Instagram, Oatmeal, & Absurdity: My Transformation fron Cynicism to Gratitude

I’ll admit it, when it comes to social media I’m more than a little bit cynical. In fact when it comes to most things I’m more than a little bit cynical. When I heard about instagram I thought it was trivial and a bit narcissistic. My impression was that there were thousands of people out there taking pictures of their food or themselves, and that they thought there was nothing in the world more important than what they were consuming or what they looked like. I thought what an absurd world we live in where we spend our time looking at other people’s food or lives constantly through our phones.
Rather than sit on the sidelines and watch the absurdity I thought I could become a part of it. I wanted to prove how absurd the whole concept of instagram was by gaining as many followers as possible with the dullest possible topic. I decided to consistently document what could arguably be the least interesting and most monotonous part of my day. A bowl of oatmeal. A plain bowl of brown oats is not the most interesting subject in the world to photograph, but I was determined to gain an audience.
Every day I would photograph my oatmeal, add a caption, and like some pictures of oats. Slowly I began gaining popularity. People began liking (hearting?), following and anticipating my morning bowl of plain oatmeal. But gradually through this routine I began to change. I began to look at my oatmeal artistically. Having to pause and look at my meal, instead of scarfing it down without a second thought, actually led me to enjoy eating it more. I appreciated the warm meal I had. I suddenly was surrounded by a group of people who were actually excited about oatmeal, and it started making me more excited about it. Although I’m kind of a negative person in reality, I was aboundingly positive in all my instagram posts. The online persona began to influence the reality. I grew more positive, thankful, and excited for the little, mundane, the ordinary, and the consistent things in my life. And I realized a secret, that all an ordinary thing needs to become something extraordinary is to be appreciated, to be enjoyed, to be delighted in.
What had began as an act of cynicism had become an exercise of gratitude. I had originally thought it absurdly indulgent that people people would delight and document their meals. I then realized life is much better when we delight in even the most trivial or mundane aspects of our lives, because life and everything in it is a gift.

A Well Ordered Life

I am a person who likes his clothes scattered about the floor, his hair unkempt, and his work piled up all over his desk. In other words order and organization do not come naturally to me. Chaos can often comfort me, aide in my creativity. However it also has downsides it is a distraction to my productivity, it feeds distraction rather than focus, and it clutters up my bid’ness. Because of the latter reasons, I’ve been working on creating a well ordered life. While I’m still musing on how to apply this principle to my life as a whole, I’ve begun applying it to different pockets of my life. I began by pairing down my sentimental/photo/junk items. Growing up we moved around a lot, and as a result I have an odd habit of holding onto random objects or pictures that remind me of the past. Now I’m not saying it’s bad to have keepsakes and the like, but it’s also not ok to be a pack rat. Eventually the time comes when I started to wonder why I’m moving these boxes around with me that I rarely open, and what’s inside them. I open them to discover old hobbies, significant memorabilia, and junk that might have held some significance in the past but now is just adding poundage to the overall weight of the items I own. Facing the pile of junk and memorabilia I did a good job getting rid of things so that I won’t have to open the boxes and start throwing things away again. When in doubt throw it out. Keep only what is really significant. So I did a lot of throwing away, in that department, it felt pretty good in fact. Later on I’ll have to go back and give order to all the old photos, and memorabilia, but for now its a step in the right direction. The next area I have been adding order to is my library. In particular I have been cataloging my books in an attempt to both get a feel for all that I have, and to allow me to easily find what I’m looking for. In order to expedite the process I purchased program called Delicious Library. It is a mac program which is free to try (up to 25 items I think) check it out here. Basically it allows you to catalogue & sort your library digitally, either by scanning, entering the ISBN, or searching for you book. Although I’m using it for my library you can use it for other items such as cds, dvds, and pretty much anything with a barcode that is on amazon. It even allows you to check out items to people so you can remember who forgot to return Little Women to you. I’m not finished with the book project as I’m still working on sorting out some categories, should I create a category for my favorite authors or put their books in the categories which they address? These are the problems that plague me and keep me up at night… Not really I sleep like a baby… with clothes scattered about the floor.

Being Present

We are living in a generation that records life instead of experiencing it. As if an entire film crew were only cameramen with no actors to push the plot forward. Technology seems to be providing us with more and more opportunities to be absent. Where ever we are or whatever we are doing, the temptation is to be somewhere else, talking to someone else. I have to make a conscious decision not to answer my phone or check my texts when having a serious conversation with someone. The question is why? Why should we ignore present company to talk to people elsewhere? Is it envy? The idea that no matter where we are there is someplace better we could be looking or thinking about. The idea that there is someone more interesting or likable than the person in front of me that I could be talking with instead. Are we addicted to stimulation? We have to have some sort of constant interaction, a piece of new information, a new message. I’m not sure exactly why we are displaying these new types of behavior, but the one thing I’m sure of is that it takes us out of the present. Perhaps we are more comfortable dealing with the past so we are recording the present for enjoyment later. Or maybe we are uncomfortable in the present. We become nervous and stressed when we are actually wholly physically, mentally, and emotionally in this particular place and time. In the present moment you are forced to endure whatever exists, as it exists. In many ways you are exposed, people see how you are… not how you portray yourself. The real world can’t be ignored, turned off, reloaded, downvoted, hidden from our feed, or opened in another tab. Being present forces us to be aware of both ourselves and our surroundings as they exist. Technology has opened up a new frontier for us. The frontier of the present reality. The opportunity to explore our physical surroundings and the people around us. This area is left bare, completely untouched, as most people are not present, but absent. 

Stop looking at your screen. Look around you. Explore. Interact. Be Present

I’ll Be Back

This is just to announce that I am going to start attempting to increase my output. That means starting to blog again. I’ve also noticed they’ve changed my theme since I was last here. It looks pretty crappy, I’ll have to update it. So I know this is a short post but… I’ll be back. 

To England

Dear England or London more particularly,
Thank you for your delicious tea. Our tea is quite inferior, and I’ll admit it I have tea envy. However I must address something I believe is quite a serious problem. It makes me very uncomfortable to even bring up. I thought that you were supposed to be a civilized and refined society, these notions must be very antiquated for what I found in that capital city was the epitome of barbarism and avarice. The United States is often referred to the Land of the Free, but I had no idea this was in reference to the use of public toilets. London it is a cruel thing to charge men and women to do what nature requires them to do, yet your social structures and laws prevents them to publicly. To force a tax on men and women simply to relieve themselves is rather a mean and inhospitable act of extortion, for when nature calls and will not be denied, what recourse does an individual have but to pay the bathroom attendant (or machine)?

Which brings me to my second point of contention with the city of London. You’re expensive. In fact you’re unreasonably expensive. Unfortunately for some reason we were unreasonably stupid and paid your exorbitant fees for everything. Other than Cornish Pastries, I think everything was just made more expensive for the sake of making it more expensive. I should have expected this from a city that would charge someone for merely having to use the restroom, but poor American sap that I am it blindsided me.

As if to compensate for everything else being so expensive I appreciate the gesture (I always have to check the spelling of that word thanks to the game guesstures) of offering many of your museums free of charge. I especially appreciate that within these museums individuals are allowed to use the restroom or WC as you call it, without having to pay for the privilege of relieving oneself.

Also on an unrelated note that you for some of your television series. We thoroughly enjoy the soap Dowton Abbey and have just begun the wonderful Jeeves & Wooster series with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.
Sincerely,

An American Tourist

Being Yourself

The first topic from a random topic generator which caused me to stop and consider writing. A topic that is at once intensely personal and strangely universal.

I think that I spend a lot of time thinking about who I want to become but not as much time thinking about who I am. I want to be in better shape, I want to write griping stories, speak more eloquently, teach effectively, and care about people sincerely. But that is more about becoming what I want myself to be and not being myself.

I think I often don’t think about myself since I so easily see my faults that the idea of being myself seems to indicate a complacency about the parts of myself which I should change. I think, ironically, that when people tell others to “be themselves” they are asking them to change who they are. They are asking them to put down their façade, to be more vulnerable, or to allow themselves access to a part of the person which the person may not be willing to show.

This brings up an interesting question, “If putting up a facade or a wall is the habit of a person, does that become a part of the person or is the person behind that.” In other words if a person acts shy, but inwardly has many opinions to express is the shyness any less a part of them than being opinionated?

But I digress from my introspection. I think that being yourself involves embracing and strengthening what is good about yourself. Being the you that you like, accept, and want to encourage. We all have parts of us that we want to eliminate our cowardice, our anger, our impatience, our lust, or our clumsiness. But being yourself means doing what you’re good at, being the you that you enjoy. It helps us to define ourselves more by our strengths. It means making others laugh if we think we’re funny, it means being creative it we think ourselves artistic, it means being there for a friend if we think ourselves loyal. It is a call to be both true to ourselves and to exercise our skills to the best of our abilities.

If I were a teacher the first thing I would do would be…

If I were a teacher the first thing I would do would be to give my class some perspective. Perspective not just about the class, but about life and purpose. I would ask them to evaluate what they really wanted out of life. Whether it be family, money, respect, friendship, etc. Then I would ask them if they were pursuing that goal. Whether or not they were really going after the things in life that matter. Second, I would have them list out a set of values. Values that shape and define them. I would ask them to make values based decisions. Many people have mental values that they never act upon. You have the executive who values family time, yet works overtime at his job for his family. His decisions don’t match his values, and this process could continue indefinitely if he never examines the way in which he makes decisions. I would emphasize to my class that the work they did in my class is valuable for a few reasons. First, it is valuable for the since the subject has valuable and is useful in life. Second, in the class they will develop skills and abilities, the most critical of which is learning more new skills and abilities. Third, the grade they receive may help them in graduating, and pursuing their goals outside of the classroom. I will emphasize that their participation in class is important but that it is not the most important thing in life. Their grade in particular is not the most important thing in life. Family for example is more important than getting a good grade. If they had to sacrifice their grade to spend more time with their family or fulfill family obligations that would be a good values based decision. Their character is more important than the grade they receive. It would be better to be an honest person with a poor grade than to be a liar with a higher average. In the end being an honest person is more important than having a flawless GPA. I’ve had teachers tell me some of these things, some of them I have learned on my own. Whenever I encounter teachers who are honest about the importance of life outside of the classroom, I tend to do learn more from them, sometimes about their subject but always about life.

In an effort to continue giving you more posts. I selected today’s topic from this website and used the write or die web app to motivate me to write for 10 min.

Writing Activity 1: Recalling a Learning Experience, What I leaned in the warehouse.

Like most people who have a blog tucked away somewhere upon the vast cyberscape of internet, I aspire to be a better writer. Lately, as the two people who check my blog have noticed, my aspirations far outweigh my effort. As a result of this lack of effort my blog grows old, dusty and covered in cobwebs. I of course use the excuse that I am either too busy or that I have nothing to write about. In an attempt to eliminate the latter excise and to instill some discipline to this craft, I am returning to an old college writing book. I remember the book for its useful writing exercises. Now, I return to it, like an overweight ex-athlete, to exercise once more.

Exercise one: Recall a memorable learning experience that you have had, either in school or outside. Describe that experience and explain why it has had a lasting impact on you. Discuss how the experince has contributed to your development as a thinker and writer.

In May of 2011, I was thrust into the working world. It was not an unfamiliar place to me. I’ve had many jobs landscaping, grading, photographing of ancient manuscripts, putting up drywall, managing a shop, directing a camp, leading international trips, but all these were temporal dips into the working force. It would be full time for a summer or part time during the school year. But this was different, after decades of academia with many degrees in my pocket I was setting out to become a permanent member of the workforce.

However, things didn’t go exactly as I planned. Despite all the degrees, and the various jobs I’d worked, I couldn’t seem to land a job in my field. Any job that I made any headway into, eventually went with someone older, someone more experienced. I felt a little bit cheated by the promises of the education system.

Being unable to obtain a job with my degrees, or resume. I entered the workforce through my connections and my willingness to do manual labor. I got a job in an unconditioned warehouse doing manual labor mostly with people making minimum wage. I can’t say that the job was glamorous, but it was steady work. I was labeling boxes. Taping boxes. Stacking boxes. Filling boxes. I was doing a lot of box work.

Working in the warehouse, I learned quite a bit, mostly about people. I learned that you never really know how people end up where they are. I grew up with the subtly implanted cultural idea that people who have to work hard manual labor jobs are losers or that they have failed at life. It was the idea of, “You’d better study hard you don’t want to grow up and work in a warehouse.” As someone who studied hard, got two degrees, etc, then graduated in a depressed economy, then got a job in a warehouse. I feel that I had been lied to. I also felt like it is a lie that getting a job doing hard work is a bad thing. The world relies on hard work, without manual labor our world would fall apart. Secondly I learned that the idea that people are poor because they don’t work hard is a a lie. Whatever job I take on I try to push myself in. While I was at the warehouse, I tried to be the most productive and useful worker I could be. But even working at my hardest and my fastest, I wasn’t nearly as good as Freddie. While working here I learned to use a tape gun faster than I thought humanly possible, but if I was working next to Freddie, it would look like I was going slow. Freddie was hired through a staffing service which means not only was he making less than me hourly he was also having parts of paycheck go back to the staffing service. He was as hard a worker as I had ever seen and by most people’s standards he would be considered poor.

Lastly I learned that most white collar workers aren’t necessarily hard workers. I found this out on my last week of work. My boss and my supervisor told me that they were disappointed I was leaving. During my last few weeks they had been giving me more and more responsibility. I found out that when I first started they gave me more menial jobs, because the other white-collar/college student type workers that were sent to that department had poor work ethics. Because I got the job through a connection and because of my degrees they thought I would just coast through the job and be a menial and lethargic worker.

Through my job at the warehouse I gained an appreciation for hard work, hard times, and hard workers.

Restless Soul

Sometimes your soul gets restless and it wander in the room looking for a place to lay it’s head and sleep. But none of the spots it finds are quite good enough, so it stays on its feet. Sometimes you soul gets restless cause it gets too stiff from sitting under the same bridge too long. Deep down it knows it’s been time to keep trucking on. Sometimes your soul gets restless cause there’s a nameless fear that creeps and crawls in the shadows. Sometimes it’s close and sometimes it’s far. But you only get glimpses of it but never a good look. You know its not a big threat but it bothers you on those still and quiet nights, when you’re alone with your thoughts and yourself and nobody else. Sometimes your soul is restless because it’s got too much love to give, and it feels as though your arms are too weak, your feet are too shy, and your eyes are to dry, and time is too fast. Because you know there people your hands should be hugging and helping. You know the poor places are where your feet should be running. You know your eyes should be crying with the heart-broken. But time moves fast, and work drags on. So your soul stays restless for far to many nights, while you try to distract yourself with a thousand different delights. But it only distracts your mind, because your soul won’t rest, it won’t rest before it has what it’s searching for.

5 Songs For a Melow Day

Start things off with Challengers by the New Pornogrophers.

Then you bring in Jeff Buckley singing Hallelujah (Rufus doesn’t cut it for me personally, also props to Leonard Cohen for creating such a poignant song)

Then throw in The National for good measure with Little Faith.

Followed by Jesus etc by Wilco

Finish it up with Evaporated by Ben Folds (because there aren’t any good Not Dark Yet videos by Dylan)

Hope you enjoyed.