Who's Got The Moves?

I got back to Virginia just in time to make a swell video with my co-workers. Please take ten minutes of your time to check it out.

Libraries Will Survive

Inception

I went to the Squirrel Hill Theater yesterday and saw Inception. It was entertaining, mesmerizing, confusing, and frightening. It tries to work upon the ideas of dreams within dreams, and much of the movie is set in these somewhat lucid settings. To describe the plot would explain little. The gift of this film was being in the moment.

Acting was top notch. I like Leonardo DiCaprio immensely and feel that he is becoming the best actor of his generation. Joseph Gordon Levitt is right there with him, and Ellen Page manages to hold her own with an emotional resonance.

The movie operates a bit like a heist flick, with a team being assembled in order to carry out a mission that will take place within the subconsciousness of their target. What I really liked were the rules that they established early on, and how they managed to adhere to or play with those rules as the movie progressed. Rules always manage to heighten the emotional experience, whether it be not crossing the streams in Ghostbusters or the logic of time travel in Back to the Future or Primer.

As much as I like the idea of doing a gigantic expensive blockbuster that also demands that you pay close attention, I was wondering if that much money really had to go into the production. It did look phenomenal, but I feel like just as much can be accomplished on a shoestring budget. Either way, when you direct one of the biggest superhero movies of all time, as Christopher Nolan did, you get some cash to throw around.

Another One Rides the Bus

For my year in Pittsburgh, there have been two services that I have relied upon the most, and I am eternally grateful for the both of them. The first is obviously the public library system. It has provided me entertainment, intellectual stimulation, and an overall sense of joy.

The other service has been the Port Authority. The bus system has been in a constant state of transition since I have moved here, changing routes and stops left and right every few months or even weeks or days. But they have always managed to inform me early enough in advance for me to be ready for these changes. Right now to get to work, I take the EBA downtown, and then take either the G1 or G2 up the West Busway. those buses come every 20 minutes and my commute is only 40 minutes. The Pitt Student ID makes everything free (or I guess $90 a semester, which is still a deal).

I have lost my wallet on the bus, and someone sent it to the IS building for me after seeing my ID. I lost my phone a few months later, and the Port Authority contacted me immediately. They have been amazing.

Sometimes I'll be sitting on the busway and just be thinking about all the people that it takes to get me to where I am. The driver, the other driver, the people who made the road, the people who made the computers that run the traffic lights. Thousands of seemingly unrelated actions led up to my commute, and I guess my actions are going to lead to a lot of other things for other people.

Who Knew I Had the Gift of Premonition

This is a song I wrote on the first day of orientation. I think that in hindsight...it fits.



Pay Attention

You better get your focus

Buckle up and buckle down

Or else a plague of locusts

Will come and run you out of town

Cross those eyes, hold yer breath

Do your best to fight that itch

Don’t forget to do the rest

No one wants a sonuvabitch



CHORUS:

Check please, the bill has come

And did I forget to mention

It’s all on you. Here comes your cue

Get ready to pay attention

Bout to get like Alex in Clockwork

Hold onto your Ludwig Van

Is your heart in this? Your pancreas?

Do you even give a good goddamn?

Bite that lip but don’t close those eyes

How can you? We’ve got them pried.

My mistake, let’s all just take

A deep breath and jump inside


CHORUS


BRIDGE:

I’ve got a plan and I’ve got a clue

And I’m the one who can see things through

So take off your shoes. Remove those socks

Welcome to the school of medium knocks.

Quiz

Saw this article over at Boing Boing. I might do this for our weekend quiz.

Funny Kid's Answer to Quiz Question.

Huzzah

I worked a twelve hour day yesterday. Eight of them were at the library, and I did an additional four in our upstairs community room with a free science show for children.

The show was done by Gerry Lewis (he said with a name like that he HAD to go into science). He did experiments with dry ice, pressure, and liquid nitrogen. We had about 50 people in attendance, which is very good for our small library.

Gerry's website is http://www.brotherscience.com/

Grievances

I ate leftover spinach pasta for breakfast this morning. When I say "spinach pasta" I do not mean some sort of gourmet creamy green tortellini. I mean leftover spaghetti with frozen chopped spinach. At this point I have 22 days left in Pittsburgh and do not really want to go shopping for anything that I'll have to throw out or move 200 miles away. My only breakfast alternative was oatmeal, and since I have no air conditioning I didn't really want to be eating hot mush that early in the morning.

I'm getting rid of all of my furniture too. It's not worth paying for a truck to relocate 15 year old furniture that collectively costs about 50 bucks. Eventually it will either be sold on Craiglist, or end up in the dumpster.

There's a lot of pressure to hit the ground running with this transition between grad school and the next step of a professional career, but I seriously need a mental, physical, and emotional break before I do mentally, physically, and emotionally break.

I just want to go to my parents house for a few months and do the following:

1. Work as a sub at the positions that I was working at my hometown library
2. Get into a jogging routine
3. Watch new episodes of Mad Men
4. Make some music with my friends
5. Save up money so I can buy a car
6. Start paying off student loans

Nice break eh?