On Being Remarkable

Its always been one of my greatest fears.  Its not even about being well-known.  I just want to be special in some way some time in my life.  We are told from a very young age that there is no one else in the world like us.  I believe in this at some level but I also think that many lives go for the duration without being set apart from others.  I have read so many books and seen so many movies; they don't make stories about unremarkable events.  That's what they call a memoir.  Short digression: there's a reason they call it a memoir.  Its because they need a fancy word to hide the fact that there is really no reason to care.  But anyway.  There are very few people in the world, I may even be one of them, that are satisfied with mundane stories.  We don't care for everyday life, we want to know about the specials.  I'd like to be one someday.  I'd like to one day have that feeling where I am untouchable and there is nothing in the world outside of my reach, even if it isn't true.  What gets me depressed is the feeling that I'll always be normal---or worse.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Conflict Resolution

Sometimes it can be good to step away.  Avoiding conflict can sometimes be the best solution.  But if the conflict has a chance of erupting and causing a larger amount of strife, perhaps it would be prudent to diffuse the emotional incendiary device.  This is a problem that good referees deal with and bad ones ignore most of the time.  And it doesn't apply to just referees.  It is helpful in a broad amount of situations as well.  There are many ways to take care of potentially harmful situations, some that work better than others, depending on the circumstances.  Communication is one of the most important skills to learn for success in life.  At least it should be, since what is life without others?

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Time to get back on this

Alright so I haven't posted here in a while.  But I really feel like I should start again.  So here goes.

I know I'm not always right.  I feel like the title of this blog should reflect that.  Not knowing everything is fine.  Admitting this is even better.  To be humbled is to gain enlightenment.  At least I think it should be.  So there should be no reason to get offended if someone tells you that you are doing something wrong.  Yet there is sometimes.  This is most likely due to the way we are told that we are in error.  We are so darn sensitive that we can't let others improve us.  Or possibly undo us.  Since people are not always right.  So their information might be wrong.

So I guess we can just all be flawed together?  Such is life.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Back Again!

I think I'm going to try to start posting regularly again.  So here goes nothing.

Got a letter from a friend today.

Thanks so much for reminding me of the simple things in life and the necessity of staying rooted in our connections and our beliefs.  I truly look forward to our future correspondence and only wish that you had provided a return address that is current. :) But things do not always turn out as we intended.  Thus is thusly life.  God willing I will be back tomorrow.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Ironic Happiness

In Phantom of the Opera there is a part where the Phantom is singing above the stage on a statue of something that is happy while he is singing about something extremely sad.  Is this what life is about?  No one wants to be unhappy, so whenever people make you unhappy it is always their fault.  But who says that one has to be happy or sad?  Why can't people just be there?  No one wants to be unhappy, so they ignore the people that are or try to make them feel better.  Usually feeling better means making them happy.  No one knows what it is to make others happy.  No one knows what is good for other people.  We hardly know what is good for ourselves. 

Unhappiness can be good.  So can happiness.  They each have their place.  Let it come.

Thanks to the one person who cares.  As much as a person can care.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Shadows in Flight

Orson Scott Card's newer book, Shadows in Flight, was released in January and I, way behind the times, just recently read it.  Hey self!  Get with the program Self!

So.  The book.  It was like swimming in an ocean of literary and mentally stimulating material.  The end of the book was much like surfacing for air.  I found it interesting that Bean's 3 offspring with him on the interstellar journey called Bean the Giant.  It was just weird for a character that we always knew as Bean become the inscrutable being who watches over the younger's lives but only interferes like a scientist when necessary.  It also may be beneficial to compare Bean to the other Giant in the Ender saga of the Fantasy (Mind) Game.  Fantasy Giant: reflects children's need to have the test where they can never win and the best move is to just refuse to play.  Bean may seem to emulate this slightly in that he always must be one step ahead of his children though, with three of them working on three seperate endeavors.  The ship containing the antonines, as they call themselves, soon meets a ship in the innards of space near of planet that seems suitable for organic life.  This second contact with the Buggers brings a depth to past encounters that used to only belong to Ender Wiggin.  This next installment into the Wiggin saga is refreshing, enlightening, and mentally invigorating.  As is typical of Orson Scott Card, an enthusiastic 10 out of 10.  My only regret is that I am finished with the book.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Since when have I posted here?

I am quite a good procrastinator.  I keep telling myself I will post but then I never do.  It has been almost a month since I did something here.  I hate myself for being able to procrastinate so well!  Too much fun!

So.  I have two posts written up but I don't feel like typing that right now.  So I'll go with Brave for now.  Good movie.  Girl gets tired of authority figures in her life not giving her any freedom.  Then she finds that when released from her bonds of regulations that her life is just a bit worse than it was before.  Therefore she goes meekly (if such a thing could be said of her behavior, thusly contradicting the title of the movie) back into the suffocating embrace of authority which left the audience thinking that this embrace had changed to become slightly more porous.  Sounds sort of like America except for that last part there.  That's not all that I took out of the movie, but that's what I choose to type out of these here fingers.  Overall, an interesting, thoughtful, structurally stereotypical, entertaining movie.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Plans

Things go wrong.  Babies get born.  Babies get not born.  People live.  People die.  Plans go well.  Others don't.  Sometimes what we set out to do goes exactly how we want it do.  Often it doesn't.  Life goes on.  Life doesn't go on.  It is near impossible to always predict things accurately.  Life is spontaneous.  We might get scared.  We might get happy.  Knowing that we will be happy might not lead to happiness.  Roll with the punches.  Life goes on.  Let it keep going.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

The Fault in our Stars

Gosh I hate John Green.  I was just on a stint of being happy and at peace and then I have to go read The Fault in our Stars and get all depressed-like.  The book is about people with cancer who end up meeting and are interested in each other after a long series of plot development who go to Amsterdam together but are quickly pulled back into the harsh reality the life is terminal.  Not that they ever lost that realization.  But at least they could not think about it.  Which helps.

Like any other John Green book for me, it is terribly depressing because it talks about subjects that make me depressed.  So there you go.  John Green: Great author, absolutely horrid for my emotional health.  The Fault in our Stars? 9 flowing tears out of 10.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Have Not Posted Here in A While

I think I should start doing this again.  I have been thinking and reading a lot with much more time now.  I think I might also finish posting from the Europe trip that happened in April.  So long ago.  So right now I am trying to upgrade in refereeing which is being annoying right now.  Humans are so nonmalleable.

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Europe Trip 01.04.12 7:22 PM Sunday

Our first performance today was at a church right on Old Town Square.  The church was quite nice, but for some reason the choir was not singing at its best.  Probably a combination of singing in the morning, not watching the director, and not being technically correct with the actual singing.  It was not a very nice feeling.

Our band at the stand at Old Town Square.  Sorry about that color guard flag there...

Right after the service we went to the church we used last night and changed into our band uniforms.  Before the performance, I thought the residents of Prague would be upset at us playing loudly in the middle of their city.  It was completely the opposite!  At least as far as I know.  We had people following us from where we warmed up to the Easter Market.  They loved us!  We've been in parades before, but you haven't been in a Parade until you march on cobbled streets and sidewalks, people pressing on both sides taking pictures, and having to dodge objects and holes all over the place.  It was SO crazy!  The most rewarding experience by far on this trip.

The band marching away from the square

Spent the rest of the day getting lost, getting unlost, then getting lost again all over the city.  Really didn't have anything to do.  Just like I'm doing right now.  Waiting to get fed, guten Nacht.

Playing around with light on my camera in Old Town Square

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Europe Trip 31.03.12 11:26 PM Saturday

First full day in Prague.  It was quite a day.  There is an Easter Market in Prague, so there are many stalls in the Old Town Square, a pedestrian only zone near the Vltava, or Moldau, River.

A view of beautiful Prague

This guy was either really drunk or his horse had a bladder problem

We started the day with a tour starting at the Castle District, going across the Charles Bridge, and ending at Old Town Square.  The tour was alright.  It had some great views of the city from the castle and the buildings had a dark feel to them in general.  After the tour, we went to a restaurant our guide recommended near the square.  I had a Moravian Sparrow, a meat dish served with red and white cabbage, potato dumplings with bacon, and bread.  Also had ginger ale, and it was the best ginger ale I ever had, it actually tasted like it had ginger in it.

This guy amused me, he stayed so still...

After that, we walked around a bit, looking in stores and stalls until our performance at a church near the square.  The performance was alright, but the acoustics were great!  We then walked to dinner which consisted of soup, meat on mashed potatoes, and a nut cake.  After getting to the hotel and getting all of the clothes ready for tomorrow, I started prank calling other people from our group on the hotel phones and talking to them in German.  They have no idea what's going on!

Sunbear eatin' some foods!

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day.  We have a church service and a parade at the square.  For reals. After that we plan to only talk in incomplete sentences to the staff on the trip.  It will hopefully be very interesting.




~another musing of the ill-informed~

Europe Trip 31.03.12 7:13 AM Saturday

Dinner last night was a buffet, so lots of food.  Not that I mind only eating a little bit.  Though the Europeans we saw did have quite a bit of food.  After dinner went to my room.  Sometime after that I fell asleep.  I slept past room check.  Them when I woke up after that I kept asking if we had room check yet.  I was pretty tired I guess.  Hotel wifi is REALLY bad.  You can stand right in front of the router and not get any signal.  Like I said, REALLY bad.

This morning the clock/alarm provided a bloodcurdling chirp that awoke my entire room at once.  We were quite annoyed. :O So we took showers and went to breakfast.  Nobody from our group was there yet, at least we couldn't see anyone.  So I think we ended up eating in the wrong room.  Oops.  I am pretty sure I heard one person remark, "Those stupid Americans!"  Not quite as stupid as they think, I am sure.  Anyway, the food was good, they had real apple juice instead of water in the apple juice thing like at dinner last night.  I really like the meats over here, they seem more substantial than stuff in the states.

A beautiful view of sunlight sneaking through the clouds taken from the castle

Currently watching German TV.  I think that most people here will be able to speak German and sometimes English, as well as the local language which is close to but definitely not Polish.  Was watching a cartoon version of the Jungle Book!  Sehr gut!  And now I'm watching a comedy about I guy who likes to pretend he does different jobs.  Hilarious!  Today we have a tour of the Castle District and then a performance at a church off of the Old Town Square.  Wiedersehen!

A view of the castle from a bridge over the Vltava (Moldau)

~another musing of the ill-informed~

Europe Trip 30.03.12 3:26 PM Friday

In our room at the Hotel Duo in Prague, Czech Republic.  I cannot read anything here!  Too many consonants!

AHHH! Consonants!

Sunbear in front of a building outside the hotel

We departed from Frankfurt a little late for an hour-long flight.  That was a doozy.  Pretty much liftoff, lunch, prepare for landing, all in rapid sequence.  It was quite fun.  Got of the plane (in Prague!) and had to get luggage (what a tedious process!), then get everyone in our group together, and then got on the busses to the hotel.  The tour director was on our bus and explained a few things to us, though I don't think anyone was awake to hear it.  We were all so tired.  Finally got to our room and unpacked.  Walked around then FINALLY took a shower.  Feel so good now.  Some kids were playing frisbee outside and I am now watching German TV.  Fascinating!  I am not even sure how they say goodbye in the Czech Republic (not even sure what language they speak. Maybe Polish?), so for now, wiedersehen!

EPIC FRISBEE!

~another musing of the ill-informed~