Maybe it’s the falling leaves or the falling temperature, but autumn always becomes a time for reflection. Today my reflection is built in, a memory from 2 years ago that still makes me cringe every time I hear a motorcycle rev. At one time, friends gathered, coming and going at all hours but never really leaving. Now time passes but hearts don’t forget, faces remember the streams of tears, and for one 24 hour period it’s September 2006 all over again.
“I would have stayed up with you all night had I known how to save a life.” Wednesday, Sep 17 2008
Reflection 8:19 am
“My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.” – Charles F. Kettering Wednesday, May 21 2008
It’s summertime, and that means time for summer reading. This summer, as always, I welcome suggestions on rounding out my reading list. Last summer I was all about the classics. Jack Kerouac. Ernest Hemingway. F. Scott Fitzgerald. This summer I’m focusing on the future, instead of the past. So two things: 1) how our existence will be in the time ahead and 2) bettering myself for the future.
I started, and am nearly halfway through, “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” by Daniel H. Pink. It’s about how the Industrial Age favored left-brain dominated thinking – analysis, calculation, sequence – and how the new age we’re in, the Conceptual Age, favors right-brain dominated thinking – innovation, creativity, design. Jobs are quickly heading overseas or being replaced by computers, and the way to keep your job is to bring something to the table a computer or underpaid foreigner can’t – creativity.
Don’t worry; it’s not an argument for the dismissal of logic. Rather, it’s a case for both left- and right-brained dominated thinking to be a part of our everyday existence. Not just utility and function, but beauty and experience. This especially appeals to me, as I am part of a generation who doesn’t just want to make a phone call, we want a full experience with our phones – customizing with colors and ringtones and music to our hearts desires. We don’t just want to own a pair of shoes, we want them branded with our own designs and wording.
It’s the future.
“i am so scene, with my dinosaur shirt and my polka dot headband and my short choppy black hair and my cigarettes and my obnoxious attitude <3 kiss my ass kthxbai see you at the hardcore show tomorrow.”* Monday, May 19 2008
Observations and Random 11:46 am
Have you ever heard of being “Scene”? It refers to subcultures and movements, mostly centered on the alternative music scene. “Scenesters” are people “on the scene.” I think for most of them, it has just as much to do with the look and fashion as it does with the music. These people are usually elitists with extreme superiority complexes.
In my random exploration of the Internet, I came across this handy website called wikiHow, which is a “is a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual.” (Go there – I promise it will be hours of fun.) So I’m exploring wikiHow and what do I come across but an article titled “How to Be a Scene Kid.” I couldn’t believe how accurate it was (and also, how many “Scenesters” I knew.) So I give you the article.
Special Notes:
- Pay special attention to the part about how scene kids take pictures of themselves. Then reference your own Facebook page and notice any of your friends who have several photo albums of themselves and their friends, looking “scene.”
- Just to make it clear, I am NOT scene. At all. Not even a little bit. And honestly, I think people who do the things mentioned below are, well, let’s just say that I re-wrote this sentence many times and I’ll simply say that they are not my particular favorites.
- Question: Does anyone know anyone who is “scene” that is not between the ages of about 13 to 22? I see a lot of scenesters around, but they tend to be on the youthful side, very angry at their dads and often with nothing to do on a Tuesday afternoon. Are there 40 year-old scenesters out there? 50 year olds?
How to Be a Scene Kid
from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit
While a contemporary term for hipster or bohemian and other insiders of art related movements, scene kids are also associated with listening to screamo, techno, punk rock, indie rock, and hip hop, or other forms of unconventional music. If you want to be a scene kid, here are some suggestions to help you along your way…(Click title to read entire article.)
*Title quote from UrbanDictionary.com.
N.M.B. Tuesday, Apr 29 2008
Random 8:43 am
When I was a junior in college, one of my sorority sisters passed away suddenly. She had a heart problem and one morning she just didn’t wake up. Since that devastating day, every t-shirt, headband, and moving speech coming out of our chapter has included a tribute to her. She was a year younger than I, and this year her peers will graduate. Their senior bar crawl shirts had her initials on the sleeve, of course. But I find myself wondering if her tributes will move on along with the class of 2008. Sure, maybe a thing or two will bear her name next year, as the class of 2009 was initiated while she was still alive. But after them? Soon our Little 500s, our bar crawls, and our fund raisers will not remember her. She will live on with those who knew her, but the chapter will forget.
How do you stop a group from forgetting, when you’re not even sure it’s their duty to remember?
Lisa Simpson – NAKED! Wednesday, Mar 26 2008
Blogging 1:02 pm
In case you haven’t noticed, my March 2007 post Lisa Simpson is often on my Top Posts list (see left column.) This is because the most common search term used to get to my site is “lisa simpson naked.” So even though this blog is riddled with thoughtful prose, tortured poetry and personal musings, what really matters is seeing cartoons in their birthday suits. I considered being upset in a philosophically profound way, but then I realized that the thought of Lisa Simpson’s ta-ta’s was gaining me readership. So thanks, Lis. One man’s trash is [a great way to get to] another man’s treasure.
M&Ms and Chex Mix Tuesday, Feb 5 2008
Apartment 9:09 am
“I’ve not as yet found one hobby that would absorb me completely when I’m not working, but I have just bought a new apartment and didn’t quite bargain for the amount of effort and time and money that that absorbs.” - Hugh Dancy
I’m sitting in my new apartment, eating soup and drinking lemonade. Though I’ve been here just a few days, it already feels homey and cozy, mostly because my mother was obsessed with hanging every picture up on the first day. I don’t know what else to report – it’s just like any other place, except that it’s all mine. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, a couch in the living room and candles everywhere.
I am, however, open to decorating ideas. Leave a comment and share any fun decorating idea you’ve come across. I’m counting on you.
