04.14.08
Posted in Random Thoughts at 10:43 pm by Lawrie
One of the guys at work recently got an iPod touch. Now, I don’t really think of myself as a gadget person, but playing with the iPod touch made me really want to get one. Like, enough that I spent some time considering how to finagle $300 out of my budget. After all, my iPod nano is running out of room. And then I started thinking.
The iPod touch has Wi-Fi, but that doesn’t do me much good if I’m not near a hot spot. Plus, my cell phone is a few years old and could be replaced.
Maybe I should just get an iPhone. After all, the monthly plan isn’t really that much more than what I’m paying now.
But there are rumors that a 3G iPhone is coming out soon. Maybe I should just wait for that, because why settle for second rate technology?
I guess this is how it starts…
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03.12.08
Posted in Random Thoughts at 11:17 pm by Lawrie
Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted here. Time to get the cobwebs out, I suppose.
It’s hard for me to believe that trip to Boston in my last entry was over six months ago. It’s kind of interesting to re-read that post and realize I had no idea what I was going to decide to do a few months later. (I think the three people who read this all know what I’m talking about. In case you don’t, email me, and I’ll catch you up.) It reminds me of how limited my view really is. In my life, I often feel like things are going to be the way they are right now forever, which can either be a really great thing or a really bad thing, depending on what is going on at any given moment. Sometimes I wish I had a timetable that would tell me when I would get to the next mountain top experience or when a particularly frustrating time in a valley would be over. And yet, I realize that having such knowledge about my future would be more of a curse than a blessing. I would probably spend so much time counting down to the next event that I would be unable to enjoy each day for what it is.
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09.05.07
Posted in Random Thoughts at 10:50 pm by Lawrie
Hanging out in a friend’s apartment all weekend to eat tacos with hand fried taco shells and play Guitar Hero II.
Driving towards Boston over the Tobin Bridge at night with the skyline lit up in front of you.
Walking from the Boston Common(s) to Government Center to Faneuil Hall to the farmers’ market at Haymarket to the North End and back again.
Watching the ducks swim by the weeping willows in the ponds in the Boston Gardens.
Eating arepas for breakfast, carnitas and fried plantains with fresh, homemade guacamole for dinner, cannoli from Mike’s Pastries, and ice cream from JP Licks.
Staying up past 1am every night, with conversations ranging from work to relationships to the best new a cappella music.
Visiting MIT and feeling old when you realize that the people who were freshmen when you graduated are now seniors, but still running into people you know all over the place.
Walking across the Harvard Bridge and watching the sailboats play on the Charles.
Hanging out for four days straight and never running out of things to talk about.
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05.09.07
Posted in Random Thoughts at 1:49 pm by Lawrie
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02.02.07
Posted in Pictures at 2:15 pm by Lawrie
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Posted in Pictures at 2:09 pm by Lawrie
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Posted in Pictures at 2:05 pm by Lawrie
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11.08.06
Posted in Fun Stuff, Moving on... at 9:57 pm by Lawrie
Europe was…many things. It was good. It was different. It was tiring. It was beautiful. It made me want to learn French, German, Greek, and Spanish. It’s ridiculous and awe-inspiring that there are buildings hundreds or thousands of years old still standing. We saw what we went to see, although we didn’t see anything for long enough. (Except perhaps the view from the Eiffel Tower. Somehow, seeing Paris from the Tower isn’t the same as seeing Paris with the Tower in it.) I took more pictures this trip than I think I ever have on a trip before, and yet I still feel like I didn’t take enough. I look through my pictures, and I can’t believe that I was just there a few weeks ago. It feels kind of like a dream, in some ways. I know I should write more about it before I lose it all. I know there is plenty more to write about. I just don’t seem to have the mental energy to process what we did, what we saw. I think the thing that struck me the most was just the people. There’s a lot of people out there, many more than I see in my every day life. I haven’t made put any of my pictures in a presentable format yet, but here is one to get you started. (Yes, we found the church from my painting.)
But the thing is, I’m supposed to be moving soon. Like this weekend (although that probably really means next week…). I haven’t even bought a bed yet. Or attempted to pack. Or really started beliving that I am moving. It’s not far, mind you. Same town (same job, sigh), just my own space (well, including a roommate). I think I’m looking forward to it. I think it will be good. I just don’t know how it’s all going to happen. And I’m trying so hard not to think about it that it’s kind of hard to think about anything else.
And now it’s November. The leaves seem to have changed while I was gone, and suddenly fall has arrived. Thanksgiving is two weeks away, and then Advent and Christmas, my favorites of the seasons, arrive. I’m really looking forward to Christmas this year, and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I actually have a little bit of time to think about it (or I will, once I’m moved). Maybe it’s because we’re having a lot of people over (for our family, anyway). Maybe it’s because Christmas always gives me (or reminds me of) hope. Whatever it is, I can’t wait.
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10.02.06
Posted in Fun Stuff at 9:30 pm by Lawrie
I’ve used Webshots as the source for pictures for my desktop background for years. They have lots of free pictures that you can download, so every so often I’ll visit the site and download some new ones. Many of the pictures from this site are quite beautiful, but one in particular kept catching my attention. It took me a while to realize that every time I saw it, I thought, “Oh, that place looks awesome.” Something about the clean white-washed walls of the buildings stacked on a hill leading down to the bright blue of the ocean captured my imagination. I found out it was a picture of some island in Greece named Santorini. I kept seeing it in pictures online (and even in a movie or two), and that served only to feed my imagination more. Did you know there was a place where they painted all their walls white, and the domes of their churches bright blue?
I shared my fascination with this place with my friend, Evelyn, who I knew would at least appreciate the beauty of the photographs (not to mention the blue paint). I think somehow she understood how I felt, because when I left MIT last year to move back home, she gave me what is probably my favorite present ever. She painted me a scene from a photograph of Santorini she had found online. On the back, in typical Evelyn fashion, she had written, “Don’t forget to go!” I’m sure when I saw that I said something like, “I’ll go someday.” But practically speaking, a trip to Santorini felt like it was pretty much in the same category as a trip to the North Pole - technically possible, but highly, highly improbable.
And yet, here I am, less than three weeks away from the beginning of a trip that will take me there. After a few days in Paris to take in the sights, Evelyn and I will board a plane for Athens and then a ferry to Santorini. I’m not really sure what to expect, or what we’ll even do there (besides trying to find the church in Evelyn’s picture). I think what I’m really hoping for is a taste of the magic that has been hinted at in all of the pictures I’ve seen but that can never be fully captured by them.
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08.03.06
Posted in Random Thoughts at 11:21 pm by Lawrie
What will music be like 500 years from now? Will it be super-electronified or simple and chant-like? Or will it go through both phases and end up somewhere completely different that I can’t imagine right now? What will they think of our music? Will they even know what it sounds like? Or will they just be left with the lyrics, little knowing how much they’re missing?
When I meet my great-x-18-granddaughter in heaven, will I find out that somehow we both love the same song, but that we know it in entirely different forms? When she sings me her version, will I wonder how a sane person could ever enjoy something like that, or will I see in it the same beauty she does?
And how much storage space will it take to hold all of the music we have now, plus all the music written between now and then? Not to mention all the movies, books, paintings, and whatever else that get created. Is that why only the best (or most popular, I suppose) stuff survives? Lack of storage space?
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