Si Dices Tan

Solía pensar que las religiónes no eran reales. Ahora, creo que todas las religiones estan reales.

From the Bookshelf

I find myself wandering through the endless rooms and corridors of my school's main library. It is easily the largest library I have ever been in, and it is not difficult to get lost, in both a literal and a mental sense. This place is such a powerhouse of knowledge, and it sometimes saddens me to know that I will not be able to read or understand it all before my time is up. As I sit here writing this, in between L 7 .B66 and L 13 .B99, my eyes and mind wander across the endless collection of titles and authors. Who were all these people? What did they accomplish? What kept them up at night? Most of all, what earned them a spot on these shelves? Every now and then my eye will catch a particular title, and I'll have to pry it off the dusty shelf and read a small excerpt. I'm always curious to read the name of whomever checked the book out last and what the date was when they did. There are books in this place that have not been picked up in years, but my mind reading through the lines seems to bring them back to life. This library is becoming a place of refuge for me, and I regret not having come here more often as an underclassmen, but I am here now, and I do not plan to leave again. There is just too much to soak in, it's unfortunate that I have to pick and choose. We each have a role to play, we must each gather information from the subjects which spark our interests. Afterward, we must make that knowledge available for the masses, to be archived on the multitude of shelves that make up this place, another beautiful example of turning many into one.



“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” 
- James Baldwin

untitled

I like the feeling of being completely supported when letting out the truth to someone close, especially when it comes to anxious situations. I'm filled this right now, and along side it are feelings of excitement, adventure, and rejuvenation. To whom this is about, I cannot thank you enough. I was scared to let it out, but for what reason do I have to doubt anything but your support? That quick blurting of the truth and your instant interest was enough to make up my mind. I'm going to do it, I'm not afraid to hold back any longer, I am unchained. There's a reason all of these experiences have pushed to this one big moment. I am so lucky to have you in my life and I'll always be wondering just what you are up too while I'm away. You were there at that first moment, and I'll be there at your last.

I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

I've never really considered myself a morning person, mornings are always groggy, and pulling your self out from under the covers is no simple task. I've never really been much of a night owl either. When my body got tired, it was time for me to go to bed, no matter what happened to be going on around me. Now things of course are changing and morning is becoming my favorite part of the day. On my days off, I no longer sleep in, I set my alarm and jump out of bed, ready to take full advantage of the day. My roommates tend to be late sleepers, so morning is really the only time I have to myself. I love to wake up slow, take a long shower, make a big healthy breakfast, sip on coffee, and expand my mind through some activity. I take this time to read, play guitar, blog, discover new music, clean the house, pay the bills, and just watch the sun rise. College has certainly created this new side to me, as I often have to get up before 6 am in order to make it to work or class. At the end of the day I am always exhausted by the days activities, but it's a good feeling, like the feeling you get after a workout. I think back to high school and middle school, where I spent half of my weekends sleeping, literally staying in bed for twelve hours at a time, what a waste! My parents are very much morning people, and now I'm starting to take after them. I would much rather spend my time awake while the sun is young and fresh, rather than when it is dying out. There is always room for improvement in our lives, seek it out.


"The sun came up with no conclusion
Flowers sleeping in their beds
This city's cemetery's humming
I’m wide-awake, it’s morning"

Write Drunk,

edit sober. Well I'm not quite sober, so I'm about to write. Today was an odd day, good things happened, some expectations were met, others were lost. There is a man we called the Captain, his skin had wrinkled and his eyes expressed loss. There was another we called the Yooper, his confidence high and his mouth wide. There was another we called the King, her face met the light in a way unfamiliar, a forward gaze that I could not recognize. Still another, the manager, and another, the law, but one stood out above the all. I've seen her before, but I'm not sure if I'll see her again. We vote some out, and we vote others in. Looking left at a mirror to an object focused right, to the conversations of the morning, to the loss of the night. There was intimacy, there was indifference, there were complaints from us all. Some conclude through spring, others through fall.

Water Is Life

http://waterislife.com/

An interesting video trying to provide some sort of satire to an on going problem throughout the world, poverty. When I watched this video for the first time, I'll admit, I laughed, but I started to think of why I was laughing, and the reasons I came up with provided little understanding. Our problems are a joke compared to the rest of the world, and there are actually a lot of people out there dedicated to coming up with simple solutions on how to change the problem. Follow the link above to learn a bit more about Water Is Life, and check out Core77's social impact awards 2012 to see some other related innovations (from my last post).

Poor Does Not Mean Dirty

Being in an Information and Communication Technology for Development class, I've been thinking a lot about poorer areas of the world and what I can do to help. I love the idea of getting into the mind and culture of the people you are trying to help and creating ideas and products based on their perspective, rather than your own skewed perception. We have learned about how and why so many technologies fail, and it's usually because we aim to high, we think that by giving every poor African child a laptop we can close the digital divide. We do not take into account our prior experiences and education revolving around literacy and cause-effect flow. I am currently in the process of writing a paper on a new technology known as the GiraDora. This product is so simple in design, yet it provides so many benefits to people in ways that a laptop never could. In essence, it is a physically powered laundry machine and dryer for people in areas without running water. It is efficient, reducing the amount of time required to finish a load of laundry from one hour to nearly 5 minutes. This product will provide so many wonderful benefits for women, not just in saving time, but providing them with a sense of integrity, pride, and their own position within the society, as it can be used to start up a small laundry business, helping them to break out of the poverty cycle. I could go on and on here and basically rewrite my paper, but instead ill just put up a few of the links I've been using to gather my data. There are so many innovative products being designed each and everyday, hopefully I have the opportunity in my career to work on such a project, or even create my own!


edit:  whoops, looks like some links would be useful:

Core 77 Design Awards
BornActivist Blog Post
DesignMatters
^scroll down to find it, and be sure to check out the FAQ!

Paralyzed 2

It happened again, this time it was extremely unexpected. I went to bed around midnight after finishing the last few pages of my book. I turned off the light and went to sleep, everything seeming normal. All of the sudden, I was thrown back into sleep paralysis, I really couldn't believe it. Sleep paralysis has only affected me during naps, never before during a planned full night sleep. The lights were off and the room was nearly completely black aside from the street lights shining in through my window. I remember that this experience was a lot more dark, almost as if I was having a bad acid trip or something, but I was at no point afraid. Having experienced it four time now my mind was only thinking about leaving my body. I struggled to pull myself free again, but this time it was as if I was locked in. I remember falling off my bed onto the floor. When I was on the floor, I could barely move due to the paralysis, I was only able to toss and turn in a pathetic way. I remember looking underneath my bed and just seeing some very strange shapes, thats all they were, just shapes with a slight yellow color. I tried reaching for them, but they had no physical weight. I remember looking forward while on the floor at my closed door, wondering if I should try to open it and leave my room. I knew my roomate was awake just outside, and in the end that deterred me from leaving the room. After that, I remember looking back at those strange shapes, then all the sudden I realized I was really looking at my window from my bed. I then left my paralyzed state and returned to a fully awake state. The funny thing was, I was lying normally on my bed, and there was no evidence of me falling out of it onto the ground (no messed up blankets or pillows on the floor). So I was left wondering, did I leave my body and I just didn't realize it. I was most certainly lying on the floor during my state, but never did my actual body leave my bed. A very strange and confusing experience, I believe the darkness of the room is what really made things odd. My only regret is not trying to open my bedroom door during the paralysis.

Anxiety Is Not About the Issue

It is actually about people's "mind" related to the issue that they are afraid of. Change the way you think and you can change anything about yourself. Never again will I let myself not do something because I am afraid of what will come after. I have so much going for me and hopefully a lot of time left to do it, but I can't rely on time, it must happen now. If there's any advice I can give someone struggling to embrace life and laugh at death, it would be to first try to experience death. One can never understand life until they understand death, let go of yourself, commit mental suicide, and realize the importance of every moment. One can achieve this through introspection, meditation, art, literature, or spiritual substance. I think you'll come to find that you're already dead, and that can be one of the most beautiful bits of knowledge you'll ever discover. Take chances, make mistakes, and give incessantly. I hope that makes sense.

Sound/Chair by plummerfernandez

Sound/Chair by plummerfernandez

Lots of dual existence lately, only natural that I would come across this. Thought follows a stream.