A Blog Post-y Sort of Mood

In a blog post-y sort of mood right now. I realized that because I'm typing kind of loudly. I am hitting the keys with purpose, as that one woman in Up In The Air says. So I'm trying to take advantage of that blog post-y sort of mood. I'm not always good at that. Sometimes I'll say to myself, "I'm really in the mood to write and record a song right now!" but I'll end up doing something else instead.

There's something very satisfying about really pounding against the keys when you type. It makes you feel like you're actually doing something. Like pissing your neighbors off, for instance.

The past week has been pretty busy, but in a good way. Had two film shoots for the film I'm working on, which you should be hearing more about soon. One was on Sunday, the other Thursday. They both went pretty well being comprised of people who don't have a lot of experience with making films. That includes myself. There were technical issues, of course, but those were to be expected.

The most glaring technical issue occurred on Thursday. We were shooting in Jordan's apartment. The lights we checked out from school use a lot of electricity, so much that everything on the apartment's electrical circuit would randomly fail while we were shooting. We ended up with a reel of footage in which things are going well only to have the lights abruptly turn off on us in the middle of a moment or a line, which is both hilarious and horrifying at the same time.

Listening to some ambient-ish sort of music right now. Boards of Canada. An album called The Campfire Headphase. Nice background music.

Also: does anyone know if donating to Wikipedia means you don't have to deal with Jimbo Wales staring at you every time you try to look something up? I did indeed plan on donating; I just thought it'd be a nice thing to do for those who end up giving some money.

Heading back into Des Moines come next Wednesday. Looking forward to it. It marks the first time I'll be behind the wheel of a car since August. So be careful, I guess.

Not Knowing

In the sidebar, I made a link to a story about some men performing short sketches (we're talking seconds short) on the top of a parking garage in between the Armitage and Sedgwick stops on the Brown Line. The reporter in the story seems to have a tone somewhere between bemusement and downright skepticism. He appears to be particularly puzzled that the men he's trying to profile aren't interested in giving their full names, let alone the reason they're doing what they do.

The reporting itself is kind of on the insipid side - which makes sense, since I guess segments on the evening news are made to be watched once and more or less forgotten about - but the guys that the reporter attempts to profile do more than make up for that. There's something wonderful about the fact that they're so unwilling to ruin the mystery of what they're doing. For them to label what they're doing as a social statement or piece of performance art would cheapen it all.

That's something that's been concerning me about the internet lately. Sometimes there's a distinct lack of mystery in our lives. I'm a strong proponent of knowledge, yet I find something exciting about the moments that come before that - the moments of questioning when you're left to your imagination. And I realize how contradictory or potentially hypocritical that might sound.

There's something very weird about the idea of being able to get an idea of who a person is by looking at their Facebook profile rather than talking to them. It's weirded me out so much that I've been avoiding looking at the profiles of new folks I've met lately.

The technology is still new, though. Maybe at some point we'll figure out some way to balance the wonder of not knowing with the great things that knowledge provides.

Where I'm From

To a certain extent, people act different ways in front of different people. The way you act around your mom is probably not the same way you act around your girlfriend. The personality you projected in gym might not have been the same one you projected in your social studies class. You might even act differently around different friends. A lot of people are ashamed of this sort of thing, but I've come to see as a fact of life. I've noted that those with even the most gregarious personalities aren't always the same person in every situation. As Tommy Wiseau would say: "That's life."

I never thought I'd say this, but where I am seems to influence where I say I'm from.

Whenever someone in Chicago asks me where I'm from, I say "Des Moines." And honestly, that isn't completely true. I've never actually lived in Des Moines; I'm actually from one of its suburbs. The thing is, though, few people have any idea where the hell Des Moines is; even fewer could point to one of its suburbs on a map. So, for the sake of convenience, I fudge the truth a little.

I think my rationale is reasonable enough. It saves me time - and if the person knows Des Moines or asks me where in Des Moines I'm from, I come clean. I'm also fully aware that this is behavior only acceptable outside of Iowa. Telling an actual Des Moines native that you're from Des Moines when you've lived in the suburbs your whole life is bound to inspire some sort of negative reaction, may it be light teasing or a full-blown cry of "Bullshit!" Which, again, is totally understandable.

And despite my justifications, I always smirk a little bit when I ask, say, a Rockford resident where they're from a get a reply of, "Chicago." But isn't it the same situation? Maybe. I don't know. I feel like there's a big difference between Chicago and, say, Naperville - a much bigger difference than there is between West Des Moines and Des Moines. But I could see a Des Moines native disagreeing.