Entry!

1/31

I'm starting a blog today; beats indulgently updating my facebook status every other day, I suppose. It's still pretty self indulgent though. Not that I have any problems with that. Anyway, I spent more time than I'd like to admit on the title, then wrote the assigned entry on the workshop prep (which I'll post shortly after this initial entry), and I'll be emailing the link to this blog to everyone else in stac by morning. My 365 blog is also up, but I won't be making it entirely public til I actually upload my work.

...Now that I think about it, the title could still use some work. Strange, it seemed like such a cool title at the time, but now it just looks stupid. Changed it. Naturally. It's going to look stupid to me in a few hours, I can tell.

This being my first blog entry, I suppose I'll be making up for lost time.

Five Dreams                    .
A few months ago, I came upon the concept of lucid dreaming. A lucid dreamer is somebody capable of complete and total clarity (or lucidity) during his or her dreams. By extension, a lucid dreamer becomes capable of not only recalling his dreams, but also of manipulating the events in his dreams as they happen. An accomplished dreamer can enter a Wake Initiated Lucid Dream on command, and recall multiple dreams a night. By contrast, an untrained individual is lucky to remember a single dream a month (I say "remember" because the average human has five or six dreams a night, but is incapable of recalling them).
Naturally, I'm in love with the concept, and for the last few months I've kept a journal of my dreams to help me remember... Unfortunately, since I usually have to rush to record my dreams (gotta get to school eventually), that journal is written on the backs of who knows how many dozens of papers scattered throughout my house. I'll upload a few every now and then, of course, especially if I find any new ones laying around.

As of this writing, I've recently rededicated myself to making regular reality checks and to recording my dreams. I never had a lucid dream as of yet, and my memories are still somewhat erratic. I usually have one well recorded dream every weekend, but I once managed five dreams over the course of five days during a break (which is pretty great by my standards). I'm going to try to keep my sleep schedule consistent as well, since that seems to help.

I also bought an ipod cable over Amazon for about 75 cents. So now I can actually use the itouch that's been gathering dust on my shelf for the last year or so. I uploaded a few songs to it and made heavy use of it's Notes app.

 Name, Ethnicity, Gender, Profession                      .
A manifesto is a public declaration of intentions and principles. It defines a concept and frees it of any perversions of misconception or misunderstanding. But few people can say they really have a manifesto. Few people can really define themselves, know themselves, and everyone seems to forget to take a good look in the mirror. If somebody approached us and said "Who are you?" we'd probably just answer with our names.
But a name is just a series of recognizable letters. A title of convenience. A number assigned to a prisoner would mean just as much.
Then we'd answer with, what, our ethnicities? Our genders? Our professions? Our cliques? Our friends? Our styles? But that's just another mix and match jumble of titles, names, and upbringings. We're more, or at least we should be more, than simple combinations of titles. We are not "Name, Ethnicity, Gender, Profession." I am not "Justin Coo, Asian Male Student."

A few days ago, I typed up a series of simple little rules for myself. It's not very interesting at the moment; it contains some modest things like "I will not swear and curse at random in response to irritation" followed by a short bit of reasoning behind the rule. At the moment, I'm only defining what I'm not, really. But I imagine that's better than pretending to know what I am when I clearly don't. And defining what I'm not is still defining. I fully intend to expand on it from now on.

A public declaration of principles (picked a couple as an example).
-I can have self respect without having to kill myself on the way there. By extension, I acknowledge that I can improve and critique my artwork without being self deprecating. I will never hate my art by merit of it being mine.
-I acknowledge that my appreciation for the sarcasm of others is not universal. I like having sarcastic friends, but that does not mean I should be sarcastic myself.
-I will never again make one of those stupid little bets with life for karma. I'm not a five year old high on Elmer's anymore.
-I will actively pursue at least one full conversation a day, with intent to increase the minimum requirement.
-I will not be petty. Pettiness suffocates all involved.