After hauling some lumber today for my friend's father, I sat down and played some chess with both the father and son. Its elegance after manual labor was absolutely refreshing. Though I lost both times, it most certainly was a very gentlemanly game of wit and sport. The amount of planning ahead required really gets each player to think deeply about their actions and the possible repercussions of these actions. It's engaging and completely absorbed all of my attention, diverting my worries to the back part of my brain: my only concern was checkmating my opponent, maneuvering my warriors with elegance to eliminate those posed against them.
Playing styles reflect the personalities of the players themselves. I've met many a man who trumps with knights, maneuvering them around the battlefield with grace. Yet there are twice as many than that who employ the more powerful double-rook (castle) combination to devastate their opponents. Personally, I find rooks to be a last resort and a strong line of defense.
Metagame in chess is also important. The air a chess player gives off can make him a respected, intelligent man, or a conceited intellectual there simply to show of his prowess and the fact that he's better than you. I experienced this firsthand myself today when my friend was constantly jabbering about how one of us was going to lose or win. It was greatly distracting from the game, and made it just a little bit less fun...compare that to my experience with his father, who was completely silent, stoic, throughout the entirety of the game I played against him. When he looked me in the eyes, shook my hand, and said 'good game', I felt he truly meant it, and I came to respect him just that much more.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Foreign lands.
Man, New Zealand place is gorgeous. They shot a large majority of Lord of the Rings there, and I've been enchanted with it ever since I watched the movie again with a friend this past weekend. I simply can't draw my eyes away from scenes of nature I've found...
It would be simply lovely to live there, I believe. Especially compared to here in the center of the United States, surrounded by soybeans, corn, and cement-filled towns. Sure, those things exist in nearly every developed country nowadays, but there's more free, untouched land in New Zealand than here, and the ocean is hardly ever very far away. I'd be able to find a job, get food, and live from day to day, appreciating the air I breathe, the sky I live under, and the music in everything I heard.
I feel the same way about Japan. I've applied to live there for 6 weeks this summer on exchange. No matter where I go - whether it is rural or urban - I know it will be an entirely new experience, and get me out of this agricultural wasteland (of nearly inestimable value).
I honestly can't see myself tethered here for much longer than I need to be. Opportunities are scarce for someone with beliefs like mine: I simply need to move, to feel something new. I need different air, not just a different car or a different game to keep me complacent, which is precisely what I'll find if I continue down the prescribed path. I don't know whether this is just teenage angst or a legitimate conflict that I face, but either way, it feels like I should be somewhere different, doing and learning different things. Foreign lands, foreign thoughts and feelings and ideas beckon to me every day.
It would be simply lovely to live there, I believe. Especially compared to here in the center of the United States, surrounded by soybeans, corn, and cement-filled towns. Sure, those things exist in nearly every developed country nowadays, but there's more free, untouched land in New Zealand than here, and the ocean is hardly ever very far away. I'd be able to find a job, get food, and live from day to day, appreciating the air I breathe, the sky I live under, and the music in everything I heard.
I feel the same way about Japan. I've applied to live there for 6 weeks this summer on exchange. No matter where I go - whether it is rural or urban - I know it will be an entirely new experience, and get me out of this agricultural wasteland (of nearly inestimable value).
I honestly can't see myself tethered here for much longer than I need to be. Opportunities are scarce for someone with beliefs like mine: I simply need to move, to feel something new. I need different air, not just a different car or a different game to keep me complacent, which is precisely what I'll find if I continue down the prescribed path. I don't know whether this is just teenage angst or a legitimate conflict that I face, but either way, it feels like I should be somewhere different, doing and learning different things. Foreign lands, foreign thoughts and feelings and ideas beckon to me every day.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Hallucinations
Recently, I've been having musical hallucinations relatively often, especially compared to their frequency about two months ago. Nowadays, I'll space off and begin imagining a piece for solo or multiple instruments that I have never heard beforehand, and it will often become uncontrollable and gain a mind of its own, leading me to conclusions I never would have imagined myself. Though the large majority of them are relatively weak, uncontrolled bursts of sound - about a phrase or so - a few have taken minutes from my day as I imagine them, or time before I sleep as they rush through my head. One piece I was particularly taken by began playing just as I fell asleep. It sounded as though it came straight from an NES game...yet I know I had never heard it before. There was some snare and percussion playing on the offbeats, as well as chords being played every beat in a multitude of different samples, but I could not identify the key, nor had I any control over where the music was going. It developed from a relatively simple melodic theme into something I desperately wish I could reproduce now, but I simply cannot remember. Though this may be true, the very fact that I imagined something like it makes me feel incredibly happy: maybe my musical abilities are developing quite a bit more!
They began relatively recently, about one or two months ago. I learned about them just a week or so before they began: I was reading the book Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks, which discusses the nature of musical hallucinations and other musical disorders or mental syndromes and symptoms. I'm rather taken with my hallucinations, as they've pleasantly interrupted my daily slog a number of times and made me rather delighted to hear my own imagination creating something without me willing it.
They began relatively recently, about one or two months ago. I learned about them just a week or so before they began: I was reading the book Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks, which discusses the nature of musical hallucinations and other musical disorders or mental syndromes and symptoms. I'm rather taken with my hallucinations, as they've pleasantly interrupted my daily slog a number of times and made me rather delighted to hear my own imagination creating something without me willing it.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Music 01: Classical Addiction
Recently, I've become addicted to classical music. It's so delectable to the ear! One cannot overindulge on the strings, brass, and percussion. It all began when I tuned into my local classical station around three months ago and heard Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance Number 5. I was enthralled! It's so exciting, and it evokes images in my mind that I never would have imagined beforehand. I've gained ideas for my Dungeons and Dragons sessions multiple times from such pieces, as well as calmer, more reverent pieces such as Pachelbel's Canon in D Major. What's simply astounding is that each and every piece draws a different image or invokes a different feeling for every person. While many may have a similar experience, not one is exactly identical. Comparing this to our media today, which often provides very uncomplicated material for one to ponder, music is a mentally stimulating playground that anyone with a taste for it can experiment and play upon.
My appreciation for such music has also probably been significantly improved by the music theory classes that I've been taking at my high school. We've learned about pitch, key, rhythm chord structure and progression, to name but a few things among many, and it's greatly improved my playing ability, as well as my perspective on the inherent difficulty in writing beautiful music.
One particular anecdote that displays perfectly the power classical music has gained over me is what happened to me one night during a concert I was playing in for an honors band at a local college. We were playing pieces about death - Rest - and veterans in the army. As my uncle had recently passed on, I couldn't help but think of him. My thoughts trailed also to my grandfather, who was a veteran from World War Two that survived reconnaissance on D-Day at Normandy...I was so touched by the beauty of the music we were playing and the power of my memories that tears welled up in my eyes.
Music has a special kind of relation with humans in this sense: it brings out strong emotions in many of us. It truly is a shame that nowadays, the only music a large majority of the population is exposed to is what the pop and rock stations play on the radio. My father, who had never been exposed to symphonic, chamber music, or orchestral pieces before I began my interest, is in love with it just as much as I am. He's made multiple attempts at becoming musical himself, and has bought guitars and bass guitars. I admire his determination greatly and I'm very happy he's taken an interest in the performances and eloquent mode of expression I have.
My appreciation for such music has also probably been significantly improved by the music theory classes that I've been taking at my high school. We've learned about pitch, key, rhythm chord structure and progression, to name but a few things among many, and it's greatly improved my playing ability, as well as my perspective on the inherent difficulty in writing beautiful music.
One particular anecdote that displays perfectly the power classical music has gained over me is what happened to me one night during a concert I was playing in for an honors band at a local college. We were playing pieces about death - Rest - and veterans in the army. As my uncle had recently passed on, I couldn't help but think of him. My thoughts trailed also to my grandfather, who was a veteran from World War Two that survived reconnaissance on D-Day at Normandy...I was so touched by the beauty of the music we were playing and the power of my memories that tears welled up in my eyes.
Music has a special kind of relation with humans in this sense: it brings out strong emotions in many of us. It truly is a shame that nowadays, the only music a large majority of the population is exposed to is what the pop and rock stations play on the radio. My father, who had never been exposed to symphonic, chamber music, or orchestral pieces before I began my interest, is in love with it just as much as I am. He's made multiple attempts at becoming musical himself, and has bought guitars and bass guitars. I admire his determination greatly and I'm very happy he's taken an interest in the performances and eloquent mode of expression I have.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Capitalism
When it comes down to things, I've found that this economic system simultaneously disgusts me and allows me to fuel everything that I love doing. I've been struggling with this conundrum for about three months now, and I've found that I can accept it, but I won't be going along the path many others are going down.
My first dilemma is: I cannot see myself going to school for (x) number of years, getting a degree in what I consider to be my 'passion', and going to work for forty hours a week, doing little else. Were I to submit to what is being planned out for me right now, I would get a degree in a stable job that makes plenty of money - work as a lawyer, a doctor, a physicist or engineer - settle down, grab a house, a cute little wife, have babies and die. The fantasies of dream vacations are just that to so many people: dreams. They never truly occur, as they feel to attached to where they live due to their job or their work or their funds. The very thought of being stuck in a suburb for the rest of my life is horrifying.
My second dilemma is: I do not desire what many others desire. Video games have almost entirely lost their appeal to me, as has television and the internet. Buying new things, aside from those related to my passion, is unappealing and frankly stupid: why would you need a new pair of shoes, a new outfit, a new phone, a new anything just because the rest of society says you do? Sure, fashion is always changing, technology is constantly becoming faster and more complicated...
But physics has stayed the same for billions upon billions of years. Nature and biology have evolved at a crawl compared to our technological advancements, yet they are still here, will always continue to be, and are far more incredible than any 'new' thing could ever come close to being.
My desires as of now are rather few:
For a decent amount of food to eat every day;
A small home far from the hustle and bustle of modern society;
To become spiritually centered, using my own ideas;
And to master the art of performing and creating music, as well as to refine my appreciation for it in all forms.
The first two are easily achievable. If I commit to living at the poverty level with very few indulgences, I can save enough money (and gain some from investments) within five or ten years to secure myself a decent home and car with one check.
The spiritual center and revelations, as well as musical experience, will come only with time, which I've got plenty of: once I've isolated myself from this cycle of consumerism, I shall be able to focus largely on those, committing only 8 hours of my 24-hour day five days a week to a simple job that earns me my bread and keeps me saving money and progressing in musical acquisition.
My first dilemma is: I cannot see myself going to school for (x) number of years, getting a degree in what I consider to be my 'passion', and going to work for forty hours a week, doing little else. Were I to submit to what is being planned out for me right now, I would get a degree in a stable job that makes plenty of money - work as a lawyer, a doctor, a physicist or engineer - settle down, grab a house, a cute little wife, have babies and die. The fantasies of dream vacations are just that to so many people: dreams. They never truly occur, as they feel to attached to where they live due to their job or their work or their funds. The very thought of being stuck in a suburb for the rest of my life is horrifying.
My second dilemma is: I do not desire what many others desire. Video games have almost entirely lost their appeal to me, as has television and the internet. Buying new things, aside from those related to my passion, is unappealing and frankly stupid: why would you need a new pair of shoes, a new outfit, a new phone, a new anything just because the rest of society says you do? Sure, fashion is always changing, technology is constantly becoming faster and more complicated...
But physics has stayed the same for billions upon billions of years. Nature and biology have evolved at a crawl compared to our technological advancements, yet they are still here, will always continue to be, and are far more incredible than any 'new' thing could ever come close to being.
My desires as of now are rather few:
For a decent amount of food to eat every day;
A small home far from the hustle and bustle of modern society;
To become spiritually centered, using my own ideas;
And to master the art of performing and creating music, as well as to refine my appreciation for it in all forms.
The first two are easily achievable. If I commit to living at the poverty level with very few indulgences, I can save enough money (and gain some from investments) within five or ten years to secure myself a decent home and car with one check.
The spiritual center and revelations, as well as musical experience, will come only with time, which I've got plenty of: once I've isolated myself from this cycle of consumerism, I shall be able to focus largely on those, committing only 8 hours of my 24-hour day five days a week to a simple job that earns me my bread and keeps me saving money and progressing in musical acquisition.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
First Blog - New? (...also shameless self-promotion)
After failing pretty hard at committing to my video game blog, I've decided to broaden my horizons. Because I don't play video games nearly enough to ramble 1200 words about them each week, I figured that I should simply blog about life and my opinions, because I have more than enough to go around. This blog is strictly experimental, for now: if it works better than my other blog has, I'll definitely keep it. If this fails as well, I'll recommit and continue my other blog. It's highly likely that if this blog succeeds, I'll be bringing the multitudes of miniseries that I had over to this blog to continue my efforts.
Wonder why my address is unusualunit.blogger.com?
I have some music editing software, and I'm working on producing a couple of techno tracks. They've been in development for a while now. I'll probably publish two or three tracks by April First. If you're in to techno or classical, you should check them out, and follow my soundcloud and/or my twitter for updates and more random crap from me/my friend Shikimo.
Why is this called Inane Ramblings? Well, I'm just a 17-year-old guy, and I've not exactly got a sense of how the world works yet, or what goes on, or even what I want my place to be in it. This blog will likely be a recording of the ideas that fly through my head - I think at a million miles per hour - so that both I and the world can see what I like and what works.
So yeah. Here's to a new beginning.
Wonder why my address is unusualunit.blogger.com?
I have some music editing software, and I'm working on producing a couple of techno tracks. They've been in development for a while now. I'll probably publish two or three tracks by April First. If you're in to techno or classical, you should check them out, and follow my soundcloud and/or my twitter for updates and more random crap from me/my friend Shikimo.
Why is this called Inane Ramblings? Well, I'm just a 17-year-old guy, and I've not exactly got a sense of how the world works yet, or what goes on, or even what I want my place to be in it. This blog will likely be a recording of the ideas that fly through my head - I think at a million miles per hour - so that both I and the world can see what I like and what works.
So yeah. Here's to a new beginning.
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