Against The Norm

Improv Everywhere

2010-02-17T20:40:00.000-08:00

If you've never heard of Improv Everywhere, you're really missing out. According to their website, they "cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places." The first time I ever heard of them was reading an article about their mission "frozen Grand Central" which was nothing short of brilliant. Now, I'm not the sort of person to draw a lot of attention to myself, but still I would love to someday be in one of their missions. I think of this group as proof that, in the midst of our daily mundane lives, we can still spontaneously come together to share a laugh.

A Serious Problem

2010-02-17T08:51:00.000-08:00

What is wrong with us all? Think about this.

As kids, we're put into a "good" school, where they tell us to never question the teachers, or any authority figures for that matter, they favor factual accuracy above all else, and any hint of creativity or free thinking is immediately squashed. We learn to play there game well enough to get good grades, and eventually graduate. Then we apply to every college we think might take us, hoping to get into the best one. We're finally accepted...and we immediately start the countdown to graduation. After we graduate, we go to interview after interview, get a really good job...and then starting longing for the day when we can retire and not have to work anymore. After a few years, we've saved up enough money and buy the biggest, fanciest house we can afford...and then spend the next 30 years complaining about how we have no extra money because have to pay our mortgage. Finally, after all these years of waiting, waiting to be out of our curresnt situation, where are we in life? We're old, and because of our lousy healthcare in this country, many of us are sick and feeble, unable to do anything but sit in our favorite rocking chair, staring at the wall. Calmly and quietly waiting for death.

What's wrong with us all?

Guitar-singing

2010-02-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

Now back to something a little less heavy. This is definitely Unconventional. This guy has a voice that sounds just like an electric guitar. I wish I could play as well as this guy sings it.

Stop The Insanity!

2010-02-09T18:22:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a shorter post, as it's basically just a link to an article, but it is more serious than what I've posted so far. I feel like I have to point this out to people and hope that it can be changed. On Undispatch I Stumbled an article about violence against women that has been going on in The Congo for years. Only it's not just The Congo, it's nearly everywhere. And with the proliferation of rap music, which seems to only be about sex, money, violence, and hatred and degradation of women, I'm not surprised. This needs to stop. I would like to put out the call to all people, but especially men, to fight like hell to make a change in the world, to make sure that women and girls are not punished and degrading merely for being female. If you ask me, any "man" who will stand idly by while this happens, or worse yet, promote it, deserves to have "it" cut off.

Drift

2010-02-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

I just came across this video by Theo Tagholm. It's amazing. It's also really hard to describe, with all the shifts and undulations and weird.....you know what? just watch it.

Drift from mustardcuffins on Vimeo.

Found at Today and Tomorrow

A Sideways Rant

2010-02-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

So this really bugs me. I mean it pisses me right off. In seemingly every popular Youtube video, the person behind the camera seems to think it will be really cool or help the quality of the video if they shoot with the camera turned sideways. well it doesn't. It's not cool, it's not hip, it's not artistic. It's just stupid, Stop doing it. Do you not know how to work the camera?? Do you not know which end is up?? If you ever have kids I fear for their safety. Seriously. But of course people won't stop doing it because they think it will make more people watch, as if people browsing Youtube are saying "now which ones are shot sideways? Oh! That one is! I'm gonna watch that one!" It just doesn't happen. I'm convince that the next generation of cameras needs a feature so that if you turn it sideways while shooting, it automatically erases everything in the memory and shuts off. Or self-destructs. Engineers, please work on this. The sanity of Youtube watchers everywhere is depending on it.

Why I Don't Like White

2010-02-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

Lately on a lot of design/architecture sites I've seen, and especially the Minimalist-type blogs I frequent, I've been seeing lots of white. White kitchens. White living rooms. White bedrooms. Homes with white everything. It's starting to make me see red. Now, I know white is supposed to make rooms seem more airy and spacious, and white stands for cleanliness and simplicity, which I've been trying to embrace in my life, but I think that painting your walls, floors and everything else is going just a little too far.
Besides being terribly hard to keep clean, white is just...boring. As I just said, I know it represents cleanliness and simplicity, but to me it just seems like the person sho was in charge of painting couldn't quite decide what color to paint the room, so they just went with nice, neutral, boring white. It's not a warm color, it's not a cool color, it's not really anything.
White is the color of hospitals. Think about it....the floors and ceilings are white, or, at best, beige. The doctors and nurses wear white, the sheets are white, even the food is usually off-white. Maybe it's just me, but white reminds me of hospitals, and the last time I was in the hospital was not exactly a pleasant experience.
In some cultures, white is the color of death! For example, in Chinese culture, when they attend funerals, they traditionally wear white. So if you have an all white decor in your home, if you happen to have Chinese friends, the first time they come over you're gonna scare the hell out of them.
Now far be it from me to tell you how to decorate your own home. If you want to have it all white, go ahead, but I think I'll stick with this thing called color.

Anyone can do something extraordinary

2010-01-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

I always wanted to do something great, something that not many other people do, something maybe a little wacky. I think it was brought on by seeing online and in the news all those young people who are very talented or smart or come up with a great idea and strike it rich. Now I don't necessarily want to get rich or famous, but I've always wanted to do something that will make people say "wow!". Now I know I shouldn't be trying to do things just to impress others, but thats another story altogether. But now I am going to get to do something out of the ordinary. See, I currently live in Michigan, and am in a long distance relationship with a girl who lives in Oregon. In June of this year I am going to leave behind everyone and everything I've ever known to move across the country to be with her. And at the time I do that, I will be all of 22 years old. So don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because you're "average" or "ordinary" that you can't do something significant. I've certainly learned my lesson.

2010-01-17T11:29:00.000-08:00

In my life I have tried, failed at, done and stopped doing a lot of different things. I cleaned out my bedroom a few months ago and was amazed at all the stuff I found, remnants of past hobbies and interests. At this very moment I can see a box filled with stuff, including an RC car at the top of the pile. All things I was once interested in for some length of time. More recently, I used to play the guitar (I still have two). This is what lead me to sort of a revelation: you see, I wanted to learn how to play the guitar because it looked like a lot of fun and I thought nobody else did it, so I could be known as "the guy that plays the guitar". However, after a while I found out that a lot of other guys in school also played, and instead of wanting to play with them so I could get better (which I actually did for a while) I found myself being less interested in it, and I soon realized that the reason was that, instead of being "the guy who plays guitar" I was "one of those guys that plays guitar", and they were all a lot better than me, too, which just sucked. That, along with all my other experiences and passing interests in my life, has lead me to sort of a revelation, a breakthrough if you will: although I don't quite know what I want to do with my life (but I think I want to be a photographer, but that's another story entirely), what I do know is that I don't want to be just another person, just another random nobody coasting through life, influenced more by what other people want from me than what I want of myself. I want to be uncommon, I want to be...unconventional. I have finally realized that a lot of my varied interests (I have more things chosen in my Stumble account than I can even remember) are things, ideas, and people that are unconventional, that break away from the status quo, go against the norm. These kinds of things inspire me. They make me feel alive, really.
Thats why I started this blog in the first place, because this is unconventional for me. I've never had any interest in writing, and really I still don't, but I want to do something that will hopefully make a difference, if not for other people, at least for me. I want to inspire people to be unconventional, not-normal, not "safe", as I have been inspired by others I've read online.
So I would like to challenge all who read this: be unconventional, surprise people, do something they'll never expect, do something that's not "safe". Now when I say that, I don't mean driving without a seat belt, running with knives, or taking a bath with the toaster...thats just stupid. Although, if you're just itching to get a tour of the local ER, then by all means, go ahead (not really, please don't...I don't want to be sued), I mean that in our lives, in every decision we make, there are the things we want to do, and then there are the things that are "safe", "normal" and "socially acceptable", and in my experience, and the experience of a lot of other people I believe, the "safe" things and the things we want to do are usually not the same things. So do what you want to do. want to go skydiving? do it. Want to own a lime-green couch with pink polka-dots? Do it. Want to quit your job, sell all your stuff, and move out into the woods and live off the land? Do it...just try not to end up like this guy.
Refuse to be normal, refuse to be held back from what you really want to do by what other people might think of you....they're just too scared to do it themselves, if you ask me.
As for myself and this blog, I'll be giving you all a (semi) steady stream of unconventional things, people and ideas. Should be a fun ride...