Naming 3-30-12

Naming is really tricky business. Be it your child, a painting, a photograph, a poem, a book, a street, or a place. Sometimes the name just comes to you and life's good, but other times you can sit and struggle trying to come up with a good name. For instance this blog name was a co-effort on the part of my mom and myself while riding in the car one day. I was encouraged to write a blog because everyone wanted to be kept posted about my days and sending emails and letters was out of the question due to the crazy schedule that I kept at school. Thu the blogging idea was born. I'm really glad that I did it because I know a diary wouldn't have happened, though I did have an orange field notebook that got used quite a bit. But back to what I was saying about names. Very rarely do names not mean anything. You want a book that doesn't have an obnoxiously long name, or do you. I read a book a long time that I have never forgotten and it was titled: "Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters". Never forgotten it and never will. Or maybe it's the over that draws people in. At least for me it has been to a certain degree "ooo look pretty picture! I'll read that one." For a poem or painting you want the same thing. Something that evoke emotion in everyone or bring them in like a poem that I read a few weeks ago titled, "Song to Onion" by Roy Blount Jr. Who doesn't want to read about onion songs?! As for location, you have to really know the place if you want to give it a name. As for babies I could go on for ever. You are naming your child something that they will most likely keep for the rest of their lives. There are those name fads that happen such as Emily, and Sarah, Josh, Eric, and so many others. Yes it seems o be generational, but still. I personally think it would annoying to have my name called  and have 5 other people turn around too. But don't name your child something so unique that NO ONE can pronounce or spell it. Yes people.. this includes the child receiving the name. There's some cool names out there but names like Apple and Moon Unit are a tad bit strange in my opinion, but whatever floats your boat! Also don't try and create a unique name by spelling some weird way with out of place letters. So keep it simple! :) My thoughts for the day...

5000 views 3-26-13

Numbers are a crazy thing. They hold together so much of what we depend on today. They are everywhere and we don't even know it. We can use them to predict things and we can use them to look into the past. They are put to work in sports and in chemical labs. They bring people together and sometimes tear us apart. They are what sometimes makes us keep our patience but they can also break our hearts. They are the percentages that people worry about when it comes to health. They are the things that companies rely on to measure their success and failure. They are the things that kids and parents struggle over together. Numbers keeps certain things moving along and make others fail. They pick the one in a million chance at fame and glory or the one in a million of failure and sadness. Numbers have no exception to the rule. They are always strong and steady. 1+1 is always 2 and 3 is always a magic number. You can write 8 until infinity and beyond. 42 will always be the meaning of life and 7 will be the number of the boy with the lightening scar. 10 will always be that major spot in a little kids life when he or she has reached the level of double digits. 13 will always be the marking of teen years and 18 the time to spread your wings and fly. 3.14 will always have pie and cake. These are the numbers that we hold onto dearly. These are the constants of our lives.

Very Punny 3-24-13

Okay, so you know that horribly annoying chain mail that you get from that one person in your contacts list? Well I don't really get it a lot because I requested people stop spamming me with a gazillion things telling me I'm saving someone or I'm having a wish come true after I scroll through the amazing amount of various pieces of punctuation carefully arranged to make a heart or lovely squiggles. But today I opened up one of my many emails and found an email with some very clever questions. A while back I created a post comprised of some questions that cross my mind.

"Why do supermarkets make the sick walk all the way to the back to get their medicine while the healthy can buy cigarettes at the front?"

"Why order a double cheeseburger and fries and then a diet coke? Is it really making that big of a difference?"

"Why do banks leave vault doors open and chain the pens to the desks?"

"Why do we leave or cars that cost thousands of dollars in our driveways and then put our worthless junkyard worthy stuff in the locked garage?"

"Why isnt' there mouse-flavored cat food?"

"Why don't sheep shrink in the rain?"

And on and on. Some of them I suppose you can rationalize. Speaking of witty things to say, today while at a USA Climbing competition I saw a shirt that said, "Clinically Insane" and on the back it said "Committed" and then of course in smaller letters "to LA Sportiva event XYZ." A terrific pun if I do say so myself. You've put up with enough of my ramblings. Zai Jian!

Connections 3-23-13

I am so honored to say that Stefan Anderson post one of my pictures on the Conserve School facebook page. I took the picture while I was on exploration week in October of 2012. Zeki is the inverted gy featured in the picture. He has this amazing collection of photos that I helped contribute to with him at various locations doing handstands. I had so much fun taking the pictures and I can't express how awesome it feels to have your picture like over 140 times and shared over 51 times!

Seeing is Eating By Maeve Daw 3-20-13

Seeing is Eating.

She sees herself now- or gazes

Comprehension, or apathy

Single brown eye, flaps of skin

Pupil shrunk – malnourished

Seeing is eating.

And what she’s watched

Well

One could hardly say.

They worry about her retreating

Into the cavern, into the darkness

The messy room she calls her mind

Lets tell her to face this - lets tell her to straighten

The boxes that line all of these walls

And if she is powerless

Let’s name her a weakling

Nothing is owed to the inept.

Why is she weeping?  For look-

She has removed her blindfold

Crawled out of her cavern

She comprehends now

And her brown eye widens.

What do you see?

Tell me.  Tell us.  No, it is not so.

Everything is pleasing to our gaze.

Put her blindfold back on. 

Weak are those who cannot see truth and beauty in the world.

1 HOUR AGO

Yellow. "Madness, sickness, fragments of sun and happiness."  - Frida Kahlo

FIRST Robotic Peachtree Regionals 3-17-13

There's something absolutely amazing about winning FIRST Robotics Peachtree Regionals! We were allied with Global Dynamics team 4026 and Category 5 team 3489 for the eliminations rounds. It wasn't looking good for us because we had to face off against Westminster's WiredCats 2415, the RoboLions team 1261, and 1414 Atlanta International School's iHOT team 1414. If we were able to surpass them, which we did, we would be facing off against Cryptonite team 624, Kell Robotics 1311, and some others. Something must have been in the air because things started to happen. There are 8 alliances in the elimination rounds and each alliance is made of your team plus 2 others. Reboot team 4080 was ranked 7th. All of the even numbered alliances knocked each other out by the time the finals came up. The last match was really awesome and really close. We managed to climb the pyramid in the last 3 seconds of the match and shoot 2 frisbees into the 3 point goal. Yeah that's right, 10 for the climb and 6 for the shots. Pretty productive if I do say so myself. Especially since it won us the entire competition! So this means that we are off to the Saint Louis for championships! There's nothing better than a medal around your neck, a trophy in your team's possession, being dead tired, having a hoarse voice from cheering and shouting, and a satisfying soreness in your back from pushing and lifting a robot that has recently been named Rocky for the way that we started off rough in the season and for the way that we rock dangerously when we come to a sudden stop. Since I returned from Conserve School I have felt like I am quite alone. I don't think that you have a a ton of friends to be happy, but I think that the majority of my closest friends now stem from robotics. Or maybe it;s just the fact that we have seen each other everyday for 3 months! I don't know what I would have done without Casey, Matthew, Jasmine, Matthew, and Collin. It leaves me wondering about what I would be doing without them. Questions and questions of the future. Do you ever wish you could see into the future or do you think it's best kept a secret?

What would I have done? 3-15-13

So there's a lot of crazy stuff going on recently. I have been a) not sleeping because of robotics and thus have been going on long rants about the complete chaos that involved us: 1. being safety inspected int he last 15 minutes of the night, 2. a pant leg of Matthew's jeans being ripped because they got sucked into a drill 3. Us only being on the the filed for a short amount of time. 4. us not having barely any of the tools or hardware that we commonly use. 5. the joysticks for the robot operation being counter intuitive. I could go on for says but you know... the advice that is in my head says let it flow. But I mean.. sometimes you just can't.. especially if someone's leg bones are in dangers of being shredded to pieces. Yeah... But I did notice some very interesting things. A) being that FIRST has some very kind people in it. B) there are an abundance of couples at Peachtree Regionals C) there is an alarming lack of space. I don't know... It's really hard to express my true love of robotics. There are so many good memories from the two seasons that I have been involved with and I know that there are so many more good memories to be had. I have done some crazy, completely idiotic things, such as operate heavy machinery during the wee hours of the morning, which of course could have ended badly but it didn't and that's all that matters. I have not slept for 29 hours and all of the time that was spent not sleeping was devoted to the season. I've done stupid things like stared at a ceiling for an extended period of time laughing, rubbing soap on a piece of pneumatics (right over the electronics) to find an air leak, or playing with a leads crew or energy chain  for hours on end. I've also learned so many things about people skills and mechanical skills. In addition, I have gained some amazing friends that I a so lucky to have met. Without robotics I think that coming home from Conserve would have been 20 million times as heard. I would have had nothing to keep my mind busy. I would have had no one to talk to and I would have probably been the worse for wear. With robotics I had people to talk to that would keep my mind off the large hole that Conserve left in me when I left Lownewood. Even after seeing my friends form school it's not the same. Something that I will probably never ever get back, and miss greatly, but still county myself lucky that I got something like Conserve.

Weird Endings 3/13/13

So today I was talking with my friend Aja about the funny lines in Guys and Dolls. The one she finds the strangest was:

"sue me, sue me, shoot bullets through me. I love you." 

The song of course being from the song "Sue Me". This immediately got my juices flowing about strange lines in various things. While I was at Conserve there was this assignment that Jeff had us do to practice speaking in front of people. It was a dramatized reading. I chose Harry Potter, the scene where he fights the Hungarian Horntail in the Triwizard Tournament, and Dexter chose this poem:

Attack of the Crab Monsters

Even from the beach I could sense it---
lack of welcome, lack of abiding life,
like something in the air, a certain
lack of sound.  Yesterday
there was a mountain out there.
Now it's gone.  And look

at this radio, each tube neatly
sliced in half.  Blow the place up!
That was my advice.
But after the storm and the earthquake,
after the tactic of the exploding plane
and the strategy of the sinking boat, it looked

like fate and I wanted to say, "Don't you see?
So what if you're a famous biochemist!
Lost with all hands is an old story."
Sure, we're on the edge
of an important breakthrough, everyone
hearing voices, everyone falling

into caves, and you're out
wandering through the jungle
in the middle of the night in your negligée.
Yes, we're way out there
on the edge of science, while the rest
of the island continues to disappear until

nothing's left except this
cliff in the middle of the ocean,
and you, in your bathing suit,
crouched behind the scuba tanks.
I'd like to tell you
not to be afraid, but I've lost

my voice. I'm not used to all these
legs, these claws, these feelers.
It's the old story, predictable
as fallout---the re-arrangement of molecules.
And everyone is surprised
and no one understands

why each man tries to kill
the thing he loves, when the change
comes over him. So now you know
what I never found the time to say.
Sweetheart, put down your flamethrower.
You know I always loved you.

I actually don't really understand the poem that well, but the last stanza would have to be one of my favorite endings!

Guildford 3-10-13

Do you believe in vibes? Maybe auras? Or are you just not one of spiritual people? I don't know what I am. That is also perfectly fine too! Have you ever walked into a place and just felt good. Even if you knew you didn't really belong it all still worked? Maybe I'm not making any sense at all... Today I spent a good 6 hours in a car riding up to Guildford College in Greensboro, NC. I am spending the night which should be pretty fun. My host is really new to the whole prospective touring thing, but she's really nice. Her name is Marinda. She is actually form Thailand currently. I say currently because that's where her family is living. He dad works for the state department so she said that they move every 2 years or so. Marinda plays volleyball here and is an undecided major. I met a bunch of her friends today at dinner. Sitting there reminded me strongly of Conserve. It was a big square table full of mostly girls laughing and talking. A girl named Molly, who I had met at the lake on our little mini tour, was making faces at someone across the room. The rest of them were discussing various things from a party, to homework, to eyebrows, to feminism, to a lost phone. People walked by and said hi dropping a comment here or there about some recent event. It was a really nice dinner. I wonder if I had been able to sleep over at Warren Wilson if my impression wouldn't have been so mixed... Hmmm you do what you can do right? Currently I'm sitting in her room blogging and looking around while she gets some homework done. She has elephants on her wall and purple and a blue and purple paisley comforter. She seems to own an amazing amount of scarves and is pretty neat. The nice thing about her room is that she is living by herself so I get a bed! I feel a bit like the princess and the pea. The beds are bunk-able but this one is just set REALLY high up. I have to climb up the back to get in here. I think we are going to bake cookies with one of her friends later and I heard rumors of hair wraps? Who knows... but the vibe is good and I can actually see myself here maybe.

"The Last Mile" 3-8-13

To follow up my post about the internet I was busily surfing around the black hole vortex of facebook and came upon a post or rather a share of a video. I have always been a supporter of the LGBTQ community and the video just made my day. Have you ever watched something be it a live performance of a dance or a play or a video that you've seen online that is absolutely amazing. You just sit on at the computer and stare right after that little bar at the bottom stops moving. Or if you are in a theater you just sit in the theater after the lights have come back on and the roaring applause has ended? Your mind running circles around itself trying to comprehend the sheer genius of what you just saw. Well that's the way that I felt when I saw this.This guy, Noah St. John, is just 15 years old, and has created something stunning.  I sadly couldn't find the lyrics but then it's always better coming straight from the horses mouth. So please copy and past this link and sit back and relax.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lug_IxFKo8

Enjoy!

"Space and Time" 3-8-13

Written by the always fantastic Zeki. Drum roll please... 

Space And Time

Shattering space and time

Shattering mirrors
Dreams breaking apart
Tearing through fantasy

Dreams becoming reality
Reality a nightmare
Reality continues to ruin me

Fantasy is where I live
Science fiction is my humble abode
Imagination is a powerful tool

I got a sonic screwdriver
It's the only tool I need

Heals all, seals all
Unlocks all seals

Opening new doors
We travel through space and time
Screwing all things those humans think they can define

We travel in a Tardis
We travel through time and relative dimension in space

We meet creatures and species
All different types of race

Let's go on an adventure
I'll take you places beyond your imagination
Places beyond the horizon
Beyond your perception

Trust me
I'm the doctor

The interwebs 3-8-13

So have you ever know those people that want to be invisible on the internet? Be it that they are paranoid or just don't have anything about them posted online. Have you ever actually Googled yourself?

I was recently surfing around and discovered that there are actually a lot of accurate pictures of me. And others that are WAY off the mark. Some of the pictures if you neglect certain aspects of my name pull up dogs with long hair and ribbon in their hair, photos form blogs, restaurant signs, and of course the results that you wonder how they are remotely related to your name. You realize just how much people are connected to the spider web of words and pictures that float in that mystery space. What if we could walk into a room full of these digital elements. I can imagine a hurricane of noise and color flying at me in what would otherwise be a shiny black room. I think that it would be a moment of utter terror and extreme awe. The rush of noise would be of horrible youtube video songs, spoken word recordings, and blasts of the music that have gone viral. The whirlwind of color would be that of lame memes, baby animals doing silly things, psychedelic colors, piles of self portraits, and political images o the most recent news. What if we had to listen and see all of that whistling by our ears every hour of every day, every minute of every hour, every second of every minute, every moment. Would it just become white noise like the faint thumb of our hearts? Would it fade into the background to a point of invisibility? Who knows... but I for sure don't know where this came from.

Yates 3-6-13

Whew! I'm back. I've had quite the adventures in a bit over a week! I actually had to check what I had last said which is saying something. Anyways... After she came and stayed with me for about 3 days we headed off to the Yates' residence, where, at midnight I was greeted by some of the friendliest wet noses and a long awaited and much needed hug from Aaron. It couldn't have been a better way to end last Sunday. I spent a good week at their house and stayed quite busy. They live on a really nice area of land that features some paths that have been developed by the family. Their grandma, Barbra, the one who I met over Thanksgiving in Land O' Lakes also lives with them.

While I was there, we went on a few walks with the dogs on the trails which was really nice. One of the many many things that I like about being at the Yates was that you didn't have to wear shoes. In Atlanta I can choose not to wear shoes but I risk being shipped off to the doctors for a tetanus shot because of some nasty piece of rusting metal or sewage encrusted glass.No shoes and with he mud between the toes. The trees creaking and groaning at the sun slipped below the mountains.

 The Yates have lots and lots of dogs. Hershey, Tippy, Chester, Tilda, Bonnie, Nellie, Mickey, and Kitty (the cat). The last four that I listed live at their grandma's house, but all of the dogs roam free during the day and go back and forth. I wish I was one of the dogs. They live such a carefree life with no stress at all. In addition to lounging about the house reading and relaxing, Aaron made some really good baked beans entitled Beery Beer Baked Beans. Tongue twister aint it? They are very good and we ate them a lot while I was there! It was great because I happen to really like beans and rice. Ann and Mattie made bread two separate days too. One batch took no time at all and the second took almost all day. The loaves came out of the dutch ovens at about 11:30pm! It was totally worth it though. Homemade bread is far superior to that of the uniform bricks that come from the store.

Some time later on in the week Aaron, Mattie and I did some fire poi and Aaron did the fire staff. The weight of the poi was way different. They were made out of a welding blanket folded together and bolted. The poi ball was then connected to chains with two finger loops. The poi were then drenched in kerosene and lit on fire. Much, much heavier than the LED plastic balls that I own. I finally got it the last night I was there. It was a completely different feeling but at the same time a nice steady rhythm.

A day at a field, arg, the name escapes me currently, I felt much more confident using the new poi. We had initially ended up in the field because we were meeting up with the Hewletts. Some of the Yates' friends from South Carolina. Asa is actually at Conserve School right now! We spent one of our evening chatting with him on the phone for a good 2.5 hours! Ruth, his younger sister came and spent the night with us. Colleen, their mom taught us needle felting. Something that my mom's preschool does a lot but I've never tired. Using my novice skills I was able to create a turtle, an egg, and a creature that Aaron named Trevor the Traveling Toad. Pictures to come hopefully! The night that Ruth was at the house we did some pretty awesome light painting.

On Saturday, we all went to the the Tryon Theater to see "9 to 5". I really like what they did. There were a couple of parts where I had no idea what was going on despite having seen the movie not too too long ago. Kell was the main lights guy in the booth and Aaron was on spotlight. Mattie didn't have a job this show. They all love to do what they do, but gripe about having to see the show over and over, but you could see it made them happy. It made me want to try it. All the theaters in Atlanta are so high and mighty and professional and intimidating.

My week was crazy and so full life. I find myself slipping and unable to hold on to my sanity. What a breath of fresh air.