Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Early To Bed
Wrote this poem a week or two ago. It's about memory, individual and collective, deteriorating over time. I just read the book "Feed" by M.T. Anderson for my Young Adult Literature course at WWU. It's a sci-fi novel in which those who can afford it have a computer hardwired into their limbic system. This computer, called the feed, can record and share memories as a complete sensory experience (much like the Pensieve in Harry Potter but digital, not magic). When one of the characters has a malfunction with their feed, that character looses a year of memory. Have you ever been disturbed because you couldn't remember something? What are ways that our memories can affect our thinking? History (collective memory) seems to dissolve over the years just like specific memories from the day (individual memory) dissolve away at night. Technology may allow us to record memory, but could an artificial memory ever replace a real memory? Is the memory or the experience more important, more true? We can't ever experience something directly, only through the senses, and the senses often lie. Anyway, my mind is working on interesting questions.
Early To Bed
i'm early to bed, dear reader.
early for the birds sitting on branches
who die as i close my eyes.
The scum in the toilet is what you think.
I think of roman viaducts while i wash my hands.
the sounds on the street are seeping through
the drywall to my eardrum. boom. boom. boom.
In sleep the daily image is dissected,
memory scratched like a scab.
So many claws inside this head.
So much forgotten, early to bed.
Early To Bed
i'm early to bed, dear reader.
early for the birds sitting on branches
who die as i close my eyes.
The scum in the toilet is what you think.
I think of roman viaducts while i wash my hands.
the sounds on the street are seeping through
the drywall to my eardrum. boom. boom. boom.
In sleep the daily image is dissected,
memory scratched like a scab.
So many claws inside this head.
So much forgotten, early to bed.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Space and Time are Strange Neighbors
I had an aunt in middle school. I'm not really sure how she became my aunty, but during that sensitive, pre-adolescent struggle she filled a deep void in my life. Aunty L. was my age and my grade but she provided the emotional reassurance and the intellectual camaraderie that I couldn't find anywhere else. After middle school we drifted away on our separate paths to different schools and different lives. Occasionally we randomly reconnect and although our lives are totally separated, it's like our minds have been developing identically over the years. We both see the patterns, the webs of society and nature, the consequences of knowledge and the impact of human life and consciousness. When we speak together it's a rush of excitement; the synapses in my brain/sponge put on a fireworks show.
I saw her tonight. Had a nice long walk in the pouring rain on the streets where she grew up. We caught up on the state of our lives, the frustrations, the anxiety. She gave me some advice that i'd like to put in writing so that i'll be more likely to follow it:
1. Set aside time to sit by yourself. Call it meditation, reflection, what you will. Empty your mind or/and let your thoughts bounce around and tangle. Be o.k. with existing. Too often we (individuals) numb ourselves with television, consumerism, religion, etc. We forget to ask questions and to think for ourselves. We're ignoring our consciousness, the very thing that makes us human.
2. Unplug. Everything you see on a screen has been filtered; it's disconnected from nature, disconnected from the source, pre-packaged and spoon-fed to our eyes. Technology is lovely and amazing but all of our social trends and ideas began in books and poems, before the internet was even conceived. In order to really understand the context of our existence we need a healthy balance between nature, literature, and technology.
Too tired to write more on this now. I'm pretty sure I got down the important stuff. Love you Aunty L!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Violent Nights
holding one eye open and one eye closed
thinking of street lights, cameras, and sex
behind a tower of palms.
four in the morning air stings like a drop on the eye,
a drop in a rusting pail of rain water and old leaves.
half-words tune in and out through a screen,
half reaching me sleeping, here and there.
stop. blinking.
busy, sleeping, eyes.
these violent nights, unframed, disturb
my consciousness, a made-up word.
eyelids stretch thin over grumbling thoughts
who wander, like ancient mariners hung.
one eye open, asbestos.
I enjoy how I use quite a bit of formal technique here even though a first glace shows little structure/form. Having just watched Rear Window for my film class, you'll see frames appear as a theme here (read visually). Also notice how the poem contains soft violence or is 'disturbed' through punctuation and imagery. As with most of my poetry, the commas and periods are entirely intentional so please read it that way in your head (or aloud...). The tower of palms line might not be clear... pretend you're very tired and then rub your eyes. Not a huge fan of the albatros epic but the S.T.C. reference just fit way better than the generic old man image I was going to use. If you're confused now you may have missed an English class or two.
Asbestos is a great word and should be used as often as possible. I've been reading Wheatley for my American Literature course this quarter and she italicizes heavily and with great purpose so i'm trying it out. Not quite to the effect Wheatley enjoys; i'm using it here simply to add some visual weight to the last three lines which are kind of just hanging there...
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Rain Drops Fallin On My Head...
When it rains things fall apart, disintegrate like sugar cubes under my tongue, less sweet.
When it rains some people dream sweetly, but i dream twice.
When it rains and the rain drops drip down my face i clench my jaw... stare... almost believing i'll see something in the mist.
When it rains is when the wheel turns; the fishy brain remembers it forgets.
When it rains and the hills stretch their backs, each blade of grass quivers and bows to the wind.
When it rains, now, i lose my language so that i may listen.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Two TED Videos For Your Perusal
I was checking TED for new videos today (a practice I try to make a weekly habit) and I came across David McCandless' presentation on data visualization. His combination of modern design elements and raw data allows for some very interesting (and beautiful) patterns to emerge from otherwise lifeless numbers. I'm sharing the link for his TED talk below. If the presentation peaks your interest you may want to check out his website as well. He has data sets on health supplements, politics, $$$, which flights are most likely to crash, military size and budget, wiki wars, international #1s... all kinds of stuff.
Link:
Also, Peter Molyneux (whose name i can spell without checking the web cause i have a streak of geek in me) has posted a video demoing Milo, the latest steps towards artificial intelligence. Milo is essentially an xbox 360 game that uses Microsoft Kinect hardware. Kinect, if you don't already know is an advanced motion, picture, and audio tracking device that allows the user to directly interact with software without the need for a controller or mouse. It's pretty cool tech, especially the cloud capabilities that Peter mentions. Milo (the software) will be connected via internet to a collection of data that is constantly updated (the cloud). This allows Milo (the software) to "learn" what things are called and how to speak and interact better with the audience (/consumer/participant/friend?). It's an interesting framework that will probably be a huge part of technology in the near future.
Link:
Monday, August 2, 2010
Tour de Switzerland
First of all, I apologize for taking so long to blog! We've all been absolutely exhausted from biking and walking around small towns all week. Wifi has been pretty hard to come by at hotels and hostels we've stayed at. Only one hotel included free wifi, otherwise it costs a few francs to use a shitty desktop for 30 min. Brian and I made a habit of searching for free wifi in the small towns and we were actually able to get some surf time on unsecured networks once the town had gone to bed. Now we're finished biking and back at the hostel in Geneva we started our trip from. You can get a login and password to connect to wifi for 5 francs (for 24 hours) so I have Internet access for a bit. :)
In regards to my last post:
Generally, the French were way nicer than the Germans. While we were biking the first couple days though the French speaking cantons (like states basically) other bikers would smile and say bonjour or salud as we rode past. It was very strange to see so many smiles and hear so many greetings from complete strangers. As we progressed on the route we entered the German speaking cantons and the people there didn't show as many outward signs of friendliness. We did, however, receive an unexpected and very warm reception from a German couple whose house we stopped in front of to replace the batteries in the gps. My dad spoke with them for a while with his broken German and they offered us coffee, water (they only drink bottled water in Switzerland for some reason, the tap water tastes fine...), and cookies. Overall the Swiss seem to be a nice bunch.
When it comes to clocks and timepieces the Swiss are extremely serious. Every town has at least one giant clock tower that chimes loudly to mark the hour (and sometimes half hour). The larger towns such as Berne, the Capitol of Switzerland, have multiple clock towers. Watches are for sale in just about every store and they're very nice but also very expensive. There are lots of Swiss army knives as well.
There are lots of gorgeous women here! Most if the population is very fit/healthy looking even though they all smoke like chimneys. There seems to be a fair amount of diversity in the country but everyone looks pretty decent. You have to try pretty hard to find anyone who is seriously overweight like so many Americans. There are some bread, beer, and cheese bellies on the older men in the countryside (festively plump).
Perhaps the reason the people here are skinnier has something to do with the cost of food. Basically any food you can think of is about 150% to 200% more expensive. The cheapest burgers at McDonalds are about 2.50chf which is like 2.25 or something American. A normal entree at a restaurant is 18 to 26chf! It's been about 70 to 80 bucks for the three of us to eat a meal at a restaurant. Instead of spending a grand on food we've been eating sandwiches from CoOps (huge grocery chain that's everywhere in Switzerland) and snacking on gummy bears and Ovomaltine chocolate cookies.
Interesting note bout Ovaltine/ Ovomaltine from wikipedia:
"Ovaltine was developed in Berne, Switzerland, where it is known by its original name, Ovomaltine (from ovum, Latin for "egg", and malt, originally its main ingredients). Soon after invention the Factory moved out to the village of Neuenegg a few kilometres west of Berne, where it is still produced.
Ovomaltine was exported to England in 1909; it was a misspelling in the trademark registration that led to the name being truncated to Ovaltine in English-speaking markets."
Anyway, the riding was great. There were only a few hills and we only missed one important turn that resulted in a few extra miles of backtracking one day (whoops). The countryside in Switzerland is absolutely phenomenal. There are fields of wheat, Sunflowers, corn, and other basic crops. The crops looked super healthy and when we biked next to a patch of chives it smelled like we were biking through the tastiest ranch dressing ever! Unfortunately they do not eat ranch in Switzerland and when we asked they didn't even know what it was.
The weather was really nice for the first few days of biking but then we got hit with a bout of rain for 2 days in a row. we had rain jackets, pants, and covers for our poniards but everything got pretty soaked, especially Brian, whose jacket seems to have lost most of it's waterproof coating. The rain came down so hard it reminded me of the rainforest in Costa Rica except much colder. We even got hailed on for a couple minutes one day and we had to stop riding for a bit and take shelter under some trees. When it's not raining it's really hot and humid which is great for biking but a little uncomfortable for walking around (we're from Washington remember...)
Tomorrow we're catching a plane to London and then a connecting flight to Vancouver B.C. where we'll have to spend the night. I'm hoping to visit the Yaletown Brewery where I got to go with some friends in a separate trip. They have great food and great beer! After that it's back to Sea-Tac and the end of our trip. It's been quite a ride...
If I think of anything I've forgotten to write about I'll post it later. Don't forget to keep your eyes out for pictures during the week after I return to the states!
~Adieu
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
In regards to my last post:
Generally, the French were way nicer than the Germans. While we were biking the first couple days though the French speaking cantons (like states basically) other bikers would smile and say bonjour or salud as we rode past. It was very strange to see so many smiles and hear so many greetings from complete strangers. As we progressed on the route we entered the German speaking cantons and the people there didn't show as many outward signs of friendliness. We did, however, receive an unexpected and very warm reception from a German couple whose house we stopped in front of to replace the batteries in the gps. My dad spoke with them for a while with his broken German and they offered us coffee, water (they only drink bottled water in Switzerland for some reason, the tap water tastes fine...), and cookies. Overall the Swiss seem to be a nice bunch.
When it comes to clocks and timepieces the Swiss are extremely serious. Every town has at least one giant clock tower that chimes loudly to mark the hour (and sometimes half hour). The larger towns such as Berne, the Capitol of Switzerland, have multiple clock towers. Watches are for sale in just about every store and they're very nice but also very expensive. There are lots of Swiss army knives as well.
There are lots of gorgeous women here! Most if the population is very fit/healthy looking even though they all smoke like chimneys. There seems to be a fair amount of diversity in the country but everyone looks pretty decent. You have to try pretty hard to find anyone who is seriously overweight like so many Americans. There are some bread, beer, and cheese bellies on the older men in the countryside (festively plump).
Perhaps the reason the people here are skinnier has something to do with the cost of food. Basically any food you can think of is about 150% to 200% more expensive. The cheapest burgers at McDonalds are about 2.50chf which is like 2.25 or something American. A normal entree at a restaurant is 18 to 26chf! It's been about 70 to 80 bucks for the three of us to eat a meal at a restaurant. Instead of spending a grand on food we've been eating sandwiches from CoOps (huge grocery chain that's everywhere in Switzerland) and snacking on gummy bears and Ovomaltine chocolate cookies.
Interesting note bout Ovaltine/ Ovomaltine from wikipedia:
"Ovaltine was developed in Berne, Switzerland, where it is known by its original name, Ovomaltine (from ovum, Latin for "egg", and malt, originally its main ingredients). Soon after invention the Factory moved out to the village of Neuenegg a few kilometres west of Berne, where it is still produced.
Ovomaltine was exported to England in 1909; it was a misspelling in the trademark registration that led to the name being truncated to Ovaltine in English-speaking markets."
Anyway, the riding was great. There were only a few hills and we only missed one important turn that resulted in a few extra miles of backtracking one day (whoops). The countryside in Switzerland is absolutely phenomenal. There are fields of wheat, Sunflowers, corn, and other basic crops. The crops looked super healthy and when we biked next to a patch of chives it smelled like we were biking through the tastiest ranch dressing ever! Unfortunately they do not eat ranch in Switzerland and when we asked they didn't even know what it was.
The weather was really nice for the first few days of biking but then we got hit with a bout of rain for 2 days in a row. we had rain jackets, pants, and covers for our poniards but everything got pretty soaked, especially Brian, whose jacket seems to have lost most of it's waterproof coating. The rain came down so hard it reminded me of the rainforest in Costa Rica except much colder. We even got hailed on for a couple minutes one day and we had to stop riding for a bit and take shelter under some trees. When it's not raining it's really hot and humid which is great for biking but a little uncomfortable for walking around (we're from Washington remember...)
Tomorrow we're catching a plane to London and then a connecting flight to Vancouver B.C. where we'll have to spend the night. I'm hoping to visit the Yaletown Brewery where I got to go with some friends in a separate trip. They have great food and great beer! After that it's back to Sea-Tac and the end of our trip. It's been quite a ride...
If I think of anything I've forgotten to write about I'll post it later. Don't forget to keep your eyes out for pictures during the week after I return to the states!
~Adieu
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Rue Ferrier,Geneva,Switzerland
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