Mind, blown [up]:

I know this came out a while ago, but it's been blowing my mind on a regular basis lately:



Here's the link to the full version: Fully Flared

The song is Lower Your Eyelids To Die With The Sun, by M83. Epic, here. Over ten minutes long, just like I like 'em.

Zzzzs, or lack thereof:

Well, my previous post was correct -- my architecture project was an all night affair. In fact, the architecture project was an all night affair for literally 80% of the 100-something kids in the Architecture and Design program here, which is just absurd. Clearly there is something wrong with your program when it takes kids working around the clock just to get everything done. An email was sent out around 9:00 the night before our project was due, informing us that the deadline had been backed up from 9:00 to 10:00 the next morning. I laughed at the time, thinking that a one hour extension was nothing, but there I was at 8:15 the next morning, just putting the finishing touches on my project (which was still an absolute piece of crap).

Here is my breakdown of the past few days:

Monday: Woke up at 9:00 AM, went to bed at 3:30 AM.
Tuesday: Woke up at 8:00 AM, never went to bed.
Wednesday: Never had to wake up, went "to bed" at 9:00 AM, woke up at 1:45 PM, went to bed at 1:00 AM.
Thursday: Woke up at 7:30 AM, and who knows when I'll go to bed (two midterms tomorrow to study for).

Okay, so at 9:00 on Wednesday morning, when I got back to my room, I had had 4.5 hours or sleep in a 48 hour period. By the time I went to bed on Wednesday night, it was 9 hours in a 64 hour period. By the time I'll probably end up going to bed tonight, it will be 16.5 hours in an 88 hour period.

I don't even know why I'm writing this -- some combination of wanting to feel bad about myself and just wanting to quantify everything.

HOWEVER, I am actually doing better than some of my classmates. One girl in my class literally has not slept since Sunday night, unless you count when she fell asleep on the train this morning, or when she fell asleep during someone's presentation in class today. 80+ hours without any real sleep! It's ludicrous, really.

So for all of you that thought studying abroad was about having fun and new experiences, not as long as it's the DIS architecture program. Unless your idea of fun and new experiences is seeing the sun rise from a computer lab on the Wednesday before break, then avoid it at all costs.

What a great way to prepare everyone for three weeks of travel. (But it is awesome that we have a three week break, obviously, and in two midterms' and a couple hours' time, I'll be a free man. Righteous.)

Crunch time:

Well, it's Tuesday night, and while I have travel break to look forward to come Friday afternoon, there is a lot to be done between now and then.

For example, my entire architecture project has to be finished by 9:00 tomorrow morning, and from the looks of it, it's going to be an all-night affair. At the moment I'm acting like a bear about to go into hibernation: I'm stuffing my face with calories to keep me going, and I'm stockpiling entertainment options like someone who doesn't plan on leaving his cave for the next few months. I've still got a lot to do on this project, but hopefully it will go rather fast. Currently, this thing is the biggest piece of shit that I have ever had my name attached to, so my motivation to do quality work is less than stellar. Oh well, in 14 hours I'll be done, whether I really was or not.

And just in time for a field study in Danish! Oh boy!

Actually, the field study is definitely worth mentioning: my class is meeting with a bunch of Danish high school students, and as my teacher today informed us, we will be spending the first hour practicing our Danish with them (I don't know how we plan to spend an hour on this; we know next to nothing besides how to say our name), and during the second hour, they will be interviewing us for their project on "Religion as a political weapon."

"And next week, we'll be meeting with two kindergarten classes to help them with their projects on 'Economic meltdowns and other failed policies' and 'Screwing the rest of the world: the American Way.'"

I'm not sure what's more hilarious in this situation -- 1) the contrast between a bunch of students from supposedly elite American learning institutions learning grammar from high schoolers while they, in turn, examine some of the more important issues of our time, or 2) the fact that we all are considered credible sources on the religion as a political weapon.

Danish cynicism comes thinly veiled.

Throwbacks:

Thanks, Joe, for showing me www.yearbookyourself.com. No other explanation needed.

Not quite Danish -- better:

Big thanks to Ian Durkin, whose Facebook status triggered this musical discovery of mine: Lykke Li.

Lykke Li is a 21-year-old Swedish singer who I am currently somewhat obsessed with. I know for a fact that I am lagging several months behind those actually on the leading edge of musical discovery, and I won't even try to claim that I'm a legitimate music blogger, but take it from me: she's awesome.

I won't go into any further detail, but watch this video for her song "Little Bit" and see for yourself (the video itself is really cool, too).

Little Bit


Number of indie music artists that I am currently obsessed with:

Sweden: 1
Denmark: 0

Sweden > Denmark

Apocalypse, NOW:

My friends, it is about time that I finally broke my silence on this important issue. Like numerous others even more insignificant than I, I feel that it is time for me to join the quasi-politically-informed hordes and add my voice to the millions of others already out there: America is biting the big one.

As I'm sure everyone knows by now, the economy is dying, American "prestige" -- if it ever existed -- is faltering, and Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin requires no verb; I think you all know what I mean. Quite frankly, the world as we know it is coming to an end. And I can say/write that without being melodramatic, because it's the truth. In a couple of days, the world has changed, and in a couple days, months, and years more, it's going to be quite different from the way it is today, the way it was yesterday, and the way it was all those days before that. Lately, I've been following the news with an even more ravenous appetite than usual. I've mentally devoured every iota of text, video, or spouted opinion put in front of me, all in an attempt to achieve some level of understanding of this whole crisis. All that, and I haven't read nearly as much as Sarah Palin.

Welp, after days of research, here is my conclusion: America is biting the big one (and we deserve it). I don't think I really needed to do any research to formalize either of those conclusions, but the additional information has been helpful. I think we all have reached conclusions similar to these in the past few days, but obviously, the real questions concern what exactly will happen now that we know the sorry state of the land of the free.

So far, I've watched this whole crisis with a mix of euphoria, terror, and complete fascination. Some more cliche bloggers might describe the debacle like "watching a car crash in slow motion." I, however, choose to be more creative (and employ not-so-subtle economic imagery). For me, this whole thing is like standing near the front of the running of the bulls, looking sharp in your white outfit and red kerchief, and watching the bulls come on with awesome power, trampling and goring everything in their path. You know that eventually, the bulls will get to you, too, and you'll have to hightail it over a flimsy wooden fence or say hello to a horn to the kidney, but in the meantime, it's just really fascinating, watching the bulls run wild through the rest of the unfortunate masses. In this case, though, the bulls are getting closer and closer, when all of a sudden, they all go bankrupt and die. Then, lots of bears come out and defecate on all the bulls. Also, underneath all the bulls is the middle class, and the investment bankers are above them, riding on the bears. Except sometimes one of them falls off, and then he's no better than any of the other people, covered in shit with all the dead, bankrupt bulls. But finally, the government comes (which in this case will be represented by an elephant), and it sprays lots of money onto all the bears, so they're good, but then it takes an enormous elephant-sized dump on the middle class. And if there are two things we know about elephants, they are this: 1) they never forget, and 2) they take really monster dumps. So now, we're all left with bull carcasses, a few rogue bears, lots of people covered in a variety of animal fecal matter, and an analogy that is getting absurd.

EXCEPT, REALITY IS EVEN MORE ABSURD THAN MY ANALOGY.

So that's where we stand. Ankle deep in elephant feces and hopes and dreams.

Now I'm not sure whether my analogy made it clear, but I'm not a big fan of the whole "bailout." In fact, I'm about as big a fan of the bailout as I am of Sarah Palin, and we've covered that already.

I've always liked a little anarchy, and in this whole situation, there's a big part of me just silently cheering, "burn, baby, burn." At least until it affects me and my family (as it inevitably will), I'm quite enjoying watching this flaming port-a-potty of a nation come falling to the ground. The past eight years (and the fifty or so before that, as far as I'm concerned) have been one big mistake. I honestly believe that in the past fifty-eight years, more harm than good came out of the United States. Sure, we had the civil rights movement, medical advances, and countless other American Achievements that history books like to glorify, but we've also had global warming, the Cold War and its assorted baggage, and Sarah Palin.

It's honestly a wonder that this hasn't happened already. Nearly every single one of our policies over the past decade has been patently absurd. And I'm not even just referring to government policy -- as a nation, we've gotten absurd. We're all wearing Crocs and watching "celebreality" for God's sake. Is it really that astonishing that after years of depravity propped up by cheap oil and a mediocre government, we're hit with some serious consequences?

The way I see it, this recession (or full-blown, capital "D" Depression, if we're lucky!) is both necessary and essential. It's healthy. Right now, the United States is on a bad mid-morning talk show, and it's time for an intervention. If the government passes the bailout (as it inevitably will, and probably -- though I continue to disagree with it -- should), we're just prolonging this national period of mediocrity with which we've grown so familiar. Instead, I think we should screw Wall Street -- competition makes businesses stronger, right? -- and let economic forces sort out that whole mess. I understand the importance of investment, and the need for banks to still feel confident providing credit, but if we don't let this collapse happen now, our economy will be weaker for it.

I think we need to accept the pain that will define the next few years of our nation, because as those executives on Wall Street probably used to say on their Pop Warner football teams when they were younger, "Anything that doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." So in the meantime, join me and watch the fireworks. In the past few months, we've seen hurricanes obliterate entire cities (again), banks failing, gas stations running out of gas, the Dow Jones looking like it had (and inducing, probably) a heart attack, and Sarah Palin. This crazy, dreamworld apocalypse scenario is actually real. It's unbelievable, and it's unbelievably entertaining.

I apologize to those who hoped that this post would contain logical thought (I was one of them, at one point), but is it really possible to make sense of a situation this absurd? I don't think anyone knows what to make of any of this. We're looking at a $700 billion bailout because the responsible people in government decided to "choose a really large number." That's all we can come up with now? Is there any sound judgment left in this world? I certainly haven't provided any.

To craft another odd, only vaguely relevant analogy:

For me, specifically, the economic decline is like riding a skateboard down a really steep hill. It's really fun and exciting, and you're getting going pretty fast -- "oh boy, that's really fast" -- "man, this is a steep hill..." -- "oh shit, I'm fucking flying right now" -- when your feet start to shake and it's clear that if this hill doesn't bottom out soon, you're going to be wiped all over the pavement. At the moment, I'm safe -- I'm somewhat insulated from the economic shitshow that is our economy -- but I'm just one rogue pebble or sand patch away from an ambulance ride and a body cast.

Oh, and if you want to see a really cool video of people riding skateboards down steep hills, check this out. (There will always be a viral video for our problems. Always. Except Sarah Palin. Unless "viral video" is an actual virus that Sarah Palin clicks, thinking it's a clip of the 5 Funniest Moose Hunting Moments, and it jumps out and eats her face. Then, there will always be a viral video for our problems.)