when life gives you lemons

make a battery.

romantic

i keep meaning to do a book write up on God in the Pits but i never end up getting around to it.  but in that guy’s early years, after getting married, he lived in some crappy run down apartment in chicago.  since he was still going to seminary, the only way he and his wife could afford to eat was by returning their wedding gifts for cash.

the only thing i thought was “how romantic.”  >.<

i am never getting married.

here’s why i hate “maturity”

there’s this notion of “maturity” that i absolutely loathe.  my definition of maturity is depth of spiritual life which should in turn influence the “non-spiritual” life (i’m so eloquent today).

yet it seems like maturity is instead defined as “seriousness.”  if you can take care of yourself and do it stoically, then you are mature.  obviously, there are exceptions and blah blah blah but i like to speak in generalizations to avoid posts that are a bajillion pages long.

what this manifests itself as is “mature people don’t laugh at stupid jokes.”  why not?  because they’re mature.  hello infinite loop.

this past summer at j-gen, one seminar speaker gave a talk on maturity.  i don’t remember anything he said except one point.  he said “be childlike, not childish.”  keep the childlike attitude of wonderment but give up childish petulance.  i really really liked that one.

here’s my problem with pseudo-maturity.  the pseudo-mature are too high on being mature that they miss things or simply ignore things that are simply wonderful.  it’s hard to smell the roses when your head is buried in your butt.

example?  i’m a huge fan of satire.  i used to religiously read “the onion” during my high school years and because of free printing (God bless you libertyville high school), created a collection of articles numbering in the hundreds of pages.  in fact,  if i were to list any influences in my own personal writing style, i would name two.  “the onion” and kurt vonnegut (God bless you dr. kevorkian…er vonnegut).  what i found so brilliant was the number of levels satire spoke out on.  sure, there’s the obvious shock value and the underlying message of most good satirical pieces, but then there’s so much more nuance that each addressed issue brings up.  i’m no wine connoisseur but i’ve read enough food blogs to know that wine has many different levels of flavor.  from the smell to the finish, everything constantly changes and a good wine will keep your tastebuds entertained from start to finish.  i feel like a good satire is like this as well.

but satire can sound so stupid that people miss the point entirely.  a dismissive wave is issued, declaring something so uncouth as beneath them.  but then you miss the roses.

an earthquake rocked haiti a couple weeks ago, yes.  it’s a great tragedy.  i’ve seen the videos, i’ve seen the pictures, but what rebuked me most was this bit of satiric excellence.  please read it, you can call me immature later.  i laughed but i also felt like a piece of crap.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/massive_earthquake_reveals_entire

and so why do i hate “maturity?”  because this definition of “maturity” that society seems to have adopted makes it impossible to be childlike.  the world becomes old, jaded, and our (mine included) hearts grow cold.

here’s a fun christian music classic

studying part 2

so my new way of studying is extended metaphor, kinda.  trying to take concepts i’m going over while reviewing and making them into story snippets that i can actually remember.

i’m posting them at existentialaccounting.wordpress.com

that wasn’t the original intention for that site…but o wells.  a rough outline of some notes are posted right now…hopefully i can condense it into an actual story, hahaha.

fight

i’ve read three books about fighting in the past month.  most of it was sparked by his one:

which is written by this guy:

who as i said earlier, may be one of the funniest guys on the planet.  i’m not joking either.  that book is literary genius…the author even said so himself.

chalk him up to my list of man crushes.

if you look up the stories of a lot of mixed martial arts fighters, you’ll find some of the most motivating and inspirational stuff you’ll read.  screw you lance armstrong, i want to see you knock a guy out while your arm is broken.  like ^ that guy did once.

like seriously, how can you not like this guy, hahaha

studying

after 4.5 years of college, i realize i never learned how to study.

in classes where “studying” meant going over practice problems, i did okay on the exams.  mainly because with practice problems, i could understand where i went wrong and how i could fix my mistakes.  plus there was measurable progress and i could tell when i was finally prepared for an exam.

classes that didn’t really need practice problems, i either did well or terribly.  this is because i either knew the material or i didn’t.  unfortunately, all the classes i did terribly in started with the course description “accy.”  while one would think accounting is all numbers, this is a misconception.  accounting is the application of rules to the numbers. a subtle, but major difference.  unfortunately, i really had no idea of what i knew and what i didn’t know.  i also never did any reading assignments.  and since there aren’t many practice problems, most tests i went in with the attitude of “well let’s try this and hope it works.”  i distinctly remember walking out of certain tests and saying to myself “well, if that treatment i made up isn’t according to gaap, i probably failed that exam.”  and it’s pretty hard to simply “make up” accounting standards that are in line with accepted procedures.  needless to say, i did not perform well at all.

upon graduation, i figured that these troubles were forever behind me and i could disguise my weaknesses behind a gpa that miraculously stayed above a 3.0 (don’t ask for my major gpa’s).

o hai cpa.  eff.  (what does “eff” stand for by the way?)

so since my old method of studying (which consisted of skimming everything and hoping it sticks, then spending the next 2 hours complaining about how hard the material is and then saying “i studied for 2.5 hours, hopefully i’m okay”) proved so ineffective for accounting, a new method needed to be used.

stay tuned to find out!

random thought

the apostrophe is used to show possessiveness (no red line appeared so apparently that’s a word.  huzzah!)

so steve’s computer would mean that the computer is mine.

i kinda got tripped up over the phrase “slave’s owner.”  the apostrophe now seems to mean the exact opposite.

you talkin’ bout practice?

my mom teaches cello lessons, and so whenever i’m at home i can hear her give lessons.   the level of ability ranges from poor to decent but i’ve come up with a pretty good way of telling which kid is which before even hearing them play.  i don’t even have to look at them.

SORCERY! you will declare, but before you burn me at the stake, let me explain myself.

the bad ones almost always come in with their instrument out of tune.  now, it’s cold out and i know wood contracts in the cold and causes more shifting and whatnot of strings so this theory kind of breaks down in the winter, but usually, the kids who are bad show up with an out of tune instrument.  there are a couple reasons for this:

1.  they’re not playing it.  this is far and away the biggest reason.  you have to practice during the week if you’re going to get better, and the part of practice is tuning your instrument.  when you show up with your instrument out of tune, it usually means you weren’t playing it during the week, and so here we are.  i was guilty of this same thing, i never really practiced, but i was fortunate to have an instrument that never had issues with tuning.

2.  it shows a lack of care.  kind of along these lines, i think i can look at an instrument and tell you what type of performer the player is.  if there is rosin dust all over and the bow is warped (because they don’t loosen it) and the strings have rosin caked onto it, that person probably isn’t a good player.  if someone takes meticulous care of their instrument, then there is usually a strong correlation to how concerned they are about the way they sound.  in the same way, tuning an instrument also reveals how much you actually care about playing.

3.  practice is important.  this goes without saying, but the ones whose instruments go out of tune either aren’t playing them, or aren’t putting proper care into practicing correctly.  practice does not make perfect, only perfect practice does.  so an out of tune instrument means the user isn’t very good…not because they lack talent or ability (anyone can hack at an instrument for a few years and sound decent) but they lack the discipline in the instrument to become good.

that was pretty subjective but i think there’s a line of truth in it somewhere.

saweet

this is so sick.  i really like alicia keys’ voice, even with the rasp.  and jay-z is, well, jay-z.  put them with a sick beat and man.  i really like this one.

i got chills when jay-z came on stage.

does this mean it’s “blessing?”

quote

one of my favorite quotes from last year

me: why is there a soccer team called the chicago fire?  so insensitive.
kevin: yeah, it’s like having a new orleans hurricanes
me: or the new york…o crap…the new york jets