containers

in my room once again..messiness everywhere. i just reached down to pick up a water bottle and two little sunnyd bottles. then i wondered. holding the bottles, i asked spiro, "how many containers do you think are in this room?"

there were boxes, bottles, cans, and bags popping up everywhere i looked. i said, "250?"

he stared blankly at me.
"600?" i followed up.

again..blank stare
"hmm..like 450? i have no idea what the best guess would be" - my last bait for response

gave it a few seconds and spiro said, "well what are containers? i mean my books contain pages."

perfectttt!

so what counts as a container?
depends on your definition..

could be anything that participates in the act of containing..and to contain is to either "have or hold within" or consist of/be made up of. this pretty much labels all of existence as containers of one thing or other. maybe we should turn to a more modest use of the term.

well i turned to the trusty wolframalpha search engine to give me a concise and understandable definition of container. and boy was it concise and unambiguous:

now that definition is different than the other and it should be more in line with what you'd think of upon hearing the word - container (except the bit in parenthesis..that is awfully specific referring to the act of containerization - learned that word just now..it's like the standardized method of transporting large quantities of stuff like on trains and boats and shit).

so we know bottles and bags and the like are containers according to both definitions, but what about the book? well, because people are clever, books can be used to hold things physically, but that is not their purpose. what they are meant to hold are ideas. They are receptacles for storing and retrieving ideas, but they differ from other containers in that when we retrieve the object being stored - the ideas - they are not removed. Once stored, they seem to have some sort of permanence to the nature of the book. This permanence can be surpassed with a simple tear though. Pages can always be torn out and shared the way a mirror can be pulled from a purse and passed around a group of friends. In virtue of that, I'd have to consent with spiro and say that books do seem to be containers for their containment of pages. They also seem to contain ideas, but that is probably only due to my assumption that pages can contain ideas. Pages hold ideas or parts of ideas and when put together in a book, the collective ideas held by the pages are then held by the book. So, the book then contains the ideas. But pages and books both hold words. Do ideas hold words or do words hold ideas?

so the word is container. one who writes is a writer. one who sings is a singer. the actor performing the verb is understood as the doer of the verb and to abbreviate, we can just label the actor as the verb + "er" - one who contains is a container. using the words one and actor probably signify some sort of sentience or aware identity but i just mean one being of existence. there is no reason to think that the actor must be aware of its action. broilers broil. recorders record. and aircraft carriers carry aircraft. Containers contain.

i'm being impractical right now, but every object of existence should be called a container since, in order for us to have any understanding of it, we must recognize the characteristics contained or held by its identity. practically, we will label things for their functionality as containers - like bottles, boxes, and bags - but we should be aware that containment is an essential aspect of existence and that all things are containers because, in some sense, they can always be considered to contain some other thing.

"who are you being right now?"

-i'm being me. myself..who are you being?

-"i'm being a-dot."

-well i guess i'd say i'm being stevie.

is stevie the same as steve..as steven..as smdaniel?

simply, yes. but only to me. how about to you? if you know stevie, then you know stevie. if you know steve, then you know steve. if you know steven..then guess what..you know steven. you all know me. but none of you know me.

what's in a person's name?

to me, my name represents how other people know me and can refer to me. just a silly label like every other word. and like every other word, ever person forms their own concept over time depending on exposure.

i'm never being anyone. i'm always being me. it just depends on who you're perceiving me to be.

but i guess the question now is, "does me being me involve me acting differently when being referred to as different names?"..like does my being consist of my tendency to come off as different characters under different names? acting as would be expected of me depending on the name i'm being referred to as..

i'd say yes. people who know me as stevie are my close friends. they expect personal interaction. when i'm interacting with people who refer to me as stevie, i'm more comfortable with myself and relaxed in my environment. steven is who i am in half my classes and labs..the other half refer to me as steve. plus i only ever introduce myself as steve, so when people are conceptualizing my identity under the name steve i'm more apt to experience discomfort and seem more uptight.

i only ever be me. but in being me, i'm being whatever i'm being conceptualized as - stevie, steve, steven, or whatever people think of me as. so often i'm just a face with no name. who remembers names at parties. i sure don't. can't expect other people to.

so who am i being? i'm being whoever you see me as..whoever you know me to be

clutter

sitting at my desk i can't help but be slightly overwhelmed by the disorganization and messiness. There seems to be no order. Beer cans, water bottles, deodorant, toothbrush and two tubes of toothpaste. there's gum and there's candy. notebooks and notecards. philosophy theses and research papers. i even have an underarmour shirt on top of a pile of who-knows-what. This is how i live..i don't even want to guess at what's going on under the desk. - definitely plenty of laundry and trash.

so this is clutter.

the word brings to mind (1) an old saying, (2)a famous Einstein quote, and (3) a response my brother once said after hearing the quote.

1. a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind
2. if a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?
3. what about an organized desk?

My brother keeps his desk (and entire room) pretty neat and tidy. I, on the other hand, am king of clutter. So what does this tell us about the differences between my brother and i? is his mind organized and mine cluttered? possibly..but what on earth does that mean..?

we each have things that we need and use. it's a matter of how much effort we want to put into retrieving these things versus how much effort we want to put into creating order in the arrangement of these things. My room is small and there are only so many things that I need to have easy access to..and for these things, i'd say that i have a pretty efficient method of organization. Mostly, these things are applications on my phone or computer. Other things would be my hygiene-maintenance tools which have their respective areas in my desk-vicinity and papers, books, and notebooks which too have their respective homes on the bookshelf or in my backpack..or temporarily on the desk. The rest of the stuff just comes and goes. When i sum up enough energy, I rid my desk of the excess stuff by disposing of it or moving it to a new home depending on its use to me. This is the order behind my clutter.

Organized people, including my lil bro, put the time into keeping their objects arranged orderly. This guarantees easy access to anything needed any time..that is as long as the organizer remembers where he keeps the needed item.

Order keeps things simple. It guarantees predictability. We all order the world uniquely to our own tastes and tasks. One man's clutter is another's organization. no need to judge.

the words

words words words
heard by herds
nerds herd birds
nerds don't herd
words aren't heard
softly speaking
hardly listening
hardly speaking
oftly listening
Identity
I dent a tree
The time to be
Truth you will see
With words like these
spread consciously
By you and me
Knowledge is free
Let us be we
We are indeed
Living to learn
Sharing our know
Kindly concede
To error's burn
Don't let it go.
Build the base
Of all that's true
Make it known
Free to face
The mind of you
Not yours alone
Face the mass
The massive mind
Of humankind
And it will find
truth is not blind

miPhone

I sit and think. What to do? I'd like to write. But what to write about..? And how to write with my computer screen no longer in commish..?

The answer to all of Life's problems: my iPhone.

So here I am now holding this thing between my two hands letting my thumbs bounce around this little horizontally-oriented keyboard. I've become a pretty quick typist with this thing over the years. My hands have really learned how to handle it. Kinda like learning to type on the keyboard (thank you aim). The iPhone has not only altered my motor skills. It has fundamentally changed who I am.

I am always becoming myself. Before I got my first iPhone in 2008 I had been living my life relatively content and satisfied with a computer at home and a motorola krzr in my pocket. I did not feel like there was anything missing or lacking. Nonetheless, I was ecstatic to get my first iPhone. I'd grown envious of the powers provided to my friends by their smartphones. So what was I to do with this new piece of equipment? Of course..go to the app store and get games!

There was a slew of free games that took advantage of a variety of the phone's capabilities downloaded and deleted on this phone. Only a few remained for more than a month. Now I'm left with the ones I liked most. It was a matter of time before I realized how extensive the app store really is with it's offerings. My favorite and most used apps are no longer the games. The best apps for me are those that have a function that benefits my doing and being. So my favorite apps vary functionally.

Pandora provides me with music.
Maps navigates for me.
Feedler brings me news.
Craigsphone connects me to goods and services.
Facebook is my most substantial online identity.
Mail is essential.
USAA let's me do all of my banking anywhere.
Calendar organizes the aspects of my life needing organization.
Clock keeps me tickin.
Camera captures moments and images.
Dictionary defines words.

I am me because of the things that I do. A person doesnt form a judgment of me based on my thoughts. We only know eachother through our action. This phone has changed my outlets of action and thus changed the way I act and live my life.

This raises some concerns for me. But I'm tired.
Let the dreams roll.

i facebook messaged mark zuckerberg just now..

..and this is what i said:

I don't know how to address this. I'm not really the most formal of people..especially on facebook. But I wanted to contact you and this is definitely the most simple form of communication for me. i am a student now. I like to think about thinking and how the nature of our environment impacts who we are. soo i'm doing a philosophy thesis on identity..how we conceptualize the identities of others and ourselves. I'm trying to lay out a more contemporary conceptualization of identity and facebook lies at the center of this for my peers at least. I'll be examining a number of facets of expression available on the internet.

The reason i'm messaging you:
you created this. i want to know the thoughts that drive the changes to the site. Facebook is an outlet of expression. It is constantly being redesigned to more naturally suit the users' interaction. if you'd be interested, i'd like to get some sort of interview with you. I haven't put anything together yet, but i wanted to just get on your radar by contacting you now - i don't even know if this is really you i guess. I'd really appreciate a response though.

alright so now a little more about me..
i'm 20. double major with cognitive science and philosophy. what i really care about is technology. i'll be going to grad school to do some sort of human-computer interaction or human factor and ergonomics or something. i'd like to make money working with mobile interface. the mobile computer has a variety of potential directions it could take in design. I want to have an impact on the direction. While i'm in college i am just trying to build my resume..starting a technology acknowledgment sorta club. totally a nerd, but not brilliant with computer code..never learned anythin except a lil java in intro computing. i am just trying to live life happily and do what's best for all. I think this thesis will definitely serve a purpose and i was hoping you'd like to share some of your thoughts with me.

thanks for taking the time to read this.

increase of action

here i go. posting for nobody. I'm finally trying to get involved with this blog. I'm not ready to share it though, so I don't have any visitors. I need this to have substance because I gave out my about.me to a summer internship i've applied for and am now susceptible to a background check. So i gotta up my internet image. I guess this post will give me a chance to think about internet identity...

I sit here procrastinating with this blog instead of writing my paper. I will be going to play pong relatively soon so I should not be doing this. But that doesn't matter. you won't be reading this tonight. There is no hurry for online static communication like this. I am a person leaving a footprint on the web of human communication (not to be confused with the recently declared web of robot communication). My identity is not anonymous but it isn't personal either. This is me expressing myself through my true internet self. This isn't the only outlet for me to express my true internet self..facebook, linkedin, tumblr, and youtube are all other sites that i use to represent myself truly - free of anonymity that the internet can sometimes offer. There are many other blogs and sites that I use solely to express myself anonymously. Those words may never ever be connected with my name.

synchronicity

coincidence with meaning. ever since i learned the term (coined by Carl Jung), examples have been popping up like zits on an 8th grader's forehead. it's strange that the meaning behind most of these coincidences has involved spirituality or religion. it is nice how we can attribute the causal force behind such coincidences to our God. this lets us refer to a structured account of how we should interpret these coincidental interactions to give them meaning - an account we find in the Bible. and what's most interesting about the Bible is that it is a key source of synchronistic experience. how often do people find the perfect verse to help them get through the tough time they've been having? sadly, because my devotion has never been too significant, i've never experienced any synchronicity with the Bible, despite my countless efforts closing my eyes opening the book and pointing to a random place on the page.

I'm not so familiar with the Bible, so i've just been relying on my own reasoning and experiences to determine what the synchronistic events should mean. Using my knowledge of God and the order of Nature and what ought to be, i can usually come to an interpretation that lets me act appropriately. Most times, i'm good to go and my decision was beneficial to the overall well-being of myself and others. There are other times when I fail though and am left with regret and disappointment. I guess I've moved past simply talking about reacting to synchronistic interactions and am now just talking about acting in general. I should write this paper that was due last wednesday. goodnight nobody

ignorance is bliss

Kendall asked me to write a poem with the first line "dread the wisdom" so i did:

dread the wisdom
bring the words
knowledge cometh
the soul is heard
information organized
with rationale in the mind
beginning to collect the truth
analyzing like a sleuth
once we know we don't forget
knowledge shapes the way we think
consciousness will never shrink
and wisdom uses reasoning
to structure concepts contently
so do the wise live happily?
does having knowledge make us free?
the wise seem to be aware
of truths that stimulate our care
for concepts that a wise man knows
burden his mind as it grows
worries come and worries go
it all depends on what we know
before thought we're all fearless
don't realize how life is amiss
there are no cares to be dismissed
so ignorance just must be bliss

smiles and eye contact

as i walk through campus i can't help but appreciate the beauty and magnificence of nature and my environment. the realization of how lucky i am always leaves me with a smile on my face. i smile as i walk and sometimes even whistle..just lovin life. most people i pass don't seem to be lovin life so much and i never know how to handle the minor interactions. should i hide my smile? avert my eyes to avoid contact?

usually, i'll subtle my smile and avert my eyes for a bit then go back for eye contact right about passing time - if their eyes are on mine, i'll do a little head nod and sorta smirk/smile or whatever - more on the right side of my face than the left. it's always nice when they smile back

my favorite is when i pass another appreciating the environment. it's like we have a little connection sharin the god-love. it's like "yes..this is awesome. good to see you're lovin it too"

life is amazing