Breckenridge or Bust

Welp, this is probably going to be my last update this year. See, I'm about to leave for a magical place known as Colorado. They've got a substance there that is basically water that has frozen and fallen gently to the earth. Kinda like rain, but colder, and less dense. Anyhow, my friend BJ invited me to go with him and some friends to stay in his parents' timeshare there in the Rockies. We're going to hang out and enjoy the nightlife, but will spend most of our time in an activity known as skiing. It's a crazy idea where you strap wooden planks to your feet and ride from the top of the frozen mountain all the way down to the bottom at high speeds, trying to avoid trees and other people. Once you reach the bottom, you hop back into these benches attached to an overhead cable, and do it all over again. Kinda like a roller coaster, but without that pesky track. Even crazier, I might also try going down the mountain on one piece of wood, my feet purpendicular to the slope. Insane? Indeed. Fun? For sure. It'll be my first time being a participant in either 'sport', so I hope I come back with everything in the same condition as it is this morning. As always, expect a full report as least by next weekend, when I'm scheduled to return.

Until then, have a festive Kwanzaa (beginning today with Umoja, the day of togetherness), be jealous, and if I don't get to write another update in time, Happy New Year!

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Christmas for Everyone!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, even if you don't celebrate. The holiday is such a part of our culture that I feel it almost rude to give the Christmas blessing only to the gentiles. At any rate, I wish everyone excessive laughter throughout the holidays, followed by ripped abs in the new year.

That's all for this post. Ignore the orange "Read the rest..." link located just below these words and move on to something else, like Alien Hominid!

Well, since you can't seem to follow instructions, I've got an instruction for you: Do not buy me the full version of Alien Hominid on the Nintendo Gamecube for a reasonable $30 at your local videogame retailer. I hate TWO-PLAYER games..........

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Do It for the Kids

The other night Emmy and I had a conversation about having kids. No, not together, just about children in general. Specifically, it came up after I showed her pictures of Justin and she confessed to me the unfamiliar desire she had to hold him. I don't remember exactly how it came about, but she referred me the web log of her high school debate coach, Mr. Craig Ortner. His posts are generally well thought out and although a bit cynical, quite intelligent. Give his site a look if you're so inclined, I've added him to my side-bar. Anyway, the entry she referred me to was one he wrote answering why people have children. I thought you might be interested in reading what he had to say, so I've posted his thoughts below, along with the comments that I would've left had the post not been a month old when I first saw it.

cortner's entry on November 22, 2004:

re: Emmy's sympathy for a child.

best quote: "...fix me please." (pun intended?)

Don't worry, it happens to the best of us. It's only natural to feel sympathy for the little things, like any normal person would for a helpless stray kitten or puppy. Especially unfortunate for women who are intellectually anti-child is that their bodies are bio-neuro-chemically fighting their better senses. I remember reading this guy Pondo in the Mac weekly who wrote occasionally about "breeders" which I took initially just to mean straight people, but I now understand much better now that I have friends who are breeding. Such a shame.

And it's not as if I want to toss all babies and children off a bridge, they're just not good on balance other than the bare minimum to preserve the species. Let's ask: why do people have children? To benefit society? I think not. They're not needed for labor in the developed world anymore, so why isn't the birth rate dropping even master? It's the ultimate in narcissism. People want to create miniature versions of themselves to push to succeed in all the ways they failed. It's the utmost power trip. What else could make you feel more powerful than producing another human, over which you have complete control, both physically at first and also then socially. What justifies giving up on your life to attempt to produce another one that might be better? I feel like I ought to think and write more about the Eastern perspective which is more about roles than individuals and seeks to honor one's ancestors, but at the moment I've got nothing, despite reading "Eastern Philosophy for Beginners" in preparation to lead the "Beyond Western Philosophy" perspectives session (which actually went off quite well despite and because of the kinda jerky kid in there).

It's appealingly altruistic in some abstract sense, but still... OK, I don't know if I really whole-heartedly believe all/any of that, but there is a nugget of truth in there somewhere. I guess I don't mind so much if other people have kids, I just don't want them myself. Also, I think it would be nice if I didn't have to teach in the same building with a bunch of little kids, or if they were at least kept in line (literally and figuratively).

I'm reminded of an article in the most recent (to me) NYer (I get it about a week late here) about the crazy market for baby products. I cannot find it online despite frustrated searching, so a citation: "Bringing Up Baby" under an Annals of Retail heading by Caitlin Flanagan, who I want to say wrote this inflammatory piece about the "Nannie Wars" in The Atlantic not long ago. I remember reading lots of response letters and intending to go back and read the piece, but I don't think I ever got around to it. Meh. I'm also reminded of a phrase "the best baby stroller under eight thousand dollars" which was either David Sedaris or more likely Dan Zevin in "The Day I Became Uncool."

Why do people have kids? Before I comment on the crux of your argument, allow me point out some other valid, yet relatively weak, arguments.

Obviously, in millennia past, couples would have children simply to populate the earth. This point is moot now, so I'll move on.

Some may have children in order to benefit monetarily. In centuries past, one was able to sell their children into slavery or marry them off to royalty, giving a healthful kickback to the parents. Obsolete now, the argument could still be made that the free labor provided by children working on the family farm or in the family business is valid justification. And, appalling as it is, our welfare system gives credit to those who continue having children although they don't have money enough to provide for themselves. This argument falls short, however, when one realizes the cost in providing enough for the child so that they reach that 'golden age' when they're able to actually be of aid.

Creepy as it is, some may consciously have children so that they can effectively live forever - genetically anyway - through them. Or, in the very least, 'try' enough times to have a son that will pass on that all-important family name.

Now, as for the argument you seem to support, I do agree with you in that some people may have children in order to live vicariously thorough them, providing for them the things that they were never privy to in hopes that their child's life is better than theirs was. However, the reasoning that people simply have children in order to make themselves feel powerful is dreadfully simplistic. If that were true, wouldn't people simply stick to purchasing pets? I suppose having control over a human life is far more satisfying to these people than training Fido, but I just can't see it as reason enough for someone to go through all the time, money, and effort required to raise a child. Also, if this were true, wouldn't more people simply adopt? Adoption is so rare nowadays that it seems to me that there has to be something deeper.

Humans, as social animals, instinctually have a need to bond with other humans. We are feeling animals and although the bonds we create with friends and lovers are of the utmost importance to us, cannot replicate the bond that is created between a child and parent. The bond one establishes with that child is instant, deep, and lifelong. It's an emotional tie that, I assume, only a parent would be able to describe. I'm going out on a limb here, but I assume that you would agree with me in that the emotional ties you've formed with your students are different than those of your college buddies or your mother, for example. I know the feelings I felt when I first held my newborn nephew were unlike anything I've ever experienced before, and we don't even really have a relationship yet.

So, surely there is a selfishness behind having children, but I think the effects are mutually beneficial. Adults fulfill their need to create unique bonds and children get people who love, care for, and protect them for the rest of their lives. The idea that someone has given up on their adult life in order to create another which is better than thiers is absolutely ridiculous! Rather, they've decided that those bonds are more important to them than their weekly squash match or Seinfeld re-runs. They've chosen to have a child in order to enrich their life, not despite it.

Then again, you've got people that don't bond with anything. We call them serial killers.

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To Closer to Me

Devin and I went to the movies yesterday to get out of the apartment for a bit. There were a number of films that we wanted to see, but we decided on Spanglish, starring Adam Sandler. When we got to The Bridge theaters, however, we saw that the 9:45 show was in the Director's Hall, a posh theater with leather seating and a $14 ticket price. After coming to grips with how lame the internet can be, we scanned the board and decided upon the 9:45 showing of Closer. I wasn't disappointed, however, as my viewing pleasure was just about quadrupled because of the lovely Natalie Portman. Thank-you movies.com for your lack of accurate information!

In a nutshell, the film closely follows four characters and their romantic relationships. The story is a convoluted dance of love, lust, jealousy, and manipulation. The characters all cheat on each other, either because they realize they are in love with someone else or because they are trying to get back at the one that just left them. If you had told me the story before I went into the movie, I probably wouldn't have seen it. Frankly, there are a few situations in my life which, I know, would just be too close to home for me to enjoy such a plot. However, even though I really shouldn't, I actually enjoyed the film. Immensely, as a matter of fact.

As a basic philosophy, I feel that one should seek out the best possible partner for him or herself. Being in a serious, committed relationship with another is not a reason to not give another a chance. Now, before you stop reading this post, hear me out. I'm not, by any means, advocating cheating or polygamous relationships. Cheating is deceitful, cowardly, and above all, extremely disrespectful. Polygamy leads itself to self-doubt, distrust, and disease. Neither, in my opinion, is a favorable way of life. What I do believe, however, is that if one is in a relationship with another and they start to fancy someone else, they should address the fact with their partner and work through it. It is far better to confront such a situation in a brave manner and be honest with your partner, even though it may hurt them deeply, than to try and "protect" them while you run around with another person because, in reality, you're so ashamed of your actions you can't come to grips with actually admitting that what you're doing is wrong. Sorry, like I said, cheating is a sensitive subject with me.

So, if cheating is something I despise so much, why did I enjoy the film? Well, I'm a pretty open-minded person. I try to analyze a situation from both sides and remain completely objective in order to understand both viewpoints. I make my decisions based upon reason, not emotion, even if it means taking a side not favorable to a close friend or family member. Now, I'm always tactful in my words, but honest as well. When it comes to cheating, however, I'm not open-minded at all. The person who cheats, in my opinion, is always wrong. I don't even want to hear why, the person being cheated on is always the victim. Closer, however, expanded the way I now think about cheating by helping me to understand the other side, something I've never been able to do before.

I still don't condone cheating. I still think it's one of the vilest things one can do while in a relationship. I still feel that it's an unfair thing to put someone through. However, I now understand the other side. The movie was so good in showing the pain and confusion of the cheater that at times during the film, I almost felt more sorry for them than the person they were cheating on. I started pulling for the cheater, hoping that they would be with the other person and would leave their significant other behind. More than likely, my philosophy of being with the best mate is what really drove my thoughts, but for a time, I could actually sympathize with those I can't stand.

I can't possibly imagine - and hope I never can - what is must be like to choose between two people you're in love with, but I do think I'll be more sympathetic to those who are in such a situation. Cheating, in my opinion, is still never an option, but I realize now how much courage it must take to confront the person that you love that you may be falling for someone else. However tough it may be, it's still the best option and really the only way to show the person that you're with that you still really do care about them. Hopefully they're mature enough to understand and love you enough to let you go. I really want to see the film again, however, just to confirm that I still feel this way after another viewing. I want to know that I wasn't simply caught off-guard by it's charm and its soundtrack, including one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. I wasn't able to stay objective during the film, because it is so enveloping, so I need to see it again to confirm that it is my mind, rather than my heart, that's driving this post. Look for an update in a future entry, perhaps.

What do you think: do I make sense or am I completely messed up? Did you think the same things after seeing the film or do you have another take? Leave a comment to let me, and others, know.

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Meet Uncle Dan

I just returned from my trip to San Bernardino to visit my half-brother and his new baby boy, Justin Amin McConnell. I took the Metrolink train for a measly $5 and was greeted by my grandmother at the train station at just a quarter past noon on Thursday. We then drove to my brother's place of work so he could show me around a little bit and kill some time before he got off at 1:00. We left at the same time, but my grandma and I made our way to a pizza place to pick up lunch for the four of us (including Ada, Tom's wife.)

When we arrived at Tom and Ada's apartment, Tom informed us that Ada and Justin were sleeping. Ada tries to get sleep whenever Justin does, because apparently, the moments of sleep are short and random. Tom told me about the two full days they spent at the hospital waiting for Justin to be born. The doctors tried to induce labor, but Justin just didn't want to be born, so the doctors decided to perform a caesarian section instead. The operation took about fifteen minutes and on December 9th, at 11:14 am, Justin was born. He was 7lbs 14oz and was 20" in length. We got to see pictures of the entire process over our pizza while the two of them slept. I dunno what the more enviable act is, sleeping or looking at graphic pictures of surgery. In all, however, it was pretty fascinating and I'm glad that Tom took them.

After we were done looking at the pictures, Ada emerged from the bedroom with Justin. I've never held a newborn before, so I was quite nervous at first. I made sure I was sitting, and Ada placed him in my arms just above my lap. He's so precious. I sat there in awe of this little life that I held in my hands. It was truly amazing, I don't quite know how to describe it. I became slightly emotional, not to the point of tears, but close enough nonetheless. He was just so beautiful and I had this realization that all of us once were just like him. His entire life is going to be determined by these two people, along with influence from a few others. He would cry, and I would have no clue as to why. Tom and Ada claim that he has different cries for different needs, but that if they get it wrong, there's really only one alternative since at this point in his life he's only vocal when he's hungry or needs to be changed.

So, he's in my arms, and I figured was going to be relatively lifeless, like a doll. He was quite the opposite, in fact. He used his little hands to push in my chest and his feet to push my arms away
from him. It was fascinating watching him try to grab my face, even though he does not yet have a perception of depth. He grabbed my fingers many times, and each time I was amazed at how strong his grip was. He wasn't yet able to hold up his disproportionate head, but he was able to astonish me with his grasp. His little calves were really strong too, a couple of times making me nervous that he was going to push himself out of my lap. Don't be fooled by the pictures, however, he's really tiny!! His foot is smaller in length than my index finger. His fingers are so tiny that he can't even wrap them completely around my finger. And when laying between my legs, he doesn't even reach my knees. Also, I don't know if you can see from the pictures, but he's got the most awesome hair I've ever seen on a baby!! It's very full, which I guess is common, and quite dark, also common, but it's got natural blonde highlights, not common at all. It's so awesome that I'm actually jealous of him, and he's only a week old!

However precious he may be, he has made me realize just how much work raising a child might be. For example, I would rock him to sleep in this rocking chair Tom and Ada have in their room and he'd fall asleep in a few minutes. However, when I'd go to lay him in his crib, he'd wake immediately and start crying. With Mason, I'd just leave him be, but I felt so guilty doing such a thing with Justin, that I'd immediately pick him back up and go back to the chair. Luckily, I was able to call his mother when I became tired of the routine, something that wouldn't be possible if he were mine. Overall, however, I was in utter joy when he was around me, even when he wasn't the happiest baby in the world, I'm extremely glad that I live close enough that I'll be able to visit on a regular basis to see him change and grow.

So, we spent the day with them and then made our way back home after dinner at around 9:00, making a slight detour through a neighborhood with some really nice Christmas lights. I went to sleep relatively early and woke up around 8:30 to accompany my grandma to her church. She had to do some work (she's the church's accountant), so I sat around and looked at things and read brochures at the school affiliated with the church.

We went to lunch at a quaint Mexican restaurant named Lucy's and then headed home. I strung some Christmas light for my grandma and helped her do some things around the house before heading out to say goodbye to Tom, Ada, and Justin before I went to the train station. The train came a few minutes late, grandma and I said our goodbyes, and I made my way to Union Station.

I would normally end the post here, but I just wanted to let everyone know about something that I had forgotten about. I was at Union Station trying to decide how I wanted to get home. I usually take the Red Line to 7th/Fig and then take a bus (usually the 82) back to campus and then walk to Citypark. However, this time, I felt ambitious and decided I was going to do the entire trip via the bus system. Well, I was out at the giant round-a-bout for maybe two whole minutes trying to figure out which bus was going to take me home and where I should wait for it before I saw a USC tram! He dropped off his lone rider and I asked him if I could ride back to campus with him. He of course agreed and let me off at Jefferson and Grand before heading to the parking center to end the night. Moral of the story, if you're at Union Station and need a ride home, more often than not, the USC trams are still running there and are free, so utilize them! Hell, you've probably paid for them somewhere anyway, so you might as well get your money's worth, right?

Anyway, I end the post with some more pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

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To ID3 or not to Be

In true Dan McConnell fashion, I've taken on a project so large it'll probably never come to complete completion. However, I'm going to go into it just like I do everything else, with the idea that it'll be completed and perfect and completely worth it. Anyway, the project this time is to categorize all of my MP3's.

Since my freshman year when I really started downloading/ripping music, I've organized my music manually because programs didn't automatically organize MP3's back then like they do now. My music is sorted into hundreds of folders according to artist, album, singles, and genres. It's all very logical, naturally, and is sorted in a way that is very comfortable to me. Also, because they weren't standard years ago and many programs didn't support them, I hated ID tags. The tags would always be wrong and the file names would always be in some retarded internet slang language like 12_aLIci4_KYS_-_WhtAW0mANzWurth.torrENTZnW4R3Z.mp3, so it was easier for me to just delete the tag and rename the file manually. I didn't see the point of the tags anyway; Winamp would read the artist and song title by my perfectly-formatted filename so I didn't want to waste my time to fix the tags as well. By the time I realized the benefits of ID tags - searching, categorizing, listing on MP3 players, etc - it was too late to go back and change the information on 11,000 songs, or so I thought.

Skip a few chapters ahead to this summer. When a friend of mine complained to me about how she had an iPod but no music to put on it, I offered her my collection. Since Apple has something against its products being compatible with the Windows world, I had to install iTunes in order to transfer the music over. Initially, I didn't much care for the program. It seemed intrusive, something I abhor, as it tried to go through and re-organize the entire music collection that I'd spent years keeping in order. I had thought about using an alternative to Winamp, because it no longer functioned well without the ID3 tags I so mistakenly neglected, and decided against iTunes after the experience I had with it this summer.

Then, I meet this girl who's absolutely obsessed with Macs. TANGENT It's interesting, everyone I've met who has an Apple machine is completely obsessed with it and everything the company does. Same thing with Linux people. I rarely meet people who are obsessed with Windows, or, for example, the newest Dell or Hewlett Packard machines. Maybe the Mac and Linux-heads feel they must defend their machines to the Windows world by talking them up. Or, maybe they really feel that they are better alternatives and feel the only way to get the point across is to evangelize about them like the salvation. Either way, I'm an open-minded person, and understand that sometimes, counter-culture is worth a look. end TANGENT So, after Emmy kept gushing about how great iTunes was, I realized that maybe I didn't give it a fair chance this summer. Since I value her opinion, I decided to opened it up once again to give it a second look.

For those of you unfamiliar with the program, it's similar to the new version of Winamp and many of the other less-popular music players out there in that iTunes works on a library system. The program knows where all of your muisc is located at all times, instead of looking for and selecting a specific song or album or folder that you choose through Windows Explorer to play for that session. Originally, I didn't really want it to appear as if all my was together like both Winamp 5 and iTunes did. I wanted my music sorted and organized in a more logical manner and I actually liked looking through my subforders, searching for that specific album by that specific artist. Boy, was I stupid.

Emmy eventually showed me a feature of iTunes that I realized actually made ID3 tags, and iTunes, worth my time. Basically, iTunes has implimented tags to create what Apple calls 'smart playlists.' One can enter parameters for the playlist that they want to create, and then iTunes will search the entire music library and add songs that fit those parameters to the playlist, according to the ID3 tags. Lance informed me that Winamp does the same thing and is more comprehensive than iTunes, but I found that it isn't as user-friendly.

Because I reazlied I really wasn't experiencing the full advantages of digital music, I've decided to go back through and add ID3 tags to my entire collection of MP3's. That's right, over 11,000 songs! However, iTunes will automatically fill in all of the information for a song such as title and artist, so most of the work is already done. All I have to do is enter the genre and the albums. However, I'm not going to stop there. In the comments section for each song I'm going to add adjectives that describe the genre nouns for each song. So, for example, a song may be in the 'Rock' genre, but may bring the words such as soft, slow, love, suggestive, irish, 90's, soundtrack, and cover to my mind while listening to it. I've decided I'm going to put those words into the comments section, so that I can search for songs that have commonalities between them other than genre. The plan is to do this for all 11,000 songs so that when completed, I'll be able to come up with crazy insane playlists after only a few moments of entering text into a couple of fields.

Say I'm about to throw a party, I'll make a playlist that only contains songs which contain the words hip hop, pop, dance, party, and upbeat. Or, say I'm really sad but don't want to be, I'll make a playlist that has songs that are uplifting and happy. Planning on a romatic evening? I'd make iTunes search for for all the songs that are either R&B or rock and that I've described as soft, slow, love, sweet, and touching. In all, I've got 25 different genres and about 60 of these adjectives. It's quite the undertaking, but hopefully it'll be something that I can do little by little everytime I listen to my music, so that after a couple of months, everything is perfect. I'll keep you updated on how things eventually turn out, but so far, I've tagged over 400 songs and my enthusiasm for the project is still going strong!

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SCola Wars

Last week, while working at Campus Cruiser as a phone operator, I went out to get myself an ice-cold soft drink from the vending machines located just outside the office doors. To my surprise, the vending machines were missing! I walked across the street to Parking Structure A where I knew more machines were located. Empty space. After stopping into the DPS offices - located in PSA - and speaking with a friendly officer, I was schooled on the history of cola on campus.

In the summer of 1992, Los Angeles was ravaged with crime and looting. The LA city riots had just taken place, and, although the USC campus was spared from the devastation, the students were shaken and afraid. USC searched desperately for a way to keep current students from transferring and to attract new students to our beautiful school. After searching for a year, a lowly janitor had the solution: sever all ties with Coke and bring Pepsi to campus! After working day and night for an entire weekend, it was so and all was good.

Fast forward 11 years. USC is on the verge of winning consecutive National Championships in football. On the verge of winning our third straight championship in women's volleyball. We just won our sixth Heisman trophy. We're about to open brand new buildings for the first time in years and ground has been broken on our state-of-the-art, multi-million dollar Galen Events Center. Our incoming classes are the brightest that USC has ever seen and we've gone up in the ranking every single year for the past nine years. Alumni donations are up and we've recently received some of the biggest and most prestigious monetary awards that a university has ever seen. Things are up for this university and those who walk its hallowed halls. That is why, today, my friends, was one of the darkest days I have ever experienced as a student at this fine university, for at 1:48 this afternoon, I received the following text message:

"THEY REPLACED ALL THE VENDING MACHINES WITH COKE MACHINES"

After a week of rumors and not a vending machine in sight, USC has effectively ended its fortuitous relationship with Pepsi. No more Mountain Dew. No more Gatorade. No...more...Wild Cherry. Instead, we will be subjected to the likes of C2 and Powerade. And although USC may be in the best position of its 125 year history, campus will not be the same. Pepsi, you will be missed.

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