A bit on mediated communication (though not a comedic one...as much)

Continuing reposted thoughts from Tumblr.

I promised to write about online interactions, so here are some thoughts. The fancy scholarly way to talk about online interactions is mediated communications. This can be anything almost that’s not face to face interactions. Anything from a cell phone call to a walkie talkie exchange. Mediated communications can be different than face to face ones, even difficult. They can also be easier.

The types of exchanges I’m talking about are the intersection of the two: mediated speech mixed with actual speech. Talking on the phone about that thing we did in person, asking you on person about that thing you posted on Facebook.

Short aside: this is one of my favorite phrases to which I usually answer, You’re going to have to come to me a bit more specific than that; I post a lot of things on Facebook.

Online exchanges can be less awkward. You have time to compose your thoughts, correct your spelling, consider what you’re saying. I’m so much cooler online is the subject of a funny song. These are not original thoughts, obviously.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone in which they try to act like Facebook didn’t exist? Many people use it, so why should we be embarrassed or uncomfortable about it? Embrace it, own it, joke about it. ‘You’re on Facebook a lot, Jeremy, how do you get anything done?’ (Not easily is the answer.)

I do believe and am hopeful that the two can merge and exist together successfully. Why not? Just be mindful and responsible. After all, mediated communication can lead to face time (online dating, Facebook event you’re invited to).

Next time: In a related vein, a further discussion of online communication, including but not limited to a frank discussion of the MTV show Catfish. But to end, don’t hesitate to laugh and make jokes about something being strange or awkward. Sometimes admitting awkwardness can negate said state of existence.

Even Gradual Change is Good, if Not Deceptive

Reposting some stuff from Tumblr. I'm not sure of the dates, but I'm putting them here and deleting them from there. 

Got some stuff done today. Besides the daily goofing around on Facebook that seems to have become a way of life (and a lot of that was constructive today at least, as it was talking about poetry with like minded individuals), I got the house cleaned up a little. It’s not my house (my father’s), but I’ve come to peace with that for now. Can’t change things overnight, after all.

A few years ago, I was at an age that I was ashamed to be that I was at and not have a college degree and still be living at home (minus a brief nearly year long stint of living with my brother), and I decided to change it. Good decision, but still not easy realizing that change doesn’t happen over night. Sometimes a change doesn’t have any obvious advantages, so it can be discouraging when things seem to remain the same. But incremental changes are important nonetheless.

I even went back to the last job I had before I went back to school, but at least I had a job barely 2 weeks out of college (not a very good paying job, mind you). The job is easy, though, and I do get vacation time.

What became even more frustrating was that after a few months of working my checks started to be garnished. Not child support or anything like unpaid parking tickets, but a judgment made against me when I first stopped working and I couldn’t pay off a credit card I had. For the next several months (ends in about April), I will be making minimum wage at 60 hours every 2 weeks, despite working 80 hours or more most pay periods. (Goodwill doesn’t pay me much more than minimum wage, but losing the hours stinks).

But I will simply continue to exercise patience. I have small luxuries that I give myself (usually end up saving for Dragon Con every year). I’ve started to pay off my student loans. And I have some quality friends that I choose to spend time with (in various and alternating capacities). 
I have some thoughts about online interactions, but I think I’ll save it for another post.

Dream interpreted

My recent dream is represented here and I will offer commentary as interpretation.

Dream journal

On a trip with some friends. In like a mall type area. I'm going to a movie. 
I did recently go to a movie with friends and it was near a mall. This part and the entire dream resemble Wreck it Ralph a bit in structure and appearance.
It takes a long time to get there. I get distracted in the middle of the movie and have to go somewhere else. As I'm separated from the group, I'm traveling around this small town, but there are indicators of where I am at and where my friend is at. I see her name like on a locator indicator type thing like on a smartphone.
I see this as my education. It did take me a long time and I got distracted a lot along the way. The friend is one who I recently saw a movie with. 
A few times I've traveled by car, often with my family. One time I get to the car and we all pile in. It's usually been a very small car with weird places to sit.
Very recently I was with another group of friends and we all got into a smaller car and traveled a short distance together. I see the driving sequences as who is in charge.
One time I get in the back and travel. Another more recent time, I get in the back, but then realize there is a spot up front but still in the passenger seat. My mother is in the seat behind me and my father is driving the car. My brother is next to my mom and the guy who rents a room here is in the back where I once was.
I am wanting to take control of life, but maybe I'm not ready yet.
At one point, I'm at an arcade and playing all of these games. I watch people playing the games. You go behind this screen and play the games and everyone can watch you playing. I see people playing and then I play the games. I am pretty good at them.
This reminds me of Ender's Game a bit. I am playing these simulations and I think it's just a game, but I eventually realize the games are very important and I am extremely good at them. I equate this again to education. I am taking for granted how much I can do and how smart I am, but I end up being really good at this game. 
One of them are these animals that go around smashing and eating things. You have three animals and they go around the board that seems to physically be there. A few of them are large cartoon cats, like Sylvester the cat from Looney Tunes. I am doing really well and it takes a while for one of my cats to die. I keep going and going. In anytime during the game, you can stop and just take your points, but you can try and revive a cat when it dies. I keep reviving mine and go for a really long time.
At any time during my education process, I could have just said, I gave it a shot, let's call it a day, but I didn't. I see this as finally realizing how good I can be at this.
By the end of the game I have a lot of points. It's supposed to pay out like $630, but I get some vouchers. I get a few really expensive video games, but they are broken in half and the cases are cracked. The other prize is a voucher for money to play more games. I feel kind of ripped off. 
I feel like my education that I worked so hard for does not have any value in the real world. I worked so hard for a promised that is really not as good as expected. I fear losing all that time and it was wasted maybe.
I get in another car or I try to. The cars have been in odd places. Once a car was traveling down the road and I think my mother was driving, or maybe my father. We went down an escalator and I said maybe we shouldn't do that in a car. The cops or security for the train station stop us and tell us not to do that. I go back to the video game place to check out.
I know what I'm doing, but others are getting me lost. They mean well, but I know where to go and need to take the driver's seat.

My brother is there but people are frantically leaving, holding game chips, tokens, and broken games as they leave, running away as they do in some cases. I find out most of winning are gone, but they wouldn't mean anything anyway, since the store is closing. I'm not really that upset. 
I've come to terms with my education not being as valuable as I was promised, or at least come to grips with that possibility. It doesn't upset me as much as I think it would have.
I turn around in place a few times and then at a running jump I start flying through the air with stars trailing behind me. I'm going really fast and now I'm singing Price's Purple Rain. I see all the land I just covered and I'm really happy, flying through the dark sky at night, singing Purple Rain, with stars of light trailing behind me.
Who cares if it's a useless degree? I had fun, I met the coolest people that I have until this point to add to already great friends, who have been there, too. The last two years have been the most amazing of my life and things will never be the same, all in a very good way. I think I'm going to take a shower and take a walk. This was kind of an amazing dream...

Dream Journal 5/22/13

Dream journal

On a trip with some friends. In like a mall type area. I'm going to a movie. It takes a long time to get there. I get distracted in the middle of the movie and have to go somewhere else. As I'm separated from the group, I'm traveling around this small town, but there are indicators of where I am at and where my friend is at. I see her name like on a locator indicator type thing like on a smartphone. A few times I've traveled by car, often with my family. One time I get to the car and we all pile in. It's usually been a very small car with weird places to sit. One time I get in the back and travel. Another more recent time, I get in the back, but then realize there is a spot up front but still in the passenger seat. My mother is in the seat behind me and my father is driving the car. My brother is next to my mom and the guy who rents a room here is in the back where I once was.

At one point, I'm at an arcade and playing all of these games. I watch people playing the games. You go behind this screen and play the games and everyone can watch you playing. I see people playing and then I play the games. I am pretty good at them. One of them are these animals that go around smashing and eating things. You have three animals and they go around the board that seems to physically be there. A few of them are large cartoon cats, like Sylvester the cat from Looney Tunes. I am doing really well and it takes a while for one of my cats to die. I keep going and going. In anytime during the game, you can stop and just take your points, but you can try and revive a cat when it dies. I keep reviving mine and go for a really long time.

By the end of the game I have a lot of points. It's supposed to pay out like $630, but I get some vouchers. I get a few really expensive video games, but they are broken in half and the cases are cracked. The other prize is a voucher for money to play more games. I feel kind of ripped off. I get in another car or I try to. The cars have been in odd places. Once a car was traveling down the road and I think my mother was driving, or maybe my father. We went down an escalator and I said maybe we shouldn't do that in a car. The cops or security for the train station stop us and tell us not to do that. I go back to the video game place to check out.

My brother is there but people are frantically leaving, holding game chips, tokens, and broken games as they leave, running away as they do in some cases. I find out most of winning are gone, but they wouldn't mean anything anyway, since the store is closing. I'm not really that upset. I turn around in place a few times and then at a running jump I start flying through the air with stars trailing behind me. I'm going really fast and now I'm singing Price's Purple Rain. I see all the land I just covered and I'm really happy, flying through the dark sky at night, singing Purple Rain, with stars of light trailing behind me.  

Willingly Lost (Poem)

Listening to Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana today and I was inspired to right a poem to the rhythm of the verses. I threw a few lines that fit the poem in there, but the words here are mostly mine.


I can't stop thinking of you
I wish that you'd go away
I can't stop picturing your face
It follows me every place.

I've been here times before
But I was too blind to see
That you seduce every man
This time you won't seduce me.

It seems my mind's filled with you
I wish you'd come be with me.
Maybe it's true that won't be
But I wish it could be true.

This torture's tearing me apart
And quickly breaking my heart.
I make pretend that you don't
Drive me completely insane.

You say, "You don't know me.
How could you possibly be
In love with little old me?"
But I know that I do.

I think it's you who don't know me
How I could possibly feel.
You're not inside my head
With all these pictures of you.

And I don't care what you say
I want to go too far.
I promised an absence of passion,
But it seems I lied about that.

'Cause I'm in love with you now
Though that doesn't make sense.
I'm left the same place I started
Stuck in a trap that I made.

I wanted to have a brave face.
I want to forget about you.
But I can't lie to myself
This won't fade away fast.

I wish that I had the strength
To say I don't care about you.
But that'd be lying you see
And I can't do that to me.

Her Face Forgotten (Poem)

But now we have a new prompt to deal with! Because I am a rather obvious person at heart, I challenge you to write a cinquain on this, the fifth day of NaPoWriMo. A cinquain is a poem that employs stanzas with five lines. Each line has a certain number of accented or stressed syllables, and a certain number of overall syllables per line. In the “American” cinquain, a form invented by a woman with the highly unfortunate name of Adelaide Crapsey, the number of stresses per line is 1-2-3-4-1, and the number of syllables is 2-4-6-8-2. So the first line would have two syllables, one stressed and one unstressed. The second line would have four syllables, two of which are stressed, and so on. This kind of accent/syllabic verse can be a bit frustrating at first, but it’s useful for learning to sharpen up your language!-from NaPoWriMo blog

Not sure if I've got this one down, but this is my attempt. 

Slowly
Your face leaves me
I forget your smile, too
It seems as if it's left my mind
Today.

A Series of Unlikely Explanations (Poem)

There’s a whole twitter account devoted to tweeting Iain-M-Banks-like names for spaceships. So your challenge for today is to write a poem with a title drawn from one of these spaceship names. Feel free to pick a genuine Banks, like the ones listed above, or to take one from the twitter. And if you think of your own Banks-like spaceship name title, feel free to use that! The poet Barbara Guest wrote an essay warning poets about starting from the title, but while I’ve found that a wonderful poem usually finds its right title, I’ve also found that the right title can easily lead to a wonderful poem!-from NaPoWriMo blog. 

A Series of Unlikely Explanations

It seems unlikely that we two should have met

And even more so that we would have got along.

But really it might not be as unlikely as all that

'Cause I like pretty girls (and eccentric ones it seems)

And you are some of that and all of those things.

So perhaps the series of events in my world and yours

That lead to us meeting are not so absurd.

Maybe the stars aligned in a certain way

Bringing us both here in this place today.

Or maybe the world is a series of random events.

Maybe there's no rhyme or reason to this poem or life.

Maybe we all just rot in the ground after death

And our meeting means nothing, too.

But I'd like to think that the former possibility is true.

But it doesn't really matter though; it just matters what we do.

So let's enjoy each other's company and forget all the stars.

You are my favorite unlikely explanation by far.