Brain Candy
Oh man, it’s been a long time since I’ve written something. I wish I could say that I was working away at my goal of reading as close to 100 books as possible for 2010 (which looks like I’ll be lucky if I even get to 50…eesh) but, well…I wasn’t.
Unfortunately, I whittled away my time and somehow a few weeks passed.
Today, as I was making my way home, I decided to hammer out a blog post because of a 12-year-old child prodigy.
A co-worker of mine sent the TED talk video to me, and I was struck by how confident she was in her presentation. She spoke with an aura of maturity and moved with confidence. Her speech was inspirational and hopeful with a bit of jest interwoven.
In short, I kind of resented her. Just a little bit. Of course, I ended up reconciling my deep-rooted envy (Or is it jealousy? I can never remember…I do believe it’s envy) with the thought that she still hasn’t hit the angst-ridden era of puberty yet. Yes, I am that vindictive. No, I’m not proud of it. And okay, okay, I admit, I’m just being an extra dash of vindictive for the sake of being humorous.
And yes, I just called myself out on it.
Anyway, getting to my point (believe it or not, there is one): despite the fact that I felt all my inadequacies of intellect and success bubble to the surface a bit, it did occur to me that I’m not passionate enough about anything to become a SUPERB at it. In fact, when I think about it a little more, money and attention tend to be the main factors in a lot of things that I pursue. I tend to entertain ideas about certain careers for the money. I dream about achieving successes for the recognition. Even when I think back on the dreams I had as a little girl of becoming a journalist or an Olympic figure skater — it was all because I wanted the attention and a good (*cough* VERY GOOD *cough*) life.
Despite this rather depressing revelation, a part of me is hopeful. After all, don’t people say (I don’t know who these “people” are, per se, just the general “people” that most use when grasping at vague cliches) that recognizing your problems is the first step?
Or is that acceptance?
At any rate, I guess what I gathered from the video was this: stop being normal and boring! Don’t just think outside the box, make a train out of it - make it a fort! Take it an shape it however you want.
In essence, as my favorite book The Little Prince says:
Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
And all it took was a 12-year-old girl to remind me to be a kid again.
Now I don’t feel so bad about my love for Disney and Harry Potter. HA.
Selfish post time! (As if those hardly exist - HA).
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Once every blue moon or so when I get the inkling to pick up a few periodicals for a flight or just for fun, I somehow decide in my wee little brain that it would be good for me to read something … intellectual. So, in my self-deluded and occasional attempt at force feeding the equivalent of veggies for my brain, I decide to purchase “The Economist” or “The New Yorker.” Of course, I do end up reading a few of the articles even though quite a few of them are merely skimmed through superficially. All the while, in the back of my mind I can’t help but yearn for that trashy Cosmo that tells me whether or not my partner and I are the perfect match. I must know this, I do.
Recently, in one of my bouts of forced self-progression as a more intellectual human being, I picked up “The New Yorker” and read a satirical piece about things Made In The USA. It listed an abundant amount of ironically foreign-made products that proudly tout AMERICA!! … like the little plastic USA flags you can pick up for the Fourth of July. Where were those made? Yup, you guessed it: China.
I mentioned this piece to a friend that visited recently, and she informed me that she heard a story on NPR in the same vein as the aforementioned New Yorker piece. This story, on the other hand, listed a multitude of American products and inventions that we can be proud; these inventions are are truly home-grown. Sure, we might not have invented gun powder, or basketball (thanks, Canada)…but we made THIS:
Now we no longer live in a world where we fear our faces being dried with the same cloth that touched our tuckus.
You’re welcome, World.
Regards,
America
I’m pretty sure the best way to lose reader(s) is to, uh, not update. Like what I’ve been doing these past few days. But, in my defense, it’s pretty hard to blog when I’m too busy stuffing my face with food and cramming in as much fun and family time as possible.
It always catches me by surprise when I find myself about ready to leave and a friend or family member inquires, “when will you be back?” Instead of the usual college answer (sigh) of break, I really have to think: “when WILL I be back?”
Sad.
And, to cop out, here is an old YouTube video courtesy of one of my friends, rating M for mature due to the expletives included. You’ve been warned.
I know most people have seen this already, but…wow.
It makes the nerdy romantic in me squeal with glee. This guy is either a badass, has way too much time on his hands.
Chrono Trigger proposal –
“On October 17th, 2008, I proposed to my (now) Fiancee. Originally I wanted to return to the site of our first date, Mount Baker, near Bellingham Washington. Sadly, there was no discreet way to get her out there. So I turned to the next best thing, digitally recreating the mountain!
But why stop there? I figured I’d try and recreate many of our other favorite memories — stargazing, dancing, even her favorite song lyrics (from the Princess Bride). I’m a college student who is studying Computer Science, and I wanted to do something unique that used my talents, so I did some research on Rom hacking, as she was playing through Chrono Trigger. (A perennial favorite of mine, I can’t wait to buy it for my DS.) I even put in her cat, Cleo!”
Well done, sir. Well done. Shoutout to Sarah for showing this to me!
My friends and I have been singing this non-stop since the first time I watched it.
It’s genius. Either that, or we’re just easily manipulated and impressionable. As my friend said, “some company needs to make this into a jingle. Maybe a company that sells hamsters. Or pianos…or popcorn! I’d buy it.”
What’s more fun than annihilating little moving shapes with eyes called creeps?
Doing it for FREE.
Thanks goes to Weber for sending this to me.
First of all, thanks for the kind and … interesting comments from everybody. No, there is no significance to the Brooklyn Bridge. I just implemented a template for now from Wordpress and, to be honest, I just thought this one was nifty. My future goal is to design a template of my own, but my eagerness (read: impatience) made me decide to go ahead and jump right into my favorite hobby of blogging about anything and ironically nothing at the same time.
To all of you out there, I dedicate Mariah Carey’s “Ken Lee” song to you. I know you feel the love.
