A while ago I read this book.  Now I’m reading this book which has led me to listen to this song on repeat (as I will so often do when I need something to really sink in).  And if you head on over to the Wikipedia page for that song and scroll down to Legacy, you’ll see some interesting facts on just how popular that song is.  Now what I would like to know is why the fuck does everyone on the planet have such a thick skull?  The ideas provoked here obviously resonate with anyone who has half a brain, yet nothing really seems to change.

It was a few years ago that I rejected the idea of religion and any superior being that so much of the world puts their faith into.  Though they are all founded on human morality, they have been polluted with meaningless rituals and lists of rights and wrongs.  Who is to decide what is moral?  We’re all human.  It doesn’t make sense that any one person or group of people know what is ethical.  Human nature and common sense should be able to dictate those things.

As of recent, I’ve decided that this also applies to governments because whatever we’re doing, it’s not working.  There’s too much greed and, in effect, violence for someone to look at the state of the world as a whole and say, “Yes, this is okay.  Let’s keep it up.”  No way.  I don’t accept that.  It’s like we’re fighting for peace.  How the fuck can you fight for peace?  I have an idea on how to achieve that goal:  Stop.  Fighting.

That being said, I know we live in a materialistic world and I am most definitely guilty of *needing* those shiny new toys.  That glowing apple icon?  Gets me every time.  Four inch patent leather mary janes?  Sold.  $100 haircuts so that my hair is one less source of stress in my life?  Done.  Luxury condos in Battery Park City?  Give me a few years, I’ll get there.  I am certainly not above desiring all of the pretty things of the world, and New York isn’t exactly the city of frugality.  It’s tough to not want everything.

However, college/living abroad/traveling/moving apartments every year has taught me that there is a lot of unnecessary crap in our lives.  After living in Italy for 4 months and taking home the only two suitcases that I had brought with me (though stuffed with plenty more than I came with), I realized that minimalism makes life a lot easier.  My pack rat days were over.  Only take what you need, leave the rest for someone else.

In the last 6 months or so, that zen mentality of mine got lost in a mess of cool new tech products, clothes, restaurants, bars, vacations; basically all things excessive and expensive.  I’ve wanted and needed the latest and greatest and wouldn’t be satisfied until I had it.  That is, until I took a spill off my bike a couple of weeks ago.

At first glance all seemed fine.  Minor scrapes to myself, the bike was okay, and though everything fell out of my bag, it all seemed like it took the crash well.  Then I got to work, took out my laptop, and realized the case was totally warped and the latch broken.  Uh oh.  After turning it on, the machine seemed to be working properly.  Within a couple of days, though, that was not the case: the DVD drive was eating discs, the camera wasn’t being recognized, and the trackpad button felt weird to the touch.  Upon inspection at the Apple store, I was informed that yes, those things collapsed from the impact and no, the fact that I bought the machine 6 months ago doesn’t matter because the warranty has been invalidated.  The price tag for repair?  $1200.

However, the hard drive, screen, keyboard, and trackpad are not busted.  Everything I need to do my job is fine.  And for that, for not having to replace a $2000+ machine, for not even having to actually get anything repaired, I woke back up.  I remembered that this is just a tool that allows me to do the things that I do.  I’m taking my ever-so-graceful spill as a big shove from the universe to get my head on straight.  Yes, it’s sad that I can no longer take stupid Photobooth snapshots when I’m procrastinating, and it’s sad that my new machine is now a used machine, but such is life.

I’m probably getting far too big a lesson out of this incident, but if you know me, you know how attached I am to my pretty aluminum baby.  My baby that was dropped on it’s head and now has some permanent brain damage and a couple of scars to show for it.  But I’ve relearned my lesson: that you have to appreciate what you have.  Otherwise nothing will ever be good enough and you’ll turn into a greedy little bastard.

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The other day I was out to dinner with some very smart friends. While two were engaged in their own conversation, the third turned to me and asked, “How do you think quantum physics shapes human morality?” Whoa. What? My face went blank and I didn’t speak for a few moments until I laughed and told my friend that I was sorry, I didn’t mean to space out on him, but my mind started going about 100 miles an hour to come up with some kind of appropriate response. Surprisingly enough, I actually had one because of the fact that I had just read an amazing book that had a huge impact on how I look at the world: Ishmael.  And I’m glad I read it because it made me feel smart for a hot second.

I don’t really associate morality with quantum physics (think What the Bleep Do We Know? and The Secret). I think the easiest way to figure out morality is to look at immorality. What makes people immoral is our government and our society. By standardizing a code of law and saying that This Is Right and This Is Wrong, life becomes far too black and white. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that people are basically moral in nature and don’t mean to do harm. However, it becomes confusing when someone says “lying is wrong,” though, in truth, lying isn’t necessarily wrong in itself. It’s how it is used. For example (and I’m totally stealing this from the book, but it’s a great example), go back to Nazi Germany. You are hiding a Jewish family in your attic. Nazis show up at your door and ask if you know the whereabouts of said family. If your answer is yes, you have just sentenced an innocent family to death.

Each situation that a person is faced with is different in context and character, and there is no single response that can be used every time. A person should be able to call upon their own knowledge and understanding of the world in order to make the right call. Laws and commandments and regulations and rules create confusion and undermine our innate ability to think for ourselves. They also, as far as I’m concerned, are what create greed (”I want the rules to work for me.”) which, in turn, creates resentment, anger, and hate, and these eventually turn into violence.  And when are violence and cruelty ever moral?  The system works against itself.  By trying to keep people in line, the opposite has been achieved.

There’s a lot more to be said about this, but I’m pretty sure I just took a superbly radical stance on something that no one ever agrees on anyway: the government.  If you disagree with me, and I’m sure the majority of you do, then do yourself a favor and go pick up a copy of that book by Daniel Quinn.  After you read that, then we’ll talk.

While clicking through Shine from Yahoo!, I came across this article and what immediately caught my eye was the source link. I didn’t actually believe that Yahoo! would credit Perez Hilton, but oh was I wrong. It led straight to this article. I guess I should look on the bright side: if someone as insanely petty and crude as P. Hilton can get his 15 minutes of fame and respect from a powerhouse like Yahoo!, then I suppose there is hope for us all.

Having started following Dooce in the geekiest way possible (through a match of Layer Tennis on Coudal), it was a shock to realize after awhile that her blog was considered a parenting blog - something as foreign to me as mayonnaise on french fries (yuck! I don’t know how the Europeans do it). Parenthood? Children? No, thank you. At least not for the next 10 years.

But to classify her blog as such doesn’t really give it justice to the full scope of what is covered. It’s full of witty observations and sharp, yet thoughtful perceptions of human relations… which thinking of it now may, in fact, come FROM parenthood. But again, not there yet. Entertaining as it is, it’s very smart. In essence, she is a great writer. And that is probably why she just published a book and had a signing tonight at Soda Bar in Brooklyn.

It was awesome. They did, however, sell out of books which was a bit disappointing. But, hey! Booze was flowing, it was a gorgeous spring evening, and people were happy. Plus, it was like internet she-geek heaven - Dooce’s east coast followers in one room! It was quite interesting for a couple of reasons. 1. There were a lot more young people there than I would have expected seeing as it’s a. New York coupled with b. a ‘parenthood’ blog. 2. Dooce is really a celebrity in the she-geek world (a world I didn’t know existed outside of, well, myself!)

I asked Dooce if the Kathy Lee interview was as awkward as I’d heard and then proceeded to tell her that it’s because Kathie Lee is a hot mess. I’m so appropriate. Soon afterwards the party was moved to the street.

Not quite sure what happened, but she said it wasn’t going to be blogged about because she didn’t want to get sued. Must have been too many hot women in one room. Fire hazard.

She’s so sweet. Hot, too! The girl in the front of the line here and I talked about how Dooce’s boobs were bigger than we thought they would be. Don’t let the silhouette here fool you!

They were chowing down on pizza over at Cringe afterwards. I was really hungry. And it took 110% self-restraint to not butt through those tall, gangly Midwesterners and steal a slice.

P.S. Jon~ I wanted to complement you on your photography. I really love all the trippy things you do to your photos with the lensbaby and Aperture. But alas, you were busy taking care of moving the crowd to the street and signing books.

I did, however, manage to get the most awkweird photo ever taken. I’m really short and knew there would be an awkwardly funny height difference. But it didn’t really work out so well. I should’ve just let her crouch down on her knees so I’d only look like half a munchkin.

Anyway, it seemed like everyone was in a very good mood and happy to be there. It was a lovely way to spend a Wednesday evening and it seemed like the guest of honor had a great time.

And she totally seems like she wouldn’t judge me for my total lack of maternal skills and phobia of babies. That’s the kind of mommy blogger I like.

This afternoon, my most awesome boss, Scott (would include a link here if there was a blog to link to, AHEM), sent me out with his Nikon D80 to play around with.

First of all, to get the super geeky stuff out of the way, I have a bit of camera envy now. The body is lighter than the D70, and the bigger LCD screen on the back is a nice improvement. There are a few functionality changes that would take a bit of getting used to, but those 2 refinements alone are enough for me to consider upgrading my camera body. Also, the RAW files take up way less space (10 MB as opposed to 30) and the D80 uses SanDisk cards now (I’m still stuck using the old CompactFlash cards which cost about twice as much).

Anyway, Dumbo is such a cool place to photograph destruction. The buildings all have about 10 layers of brick and mortar showing. The streets are half pavement, half cobblestone and old trolley tracks. There is an obscene amount of graffiti, old worn painted signs on buildings, and half peeled posters. Pretty cool.

But what’s the first thing I post? A set of pipes that look like boobs complete with piercings connecting chains to a belly ring. Isn’t that what you see here? No? Maybe it’s just because I’m reading a book about a stripper. Don’t mind me.

As much as I love the smell of new books, reading used books not only saves trees, but can be quite interesting when you find receipts, business cards, and markings left behind by previous owners.

In this instance, someone in my building must have cleaned out their bookshelves because there was a whole box to rummage through in the hallway. This particular book, Maximum City by Suketu Mehta, had quite a few things left in it including the card pictured below, a receipt, and a list of names and items that I imagine must be a Christmas list (photograph below).

What I find interesting here (that probably no one else will think is cool at all and that’s ok because I’m a dork and think stupid things are cool) are the names ‘Amy’ and ‘Matt’ next to each other because my name happens to be ‘Amy’ and my brother’s happens to be ‘Matt.’ So there’s another pair out there…

What I’ve decoded from this list is that 1. the person is a good gift giver and 2. the person is a gay man. The reason for 1. is that there are multiple items from Apple listed, along with several ‘wines’ and ‘kiehls,’ which are all quite tasteful gifts. This guy can totally shop for me any day.

The reason that I believe this person to be a gay man is that the longest list of items is under the name of ‘Marcos’ and includes something I can’t decipher, iTrip, guitar lessons, kiehls, and sharp (possibly something electronic?). That alone isn’t enough, obviously a girl could have written this list, but the handwriting is most definitely that of a man.

So you see, a used book is not necessarily just a used book. It’s a little piece of insight into someone else’s life. However, I never borrow books from my long time friend, Julie. Because she picks her nose. And sticks the boogers on whatever page she happens to be on. And that is something that I just don’t need to know.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t understand politics at all.  I took the AP U.S. History class in high school.  In fact, I even enjoyed it due to the crazy ex-Vietnam vet that happened to be the professor.  I learned the whole checks and balances thing.  I (kind of) remember what each branch of government does.  I even (used to) know every past President’s name, the term(s) he served, and had a good idea of the good, bad, and ugly of each.

However, as much as I hate to say it, I don’t have - or want to have for that matter - a great deal of time to devote to the mudslinging that goes on.  Ideally, I want a bulleted list of what each candidate stands for, believes in, and has in store for the next four years.  The bullshitting and namecalling can be left at home, thank you very much.

However, I got something much better than a bulleted list.  In fact, I got something that I can relate to 100%.  This article from The Morning News compares the remaining candidates to technology.  It is with this quote:

At worst, Obama is Hillary’s equal, but what if he really is next-generation technology, not Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, but something entirely new, a force that is beamed directly into the limbic portion of our brains, something that the Republicans can’t even hope to grapple with?

that I emphatically know that my gut instinct to support Obama is correct.  What if Obama is the Steve Jobs of politics?  I like shiny new technology, yet when the state of this country comes to mind, it appears to be more like a 1997 Compaq that’s been thrown from a 10th floor window.  Not exactly something to pick up and try to put back together; you’re probably better off recycling what you can and throwing away the rest.

Essentially, something fundamental needs to change and putting another aging white male in office will not make that happen, at least not to the extent that is necessary.  I suppose I should state for the record that I don’t consider myself democratic or republican, if only for the fact that those labels mean I would be “for” something and “against” something else.  In a country that has “United” in the title, it seems a bit contradictory to have such opposing sides.  Maybe those labels were not always such contrasting forces, but from what I have seen in my 22 years, they are just that.

So from here on out, consider me part of the Obama-Bama Bo-Bama mania.

This could possibly be my new favorite internet device. And this is why:

“Zen Habits covers: achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits.”

This is probably the most useful blog I have come across to date.  As an overly ambitious 22 year old adrenaline junkie, these categories are basically like crack to me… minus the parenting thing, but maybe that too in a decade or so.   Regardless, this guy’s writing is informational, inspirational, and eloquently worded.  It’s also uncopyrighted, which is a pretty cool and rare thing these days.  Enjoy!

For some reason 9/11 has been a recurring theme in my life the last few days. I’m not quite sure why seeing as it’s January and it doesn’t usually cross my mind unless it is, in fact, September 11th or I happen to find myself walking by “Ground Zero.” Attending college a few blocks from the site has led me to some very strong opinions about the whole situation, leading me to deem this as very inappropriate. Way to make money on a horrific event.

Regardless, that is not the point of this post. This morning on the train to work I was reading The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Now I am not a poetry person. In fact, I usually avoid it like the plague. I feel the same way about poetry as I do Julius Caesar or Lord of the Flies. That is, necessary evils fed to us by our educators in order to make us well-read and well-rounded citizens of society. Right. However, his collection of poems in this book is so comprehensible and eloquently worded that I have no choice but to love it.

This passage clarifies quite precisely exactly why our world is in it’s current state:

“To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands.

It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.

Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.”

It may seem too simple, but who says things have to be complicated? I’ll tell you who. The people making money by giving tours of the World Trade Center site.