Leaving UNH 2010

I made a list just now of all the things I'll be bringing outside and loading into the Element tomorrow morning: Microwave, backpack, big desk box, open top box w/ plants, printer, monitor, computer tower, detergent, pillows, big heavy closed box, hats, wallet, cellphone, UNH keychain, poster tube, tennis racquet, etc. As I went down the list, adding to it, making sure I hadn't missed anything, I came to realize that everything on the list specifically encompassed everything I brought to UNH or acquired while I was here. That may seem obvious but the things on that list put into this room my personality. The stuff on that list is a reflection of who I am, who I was as a freshman at UNH. As I went down the list once it was finished, I mentally eliminated each of the items, eventually looking at the room from the perspective of only what's left without the stuff on the list, my stuff. I see a cold, stark, empty space, as if all the life had been sucked out. Well, that life is me, and I'll be leaving this room for good in about 9 hours. It's sad that my freshman year is ending. It's sad that the life I'd given this room is being stripped from it. It's sad that the only things of mine that will remain in this room into the future will be memories. I understand this is a time of transition, but I can't deny being washed over by melancholy feelings, still here, feeling like everything that has happened in this room actually happened in a different one, one where the posters still cling to the walls and books line my desk, but that time has passed and is all but gone. I'll miss you, Lord 201. Perhaps we'll be reunited some day. Until then, it's been fun.

Man Flawlessly Draws View of Rome from Above

Why the Ogawalla Aquifer is Drying Up

Want to know why wanna know why the Ogawalla Aquifer is drying up? Just search "Earth, Texas" and you'll see, that and that the surrounding 50 miles is just one of many examples of the reason...

It's horrible what humans are capable of doing to the environment with only anthropocentric "good" in mind, and no concern for the future prosperity of others.

My Moment of Zen for May 11th, 2010

You can even talk to the 2011 Nissan Leaf through your mobile phone, telling it, for instance, to warm up its interior on a cold morning while it's still parked and charging in your garage, saving you battery life and a cold backside. Once it's charged, it will send you a text saying it's hot to trot.

I'm not a fan of Nissan (at all) or any other Japanese car, for that matter (although I have a soft spot for the simple Honda), but still this is something amazing!

WUNH III and Road Trip

So I finally got cleared to be a DJ! Not only that, but I already have a radio show time! Every new DJ gets a 2-6 am show... That's okay it's better than no show! Listen at WUNH.org.

On another note, after one of the longest lunches I've had at UNH with a fellow student, I felt that I connected with a guy named Michael. We share many of the same beliefs and ideals. I shared my dream of buying an atlas, tent, camping supplies and food and hitting the open road without looking at the atlas first, not heading towards Baltimore or Chicago, but just driving. He agreed that this is something he would really like to do, and whole-heartedly committed to going, under the stipulation that he does not win the student body president position that he is in the race for. He had also admitted that he didn't really want to win, but that he had a good chance of it anyway, and wouldn't drop out because the girl on the ticket with him would be let down. This is understandable, but in all honestly, I hope he loses!

91.3 WUNH Durham II

Tonight was so fun on the station. I learned some stuff from the DJ Cullen on regular programming, but he had to go at six and the person who was supposed to be doing the 8-10pm Classical Connection show was sick and could not make it so it looked like I wouldn't be staying longer than the hour I'd been there, which would be a total waste, but luckily another DJ showed up to fill in.

This DJ's name was Jared. He doesn't have a show this semester and was out of practice. He said I could stay to train with him on the Classical show. We ended up co-DJing the show for the two hours and having a blast. Because he was out of practice, he made a lot of mistakes such as playing the track he was previewing over the air as another song was going too, or turning off the music for a second when he was showing me something, or allowing thirty seconds of silence only to realize (and explain over the air) that the music was playing through the studio headphones only because the output was wrong (then correcting it.) I got a lot of airtime, and actually picked out three tracks, leaving the last one a secret to see if callers could guess what it was from. No one called in, haha. The tracks I picked were the main titles from the soundtracks of Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, and the mysterious track was from Clash of the Titans.

I got to do just about every talk-back with Jared, as we both mis-pronounced the names of the classical composers and generally messed up. But it was still a blast, and didn't really matter because I'm not a certified DJ and he was just filling in! It was a good environment to get air-time in too, because there was no pressure to be perfect.

WUNH=Woot

Meet Your Meat

This video is absolutely disgusting. It was sickening to watch. If the subjects of this video were human it might go as far as be a crime to show it publicly, but since they are only animals, this video about the animal food industry is perfectly acceptable media. I remember watching just part of it and being so disgusted that I turned it off, but that time I didn't consider changing how I eat. After watching it this time for Ecology and Values as an assignment, I will definitely consider going vegetarian. Watch it with caution, and be amazed at what you see...

91.3 WUNH Durham

I love radio. Today was my first day training to be a radio DJ. I trained with the WUNH music director, Brandon. It was really cool learning how to use a soundboard and play vinyls. I also learned how to use the mics and cd drives as well as take the station technical information (watts, temp, etc.) Running the radio station is really cool.

When my 3 hours of training were up I moved to the production studio in the adjoining room and previewed music in there for 2 hours, using the same system as the On-Air studio. Yeah, it was sick. Vinyl is especially cool. I feel much more connected to the music by playing vinyl than CDs and very much more than mp3s, plus you can play it faster or slower than intended or drop the needle randomly or spin it manually or start and stop it with the speakers 'on' to create that "slow down time in a movie" sound or "speed time back up in a movie" sound. It's a lot of fun.

:-)

On Being Anti-Social

A friend of mine just texted me with this, "I couldn't handle being as social as you. I don't like people that much."

This is funny because I feel exactly the same way. I replied, "You think I'm social? I just went to see Avatar alone and ate dinner alone. I plan on reading tonight and being social by texting."

She replies, "...I take it back, then."

I'm an introvert, but only by a little. I don't like people, but I need them to stay sane!

Avatar, the Crowning Achievement

On second thought, perhaps it is not perfect. After seeing Avatar in 3D the second time, I don't feel as confident saying how great it is. The visuals are spectacular, but perhaps I'm just too greedy and want more, focusing on most of the shots being in small spaces, or ones with very earth-like backgrounds. I find the score to be breathtaking still, though.

The Sky-People were a little over-the top, and It's skeptical that any biological being could take down a helicopter or friggen' huge sky-ship. Although the Na'vi are beautiful creatures, those 28" waists were really bugging me too. Hello, childbirth, and the fact that neytiri's hair and necklace conveniently covered herself, and the rediculous leaf-dress that sigourney weaver wears at the end along with the "roots" form the tree of souls covering those naughty bits. It just seemed a bit silly.

The fast-pace adds to the silly-ness, especially when Neytiri and Jake "choose" each other, like that ever happens! Oh, Hollywood, you never fail to disappoint, in both the bad and good sense.

On the whole though, Bravo James Camaron for bringing your vision to life! You have changed the film wold forever! Avatar is an amazing piece of film making and deserves all the credit it receives, I'm just being a tough critic.

Health Care

I read an article just now about how the health care bill has stalled in retrospect of the last two years. Here's a quote that disgusted me.

"Too many pet projects are attached to this," says Jose Oliva, 64, who retired last week after 25 years as a Customs and Border Protection officer in El Paso. "Let's put it back on the table, get the carving knife, and let's start cutting away."

This statement so well describes one of the problems that plague our congressional system: earmarking. Earmarking is the act of tacking on things to bills that have little to nothing to do with the bill. An example would be pay increase for state-paid janitors tacked onto a bill about highway funding. They have nothing in common! Yet, this is how our system runs.

In the case of the janitors and highway bill, it might not matter because the bill will be passed regardless, but with big bills like the health care one, earmarks can be deadly to the progress of the bill. Senators and representatives pull crap like promising to vote for the bill to pass only if they get something they want tagged onto the bottom. That's BS and should not be the case. Those earmarks also delay the process by letting the earmarks be debated and discussed to see if they're acceptable to be added and how they should be modified, rather than the members of congress discussing parts of the bill that are pertinent to its original function.

This bill will never be passed unless earmarks are abolished from the process.

There should be a rule that goes something like this: "No stipulations on any bill will be made unless pertaining to the original intent and purpose of the bill."

All other things that might be tacked on must wait, and be added to a bill drafted to be passed expressly when the major bill has been finished. A system could easily be set up which dictates that regular bill debate and discussion takes up the morning session and the short-term bills can be discussed in the afternoon session.

This isn't complicated. Doesn't it make sense to make our congressional process more efficient by enacting such rules?

Southwest Pools

Why are people in the Southwest allowed to have outdoor pools? Sure, pools are pleasant and great for relaxation, but the thousands of gallons they hold are still water, and in an arid climate water evaporates rather quickly. Those thousands of gallons must be topped off to keep the water level the same because there is also very little rain.

Disturbingly, Americans use water the same way whether they live next to a large New Hampshire lake or next to a large Arizona desert. Shouldn't people limit their usage if the climate provides less water for them? It seems fine for someone to have a pool in a humid and temperate climate, but in a hot and dry one, it is very foolish.

State governments in the Southwest should pass laws making it illegal to have a private outdoor pool. Imagine how much water it would save!

I have heard that the Colorado River no longer reaches its delta. How disturbing is that, that humans have sucked so much water from a natural body that it doesn't flow to the sea? Water should stop being used so foolishly in the Southwest to save our underwater aquifers and our drying-up rivers lest they risk drying out for good.

Capitalism

Capitalism has been discussed a lot lately in my classes. It is a fundamental aspect of the United States economy and has been since oh, around 1800. Every person in America is hard-wired to want to have money. Money.

Let's take that apart a bit. What is money? ..............................................

Paper? Plastic? An imaginary thing contained on microchips?

How can something very similar to forms of money--printer paper and a plastic water bottle be worth nothing of value, and yet the flat versions of those things that fit into wallets be handed to a clerk and exchanged for food, ie sustenance? Doesn't that seem strange? I think it does.

Next, every kid from the age of two is told that 'more is better,' and that money equals more. This is constantly drilled into our heads via advertising. Every commercial or ad in a magazine shows shiny new crap that was churned out by the hundreds-of-thousands at some factory paying their workers $10 (if they're really, really lucky) an hour to put whatever that crap is together. These ads tell us that we want these things. That more of these things is better than less of these things. But there's a problem: more things means more waste. More waste means more pollution, more garbage, and more energy and raw resources required to make those things.

They are also very rarely quality products. Think about the life of any product you buy, even over $25. How long does that product stay around before it gets thrown away? Shoes, for example, can last a lifetime, if made well. Italian leather shoes are known for their quality and craftsmanship, but also their high price and that scares people off. On the other foot, shoes made in China, Indonesia and Taiwan are considerably less expensive (good, right?) and last considerably less time as well, because they are cheap, in price and in quality. Those stylish new Adidas last a whole two years then get thrown away. Two years is not bad for a pair of running shoes (used for casual wear,) but once those shoes get thrown away they do not disappear. They go into a land-fill and will stay there for thousands of years. It's not to say that quality leather shoes WILL disappear. The point is that there will be very few quality leather shoes in the land fill TO disappear. Even if those quality leather shoes bust once and have to be replaced, that still totals only four shoes vs. more than one-hundred of the cheap ones. Oh, and did I mention, less waste is a good thing?

But anyway, that tangent was long and I'm ranting. The point is that Capitalism, the cornerstone theory of the American economy, encourages more things to be consumed: more things to be thrown away: more waste. Our economic system embraces the reckless production of waste, and actually encourages it--and all bought by less imaginary money than the good stuff.

Fancy that.

Out.

Thoughts on the Captain

Perhaps college is the reason that hard alcohol tastes so bad. Since alcohol is very much a treat for those who are underage, there is a lack of variety and severe lack of quality, along with an almost (and sometimes) nonexistent number of mixers to make it better. Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum is gross, that's all I have to say. Straight, it's horrible. It's not strong enough to be just harsh, but actually has flavor too, yuck. Shooting $12/handle vodka is bearable, but this Rum is nasty. People suggested mixing it with Sprite and that it would taste like cream soda. Yeah, expired cream soda. Another person who had "been drinking this stuff for five years, it's my favorite," said that Dr. Pepper and Capt. Spiced are "made for eachother." That guy is so wrong. I will never go near Captain Morgan's Spiced again.

I have never drank alcohol and have to say this. ;-)

Why Deep Thoughts?

For clarification reasons, I'll have to explain why I named my blog "Deep Thoughts." I could just pan it off by saying that I am a deep thinker--I'm a philosophy major for Christ's sake!--but it would only be fair to let those who are in the dark understand the inside joke. My friend Paul and I share a love for the book of the same name. The book is really small and has only one quote per page. The quotes are funny, but I can't quite define what type of humor it uses. Anyway, the author's a genius and there are a couple books in the series. I highly recommend checking them out.

"In weight lifting, I don't think sudden, uncontrolled urination should automatically disqualify you." -Jack Handey's "Deep Thoughts"