Random Thoughts
-I've finished with this term. I am happy to be done with it. I wonder what kind of grades I got. I am sad to be done with creative writing. I learned a lot about writing poetry. I realized recently that I really just need to keep writing it. I have really learned enough to keep on progressing on my own as long as I keep reading poetry and writing it.
- I recently realized how many movies are "based on actual events." However, you will see a movie trailer that starts out with those words and then the story will be about a man who rides dragons, or a haunted hospital where ghosts have dismembered a group of teenagers. "Based on actual events??" Man! Where have I been spending my time!
-Yesterday, I was at a pub grabbing a bite to eat with some friends from the Gargoyles (the acappella group) when we began talking about drunkenness. I started a big discussion that got nowhere about identity, for alcohol changes many people's personalities. Is the real you the way you are when you are sober, or when you are drunk? There are good arguments for both sides really, and I enjoyed playing devil's advocate to both. Is the real you the one freed from social inhibitions, or the one uninfluenced by chemicals? Some good points were raised, like the fact that you are never unmanipulated by chemicals, since your body, given certain stimuli (fear, love, sexual attraction, etc) creates chemicals that change one's standard personality or actions. Or the fact that you are manipulated and limited by superficial social expectations and training. No conclusions were reached, each person believed his own thing about the topic anyway. It probably depends on each person, and whether they feel that their authentic self is more adulterated by social inhibitions or by booze.
-Next week I go see my buddy Kenny. I am looking forward to it.
-I am working for two weeks afterwards, here in Oxford, to save money for my trip to the Benelux. Only, I will be alone and bored here and I will have a hard time not spending the money I make on video rentals and food.
- I recently realized how many movies are "based on actual events." However, you will see a movie trailer that starts out with those words and then the story will be about a man who rides dragons, or a haunted hospital where ghosts have dismembered a group of teenagers. "Based on actual events??" Man! Where have I been spending my time!
-Yesterday, I was at a pub grabbing a bite to eat with some friends from the Gargoyles (the acappella group) when we began talking about drunkenness. I started a big discussion that got nowhere about identity, for alcohol changes many people's personalities. Is the real you the way you are when you are sober, or when you are drunk? There are good arguments for both sides really, and I enjoyed playing devil's advocate to both. Is the real you the one freed from social inhibitions, or the one uninfluenced by chemicals? Some good points were raised, like the fact that you are never unmanipulated by chemicals, since your body, given certain stimuli (fear, love, sexual attraction, etc) creates chemicals that change one's standard personality or actions. Or the fact that you are manipulated and limited by superficial social expectations and training. No conclusions were reached, each person believed his own thing about the topic anyway. It probably depends on each person, and whether they feel that their authentic self is more adulterated by social inhibitions or by booze.
-Next week I go see my buddy Kenny. I am looking forward to it.
-I am working for two weeks afterwards, here in Oxford, to save money for my trip to the Benelux. Only, I will be alone and bored here and I will have a hard time not spending the money I make on video rentals and food.
Comments
Oh, and I've been thinking about this sort of thing lately, although not specifically about alcohol. I have a friend who is on medication for Crohn's disease and it has given her terrible insomnia. She's been getting 3-4 hours of sleep for the last month or so and she has begun to get a little weird, like a harsher version of herself. So which is really her? The one who can control her urges or the sleep-deprived version who says things that she thinks but knows she shouldn't? Oh, and I just got done reading a book about a hemaphrodite who was raised until puberty as a girl and then was discovered to be a boy and so began living as a man. So was he a man or a woman? Genetically he was a man all along but he had been raised to be and believe he was a woman. (It's a novel, but it got me thinking about socialization).
that's really why i haven't given in to the ipods yet.. i enjoy holding a work of art in my hands, carrying it around with me during the day while i listen to the cd... and records, too, are very enjoyable to hold and look at.
this is why i enjoy bands like godspeed you black emperor and others from the constellation records roster, and alien8 recordings, because not only is the music wonderful but the packaging is a whole separate work of art, many times hand crafted.
down with jewel cases!!
Yeah, I'm not sure it actually relates, it just came to mind.