A Pixelated Mind

Wanna see what I’ve been doing during my vacation?

Pixel — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:28:27 +0000

89. When I was 14 I made a conscious decision to be honest and stop making up stories. As a direct result, I’ve become a terrible, terrible liar.

"... Dad??"

… And now, back to semi-retirement.

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‘C’ for Cookie

Pixel — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:31:59 +0000

88. I am a citizen of the world, but only two countries recognize my nationality: Mexico and the U.S. So weird.

What’s this? Am I eating a cookie? How did that come about?

Well, I’m glad you ask, World. See, it started with this post. I won some cookies… and… yesterday, my cousin received an envelope that suggested: Do Not Bend.

I don’t think I look much like her. What do you think?

Hmm.. I wonder how they delivered it with the address all blacked out like that?

And now inside…

I seriously don’t know what’s wrong with me: I didn’t take any pictures of the actual cookies. WTF??

But I did take a picture of us about to sit down for some good peanut butter and sugar cookies:

In the end: Narfna rulez. Why can’t more of you send me cookies?

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Rigid Definitions

Pixel — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:55:16 +0000

87. I’m afraid of waiters, secretaries, and janitors. Seriously. They have so much power over such a small area of your life that I fear angering them.

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110O!

Pixel — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:57:45 +0000

86. I wore braces all of senior year in high school and into my first semester of college. I don’t know why, though, because my teeth were never that bad. I guess I just wanted to fit in.

Hey, last year this was my birthday, so I sort of feel I owe it to myself to talk about it. But now I’ve decided to take a break from getting older, so this day won’t signify my turning older, but pushing my birthday one year further. That’s right. Yesterday, I was born in 1982, but from today until May 28, 2009, I’ll have been born in 1983. You understand.

Happy birthday to me?

p.s. No, I’m still gone, I just wrote this entry before I left so that you would be like “wha…?” I’ll write something of note soon.

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nabµf #14 of 29

Pixel — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:39:15 +0000

85. I worry I share too much. I also don’t worry that I share too much. But it turns out I rarely worry about sharing the right things at the right times.

Pixel was the kind of guy that would leave at any occasion. He often found himself going on vacation, international study, and even just moving for no reason. And, as Pixel made friends everywhere he went, this meant that half the time his leaving was (partly) to go visit other friends. Pixel’s life was a very hectic one.

In fact, one fine day, Pixel moved to Seattle. He did it because he wanted to earn money for his plans that year: he wanted to travel the world during the summer. He also moved because he had some friends in Seattle and he figured they would let him stay with them.

Pixel arrived with very little money and no prospects for a job or an apartment. He spent two weeks looking for an apartment before it became painfully obvious to him that he was wearing out his welcome with his friends Yoshi and Bekkah. See, Yoshi and Bekkah each had a studio apartment, so for two weeks they never had a moment to themselves.

Pixel knew he had to find his own solution.

Pixel panicked. Obviously.

He scoured Craigslist for job vacancies, but his only hope was a Deus Ex Machina: that is, a literary device in which all of his problems would be solved as if by a God from a Machine. ¹

Unfortunately, when his Machina did come, Pixel didn’t move out of the way in time and the Deus squished him.

p.s. Bye bye! See you in August!

————

It’s a very common transport for literary gods.

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Punching Elderly Pigeons

Pixel — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:11:08 +0000

84. I get really into board games. This is probably a bad thing. Actually, I get into games really easily. I just get tired of them as soon as I beat them. That’s probably not a bad thing.

I’ve been steadily worse about my posting since I decided I was going to go on hiatus for the summer. I’m like the Office: I get bad to make you feel better about the fact that I’m going to go on hiatus soon. I think this way you’ll be like “well, his last few posts weren’t so good, so it’s better that he left.” I could have gone with another approach and left on a high note, but I’ve found myself steadily less inspired since early April. My Moleskine got to the point where I would use my ideas as soon as I came up with them. And, since this is more of a blog about ideas than events, it got to the point that I would be afraid of just writing filler in order to keep up posting. I mean, think how angry you’d be if you read a post that began:

So the other day I was thinking about lint…

Actually, I think that part of the reason my posting has been lagging is that I’m now blond. Also because I’ve been been busy trying to get my affairs in order (Was her name Julie or Janet?). I’ve gotten really bad at planning ahead in the past few years, so I end up doing everything half-way and in a hurry. Hence my packing at 2 in the morning.

Anyway, Courtney just commented that she was going to miss me when I’m gone. Aww… If you guys want, I’ll go into semi-retirement and post sporatically throughout the summer? How’s that work for everyone? Also, I leave at four in the morning tomorrow, so my retirement will be official as of then. Sorry for telling you this way (at midnight). Bye now!

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There, there, shut up little girl.

Pixel — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:28:25 +0000

83. I’ve gone to the ER far more times than I’d care to remember. But I’ve never stayed overnight at a hospital. Doctors scare me.

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And that was when I stopped caring

Pixel — Sun, 18 May 2008 02:09:54 +0000

82. None of the products in my bathroom were tested on animals.

So I’ve decided to extend my contest a bit to give people more time to enter. PLUS: I’m going to be traveling in a third-world country soon, and everybody loves lead-based toys and candy, right?

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Evolutionary Aesthetics

Pixel — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:56:57 +0000

81. I’m a really, really bad vegetarian: I basically hate vegetables. If boca burgers didn’t exst, I think I’d've died by now.

On the realm of loving to think, this occurred to me a few weeks ago when I was in Arizona for a photography blah-blah. ¹

Aesthetics is an evolutionary by-product. The thought popped into my head while looking at a (very beautiful) picture of a cup. I thought: why does this black and white cup just draw me in so much? Why do I keep staring at it? Then I thought, “I could make an image like this” and I looked down at the front entrance where beams of light streamed though the windows. I positioned myself in the exact space where the light was most beautiful and took a mental image. Then I thought:

Why is this exact position so much more appealing than any other angle?

Then, I realized that as I kept staring, my gaze would wander or I’d move my head just slightly to change the angle. And it struck me:

This isn’t the most beautiful angle, it’s the most appealing and attractive angle!

Big difference.

See, my brain saw the beams of light hit the floor and wall and instantly saw it as important. It thought:

this is different. This might be useful, or it might be threatening, either way it is novel and I should pay attention to it. I should look at it from a different angle.

And that is why I kept looking at it. I kept staring to see if it would change and when it didn’t, I tried to change how I was looking at it.

Recall the earlier photograph of a cup (or shovel, whatever). My mind stared at it and became enthralled over the possibility that such a phenomenon could exist in the world. It was captivated by it because it wanted to analyze it more closely or differently - - - but I couldn’t!

More broadly speaking, the reason we are attracted to certain things² is because our unconscious mind is trying to understand the objects (be they photos, sculptures, or paintings), but is limited in its appraisal process (by the frame or scope or whatnot). This makes it get stuck in a loop where it becomes extremely interested in something, it gets frustrated in the endeavor, and becomes drawn to it that much more.

Thus, the goal of a person seeking to make truly brilliant creative endeavors is to create something precisely limited in scope, but limited in the exact way that would unconsciously attract a person to it. Something is ‘good’ art to the extent that it does that effectively, bad art if it does not.

I’m probably really wrong about this,³ but my interest in aesthetics is only fleeting, so it doesn’t bother me if I’m wrong.

(This post was written with my eyes closed. Let’s see you do tht and not make a typo!)

————

Photos included for illustrative purposes, not because they were the ones that inspired me.
according to me
If only because I reduce a subjective experience to it’s evolutionary past.

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Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts [part 1 of 2 of (part 2 of 2)]

Daniel — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:54:08 +0000

80. My circle of friends hasn’t really changed since middle school. This alone makes me want to leave New Mexico.

This is Daniel’s long awaited response,

In a recent conversation, Pixel and I argued whether or not “streets-smarts” was anything beyond a made-up term that stupid people used to make fun of the smart. My friend doesn’t think that street-smarts exist, and originally I might have agreed, until my friend “the walking dictionary” decided to start researching the different types of “smarts.”

I’ll play devil’s advocate; this is my defense for the existence of street-smarts. The problem with street-smarts is that it remains nearly impossible to define with any clarity. Furthermore, the examples about the nature of street-smarts create a sliding slope of puzzling interpretations. The difficultly with language and terms is nothing new. The nature of words have always created serious problems for those who study their logical forms. Take the word “chair” for example. The word chair can be easily misunderstood with the simplest of alterations to its form. A chair is something a person can sit on, it often has four legs, and supports the human figure. Yet when does a chair become a seat, bench, stool, place, or settlement? If the legs were removed would it still be a chair? Does a chair need to be made from wood or metal? The truth is that words can become very complex things, but this is nothing we didn’t already know before.

There have been several objections to language and the troubles their terms create, yet language remains one of the most important developments ever made. My friend Pixel doesn’t believe street-smarts exist, I might have agreed before, but I don’t now. Neither does the chair. The importance of words should not be restricted to rigid definitions, because this would make discussions impossible. A chair is nothing more than a word. Like ’street-smarts,’ what matters is what the connection implies. When I tell my brother that my friend Carlos can’t do anything without the direction of a book, this criticism will never appear in the dictionary, but my implication suggest some element the two of us can relate. The term street-smarts only exists because it contains something people can use to relate the implications, these words offer the means to meaning, and are only instruments of our ability to share.

Thus, unless Pixel is willing to toss out the rest of the dictionary, street smarts must stay.

(Editor’s note: Part One can be found here.)

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Blindness

Pixel — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:35:54 +0000

79. I’ve needed glasses since I was in fifth grade, but I didn’t get them for eight months because my mom couldn’t believe that her darling son didn’t have perfect vision. How F’ed up is that?

I start a lot of projects without finishing them. Sometimes I start them never intending to finish them. One of my oldest projects (so old, in fact, that I don’t have a link to when I started it) is to read all of the books that have won a Nobel Prize, or have had any major impact in the literary scene. Ashley just posted about something similar.

Well, now I’m sort of getting back onto that project. I’ve been a lame-o this year and have only read The Three Musketeers for my ‘read your weight in books’ project, but I’m finally getting back into that into the project by reading the Nobel Literature Winning Novel “Un Ensayo Sobre la Seguera.” This doubles its impact because it also helps me with my other project: that of ‘making my Spanish not suck so bad.’

It’s a good book. If you doubt it, just check out the trailer for the movie they’re making out of it. I, personally, can’t wait.

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nabµf #13 of 29

Pixel — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:16:56 +0000

78. I twice had long(ish) hair. I claim I’ve had red, yellow, and pink hair, but most of the time I’m exaggerating. (We had no idea what we were doing at the time.)

Pixel was invited to his younger cousin’s graduation. She talked to him about high school and he reminisced about the crazy things he did in his youth.

“Like when you painted your hair blue?” his cousin asked. Pixel had never dyed his hair blue, but he did pose in a blue wig for a photograph once. He kept this photo in his wallet as proof that he did crazy things in his youth. He didn’t show it to anyone, because he didn’t want them to think he was crazy. But he did mention it constantly, though. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to see that,” his cousin continued.

“Yeah, I did crazy things back then,” Pixel lied vociferously. “I should do it again for your graduation.”

So Pixel decided to dye his hair blue despite his cousin’s objections that she was joking.

Pixel bought some hair dye and bleaching products so that his friend’s girlfriend could do the unmentionable thing to his hair. First, they bleached it and Pixel’s hair turned a magnificent shade of yellow. But, since it was blue they were after, they had to bleach it again.

They did not realize the first bleach had washed out all of his scalp’s natural oils. Pixel, not having bleached his hair twice in a row before, was not expecting the feeling of 10,000 red ants biting his scalp as the peroxide ate at his skull. He also was not expecting the toxic fumes his head was emitting to be deadly.

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Enter now, supplies are limited, entry is not

Pixel — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:55:12 +0000

77. My parents immigrated to the United States in 1987. As a direct result, I sort of want to thwack people whenever they talk about immigration (illegal or otherwise). Frankly, there are very few people I consider qualified to talk about the subject in any in-depth way.

I’m doing it. I’m going to have a contest. Hey, I might as well, right? You guys are like, fans and stuff.

This particular contest begins as an offshoot of this contest. I’ve entered several identical contests since then, but haven’t received anything yet (despite winning one a few weeks back). So I’ve decided to hold my contest now rather than later because I’m impatient like that.

This contest is a Pay-It-Forward-style giveaway. I send a care package¹ to three of the people that comment on this post. Each of those people then holds a similar contest online and sends a similar package to three other people.

In my particular version of this contest,² two names will be chosen at random from whomever comments and one will be chosen based on their ability to stump me. All you have to do is think of a general knowledge question that I cannot answer. (No Google.) You can ask as many questions as you want, but the winning question will be be something I should know but currently don’t.

Ask me anything you want, I’ll answer what I can and keep you updated on who is winning.

The contest ends on Saturday. Comment now, comment often, and let’s see if you can Stump Pixel. Good luck!

————

with notebooks, pens, stickers, maybe a plush bunny of some sort
It’s been well-documented (Here, here, here) that I’m really bad at following memes without introducing my own personal mutation.

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Sometimes I feel my life is a Dinosaur Comic

Pixel — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:58:20 +0000

76. I’ve kept a digital diary since Sunday, November 19, 2000. Nobody will ever read it, but it’s really whiny and tells a lot of secrets that I’ll take to my grave. I’d delete it, but it sort of reminds me of how far I’ve come: now I whine to the world.

Dear World,

I was going to print a comic today. Then Photoshop stopped working. I fear that the people that sold me this machine were only letting me use the program for a few months before they reclaimed it. I e-mailed them as soon as Photoshop announced it was shutting me out and they seemed genuinely concerned for a few steps, advising me to do things no non-hacker would know how to do. I only grew suspicious when they offered to help pay for me to ship my laptop to them to ‘fix,’ but were unwilling to do the same for the far cheaper installation CDs.

Then I was going to put up one of those newfangled ‘podcasts,’ until I realized that my friend and I have no idea what we’re doing and what we produce looks like poo.

So instead, I’m going to tell you all that I’m going to quit blogging. At least for the foreseeable future.

I mentioned two weeks ago that I was going to be traveling the world for the next few months (but not to any new places. New places scare me). I tried to write triple the blog posts over these past few weeks (in order to build up a backlog), but then I realized I wasn’t Stephen King and that I only really ever had one talking point for any given day.

Since I wasn’t very good at updating when I traveled last year, I won’t even try this year. This means that after May 20th (when I leave), May 29th (my birthday), or June 4th (when I finally reach 100 facts about me), I won’t be updating until mid-August.

Please subscribe to my feed or contact me if you wish to be updated when I come back. I’ll remind you about this on whichever day I decide will be my last.

p.s. I just donated $65 to the World Food Programme (because they’ve already gotten a few tonnes of food and medicine into Myanmar). I’ve made it a recurring donation, because I’ve decided to donate at least 1 percent (and possibly 2 percent) of my yearly income to charity. This means that I’mna donate some $250-500 per year for the next few years, possibly to other charities as well.

p.p.s. I keep meaning to update my blogroll. Apologies to those not currently on it.

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Silly media

Pixel — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:47:00 +0000

75. I went into college as a Journalism major and graduated as a journalism major, but I never had any illusions of desiring to be a journalist.

I actually hate it when people attack ‘the media.’ I’ve probably stated why in the past, but for those of you too lazy to click on links, I’ll summarize my previous position here:

There is no singular ‘media.’ Media refers to many individual mediums. It’s a form of mass communication: it’s a tool to reach people. As a tool, it seems silly to accuse it of being biased or sensationalistic. I think what people mean when they attack ‘the media’ is ‘the press,’ which is a set of journalists, pundits, politicians, operatives, and specialists that devote themselves to a particular trade.

That’s generally been the reason I hate it when people attack ‘the media.’ Because by doing so, they assume that the media is one unified entity, whereas in reality it is dozens of organizations that are all influenced by events and each other.

Jon Stewart thinks about the media as a bunch of six year olds playing soccer. They all huddle to the ball and kick it around a bit, then when someone kicks it away, they all run after it. He thinks it’s ’scandal driven.’ Which it is.

My point, and it’s a small one, is that I want people to stop attacking ‘the media,’ because it will never change if we don’t start saying what we mean.

My solution is the simple, obvious one. Instead of attacking the media, we should attack individuals and shows. How soon would media coverage change if people would say stuff like, “this isn’t helped by scandal-driven shows like AC360, Countdown, and the O’Reilly Factor.”

In other words: ‘media’ has no accountability. You can attack it all day long and nothing will change. But if you pick and choose various members of the media in order to point out particular aspects that you don’t approve of, wouldn’t that inspire change?

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