Saturday, December 27, 2008

This is a really Nerdy post.

Did you know that you can mathematically prove why some sounds sound good to our ear, and others sound like they are clashing? That's just awesome. I never really looked into it before. I knew it was possible but i never understood much about the way it worked.

I saw a wave graph of two notes. C and E. The waves intersect at predictable, repeatable intervals. I guess this makes sense thinking about how it sounds. Then another graph of C and D was displayed. The dissonance was clearly visible. The two waves looked terrible together.

This makes me think people can sometimes be compared to sound. Sometimes my "sound wave" looks like this when combined with someone else's:



























Then other people make it look like this:




























So much nicer.

Can I explain this? No. Can I describe the exact differences? Usually no. But its obvious. Kind of like how you couldn't verbalize all the mental calculations needed to throw a ball through a hoop, but actually doing it is easy.

The last third of 2008 has really been great for good graphs in my world. Props to awesome friends. Here's to the impending 2009 and hoping none of you out there have any interactions of the first graph kind.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

10:11pm and no one around...

Right now....10:11 pm, I'm trying to work on my Anthropology paper. How well is that going you ask? Well, I'm writing this....so it must not be going that well. In an attempt to study better, Im going to perform a mental memory flush......

I have like ten billion little things running around in my head so here goes. (in no order)
1. Why do teachers like to leave 50% of the coursework for the last 20% of the semester?
2. Why is it so hard to make time for reading Jesus books and devotions, but so easy to spend time researching car parts or playing my guitar?
3. Why doesn't winzip just give their product away for free. Practically everyone i know pirates it anyway...
4. Why can't I seem to concentrate on anything for more than 20 mins?
5. Why can't computers just work right all the time, instead of forcing me to draw out my computer skills sword and force them into submission?
6. Just how dangerous is x-ray radiation?
7. What does anesthesia feel like? (I'm gonna get to find this one out over Christmas break)
8. Who really controls how much oil costs?
9. Why can I look at a girl and think she is cute/attractive/awesome and that she has qualities I want, and yet whatever it is that has previously motivated me to get a girlfriend in the past, is now gone. Now I'm deathly afraid of drama and am scared that ANY girl I date will be as drama queen-ish as my previous GF's. (with one exception) It's like my subconscious is telling me "STAY AWAY FROM THEM! They'll just use you. They'll eat your time and money and make you feel like poo!" and then I tell it "NO! you shush! They are pretty and smell nice and I like them!". Then my subconscious and i get in this big argument...so far it keeps winning. I guess thats the skeleton in my closet :s
10. aoleiusrlasjdlfenflsdnflewjflsjdfljlawekjflsdkfffalse;sjfljsfl!!!!!!!!....?
11. Why is it so hard to say no? Plain, simple, no. "Hey Ryan do you want to (insert common group activity)?" I should just be able to say "no thanks, I don't want to." I just know people will then ask "why don't you want to do (whatever)?" and then get all upset. Prepare yourselves, Ryan is learning how to say no.
12. When are we gonna get snow for real? Im talking like two or three feet of it.
13. Why do some teachers really just not have a CLUE about their students, when they've been teaching for longer than I've been alive?
14. Why can't more time exist for friendships?


Anyway thats a little bit of what my mind is running through. Ugh....I don't know if that helped. I apologize to the zero people that read this for that boring post. Free speech sucka!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

#00046

That's the ticket number I held tonight at the concert in Elkhorn, NE. Andrew Peterson and friends shared their musical talents with us, and I am completely speechless. I wish I had half of their talent and knowledge. It was simply amazing. Thanks go to Ben and Emily who have been introducing me to this music. Wow. I didn't take pictures, but the sounds of guitars, cello, banjo, slide guitar, piano, drums, cymbals, mandolin, bass, and voices still fill my ears.

In other news I am trying to figure out where all my free time is going. I mean lately life has seemed pretty busy and that is WITHOUT having/chasing a significant other. How the heck did I have time for a girlfriend before lol? Priorities I guess eh? Anyway its all good because Ive been really feeling content with that, so much so that I almost feel wierd about feeling so happy being single. What irony!

I guess if I think about it, I know where a lot of my free time is going, and, for the most part, Im perfectly content with that too :)

Monday, December 01, 2008

Culture

I'm reading the book "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri for my Lit class, and it's really reminding me of my love for culture.

The story that starts off with a newly married Bengali couple, headed to the United States so that Ashoke, the man, can start his teaching career. Ashima, his wife, spends a lot of time reflecting on memories of home, and inwardly struggles with homesickness. The story is set in the 1960's and the only communication with her home halfway around the world is through letters. A few phone calls happen as well, but those are primarily the source of bad news.

This book makes me wish I had the chance to grow up in such a culture. It makes me understand better how people from other culture's react to ours. Ironically, I think I better understand one of my exs now. It makes me as an american want to drink in that culture; to soak up as much as possible and learn every custom and tradition. In a unique way that is so different from American life. Perhaps, somewhere out there a Bengali child wishes the same thing, but reversed.

Every page elicit's a new "wow", and a new understanding for everything american. Its shocking, the comparitave general lack of respect for family and others that american's have, when viewed from a very culturally different background.

I hope this does not fall on deaf ears when I say this, but in a world thats rapidly becoming more and more modernized (westernized) when you see a glimpse of culture, cherish it and respect it. Try and understand it and learn from it. Be patient with it, becuase it might disapear faster than you think.