With everything going on,

I can't fathom why I don't blog more. Some things I've got to put down -

1. I'm discovering some really neat music... Common, Phoenix... In response to my discovering Q-Tip, Ryan says...yuppp

oh david

we're winning you over

slowly and surely

2. I'd love to revive Wormhole, the old Centerfleet that's gone dead since 2002. Too bad I don't know enough about coding and web development to do this. I'd love some help. It's totally possible. Just Google "centerfleet wormhole". Most of the hits are nostalgia for the game. And the data is still out there, FYI. I know where it is.

3. Going to Maryland and China this break. I'm a little nervous for both. I've got a whole itinerary planned for China by Baba, but I haven't looked closely enough. I feel like most of the stuff I'll just skip out on, in deference of my desire to just sleep. Maybe I'll need it this break. China will also be an adventure in nostalgia, much like all this Wormhole-related research. I haven't been (back) in six years!

P.S. It really feels weird to say "back". I'm not really going back to anywhere.

4. I can't believe I started playing Half-Life 2 and Portal this week, right before finals. Valve owes me maybe .2 that it stole from my GPA. Half-Life is a really fucking creepy franchise. It's special because it deserves a special place in dystopic science fiction, but I can't play that game without chills running up and down my body. Portal is absurdly funny. Can anyone still get into www.aperturescience.com?

5. Refrain from posting in the early, early morning. Just don't. Gawd.

In defense of giving a minimal shit about the flows of money

We hear many things. Unprecedented... lasting damage... catastrophic... historic... (life-altering?) I haven't lived long enough to put the stock of my life into the myriad forms of capital out there, so it is justified the case that I don't know what I don't give a shit about. Still, given the choice, I believe would sooner remove myself from such structures of society and "civilization" than move with the courses of material gain and loss while attempting my own pursuit of truth and a good life.

My net worth is not developed and my savings are insignificant. I don't anticipate approaching the limit of insured savings within the next ten or twenty years of my life. But the idea of accumulating what can be summed up in a few pixels on a LCD eludes me. Influence, I understand. Power, we can talk about. Wealth? ... And? What else can wealth mean?

My stance is not necessarily Marxist, but there are many things that can be touched on. I would argue that capital separates us from what we truly want to spend life pursuing, more than other people or our occupations or our time or ourselves. If we are inspired to spend the extent of our lives reaching for what is true, what makes us happy, or that in which we are exceptional, our own economies collude our visions.

If certain financial realities are collapsing in your world, you don't wonder about what to do. If you are principled, inspired and determined, the game does not change. You'll find another way.

(And so far, "employing the vernacular" has not been successful. Damn.)

Wow, I'm sorry.

Those last posts were absurdly depressing. I'll try not to pull that shit again, as I'm no longer a moody teenager. (Well...)

The Groundwork

I'd like to believe that this blog begins at a crucial moment, not just because I've finally found the time to invest in it.

I'd like to look back on these words and say that they were chosen perfectly and meticulously, but the improvisational nature of this post will most likely cause embarrassment in the future.

And years from now, I want to be able to peruse a record of my most abstract thoughts in order to retain a sense of philosophical continuity, but these writings are perhaps most useful as mental structuring in the present.

Then, ATWP might ostentatiously come off as an attempt to construct theories on things grandiose and metaphysical, but this would be silly. What these writings will try to do is to restore order to any conceptual and philosophical chaos that may overtake me. And to do this, I will need ground rules.

ATWP is personal, but will never become personal. When this boundary is crossed, this blog will have already ceased its function.

"Employ the vernacular." Yes, ironic. Something my middle school English teacher always told me to do - she hadn't seen how pretentious college can make you become.

Consistency. I've thought recently that perhaps now I've entered a new phase where my mind is not as able to conjecture aimlessly. This is bullshit; it is always working.

Think beforehand. Chess is played sometimes with hands tied behind the back.

Make some sense. I don't write for myself. I would set up a site meter to prove this, but it's probably too neurotic to do so.

What is ATWP?

Thievery Corporation, All That We Perceive

Everything that's real
And everything unrealized
All infinity
Starts falling from your eyes
We are fluid dreams
Vivid memories
All uncertainly
Leads to eternity

All that we perceive
In every mystery
Who are we
What we see
I can't comprehend

Who are we
What we see
I can't comprehend

Illuminating love falls from the skies
To water the illusions in our eyes
All that we desire and all we fear
All our aspirations grow unclear

We feel endlessly
Beyond all gravity

Who are we
What we see
I can't comprehend

Who are we
What we see
I can't comprehend