This is a VERY short poem I wrote a longlonglonglonglonglong time ago. Just as an example for the comments I made in the last entry:
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.
But what of this distance way past yonder.
At night, alone, I sit and ponder.
Is your love real?
Are your words real?
Is it all in slander?
Monday, September 17, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
ETHICS IN PERSONAL WRITING AND TAKING LIBERTIES: THE EHTICS OF THE TRUTH
This entry is in response to the two articles listed in the
title. I actually enjoyed reading
both very much and felt I could relate to them. They where very interesting and relevant to my writing (or
lack thereof). Here are three
quotes I want to reflect on.
“I became a writer to deal with the complexities of my
life. If I’d had the emotional and
mental sophistication to deal with it from the beginning, I wouldn’t have
needed to become a writer.”
While I don’t agree with the extent that the writer goes to (to me, it seems that unless there are some undisclosed issues, and she had to deal with a lot more than the average person; she was being very theatrical and dramatic), I do believe writing helps. Spilling your thoughts and feelings on paper (or in our generation – on Microsoft word) can be a great emotional outlet. Especially for someone like myself that isn’t very emotionally open; writing can be a way to let some feelings out without actually talking to someone. I’ve written some (in my opinion) pretty good poems, short stories, and a few other things when I’ve been down and didn’t want to share my feelings with anyone. Come to think of it, I’ve done some VERY (again, in my opinion) good writing when I needed an outlet, when I needed a way to “deal with the complexities of my life.” Obviously when someone pours his or her heart into something the outcome is genuine and usually good. I may even post a thing or two on this blog. MAYBE. I probably won’t, which leads me into the next quote.
While I don’t agree with the extent that the writer goes to (to me, it seems that unless there are some undisclosed issues, and she had to deal with a lot more than the average person; she was being very theatrical and dramatic), I do believe writing helps. Spilling your thoughts and feelings on paper (or in our generation – on Microsoft word) can be a great emotional outlet. Especially for someone like myself that isn’t very emotionally open; writing can be a way to let some feelings out without actually talking to someone. I’ve written some (in my opinion) pretty good poems, short stories, and a few other things when I’ve been down and didn’t want to share my feelings with anyone. Come to think of it, I’ve done some VERY (again, in my opinion) good writing when I needed an outlet, when I needed a way to “deal with the complexities of my life.” Obviously when someone pours his or her heart into something the outcome is genuine and usually good. I may even post a thing or two on this blog. MAYBE. I probably won’t, which leads me into the next quote.
“To write about one’s own life and the lives of family and
friends is to accept that exploitation of self and others. To write about yourself and the people
in your life is to accept that, in part, you are a bastard. You must face and come to understand
your own demons.”
WOW. This quote
resonates with me. For the past
few years I’ve been contemplating starting a blog. It’s a subject that comes up with my friends every now and
then. One of my best friends
(Oscar) has a blog where he chronicles our wild nights and adventures. He sometimes pushes me to start my own
blog but I haven’t been able to do it.
You see, like the writer says, to write about yourself is to accept
self-exploitation and come face to face with your own demons. Which is something that I’m in no hurry
to do. My life is….. strange to
say the least. Unique. There’s a lot of stuff going on in my
life that would make a good read to say the least. Most of it would be based around my inability to share
feelings and things of that matter and my exploits with women that ALWAYS end
up bad for this very reason, and how I deal with it all. That along with transitioning into
civilian life again (not easy), the ridiculous things I do and situations I get
myself into would be what I would write about. (But mostly my exploits and issues with women, how I deal
with them, and trying to uncover exactly why I am this way.) But sadly it hasn’t happened. And as much as I’d like it to, I’m not
sure if it will. Without getting
into much detail (I would rather cut myself then openly tell you about my
feelings – not you personally Mrs. Alvarez, anyone in general), my last
“serious,” girlfriend leaving me when I was in Afghanistan, my father raising
me to his (typical hard Mexican father) standard of what a man is, (sharing
feelings equates to weakness and men aren’t supposed to be weak), and a few
other things have led me to have some very interesting nights, fights,
“relationships,” hookups, friendships, etc. But I could never openly share that with the world. I don’t even want to take the risk of
starting an anonymous blog in fear that someone will find out it’s me. That and the fact that I don’t exactly
want to face my demons, rather deal with them have prevented me from actually
starting this blog. Oh well….
maybe someday.
“I write because I want my readers to take action. My ability to write these books-in
fact, my very survival-is thanks to people who took action against the war in
Southeast Asia. Journalists wrote
about the refugee camps and inspired people in the United States to sponsor war
orphans like me.”
For example, I literally stumbled across this right now, as I procrastinated on this homework. And this is just the beginning, this will get blown up in the Veteran community and hopefully get national attention:
http://guardianofvalor.com/disabled-wwii-and-korean-war-veteran-faces-eviction-freddie-mac-refuses-to-return-calls/
Thursday, September 13, 2012
IM SO TOTALLY, DIGITALLY CLOSE TO YOU
This entry is in reply to "I'm So Totally, Digitally Close To You," on how digital, social media is changing the way we interact with each other. Here are two quotes that I though where especially true.
But they also discovered that the little
Ping-Ponging messages felt even more intimate than a phone call.
I like this quote because I find
it to be very true. Being on the
phone with someone is different than texting someone through out the day. When you’re on the phone for say an
hour or however long your on the phone (I’ve had 4, 5, and even 6 hour phone
conversations), you talk about things that have happened and are maybe going to
happen. Sure you mention what’s
going on at the present moment, but its not the whole basis of the
conversation. When your texting
someone throughout the day, you usually let each other know what your doing and
it really is intimate. Your not
broadcasting it to the world like on Facebook or Twitter, your sending it
specifically to one person to let he or she specifically know. So to receive a text saying something
like “hey, just got to school,” is something special and lets you know that
person is thinking about you and wanted to let you, just you; know what they
where up to.
“I have a rule,” she told me. “I either have to
know who you are, or I have to know of you.”
That means she monitors the lives of friends, family, anyone she works with,
and she’ll also follow interesting people she discovers via her friends’ online
lives. Like many people who live online, she has wound up following a few
strangers — though after a few months they no longer feel like strangers,
despite the fact that she has never physically met them.
This quote is very true, and to
be honest, if I really think about it, it’s kind of unbelievable. I can’t remember exactly how many
people I’ve met online, but it’s been a bit. Some were friends of my friends, others complete
strangers. I’ve met older people, younger
people, both male and female. I’ve
became friends some of them, good friends with some of the guys, and have even
had relations with some of the women.
Isn’t that insane? To think
that I have met complete random women online and have had relations with them
is a very strange though to me.
But then again, its almost no different than meeting someone at a bar,
club or anywhere else. Really, to
be honest; now a days, meeting someone on Facebook or twitter (or any of the
many social media websites) might be a more intimate way of meeting someone
than in person. On someone’s
online account I can learn more about a person in a few minutes of reading than
I can learn in weeks of physical and verbal interaction. But a person can also be deceiving
online. They can make themselves
out to be someone their not, or exaggerate their accomplishments or
activities. Everyone does it. So maybe meeting someone online isn’t
like meeting someone in person, because you might not be meeting an honest
portrayal of that person. It’s a
risk to say the least.
But where their sociality had truly exploded was in their “weak ties” — loose acquaintances, people they knew less well. It might be someone they met at a conference, or someone from high school who recently “friended” them on Facebook, or somebody from last year’s holiday party. In their pre-Internet lives, these sorts of acquaintances would have quickly faded from their attention. But when one of these far-flung people suddenly posts a personal note to your feed, it is essentially a reminder that they exist. I have noticed this effect myself.
I actually love this quote. Facebook is the perfect "social medium." (I just made that up.) But it's perfect! It's not as intimate as asking someone for their number; it'ss a way of keeping in touch with someone without actually keeping in touch. It's so much easier to ask someone for their Facebook rather than their number. To ask someone for their number usually means their is a mutual interest to actively keep in touch, or at least a certain level of trust or that you and that person had reached a point in knowing each other where it was appropriate to exchange numbers. But that doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes you meet people.... and thats it, you just meet them. You don't expect to really be friends or keep in touch. Like the quote says "someone they met at a conference, or someone from high school, or somebody from last year's holiday party." Before Facebook, if I had met someone whom I did not feel comfortable exchanging numbers with.... well that would have been it. There was nothing else to do, no other way to keep in touch unless we saw each other again. But now, Facebook provides a perfect medium between intimacy and no contact. A lot of times it's the starting point to friendships. It's the perfect way to keep in touch with these "weak ties," without really physically keeping touch.
But where their sociality had truly exploded was in their “weak ties” — loose acquaintances, people they knew less well. It might be someone they met at a conference, or someone from high school who recently “friended” them on Facebook, or somebody from last year’s holiday party. In their pre-Internet lives, these sorts of acquaintances would have quickly faded from their attention. But when one of these far-flung people suddenly posts a personal note to your feed, it is essentially a reminder that they exist. I have noticed this effect myself.
I actually love this quote. Facebook is the perfect "social medium." (I just made that up.) But it's perfect! It's not as intimate as asking someone for their number; it'ss a way of keeping in touch with someone without actually keeping in touch. It's so much easier to ask someone for their Facebook rather than their number. To ask someone for their number usually means their is a mutual interest to actively keep in touch, or at least a certain level of trust or that you and that person had reached a point in knowing each other where it was appropriate to exchange numbers. But that doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes you meet people.... and thats it, you just meet them. You don't expect to really be friends or keep in touch. Like the quote says "someone they met at a conference, or someone from high school, or somebody from last year's holiday party." Before Facebook, if I had met someone whom I did not feel comfortable exchanging numbers with.... well that would have been it. There was nothing else to do, no other way to keep in touch unless we saw each other again. But now, Facebook provides a perfect medium between intimacy and no contact. A lot of times it's the starting point to friendships. It's the perfect way to keep in touch with these "weak ties," without really physically keeping touch.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
SEVEN UP!
SEVEN UP
I just finished watching Seven Up, the first installment
of a series of videos that follows a group of 14 very different children at
seven-year intervals throughout their lives. The premise of the series is that, at seven years old, ones
character is pretty much completely defined and developed. Little if anything will change about
the child as he or she progresses through life. The children where taken from different social and economic
backgrounds and the show compares how each individual child’s upbringing affects
them from such a young age and throughout their lives.
It’s a very interesting concept and
I believe there is much truth to the theory being tried here. I do agree that ones childhood can
define them and their character.
Though I enjoyed the series very much, it’s hard to relate to any of the
children being featured, since we where brought up very differently. Besides growing up in a different time
and place, I feel my social and economic background differs from all of
theirs.
So far my favorite two children are
Tony and Simon. I like Tony
because he just seems like the boldest out of all the children. He is not scared of fighting and
generally seems tougher then the other kids. He seems fearless.
He comes off as a natural born leader. He is not timid or meek. I feel the rest of the children would listen to him and
follow him if they where put together. Simon on the other had is very
different. He’s timid and doesn’t
like to fight. He lives in an orphanage
and is the only child of color. I
find myself empathetic towards him.
My first impression of this series
is genuinely interested. It’s
amazing how these kids are so different and you can see it’s because of their
background. Their opinions on love,
the opposite sex, their interests and ambitions in life are different all
around. The richer kids know what
universities they want to go to while one of the poorer kids didn’t know what a
university was and the ones that did had no intentions of going. The richer children cared about finance
and stocks and things of that matter that the poorer children had no interest
in. To me the most interesting difference
(so far) is the expectations of these children. The poorer children are expected to stop school at 15 years
old and become workers where as the richer children are expected to become
successful after a lot of education.
The lives of the richer kids seem promising and even predetermined while
the futures of the poorer children seem uncertain and skeptical.
Their opinions of each other were
amusing as well. Some of the
richer kids came off as thinking they where better than the poor while others
believed you had to help the poor or “they would die.” The poor children believed the rich
children could do whatever they want and seemed generally disliking of
them. I enjoyed this series and I
am excited to see how these kids develop and to see them at 14 years old.
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