Nerd Moment:

"Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration."

Stan Kelly-Bootle

"... but the technology is still only a tool. Hutshing remembers the early hue and cry that computer editing would ruin movies; his answer to that always was, 'You mean like the typewriter ruined literature?'"

Date:	2006-05-16 23:05
Subject:	Afterglow
Security:	Public
Mood:	thoughtful

I'd like the memory of me
to be a happy one,
I'd like to leave an afterglow of
smiles when day is done.
I'd like to leave an echo whispering
softly down the ways,
Of happy times, and laughing times,
and bright and sunny days.
I'd like the tears of those who grieve
to dry before the sun,
Of happy memories that I leave
behind when day is done.


-- by Unknown --

Yes, I am now a true Philadelphia tourist. I ran up the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum and stood in the little footprints labeled "Rocky" at the top. Woot. I wonder how the museum folks feel about the fact that their staircase is more well-known than the museum itself.

Alas, I forgot my camera (the view from up there is quite gorgeous), so I will make another trip before I leave.

Date:	2006-04-26 01:46
Subject:	Exciting East Coast Adventures
Security:	Public
Mood:	content

Guess what I got to do today?



Thanks to my Jersey friend Erica for the ticket!!

I recently finished rereading Speaker for the Dead, one of my favorite books of all time. I looked up Orson Scott Card on the web, and he has a weekly opinion column which, I think, is incredible. His views are rational, open, and offered with penetrating clarity.

His view on what to teach in schools, in regards to Creationism and Darwinism, is the most thorough, logical, and complete account I have read. He concludes the following:

"If both sides would behave like scientists, there wouldn't even be a controversy, because everyone would agree on this statement:

Evolution happens and obviously happened in the natural world, and natural selection plays a role in it. But we do not have adequate theories yet to explain completely how evolution works and worked at the biochemical level."

I strongly, strongly recommend reading the entire article. He is a strongly religious person, yet scientifically competent. He speaks from both sides of the "fence" and puts forth a perfect solution, in my mind.

Check it out:

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2006-01-08-1.html

Peace,

-- Brian --

To anyone reading this journal and who might be interested:

My cell phone number has just changed. E-mail me (Brian.L.Silva at gmail.com) if you'd like the new one (I don't really want to post it on the Internet).

Hope everyone is doing well!

-- Brian --

Date:	2005-09-03 02:28
Subject:	New Experience #1 and #2
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased
Music:	silence... it's music to my ears right now

Tonight was a blast, and something very different. Beom-Hee met a bunch of Korean students through a student union, and invited me to go hang out with them tonight. So I went and hung out with a group of about eight people who had just arrived from Korea and who's English was a little rough (they were also slightly tipsy already, too). It was exciting and a bit different to hang out with them. Just the little things, like bowing to say goodbye, and very rapid conversation, even in English. They are all fabulous, fun people.

We then proceeded to take cabs out to the downtown area, where we went to a club called Transit. I was one of two white people there, and the club was packed. It made me a little nervous at first -- I suddenly knew what it's like to be a racial minority in a public place -- but everyone was very friendly, the music was great, and everyone was just having a great time. I'm sure a few people were laughing at my dancing, but I don't care. :-) It was fun to be there, and Beom-Hee got his groove on with a couple fine ladies throughout the night.

And now it is time to rest, but it's good to get some of this stuff under my belt before school starts. So many more experiences remain in the big city. :-)

Goodnight!

To friends reading this journal,

I posted my new contact info on a protected post, so if you would like it make sure you log in to LiveJournal and then read my journal. If somehow I've neglected to list you as a friend, please send a flaming retort to this post so that I can discover the error of my ways!

Thank you! :-)

Date:	2005-08-13 02:45
Subject:	Update
Security:	Public
Mood:	calm

I'm now back from Yosemite, which was spectacular.

This week I'm booked spending quality time with the most beautiful and wonderful person I have ever known and loved.

Overly-detailed overview of the next few weeks: The week after this I'm re-packing and getting everything together for school. The Thursday of that week we fly out to Philadelphia, then drive down to Baltimore. The next three days we spend in Washington D.C. seeing the sites and visiting old family friends. Then we're back in Philly on the 31st, and I move into housing on the 1st. I spend that weekend at orientations and settling in with my roomie (who is from South Korea), and classes start on the 7th.

From there, who knows what will happen! I'll be posting here fairly frequently...

For now, I desperately need a good rest. Goodnight!

Date:	2005-08-13 01:03
Subject:	Homeless
Security:	Public
Mood:	sleepy

I'm not really homeless in the physical sense, but I sure do feel uprooted at the moment.

After a hectic move from Eugene, I had one day to repack and prepare for a week-long backpacking trip with my family that we just returned from. We went all throughout Yosemite, and while I never did have to poop in the woods, my shower tonight was the first I'd had since last Saturday. I have never been so dirty in my life. But, the hikes were absolutely SPECTACULAR and there is something quite liberating about having all you need to survive on your back or available from the natural world. And star-gazing in the wilderness (meaning not even a camp-site -- putting your tent down on a flat spot by a trail) is amazing. We only did that one night of the trip, but it was wonderfully adventurous. I will try to post some pictures of the trip relatively soon.

I tried to avoid using this journal for posts of daily life and use it as more of a canvas for my mind to explode on, but now that I've moved from Eugene I'll probably be using it more like a traditional journal.

Everything happened so fast that I don't think it's really sunk in that I'm not returning to Eugene. I still feel like this is vacation, and at the end I'll return back to Oregon and to where my friends and home are. I miss people in Eugene already, but the full blunt of the fact that I probably won't return to Oregon until spring hasn't hit me at all. I didn't really realize how much of a home Eugene had become until this moment right now. I hope you are all doing wonderfully in Eugene. And to those people that moved away from Eugene, I think I'm experiencing a bit of what you might have felt when you left.

On that note, the way that we are able to keep in touch with modern technology is amazing, and I am beginning to appreciate it more and more. Between e-mail, LiveJournal, AIM, and sites like FaceBook, I feel like it's pretty darn simple to keep in touch with distant friends. Nothing can replace hanging out at Rennie's on a Friday night, or playing ball at the Bean Courts... but I'm very glad we have the ability to keep track of each other and make those times happen when our paths may cross in the future.

So... I tip my hat to the information superhighway and lift my glass to everyone in Eugene to toast your super-awesomeness and thank you for the good times. To everyone who has moved from Eugene, let's keep using the Internet for what it's best at: connecting people.

Date:	2005-07-25 22:00
Subject:	Gathering
Security:	Public
Mood:	thoughtful
Music:	Searching - Blackalicious

Word up to anyone who reads this journal!

This coming weekend is my last as a resident of Eugene. So, if you are reading this entry, you are invited to come hang out at Kelly and my apartment this Friday at 9:00pm for some good ol' chillin'. Board games, good company, good conversation, and good times. I would love to see all of you before I move away!

Peace.

P.S. e-mail me <bsilva@gladstone.uoregon.edu> if you need directions. :-)

Date:	2005-07-04 12:58
Subject:	To Those that Actually Read My Journal...
Security:	Public
Mood:	chipper

I'm trying to get rid of my desk at the end of this month. It's fairly large and quite nice and in very good shape. If you're interested, please e-mail me (Brian.L.Silva@gmail.com)! Thanks!

Date:	2005-07-03 17:54
Subject:	Lots of Quotes
Security:	Public
Mood:	awake

"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there." -- Yasutani Roshi

"May beings all live happily and safe and may their hearts rejoice within themselves." -- Buddha

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change." -- Buddha

"When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways---either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength." -- Dalai Lama

"Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own." -- Chinese proverb

"How can I, who knows the body to be perishable and the soul to be imperishable, mourn over the separation of body from the soul?" -- Mahatma Gandhi

"People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.
So give as much care to the end as to the beginning;
Then there will be no failure." -- Lao-tzu

"There is a force within that gives you life---Seek that.
In your body there lies a priceless jewel---Seek that.
Oh, wandering Sufi,
if you are in search of the greatest treasure,
don't look outside.
Look within, and seek That." -- Djalal ad-Din Rumi

"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well." -- Mahatma Gandhi

"One's own thought is one's own world. What a person thinks is what he becomes---that is the eternal mystery. If the mind dwells within the supreme Self, One enjoys undying happiness." -- The Upanishads.

Date:	2005-06-16 01:18
Subject:	Bleep!
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

Everybody must watch the film "What the Bleep Do We Know!?"

I have it on indefinite loan from Blockbuster. Call me up and you can borrow it for a couple days. I will deliver it to your house.

An interesting thought from the movie, regarding real principles from the physics of quantum mechanics, about matter itself:

"When you're not looking they are webs of possibility. When you are looking, they are particles of experience." -- Dr. Amit Goswami

Date:	2005-06-15 00:33
Subject:	Transitions
Security:	Public
Mood:	content
Music:	silence

( Day to Day stuff )

The whole process of graduation is interesting. I was hoping to hear some real inspirational thoughts at the ceremonies this weekend, but I didn't really latch on to any of the speakers' speeches. Their focus is always so much on the future, on what will be now that we have finished this educational cycle and are looking at what comes next.

I've been thinking more about what's going on right at this moment, when the graduates are floating between the completion of a degree and the "next step." While the rush of graduation and finals and completing projects makes the whole process seem like we're getting flung out onto the streets, this transitional period is actually pretty exciting.

Richard Register is an ecological designer/activist in Berkeley, and he talks a bit about patterns in nature that designers and architects could find useful and inspiring. One of the most interesting patterns he mentions is that about transitions and boundaries. Thinking about the things we generally find most beautiful in nature, one comes to realize that most are transitions of one type or another. The times of day we revere for their colorful displays and metaphorical power are sunset (dusk) and sunrise (dawn): the transitions between the nighttime and the daytime. The coast is awe-inspiring because it is the transition between land and sea. The colorful displays and beauty of autumn are the result of deciduous trees making the transition from soaking up the summer sun to the bare survival of winter time. And the glorious blossoms of spring time mark the transition for the plant world between the end of winter and the beginning of spring and new life.

This, right now, is our transition time, and it can be a beautiful time. It's like the calm beauty of a sunset and the bright anticipation of a sunrise at the same time. We've accomplished a daunting, important task, and now many roads lie unexplored before us. We know we have great potential and at this point in our lives we get to craft the paths of our lives and not only make the choices, but create the choices. We have a great level of freedom we haven't had for several years.

It's a little unsettling, disorienting. After so many years of focused work and responsibilities in the campus bubble, suddenly there's nothing left to do. What do we do with our time? We now lose access to many of the resources we've taken for granted while studying at the UO. How do we make up for these? Do we need to? The campus has, in a way, become such a familiar home that the lack of commitments on campus leaves me feeling a little empty and lost.

But this unnerving freedom and this floatation is the great challenge. It's easy to flounder and lose sight of dreams and goals now. It's easy to leave it all behind. But it's also a call to prove your convictions. To take whatever you learned academically, or about yourself, or about people, or about the world, and do what you're going to do, do what makes you happy, do what gives you the greatest satisfaction in knowing that you're contributing what you wish to give the world.

It's easy to freak out about this transition time... but I hope people will see it as a beautiful time, like the transitions of the natural world. It may be a long transition, or there might be a short turnaround, it doesn't really matter. I think the most important thing is that we take charge of our lives now and start working towards being everything we want to be and everything we can be. It is definitely that time.

Wiggity!

Parting thoughts for the evening:

"At the center of your being you have the answer; You know who you are and you know what you want." -- Lao-tzu

"If a [person] speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him." -- The Dhammapada

Date:	2005-05-21 12:32
Subject:	Quotes
Security:	Public
Mood:	stressed

"People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar."

-- Thich Nhat Hanh


"You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that [the universal] creative principle works in you."

-- Paramahansa Yogananda

Date:	2005-05-16 09:43
Subject:	The Future
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic
Music:	Alan Corday

Holy crap.

I received a letter this weekend from the engineering school at Penn, and I have been accepted into the master's program! I am moving to Philadelphia in August!!

So much to do before then...

Zoooooooom!

Oh, and if you thought you had seen everything geek, check out the visitor the Steward Observatory is hosting right now:

http://aro.as.arizona.edu/archive/2005/r2-d2_on_campus.htm

Peace!

"We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the Earth. Be aware of the contact between your feet and the Earth. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet." -- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend---or a meaningful day." -- Dalai Lama

"Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. Let us not beg for the stilling of the pain but for the heart to conquer it." -- Rabindranath Tagore


. . . on a personal note, I have sent the last of the materials for my grad school application! In about two weeks, I should know my fate for next year . . .

Date:	2005-04-12 11:26
Subject:	Quotes
Security:	Public
Mood:	awake

"If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset." --Krishnamurti

"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly." -- Buddha