I'm moving back to South Carolina in about a week (and I'm pumped). I will be there for another 6-8 months. I need to find a place to live. I loved living on Daniel Island when I lived their last. My previous roommate and I are now stationed in different places and none of my other friends want to live on Daniel Island. They would rather live in downtown Charleston, within walking distance to the bars. I have a couple problems with this:
1. I'm not into the bar scene as much as I used to be
2. Parking downtown can be terrible. Where can my girlfriend park?
3. It's a long commute to work
4. No community pool or grill
5. Busy/Noisy
6. I have always lived with a roommate and never tried living alone
7. Downtown is pretty, but, old
On the other hand, there would be some pros of living downtown:
1. I'm good friends with the guys who invited me in
2. It is the closest I could live to my girlfriend
3. We could car pool to work everyday
4. Having roommates is fun
5. We can buy a grill
6. Close to the bars so that when I want to go out, it's easy.
7. It's cheaper living with others than living in a single
8. I don't have to furnish a living room because they have furniture
If I choose not to live downtown, then I would probably live by myself in Mount Pleasant. I need to makeup my mind quickly because I have found some nice single apartments in Mount Pleasant that I don't foresee lasting long. Damn, this is tough.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Believe in Passion
Side note: Last night, I won $116 playing Craps at the Mohegan Sun. I had a good time and everyone profited from the shooting of newbie Jordan. I'm not nearly addicted to gambling, but, it is a good way to kill some time with some friends.
People need something to believe in. People need a passion. That is what keeps people going and enjoying life. When people perceive they nothing to believe in, they lose the will to live. However, that is only a perception. There is an infinite number of ways to believe and I'm not talking about religion. The key is to continue educating yourself.
Maybe you can learn a new language. Learning a second language is a major goal of mine. After my experiences abroad, I realize how ignorant it is that I only speak English. Many Europeans speak at least 2 languages. Part of that is out of necessity because of the relatively small size of European countries and the need to communicate in multiple languages when traveling. In Europe, English, has become a universal language. In that regard, traveling through Europe is easy for Americans (assuming they speak English...). I already have a background in Spanish from high school, but, I think the better choice for me would be to learn Chinese, albeit far more difficult. I think I would begin with Rosetta Stone.
One of my inspirations to learn another language is Benjamin Franklin. I recently finished reading his very interesting autobiography. I am extremely impressed in Franklin's intellectual discipline. At a time before electricity and reliable information exchange, he was able to teach himself several languages. He could read and write fluently in English, German, Latin, French, Spanish and Italian. Obviously, he was a brilliant man but, the fact that he could teach himself these languages, in this time period, removes all excuses I have for not learning another language.
Recently I saw a commercial advertising a car. The commercial featured the tracking of a weather balloon. That weather balloon took images of earth from space. How cool would that be? It can't be that expensive an endeavor and is something I would love to try. See here http://space.1337arts.com/
Believe in travel. I love to travel. That is one of the reasons I joined the Navy. Often times, traveling is accompanied by amazing experiences and lead to personal growth that cannot be otherwise attained. I'm currently reading The 4 Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss, in which the love to travel is a theme. I will do my best to see all that I can.
The ability to view Earth from space and easily travel far distances are desires of our earliest ancestors that only became feasible in the past hundred years. Why not fulfill these natural instincts? As far as learning another language, that may facilitate your travel's and lead to more grand opportunities. It literally opens up a whole new world of possible friends and experiences. Our ancestors would have given anything for some of the opportunities I listed above and yet, many of us do not take advantage of them. Instead, we play videogames.
These are only a few things, of MANY, that I believe in. If you find yourself in a rut, try something new. Pledge to learn a new language and then travel to a region where you can employ your new skills. Who cares about money? You cannot put a price on a genuine experience. Your kids/grand-kids/great-grand-kids are not going to respect you for the money you may have left behind. Instead, they will respect you for the passion in which you lived your own life.
What your passion is, is not the point. The point is, to have a passion.
People need something to believe in. People need a passion. That is what keeps people going and enjoying life. When people perceive they nothing to believe in, they lose the will to live. However, that is only a perception. There is an infinite number of ways to believe and I'm not talking about religion. The key is to continue educating yourself.
Maybe you can learn a new language. Learning a second language is a major goal of mine. After my experiences abroad, I realize how ignorant it is that I only speak English. Many Europeans speak at least 2 languages. Part of that is out of necessity because of the relatively small size of European countries and the need to communicate in multiple languages when traveling. In Europe, English, has become a universal language. In that regard, traveling through Europe is easy for Americans (assuming they speak English...). I already have a background in Spanish from high school, but, I think the better choice for me would be to learn Chinese, albeit far more difficult. I think I would begin with Rosetta Stone.
One of my inspirations to learn another language is Benjamin Franklin. I recently finished reading his very interesting autobiography. I am extremely impressed in Franklin's intellectual discipline. At a time before electricity and reliable information exchange, he was able to teach himself several languages. He could read and write fluently in English, German, Latin, French, Spanish and Italian. Obviously, he was a brilliant man but, the fact that he could teach himself these languages, in this time period, removes all excuses I have for not learning another language.
Recently I saw a commercial advertising a car. The commercial featured the tracking of a weather balloon. That weather balloon took images of earth from space. How cool would that be? It can't be that expensive an endeavor and is something I would love to try. See here http://space.1337arts.com/
Believe in travel. I love to travel. That is one of the reasons I joined the Navy. Often times, traveling is accompanied by amazing experiences and lead to personal growth that cannot be otherwise attained. I'm currently reading The 4 Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss, in which the love to travel is a theme. I will do my best to see all that I can.
The ability to view Earth from space and easily travel far distances are desires of our earliest ancestors that only became feasible in the past hundred years. Why not fulfill these natural instincts? As far as learning another language, that may facilitate your travel's and lead to more grand opportunities. It literally opens up a whole new world of possible friends and experiences. Our ancestors would have given anything for some of the opportunities I listed above and yet, many of us do not take advantage of them. Instead, we play videogames.
These are only a few things, of MANY, that I believe in. If you find yourself in a rut, try something new. Pledge to learn a new language and then travel to a region where you can employ your new skills. Who cares about money? You cannot put a price on a genuine experience. Your kids/grand-kids/great-grand-kids are not going to respect you for the money you may have left behind. Instead, they will respect you for the passion in which you lived your own life.
What your passion is, is not the point. The point is, to have a passion.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Living link to the Civil War
My brother and I with our grandparents, spring 2010
My grandfather, whom I believe is 93 years old (and still in great health), has a neat recollection. He remembers seeing a parade in NYC, where he grew up, composed of veterans of the civil war. He was a boy at the time and I wonder how many people are still alive that have seen authentic civil war veterans? It cannot be many. How cool is that?
The war ended in 1865. There are accounts of very young men serving in both the Confederate and Union armies. These boys, some as young as 10, were drummer boys or message runners. They were not usually enlisted for combat, but, sometimes that came with the territory.
For example, lets say we have a ten year old boy who served during the civil war. If this boy grew up and fathered a child at an older age, perhaps at the age of 60, that child would be born in 1915. It is now 2012. That would make their child almost 100 years old. I wonder if anyone is still alive today whose father was in the civil war. It could be possible.
Friday, October 28, 2011
New blog- New Rules
Originally, this blog was about my travels through Europe in the fall of2009, when I studied abroad in Denmark. Now, I want this blog to take a different direction.
I want this blog to become a diary of sorts, where I have the freedom to comment on a variety of topics i.e. the daily news, ideas, my personal musings, experiences, sports and life in general.
This blog will also serve as an intellectual tool, improving the transformation of my thoughts to writing. I will make every attempt to write something of significance every day of the year, for the next year.
I will define "something of significance" as an entry that takes some amount of original, creative, intelligent thought. It may only be a sentence long, a haiku, or the first four chapters of my book.
I hope you enjoy
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