old post that i wrote somewhere else

Yesterday, Scott and I walked down by the lake and sat on the steps for a little while. Not too far from us a guy was playing guitar, quite well I may add; two men stopped to listen and talked to him a little bit. Then, to my complete delight, Guitar Guy passed his guitar to one of the strangers who began to pick out what sounded like a piece that you’d normally play on a classical guitar. I felt unreasonably happy at the exchange. What are the odds that someone walking by can play guitar too? Or more pertinently, I was marveling at the fact that someone walking by could have hidden in them knowledge that connected you to them—in this case, the knowledge of guitar. People can be such props and extras in our lives. Just shift the frame and it’s a completely different story though: they walk by, you walk by, you run past them sitting at the union, they watch you go. You’re an extra in someone else’s story too.

Which is why I thought it was so cool that randomly, momentarily, people passed a guitar around, sat down, and played some music. I watched Neil deGrasse Tyson’s video about “The Most Astounding Fact” on youtube (set to music and sights of space that bludgeoned you over the head with the sheer gravity and size of his message) after he came to talk on campus (where in the world is…), and he says “that’s really what you want in life isn’t it—you want to feel connected.” Because suddenly, that person stopped being an extra. Suddenly, you made a connection. No matter how brief or how long.

Unique in each way you can see

Lately I've gotten into making things on your own, from things that you have. Or simple life hacks like turning all your hangars to face the opposite direction that they normally do, then as you wear an article of clothing, turn it the normal way. At the end of the year you'll see which clothes in your closet you actually wear and which are simply part of the "crap we accumulate," and get rid of them accordingly (donate/sell/store).  The internet is this amazing treasure trove of ideas if you can sift out the shit from the win.

Also, I'll admit it: I have a pinterest account and it is great. Like any tool it can be used for good (blackberry cheesecake in jars) or evil (Feminst Ryan Gosling). Actually, I tend to 6-degrees-of-connections my internet hopping, instead of browsing through pinterest itself. If there's a blog that's creative and catches my attention, I'll click through which ones it links to since as in real life, communities aggregate on the internet along lines of similarity.

So there's my statement of affection for crafty/diy/idea sharing blogs. Now let me get to the observation that made me want to write a post. If you ever click through these blogs you'll notice they're all written by the same person. She (invariably) has a fairly recent husband who wears a fedora/hipster glasses/stubble/a beard/A Beard; her blog layout is white and/or full of Artsy Photo Links plus curly script; it features Instagram/crazily expensive camera photos with lots of negative space and one artfully arranged succulent plant. She ends every post with xoxo/love. She shops at farmer's markets, likes j.crew and looks exactly the same whether or not she is blond/a redhead/resembles a monkey. It's like the internet coughed up a real life trope.

This is probably offensive to anyone who has a style or craft blog and yeah, no one's making me look at these blogs. I like them. On the whole. It's just that when I look at them it feels like a completely different part of my brain gets activated in contrast to what lights up when I'm enragedly shouting at thinking about politics, or studying for the mcat, or reading a scientific paper. I don't meant to say that one is > than the other but I think it highlights some points:

1) The rich get richer is a saying in neuroscience as well as economics, which describes how if you exercise a synapse you make it stronger. Using only certain "parts" of your brain and neglecting others surely leads to brain specialization. Specialization may be necessary for civilization but the thought of specialization in the brain is somewhat scary to me; after all, that's how we perceive the world, form connections, and seek out information.

1.5) Is anyone really a well-balanced individual or is that just some great myth College Board seeks to impose on our earth. 

2) How can people be so similar to each other? Why do we, when given 7 billion flavors of human, still choose to follow certain typsets, whether it's consciously or unconsciously? I'm sure I'm no exception. Does being a certain type of person predispose you to liking certain things/engaging in certain activities? It's kind of cool when you come across someone who seems to be one way but has a passion, or quirk, that seems to be completely out of their character. Here's to you quiet, insanely smart, well-read girl who fucking loves lamborghini. We're all snowflakes distinct among snowflakes!

3) Crafting seems to exist in a vaccuum. When the Wisconsin recall election was going on and the UN is being turned away from Syrian villages, the crafting world presents cardboard cameras, felted flower headbands, and "electronically knitted spam poetry." Sometimes I can't help but feel disgusted at how trivial it can seem...but the benefit of a doubt: when you're only asking for one thing, you'll only get that one thing, I guess.

4) Will this be the first era of the hipster grandpa and gradma. Since what else can married couples like the owners of this house turn into?

Since this is all so trivial in itself, here's a really interesting TED talk about happiness, self-worth, and vulnerability:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o

and a scary article about how we are all going to become Winston circa 1984 thanks to the kinect.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/06/microsoft-wants-to-serve-you-ads-based-on-what-you-do-in-your-living-room/258351/