Wahablog

Everyone sees the world at an angle. We take this angle and squeeze truth into a corner by itself and express ourselves with our perspectives on life, defining right and wrong, heaping hopeful teaspoonfuls of objectivity into the mix. But are our angled views so much definitions as they are opinions? In the end, who is right or wrong? Moreover, what is right or wrong? That which we have defined through our opinions, so that each one of us see it differently? Interesting. But I digress! Here I was hoping to reflect on 2010 as a whole, exemplifying the opinions I observed. I’m not a historian, or a scholar, or an editorial writer. I rarely send my opinion in angry letters to people with whom I disagree or those who service my car and screw up royally. Instead, I’m going to offer you my perspective, my personal angle, on life this year.

Any time is a good time to reflect on the past, but the end of the year seems to be the natural time to engage in such rumination. But how many of us do this? Do we take the opportunity to grow and learn? One can hope. This hope, along with Change, was a common buzzword among pundits this year. I recently discovered this hope best described in Kanye West’s latest album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

My first experience with this album came in the form of his “Runaway” video. I was working on a lab for my class and naturally to get away from that, I started looking around youtube. The video struck me as one of the most creative things I’ve seen this year. I disregard most Kanye critics who describe him as an egomaniac obsessed with making sure he truly is “the voice of a generation”. Instead, I urge them to look into his soul and see all of the pain he’s put forward in his video and his music. What you’re hearing isn’t normal artistic free reign borne from some kind of oppressed childhood, deep love and loss, or some kind of singular inspiration, but something different. He is creatively expressing himself as every good artist does and not trying to be something he’s not. He’s been through pain and suffering to know what it’s like well enough to sing about it. This album is a voyage describing the light at the end of the tunnel of his internal conflict. I expect we’ll be hearing more great things from him. Just you wait world, just you wait.

Going back to the state of affairs in 2010, I found myself trying to exercise more and gain some weight. I succeeded at exercising more but failed at gaining weight. I need to work harder at that. In addition, as a personal goal, I’ve wanted to work harder at everything I do. Working hard keeps me from being lazy. Plus, it pays off in the end. In that vein of thought, I started graduate school which has been fun so far. I expect I’ll start feeling tired of it soon, but it hasn’t happened just yet. I’m excited to finish one day though.

I think I had greater expectations for myself when I started writing this post 6 months ago, but I think this is exactly what I wanted to say.

Just found these guys…Pretty awesome and goofy. The XX are also good – great for a mellow night. I’ll need to get their cd at some point.

The XX:

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This is more of an update than an album review, but I’ll try to do both since I’m about to call it a night.

Basement Jaxx: Scars – It’s been out for over a year now I believe, and I just found it…it is pretty sweet. The title track and a few of the others have this epic movie soundtrack quality about them that makes them extremely fun to listen to in the car or with loud speakers.

Man am I glad to have most of my free time back. Last month was killer! BUT now at least I can do fun things again, like hang out with my friends and go to rallys promoting fear and sanity. Maybe I’ll get the hang of this blogging shlogging business too?

About truth, “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”

Wise words to remember.

In other news, I went skydiving today. Over 2.5 miles up! Pictures up soon…

Eid Mubarak…woo for eating again. And unfortunately summer’s ending. That doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy long drives down windy roads with the top down. In fact, the weather’s perfect for that.

Cool photography, songs, and videos:

http://ernestgreene.blogspot.com/

Here’s to driving somewhere you haven’t found yet:

Washed Out – “Hold Out” from John Lipari on Vimeo.

The concerts look so fun…I wanna go! They’re playing near Pittsburgh on Sept. 28. Who’s in?

I used to write poetry. You might find some on here.

Those were different days then.

I saw one of my favorite bands in the world tonight: Depeche Mode, with my sister, at Nissan Pavilion, in Bristow, VA. I wore the t-shirt I got at the very first DM concert I went to when I was about 11-12, in Philly, for their Singles Tour 86-98. The shirt’s black but so faded it had a bit of a charcoal look to it. Good thing I bought a new one tonight.

The concert was so amazing! They played a mix of songs off of various albums, not just the new stuff, which was very refreshing. At the last concert of theirs that I went to, I think they focused too much on their real ‘hits’. This time they played things like ‘It’s No Good’, ‘Walking in my Shoes’, ‘Home’, ‘Fly on the Windscreen’ and ‘In Your Room’, which aren’t their mainstream singles at all. They ended the last encore with ‘Waiting for the Night’, which I think everyone thought was a bit too somber and could have gotten enough of (‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ is their usual ender).

I was the happiest at that concert that I think I’ve been all summer. You know you’re really happy when you can’t wipe the widest smile you’re cracking off of your face. I wasn’t even trying to smile, it just came from nowhere when I heard their synths humming and whining along, making the most beautiful sounds. I’m partial to them, you see. Considering all that’s happened these last few weeks, it was a great night and a great way to forget about the world for an all too short 2.5 hours.

It wasn’t but 20 minutes after the music ended when we were walking back that the solemnity and the dissonance that’s been buzzing in my head these last few weeks returned. I climbed a hill to the lawn section to see what the view was like (lawn seats can be fun), and once on top, I could see the whole stage, the field, and the parking lot. It was peaceful, for the 2nd time that night. It was freeing and restricting. Such joy and that smile ended too soon for me; It was late and we had to get home. Home. I was quickly reminded of everything I have left to do, left to fix that’s broken. Left to remember that I can’t fix.

But you can’t have it all.

It’s July 12th, 2009, and I’m restarting wahobbit.com. Hells yea! There’s a lot that’s changed since the last time I wrote on here. Naturally, the fact that I’m actively writing on here vs. passively squeezing in time between studying to write on here is one of them. I can’t cover all of these changes here, but I’ll go over some main points.

• I graduated! Who knew? I now have a degree in computer engineering.
• I have a job with a great consulting company doing stuff I enjoy: Booz Allen Hamilton.
• I’ve undergone massive plastic surgery to give the world another few years with Michael Jackson. That’s right folks, “he’s not dead, he just went home”. I had to make a plug to MIB, I just had to.

That gives you a bit more insight into my life at the moment. I’ve just been busy working and chilling on the weekends, going white water rafting, playing video games, going to concerts, etc. It’s been a good summer and a bad summer, for everyone I think. By the way, this is just an interim post while I get the passwords to update everything. I think the theme of this summer will be ‘a fresh start’.

Well another semester has come and gone for me. I took a number of classes, including intermediate swimming, which was fun (and harder than I thought!). I don’t think I want to take 6 classes again, but it was fun for a little while. The nuclear engineering class I took was my favorite, and I’m taking another with some friends next semester. Swimming was fun too, but still somewhat hard. It was my way of forcing myself to go to the gym every week, which worked pretty well I think. I can now swim better than I ever could before in my life so that’s cool!

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Just a quick 5 minute update….studying for my 2nd to last exam for my summer class that is tomorrow. 3 weeks to go… how glorious the days will be after this is over. 8-) T-1 month before internship is over too. I’ve got more to say, but it’s back to studying for this one!