Dust

I'll do better than fear, I will show you love and loathing and deep abiding joy in this handful dust. In this bit of nothing I can show you the whole world and all of its wonders, and make you hate me for it, or make you weep with the joy of it all. Look closer, this meaningless lump of clay- or heap of dust, or puddle of grimy water- is the last afterbirth of a star, and has traveled millions of years of fire and ice and darkness, and been trodden on by gods and monsters, and seen a woman crying. Look, cruelty, look, glory, look an age of light and shadow in one breath, look, and all things of all time are revealed. Do you see the empires that this stone upheld? Do you see the great forests that grew from a seed planted in this very ground? And do you see that all of this glory, this greatness, is repeated a billion times in this field we lay down in? And a billion billion billion more times in the stars that shine bright above us? Do you hear the great song that is sung high and low and all around us, how it welcomes us and glories in us just as we glory in it. Look, look, look. See what is man and not man, and see how each is so beautiful, does it make you cry out? Does it make your soul yearn for more, to see everything, to feel the strands of this great web in your own hands? But now, look back to me. Look at my eyes, and let me look at yours. And hear me, not the song that stars and stones sing. And feel my skin, not the great thrumming threads that tie us to the Heavens. And here, together in the night, make with me something greater than either your shadow in the morning striding behind you, or your shadow in the evening rising to meet you. Together we'll make something that will shine far brighter than a sun, more beautiful than all the glories of dust. Lay down with me, and make a new world, and forget the glories of this one for a while. Look at what we make. Look, look, look.

Inspirational

An incredibly inspirational lecture by Peter Diamandis at the TED conference. His optimism about technology and the world in general is refreshing when so many are so grim. It's important to remember the sky has been falling for the past 12,000 years, and each generation sure it was the last with any sense, or able to avoid disaster.

Productivity

Since is the first post of its type, I feel no shame in conducting some original research. I don't have a formal job right now- all my current freelance work is strictly short term- so I don't have a very set work schedule. So my productivity notes will be strictly Writing, Speech, and Schoolwork based

• Writing- With my writing, a big portion of "productivity" is sticking to a schedule. Even though I don't write professionally, I still like to keep up the quality of my work. So I have time blocked off every day to write; for this I use Google Calendar. In my personal calendar, I have my most creative time- between one and three, jacked up on caffeine- blocked off for serious writing every day. That means prose, letters, speeches, or essays. To keep my writing backed up, I use Dropbox. This is also handy because if I ever need to get reviews or feedback, I can get an easily share-able link. Highly recommend. To make sure that I'm actually on track, I use the Pomodoro Technique: which is essentially sprint working.You intensely for a short period of time, and then take a break. Very effective. To implement this, I use a Chrome extension: Strict Pomodoro. It blocks distracting sites while I work, and times me. To actually write, I use Focus Writer, a freeware tool from a great developer.
• Speech- Speech sometimes gets enveloped in writing, as I do indeed have to write speeches. However, there is a more fine grain approach to it. Starting with speech ideas, I use Evernote to keep track of any idea I have, tagged with which type of speech it is, and what season I'm hoping to use it for. Once the ideas are compiled, I forget them. Then, when I need a speech, there they are. After that, I use Google for research, and compile the research in Evernote, again. Tagged and in a separate notebook. Then I use my writing techniques to outline, write, draft, re-draft, and re-draft my speech. Pomodoro practice tops it off. Tournament schedules get plugged into Google Calendar, and since I need to pack the same things several times, I keep them separate and in a plastic storage bin. 
• One of my events is called Extemporaneous Speech, and for that I need to have articles from well respected publications available as sources. Since I only have 1/2 an hour to prepare, and no internet access, they have to be available on my computer in as organized a way as possible. Once again, Evernote. This system is complex, ordered list time!
1. Find source
2. Find RSS feed
3. Plug RSS feed into Full Feed Extractor (because some of them suck and only give previews)
4. Take new feed and plug it into If This, Then That. If This, Then That is a tool that automates web applications based on triggers. For example, if someone tags you in a photo on Facebook, it downloads the image to Dropbox. Highly recommend. In this case, I have a "New Feed Item" trigger, then it puts the feed item into Evernote
5. Make sure feed shows up in Evernote.
6. That's it
• Schoolwork- I do actually do my schoolwork! Those that know me will find this remarkable. Notes are all either typed directly into Evernote- every class has its own notebook- or transcribed out of a notebook. Evernote makes compiling exam reviews a breeze. Whenever I get an assignment, the due date is instantly put into Google Calendar, and I get reminders with a week left, a day left, twelve hours left, an hour left, and fifteen minutes left. It borders on paranoia/OCD, but it works. For physical handouts, printed material, and paper copies of notes, every class has a folder. They cost me $.50 from a dollar store.

That's it, that's how I manage being a college student.

The Good News About SOPA/PIPA

I've got to believe that SOPA/PIPA are the result of ignorance rather than evil; government officials who, through years of it working out for them, believe that their lobbyists genuinely know what they're talking about and have no agendas. The lobbyists in turn have to report back to companies, who have to report to shareholders. The problem isn't that people are evil and want to CENSOR THE INTERNET BECAUSE THEY ARE EVIL AND EVERYONE ELSE IS GOOD it's a problem inherent to people. And it's not that bad, the correct action is being taken. Civil dialogue is being held, people are seeing the correct decisions, I think we can all agree that the proposed acts won't pass. Guys, do you know what this means? HOLY SHIT!! The system works; the voice of the people gets heard, companies don't always get their own way, intelligence can indeed overcome ignorance, and basic humanity will take the day. This is the first time something like this has happened, I don't think anyone takes that part of it seriously enough.

Haha, Remember That?

So you sailed away
Into a gray sky morning
Now I'm here to say
Love can be so boring

And nothing's quite the same now
I just say your name now

But it's not so bad
You're only the best I ever had
Don't want me back
You're just the best I ever had

Never ever ever ever a million years never.

Looking Out Of My Window

It looks like a photograph- not a mere picture, but an honest-to-God act of photography. Like someone spent a lot of time and energy arranging the whole thing. The streets are shining in a way that can only be described as rain-slicked, although I doubt they're all that slick, really. The lamp posts are positioned just right, so the orb of soft, amber light they emit fades to almost nothing just before the next, an endlessly repeating row of perfect orbs. The shops and buildings are boarded up against the night, no one walks the sidewalks. If photographers could change the climate they'd be spot on with this as well. It's October-cold, even though the calendar says December. It doesn't snow, it doesn't even have the decency to rain. Just wind and iron cold, spreading like pain into fingers and toes and shoulders and ears and any bits of skin that are unfortunate enough to escape the confines of a long coat. Across the street a television glows blue-white in a sitting room, a brave stance against the sleepy, stupid hateful cold outside. Looking into that room I can imagine it's warm and happy and there are no worries at all. Clouds above, a ceiling against all unearthly heights that might lay beyond in hope and high beauty. The stars are hidden and put away, like heirloom silver they have no place on like tonight. The moon and stars may be bright white jewels against a jet sky of such pure hope that the coldness of the night would seem invigorating, full of promise and thrumming with energy, instead of funereal, still and hushed. But the velvet of clouds smothers them softly, lovingly, as gentle as murder by morphine. I grab the fucking tree and drag it inside, to the smells of Christmas cookies and family. It's too damn depressing out there.

Economics

You can't blame capitalists for wanting to maximize profits anymore than you can blame tigers for not being vegetarians. You can't blame the government for not keeping the tigers in their cages because the 99% elect the government. You can't blame the 99% for hiring bad zookeepers because the 99% are mostly concerned with everything except politics, unless there's a crises. You can't even blame them for not caring because that's not what people do. People look after their family and friends, try to make as much money as they can, and go bowling on Tuesday nights. If they don't, then they're busy trying to secure their next meal and rent check. Capitalism doesn't work, but neither does any other system. Boom, Bubble, and Bust are axiomatic to Capitalism, much the same way tight uniformity or poverty is axiomatic to Socialism, and totalitarianism is to a truly planned economy. Unless you expect EVERYONE on Earth to give a damn about everyone else, no system can work, and never will. Start morality in your homes, and then maybe over a billion years we'll achieve some sort of parity.
As an aside, the standard of living for even the poorest is higher now than at any point in human history, and this is the only point in human history that the poor actually have a voice. We may not be perfect, but we're a damn sight closer than we ever have been before.
I am not cheerful tonight