Past time

While I was walking by myself maybe about a week ago, I stumbled across a random thought. I cannot remember the thought that ignited it anymore, but the notion is this: We should never assume that the past was a strictly simpler situation than the present. This immediately seemed true, and I started to wonder how the complexity around us could be compared with the complexity of the life of someone living in the 18th or 19th Century. For example, a twentysomething from the 19th Century would not have known or even comprehended what a computer was, but then again, he or she wouldn't have had to keep up with upwards of a hundred "friends" on some social networking site.

It seems to be true that while progress is certainly being made, there are things that remain the same, allowing our brains to relate these to the new things.

I have a feeling I wasn't the first person to ever say that. ^_^

Song in my head: Maino, featuring T-Pain, "All of the Above".

Changing up

Today I walked in the morning instead of at night as I have been accustomed to doing. It was a refreshing change of pace. I don't have to worry about coming home at an ungodly hour, but now that worry is replaced by the worry of arriving at my next destination (be it work or school) on time. I think it's a fair trade-off.

So now what's keeping me busy is writing songs, besting the other me at Sketchup, and work. I hope that next semester I can get back into the school groove.

Song in my head: Gerry and the Pacemakers, "I'll Be There".

Thread theory

As I was mending my pants tonight after a night jog, I had an insight. People almost always talk about science and religion as being in some sort of conflict. Where there is science being conducted, people are likely to assume that religion will have no place, and vice versa.

Actually, for me, the real fundamental concept at work here is the concept of order. Human beings expect that the universe operates at some level of order. I would go a bit further and say that the human search for order is one of the things that define what being human is all about. We as a species would like to think that there is a reason things are the way they are.

In light of this, I see both science and religion as tackling this concept of order and broadening our horizons on it. But to me they are not in conflict; they are complementary, because science seeks to ask and answer how the universe is ordered, while religion and spirituality seeks to ask and answer why the universe is ordered that way. Both disciplines take as true the assertion that the universe is ordered in a certain way, and then explore the nature of that order.

Think about it: if we didn't think that the universe obeys some sort of order, and that instead it is randomness and chaos that governs its actions, then what good are science and religion for? What good are books, which seek to tell us what happened before or knowledge gained by others, if we know that such history or knowledge will never ever be useful again? The answer, of course, is nothing--if we did not think there was an order in the universe, we would be indistinguishable from the animals.

So hopefully you find some semblance of order as you leave this page and do whatever you are doing today. Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Nickelback, "Someday".

Are we there yet?

I really really wanted to go walking tonight, but I didn't because I forgot my shoes. So before retiring for the night (or morning, as it were), I placed my sport shoes in my car.

Overall, I think I've grown a lot as a walker/jogger. I seem to have found a good cadence and a good method, and I've stumbled upon a darn good circuit, one that is not too short, always interesting, and is well-lighted. Hopefully I will find the time tomorrow to do it.

I do have other things to do, you know.

Song in my head: Nickelback, "If Today Was Your Last Day". Hey, if you heard it upwards of 9 times, it'd be in your head, too. ^_^

Random thoughts I got while walk-jogging last night

I realized last night that Emily Dickinson is one of my heroes. She is one of those people who desired to create something new, and did so by using the things that were available to them. She took the cadence of church hymns (reportedly the stuff she loved to sing) and just the right words and made them express her unique worldview. The result is very much like a small but curiously strong mint; they look dainty and nonthreatening, that is until you put them in your mouth.

Do I also hope to achieve something like this? I don't know. Perhaps it is all about taking island music and making it express my emo side. But as it has become apparent that imo is much more than emo dressed up in island music. It's as if the "island" is influencing the "emo" part, changing it into a substantially different worldview. To complicate things, I now don't believe as strongly as before that we created imo. Maybe we just discovered it.

But I don't know for sure. Having thrown away my empty water bottle into a nearby trashcan, I decide to pick up my feet once again and start jogging.

Song in my head: Francis Magalona, "Kaleidoscope World".

Running man

It was weird to see the Sun sink so low so quickly during a recent walk-jog I had. One minute, I was raising my head to see it, but then I looked down on my mobile phone. When I looked back up the ocean had almost swallowed it whole.

So technically, half my walk-jog was in the evening. ^_^

Song in my head: Simon Collins, "Unconditional". Now doesn't this guy sound like someone familiar? Why would that be...? ^_^

Seventeen syllables, No. 60

The cool breeze, like a
Guitarist, strums on quiet
Waves, playing splash-chords.

Seventeen syllables, No. 53

What's so heavy? The
Camera in my pocket
Holds recorded sand.

Seventeen syllables, No. 48

Non-cold water is
Unthinkable beneath this
Mealy, hardtack Sun.

Illuminate the "no"s on their vacancy signs

My room is a mess, but curiously there seems to be more space in it than there was yesterday. In the morning I met up with the other Imaginary Friends, and after a walk on the beach, we kind of regrouped as a band. It was nice to be together, in one piece there, sitting on the sand and trading stories and tunes. (For his part, Jesse recommended me a really good "imo"-message song by DCFC that we can cover, and Elmo helped me with the old-school island jams.)

I think that the biggest thing I have to remedy for this year is the impression people seem to get that I am not willing to be as helpful as it is possible for me to be. I really thought that over the years my personal feeling of responsibility towards the groups the belong to--most importantly my family--has grown in leaps and bounds; however, when I attempt to extrapolate what others think of me, I always seem to fall short. I don't mind being labelled as a "dreamer"--really, I actually like the ring of that. ^_^ But if with it comes the conclusion that "this guy just doesn't care for such and such thing that he belongs to," well, I'm going to have to correct that.

It must be true, then, that ability is not the last thing about an assigned task. It's the follow-through, or the final implementation.

The calendar I bought myself in the beginning of the year is really helping me focus on what needs to be done. I am glad I am getting into the habit of looking in it and writing things down on it. With a (qualitatively) heavy semester ahead of me, I will need every advantage I can muster.

Wish me luck. And in exchange, I wish you luck during the semester.

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Andrew Gold, "Never Let Her Slip Away". Oh, and the title-line reference will be the next entry's headsong. Watch out for it.

Seventeen syllables, No. 11

The waves batter the
Sand under my foot like the
Sharp knife inside it.

Two rounds

I got through one week of doing some walking every night, and I am well on the way to establish a nightly routine. The standard route is twice around Colleague, and usually I am able to coerce participation from a subset of the Bohemians. It's not perfect, though; sometimes I get lucky, and I walk down Tumon after my time at the Staircase, but sometimes I am left with no one to walk with and I walk around the Mall.

Now if I can just work on my diet. Part of the problem is that I'm usually very hungry after the walk. Perhaps a solution would be to take the walk after I have already eaten. It's a possible fix...

It would be nice to have someone to walk with.

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, "Face Down".

That's so cherry

I laugh when I remember that six or seven years ago, I dreamt about a time when I would know what it would be like to sleep in. Now I find myself longing for that time when I could wake up at 5:30 am on a good day. ^_^

Things change real quick nowadays.

I realized that Jesse's final paper for the Literature class crystallized for me my sudden interest in haiku. He essentially says that poetry is a way to unwrap our raw thoughts, separating them from our own and our society's metaphors and modes of thought, in which our thoughts are usually packaged. I am beginning to realize that the large majority of my thoughts are overpackaged; I then see my haiku as an exercise in unpacking my thoughts so that I can test whether they can stand on their own.

So here's to a long Summer, a walk a day, a haiku per two days. ^_^

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Dirty Vegas, "Days Go By".

P.S. Props go out to Kim, who looked something up in the Urban Dictionary and is exploring verse. ^_^

How many steps

I have a crazy idea for this Summer. I think that in addition to my many projects, I should determine the step distances between the many places I frequent. I think the values would figure into the tens of thousands or even the hundreds of thousands. ^_^ The route (not continuous! ^_^) would be as follows:

• The Plantation to Bohemia
• Bohemia to Colleague
• Colleague to the Staircase
• The Staircase to the Vestibule
• The Vestibule back to the Plantation

Wish me luck.

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Sheena Easton, "Morning Train". Heard it today; brought to mind those four days with Serenity. I remember pretending to sing along. I remember being amazed at her knowing it. ^_^

Walk the walk

My doctor read a recent X-ray film of my leg, and pronounced that I can now walk regularly without my orthopedic. Now that's a relief, because it was slowly but surely wearing down my pair of rubber shoes. ^_^

Now the frequency of FFFFF should increase. ^_^

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Justin Timberlake, "Sexyback".

Like a sudden alignment of planets--

Today I spent some time with Madge playing some pool. I haven't played it for ages, but I was glad to realize that I am just as poor at it as I was when I first started. ^_^ But pool is one of those things where if you aren't having a good time, you might as well quit. So it was quite a favorable bellwether that Madge and I played four games, much to the hilarity of both of us. "That's got to be the most fun I've had playing pool," she said.

Hey, I can't take all the credit, can I? I mean, I can't help but laugh at a game where you take turns hitting balls with thin sticks. Again, if you're not having fun, why are you still doing it? ^_^

Then there was some FFFFF afterwards. I didn't know you could walk up Happylanding Road, albeit with much exertion!

Here's to more matches in desolate pool halls. And score one for the random guy in a bike, wearing a black hoodie and Pringles in his pocket.

Thanks for reading.

50 Cent, featuring Lupe Fiasco, "Touch the Sky".

First run

It feels extremely good to be able to run all the distance between Bohemia and the customary place for parking my vehicle. ^_^

I will do it again tomorrow, no excuses.

But Salad Night was cancelled. I don't know whether Wendy's is an appropriate substitution thereof.

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Franz Ferdinand, "Michael".

Lonely lamp posts

I went for a walk tonight, under and along the lonely lamp posts that dot the road that circled Colleague. It was a pensive walk, as there was nobody to walk with me. But it was just as well... I had a healthy talk with myself.

I wonder if it is too late to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: The Pillows, "Hybrid Rainbow".