meet” (myspace.com) or “[Facebook is] a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” (obviously facebook.com) one cannot expect to ever have to leave the comfort of home again. Basically sites like these allow for their users to meet people and talk to each other in one of two ways, private (email) style messaging or publicly commenting (wall writing).

Tufte notes

Tufte disagrees with the usage of PowerPoint on many levels specifically through its cognitive style.

On page four he instantly comes to griping with that, “These costs arise from the cognitive style characteristic of the standard default PP presentation:….” Tufte then lists at least ten things that a normal PowerPoint presentation is either lacking or weakening its data content.

Tufte cites “foreshortening of evidence and thought” basically meaning that PP is weakening a presenter’s argument to begin with because its taking away from that which you are using to support your argument because of a limited data field and using fragments of ideas instead of the whole.

Another critical fault in PP, Tufte states, is its “hierarchal bullet list”. He says how for hundreds of years information has been conveyed without bullet style points, but PowerPoint only uses bulleted points. He then shows the reader, on page 18, a bulleted version of the Gettysburg Address and begs the question, What if Lincoln had PowerPoint at Gettysburg. To the reader it becomes abundantly clear at this point that bulleting information is worthless.

What also ties into that previous facet, is that there is no causality within PowerPoint. It’s impossible to follow the data presented in a PP, unless its in a graph (which even then is statistically lacking), because there is no linear relationship between one piece of information and the next.

The low-resolution style of PP is also problematic, claims Tufte. He uses a brilliant example of two pictures of the space shuttle Columbia, nearly consecutive frames in the film of the foam insulation debris breaking from the shuttle and then hitting the wing. Because of the poor quality in PP resolution you can scarcely make out the space shuttle let only what is going on with the space shuttle.

Tufte’s most brilliant point, for me, is the fact that PP wasn’t intended to bring information to people in the way that it is being used. PP was developed for business people to make presentations to develop powerful points for the products that they are selling. By using PP presenters often turn otherwise useful information into a sales pitch.

Website thing.

its a gif of the website idea.

modification

so i modified the style sheet to my liking.

it started out as the default 897 set up. so clearly its a bit different. i used a couple pictures that i took while i was in quebec this past winter that i had edited for the "theme".

Video Embedding

Words

The Weakless Universe is a hypothetical universe that contains no weak interactions, but is otherwise very similar to our own universe. In particular, the Weakless Universe is constructed to have nuclear physics and chemistry identical to standard nuclear physics and chemistry. The dynamics of the Weakless Universe includes a period of big bang nuclear synthesis, star formation, stars that burn for billions of years, stellar nuclear synthesis of heavy elements and also supernovae that distribute the heavy elements into the interstellar medium.

wikipedia.org