Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Spain pains
This trip is not going anywhere near as well as I was hoping it would.
Number one, this foot injury that's come out of nowhere has torpedoed pretty much every plan I had for my first week in Spain. I had wanted to go on hours-long hikes of the surrounding neighborhood to where I'm staying, just to see what I could find; that has so far proven impossible. I also have no idea how to go about finding a doctor, and my roommate works all day long on days that a doctor's office would be open. This also threatens to compromise my further plans of going to other cities and walking around.
Second of all, during this trip I was looking forward to meeting and hanging out with foreign women, with the secondary goal of getting better at speaking Spanish in the process. As it turns out, it's extremely intimidating to try and approach a woman when you can barely communicate with her; suddenly wit and charm become useless, and it's all about body language charisma, something that I sorely lack with strangers. So, that's been a bust thus far.
And about speaking Spanish... I still suck at it. I realize it's only been a week, but I don't feel even an inkling more proficient in it than I was before I got here. At best, I've maybe learned like 10 new words, and I couldn't even tell you what they are right now.
I am not a fan of the food here either. Nothing is filling to me, and everything is filled with copious quantities of vegetables, which I don't really like. The supermarkets are filled with strange foods, many of which don't look very appetizing.
I guess that's all. I just needed to vent somewhere, and people on Facebook don't want to see this depressing crap on their news feed. Maybe it'll get better soon.
Number one, this foot injury that's come out of nowhere has torpedoed pretty much every plan I had for my first week in Spain. I had wanted to go on hours-long hikes of the surrounding neighborhood to where I'm staying, just to see what I could find; that has so far proven impossible. I also have no idea how to go about finding a doctor, and my roommate works all day long on days that a doctor's office would be open. This also threatens to compromise my further plans of going to other cities and walking around.
Second of all, during this trip I was looking forward to meeting and hanging out with foreign women, with the secondary goal of getting better at speaking Spanish in the process. As it turns out, it's extremely intimidating to try and approach a woman when you can barely communicate with her; suddenly wit and charm become useless, and it's all about body language charisma, something that I sorely lack with strangers. So, that's been a bust thus far.
And about speaking Spanish... I still suck at it. I realize it's only been a week, but I don't feel even an inkling more proficient in it than I was before I got here. At best, I've maybe learned like 10 new words, and I couldn't even tell you what they are right now.
I am not a fan of the food here either. Nothing is filling to me, and everything is filled with copious quantities of vegetables, which I don't really like. The supermarkets are filled with strange foods, many of which don't look very appetizing.
I guess that's all. I just needed to vent somewhere, and people on Facebook don't want to see this depressing crap on their news feed. Maybe it'll get better soon.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
El Centro de Madrid
Things I learned during my all-day trip to downtown Madrid:
-Spanish people do NOT fuck around while driving. You know when someone does something on the road that you feel was a risky jerk-move? That's par for the course here. Everyone does that ALL THE TIME. The bus I was on literally pulled out onto the highway in a lane where a guy was barreling toward us at full speed and had to change lanes to avoid us.... and this happened TWICE, once during each trip. I couldn't believe it. An interesting side effect of this is that everyone is a very skilled, very precise driver. I consider myself in the top 1% of USA drivers, and I'm not sure I could hang over here.
-Spanish radio stations play mostly American music, of completely random genres. During the ride uptown, I heard some 70's disco song, followed by Celine Dion, followed by "We Don't Need No Education". On the trip back, I heard some kind of Beatles-like, 60's happy-happy song followed by "I'm a Creep" by Radiohead, followed by Ke$ha.
-I learned just how effective public transportation can be when done right. Once I was done with uptown, I had to force myself to figure out the subway system (why was I forced to? More on that in a minute), and once I did, I was back at the bus hub within 10 minutes and on my way back to the house 5 minutes after that. I couldn't believe how efficient the whole thing was. I wish something like that could be implemented in Charlotte, but I guess it's too spread out.
-It SUCKS walking long distances on concrete sidewalks when you can barely put any pressure on your foot. My foot was still in pain when I woke up this morning, but I didn't want to spend a second day stuck in the apartment so I tried to tough it out. I can't say it was a bad idea exactly, but man did I pay a high price for it. I was barely able to make it to my final destination (before I headed home). I literally cannot walk on it right now. I will probably be laid up for two more days because of this.
-I had a sense of this before today, but now it's confirmed. Everything is wayyyy more compact in Spain (Europe in general?). Buildings are closer together, streets are narrower, the space inside of buildings is sparser. Most of the businesses I've come across have been about the size of that newspaper shop in Carolina Place Mall (the one by the food court). This includes restaurants with tables to sit at. And forget about parking spots; they're ALL FULL. ALL THE TIME.
-The mall I randomly came across while wandering around uptown was pretty lame. It had four categories of store: Stores for women (including clothes, perfume, etc), restaurants, an eye-glasses store, and one book store. I was hoping to take an interesting picture inside, but there wasn't anything worth documenting.
That's all for now.
-Spanish people do NOT fuck around while driving. You know when someone does something on the road that you feel was a risky jerk-move? That's par for the course here. Everyone does that ALL THE TIME. The bus I was on literally pulled out onto the highway in a lane where a guy was barreling toward us at full speed and had to change lanes to avoid us.... and this happened TWICE, once during each trip. I couldn't believe it. An interesting side effect of this is that everyone is a very skilled, very precise driver. I consider myself in the top 1% of USA drivers, and I'm not sure I could hang over here.
-Spanish radio stations play mostly American music, of completely random genres. During the ride uptown, I heard some 70's disco song, followed by Celine Dion, followed by "We Don't Need No Education". On the trip back, I heard some kind of Beatles-like, 60's happy-happy song followed by "I'm a Creep" by Radiohead, followed by Ke$ha.
-I learned just how effective public transportation can be when done right. Once I was done with uptown, I had to force myself to figure out the subway system (why was I forced to? More on that in a minute), and once I did, I was back at the bus hub within 10 minutes and on my way back to the house 5 minutes after that. I couldn't believe how efficient the whole thing was. I wish something like that could be implemented in Charlotte, but I guess it's too spread out.
-It SUCKS walking long distances on concrete sidewalks when you can barely put any pressure on your foot. My foot was still in pain when I woke up this morning, but I didn't want to spend a second day stuck in the apartment so I tried to tough it out. I can't say it was a bad idea exactly, but man did I pay a high price for it. I was barely able to make it to my final destination (before I headed home). I literally cannot walk on it right now. I will probably be laid up for two more days because of this.
-I had a sense of this before today, but now it's confirmed. Everything is wayyyy more compact in Spain (Europe in general?). Buildings are closer together, streets are narrower, the space inside of buildings is sparser. Most of the businesses I've come across have been about the size of that newspaper shop in Carolina Place Mall (the one by the food court). This includes restaurants with tables to sit at. And forget about parking spots; they're ALL FULL. ALL THE TIME.
-The mall I randomly came across while wandering around uptown was pretty lame. It had four categories of store: Stores for women (including clothes, perfume, etc), restaurants, an eye-glasses store, and one book store. I was hoping to take an interesting picture inside, but there wasn't anything worth documenting.
That's all for now.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Alright, so I have this idea for a completely original story. It has the potential to turn into a full blown epic novel, and people, places, and events are already coming to life in my head.
The problem is that I have no idea how to begin. So I'm going to write about it here and see if it helps me organize my thoughts.
The setting is a made-up place that I haven't named yet. On this planet there are two wildly different societies. One is almost exclusively made up of magic users (not called "magic" in the story; I need to create a name for it), and the other has no magic, but has excelled in technology, and has cities that would be futuristic even by our standards.
Technology and "magic" cannot exist side by side. Anything that creates an electromagnetic field disrupts the flow of "magic", and vice versa, to where fields of equal strength end up canceling each other out.
A thousand years ago, there was only one society, where the magic users dominated over those who weren't born with the gift. Then, the giftless discovered electromagnetism, and suddenly they had hope for the future.
Over time, cities developed that harnessed the power of technology to mimic the "magic" that they had been denied access to. However, as more and more giftless moved away from the magic-powered societies, those societies became less and less diluted, to the point where it is now very rare for someone to be born with no magical ability within those societies.
Now, we follow the journey of one young man from a magic society who was born without the gift. His family wants him to stay with them so they can take care of him, but ultimately he decides to make the journey to the nearest giftless city, whose landscape he's always been able to see on the horizon from his village.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the continent, a young woman is being pursued by governments from both societies. Somehow, she is able to use her magic powers even in the presence of electromagnetism without any disruption. As the only known person in history who has been able to do that, she is wanted by everyone. But maybe she doesn't know that that's why she's being pursued.
There will also be diplomatic intrigue between the leaders of these two societies, leading up to a potential war.
That actually did help, typing it out like this.
The problem is that I have no idea how to begin. So I'm going to write about it here and see if it helps me organize my thoughts.
The setting is a made-up place that I haven't named yet. On this planet there are two wildly different societies. One is almost exclusively made up of magic users (not called "magic" in the story; I need to create a name for it), and the other has no magic, but has excelled in technology, and has cities that would be futuristic even by our standards.
Technology and "magic" cannot exist side by side. Anything that creates an electromagnetic field disrupts the flow of "magic", and vice versa, to where fields of equal strength end up canceling each other out.
A thousand years ago, there was only one society, where the magic users dominated over those who weren't born with the gift. Then, the giftless discovered electromagnetism, and suddenly they had hope for the future.
Over time, cities developed that harnessed the power of technology to mimic the "magic" that they had been denied access to. However, as more and more giftless moved away from the magic-powered societies, those societies became less and less diluted, to the point where it is now very rare for someone to be born with no magical ability within those societies.
Now, we follow the journey of one young man from a magic society who was born without the gift. His family wants him to stay with them so they can take care of him, but ultimately he decides to make the journey to the nearest giftless city, whose landscape he's always been able to see on the horizon from his village.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the continent, a young woman is being pursued by governments from both societies. Somehow, she is able to use her magic powers even in the presence of electromagnetism without any disruption. As the only known person in history who has been able to do that, she is wanted by everyone. But maybe she doesn't know that that's why she's being pursued.
There will also be diplomatic intrigue between the leaders of these two societies, leading up to a potential war.
That actually did help, typing it out like this.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
College is going pretty well, despite some setbacks.
My first two semesters back, I made straight A's. This semester, my current averages are an A and two B's, with plenty of room to improve.
I wonder if I'm doing college right, though, despite my good marks. I've only made one new friend from my classes since I returned, and I barely speak to her anymore. I've heard that college is supposed to be the time to make the best friends of your life and have fun, but I'm not doing that.
Then again I'm not sure I want to do that. Is it possible that I've moved past it? I already have plenty of friends, and I'm a fair bit older than most of my classmates anyway. The only thing I feel is missing from my social life is a girlfriend, and most women in college are too young or immature for it to be worth it.
Then again, I hear networking is a vital tool to use in college, so I'm a little torn. I guess if I do choose to socialize, it should at least be with groups that might be beneficial in a networking capacity. Otherwise I'll probably just keep to myself and wait for someone interesting to come along.
My first two semesters back, I made straight A's. This semester, my current averages are an A and two B's, with plenty of room to improve.
I wonder if I'm doing college right, though, despite my good marks. I've only made one new friend from my classes since I returned, and I barely speak to her anymore. I've heard that college is supposed to be the time to make the best friends of your life and have fun, but I'm not doing that.
Then again I'm not sure I want to do that. Is it possible that I've moved past it? I already have plenty of friends, and I'm a fair bit older than most of my classmates anyway. The only thing I feel is missing from my social life is a girlfriend, and most women in college are too young or immature for it to be worth it.
Then again, I hear networking is a vital tool to use in college, so I'm a little torn. I guess if I do choose to socialize, it should at least be with groups that might be beneficial in a networking capacity. Otherwise I'll probably just keep to myself and wait for someone interesting to come along.
Friday, February 24, 2012
111 days to go
I watched "500 Days of Summer" last night. Very good movie, and realistic in all the important places.
Through the whole thing I found myself constantly thinking back to Hybre, and wondering if the real reason she broke up with me is because she just didn't have those feelings for me (as opposed to my theory that she felt too strongly for me and got scared).
No, I would then think to myself, The situation was different with her. Just because it happened that way in the movie, doesn't mean that's how real life is.
Isn't that always how it is, though? The one whose heart is broken always comes up with reasons why things were different, and rationalizes ways that they can win her/him back. Maybe sometimes they're right, but I bet that a lot of the times they're wrong.
So here I am, waiting for Autumn.
Through the whole thing I found myself constantly thinking back to Hybre, and wondering if the real reason she broke up with me is because she just didn't have those feelings for me (as opposed to my theory that she felt too strongly for me and got scared).
No, I would then think to myself, The situation was different with her. Just because it happened that way in the movie, doesn't mean that's how real life is.
Isn't that always how it is, though? The one whose heart is broken always comes up with reasons why things were different, and rationalizes ways that they can win her/him back. Maybe sometimes they're right, but I bet that a lot of the times they're wrong.
So here I am, waiting for Autumn.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
It's not you, it's me. Actually, no, it's just you.
I've learned something recently. I'm not sure why it took so long to figure out; maybe I'm just slow on the uptake.
When someone (particularly a woman, but I'm sure guys do this too) says "I'm just not ready for a relationship right now", what they almost certainly mean is "I don't want to be in a relationship with YOU."
I didn't even want anything serious with this one, either. I'm just kind of annoyed that she went to great lengths to avoid any appearance of even approaching a relationship, going so far as to refuse to go out for dinner around V-Day, and then 2 weeks later, "Hey, I'm kind of seeing someone. I thought you should know."
Well it's a good thing I wasn't in love with her or else my heart would be broken right now. As it stands, this is more annoyance/anger than anything.
When someone (particularly a woman, but I'm sure guys do this too) says "I'm just not ready for a relationship right now", what they almost certainly mean is "I don't want to be in a relationship with YOU."
I didn't even want anything serious with this one, either. I'm just kind of annoyed that she went to great lengths to avoid any appearance of even approaching a relationship, going so far as to refuse to go out for dinner around V-Day, and then 2 weeks later, "Hey, I'm kind of seeing someone. I thought you should know."
Well it's a good thing I wasn't in love with her or else my heart would be broken right now. As it stands, this is more annoyance/anger than anything.
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