Staticfree Blog

I've recently observed that my life could be broken down to a series of chairs and wireless connections, roaming with a backpack, tech and a book. I'm a digital nomad with my home on my back: a glowing screen with my world inside. I like it this way - being connected as I roam - as I can be free yet not isolated. My world travels with me, varying in company, bandwidth and comfyness.

Right now I'm sitting in the near-closed Garage in Harvard Square, listening to some homeless men discuss the world as they know it. I type and listen, idly skimming websites as I go.

Time has passed now, and I sit on the train - off to another chair and wireless, releasing ideas and musings to the ether. The men were an intriguing crowd - certainly not what I had suspected, but not entirely unlike my preconceived stereotypes.

As I sat there on my island of music and 'net, more men started congregating around the table next to me. They all seemed to know each other and were mutually decompressing after a seemingly good day. They had been ignoring me until a tall, thick man walked in the nearby door. Rich (whose name I later found out osmoticlly) decided to "break the ice" by confronting me as though he were a gay man being all too forceful and untactful at asking me for a one night stand. I was very confused at first - as he seemed to play the part well - and did not seem to get my "leave me alone" vibes. After a tense moment or two, he let up and stated that he was only joking. Cute, really cute, but it was all too obvious that there was some deep set homophobia in him. He later admitted such, although he was statedly tolerant of homosexuals. His primary argument was that he didn't want "them" trying to "convert" him. I hope my generation will be better when we're his age.

Time went on, I listened as I read. There was talk about people: a collective brainstorm to remember a near forgotten body of the past; talk of jobs: memories from before, from the good times; talk of hope and compassion: wishing absent acquaintances better times with their abusive boyfriends and dead-end lives. I hung around until the Garage closed and said goodbye. My dose of surreality had been filled for the day.

Back "home", now in the comfiest of chairs and connected with the most bandwidth, I now write and think. Those men gave me a brief glimpse into their world, but what do I give in return? What can someone who feels as though they have all that they want, give someone who does not? In my mind I let these questions simmer and stew; perhaps something rich will result from them when I discover their answers.

Robert B. Aderholt just can't get enough God in his government. So, like last year, he proposes an act to let church and state mix, if they desire. This year, it's the Constitution Restoration Act of 2004. Last year, it was the Ten Commandments Defense Act, but that must have been a bit too religious-sounding. Ah, I love conservative agendas. They really make me wonder why so many people feel they should control other people's lives and what they do with themselves.

New photos in Guster/:

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I just stopped by Lorem Ipsum Books in Inman Square today and it was good. It's a brand-new used book store specializing in "useful books". It was started (at least in part) by Matt Mankins, an intriguing guy who keeps popping up on my radar.

Lorem Ipsum deviates from the homey, stuffy classic used book store atmosphere and is instead well-lit, neat and spacious, with cushions by the window for you to sit and read. Their selection is quite good for having just started 2 weeks ago, and I managed to find both Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams in the Sci-Fi section. I picked up a nice copy of Flatland, which was hiding on the shelves looking rather lonely. It's a wonderful thing to walk into a book store and see not only many books you that you recognize, but many that you don't. Just the former does you no good, and solely the latter can be intimidating.

All in all, I wish Matt luck with this store. If I were to create a used book store, Lorem Ipsum is probably what it would be like. Well, maybe with a coffee machine; you have to have your caffeine fix while reading. However, they had pop rocks and other candy by the register, so that about makes up for the lack of caffeine.

Shimon writes about the reality and individualism one faces when school is no longer the brunt of their life:

But planning starts to become appealing once you've left school. The conception of life as an unending journey of 6-month classes suddenly vanishes. After college, I became much more individualistic; the things I do have their most important consequences not for school or for the company, but for my abilities, fitness, happiness, and wealth.

It's often hard to get one's head out of the mindset of school. I find even though I love my job, it's challenging to get past the apathetic college student mentality. Routine still feels a bit forced and undesired, despite its obvious benefits. I get to work at 12:30 and then yell at myself, asking, "why didn't I get in sooner? I could have gotten so much more done." Then I look at why I didn't: I was up until 05:00 reading websites and chatting with friends, working on a project, or otherwise being social. I was simply trying to live the life I enjoy living. I then I fail to get up at my 08:00 alarm - my body likes 4-6h of sleep, not 3h. Eventually when 10:00 rolls around, I get up and out the door by 11:00. 1h30 of transportation later brings me to 12:30. Then I work late to make up for lost time, come home late, and then stay up to do what I enjoy doing.

These habits must change, but with change comes sacrifice. I am constantly getting frustrated with them, but unwilling to change them for fear of losing a bit of myself in the process. Why must I give up my quiet 04:00 evenings? Is the job I work at worth it? Can I function in a society being offset from everyone else by 4 hours? It's these questions I still need to answer.

And come spring, I'll be back at school. Midnight laptop parties in the coffee shop, hanging out on night roofs pondering pitas: friends and lovers, distant and near, live and let live, without ever fear. The habits are reborn and refreshed, the "responsible" intern is once again a college student.

Maybe someday I'll shake these bad habits. Someday I'll be responsible for more than 4 figure bank accounts. And someday, maybe if the world breaks my will, I'll get up at 8am, have 2.5 kids and a flower dress -clad wife.

Time will tell what I'll become,
but I shall choose my own kingdom.
My choices made will shape my way
as they have done up to this day.

Aside: this post was entirely written and posted from moving vehicles: started in a train, then finished and posted from a car. Oh how I love portable wireless technology.

Update: Um, yeah. I had linked to the article Shimon linked to instead of his article itself. Whoops.

New photos in Care/:

Care rules: she made me a Sierpinski triangle valentines day cookie. Aww yeah.

I just added a nifty set of geographic tags to my blog. Now there's a keen little G and M on geo-enhanced posts, representing GeoURL and ACME Mapper respectively. I don't quite know what I'll do with the data, but it seems like a nifty thing to have. The coordinates are also included in my RSS feed for completeness and potential post-granularity Localfeeds posting.

Technical details: I used the meta Blosxom plugin to tag individual blog posts with geo coords and the interpolate conditional plugins to then optionally add them into my feed/page. The RSS feed, being a well-behaved RDF, has the wgs_84 namespace in it and accompanying geo:lat, geo:lon tags describing the various RSS items.

New photos in MITWebcomicPanel/:

What you see is true. This is, in fact, an auditorium full of geeks dancing to "badger badger badger". Who's that sitting at the table in the front? Why the creators of it of course. As well as Randy from Something Positive and Stephen from Bob the Angry Flower.

MIT is having occasional webcomic lectures full of keen guest artists. Sadly, I probably won't be able to make it to the last one as school will have started already.

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J Baumgart wrote about last Thursday's dinner. She mentioned how the small group of techies at our end of the table had an unusual fondness for librarians. Like artsy, bi chicks, I think there's a strong similarity between the personalities of librarians and techies.

I have a feeling that one of the main reasons computer techies appreciate librarians is because they both understand exactly how challenging it is to wrangle large quantities of data. This might seem specific, but it takes a certain type who can look holistically on a subject and make organizational judgments on it. Unlike managerial types, both techies and librarians tend to get their hands dirty in the process as they are both frequently the designer and the builder of a given project.

Techies frequently are behind-the-scenes and like being that way. Librarians, on the other hand, generally have to deal with the actual users. The long battle of techie-vs-user is solved by establishing a human buffer between them - the only problem is that the buffer generally loses a great deal of signal from the users. For example, if a user complains about a problem with the user interface of a tool, often the buffer between the techie and user will write it up as user error and ignore it. Librarians, however, tend to know better. They know the tech (at least from a maintainer's point of view) and they know the users (however much they wish they didn't). Techies can, on a base level, appreciate the librarians for being intelligent user filters.

And it's not just what they do, but the attitude in which you do it. When dealing with large quantities of data on a computer, a small misstep can lead to large-scale destruction. Without careful foresight on an organizational scheme, you will have to deal with large-scale reorganization. Both require a careful-but-firm approach to dealing with things.

Lastly, I find that people who can grok the power of information are intellectually hot. When it comes to intellectual attractiveness, librarians are supermodels.

New photos in SarahCBday/:

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