Packing Light

Should I bring a spork on my trip to Paris? It seems ridiculous at first, the idea of actively seeking out and purchasing a titanium spork. I bought one from Amazon and it comes as a multi-tool with a bottle opener and three different-sized wrench holes. There might actually be some opportunities to use it, but I don't see it as particularly important.

That's about all I have for you today. I've been slowly getting ready to leave and wrapping up my responsibilities at work. I'm headed to Champaign from Saturday to Monday - planning on seeing all my friends for the last time for a while.

Self-Censorship

11 days until Paris

One tricky part about writing a public blog is going to be avoiding self-censorship. I often used to write in a small notebook on vacations. Towards the end of a trip, or when I returned home, I would transcribe my writing into a Microsoft Word document titled"Journal Entries". I observed this practice fairly religiously from 2007 until the summer of 2014. At the end of the summer before junior year of college, my computer broke. The hard drive was damaged and I had to "system restore" the laptop to its factory settings. Seven years of consistent writing and deep, meaningful thoughts instantly disappeared. I hadn't even thought to back up the fucking the computer. It was devastating, as if I had lost a chunk of memories from inside my brain.

At the time, I thought it was much worse because I also had long videos on my hard drive of my grandmother. She had passed away in March of 2014, just 5 months before my laptop broke. So I was dealing with the frustration of the loss of my intimate writing, combined with the terror that I had stupidly neglected to backup precious videos of my grandmother. As it turns out, the videos were backed up onto a Flip Camera. But the journal entries were gone. In the interest of being a wise man and a member of the 21st century, I'm going to do more of my blogging online and publicly. Some things will still be private. But this will be a way to force myself to write more, as well as diminish the amount of self-censorship in which I indulge.


A Small Bag on a Big Adventure - Medium

 Jack Purcell's Tumbled Leather - Converse
Can't really be spending this much on shoes before a big trip, but umphff.

Writing is a Craft

12 days until Paris

I've always considered myself a competent writer. I received a 5/5 on my high school Advanced Placement Language class. I like debating others - listening to what they have to say and carefully crafting an argument that will not only refute their points, but do it convincingly. The past year has been a tough time for my writing skills. Not only have I stopped keeping a journal while at university, but I haven't even written in a journal while travelling, which is something that I used to do on every trip that I took - from the suburbs of Chicago to Istanbul and everywhere in between.

I'm going to try, from today on, to write every single day. I'm going to try to do that for a while. Most of the day I won't be writing anything particularly ground-breaking or important. Rather, it's going to be exercise for the part of my brain that controls writing. Just like lifting weights or swimming every day (two things I should do instead of this writing bullshit, can I get an amen?). In high school Ms. Catlin taught me that writing is a craft, and not just an innate ability. Writing is something that you work on. And over time the work pays off. Here's a snippet from the West Wing that inspires me when I think about writing.

Toby Ziegler: You want to know the benefits of free trade? Food is cheaper.
Toby Ziegler: Food is cheaper! Clothes are cheaper. Steel is cheaper. Cars are cheaper. Phone service is cheaper. You feel me building a rhythm here? That's because I'm a speech writer - I know how to make a point.
Toby Ziegler: It lowers prices, it raises income. You see what I did with 'lowers' and 'raises' there?
Toby Ziegler: It's called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites, and now you end with the one that's not like the others. Ready? Free trade stops wars. Heh, and that's it. Free trade stops wars! And we figure out a way to fix the rest. One world, one peace - I'm sure I've seen that on a sign somewhere.
Officer Rhonda Sachs: [sarcastic] God, Toby. Wouldn't it be great if there was someone around with the communication skills who could go in there and tell them that?

How Am I Still Home While Everyone Is At School


"If you are lonely when you are alone, then you are in bad company" - Jean Paul Sartre

17 days until Paris


Articles

Obama Calls Out Republicans for Their "I'm Not a Scientist" Line - Slate
The highlight of the State of the Union in my eyes:

"Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what — I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and NOAA, and at our major universities. The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe."


Working Longer Hours Can Mean Drinking More - NPR

 The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of "jaywalking" - Vox

 The Books They Carried on Omaha Beach - The Daily Beast

 Music

I Look to You - Miami Horror

 Let It Burn - The Orwells

 Making Breakfast - Twin Peaks

 Eternal - Faun Fables

 Crystallized - The xx
Another album I should have listened to all the way through when it came out. Just now (re)discovering the xx.

Podcasts

Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde - This American Life

 No Coincidence, No Story - This American Life

 Stochasticity - Radiolab
This episode is quite similar to the TAL episode above. What a coincidence.

Harold - This American Life
About Mayor Harorld Washington, Chicago's first and so far, only, black Mayor. I never knew any of this.

 Videos

 I Dare You To Watch This Entire Video - Collegehumor

 Don Rickles: You'll Never Play the Copa - Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

 Pic of the Week

The American Dream

Articles
Mostly articles about what happened in Paris recently, but hey, that's what's on my mind. If you haven't seen the pictures yet, check out some of the photos from the rally for the victims of the terror attacks last week in Paris.

Attentat à Charlie Hebdo : la France sous le choc - Le Parisien

 Boko Haram may have just killed 2,000 people: ‘Killing went on and on and on’ - The Washington Post

 Do Fashion Trends Still Exist? - Business of Fashion

 Two Scenes From the Grand Synagogue of Paris - Tablet Mag

 I Am Not Charlie Hebdo - New York Times

 Music

Mexico - The Staves

 Tell Me I'm The Only One (Carlos Serrano Mix) - Kanye West and Sam Smith

 No Small Talk - Childish Gambino

 Sober - Childish Gambino
New video from Donald Glover, from STN MTN/Kauai. I listened to it briefly when it came out but now I love it. His sound makes you nostalgic for something you weren't even a part of.

 Inside Out - Spoon

 The Corner (ft The Last Poets and Kanye West) - Common

 Videos

Cool video about Chicago and the American Dream

 Pictures
Between Will Smith in Fresh Prince and the main characters on Seinfeld, there's enough 90's fashion inspiration to last months.




2015

Articles

Craft Breweries Scale Up But Keep It Real - The Wall Street Journal

The long, slow death of our watering holes - Boing Boing
This is an absurd name for an online publication.

Race relations and 2015 - Times of Israel
From my friend Dennis Austin, a blogger at the Times of Israel.

Socially Responsible Spending: How Consumers are Giving Back in 2014 - Good Must Grow

The Future of Social Enterprise in 2015 - Fast Company
My job over break has me researching hundreds of companies that work towards social responsibility and giving jobs to people with high barriers to employment. So many tabs that start with "social enterprise"...

How to Fight the Campus Speech Police: Get a Good Lawyer - The Wall Street Journal
I really don't agree with any of this man's politics but the point being made about free speech on campuses is crucial.

Why don’t more moderate Muslims denounce extremism? - The Washington Post
"In fact, mainstream Muslims are speaking out, clearly and consistently...Yet somehow their responses are not being heard, barely registering in the public consciousness."

 Music
Lots of rap this week.

Move That Dope ft Pharrell Williams, Pusha T - Future

Oh My Darling (Don't Cry) - Run the Jewels

Don't Know ft Mac Miller - Boaz

Wut - Le1f
Dis is 4 partiezzz

 D.A.N.C.E (Benny Blanco Remix) - Justice

 Svensk Sas - Todd Terje

 Down On My Luck - Vic Mensa

 Never Catch Me ft Kendrick Lamar - Flying Lotus

Pic of the Week
I'm starting to realize that the semester in Paris is actually happening. I have yet to find out my host family information though. I'm going to play it safe and assume I'll be on the streets for the semester.


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