Sweet Home Long Island
So I'm back home now on LI, at least for the next two weeks. Don't have a computer of my own, and I am spending my time getting my car on the road, preparing for college, working on CUTV stuff, and watching TV (booyah!), so I don't think i'll have many blog posts for a while. I have really enjoyed the process so far, and I think I'll continue it once I get up to Colgate.
- posted by Eric @ 6:28 PM  []

 
Moblogging!
Live from the lab in East Engineering Hall, and with the power of the Palm Tungsten C, I give you moblogging! I am stuck in the lab listening to run throughs of our presentation. Nothing interesting to say, but I wanted to give this moblogging a try.
- posted by Eric @ 8:47 AM  []

 
Unity and Self
A topic of great importance to me is unity. We live in a world full of disjuctions. I act one way around my parents, another way around my friends, and think private thoughts when I am alone. All of these faces are part of who I am, but their distinction is not entirely healthy. It is difficult to project multiple personalities. You can feel the awkwardness when you are forced to interact with people from two groups at the same time, "worlds colliding" as it is called in Seinfeld.
One aspect of myself where this is a real concern is sexuality. I feel comfortable in my attraction to women, and I don't have doubts about it. I do feel akward however expressing this desire. Men often exchange comments about the attractivness of a lady etc., but I find this kind of talk akward. I may very well be thinking the same thing, but I have been used to keeping those thoughts internal. While I don't think that I should share my every hormonal instinct with the world, keeping it all inside can't be good either.
This topic is explored beautifully in an episode of the 3d animated show Beast Wars. While it may appear to be a kids cartoon, it deals with deeper issues from time to time. The plot revolves around robots (inherintly logical and calculating) who must stay in beast form (taking the appearance of various animals) to survive on the planet they are on. In the episode Call of the Wild, the Maximals are forced to stay in their beast mode for long periods of time, until this gets the best of them, and they act like out of control animals. The solution is found when they incorporate their beast mode (formally just a shell) into their core and fuse with it. Only then could they reach their maximum potential, once they had achieved synthesis.
I have tried to use this idea when it comes to my sexuality. Growing up as a kid in this country, sexuality is something you develop in secret. I've been to my share of health classes, but none the less your sexual urges are supposed to be kept hidden. I have tried to break this barrier however, and acknowledge those feelings as psrt of who I am, not just some instincts that my body feels. The mond body split, while helpful at times, can lead to a denial of tendencies that are yours, whether you like them or not. I have made some progress in recent years, but I still have a long way to go until I no longer feel ashamed of my desires.
- posted by Eric @ 11:19 PM  []

 
Not Just Shiny Coasters
What I have come to realize in the past few weeks is just how much I love getting new cd's. I just recently picked up Elephant by the White Stripes and Welcome Interstate Managers by Fountains of Wayne. Having downloaded most of the songs from the White Stripes album last semester, I was sure I was going to love it. I bought it because I already had their first cd and I wanted to support them. I picked up the Fountains of Wayne cd simply because I really liked their single "Stacey's Mom" (the most fun song of the summer). As it turns out, every other song on the cd was just as good if not better. This cd was one of the best purchases I have made in a while, and I highly recommend it. It has a nice range of musical styles and is very enjoyable.
This summer I have added 9 new cd's to my collection, a huge jump for me but well worth the money. If you look around Amazon.com or Half.com you can find used cd's for much less than if you were to buy them from the store. In my experience these cd's have been in good condition and I have not even noticed that the cd was "used" (many people buy new cd's, rip the mp3's, and then resell them right away to try to make back some of the cost).
Lesson of the day: CD's Good. Fire Bad!
(In regards to the title of this post, I would like to quote myself by saying "There is nothing inherently wrong with shininess")
- posted by Eric @ 10:24 PM  []

 
Buh?
I don't think I've had any insightful thoughts in the last few days. I spent both yesterday and today working on my Power Point presentation for the trip to Auburn this thursday. In my spare time I have been working on some palm programs that I wanted to make (for the main purpose of using another piece of software past its trial period). I sent out some CUTV emails today. That's the full summary of my life in the past two days. I'm really looking forward to gettin back home, and spending some time on the beach.
- posted by Eric @ 10:21 PM  []

 
A Night Out
Finally some fun in Bama. A group of us research peeps went out to see American Wedding tonight. I highly recommend this film for all those who liked the first two. It follows the spirit of the first movies very well and yet still manages to be interesting and funny. I haven't laughed that hard for months, and it felt really good to just let out a roaring laugh. I wish we had done more group activities here in Bama, but then again we are all people who choose to sit in front of a computer screen every day for the rest of our working lives (and probably beyond), so social behavior is probably not our forte.
The whole group of us including the prof's in charge had lunch at Dreamland Bar-b-que today. Not your average place, to say the least. The menu consists of ribs, white bread, chips, and drinks. Of course, the ribs were incredible, and we all enjoyed talking and laughing out on the deck. Today has been a pleasant change of pace, and I have a feeling I will remember this experience fondly for years to come.
- posted by Eric @ 10:58 PM  []