"If you feel like there’s something missing, maybe you should give it a try. We don’t need to be Renaissance men, but we do need to recognize the emotions that will make ourselves happy"
101 years old. It’s Birthday Time.
This Monday marked the seventh year that Ian and I have visited the grave on his birthday, exactly a week before mine, 5 days after my sister’s, and the same week as L’s and K’s. F Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24th, 1896, and Jason, Ian, (and a series of girl/friends), and I have visited almost every year on this day since college started.
Sometimes tradition is who you are, sometimes it’s who you were… but it always brings you to that place somewhere in between. It’s like how when you visit family it’s easy to regress to childhood roles. Hanging out with Ian, reading This Side of Paradise aloud, it was so easy to dip in and out of college and the nostalgia of those days. (more…)
The Depressing Internet and the Refreshing Real World, for a change
Browsing around the web can be such an echo chamber, reinforcing everything you’re looking for, for better or worse. The addition of social networking has exacerbated the effect–now you can feel as popular or unpopular as you’d like, depending on the variable you’re looking to compare. At 12:30am on this Saturday morning, my glass is decidedly not full. Hopefully in the morning it’ll all be better.
Even with all our methods of contact and keeping in touch, does it really help us to feel any more a part of a community? Sure, there are more places to participate, but that also means there are more places to feel behind or out of the loop. With all the communities where one can be popular, one can always turn a corner to find a place where they really haven’t made it.
Both locally and nationally I can always turn to my left and see someone who’s made it big. While I may not be a worthy judge, deep down I still have some opinion about whether or not they deserve it. When it comes to internet popularity the “wisdom of the crowd” is so often merely a litmus test for “pretty good” but rarely accurate enough for “truly the best.” The difference between a hero and a superhero is how many sneezing fans they have, not the existence of superpowers. (more…)
New Photos: BarCamp, Dinners, and another Wedding
I’m still loving the new camera. Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks:
