The Crazy Thoughts of Patrick

My dad sent this to me in what I assume is a chain mail. So here you go

As I sat down at a computer keyboard with five extra keys, a host of letters I have never seen in my life, and a google which insists that I actually want my mail in Spanish, I couldn´t be more amazed. After what was probably a relative 12 hours of flying and somewhere near seven hours cumulative time change, I´m finally in Barcelona: home to my host family as well as a language I don´t speak and a host of other awesome and bewildering things. So, this is this post. It felt apt to leave it open ended as I still have no idea of the things to come.

I am told that every hero, now matter how naturally strong or amazing (even Jack Bauer) needs a “magic” device to get through his or her most challenging encounters. Often times these devices or artifacts, often referred to as “amulets” are representations or incarnations of physical mental or spiritual qualities sought by the hero. Although the hero may never know it, the majority of times this amulet is simply a placebo – a device which enables the hero to tap into an inner source of strength, an inner sence of courage, compassion, or insight.

So I went on my own journey to find some of these amulets. To find these “medicines” which will help me along my journey. I was presented with the legend of 15 medicines scattered around the school and a requirement that I find five. But as I looked at the packet with the clues and read the directions, I knew I would not settle for anything less than all 15. It was not greed or boredom or even curiosity which compelled this but rather the thought that each one of these medicines would be a journey and each one of these medicines an opportunity to ask someone the awkward question of, “do you have faith?” And so while there is number symbolism presented in the packet, I’m choosing to ignore it for the simple substitute of “I wanted to have as many experiences with this as possible.”

Now as I sat down to write this I realized that I could share every single medicine I collected, where I found each one, and what I thought that that location meant. I could. But, I’ve played eight lacrosse games in two days I’m sunburnt and exhausted, and I am sure that whoever may be reading this would much rather read something a little more on the road less traveled. So I am choosing to share a few of my experiences which I found particularly enlightening or at least surprising.

I’d like to start with insight, which I stumbled upon half by chance and half by hunch. I had a feeling that the insight was somewhere within the room I was in when I first read the hints – it just seemed crafty. However, I couldn’t find it. At all. That is until I lost my copy of The Sparrow somewhere in Haffley’s room and while searching for it happened to stumble upon a little container marked insight. It seemed very apt that it was a mirror just then. The message I recieved was clear: you have all the insight you need.

My favorite experience of this entire medicine hunt was undoubtedly finding discernment. The majority of the experience for me came after finding it, however. In my conversation with Padre, I learned that he still believes there was very little discernment in his path to becoming a Jesuit. The story seemed like a whirlwind. One minute he is talking to his college counselor, the next he is filling out an application sheet for the Society of Jesus. It reminds me of The Sparrow. How when something is meant to be it just all starts falling into place and happens faster than anyone can even comprehend. I walked out of Padre’s office and examined the talisman: an eye. I have no idea what the majority of people took away from this but because of my conversation with Padre I took away my own thoughts of the meaning. The eye is representative of God’s omniscience. It serves to remind me that even when it seems I don’t know where to go or what path to choose, God is watching. And God will guide me and even if it appears everything is a random whirlwind, everything is perfectly in order.

Today I woke up at 10:30. Except I didn’t. Once I got through a good bit of confusion seeing as my phone was a different time than every other time-telling device in my household, I realized that the majority of Indiana and the northern world had gained an hour, translating into the loss of an hour for all its citizens.

Why this is: According to Historynet, Benjamin Franklin first suggested the idea of daylight savings time in a 1784 SATIRE piece discussing the rationing of candles and shutters in Paris. Regardless of its humourous origins, it quickly caught on. William Willet was the first to create a standardized vision of Daylight Savings Time because he enjoyed golfing late in the day and did not want to cut his round short. Seeing great opportunities for later tee times, Germany and its WWI allies adopted the practice. The majority of the United States then adopted it in 1918.

I just thought you all might want to know why you lost an hour this morning.

So as I was listening to the radio today, I once again heard something which confuses me endlessly. The lyrics to one song contained the word goddamn. Of course this didn’t fly. So instead of blocking the word damn the FCC decided to block the word God. I guess because saying God is just not cool.

This made me remember the good old days of blink-182 and all the lame rock music that came from the fallout of grunge. And of course along with these bands came their love of the word asshole. Again, not going to fly. So the FCC blocked the word hole. Not ass, hole.

So this begs the question: Is godhole an absolutely terrible word? If so I apologize to all readers I just offended.

Over the course of this past weekend I have been in Washington DC and Philadelphia and I got a chance to see America’s center of government – both current and historical. I must say, however, that upon going back into DC I was impressed more than I remember. The last time I was in Washington was 2005, when I went with my school as an eighth grade trip. Even having gone within the past four years, I was amazed when entering the nation’s capitol. Almost every building in Washington is constructed of Indiana Limestone. As is said in the movie The American President, the capitol was designed with the purpose of intimidating foregin dignitaries. Clearly, that design idea was realized.

To anyone who is reading this I pose a riddle: When you are completely bored and have nothing you want to do, what is better than watching a good movie? Trick question. Nothing.

Quite recently I was at a debate tournament and, as those are inherently quite boring (you debate about a quarter of the time), the kids of the debate team opened a discussion on movies. If a more wide and detailed topic than movies exists, I have yet to find it. The conversation started with discussing the qualities of Will Ferrell movies (highlighted perhaps by Will Tenbarge being able to recite ALL of Talladega Nights) and then moved onto the classic Tarantino film Pulp Fiction and Samuel L. Jackson’s awesome lack of character diversity.

So this post is mainly to acknowledge the fact that movie watching is a deeply enriching activity and well worth it. Nothing beats finding a new great movie.

By now (now being more than a couple of weeks into second semester), this post is probably a little too late. But, as I have recently seen a comment asking me how to do something and rumor is a few people are having trouble with widgetbox, I will give instructions on how to insert Widgetbox widgets, import youtube & other flash video onto your blog, and import a video file from your computer onto your blog.

Inserting Widgetbox Widgets:
Things to make sure: Your blog theme has at least one sidebar enabled and you are not at school or at a computer which has an internet filter.
Step One: Go to widgetbox.com and find a widget you like.
Step Two: Customize that Widget (change size, color if you can)
Step Three: Click “Get Widget” and copy the code that comes up
Step Four: Go to your blog dashboard and click the design tab then the widgets sub-tab.
Step Five: Add the text widget to your sidebar, edit the text, and in the main body paste the code you just copied.
Step Six: Click “Change” then “Save Changes” and you’re done!

Inserting Video from Your Computer
Step One: Save a video file to your computer. Remember where you saved it.
Step Two: Start writing a blog post
Step Three: Where you see “Add media”, scroll over to the one that looks like a film reel. Click it
Step Four: Click “Browser Uploader” and then click “Browse” and select the file you want to upload
Step Five: Click Upload

Inserting Youtube videos into your blog
Step One: Find a youtube Video
Step Two: Find where it says URL and copy that code.
Step Three: While writing a blog post, click on the HTML tab.
Step Four: Click the “code” button on top of the text box
Step Five: Paste the code from the youtube video and press the “/code” button which has appeared in place of the “code” button. And you’re done.

So while I was rehabilitating Kaplan’s computer last night at two in the morning, I was reminded of my love for computers. After spending roughly five hours fighting with a computer virus, losing, and then formatting the hard drive to spite the virus (the equivalent of a virtual atomic bomb), I realized that a career in computers might be fun for me. Here’s my problem: I have probably wanted to be every profession at one point in my life or another. Whenever I read about policy I want to work for a think-tank, whenever I argue I want to become some sort of public speaker, when I read court decisions I want to become a lawyer, and each time I watch The West Wing I want to be a White House press secretary. I went to visit Macalester College I sat in on an hour long economy course and by the end of it wanted to be an economist. Most recently I have been reading The Ugly American and so now I want to be a diplomat. I just pray to God I never have an encounter with ipecac.

V-Moda Vibe Earbud Headphones

Quick Looks
Rating: 5/5
Price: $69.12 on Amazon.com

Pros:
Relatively inexpensive as far as high-end earbuds go
Excellent bass response and treble boost
Won’t fall out of ears
Great noise isolation
Cord almost never tangles

Cons:
On Classical music midrange can sound weak

Over the holiday season I set out looking for a moderately priced pair of headphones which could last me for quite a while and that I could be proud of. After wearing 30- to 40-dollar pairs of headphones the majority of my life, I felt that I was ready to try to get a taste of the higher-end types. After reading several reviews, I decided to go with the V-Moda Vibe headphones (in gunmetal black, of course) which cost about 70 dollars. The first then I noticed when I got the headphones is the obvious amount of quality they put into the product. The earbuds come packaged with two packages of different styles of silicone rubber each with three sizes of pairs of the earbuds to make sure that each consumer could reach a snug fit. The next thing I noticed which separates these headphones from any others I have ever seen is that materials from which they are made. While normal buds are made from cheap plastic with thin rubber cords, the Vibes are constructed from metal allows and the cords are a woven-nylon which do not stick to the insides of pockets nor do they get tangled.
I’m not exactly a music aficionado but I can tell you that these headphones truly place you in the middle of whatever you are listening to. Even the $200 pair of speakers cannot give you the same in-the-moment musical experience that these do in terms of warm base and clear highs. The only problem is in order to attain the excellence in the lows and highs, the midrange sounds are sacrificed at times. At times acoustics or piano tend to sound grainy or muddled.
One of my biggest concerns when looking at headphones is sound isolation: how well does the headphone keep music in and external sound out. This is where the Vibes truly excel. If you get a good seal from the silicone rubber into your ears – which is almost guaranteed given the amount of choices V-Moda gives you – you cannot hear any external noises nor can anyone hear your music escaping.
So my advice: if you are looking to make the transition to a higher-level of sound-quality headphone, the V-Moda Vibes are an excellent choice. If you want to be fully immersed in your music and don’t mind sacrificing a bit of midrange to get there, these earbuds are a definite buy.