Tuesday, April 20, 2004

It's not snow

Today several of my co-workers were amused to discover the way I choose to deal with snow that falls late into Spring (as it inevitably does in Wisconsin). Although I admit my strategie doesn't fall within the realm of what's normal for people to think, I was under the impression that it was more of a creative solution than a humerous insight to my personal psychosis.

And what is this strategie, this frame of mind that allows me to deal with the horror of late-falling snow? Simple, really:
"It's not snow, it's volcanic ash."

Where does this mindset come from, you ask? Well, from all my days watching educational television, of course! I have seen many pictures from towns around volcanic eruptions where ash piles up like snow. The pictures and video from Mount St. Helens are particularly stunning. Put that together with the knowledge that some tropical islands are volcanically active, and you have a perfectly logical reason as to why it might be "snowing" in the middle of a streak of otherwise lovely weather.

Avoiding reality is a perfectly healthy way to deal with reality. :D

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Spring
It hit me last night: it's spring. I mean, not just officially, but in very tangible ways the spring-ness is affecting people around me. The overall mood has changed from bundled-up isolationism to porch-sitting, guitar-playing socialite everywhere I look. Crushes are growing, skin-coverage is shrinking, and summer seems moments away.

I love this time of year. I love the first day that really affects people like yesterday did. I love the hope that awakens in the hardened hearts of stressing students that indeed school is only a temporary hell. I love the sensory. memories stirred by a sunny afternoon: the taste of fresh grapes, the smell of suntan lotion, the feel of a warm breeze on your face and grass beneath your feet. These things are all too easy to forget through a long Wisconsin winter.

This time of year is what keeps me from running away to Arizona. This time of year helps me forget the pain of winter for another 6 months.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Orkut: The New Way To Prove Your Popularity
I just got into a new online networking group called "Orkut." It's along the same lines as "Friendster," an online community of people connected as "friends" to find out if there really are only 6 degrees of separation between them and their favorite movie star. Or something like that.

Orkut works much the same way, but unlike Friendster, you may only join Orkut if you are invited by someone already in the network. This creates a closed community connected through real-life friendships, which is an interesting concept to me. You can also connect with other people on Friendster with whom you do not have a friendship by joining groups centered around a common interest (i.e."hedgehogs") or by searching through your friends' friends.

I have spent many hours paging through the many tangled connections in Orkut, and I must say that I find it very amusing. I've idly searched through the directory, looking for old friends. I've scrolled through pictures to see if there is a face I recognize or find particularly attractive. I especially enjoy rating my friends' coolness, attractiveness and trustiness. You can't rate someone negatively, so it's rather like giving presents to people without them knowing.

In a world that is continually becoming smaller thanks to increased travel and high-tech communication, it sometimes seems more and more difficult to meet people face to face. Many of the ways in which people used to meet are becoming too impersonal, or too distant. How do you make real-life friends in an online course? Why meet new people if you can have constant communication with your long-distance pals? It is nice to see that technology is answering with ways for people to meet one another through the trusted method of "mutual friend."

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

So, I went to Arizona and didn't blog for a week. Sorry. :)

I'll be posting some pictures soon.

Friday, April 02, 2004

Dreams

I'm one of those people who remembers my dreams on a daily basis. Sometimes it is due to the fact that I wake up in the middle of them, sometimes because I am left with a feeling from a dream I had earlier in the night. I never thought this was strange or unusual in any way, but it seems that many people give very little though to their mind's nightly wanderings. I, on the other hand, often have a difficult time shaking feelings I experience in my sleep the following morning.

I can rationalize that the feelings from my dreams are simply amplified feelings I felt before I slept. I can tell myself that these dreams are my mind's way of working through these feelings while my body rests. On some level I believe angry or uneasy dreams help me process my emotions in a healthy and normal way. Still... Sometimes dreams become the problem.

Have you ever dreamed of some wrong committed against you by a friend, only to wonder if you should be angry at them the next day? Have you woken in the middle of the night to check to be sure your kitchen knives haven't really taken over the house?

Are dreams so harmless when they spill over to the day? Aren't the days supposed to affect the nights and not the other way around?