July 02, 2007

The More Things Change

As dedicated readers (with entirely too much time on their hands) will readily attest to, the last six months have been a period of intense introspection for me, often times bordering on clinical depression. In general, this period of self-analysis is unrivaled in my life, except perhaps for a brief episode during the spring of 2003. What most people likely do not know is that concurrent to my battle with existential angst has been a nostalgic romp through memory lane, as I have been trying to edit, update, and categorize my entries from yesteryear following the upgrade to v2. All of this soul-searching has led me to conclude one thing about myself: plus ça change, plus c'est pareil, or as we say in American, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

July 03, 2007

OpenID, Gallery, and the Big Three

Besides the withering battles with existential angst and the woeful failures with women, the biggest problems in my life in recent years have revolved around my photo gallery. Specifically, I have struggled with achieving a proper balance between the diametrically opposed goals of providing access to friends and family, and simultaneously, limiting access to the general public. (My political career may well be ruined, but that does not mean I should actively try to ruin that of others.) A quick historical survey of the archive should demonstrate just how much of a problem this has been.

July 05, 2007

The Rolling of the Five Dudes

As I (bluntly) pointed out last month, attempting social commentary about the differences between men and women inevitably puts one on a dangerous one-way road towards unbridled idiocy, and as such, when considering delving into this most thorny realm, every effort should be expended to avoid producing yet another clichéd manifestation of one's own sexual frustrations; see, e.g., Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, or any movie billed as a romantic comedy. However, given both my penchant for unchecked hypocrisy and the fact that most people would likely already characterize the Realm as a clichéd manifestation of my sexual frustrations (and those of others, as well—it ain't easy for a nerd out there), I feel fairly comfortable about once again diving (head first) into the brier bush. Today's question to be answered: when is it acceptable to roll with five dudes to a social function?

July 08, 2007

The End's Not Near, It's Here

It seemed only fitting that having practiced abstinence for so long that I lose my YouTube-linking virginity with a trailer for our house-cooling party, scheduled for next Saturday, July 14, 2007. Those who have seen Apocalypse Now will be especially entertained, I imagine. And if you're going to be in the area (i.e., San Francisco Bay Area) and did not get the invite, drop me a line. One of two things could have happened: either we simply forgot you, or we intentionally did not invite you. You owe it to yourself to find out which one it was.

July 11, 2007

Sharing is Caring

To give lazy (but loyal) readers a much needed summer vacation from my irrational (and increasingly verbose) ranting and raving, I thought I would instead share two blogs that have very quickly become some of my favorites on the proverbial World Wide Web, both courtesy of my fellow blogger-in-arms (and latest resident of Deutschland, a.k.a., the Federal Republic of Germany).

July 12, 2007

The End's Not Near, It's Here (Part 2)

You know what they say about virginity, right? You can only lose it once, and once you have, there's no way of getting it back. On that note, here's the second trailer for our upcoming house-cooling party, following on the heels of the critically acclaimed first one. Bigger, longer, and uncut, this video borrows heavily from the series finale of the landmark television program, The O.C.. That's how we do it in The I.S.. Enjoy!

July 13, 2007

The End's Not Near, It's Here (Part 3)

Below is the third (and final) trailer in the seminal The End's Not Near, It's Here series, entitled Good Phil Hunting. The party is tomorrow, starting at 9 p.m. Enjoy!

July 16, 2007

Distinguishing Between Commodity and Value-Added Relations

In a seminal entry a couple months ago, I asserted that [s]ome (few!) relationships no doubt add value; others probably serve useful purposes, but are more or less commodities; and finally, others still have no utility (marginal or otherwise), and simply detract value from your existence (footnotes omitted). As is to be expected, there has been much brouhaha from the usual suspects about my purported cynicism and heartlessness that will all suddenly change upon finding the one, but let's face it: that happens every time I write in this blog. In my (most humble) opinion, the real problem with that post was not that I was too cynical (I was not), but that I was much too vague in defining what exactly distinguishes a value-added relationship from a commodity one. Clearly, this begs for more rigorous analysis.

July 24, 2007

Even Though I Sell Rocks

As the venerable Realm has gained increasing fame and notoriety amongst friends, family, and the odd disaffected, suicide-prone, emo high school student, I have frequently been asked questions in real life about the specifics of my web site. The most common series of questions is as follows:

1. What the heck/hell/fuck is wrong with you?
2. What do you use to host your site? and
3. Why don't you put advertising on your site?

As the first question is difficult to answer (and indeed, may have no singular answer at all), I will oblige loyal readers by answering the latter two.

July 19, 2007

Ass Fuck Strikes Again

Speaking of douchebags, in the last three months, the disaffected boys of 1524 have been terrorized by a Class-A douche who seems to go by the ever-witty (especially given our location) moniker of Ass Fuck. Now, as I am sure all of you are well aware, I am (rather inexplicably) drawn to the concept of quixotic vigilante justice (I suppose we are all products of our environment), but honestly, today was the first time I actually considered exercising my (sacred) Second Amendment right to bear arms—and I'm not talking about my biceps here.

July 24, 2007

Success and Anonymity or Failure and Posterity

Jon's recent articles about the impact we have with our lives, and subsequent discussions, as well as a rather involved conversation tonight about existentialism with my sister (who considers herself a fatalist) reminded me of a philosophical thought question I have been posing recently to friends at bars: Would you rather (1) live a long and materially successful life, having achieved all that you set out to, but perish in anonymity with nary an accomplishment worthy of the history books; or (2) live a miserable, wanton life filled with sorrow and failure, but produce a great work (of literature, art, whatever) that posthumously guarantees you a place in the pantheon of human thought alongside the great thinkers of yesteryear?

July 27, 2007

Rohit Reviews: 1984

About a month ago, I wrote an entry about Schrödinger's Cat (among other things) in which I argued that the people who do end up making especially prescient observations distinguish themselves in a way that we should allow people to be distinguished. No where is that statement more relevant than in discussing George Orwell's (the nom de plume of Eric Blair) prophetic dystopian vision of totalitarianism: 1984.