i think this blog is done forever. bye!
hobo pajama party was a cool name though..kudos me.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Resolutions
Most of the time, New Year's resolutions are really all the same old plans of quitting, losing, learning, making things that all fall through in the end. This year, I tried to be more thoughtful about how my life has changed in the past year, and what changes I want to see in the coming year. I think these are all both feasible and actually important for me, in order for my soul to grow.
1) Surround myself with people who inspire me. I love my friends at school, but not all of them really push me or challenge me in any significant way. I think I'm realizing more and more how your social networks have a noticeable impact on every aspect of your personality - from your politics to your eating habits to your fashion sense - even if it's on a purely subconscious level. Given that, I want to make sure that I'm shaped into the person that I want to be anyway (if that makes any sense). Even if it's hard to find the right people in the school and city I'm in, I just need to spend more time thinking, WWTPIAD -- What Would That Person I Admire Do?
2) Take myself seriously. Nobody really cares about what you almost did or are thinking about doing. What's really important is what you DO. A lot of my lack of action in the past has to do, very simply, with laziness. So: I need to not fuck up my sleeping schedule for stupid reasons. I need to eat well, exercise, and take care of my body. And I need to take care of the rest of me by write write write write writing. I have all the tools I need to do all these things, so I only need to not squander it all through laziness, idiotic excuses, and poor decision-making. Not that difficult, really.
3) Do what I want. This past semester was just a dark, dismal time. Taken over by a crisis of purpose, I added an economics major and started taking all these courses that I didn't give a shit about, that didn't really get me going intellectually, and that drained away all of my time and energy. I stopped going to my job at Gerontology because I think I just got really weary of having to do the same quantitative data analysis bullshit over and over and over and over and over again. I need re-evaluate my daily activities and make sure that every hour of every day is spent doing something that is good for me, something that allows me to actually improve myself. If I feel like a certain activity is a waste of my time, I need to be able to just say no.
4) Be less of an asshole. I'm becoming more and more aware of the fact that, under the guise of sarcasm and humor, I am often kind of a dick. To "get real" about it, I think it all just stems from a whole lot of insecurity and a need to be the "funny guy", which leads me to just say whatever shitty thing pops into my head at the moment. I mean, I don't want to compromise my sense of humor, and there are right places and times to bust balls and joke around. I just need to be more thoughtful about the things I say, why I say them, and what effect they're going to have on others.
All of these items can be summed up fairly simply, actually:
BE MORE THOUGHTFUL.
1) Surround myself with people who inspire me. I love my friends at school, but not all of them really push me or challenge me in any significant way. I think I'm realizing more and more how your social networks have a noticeable impact on every aspect of your personality - from your politics to your eating habits to your fashion sense - even if it's on a purely subconscious level. Given that, I want to make sure that I'm shaped into the person that I want to be anyway (if that makes any sense). Even if it's hard to find the right people in the school and city I'm in, I just need to spend more time thinking, WWTPIAD -- What Would That Person I Admire Do?
2) Take myself seriously. Nobody really cares about what you almost did or are thinking about doing. What's really important is what you DO. A lot of my lack of action in the past has to do, very simply, with laziness. So: I need to not fuck up my sleeping schedule for stupid reasons. I need to eat well, exercise, and take care of my body. And I need to take care of the rest of me by write write write write writing. I have all the tools I need to do all these things, so I only need to not squander it all through laziness, idiotic excuses, and poor decision-making. Not that difficult, really.
3) Do what I want. This past semester was just a dark, dismal time. Taken over by a crisis of purpose, I added an economics major and started taking all these courses that I didn't give a shit about, that didn't really get me going intellectually, and that drained away all of my time and energy. I stopped going to my job at Gerontology because I think I just got really weary of having to do the same quantitative data analysis bullshit over and over and over and over and over again. I need re-evaluate my daily activities and make sure that every hour of every day is spent doing something that is good for me, something that allows me to actually improve myself. If I feel like a certain activity is a waste of my time, I need to be able to just say no.
4) Be less of an asshole. I'm becoming more and more aware of the fact that, under the guise of sarcasm and humor, I am often kind of a dick. To "get real" about it, I think it all just stems from a whole lot of insecurity and a need to be the "funny guy", which leads me to just say whatever shitty thing pops into my head at the moment. I mean, I don't want to compromise my sense of humor, and there are right places and times to bust balls and joke around. I just need to be more thoughtful about the things I say, why I say them, and what effect they're going to have on others.
All of these items can be summed up fairly simply, actually:
BE MORE THOUGHTFUL.
Monday, December 29, 2008
I have a lot more than seven...
Reasons why Christina is lame:
1) She didn't appreciate my original layout colors.
2) She made me change them, without attempting to figure out how to do it herself or even providing any hints as to what colors she would prefer.
3) She complained about the changes I made.
4) She didn't get it when I ironically changed them to very ugly colors, reminiscent of a troll's vomit after an intense watermelon-eating contest... from the 80's...
5) She ditched me today so she could hang out with her parents in the hospital or something? I don't know, I wasn't really listening.
6) In reading the past few posts, I realize she's turned this blog into more of a wall-to-wall between the two of us, instead of actually posting anything interesting.
7) She'll probably read this list, take it seriously, and go "HOW RUDE" like Michelle Tanner from Full House.
Reasons why Christina is not lame:
1) Actually, that last one is pretty awesome.
2) She has good taste in Japanese horror movies.
3) We're gullies for life! Dinner tonight?
1) She didn't appreciate my original layout colors.
2) She made me change them, without attempting to figure out how to do it herself or even providing any hints as to what colors she would prefer.
3) She complained about the changes I made.
4) She didn't get it when I ironically changed them to very ugly colors, reminiscent of a troll's vomit after an intense watermelon-eating contest... from the 80's...
5) She ditched me today so she could hang out with her parents in the hospital or something? I don't know, I wasn't really listening.
6) In reading the past few posts, I realize she's turned this blog into more of a wall-to-wall between the two of us, instead of actually posting anything interesting.
7) She'll probably read this list, take it seriously, and go "HOW RUDE" like Michelle Tanner from Full House.
Reasons why Christina is not lame:
1) Actually, that last one is pretty awesome.
2) She has good taste in Japanese horror movies.
3) We're gullies for life! Dinner tonight?
Thursday, December 25, 2008
at 6:39 in the morn
so listen
I've officially become nocturnal. off fish alley knock turn all. i seem to sleep from 7 am to 4 pm or so. this likely is not quite healthy.
i've been watching a lot of CHTV videos, and reading these people's blogs. i was thinking, trying to understand why i like watching them so much, and i figured it out. believe it or not, it has a lot to do with Weezer and Barack Obama.
You might be confused. Allow me to explain.
What I like about these CollegeHumor folks, besides the simple fact that their stuff is funny, is that they're all regular Joes. It almost seems like it's a bunch of my friends making videos. I see them out of character, I can read their blogs, and I can connect with them outside of just their work. It makes the audience member feel like one of them, like part of their community.
Weezer fandom is very similar. The reason why I got so into it, and why a lot of people are into it, is because the band is so open to fans. They used to actually post on the message boards regularly, and would interact with fans all the time. They would secretly release all these demos from the past -- literally hundreds of songs that were never heard on studio recordings. When you were a Weezer fan, you actually had a whole community that you were intimately connected to, with its own culture, customs, and even vocabulary.
Barack Obama got the overwhelming level of support that he did because he tried to run a "grassroots" campaign. Really what that means is making the individuals take ownership over a political campaign/cause... which is only possible by making them feel like they have both agency and A CONNECTION to the cause. After the election, a lot of people exclaimed that "WE DID IT"... "WE", not "HE"...
Okay I might be rambling a little bit because I am getting fairly tired at this point... But the point is that my little revelation is that the secret to creating work that really touches people is to be as transparent and collaborative as possible. When fans feel like they're a member of a community (and not just a consumer of a product, or a polling statistic), that's when they'll really throw their support behind whatever it is you're trying to do. This can apply to bands, comedians, politicians... and pretty much anything else in LIFE.
I'm sure this is actually a fairly basic idea taught in a lot of, you know, bullshit business courses or whatever, but I've just never thought of it framed in quite that way and IT WAS INTERESTING TO ME OKAY? SHUT UP I HATE YOU!
goodnight
I've officially become nocturnal. off fish alley knock turn all. i seem to sleep from 7 am to 4 pm or so. this likely is not quite healthy.
i've been watching a lot of CHTV videos, and reading these people's blogs. i was thinking, trying to understand why i like watching them so much, and i figured it out. believe it or not, it has a lot to do with Weezer and Barack Obama.
You might be confused. Allow me to explain.
What I like about these CollegeHumor folks, besides the simple fact that their stuff is funny, is that they're all regular Joes. It almost seems like it's a bunch of my friends making videos. I see them out of character, I can read their blogs, and I can connect with them outside of just their work. It makes the audience member feel like one of them, like part of their community.
Weezer fandom is very similar. The reason why I got so into it, and why a lot of people are into it, is because the band is so open to fans. They used to actually post on the message boards regularly, and would interact with fans all the time. They would secretly release all these demos from the past -- literally hundreds of songs that were never heard on studio recordings. When you were a Weezer fan, you actually had a whole community that you were intimately connected to, with its own culture, customs, and even vocabulary.
Barack Obama got the overwhelming level of support that he did because he tried to run a "grassroots" campaign. Really what that means is making the individuals take ownership over a political campaign/cause... which is only possible by making them feel like they have both agency and A CONNECTION to the cause. After the election, a lot of people exclaimed that "WE DID IT"... "WE", not "HE"...
Okay I might be rambling a little bit because I am getting fairly tired at this point... But the point is that my little revelation is that the secret to creating work that really touches people is to be as transparent and collaborative as possible. When fans feel like they're a member of a community (and not just a consumer of a product, or a polling statistic), that's when they'll really throw their support behind whatever it is you're trying to do. This can apply to bands, comedians, politicians... and pretty much anything else in LIFE.
I'm sure this is actually a fairly basic idea taught in a lot of, you know, bullshit business courses or whatever, but I've just never thought of it framed in quite that way and IT WAS INTERESTING TO ME OKAY? SHUT UP I HATE YOU!
goodnight
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING
These are all things that I would think about before getting down on one knee and popping the question. I present to you:
John's Life Partner Litmus Tests (non-physical appearance-related things only):
1) Must do something creative and interesting with her "free time"... Must not just sit around watching T.V. and reading gossip blogs all day. Bonus points if she can do something I can't do at all (illustrate, dance).
2) Music: Must like at least one or two acts that are kind of strange (Animal Collective, The Flaming Lips, The Unicorns). Might seem unimportant, but I think music taste actually says a lot about a person.
3) Must not think any of the following people are funny: Dane Cook, Carlos Mencia, Carrot Top, Dat Phan, Ant, Larry the Cable Guy, Rosie O'Donnell.
4) Must enjoy watching bad movies on purpose every once in a while.
5) Must never roll eyes and sigh at "That's what she said" jokes. Must make her own occasionally.
6) Must sometimes enjoy walking around the city doing nothing in particular.
7) Must not sincerely believe that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. Also must not believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old.
8) Must actually tell me directly when shit is bothering her instead of doing the stupid passive-aggressive things that 99% of all girls do. In general, should hate drama and mind games as much as I do.
9) Must be a geek. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, RPGs, computers, comics, video games -- it doesn't really matter what kind.
10) Must eat like a man.
11) Must kiss my boo-boos to make them all better.
John's Life Partner Litmus Tests (non-physical appearance-related things only):
1) Must do something creative and interesting with her "free time"... Must not just sit around watching T.V. and reading gossip blogs all day. Bonus points if she can do something I can't do at all (illustrate, dance).
2) Music: Must like at least one or two acts that are kind of strange (Animal Collective, The Flaming Lips, The Unicorns). Might seem unimportant, but I think music taste actually says a lot about a person.
3) Must not think any of the following people are funny: Dane Cook, Carlos Mencia, Carrot Top, Dat Phan, Ant, Larry the Cable Guy, Rosie O'Donnell.
4) Must enjoy watching bad movies on purpose every once in a while.
5) Must never roll eyes and sigh at "That's what she said" jokes. Must make her own occasionally.
6) Must sometimes enjoy walking around the city doing nothing in particular.
7) Must not sincerely believe that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. Also must not believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old.
8) Must actually tell me directly when shit is bothering her instead of doing the stupid passive-aggressive things that 99% of all girls do. In general, should hate drama and mind games as much as I do.
9) Must be a geek. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, RPGs, computers, comics, video games -- it doesn't really matter what kind.
10) Must eat like a man.
11) Must kiss my boo-boos to make them all better.
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