Real rule: Take off your tie before eating. I don’t care where you are or who you are with. Even with a tie clip, life is too dangerous.
And another thing: Buy more ties from the thrift store. These should be used on wild nights out. Also, it would be good to have more ties anyway.
A fake rule: Our most brilliant moves are never planned. They are half luck and half subconscious maneuvering. However, a story must always be invented in which you consciously planned this from the beginning, foreseeing everything before anyone ever caught on. If it’s brilliant enough, even if you insist it’s luck, no one will ever believe it, not even yourself.
I’m not dressed to impress. I’m currently at home, doing nothing, and wearing a ratty old hoody. Feels good to not care about anyone else for a while.
I can be calm when I need to be. I had a dream last night where things seemed to fall apart. I was lost. When I found out where the nearest train station was, I become frustrated by the fact that I’d have to walk several miles, but I could do it. I stayed calm. I began looking for my suit jacket, and when I couldn’t find it, I suddenly whined that this was the worst day ever.
Ever since I started work, I stopped meditating. I no longer had time for this morning ritual; the change in lifestyle also changed this habit. I think I’m starting to lose some of my ability to control my emotions. I need to set aside other times to meditate.
Since when did I turn into a twenty-something who’s out every weekend?
I made a facebook event for my birthday party. I’m also calling people, giving them personal invites. People have remarked that this kind of personal invite doesn’t happen much; some seem surprised, even. Thinking back through my recent personal experience, it does seem like most invites come through facebook. I’m a bit surprised at how rare this has become. Not sure if this just applies to us young folk.
It feels like a genius idea because I feel like it’ll net me more attendees. We’ll see.
I’m almost 23. I don’t like this getting older thing, but at least I can take solace in the fact that I am still ridiculously immature.
Dear Shawn,
When are you buying new socks?
As always,
Shawn
Dear Shawn,
I dunno, maybe this weekend.
As always,
Shawn
Dear Shawn,
What do you mean you don’t know? This sock situation is getting ridiculous. Also, you need a haircut.
As always,
Shawn
Since I’ll be out of a job at the end of March, I need to start preparing for the job search. Before February ends, I need to fix up my resume, create a portfolio of my web work, and expand my contacts on linkedin. I also may be out of a job for a while, so I need to think of projects to keep me busy. I should probably buy a suit too, so I do it while I still feel okay about spending money and so that I look good at all those interviews (hah!).
I have a really close circle of friends, which is amazing. There are, however, disadvantages. If everyone knows everyone else, it’s harder to meet new people. Jobs are usually found not through close friends but through people further in the periphery of one’s social networks, such as friends of friends. People with whom I have weak ties can still help me out, and vice versa.
I’ve been more interested in broadening who I interact with for two reasons. One: I just read Connected, which is an accessible book on research on social networks. Two: The deadline. The contract for my job is up at the end of March. So, I’ll need to find a new job. I’ve also been considering finding a girl to date, I associate that with the deadline because who wants to hang out with a jobless bum? This will involve looking past my immediate circle of friends so I can interact with people who are connected to new people.
As I’m doing all that self-serving stuff, I want to also help my friend find a job, so I’m also using those weak ties for that.
Other notes in my life:
I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate IE6. I have to make sure everything works for it because of this corporate environment. Ugh. I don’t bother supporting IE6 in any of my personal projects, and I’m pretty sure Jakob Nielsen said it’s okay.
I’ve started to become really bugged by people wearing suit jackets/sport coats with jeans. Of course, I just broke this rule yesterday, but it was a dark pair of jeans and I was wearing a dark sweater with it. I’m also not sure what to think about black jeans. Obviously, this rule has exceptions.
I have another full weekend, and I feel guilty that I’m not looking forward to any of it. There’s going out tonight, party on Saturday, and the Super Bowl on Sunday. It’s not that I’m not looking forward to any of it because these events won’t be fun (I will undoubtedly have fun), but that I’m feeling kind of burnt out right now. It feels like I’m busy all the fucking time. Last weekend was spent in Vegas. Monday I met people for House. Tuesday I didn’t go anywhere, but I worked on my comic. Wednesday I spent working on my class. Thursday I had that get-together with high school friends. That brings me back to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which all have events planned. Plus, I still have to work on a website for my friend.
I really just want some time alone and shun everyone. This would make sense given that as an introvert, I need alone time to recharge. However, I do not think that’s the actual problem, despite my impulses. I think I’m just sleep-deprived. I’ve always been a guy who runs on 8+ hours of sleep, but lately I’ve been running on somewhere around 6 hours of sleep, and often 5 and half hours of sleep. I should do something about this before my fatigue creates pessimism.
I helped plan a small get-together for some of my fellow high school alumni who currently live in the Bay. I hope it goes okay. I have no idea how many people will show up. There are 7 Attending and 10 Maybe. Usually, I count a maybe as a no, but I haven’t seen most of these people in years, so I’m not sure they adhere to the same unspoken rules of facebook etiquette. In any case, I would’ve been happy with just 3 people, including myself.
Note: Tell them that my friend is looking for a job, and that I’m looking for a girlfriend, although the former is more important.
The revolution will be a change in values, or the establishment of new norms. It’s not a series of actions or policies. It must go deeper. We must rethink politics and capitalism, and change the way we do things. When most people accept these new values and society reflects these values, then the revolution will have achieved its goal.
The analogy or image in my mind, currently, of how the revolution will take place is that of reseeding America. The next revolution will be a decentralization of power — returning power to the people. It will be a democratic revolution. The people must take power. This means ordinary citizens, or even mobs. The next revolutionaries must be teams of Johnny Appleseeds reseeding democracy by teaching ordinary citizens how to take power for themselves. So I need to find those who know how to create programs that empower ordinary citizens. There must be a change in the way citizens view government. Cynicism must be cast aside and people need to believe that they own government.
There’s more to it, though. There are three organisms, and each relies on the others to maintain power: Government, business, and media. Each must be reformed simultaneously for the revolution to occur. These 3 organisms will reinforce each other and so must be attacked at the same time.
When I said that there’d be a decentralization of power, I’d like to also apply this to business and media. Only a few corporations control our news, and that needs to change. Banks became “too big to fail.” This calls for cutting things up.
For the media, the revolution means a change in values, not technology. Blogs. Twitter. Google News. None of these means a revolution. We must change the way we do news and the way we think of news, not merely a change in the medium or a change in the way news is disseminated. Technology is inherently neutral; we must make sure it’s used for good and not bad. So, it’s not enough to find the news innovators or the hottest bloggers. It’s about finding those who escape the stupid day-to-day vapidity of cable news and create news that has real value, not just entertainment value. It’s about finding those who don’t kowtow to those in power. It’s not about finding those who agree with me politically; it’s about finding those who have the right values when it comes to creating news.
Those are my thoughts, for now, on what I think a revolution should be. Defined this way, the revolution is already underway. There are already those seeking to do all the things I want. (Like the comment Lloyd left in my last entry on the revolution.) I need to find them and spread their insights.
The revolution will be about creating leaders. These people will show that these new values work and influence others to accept the new reality.
Will you join me?
I have to download these:
I maybe want to install these:
Just got my new HP G60t laptop in the mail. I was expecting it to ship today, not arrive today. For once, a pleasant surprise; I’m not big on surprises.
My last laptop was on its last legs. The battery was going bad, and my laptop had started to smell like it was burning when it was running. It was so bad last night that I literally feared my laptop was going to catch on fire. I shut it off and haven’t turned it on since.
This laptop is pretty awesome. My old laptop couldn’t even handle running Opera and Firefox at the same time. Now, I can run all that — and more! I still have yet to test its upper limits, but I did manage to run all 5 browsers I had installed (IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari) at the same time.
Right now, I’m busy downloading programs that I’ll need. I’ve already installed GIMP, FileZilla, and AIM. Next up: OpenOffice. Because I don’t want to spend a bajillion dollars on MS Office.
Afterwards, I’m going to play with connecting my laptop to my TV via HDMI cable. That’s after House, though.