nanovivid

I’ve been thinking a lot over the past few days about thankfulness. Maybe it has something to do with this whole Thanksgiving holiday thing. But I was even thinking about it before good ole’ turkey day. It’s just staggering to think of how privileged my life is and how little I’ve done to earn anything I have… and how unfair that is compared to the lives of so many others. I guess humbled would be a good description for how I’ve been left feeling for all the wonderful undeserved goodness that has happened in my life.

Last night, the sky was incredible. I’ve been living on the outskirts of a medium-size city for the past few years, so I had almost forgotten what it was like to see the sky without so much light pollution. It was pretty cold out, so I bundled up and took a short walk out to where I had a good view of the sky. The moon was just coming up and the stars were twinkling like I’ve never seen before. It was breathtaking. The sky looked like it was no more than a couple hundred feet above me. I even saw a few shooting stars. The best word I can find to describe my feelings at the time is intimacy… a closeness to love and beauty… I can’t really explain it. Usually, beautiful nights like that make me lonely, but somehow last night was comforting and beautiful and just a major wow life doesn’t suck ™ moment. Somehow the experience seems to fit perfectly with my recent thoughts of undeserved goodness and beauty.

I think I’ll end this with a short list of things I’m thankful for. Sure, it’s kind of a cliché thing to do, but it’s the most real thing I could think to do. I’m thankful for the little things that make life worth living every day and for the beauty that I keep finding in this mess. I’m thankful for everyone who has been and still is being patient and caring with me as I go through this totally insane thing called life. Most of all, I’m thankful for those who really know me intimately and keep showing me such incredible love (you know who you are). God bless.

On a lighter note, here are a couple of fun Japan-related links to brighten your "black friday." First off, Irrational Exuberance (aka Yatta! - thanks to Mattt for the link) is, well, unique. It’s a bunch of random images and text set to a Japanese pop song. Be forewarned, a) it’s a relatively big download (1.5 megs) and b) it’s not for the easily offended or confused, and it’s probably not good for those prone to narcolepsy. The second link I have for you is Engrish. Engrish is "the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design." Enjoy!

♫ Andy Hunter° - Sandstorm Calling

Steve and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie tonight. We both enjoyed it and were surprised when we realized that we had been sitting for three hours. The movie definitely kept me involved and I didn’t find myself getting bored like I have with some other long movies *cough*starwarsepisodetwo*cough*. It’s a very enjoyable and well-told story that has good pacing and (mostly) interesting characters. Dobby was a bit annoying at times… well, most of the time, and the villains seemed to be two-dimensional (evil for no apparent reason) at times. But overall, I liked it. Thumbs up.

♫ Current music: Daft Punk's Discovery album... so good!

I have officially decided that Kline’s pumpkin ice cream is sweet nectar from heaven put into creamy, frosty treat form. I can’t believe I’ve missed out on this for the three and a half years I’ve been living in this town. Too bad they only serve it twice a year.

To all you praying people out there — could you send one up for my bro Jeremiah? He’s having a rough time with finding a job and figuring out what he wants to be doing while in California. Thanks a bunch. No, we’re not actually related. I mean bro as in my brotha, my homeboy, my man… yo. ;-)

♫ Dijitol Kitchin's Snax for the Masses album

Last night I had a strange and funny dream… well, a whole sequence of them, really, but the strangest one was about (da da da) Trading Spaces! I dreamt that Trading Spaces came to my parents’ house and was redoing the living room. Doug was the designer, and they were going to paint the walls a light reddish-brown and use a darker variation for the ceiling. That’s about all I remember except that I woke up right as a truck with furniture in it was pulling up to the house. So how about I lay off those PB&J sandwiches right before bed, eh.

♫ Ry making up a song... nice background music :-)

There really hasn’t been a lot happening in life lately. I got my geometry exam back and, well, I did ok. Not as well as I would have liked, but hopefully I can make up for it on the last exam. I would feel kinda silly if I got my only B in college in geometry. It’s strange… I feel like grades are overrated and not a very good way to evaluate people, yet I still feel like I need to get good ones. I’m just full of contradictions.

Tonight, a bunch of people are getting together for an early Thanksgiving meal, since we obviously won’t be together on Thanksgiving (you know, going home for holidays and all that). It should be yummy.

My roommates are officially addicted to Diablo II, and the cheating at thereof. Just about the only time that somebody isn’t using Dan’s computer to play Diablo is when everybody is asleep. Not that I have any room to talk, considering my constant computer use. :-)

♫ Dance House Children's Songs And Stories album

I went to a Nickel Creek concert tonight, and… wow. Just… wow. Nickel Creek rocked the house! Those guys (and girl :-) are amazing musicians. I’m so glad I got to see them. They played for a little over two hours, and then came out to the front of the stage and did a three song acoustic set, ending with Be Thou My Vision. The whole performance was just amazing. It’s easy to see why Nickel Creek is so popular. Wow.

I’m about to head off to sleep, but I figured I’d throw something up here before I did. Today was a good day… I talked to the professor for my worldview class about my project, and he was very positive about it. Later on I’ll be writing up a little reflection type thing about what I learned from the project and stuff like that.

While we were talking, he mentioned how everyone in the class had said how much they really enjoyed working on their projects. I can totally agree with that. This worldview project has been one of the most fun, yet most enriching activities of my time at college. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two other times that I have had so much fun doing college-related things. One was last semester’s Intro to Graphic Design class, and the other was my semester cross-cultural to Ireland.

It’s a bit depressing realizing that I’ve spent most of my time in college classes not enjoying or feeling very enriched or enlivened by them, but trying to live up to someone else’s standards and expectations. Why does school have to be like that? It’s not all the professors’ fault at… I think it’s a problem with our educational system in general that emphasizes so much of "serious learning" and knowing The Right Answer. Being serious and knowing facts are both good things, but when they get almost the sole focus of the learning process, I think there’s an imbalance.

I wish I knew the answer to this problem, but I don’t, and unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I’m done with college after this semester and so I guess I won’t have too much of a chance to work for change. But I encourage anybody who’s still in school to take advantages of those rare opportunities when learning and life collide to produce something beautiful.

Please forgive me if the preceding paragraphs weren’t 100% coherent or well thought out… it’s Friday, I’m tired, and I’m sure some people know of other reasons I wouldn’t be thinking totally clearly. (No, I’m not drunk. Sheesh… you people. ;-) It felt good to vent. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

Happy birthday to me! I can’t believe another year is gone… I’m getting so old! :-P And that’s all I have to say about that. I’ll give an update if anybody kidnaps me this year or anything like that (yes, it happened before :-).

The kidnapping story really isn’t that exciting. We were hanging around the dorm and Kristen offered to give me a back rub, and who am I to refuse a back rub? So I laid down on the floor and before I knew it, I was being blindfolded and led out of the building. They (my friends ;-) drove me around town for about half an hour while they decorated the hall lounge. On getting back, I discovered that we had gone by Taco Bell and they got me something to eat.

So that’s the kidnapping story. Now you know. Oh, and nothing that exciting happened this year. Just some yummy Papa John’s pizza and a few cards. Not that I’m complaining. Thanks everybody!

The mission code named finish the geometry exam and find some sort of answer for every problem has been successfully completed. (What, you thought I was going to tell you the real, top secret code name? Think again).

Not so much has happened in the last few days, other than some really awesome talks with friends. Hopefully I’ll have more interesting stuff to post soon.

I’m just an art-making maniac. The newest in the worldview project series - locked [self vs. self] - has arrived, ready for your eyes only (not really, but it sounds cool).

Music-related: I got the new Chevelle cd in the mail today as part of my early birthday present and man is it good! It’s quite a bit harder than their first cd in places and just as solid. Expect to see this showing up on my playlist quite a bit. :-)