(zany) Flying off the handle.

I was absent from here for a good long while. Semester got to me. However, I have been experiencing moments of love from my friends and close ones, illuminating, like flashes, the things I miss when I do not make time for love and whimsy in my life.

This video comes courtesy of The Venus Project, of which I know preciously little at this point, but of which I am learning more every day, because the way we are now, is clearly unsustainable. And such is that case even if I bust my butt doing the best darn job I can.

For now, especially, as I move to temporarily-unfunded realm of existence, I am re-evaluating the way I allocate my resources. As Zimbardo once said (paraphrasing, because my quotation memory is out of order):

Most people in the U.S. complain that they spend too much time working and lack enough time for their families, and friends. But when asked to imagine how they would spend an eighth day in the week, they say, they would spend it .working. .more.

I want to work efficiently to bring structural change. Maybe that entails throwing out the the rule book, and writing a new one.

I will leave you with a short one from Woody Harrelson, but I could put George Carlin or many others up here just as well (and likely will, later).

Remember Whimsy. I 

the venus project: link
the venus project challenge on youtube: link
image credit: the onion

(zany) Harmony of systems

Older friends of mine know that I am an intense car guy. I used to write for a car magazine, and love learning, talking, listening, and arguing about cars. I am still a nerd, however, and I cannot change that, simply because cars are supposedly for "tough guys" and whatnot. 

Engine from Jaguar XK

So, my geeky, nerdy side is amazed, amused, and fascinated by all the little pieces, that work together seamlessly at 6,000 or more cycles a minutes to let you, me, and everyone else travel in comfort and safety at 70 miles and hour (more in Europe, of course!). These systems made of metal, plastic, rubber, brain-sweat, oil, and coolant vibrate, oscillate, rotate, and explode in a series of intricate interconnected events in one giant system of parts that together bring us .. motion! 

Likewise, we are similarly responsible for the grand achievement that is civilization and life! I have no interest in reducing human beings into proverbial cogs in a machine, but we are very much interconnected and interrelated. We are communally responsible for our future. Some believe that we ought to be sovereign, and we ought to be responsible solely for our own actions. Such ideas, I believe, are misguided and ignore just how much of our daily existence would be absent without communal thinking. It saddens me that we, as humans, with so much cognitive capacity, so much creativity, and so much moral acumen, are unable to grasp the significance of community. Oftentimes, we fail to see this importance for the sheer reason of a blinding light of ideology. 

Every choice we make, is another step in keeping this machine churning. Every time we do something as simple as turn on the internet, or a light, illuminates (forgive the pun) the importance of communal good. 

We can understand this concept when it comes to monetary issues. Pooling our resources, we can build better houses, better cities, reap more return on our investments. Why can we not understand this with human development? How about investing communally in better schools? How about safer neighborhoods, or better food for all of us? Are we so ignorant of the common fate we share with "the others" - the evil, nebulous, often brown, always poor others? Are we so ignorant and so arrogant, we rather buy our own swing set, pay exuberant tuition, drive a 100 miles daily to work, and live exclusively on credit, just so can completely prevent (heavens forbid)  any encounter with the others? 

Lost analogies be damned, the current popular thinking has us believe that we are islands, cruising the seas in our metal yachts, living in bubbles called house, or in better scenarios subdivisions, ignoring the benefits of community. We (ought to) live in complete isolation, believing we are better off for it. Yet, we are relegated to reinventing the wheel, and paying for it. We are draining our pocketbooks, our lives, and out happiness in pursuit of ill-conceived dream of wealth and prosperity. All the while that very prospect is staring us straight into our face! 

My roommate would likely talk about the conspiracy that brought this on. The same conspiracy that brought on so many other tangible failures in decision making (e.g., high fructose corn syrup just about any food on the shelves) but I want to give us a little more agency than that. We are oppressed. Most of us are oppressed of the mind - not even realizing we are oppressed .Some of us can see pieces of the puzzle (or matrix if you will) and some of us, even, are approaching liberation through acting against this oppression. Most, however are still obliviously, bovinely toiling at their lives, routinely smiling while dying inside from boredom and apathy. 

There, likely, is a way to tie this story together with a nice red bow and give it a conclusion, but social movement, social struggle and my particular crusade against the oppression of the mind among my peers, relatives, and neighbors is not a concluded story. It will unravel going forward. 

Love ... I

Underwear are overrated

I sold my car last October. I did need the money, but I decided, I needed to return to a simpler life where everything is possible. I loved my car, and it was a large part of my life. For me, it was not a possession, it was an experience. However, after four years, it locked me into the lifestyle I disliked.

I was worried about living without a car in Austin. This is not Northeast. We do not have a world-class public transport system. But curiously, I am doing just fine, and fell in love with this town thanks to experiencing it on the bus, on my bike, or by foot.

Last year was revolutionary, and this one change was being built up to all year. The transformation started by cutting up my credit cards, and paying off many of them. Continued by a stubborn refusal to spend money on new "things" opting instead for consignment, and started boiling when I shaved my head and beard, retiring a look I maintained for full eight years.

These gradual changes liberated me from my past lifestyle - one I no longer enjoyed - but also served up a revelation on another level. They exposed to me the extent to which my previous life was dictated by what others expected of me. Get a job, settle down, get a car, buy nice things, be serious. I lived the life that I was supposed to; I followed social norms to the point where this child of Communism, brainwashed by liberals at Oberlin, became a khaki wearing part of the mass of the employees.

Then, amids a turmoil of another topic, I woke up to my inner child throwing a fit, desperately claiming my attention. I realized the precise nature of what I had removed from my life: the simple, self-serving amusement of the world around. The delight in swinging from a jungle gym. The joy of jumping into a puddle. The fascination of engaging in interactions with other people I realized I no longer cared about the opinion of others if they kept me from being happy. My inner child was cranky, and I decided take steps to soothe it down and amuse its senses.

The beauty of social norms is that most of them (all of them?) are completely arbitrary. By virtue of this single feature, they are almost virtually optional. We are free to follow them and free to ignore them. If I do not step on your toys (toes), or play with your sandcastle, why should you care mine looks like Hugh Hefner's bed?

With this mindset, I chose to ignore a defined set of social norms and expectations, and closely examine others. Should I continue my path as an academic or seek a more applied direction? Should I find myself another partner and settle down, or roam the world alone for now and see where it takes me? Do I really need to wear underwear?

Love. I

Manifesto? (not quite)

2009 is over, and 2010 launched with a vengence! 2009 was a revolutionalry year for me, one in which I have transformed my life, my outlook on life and my_self.

The year could not end better than by reading Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (thanks Matt!) and by being given a Hohner Special 20 (thanks dad .. nee .. Santa!)

An aditional thing happened at the end of 2009 - taking off from Austin on the way home, my usual pre-takeoff prayer had no requests, just thanks. I realized that asking her for anything would be greedy. I had what I wanted in life. I was on my path, and I was happy.

Happiness is a choice. Reading Freire, talking to Zan, and being immersed in my brilliantly caring and supportive network of friends, I realized that I can choose to be happy. I can choose to raise above daily annoyances and see the beauty in the world and people. Ignore abrasions, and delight in the smiles and gestures of kindness. I could create a world of imaginary promblems, or one filled with love, respect, kindness, and finger painting.

At this very moment, unwittingly, I opened a can of worms from my past - social activism. Taking a course on educational policy I stumbled upon a point of my life and drive that I shut off for allocating more bandwidth to myself and fixing my own life. Now that my life is fixed, my cosciousness came out calling ... and I cannot ignore it.

I have a number of projects underway. Many of them seek to further my self and fill my life with beauty, ease, and delight (learn harmonica, deep-dive into Austin music, further my photography, travel Western US). Others, are set on furthering my profesisonal goals (get my M.S.; I cannot stop being a nerd, can I?). Finally, others yet, will finally again open my outward eye and immense me in the world, once again. The latest part is the most nascent, but shall be defined shortly and decisively!

My life is full of seemingly dysharmonic pieces, but like the world around us, they fit together beautifully when analyzed from the right angle!

Love. I