Categories
Musings

Truth in Youthful Words

I posted recently about it being National Poetry Month, so I decided I should dig up some poems and writings from my past and share them here.In going through some of my journals and scribbling of words on paper from high school through now, I’ve noticed a some things:

  • I used to write a LOT more in high school, college, and even for a short while into post-college life.
  • My internal life was incredibly dramatic and full of tension. At least I thought it was.
  • I expressed that internal drama often through poems, or at least what I was calling poems, in ways that were more honest than I would be now.
  • It’s really interesting to see where I’ve come from; and more specifically, what’s different about me. (And if I’m being really honest with myself, what’s not different.)

There’s something about how we speak and write when we’re younger than tends to be so raw and full of energy and emotion. It’s as though our entire lives depended on every word we said, wrote, heard. Our feelings knew little of the “in-between” and only existed at the edges. What happened to that? We get older, wiser, more subdued, more cautious. Ultimately, these things are good for us. I would fear living that way now. But there’s something about us being real with ourselves that should never go away. Write with reckless abandon. Get thoughts down on paper and work out what’s in your mind and heart. One of the worst things you can do is bottle stuff in. I did on and off for many years and when I was holding back, I was more unhealthy.

What’s the point of this post? I’m not quite sure. Maybe just that we should be more free with our words and express those thoughts more frequently and openly, like when we were younger. Also look for a couple more poems to be posted here in the coming days!

Categories
Poems

November 5, 1999

to walk into a room and know it fully
yet himself to remain unnoticed
walking through gathering information
of the deeper intimate things
with no or little questioning into the questioner
his desires to speak but not knowing the words
he stands quiet about his heart’s condition
holding all his emotions along with
the stories told to him in his lifetime that demanded
his attention and compassion
only to understand the receiving end
of love that doesn’t ask for anything back
that is content in giving freely without complaint
to find a way to remove the emptiness that fills me
this apparent lack of connection with anything or anyone
longing to be reached out to before reaching out first
knowing how it is to be a child in a parent’s arms again

11/5/1999

Categories
Musings

Books!

In the past few months, I’ve rediscovered my love of reading as a form of learning and stretching of my mind and spirit, but also for entertainment purposes. In the near future, I will start posting some reactions to the book I just finished, “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. I certainly recommend it for people who are interested in social constructs and gaining a better understanding of why certain cultural and social waves go a a particular way, this book is a must read.

Other books currently in queue to be read, in no particular order:

  • In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik
  • The Hunger Games (Book 1) by Suzanne Collins
  • The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich
  • Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman (re-reading for the 3rd or 4th time)
  • Fatherless Generation by John Sowers

What is on  your reading list? And maybe more importantly, why?

Categories
Poems

April is National Poetry Month

I just heard this 11 days into the month, but it’s time to celebrate it nevertheless. When back on my personal computer, I will dig up some writings from my more sensitive days in high school and college to share with you all during the rest of this month. Anyone have any poems they’d like to share, written by you or a favorite author?

Categories
House

Home renovations are coming!

I’ve been in my house for a little over 6 months so far. It’s been a mostly positive experience outside of a couple minor issues with the sump pump in the fall/early winter. Oh, the joys of basements!

 

Shortly after I moved in, I had some windows replaced. You can see them in the Calm Friday Morning blog post. From there, you can also see the accent wall in the dining room and the light gray living room walls. However, the first really big change that’s currently being planned is an upgrade to the 1/2 bath in the master bedroom. If you walk in there now, you are presented with an orange countertop sink with a complimentary pink sink, orange curtains, and a pink toilet. Oh, and the walls are all medium dark wood paneling. The best part? There’s a 3 ball and chain lighting “system”! I will devote a future blog post to some before shots of the bathroom before the renovation.

What I have to do before getting the project kicked off:

  • Pick a toilet
  • Pick a sink and matching countertop
  • Pick a faucet
  • Pick a mirror/vanity
  • Pick lighting
  • Pick colors for the accents in the room (towel rails, toilet paper holder, etc.)
  • Pick out tile color for the shower
  • Pick out tile color for the floor

I’m a bit overwhelmed by the choices right now, but am very excited for the finished product! Stay tuned for progress reports over the coming weeks. The goal is to be done by summer. Yay for home ownership!

Categories
Musings Opinion

Interactive and Thoughtful Discourse: Part 2

In a recent blog post, I began sharing some thoughts on challenges and the lack of depth present in our communication. I’d like to share more on this topic and maybe even open up a dialog here on how we can work to improve how we interact with one another.

It’s a two-way street, people. One of my growing frustrations with “conversations” is how infrequently we’re able to have them in a manner that hasn’t devolved to mere statements of information about your life. I’ve overheard and been part of so many chats with friends that are comprised of one-off statements that have typically have little to no connection to what was just said. Person A says, “I was thinking about trying out this new burger place this week.” Person B replies, “That’s cool. I went for a 3 mile run last night. Man, it was tough, but felt really great to finish it.” I’m saddened that we are so focused on getting our thought out that we don’t even process or acknowledge what our friend is trying to share.

What would be so difficult about Person B pausing to ask about this burger place and why his friend wants to go there before changing topics and talking about his run? Honestly, very little at the surface. However, what it requires is that you put your own needs aside for a second and engage in what interests your friend. Who knows, if you stop to learn more about what your friend is sharing, you may find that it actually interests you too! What’s the lesson here? Listen to people once in a while. Ask questions that clarify and confirm that you hear what’s being said. You may also find a level of depth in others that may surprise and delight you. There’s a lot more to people than they’re willing to let on until they’re asked a couple simple questions.

Is there an echo? A bigger challenge in finding enjoyable and thoughtful discourse with others is watching and listening to people talking about stuff they read online or see on TV without a thought to call their own. Call it The Echo Effect. Most frequently I see this effect take hold in the tech world, mostly because that’s where I spend a lot of my time and energy. Countless blogs and Twitter accounts find one piece of news, post about it and all link back to the original source or link to one of the other “news” blogs. I’m pretty convinced that if you were to remove all content that duplicated the original source, you could save over 50% of that vast wealth of information on the Internet. We don’t need more parrots echoing what’s still ringing in my ear from 3 days ago.

I don’t want regurgitated data; I want analysis and interpretation and a fresh perspective.  I want to see us be capable of have meaningful conversation about politics, tech, culture, religion, and whatever you want to talk about. I want us to have original thought. The next time some news article or TV show catches your eye and you want to share it with me, be prepared to tell me why it caught your eye. What resonated with you, whether it be positive or negative? What kind of impact do you think it will have your life? Or mine? Or on the surrounding culture?

So what can we can take away from my ramblings? Here’s the bulleted version for the article skimmers:

  • Listen to people.
  • Ask questions of others. Don’t just talk about yourself.
  • Analyze the information you take in. Have your own thoughts! Don’t just repeat it to others. You’re not helping anybody.

We don’t have time to waste babbling on about nothing. Let’s make our time interacting and conversing worthwhile to both of us. I hope you join me in wanting and practicing interactive and thoughtful discourse.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Categories
Musings Opinion

Interactive and Thoughtful Discourse: Part 1

Warning: this post is somewhat lengthy. I hope you can hold your attention for long enough and that it mostly makes sense.

A couple weekends ago, I met up with a friend for dinner and drinks to catch up I hadn’t seen in a while. Over the course of the evening, conversation ran the course of the normal “what’s new with you?”, “how’s the job?”, and “any new projects around the house?” These are all usually pretty safe topics for people to discuss, usually without the need to expose yourself to anything beyond the surface or that require much pause for thought  before opening our mouths.

 

However, the bigger challenge facing our friendships and relationships with people relates to our ability to have real conversation. All too frequently our communication with one another, whether it be in person or online, deteriorates into meaningless chatter. The worst part of it is most of us don’t notice or simply don’t care that in the middle of all this noise, nobody’s really saying anything at all. If there is anything being said, how much of the content is only about yourself? How often do you find yourself asking your friends questions about anything?

Interactive and thoughtful discourse is lost on us. We turn our “conversations” with one another into a handful of categories, such as:

  • Let me tell you about myself and I don’t really care what you think of it unless you like it/agree with it
  • Let me tell you about what I heard on TV/read online
  • Let me try to one-up you with my incredible wit and really funny insights into the world. Likely I’ll be posting these things on Facebook and Twitter, too. Please like everything I say and do on FB, BTW. Thx!

There is plenty of evidence to show our American culture has been pretty self-centered for a really long time and more anecdotal proof arrives by the truckload daily. What of social media’s place? Isn’t it supposed to connect us in ways we never imagined? I’m a fan of the services out there as much as the next guy, but take a step back and ask yourself “why do I share what I share online?” If we all admit it to ourselves, we all want some level of attention. Connecting with friends is a great cover letter for social networking’s initial purposes, but we all know there’s a little “look at me” component. And maybe a little bit of that is OK. Moderation in everything, right? At least that’s how the phrase goes.

I think part of the problem lies in the mediums we use to communicate. (This is where part of the conversation with my friend starts to come into play.) Our conversation turned to how infrequently our interactions with each other mentally stimulate us now. My friend “C” was telling me how he had this really engaging chat over a few hours about his friend’s business idea. When you come away from a conversation energized, you know you actually got your mind – and depending on the topic, maybe your heart – connected to what was going on. If we don’t feel anything, why are we wasting our time on it in the first place?

So C and I continued our chat and lamented a bit about the lack of genuineness in social network interactions like those on Facebook and Twitter. We debated possible reasons for this. For me, one of the primary drivers is that both platforms ultimately don’t allow the space for depth. This shouldn’t be a surprise on Twitter. Really, how deep can you get with 140 characters? And while Facebook’s platform gives you more characters for updates and that “personal” space to share with friends, your profile turns into quick sound bytes and quips about topics that rarely give much insight into who you truly are, especially when you have a larger and larger friend list that makes you feel like you’re yelling into an already overcrowded room. We’ve lost the ability to communicate quietly but with true depth and instead only know how to barely stand in the shallow end of the pool.

In a future post, I will continue to share my thoughts on conversational styles, discourse on topics, and more. Thanks for making it this far. Perhaps you’ll come back for Part 2.

Categories
Random Web

Kittens!

http://www.placekitten.com

A friend shared this site with me a few weeks back and it’s one of the most ridiculous, cute, and useful sites ever. You need placeholder artwork of a specific size and wanted to fill it with kittens instead of whitespace? This is the site for you. Make the URL with the dimensions you need and it provide an image of an adorable kitten for your website. Amazing. Below is an example.