About Me

I'm going to try one of those facebook like notes that help you delineate who you are. But here's the catch: I'm going to put it on my blog instead of facebook. Ohhh yeah, that's right. I think the form is 20 things about me, so here it goes.

1. I have neither a favorite color nor number. I guess I wasn't into favorites in kindgerarten or preschool when I learned about colors and numbers, and I haven't really chosen one since.

2. I'm a yankees fan

3. See above.

4. I own literally (I've counted) five times more merchandise with a Stanford logo than merchandise with a Yale logo.

5. I don't remember the last time music and/or a new day failed to cheer me up.

6. I don't like drama (the genre in literature in film I have nothing against, but I mean the histrionics about relatively trivial subjects). Especially when it's drama I create or get consumed in. Be it about personal relationships or class scheduling or food or political polling. In fact I strive to one day be knighted Sir No Drama David, or Sir No Drama Obama the 2nd.

7. If I ever made the MLB (or really any baseball league that palyed at bat music), my at bat music would be "I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for." I believe I would be the only player to have John Mayer for my at-bat music.

8. Speaking of at bat music, you should see the home run trot I came up with in the hypothetical situation I ever hit a home run.

9. I'm prone to an aggrandization of life and thus an underappreciation of the moments that its comprised of.

10. I find it very hard to think of 20 things about myself.

11. I think karaoke is my latent artistic talent.

12. But don't even get me started on dancing. I'll tear up a dance floor. As long as I don't have to do it for more than 3 minutes. My moves kind of run out after that.

13. I am loathe to use sesquipedalians. NAHHH. JK.

14. I very easily run out of things to say. But I also don't really mind moments of silence.

15. I generally prefer non-fiction, but if I'm reading right before sleeping, I want fiction.

16. I have very bad handwriting.

17. I'm leaving for college in 10 days.

18. I am happiest when thinking about things other than myself.

19. No wonder I'm so sad right now.

20. Just kidding! I'm super happy! Because I just successfully completed this post!

Second

The beginning of the spoken word I haven't been able to finish, but hope to one day.

I'm a wanna be
I'm a wanne be good in life
because that alone would suffice.

First Intention

I know "first impression" gets a lot of attention, but "first impression" has a little-discussed relative that is in many respects much more socially influential: first intention. I think that first intention: when you see someone whether you try and hide and shy away, or come right up to meet them, whether you some-what-awkwardly initiate the conversation or eagerly embrace it, is much more influential than that first impression that you get from someone just by looking at them.

Street Lights Keep on Flickering Out

Street lights keep on flickering out when I am driving near them at night. It's happened twice this week. Hypotheses as to why (in order of likelihood).

1. Ron and/or Dumbledore are following me with their deluminator.
2. A random coincidence.

If I think of any more possibilities, I'll add them on as comments.

~Dk(says)

First (in two months)

So it's been a couple of months now since I've posted, so I thought I'd post some of the thinking that has consumed a lot of my 'excogitation.' Normally, when I post on my blog, I try to express something that might be helpful or interesting or entertaining to others. I'm not sure this post so much follows that pattern, but perhaps you've had a similar challenging thought process (see below for clarification), in which case I'm there with you. Or perhaps you might be interested in what I've been thinking about the last few months! (In which case I can direct you to a couple of great reality TV shows on mtv that readily display much more interesting thoughts/sentiments). But with that caveat that this post has limited utility, here it goes. 

"I questioned everything--not comprehensively, in fact very narrowly, but to the root. 

I questioned everything, except the questioning itself. 

Until I realized, in the continual middle that for this post will serve as the end, inevitably I will need some fundamental assumptions. And I can try and base those assumptions off of observations, call it empirical and fact, but I can never see all, and what I do see, how do I judge that. No, there will always be assumptions. In other words, I am fairly confident it is impossible to empirically derive what this life is." A cliff notes to the life of David Kastelman June 1-July 29, 2009.

July 30, 2009.

I still get paralyzed by the why's, I am still not exactly sure when to stop them. If there is no ultimate, single, derived objective (or if there is one but I can not know what it is), what do I base what I do on? Well, let's start with assumption zero: I am going to live. Biologically, I'm covered.

[...I think in the fashion of Siddhartha and because assumptions are necessarily so individualistic, I'm going to excerpt my thinking here... I get the added benefits of perhaps seeming mysterious and profound and illustrating the manner in which google book annoyingly operates...come on google, buy the works of all the authors (with the exception of J.K. Rolwling who would probably charge too much) by now...] 

dabbling in philosophy is going to drive me insane. At least I've found a crutch of assembled assumptions I'm certainly not sure of but I've thought about. 

FIRST

(FIRST) spoken word. I meant to put a lot of my attempts at spoken word up on this blog (that was a large part of the "word" part of the title of this blog), but I've been a little tardy. BUT NOT ANYMORE! Introducing, my first spoken word to go on this blog. (Wooo!)

So a little bit about spoken word (since this is my first spoken word posted on this blog). So I got into spoken word earlier this year. You can find some really good examples on youtube (I suggest Def Jam and Urban World NYC Teen Poetry Slam). When you've watched a sufficient sample of good spoken word (which I have to admit, I didn't really do before I made my first spoken word) you can glean that a lot of the spoken word is about race relations and urban conditions (although maybe that is just because of the samples I am watching), two issues which I have to admit I don't have all too much first hand insight. And for that reason (and many, many, many other reasons) my spoken word is maybe a little trite and I can't pretend it's good. But I still really enjoy spoken word. Spoken word is a very diverse genre, probably multiple genres, but one defining hallmark is a structure to words, in some ways perhaps it should be called 'structured word.' Whether through a central image, or a structured syllabic pattern, or a rhyme scheme, or through connecting images, the key concept of spoken word is a structured organization. And when trying to express the abstract-ness of thoughts and words, that structure is really helpful, even as you enjoy the expressiveness of the poetic aspects of spoken word. Also, I kind of like spoken word because it is one of the very few artistic things I can even try. 

So about this poem. This was written a couple of weeks ago, when this poem pretty much summarized the entirety of a two-week stretch of thinking, which was a little frustrating, but pretty good fodder for a spoken word. It's not quite as relevant to my life anymore, but since the point of this spoken word was to start a turning point, that's pretty cool. I hope you enjoy. An approximation of the lyrics of the poem are pasted below. Before I paste the lyrics though, I had some trouble posting the video on Blogspot ('blogspot (or David) fail'), so I'm using facebook as my video hosting site. I'm not really sure how facebook links work, so hopefully this is a permanent link that works. Please let me know if the link doesn't work. 

Thanks!

Dksays

Link: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=83863510913&comments

Lyrics:

Currently, I’m selling out

Which is funny

cuz there’s not even money

But I assure you

I’m selling out

And I’m looking for an out

 

Right now,

I’m serving on a sliver platter

Whatever I think you think matters

matters is too noble a word to denote the dish

more appropriately a spoiled fish

More specifically my inner soul

Split and sautéed in a sauce that’s pooled

But I expect my auto ten percent gratuity

Estimating that this is qualifying party

But hoping you like me even more

Cash in another five percent at the door

 

But here’s how the evening was usurped

See, you’re turned off wishing you were in Europe,
Where the only thing that are tips are the extremity of an object

And I’m wishing, I’m wishing I was working on a new project

Cuz Speaking of objects, there’s more than that I’d like to see

 

See I’m still just a waiter

But I’ve waited far too long

For this obsession to abate.

So I don’t mean to hate

 

But I strongly dislike

I’d like for it to take a hike

This predilection where I constantly estimate if im liked

So no, I don’t have a resume or an alternative frame of view

But I assure you I’m looking for something new. 

Selfish

I said, "no more being selfish."

And nothing changed. 

Except my two-week old headache went away.