People don't generally think this about me. They think I'm stubborn. They think I'll argue to the bitter end because I hate being wrong.
The truth is, I love being proven wrong. Its distinctly the reason I argue so heatedly about things I think. I love it when someone proves me wrong. When they fire back with a passion that equals mine, with a rationality that defeats my own. That is why I travel, it is why I live, it is why I talk to people. To prove what I think I know wrong. To always be learning. To think something new. To learn that my long-held idea that the earth is flat is ridiculous, that it is round, and then to learn that that isn't right either, the earth is an oblate spheroid, what will it be next?
It is the simplest form of pain in history; the pain of change. A change in what you thought was right, a change in the way you thought the universe worked, a change in how you liked your world to work. But the pain of change always leads to something different, a new adventure born. The day you know everything, you might as well stop.
Prove me wrong.
Teach me something new.
Show me a new way.
Start a new adventure.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Deep in the Heart of Texas
What I've learned about Texas in my short time here:
1. Texas drivers are infuriatingly awful. My number one pet peeve is that they all seem like they went to the same driving school and the instructor didn't know how to make a turn without coming to a full stop.
2. Texas has terrible pizza. Seriously, it isn't even passable. A Texan trying to make a pizza is like a Chinese person trying to pronounce the letter L.
3. Texas makes up for it by having outrageously good Hamburgers.
4. Texas is full of Stunningly beautiful tall blonde women (even if they aren't really blonde, they still count)
5. Texas' dating scene is ridiculously bourgeois.
6. Texas people have no idea how to handle snow, as can be seen through 2 people trying to clean their cars off with a spatula and a blanket, respectively.
7. Texas is really sprawled out. You can meet someone you work with and find out that they live an hour and a half drive away from you.
8. Dallas Cowboys fans hate Tony Romo as much if not more so than non-Cowboys fans.
9. 75 degree weather is apparently too cold for going to the pool.
10. Drinking and Driving is not driving while drunk. Driving while drunk isn't tolerated, but drinking a beer while driving is simply "road soda"
11. Drinking and Working are the two mainstays of life. If a Texan isn't doing one, he/she is doing both.
12. Lightning Storms are spectacular.
1. Texas drivers are infuriatingly awful. My number one pet peeve is that they all seem like they went to the same driving school and the instructor didn't know how to make a turn without coming to a full stop.
2. Texas has terrible pizza. Seriously, it isn't even passable. A Texan trying to make a pizza is like a Chinese person trying to pronounce the letter L.
3. Texas makes up for it by having outrageously good Hamburgers.
4. Texas is full of Stunningly beautiful tall blonde women (even if they aren't really blonde, they still count)
5. Texas' dating scene is ridiculously bourgeois.
6. Texas people have no idea how to handle snow, as can be seen through 2 people trying to clean their cars off with a spatula and a blanket, respectively.
7. Texas is really sprawled out. You can meet someone you work with and find out that they live an hour and a half drive away from you.
8. Dallas Cowboys fans hate Tony Romo as much if not more so than non-Cowboys fans.
9. 75 degree weather is apparently too cold for going to the pool.
10. Drinking and Driving is not driving while drunk. Driving while drunk isn't tolerated, but drinking a beer while driving is simply "road soda"
11. Drinking and Working are the two mainstays of life. If a Texan isn't doing one, he/she is doing both.
12. Lightning Storms are spectacular.
Monday, November 14, 2011
A Dream Within a Dream
Why do dreams have such a drastic effect on our waking life? One little dream skews your whole day. A good dream can make your whole day so much brighter, even if it happens to be the worst day you've had in a month. A bad dream casts a pall over a good day and makes it seem dreadful.
Dreams don't even really mean anything. The most random of thoughts congeal into chaotic ramblings your brain doesn't even have control over.
You dream about a friend of yours that screws you over and the next day you have an irrational distrust of them.
You dream about a girl you know and for the next week, you think you have a crush on her.
You dream about a girl you do have a crush on and you hate her for a week because you dreamt about her dating someone you dislike.
You dream about someone you haven't thought about for a decade and you can't get them out of your head for the next month.
You dream about your job, you dream about your home, you dream about the gym, you dream about that girl, you dream about a girl, you dream about some girl, you dream about snow, you dream about sun, you dream about trees, you dream about bees, you dream about wheels, you dream about seals, you dream about water, you dream about rain, you dream about dreams, you dream about yourself.
They don't mean anything.
But somehow they mean everything.
Dreams don't even really mean anything. The most random of thoughts congeal into chaotic ramblings your brain doesn't even have control over.
You dream about a friend of yours that screws you over and the next day you have an irrational distrust of them.
You dream about a girl you know and for the next week, you think you have a crush on her.
You dream about a girl you do have a crush on and you hate her for a week because you dreamt about her dating someone you dislike.
You dream about someone you haven't thought about for a decade and you can't get them out of your head for the next month.
You dream about your job, you dream about your home, you dream about the gym, you dream about that girl, you dream about a girl, you dream about some girl, you dream about snow, you dream about sun, you dream about trees, you dream about bees, you dream about wheels, you dream about seals, you dream about water, you dream about rain, you dream about dreams, you dream about yourself.
They don't mean anything.
But somehow they mean everything.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
The Culture of Stupidity
There is a pervasive attitude I find infuriating about American culture: We herald stupidity.
More than any other country I've been to, America holds up stupidity in the highest regard. There are aspects I admire as well, such as the culture of heralding creativity more than any other culture I've been to as well, but I just can't get over how Americans seem to hold up stupidity as the golden standard.
It has nothing to do with actual intelligence. I have known plenty of smart, interesting people that just have no interest in being intellectual at all. It is completely the attitude that the country engenders. It transcends race, but it can sometimes be enhanced by it, as well. I've heard way too many stories of a black child who is intelligent being told his whole life that he isn't "black" and is acting "white" by being intelligent and getting good grades for me to think that this issue is immune to race, but white trash areas, hispanic, Italian, etc etc still ostracize children for being smarter than they are. So what happens is that smart people start acting stupid to fit in with their peers. They learn to appreciate stupid things, and revel in stupidity.
It goes back to British humour and why hardly any Americans understand it. British people seem to value intelligence. I think that's why Americans find them pompous. In addition to the "properness" of the British, but I think that is just outward appearance and the underlying attitude is that of a culture that values intelligence and critical thought. They aren't the only ones, but we grew out of Britain originally, so they incur our collective teenage angst backlash.
If you put the concept of absurdist British humour inside the frame of a culture that values intelligence and people who look for meaning in things, who think critically about what things mean, who actively participate in the thought of what is going on around them; all of a sudden, British humour starts to make sense, because if you take that culture and insert something that sort of makes sense a little bit, and throw in 10 things that make absolutely no sense at all, the psychology of British humor and its absurdity starts to become clear.
America will never get it though, because they are too busy paying football players to go to college and not go to class rather than pay for an inner city genius to get his degree and become the next Leonardo Da Vinci.
We'll just continue to sit on our couches until we are too stupid to remember how to grow food and start pouring Gatorade on the fields instead of water because they market it well and otherwise we would have to think logically. But hey, at least we are still the best in the world at throwing a ball.
More than any other country I've been to, America holds up stupidity in the highest regard. There are aspects I admire as well, such as the culture of heralding creativity more than any other culture I've been to as well, but I just can't get over how Americans seem to hold up stupidity as the golden standard.
It has nothing to do with actual intelligence. I have known plenty of smart, interesting people that just have no interest in being intellectual at all. It is completely the attitude that the country engenders. It transcends race, but it can sometimes be enhanced by it, as well. I've heard way too many stories of a black child who is intelligent being told his whole life that he isn't "black" and is acting "white" by being intelligent and getting good grades for me to think that this issue is immune to race, but white trash areas, hispanic, Italian, etc etc still ostracize children for being smarter than they are. So what happens is that smart people start acting stupid to fit in with their peers. They learn to appreciate stupid things, and revel in stupidity.
It goes back to British humour and why hardly any Americans understand it. British people seem to value intelligence. I think that's why Americans find them pompous. In addition to the "properness" of the British, but I think that is just outward appearance and the underlying attitude is that of a culture that values intelligence and critical thought. They aren't the only ones, but we grew out of Britain originally, so they incur our collective teenage angst backlash.
If you put the concept of absurdist British humour inside the frame of a culture that values intelligence and people who look for meaning in things, who think critically about what things mean, who actively participate in the thought of what is going on around them; all of a sudden, British humour starts to make sense, because if you take that culture and insert something that sort of makes sense a little bit, and throw in 10 things that make absolutely no sense at all, the psychology of British humor and its absurdity starts to become clear.
America will never get it though, because they are too busy paying football players to go to college and not go to class rather than pay for an inner city genius to get his degree and become the next Leonardo Da Vinci.
We'll just continue to sit on our couches until we are too stupid to remember how to grow food and start pouring Gatorade on the fields instead of water because they market it well and otherwise we would have to think logically. But hey, at least we are still the best in the world at throwing a ball.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Lumberjackitude
With this semi-new workout routine transforming my body in a way I've never seen before
in tandem with my impromptu decision to grow a beard like I've never had before.
I looked in the mirror today as I was washing my hands and realized I'm looking more and more like the lumberjack I've always wanted to be.
Might need to go buy some flannel shirts tomorrow.
in tandem with my impromptu decision to grow a beard like I've never had before.
I looked in the mirror today as I was washing my hands and realized I'm looking more and more like the lumberjack I've always wanted to be.
Might need to go buy some flannel shirts tomorrow.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Tears in Rain II
Sometimes I want to see you cry.
Maybe that
is because
the shimmer
those tears create
is the only thing
I can think
that might
make your eyes
even more beautiful
than the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Maybe that
is because
the shimmer
those tears create
is the only thing
I can think
that might
make your eyes
even more beautiful
than the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Tears in Rain
The day eventually comes when you realize life is nothing more than the measurements of time between tears shed. The true despair in life is when the tears don't flow anymore. Then you realize nothing has made you happy enough to cry for its loss.
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