Music Piracy

Is ripping a CD you bought onto your computer for the purpose of putting it on your mp3 player illegal? No.

Is giving away a CD for free to a random person illegal? No.

Is ripping a CD you found on the street onto your computer illegal? No.

Is sharing those files with strangers illegal? Yes. Why? You tell me.

(I know the word illegal is not quite right, but saying fine-able offense doesn't have the same ring to it)

When a bad memory is good.

Re-watching great shows, is an excellent example of when you don't want to remember everything. Knowing just the basic plot, and not the specif details to a great show you have seen really makes it a lot better the second time. That way you still get the excitement while watching.

So I only re-watch shows sparingly, like once every two years. This is the only time I would prefer to not have a better memory, and many hours of entertainment have been gained from that lack of memory. So drink up and forget the details of your favorite shows!

Stalking

Rule # 1, don't let them know you stalked them.

For instance, don't like their photo from before you met them, and not even comment on it, that's creepy. It is kind of like saying, "hey, I think you looked good when you were younger, so you should go out with me."

The little things

The best part about living alone are all the little things.

1. You don't have to close the door when you go to the bathroom

2. You clean whenever the hell you want to clean

3. You only get food you want

4. You never have to worry about someone waking you up, or waking someone else up

5. Privacy

6. No one judges you when you dance around, or sing

I'm sure there are a lot more, but those came off the top of my head, heck, maybe I will update this on eventually, who know?!

Sports fan in a bar

So today I went to a bar to watch some football, and there was a guy there by himself. He was sitting at the bar, and was very into So whenever something happened, he would make a comment about it. But he wasn't talking to anyone. The bartender was not there, I was facing away from him, as was the person on the other side of him. He was clearly talking to himself/trying to talk the players on the field.

Now I found this odd, as people talking through the TV is usually considered weird, especially with no in person audience to enjoy the comment. But I got the feeling this was the norm, that this kind of thing happens a lot at bars.

So I think if you are going crazy, and starting to talk to yourself, but you want to hide it, just become a sports fan, and hang out in bars. No one will ever know.

Annoying classmate 2.0, Co-worker

I you are ever in a situation where you are working in the same place as the annoying classmate, I feel for you. I am in that situation, and it sucks. It turns out he has some other horrible traits that may be common amongst annoying classmates in general.

The first is that he feels the need to put his input into any conversation that is going on, with either a correction, or what he thinks is an interesting fact or thought about the subject. It is never interesting, and his little chuckle at his own joke afterward drives me insane. No one else ever chuckles...everyone else is just looking at each other with pain in their eyes, all mentally shouting at each other "AHH, MAKE HIM SHUT UP". But most of us are too polite to actually say anything.

This brings me to the the next characteristic, he doesn't realize no one likes him. Perhaps it is just a defense mechanism, telling himself that he has friends, and that people enjoy his company. But regardless, the group has been throwing hints all the time, and he just never catches them. One time, a girl in the group openly told him, "shut up, no one likes you", and it was not in a kidding way. It was point blank serious, and he just brushed it off, like it was nothing, and continued acting as usual.

So what is the solution to this problem? Good question, very good question in fact, glad you asked. It is very tough, because if you do anything drastic, you could get reported to a manager (I have no doubt he would be a tattle tail), and also, it is a very socially awkward thing to do, telling someone no one enjoys his company. So here is my plan, and if it goes well, I will be sure to post about it:

Step one, invite him to happy hour, and say you have already invited everyone. Invite no one else. (Also, it is important you don't have a tab, just pay cash)

Step two, when he gets there, meet him, and say everyone bailed.

Step three, start up a conversation about what he thinks about the different people in the group. No doubt he will have something bad to say about at least a few of them, and start him down this path by laughing at some of them.

Step four, get REALLY offended by one of his remarks, and say you he were just laughing at the other ones to be nice, and you think he is a horrible person (throw in racist if you can). Say you don't want to hang out anymore.

Step five, when he tries to apologize, flip him the bird, and walk away. Because you don't have a tab, and he probably does, he can't chase after you. This leaves him in one of two states of mind. Either he wants to avoid you, because he now correctly thinks you hate him(in which case WIN), or he REALLY wants you to accept his apology.

Optional Step six, if the case is the latter of step five, whenever he starts a conversation with you, just walk away. And if he sits at your table, or goes where you are, just glare at him, and whisper something into the ear of the person next to you. He will think you are spreading the horrible thing he said, and want to leave before being questioned about it.

Well, not sure when I am going to try this, but wish me luck!

Greetings

Greetings have always been confusing to me. There are many situations where I am not sure how to greet someone, or even if I should greet them.

So I sit in an office with a guy, and when I get in, I usually mumble a "sup", and go to my chair. That is all well and good, but what happens when we are both in the hallway, and we pass each other? If it was anyone else I knew, I would greet them with a "hey", or wave, or even have a legitimate talk with them. But I have already greeted my office-mate, greeting him again seems wrong. And we can always just talk, and the other guy hears it, so we don't have any need to catch up in the hall. So we both end up looking away from each other, and quickly pass each other.

When I walk into a room of guys and girls that I know about half of, and they get introduced, I am not sure whether or not to go in for the handshake on all of them. If they present their hand I do, and if the president has been set I do, but if they are kinda far away, does the wave cut it? Does the first meeting of a person require physical contact? I say it does not, eye contact is enough to start a relationship.

Then there is the classic, almost the same as leaving situation. Walking into a room with a mix of guys and girls that you have not seen a a while. The girls almost always want a hug, while the guys usually go for a handshake, or variant of a handshake(like a fist bump, or a grab and tap). But if the first greeting is with a girl, and you hug, then the next greeting is a guy right next to her, and you know each other pretty well, there's a chance he goes in for an awkward hug. Now if that lands, you are in for it, everyone in the room is going to hug you, whether you like it or not, so I suggest saving a girl for last, so you don't end your greetings with an unwanted hug.

Ok, next situation, you are walking past a complete stranger, anywhere. I go for the, ignore their existence strategy. But this can lead you into trouble, if they greet you. When they say something like "good morning", you are obligated to respond somehow, but you are in ignore mode, so it usually ends with "yo", or something else really short and not heart felt.

Now here's a situation that doesn't come up as often as it used to. The phone. How do you greet people who you don't know on the phone? I usually just let them talk for a while, get an idea of why they called me, then either respond to them, or tell them i'm not interested in upgrading my phone plan, because I hate talking on phones!

Celebrity TV

So my mom likes to just put on the TV, then either not watch it by playing on her computer, or not watch it by talking on the phone in another room for hours. Well this leads to me background watching whatever is on. Today I experienced Ice Loves Coco.

This was a greatly baffling experience, how can people watch this? Why do people care about what random celebrities are doing in their personal life? Oh man, Ice T needs some "me" time, and his nephews are annoying him, this is sooo interesting! Now the dog is swimming, OMG I never could have seen that coming, what a TWIST!

Ok, time for random baseless conjecture. People who watch this are thinking, "oh, those people are just like us, but with more money, I could totally be them. They are real people with real problems". Now that only explains why they would watch one episode, because after that, they have already made this realization, and are no longer learning anything. So there must be something in the first episode they watch that hooks them. Something that makes them think, "I want to watch this again, I want to see more of their lives.

For some people, it is probably the hot chicks that inevitably show up. For others it might be a sick sort of pleasure from watching the pain of people better off than they are, they might think "it's nice to see that life isn't perfect for anyone, so my problems don't seem to unjustified". Another group might be reveling in just how stupid the people in the show are.

Well I know one thing for sure, I will never watch one of these shows by choice.

Treadmill

I was running on the treadmill in my apartment gym, and it started lightning-ing out. It then occurs to me, "what would happen if the power went out while I was running 8 mph?" Would I just barrel into the front of the treadmill as it suddenly stops moving from under me?

Perhaps.

How to misconstrue

When I say (type) "What's up with you?", how do you read it?

There are two main ways, the first is "What new things are happening in your life?"(usually as a follow up to the received what's up question) , and the second is "Why are you acting unusually?"

Now I usually assume that the person I type it to knows which one I'm talking about, but there is always that little hesitation where I think, what if they interpret it wrong, I'm gonna look weird and get a confused response. So I think about rephrasing, but then the rephrase doesn't sound natural and cool, so I leave it, and hope.

Now its been done to death, but I will again mention sarcasm. It's SOOO easy to misconstrue sarcasm in typed form. It's AWESOME! You can say anything, and have it NOT understood! It is my LEAST favorite part of the internet! I try to use it ALL the time, in every possible way just to exacerbate the AWESOMENESS!!!

Apartment Gym

I have recently started going to the gym in my apartment complex. This is a very strange situation, because the social interactions are very hindered.

First, a lot of people(including me) tend to use the treadmill heavily. While on the treadmill, there is no real way to talk to anyone, or for anyone to talk to you. Even if you are not listening to headphones, the sound of your running plus the aura of concentration make you unapproachable. The only chance for a real interaction is if two people happen to exit the treadmill at about the same time, or perhaps if they are using adjacent machines. But in the latter situation, there is still the aura of concentration.

So even in a room filled with people, there is almost no social interaction.

There do seem to be a few exceptions, first is the occasional 2 friends that came in together. They tend to chat a bit while using adjacent machines, or treadmills. Or once in a while, there is the dude who will talk to himself while working out...I tend to avoid that guy.

Reading vs Hearing

Reading a person's text, or email, or IM is very different from hearing their voice say the words. The first difference is that they tend to use different words in text form, because it is either easier to type it that way, or they have had time to look over what they are saying, and they edited it to make it sound better, and more like what they actually meant. I love the latter reason, because it means the person is really saying what they mean to say, not just talking as a quick response.
But that also puts some pressure on what you type, because once you send it, it can never be taken back, and there is evidence of its existence. When you say something really dumb online, you can be punished more for it, because you cannot just quickly change the subject, or re-iterate as easily as you can in verbal communication.
Another great reason text is different from talking is that you can choose to read the text any way you want. While the person might have meant the connotation to be one way, or not meant for something to sound a certain way, they really have no control over it. I can choose to make an incoherent text coherent by adding what I want to see, while its very hard to not hear a drunken slurr in face to face talking.

Annoying Classmate

In my life I have had a great number of classmates, and most of them never say a word. Those guys are the best. Some of them have said a few words, and mostly just to fill the awkward silence, those guys are pretty cool too. But then there are the few people, who feel the need to add their own input to the lecture, or ask above the scope of the course questions for no apparent reason. Those guys are really annoying.

These people can easily be picked out within the first day of the class, with quotes such as "just out of interest", or "I realize you can't, but suppose you could...". Another great way to identify them is by perhaps their most annoying trait, asking a question before thinking about it enough to actually ask it. You can tell this has happened when after being called on they say "umm" at least 3 times before talking, and stumble around with their first sentence for what seems like an eternity for both you and the professor.

Another common aspect of these people is that they seem to be very arrogant about their knowledge on the subject. In college, the question "why did you come to this class if you already know everything" comes to mind. Now with the arrogance, if you have to work with them at some point, you must be very careful. They will seem to know what they are doing because they truly believe they do, thus it is hard to believe they do not. They put off an aura of proficiency in the matter, but in my experience, they often are very lacking.

Instead of gaining a wide knowledge of the subject (through following a well planned lecture on a broad subject perhaps), they tend to dive head-first into a very small section of the subject matter. This leads them to have a decent knowledge of one point, but little knowledge of the whole. And what is worse is that they usually only have one source, which may or may not be outdated. So do not trust their knowledge, as it is often not as perfect at they might have you believe. And if you find yourself in a class with them, just nod and smile when they talk, it seems to please them when you pretend you know what they are talking about or agree with them, because if you don't, they will not stop arguing with you until their point is proven(or facts have been given to prove them wrong).

Applause

Applause is a tricky thing to determine when it is appropriate. Since I am in training now, we have had people come in and talk about the company. They are not performing, they are not spending more than an hour doing the presentation, or making it for that matter. So do they deserve applause? I personally don't think so. But I can see why some people might think otherwise.

If you go to a famous researcher's lecture, they deserve applause. They took their valuable time to show you something awesome they have researched. But the HR people talking about why you shouldn't pee in police officer's car, I don't think they deserve it. Or the guy who talks for 20 minutes about the founding and evolution of the company, I don't think so either.

But some people do, and applause is infectious due to peer pressure. When a few people clap, the whole room is going to, because not clapping turns into an offense to the lecturer, and makes you an outcast. Only if the group is truly stoic can is sustain the claps of one or a few by collectively not clapping, can the applause be halted. And in my experience, that is very rare, and ends in the clappers feeling outcasted and even shamed by their inferior discretion.

Training

So I recently started training at Factset. During which I am supposedly going to learn how to better do my job, by learning about the company, a short C++ course, and some learning about tools and stuff. So I realize that I am back in school. Not college, but high-school. In college, you can not go to class as long as you know the material.

This is like actually important high-school. First, you get paid. And second, if you do not 'pass' the class, you don't have some ambiguous hit to your future, you lose your job. It's not, "you know, if you don't pass this class you won't get into college, and won't get a job". It is now, "you know all the time and effort you have put in your whole life, culminating finally in a job where you are a functioning member of society and are doing something you are at least interested in, well that time was all really a waste if you don't pass."

Now it's not like its hard to pass, since you are supposed to have the qualifications before going in, and there's not a formal 'test', but at least for me, there is a coding at the end that gets reviewed to "determine where you are put within your group". If you come off as not qualified, I'm sure you will be let go, sooner or later.

Man, super high-school sucks.

Party Enhancers

I recently went to a bat-mitzva. For those of you who might not know, this is where a jewish 12-13 year old girl becomes a woman, and there is a big party. At this party, there were mostly 13 year old girls, and old people. There were also people there whose job was to make the party better, by dancing with people, and being energetic. At first this concept blew me away. Having good looking people in a party purely for the purpose of getting others to feel less awkward about dancing, and at least make it seem like everyone was having a good time.

I did dance with one of these people for a little while, and it was interesting. I am not much of a dancer, but she was able to pretty much show me what I should do through her motions. This went on for like a song, then she went off to another guy on the floor, and my feelings of awkwardity returned, and I sat down. So was she effective? It could be argued she was, but I think her job was really to get me to want to stay up there, even after she left, which did not happen.

Eating alone in a resteraunt

I don't really know anyone in Norwalk, and I didn't feel like cooking again, so I went out to eat. There was this place called Black Bear, which seemed to have sandwiches and stuff, so I went there. When I got in, the waitress was already feeling awkward as she asked if it was just me. I said yes, and she brought me to a table and asked for my drink. Then for the rest of the time, it seemed like she was avoiding me. I folded up my menu and placed it off the end of the table, and she walked by it at least twice, before asking "need a couple minutes?" I quickly replied no, and gave my order. It was just a sandwich, which she seemed to not like.

Perhaps she was just angry that she would not get a great tip, because the order was small, but its not like I was taking away business, it wasn't crowded or anything. And my order was easy, and I ate fast (because when you have no one to talk to, you tend to get the job done faster), so she should have had no complaint.

So I spent a lot of time texting, and FB messaging, and it would have been a pretty decent dinner, if it wasn't for the awkwardness exuded from the waitress.

Stupid Questions

Man, I am blogging a lot this week, probably because I am bored, but I have had a lot of inspiration.

Anywho, I hate it when people ask stupid questions. The type of stupid question I am talking about is one that you are not really supposed to answer, or one you are no more likely to know the answer to than the asker. Like "Why is this so complicated?", or "it says ENTER TECHNICAL WORDS HERE, what does that mean?", or even "why isn't the dryer done yet?". They do not say it in a low, passive tone, to imply they don't really want you to answer, they say it loudly, to your face, with conviction and frustration in their voice. One person I know does this constantly, and its really annoying. They are just trying to have some sort of human contact as they vent their frustration with their current situation. I don't want to be part of your frustration. I will be happy to help you if you really need it, but you are a smart person, and can more often than not figure out the answer to the stupid question just as fast as I can, and being that I have to familiarize myself with the situation, whereas you are already in it, my assistance is almost always a waste of time.

AIM

AIM is great, it allows for mostly not-awkward conversation, in that you do not expect the other person to always be there, and you have plenty of time to think about your responses without the face-to-face or phone pressure to respond immediately.

But there are some times where it gets awkward. Like when you say something, then the other person is typing, and you get that little thingy saying they are typing. That thingy then goes away, and seems like its flickering, and your anticipation is growing. This tends to end in one of two ways: a block of text, or "yeah". In the first case, they have really put in a lot of effort, and made an in-depth response. In the second case, they either typed like one letter, then went away from the window, or they were constantly writing and erasing what they typed.

Another interesting phenomenon that I have witnessed is, you start typing, then you see that they started typing, so you erase what you had, in anticipation of their obviously more important message. Then they erase what they had when they saw you typing. Then you are left with no one saying anything for a good amount of time. This can even repeat itself.

The worst is when they ask you, what you had typed before erasing it. You erased it for a reason, so that is was never read, why would you want to say it? I always respond to that question with "nothing", which of course is a lie, but they shouldn't expect a real response to that stupid question.

Answering Machines

I hate leaving a message, most people do. But now I think I know why. You treat it as if it was an actual conversation, which it isn't. They are not there to respond, you are just talking. So what you should do is simply leave the information you want, and end the call. But what you actually do it have an introduction: "hi, this is ___", then you flounder around what you want to say, then leave a really awkward conclusion: "umm, yeah....bye bye".

Some of the problem is no one really expects to get the machine, so they are not in the right mindset. They were expecting a real conversation, and are in conversation mode, which requires the socially standard introduction and conclusions. But not only are those added in the recording, but people don't really know how to say what they want to impart. they did not expect to need to explain what they wanted to in what seems like a very constrained amount of time. People feel really awkward leaving long messages, and usually just leave it up to the return call to say anything substantial.

Speechless

Why, nay How is that word ever spoken in a self-referential present tense manner -"I am speechless". In its very utterance, it contradicts itself. I dislike when people contradict themselves, but to do it so simply, and without concern to what they are saying is ridiculous. And for it to be a common phrase, that is just unacceptable, why not just say nothing, or "I'm not sure how to respond". At least that way you are not outright lying, and you get the same meaning.

Independence

I believe that independence is very important. Being able to support yourself is a great attribute. this is because, if you are dependent on someone, then you are never truly free from their control. You do no have all the power over your actions, so you might be swayed to do things, or biased towards your supporter's ideals. I think that making and maintaining your own ideals and beliefs is very important, while still being able to have rational discussions about them, which could alter them. The point is, your ideals can be ever-changing based on new information, as long as that information is in no way biased, and being dependent on someone will make you biased.

Now, when in a relationship with someone (romantically I mean), it is good to be co-dependent. This means that you each rely on each other so some extent. I realize this will lead to some bias from both sides, but being in a relationship will do that anyway, so it cannot be helped. What I cannot support is a relationship with one party completely dependent on the other, while the latter has no dependence on the former. This kind of clingy relationship basically just erases the ideals of the former, and re-enforces those of the latter. There is no give and take, which is never healthy.

I suppose I should mention being a child. Children are dependent on their parents, and that is fine because they cannot be otherwise. Ought implies can. When the child comes of age, and is able to support himself physically, and mentally, then he should shed his dependence. I'm not saying you should oust yourself from the family, you should still love and care for them, but you should not be dependent financially or emotionally anymore. You should be finding the truths of the world, and making well-informed, unbiased decisions about your life.

The other side should also be mentioned. When you are a parent, you should be able to let your children go. You should be very proud when they become independent, and you should not try to force dependence onto them. And although this is not usually a consideration, you should by no means become dependent on them, at least until you are unable to be independent due to age complications.

Intuitive UIs

A program is only as good as what people can do with it, so having an intuitive user interface is very important. I recently started using Adobe Premier Pro for some video editing (I have never done any video editing before), and it was very hard to get off the ground. I did not find the simple things to be intuitive. You have to drag and drop a lot of things, and the copy paste mechanism was not straight-forward. I had to learn these things from youtube and randomly messing around.

Sure they have a help section, but finding what you want without any knowledge of video terminology is pretty impossible. I wanted to look for something like "paste in another video", and that wasn't going to get me anywhere. I'm still not sure if there is a copy-section function that I was unable to find, I just copied the entire video, and cropped that.

So my point is this, all programs require intuitive user interfaces, because without them, they are useless until you dedicate a lot of time to learning them, at which point you should already be done with whatever you needed the program for.

Balloons

Balloons are interesting in that they don't really serve a purpose. People tend to buy them, blow them up, have them sit for about a day, then pop them. So what you are really doing is buying a bunch of trash that requires work to look good, and have the desired temporary happy-looking effect. But what is even weirder about balloons is that the longer you take to clean them up, the easier it gets. This is completely different from most forms of trash, where if you don't clean it relatively quickly, it can get much worse. But if you just let balloons sit, they lose air, and become much easier to dispose of.

Shopping Bag

In the immortal words of Jack "Penetrator" Lipton, "Shopping Bag, Shopping Bag, live your life in a shopping bag". I found these words to be quite true when I walked into my kitchen pantry today. There were probably hundreds of bags all over the floor. How did it come to this?

The answer is simple, people don't know what the heckfire to do with shopping bags. You get a whole cart of bags every time you go shopping, and you pass by the little bag return box, but never, I mean never, do you think before going shopping to return the bags. So they sit in some place in your house, forever. At my mom's house its between the fridge and the wall, at my dad's apartment it was over the cubbard, and at my apartment it is in the pantry.

So they accumulate, but never really take up enough space to force you to remove them, since they are so easily squished and squashed. You even think, I can use them as small trash bags, or to hold stuff for vacations, but you will never need 300 bags, never.

In my experience, the only time they are ever removed is when you move out of your apartment. And you do not go down the the grocery store to recycle them, you just throw them all away in a big dumpster, and the world hates you, but you don't care, you just want to restart you inevitable bag collection at your new place.

Groups in groups

I don't know if its a blessing or a curse, but I tend to get along with everyone, allowing (or forcing, depending on how you look at it) me to be in any sub-group of my group.

When in a group, either walking around, or just in a social situation that allows free movement without judgement, I often find myself having to find ways to leave one sub-group for another. It's not that I don't like the people I am currently with, its just I think I will have a better time, or a more interesting conversation with a different sub-group. This navigation is tricky business.

While walking around, there are two main places you can be that require tact, the front or the back. If you are in the middle, you can just slip into the front or back group without much notice. But if you are in the front, you must implore some tact to get closer to the back. There are a few options for this. The first is to simply walk slower, this can work if you are not in a conversation with the currently people near you, you are just walking. But if you are in a conversation, you need to get out of it, which I usually do by not talking for a while.

The second tactic is more complex, and it works for any position. You say you need to do something, or you tie your shoe. This allows you to exit the group entirely, which then permits you to re-enter the group at any position when you return. But be careful with this, as your current sub-group might get suspicious, and try to re-recruit you to their sub-group.

The final tactic (which should be used very rarely if at all) is to lose all subtlety, and simply stop, and forcefully enter the desired sub-group with an entry topic of conversation such as "so what are you guys talking about", or try to get that information from your current position, and have a leading question for when you arrive. You may be able to get a chuckle, or sympathy from your original sub-group by saying something like: "well, this is boring", or "I'm gonna go check out what they are up to".

If you are in the back, you need to make a more drastic change to get further up. Speeding up is a lot more noticeable than slowing down, so requires better timing. You need to act when your conversation has died, or you are not really part of it. You also need for no one in your sub-group to be paying attention to you, so they don't say "where are you running off to?" Unfortunately, this is noticed a lot of the time, which can lead to an awkward look from both your new sub-group and old one. But it can be worth it, and should be considered a legitimate option if the situation calls for it.

This type of inter-group positioning is also very important when riding in cars. It is often very hard to get the perfect combination of people in the perfect locations within the care you are in. As I mentioned in a past post, the best conversations are located in the one-on-one back seat positions, so you must try to get the one person you wish to talk with the most in the back seat with you. For me this is very hard because I am tall, and therefore my considerate friends usually allow me the front seat, which I have no apparent reason to decline, as it is supposed to be sought after by the tallest member of the group. But while I am tall, I don't mind the slightly more crampt back seat if it allows me to have a much better conversation during the trip.

These kinds of situations also apply to when you are just hanging out in a house, with a large group. The tactics for movement are much simpler, because there are set things you can do. First is go to the bathroom, which is an auto-reset. If you want to move to the kitchen sub-group, simply go get some food or drink from there, easy peasy. If you want to go from any standing position to any sitting position, just say "I'm gonna go sit down", and you will not be questioned at all.

The one thing you simply cannot do unless you either think your current sub-group will understand (example, going to talk to the girl you like), or you just don't care about the current sub-group at all, is say "I'm gonna go hang out (or talk) with them now". This could make you sound like a dick, and insult the current group, which could also lead to questioning about why you did it, which is a path you never want to go down.

Car ride conversations

I think it is time for an extensive post, regarding seating in cars, with varying amounts and types of people. I will start with my recent experience.

Today I was sitting in the back seat on a car trip with two people, one in the driver's seat and one in the passenger's seat. It occured to me that I was ostrisized from the other two. I could not have a real conversation because they could not look at me. Eye contact is very important to meaningful conversations. This lead to a great amount of time in awkward silence. It was eventually broken, but even then, it was not a natural conversation, it was a car conversation.

You might be wondering, what could that be? Well I'll explain. A car conversation is not a normal conversation in that it is strained 2 main ways. The first is you don't want to disrupt the driver. The second is a great divide between the front and back seats. It is very easy to have conversations with the people next to you, but when in the front seat, you have to either strain to look in the back, or you have to talk to the window, and hope they react as you would like. If you are in the back, you either have to have the fronters strain (which you have no control of), or you talk to the back of a seat. Again, eye contact is key in communication.

So if there are 4 total people, the conversation inevitably gets split, besides the occasional shout out to the others, which tends to lead to the split soon after. But the great combination is 3 people, so that there is no conversation at all. Somehow this breaks the front seat conversations, because of the awkwardness of having the back seater out of the loop. This almost always leads to the greatest idea ever regarding car entertainment, music. Music fills the silence nicely, and entertains the passengers, stopping the need for conversation at all, and allowing anyone who wants to, to just zone out.

Now, its time to start to talk about variations depending on the types of people, and their locations. First is the quite, observer type, who likes to think about what to say before saying it, and at the same time usually does not spur on the conversation, in other words me. This type of person will rely on the other people to start a conversation, but will be grateful if one happens. In the 4 person scenario, they will do fine, as they will probably just talk to the person next to them. the problem is in the 3 person. No matter where they are, the conversation will feel awkward, and the music default is a very likely end.

The second type is the opposite, the super talkative and inquisitive type. They tend to want to know anything about everyone. They are doing this to not only fill the silence(which they cannot handle at all), but also to quench their need to know everyone better. They think that the secrets to a person are found in their favorite color, or how many sibling they have. Now I don't think there is no information to be desired in those questions, but there are definitely better ways to get to know people.

Instead of doing another type, I feel I should mention the tired situation. If one person is tired, and 3 others are not, then the 3 others will not respect the restful wishes of the one tired person. They will intentionally disrupt that person, and in that disruption will spur on conversation. There is but one hope for the tired person, and that is the 3 person scenario, with the tired one in the back. Then he can use his ostracization to his advantage, and hope the fronters leave him alone, but he should be prepared for music, as it is almost always present at some point.

While there are many more scenarios to address, I will leave them to further posts, look forward to Car Ride Conversations 2 at some point in the future.

Movie reviews

Whenever I see a movie(and people find this out), even if no one was with me, I am asked by many people what I thought of that movie. Now I am not a very opinionated person about movies. I just enjoy them, and then don't really think about how much I enjoyed it, or if it was corny, or if it has amazing greater meaning. So when I am asked this question, I usually just shrug it off with a "meh".

Now this is tricky, because it does not end there. If you like the movie, they will spout off reasons why it sucks, and why your taste is awful. Similarly, if you do not like the movie, they will implore to you all the great aspects they found, and again try to imply that your taste is horrendous. Even with the "meh" response that I enjoy so much, there is still no end. They will try to convince you one way or the other, and sometimes two groups will form, one on each direction, and they will try to pull me in their direction.

But I resist, I refuse to formulate an educated opinion on the movie, because it doesn't matter. My thoughts on the movie are just thoughts, and they should not count for or against me in the selection of future movies, because my "taste in movies sucks".

Luckily, a few hours after people have been informed I have seen the movie, and I have replied "meh", they tend to forget completely about the movie, and move on with their lives. At least until the next one...

Facebook redundency

So today I was doing some light Facebook stalking. Just browsing some people's pages, and got to a page for someone I am not friends with. In the info page, at the bottom, I noticed something odd. It had under contact info "Facebook", and it listed the address I was already at. So if I clicked it, it would just refresh my page. And this is the only place you can ever find this information, so it is always a link to itself. How completely useless and redundant.

Omegle

I became aware of Omegle. Its a site where you talk with strangers. Most of the time, they ask you for your asl, and upon hearing "m", they end the chat. But sometimes they actually talk to you. And in those times I have had conversations about the death penalty, soccer, violin, getting laid and how stupid the site is.

So when you actually get into a conversation, and they don't seem to be dicks, you sometimes meet an interesting turning point. Either disconnect, try to muster up more conversation, or maybe, just maybe, get there contact info to talk more in the future. The last option is very tricky, and I have never actually executed it, but kinda seems like part of the point of the site's existence.

Now I am not a fan of asl. I think you should just talk to the other person, and have that information come out naturally. But when deciding if you want to ever talk to them ever again, it is somewhat helpful. I don't really want to add a random 50 year old dude from Europe on FB, because that wold look kinda weird. But a 21 year old girl from NY, thats much more reasonable.

Men vs Women: Leaving

I realize I am not very original to comment on the differences between men and women, but I don't care. I have noticed there are very differing methods of leaving a group of people for a somewhat extended time. For a man, they usually go for hand shakes, but due to subtle body language conversations, end up hugging the women.

This can lead to an awkward gay moment. For instance, say he is leaving and happens to say goodbye to a woman first, ending in a hug. Then his next goodbye is to a man, the receiving man might feel obligated to go in for the hug, even if the hand is presented for the shake. The leaving man cannot then refuse this hug, ending in both of them being in a not sought after hug.

When a woman leaves, they tend to just hug everyone. Women like hugs. I'm not sure why, but I can give it a shot. I suppose given they are more emotional, they feel they can impart more of a goodbye-like sentiment than with a hand shake. Men would argue than a firm hand shake and eye-contact ending with a nod of the head conveys just as much, respect the personal space.

This Morning

When I got up this morning(2:30pm), I really had to pee. Now this is normal for the morning, but my roommate was clearly on the crapper, and was going to be a while, so I had to make a decision. Either I try to wait it out, pee outside, or go down to campus and pee there. Well after about a minute of waiting I reallly had to go, so I put on my shoes and walked down to campus. Now you might be thinking, why didn't I run? Well thats because I had just gotten up, so was still pretty tired, and I didn't want to run part of the way, then have to stop and walk the rest, that would make the desire to pee even greater.

So anyway, I was walking down to campus, and a thought occurred to me. This is a waste of a walk down to campus, I should do something while I am here. I thought maybe get some breakfast, or visit someone, or anything that would allow the statement "I walked down to campus just to pee" false. I then urinated in the armory, because it is the closest bathroom to my house. Then I thought, ok, i'll go to the union, theres stuff to do there. I walked around, decided I didn't want crappy union food, so I ended up getting some over-priced pop-tarts at fathers and left.

Theres nothing quite like walking back from campus with a just box of pop-tarts and a relief.

Movie watchers

It has come to my attention that there is one type of movie watch that bugs the hell out of me. That type of person is almost always a girl, but there have been some exceptions. She will say things like "EWww", or "OH MY GOD", or "Don't do that!!", or just generally react in such a way that lets you know there is is no thought going on in their brain. Its these types of people that not only annoy me in the movie theater with their stupid outbursts, but also drive up the ratings on horrible movies, with cliche lines directed directly at their mentality.

Haven't these people seen movies before? Don't they know when something is completely obvious from the start of the film? Apparently the answer is no, they don't, because they are stupid. So my advise to those of you who might have to see a movie with these types of people is this: declare the movie as bad, turn off your brain, and try to see what they see.

Spoiled

(Warning, this could be depressing, and its not really funny. Just so you know.)

My entire life I have been spoiled. I have not had to work 40 hours a week, I have not had to pay real bills, I have been responsible for practically nothing. I have had easy environments for making and keeping friends (school and dorms). I have had great physical health, and am now in the prime of my fitness level. Now that I am old enough to truly realize this, I am not living in fear of the future, but in great appreciation of the past and present. I will enjoy this short time before life really starts, and accept life as is comes. I am ready for the future, but I know I will always miss the first 21 years of my life.

This is not to say the rest of my life will suck. There is still potential for great times. I could genuinely enjoy my work, I could make tons of new friends, and even get a woman in my life. There is also room for the joys of having my own family. But even if all these joys are realized, I really do think my first 21 years(and especially last 4) will have been the best in my life.

Naps

I usually think of naps as a complete waste of time. They don't really give you any rest, and just throw off your sleep schedule. In fact, they are in fact the embodiment of wasting time. I can't think of any other action that is more wasteful than lying down and not resting for extended periods of time.

Well thats what I used to think, but now I have an exception. Naps are great when you are sick. They give you more healing sleep, and make you less conscious through your painful sick period. So if you are sick, nap away, but if you are not, find something better to do.

Umbrellas and Phones

I think umbrellas are stupid. Something about holding this thing above your head to stop the rain just seems ridiculous. Its not natural, when its raining, you should feel the rain on your head. Hoods and hats are fine because you can still feel the rain. Also, most people look pretentious with their umbrellas. They have their fancy suits on and their matching umbrellas and from a sweatshirt-wearer's perspective, they are the epitome of tool bags.

On a completely unrelated note, why does everyone (myself included) feel the need to walk around aimlessly while on the phone? Whenever I'm on the phone, I find myself pacing back and forth like a moron, while I talk (well for me mostly just listen). Also, even when I know the conversation is not going to contain any damning information, I still feel the need to find a private place to talk, and walk around. Weird stuff.

Cross Game

I recently finished watching the baseball anime Cross Game. I thought it was pretty good. I have watched a lot of sports anime in the past, and have generally liked them a lot. They tend to be exiting, with some comedy, and the occasional filler arc if the anime is long enough. Some examples of my favorite sports anime are Hajime No Ippo and Giant Killing.

Now then, this anime had a different emphasis, and that was on romance. I would say about half the anime was about romance, and the other half baseball. I really enjoyed the baseball half, I got caught up in the emotion and excitement, especially in the final arc, which is what you want out of a sports anime. I did not enjoy the romance part, but it wasn't badly done. The romance was able to keep me guessing for a while, which was good. So the baseball part I would give a 7 or 8, and the romance a 6.

If the review was over now, I would give it a 7, but sadly it is not. They felt the need to have a filler episode...and I really hate those. Not only was there no new content, but it was also entirely about the romantic part of the anime. Also, at some point near the middle-ish, they started to have an opening of Momiji either drawing a cat, or giving a quiz. This was pure fluff, and annoying, and I hated it a lot. I can't stand when any anime, and even more so an anime less than 100 episodes does something consistently just to waste time. They already had a recap, which I guess is tolerable, why couldn't they just extend that?

Anyway, due to the recap and idiotic intro, I am forced to give it a 6, and if the ending was not as awesome as it was, it would be a 5. So there you have it, 6 out of 10.