i landed at newark at like 7:30...i slept a little on the plane but not much, and was so beat... i only got 3 hours of sleep on the plane and it was 4am eugene time. so i got on the train and it took me about 3 hours and plenty of transfers to get to crown heights. when i got off the subway there yerachmiel wasn't answering his phone right away so of course within two minutes a chasid came out of nowhere and asked me if i wanted to wrap tefillin, so i was like 'sure,' and we went into 770 to git 'r done.
when that was done with i went outside, and yerachmiel was actually right there calling me(he had been inside 770 as well) we walked the ten or so blocks back to his pad and dropped off my stuff, then went out for some breakfast.
yerachmiel had to work so i walked over to the subway and rode to penn station. i got out and was walking around 7th street and the fashion district, which was my first time above ground in manhattan. it was SO COOL. i ended up going into macy's to get a dress shirt to put on over my zelda t-shirt so i looked less like a tourist. (which i became painfully aware that i must after seeing how differently people dress here than on the west coast)
i walked all the way through 7th street, to broadway, walked through times square, and then stopped at columbus circle, where i sat and read 'the outside world'(which brittany lent me after reading it for a judaic studies class) for a while in the sun. then i walked through central park a bit and headed west to lincoln center then onto fordham campus where i got a guest pass so i could walk around and see what it was like.
i had a little lunch on campus, but i was so beat i decided to head back to the subway and go back to crown heights. the ride was almost an hour and i was pretty much asleep by the time i got there and walked the mile or so back to yerachmiel's apartment.
manhattan is rad, brooklyn is rad, new york is rad, and i'm having a great time so far. i'm not finding it overwhelming at all, just very exciting, and there's really a lot to see. i think i'd like it here a lot if i decide to study at fordham.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Another day, another post... Plus a nice little lorenz attractor.
No stories about bunnies this time.
I'm still reeling from that Matisyahu concert last weekend. It was definitely the best show I've been to in a long time, and I've been listening to Live at Stubb's over and over again at work. Definitely can't wait for Youth to come out. Also, the opening act, Trevor Hall was pretty tight. I bought the CD on a whim after deciding I liked the guy's sound, and it was definitely worth it. Listened to it at least twice yesterday.
I convinced my boss to order a bunch of nerf guns for the office right before we moved and a delivery came today, so I was pretty hyped, thinking they had arrived. Instead, it was just a bunch of wooden blocks that he got for all of my coworkers who have children. Man was I pissed--I wanted toys for me, not toys for real kids. Oh well.
Lorenz attractors are pretty damn cool. The idea of chaos being the dominant force in a system, but the system nonetheless maintaining a high degree of order always impressed me, and I've been thinking about it a lot more lately. The weird thing about self-organizing systems, though, is that the systemic order is always contingent on the right conditions to create the attractors. Small changes in the rules or environment will lead to either uninteresting patterns of completely predictable order(i.e. boring stability, like a checkerboard), or the outright chaos of background noise or brownian motion. Of course there's always the possibility that changes could lead to a new, different set of attractors and an equally unique self-organizing system, and I think that when we talk about creating an evolution in social consciousness or the international politicial landscape, that's the sort of change that people usually want to create. But by their very nature these systems are unpredictable--I find myself... not exactly worrying... but at a sort of low level of constant anxiety over the future of civilization. I know it's kind of a huge thing to be concerned with, and furthermore so abstract as to be almost meaningless, but I guess when you read the news as much as I do that's what you end up thinking about a lot of the time. What's gonna happen as the focus of power shifts away from the US, the world's long-dominant superpower? How are environmental degradation and overpopulation going to affect policies and economics? Will new technology step in to counteract all the negative effects of previous technologies? What the fuck are we gonna do if Iran gets nukes? Lots of of questions, no answers...
I guess we'll just have to wait and see if we get another self-organizing chaotic and beatiful attractor, pure chaos and anarchy as extremism prevails and it's polarizing effects spread unchecked, or the 'boring stability' of total annihilation.
Damn I wish I wasn't such a downer.
I'm still reeling from that Matisyahu concert last weekend. It was definitely the best show I've been to in a long time, and I've been listening to Live at Stubb's over and over again at work. Definitely can't wait for Youth to come out. Also, the opening act, Trevor Hall was pretty tight. I bought the CD on a whim after deciding I liked the guy's sound, and it was definitely worth it. Listened to it at least twice yesterday.
I convinced my boss to order a bunch of nerf guns for the office right before we moved and a delivery came today, so I was pretty hyped, thinking they had arrived. Instead, it was just a bunch of wooden blocks that he got for all of my coworkers who have children. Man was I pissed--I wanted toys for me, not toys for real kids. Oh well.
Lorenz attractors are pretty damn cool. The idea of chaos being the dominant force in a system, but the system nonetheless maintaining a high degree of order always impressed me, and I've been thinking about it a lot more lately. The weird thing about self-organizing systems, though, is that the systemic order is always contingent on the right conditions to create the attractors. Small changes in the rules or environment will lead to either uninteresting patterns of completely predictable order(i.e. boring stability, like a checkerboard), or the outright chaos of background noise or brownian motion. Of course there's always the possibility that changes could lead to a new, different set of attractors and an equally unique self-organizing system, and I think that when we talk about creating an evolution in social consciousness or the international politicial landscape, that's the sort of change that people usually want to create. But by their very nature these systems are unpredictable--I find myself... not exactly worrying... but at a sort of low level of constant anxiety over the future of civilization. I know it's kind of a huge thing to be concerned with, and furthermore so abstract as to be almost meaningless, but I guess when you read the news as much as I do that's what you end up thinking about a lot of the time. What's gonna happen as the focus of power shifts away from the US, the world's long-dominant superpower? How are environmental degradation and overpopulation going to affect policies and economics? Will new technology step in to counteract all the negative effects of previous technologies? What the fuck are we gonna do if Iran gets nukes? Lots of of questions, no answers...I guess we'll just have to wait and see if we get another self-organizing chaotic and beatiful attractor, pure chaos and anarchy as extremism prevails and it's polarizing effects spread unchecked, or the 'boring stability' of total annihilation.
Damn I wish I wasn't such a downer.
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