Logic, Prelude to Montauk

In a recent conversation the other day, I noticed something. I was talking to my friend's younger brother (I believe he's 14), and i realized how much I take logic for granted. I was baffled by the fact that the kid not only could not form a logical argument, but he couldn't understand one either.In his mind, something was simply because it was. He didn't wonder why it was that way, or why it wasn't another way, or even the fact that just because something is doesn't mean it's right. The more I thought about it though, the more i realized that it wasn't completely his fault. Logic is an acquired skill (maybe skill isn't the right word?), and you can't really teach it to someone without them figuring out some degree of it for themselves. 

Someone without a logical basis may do something that does not seem logical to everyone else simply because they feel like it or because they wanted to, without rationalizing whether the act is beneficial or harmful to anyone else. Unfortunately though, trying to explain that to them is near impossible, because the simple idea of 'this + this = that' just does not compute for them.

In other news, I'm leaving for Montauk Tuesday morning and will be back briefly on Friday night, and then back permanently on Sunday night. I'm looking forward to it, as Montauk just embodies relaxation and serenity for me. Seafood is good too. I don't even mind the two hour drive, because that's time for massive amounts of music listening. Just one more day of work, and then a week of relaxation. Woo!

Transformers, Justification, and a Small Social Connection

I saw Transformers last night. To sum it up, it was a good action movie, and a terrible Transformers movie. There were some great fight scenes, explosions, and death, but for a true Transformers fan, the amount of sheer idiotic garbage that was packed into it in order to make it appeal to the public was just horrifying. Several examples include a mobster-esque transformer, two twin transformers that were personified to act very much like stereotypical black people, and a horny dog. There was just so many unecessary things that were added, it makes me sad that they couldn't just focus more on the actual Transformers plotline. For further review on this, check out John Miller's blog. 

On a different note, I haven't really done any musing on a deep topic in a while. Today while I was driving to work, I started thinking about the concept of justification. It has such a loose definition, I was (and still am) pretty stumped as how to accurately define it. From what I could come up with, justification is basically any reason given for performing an act. Is there a difference between a justification and a reason, though? A reason seems to me like it's something that's usually accepted as a motive for performing an act, but a justification seems more like an attempt at a reason. It's more common to say that someone is 'trying to justify' something, not that someone 'is justifying' or 'justified' something. That is, unless you're talking about the Justin Timberlake album. Wow that was a pretty bad joke.

I got a Facebook friend request today from someone I haven't spoken to in a few years, and who I barely knew when I did speak to them. It took me by surprise a bit, and I probably read too far into it, but I thought it was nice that someone who I didn't know that much actually remembered me, and took the initiative to make a (albeit small) social connection. 

New Jersey

As I said previously, I got home yesterday from a weekend trip to New Jersey to visit a friend. While I was excited to go, I really had no idea what to expect in terms of what we'd all be doing for the weekend. 

Even though I was only there for the weekend, I had a really great time on multiple levels. I not only got to relax and take a break from work, but I also got to spend time with good people, and I had some really good bonding time with them. Corny? Maybe. True? Definitely.

After having to go through a lot of friend evaluations, some of which happened fairly recently, it's good to know that there are people who I can legitmately say I value as friends and feel that they would say the same. Thanks guys.

*Cue "awwww"*

Brad Pitt.

Radiohead.

GONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Prelude: New Jersey

I got home today from an awesome weekend in New Jersey. I'll elaborate sometime soon, but I'll just say now that I had a great time with some really great people, and I look foward to future times with them. More to come soon.

Swell

Everything is just swell. I mean that in all seriousness. I'm looking forward to my two trips more and more as they approach, as well as the rest of the summer. Work, band, friends, girlfriend, and free time. That's my life right now, and I'm damn happy about it.

Birds Elope the Sun

Maybe I'll start changing the titles of my posts so that the aren't simply stating what I'm going to talk about it. That way it'll be more of a surprise to everyone who doesn't read it (and to the few who do).

One thing I really enjoy about summer is the lack of responsibility. I have to show up for work on time, and do what is requested of me for eight hours, four days a week. That's it. Any other responsibilities are ones that I've chosen, or are just altogether very simple. Being able to just do whatever I choose when I'm not at work is something that I feel like I'm savoring even more this summer than a normally do. This is probably because my first year of college was a big change from high school. High school was almost a joke in senior year, and I had a lot of free time anyway. Since it became more scarce as a college freshman, I value it a lot more now.

My vacations start next week. First to New Jersey for a weekend, and then a little over a week after that, I'll be going out to Montauk. I honestly don't NEED a vacation, but contrarily, these two trips should add some excitement to my relitively quiet summer so far. I'm not saying that I hate quiet (it's quite the opposite) but my activities so far this summer have been the normal rounds of hanging out with people at this place or that place, and some new scenery is a good thing. The time will also be spent with good people, so that's definitely a plus.

Cockyness makes me laugh, especially when the person has nothing to be cocky about. 

I own the Battle Hall and the Battle Arcade.

The only thing better than Arizona Iced Tea is an Arnold Palmer.

Mind Leak

I'm feeling very odd lately. It's even more odd that I cannot tell whether it's good or bad. If I had to guess, I would say good, but there's no definite at the moment. I don't actually have very much to say at the moment, but there's a lot going on in my head. After Sunday, things should seem more clear. This last week or so has gone well, but it has also caused me to think about many different things. I also have a lot ahead of me this summer, and I'm looking forward to it. I find it funny that this little paragraph is probably the most personal thing I've written on here, albeit extremely general. 

Have you ever noticed a poorly placed emergency water valve?

Peace of Mind

As I had noted previously, I had an in depth argument with my father about the concept of 'peace of mind'. This argument was extremely circular, and while I might discuss it at some point, I would have considered it quite pointless if it had not gotten me to consider the topicof peace of mind more closely. 

In order to have peace of mind, a person must either be content with their current state. This would include the people in their life, their job, their home, and all other aspects that would affect a person's life. It is possible to have partial peace of mind, I would say, if you are content with certain aspects of your current state, but peace of mind may just be the state of overall contentment. 

I would imagine that complete peace of mind would be extremely difficult to attain, and because of that, it is hard to set a standard of what this absolute actually is. I even question that it is even able to be help up to a universal standard, as I'm sure that everyone requires different types of satisfaction in certain areas to achieve peace of mind.

Can you fool yourself into thinking that you have peace of mind when you actually do not? By telling yourself that everything is fine when it really isn't, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to do so. I guess that means that peace of mind also requires an individual to be true to their own feelings. That makes sense though, because someone who has peace of mind is probably also at peace with them self. 

I thought about adding some personal ideas and examples into this, but i decided against it. Maybe at some point in the future I'll do that in other posts. 

Prelude: Peace of Mind

I was having an in depth argument with my father tonight regarding the topic of 'peace of mind', and I hope to reflect on this concept next time that I am able.

Convenience and Evaluation

I dislike inconvenient situations, but savior those which are convenient. I'm sure almost everyone would agree, because the degree of convenience of something is determined by how much benefit a situation would bring to someone versus how much of a cost it would bring. But sometimes, I think we are all guilty of overlooking when situations actually go our way and bring us benefit with little or no cost. It is not that we should be thankful that 'fate' has granted us good fortune or anything like that, but simply that we should savior those times when we have to give up very little in order to gain benefit or happiness. 

I am glad to say that recently I have gone through a sort of 'friend evaluation', where I think about who really has put effort into being aquainted with me and who has not. I've done this a few times before, and I really think it is healthy to do, as it stops me from putting too much effort into friendships and getting nothing back, something I've done in the past. I've also patched up a few old friendships as well, which I also feel is healthy in certain circumstances. 

There was something else I was considering writing about regarding people's behavioral changes in certain situations, but I am going to save it until next time.

Note: I have been trying to write in here without using contractions, and it is actually a lot more difficult than I thought. I have been having to go back and edit them out, including several times in this ending note.

Urge, Generalities About People, and Time

I just sort of had an urge to log in a write something. I haven't written here for a while because I was busy with school and finals and such, but now I'll hopefully get back into the habit. My summer is looking pretty exciting so far.  I'll be going to Jersey and Montauk,  along with playing shows and working. 

Some people really disappoint me. They don't let me down, I just know that they're capable of more than they outwardly express, and disappoint me in terms of not living up to their full potential. Other people just seem to have no logical sense whatsoever. Other other people have odd ways of expressing things. Other other other people are just unique.

I've been thinking about time lately. After communicating across time yesterday (or just having a phone conversation with the other side of the world), I realized that even though time is man made (we've created the unit of week, month, year), there is still a degree to which it exists naturally. Things age even when they do not have a specific age. They simply move from point A to point B. A flower sprouts, blooms, and dies. It does not matter when or for how long, it just is.