Magnetic Poetry - An Advisory

Sometimes we felt like being funny. Sometimes we had to spit out those pithy little sayings that sound great but are hard to actually apply to life. Then again, within the limitations of these words, there was only so much advice we could give.

Don't just back off, please. Let us know what's going on.

This was written for our summer roommate, who was having a little trouble letting go of an old flame.

 For the rest of us, this is probably the best advice. After all:

Although food and water probably should have made it onto that list. Eh, maybe they fall under luck.

But if those aren't enough for you, then you should come ask us in person:

It's Okay

I'm going to reproduce a post by Matthew Knight from the 3six5 project today:

I’m sorry.

I’d planned greatness for today.

I’d planned a trip to the other side of the country and back.
I’d planned a spun yarn of pirates and robbers and sharks and helicopters.
I’d planned a million dominoes clattering after one another around a six mile course of twists and turns and ups and downs and tunnels and bridges.

I’d planned a rodeo.
I’d planned a circus.
I’d planned a perfectly cooked poached egg.

I’d planned to create something so wonderful, wierd, wacky and wicked.
I’d planned to craft and cajole and create and curate.

I’d planned on doing so many things.
But instead, I went out for lunch.

I get easily distracted.
Somewhat like a magpie in a hall of mirrors.

I get distracted by another idea.
I get distracted by the dozen things which float around me in my personal digital cloud.
I get distracted by the thing I was meant to be concentrating on an hour ago.

I’m not actually that sorry.

It was a great lunch, with friends.
Wine, Roast Meat, Potatoes.
There was even cake.

I guess, one should never apologise for simply spending time with friends.

Putting down the laptop, and not writing a blog post.
Putting down the camera, and not taking a photo.
Putting down the pen, and not writing your diary.

It’s okay to not document.
It’s okay to not capture, edit, post, repost.
It’s okay to forget the infinite detail, and remember the fuzzy whole.
It’s okay to go outside and just be.

I’d planned greatness for today
I had a better day by just doing nothing.
I should try and remember that more often.

I think we should all try and remember that more often.

Every time I turn on my laptop, my fingers reflexively move through a familiar sequence of keys. Windows+2 to launch Firefox from my Quick Launch menu, keyword fb to bring up Facebook, Ctrl+T for a new tab, gm to get to Gmail, etc., etc. It all happens in a flash and a flurry of "tap-tap-tap"s

I Can Ride My Bike With No Handlebars

As Kevjumba pointed out in his latest video (please don't play this at work at full volume), the lyrics in songs these days are ridiculous.

I enjoy catchy songs like the rest of the American populace, but smart lyrics are what really hook me onto a song. Lyrics that are poetic, or clever, or that carry a message - those are the ones that stay with me.

I heard the song Handlebars by the Flobots in a store at the mall a couple days ago, and it's been stuck in my head ever since. I looked up the song, looked up the rest of the lyrics, and found the video. The end of the video is sad, in a way, but it's powerful, and in my opinion, brilliant.



I know songs mean different things to different people, but based on my own multiple listenings and a quick google search of the intended meaning, I've come up with this interpretation: People have great potential to be good or bad. We all start out wanting to be good and do good (it's true - abused children still try to help and play with others in the sandbox, but don't know how to do it, and eventually give up when their efforts go wrong), but we can change.

It's easy to get caught up in a feeling of success and accomplishment, but when you start needing bigger and bigger things to feel satisfied, back off a little. Stop and take time to smell the roses, to find happiness in the details.

And most of all, be aware of how your actions affect those around you. Even if your loved ones are not directly affected, other people's loved ones may be within range.

But the whole point is that you have the power to change things. So use it for good.

Magnetic Poetry - The Bio Episode

When 3 roommates (plus one boyfriend who is here quite often) majoring in various areas of biology collide with a green/nature-themed magnetic poetry set, the result is not the Higgs boson, but still pretty nerdy. The fridge has seen its fair share of these geeky sentences.

They put the words in our mouths...err, hands. I mean seriously, why else would you give people photo + synthesis in a green-themed set?
 

Yes, I would certainly hope so. Or we wouldn't have much left.

Oh no, all that classification stuff...it's like Bio 1B all over again.

While this one is not as directly true, you can make it so by eating the cheese (but not my Brie!).


And finally, they gave us the words for all the others, but you have to be really nerdy to make your own bio terms...

Thank you G. for bringing us back to the molecular and cell side of biology. I like meiosis more than botany.

A Confidence About Confidence

Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
 

I ran across this poem for the first time in a while today (thanks Maura Kelly!). The last time I read it, I was not as self confident as I am today. I thought, 'Well of course I determine my own fate. I make the choices, after all.'

I Love My Parents. Sorry.

No matter how I build myself up (or down), my parents can break me with a word, a breath of air. When there are things bothering me that I'm not showing, that I'm maybe even ignoring in my conscious mind, a few words from my mom can have me crying in her arms. Crying is healing, it's amazingly cathartic.

And it goes the other way too. I don't get angry at most of the people in my life, but I can blow up at my parents with small provocation sometimes. I think they are my emotional outlet. They are the only ones around who I am comfortable enough to show everything. Even my best friend doesn't usually see my anger directed at her. But it often strikes me that this is a horrid way to treat my parents, though it means that I trust them implicitly.

There are certainly situations when I get angry at them and realize they are right later. For instance, when I’m trying to forget something, and they keep bringing it up. I’m trying to think of happier things and not dwell on the problem. But they’re trying to help me deal with the problem instead of running away. There has to be a balance.

I take that into account nowadays, and I argue with my parents a lot less than I used to. Even when I argue, I remember to take their advice later. I guess I’ve gotten past that rebellious teenager phase? Well, it only exists in America and the West anyways, so with my being perched on a hyphen, I guess I only ever made it halfway there. Either way, I'm glad I have a good relationship with my parents, even if it doesn't always show.

Magnetic Poetry - The First Steps

The Scientist in the Yellow Hat, now with new and improved features! Or a singular feature, anyway:
I've decided I will post some magnetic pearls of wisdom from our refrigerator each week for the next couple weeks (and then wait until I build up a large pile of pictures again, lather, rinse, repeat).

At the beginning of last summer, my roommate and I went to Games of Berkeley - the game store in downtown Berkeley. While there, we decided to get a magnetic poetry kit for our plain, boring fridge. Now, most of the kits also have plain white word magnets, but there were a few color-themed sets.

We immediately ruled out pink, which left green and blue. My favorite color is blue, while hers is green, so after asking the store clerk which color he liked (green) and taking into consideration the color of the furniture (blue), we flipped a coin. She won. Ah well. I guess I like green too.

Here are some of our original creations from that first month. We'll start with the slightly more poetic (yes, my camera's phone is myopic and cannot focus well close up):

The life story of a were-cookie?