Bukowski, Charles

They say that
nothing is wasted:
either that
or
it all is.

Life, man

So, Matt and I had one of our dates last night (i.e. we watched the same show & texted each other when anything outrageous happened). This time we watched Life on the Discovery Channel. It's awesome!! But they talked a lot about the ocean, and it got me all freaked out. THERE'S FERTILIZED EGGS ALL OVER THE PLACE, YOU GUYS. As a result, I don't know how down I am with the ocean anymore.

Also, Matt promised he'd be my mudskipper:


That's Matt. How cute is he? & seriously, check out the guns on this guy.

Lucid Dreaming Speech (I'm No Hippie!)

In my communications class this semester, we are required to give an informative speech. I chose lucid dreams, because I've had them in the past (they're AWESOME) and because I feel it's an interesting topic anyone could get into. My speech only scratches the surfy-surface of the subject, but I thought I'd post here...just because. Hopefully someone is bored enough to read it, and finds it interesting!:

Some 2400 years ago Aristotle wrote, "Oftentimes when one is asleep, there is something in the conciousness that declares that what presents itself is but a dream." He was talking about lucid dreaming. In it's simplest terms, lucid dreaming is when a sleeping person becomes aware of the fact that they are dreaming. Perhaps some of you are like me and have accidentally experienced a lucid dream in the past, but in fact, lucid dreaming is a difficult, but learnable skill that is capable of stopping nightmares, letting you live out your fantasies, and even help you overcome fears. As a chronic nightmare sufferer and sometime lucid dreamer, I am going to talk to you about a little bit of the history of lucid dreaming, as well as some very basic tricks and tips to becoming lucid in your own dreams.

Lucid dreaming has been mentioned periodically throughout history. Aristotle was the first to mention it in 4th century BC, and Lewis Carrol was inspired to write Alice in Wonderland after experiencing a lucid dream. But perhaps the most shocking even in it's history is something called Dream Yoga. In it's practice, Thibetian Buddhists clamed to hold on to their lucidity for 24 hours, even after they' stopped dreaming, which is an astonishing claim. But, by the 19th century lucid dreaming was gaining popularity in the modern world, but mostly by philosophers with very shady backgrounds, like occultist Hugh Callaway, and Russian Philosopher P.D. Ouspensky who also had an interest in the bizarre study of "higher dimensions of existence." You can tell by the title that the subject was way off in left field. Lucid dreaming's association with such offbeat characters cast a huge shadow of skepticism across the subject in the science world where it's existence was largely dismissed.

It wasn't until pyschophysiologist Stephen LaBerge's 1978 study at Stanford University that Lucid Dreaming achieved any relevance in the science world. LaBerge, an avid lucid dreamer, used the rapid eye movement of REM cycles and EEG readings to prove that lucid dreams are real. In his experiment, LaBerge was hooked up to the electrodes of an EEG machine, and before falling asleep, he and his assistant agreed on a signal that would prove he as in a lucid dream: 2 controlled up-and-down eye movements. This might sound strange, but remember that lucid dreamers can have a degree of control over the events in their dreams. LaBerge would then fall asleep. It took many attempts, but LaBerge was able to successfully enter a lucid dream, and give the signal, which appeared clearly on his EEG readings. He was then able to replicate his experiment several times on himself and other lucid dreamers. He then took his findings to the international headquarters for sleep and dream research (the APSS) whose members deemed that "a firm case had been made for the existence of lucid dreaming under controlled laboratory conditions." Lucid dreaming finally had a foot in the door of the scientific world!

Hopefully by now I've convinced you that lucid dreaming isn't some crazy hippie phenomena, and that it has actual scientific evidence to back it up. And maybe some of you are interesting in trying lucid dreams for yourself. In which case I have a few, very basic tips to get you started. The first thing is to learn to remember your dreams. You can do this by keeping a dream journal and writing down your dreams with as much detail as you can. This will help you to recognize your "dream signs" which are patterns in your dreams that will help you to realize that you're dreaming. Another tip is to simply tell yourself as you're drifting off to sleep that you'll have a lucid dream. The simple suggestion will increase your chances of becoming lucid. It is also helpful to sleep in 4.5 to six hour increments, stay awake for forty minutes, then go back to sleep. You are more likely to awake during a REM cycle and this boost your chances of lucidity by 20-50%. Now, if you do experience a lucid dream, but feel yourself beginning to wake up, try spinning around in circles. This helps to keep lucid dreams going about 96% of the time. Once you become lucid try to control the events that transpire. Try hopping up in the air and flying around, or confronting someone you've had issues with recently. The possibilities are truly endless.

It's important to remember that you probably won't achieve lucidity after one try. It's a skill that must be practiced and honed. Also, lucid dreaming isn't enjoyable for everyone, but it's definitely worth a try. I hope the information i have provided you with today acts as a stepping stone into your own adventures as a lucid dreamer. And if anyone gives it a try, I'd love to hear about your experiences!

Thank you, and goodnight!!

P.S. Seriously. I'm not a hippie.

-Brittany

Date With Apryl!

Queso, here's a link to (SOME) of the pictures Matt and I took yesterday with Apryl, Patrick, and Jennifer. Fun times, you guys.

PHOTOS

Srsly, you guys, I hope this works.
I uploaded a bunch of pictures from various events, e.g. photodates, first friday, and JETTA PICS!!! Click these words immediately and have a look for yourself!

bye lovelies!

Also, please let me know if the link doesn't work or you have troubles lookin at our junk.

bring me up just to tear me down- JETTA UPDATE!

Hey everybody! So, as many of you know, I've got and 1989 Volkswagen Jetta project car I’ve been wanting to finish, but for lack of time (and motivation) it hasn’t gotten done. Well, Saturday I woke up early with a mission. I only had a couple things left to do before it was drivable again, after seeing it apart for almost a year. So, I grabbed up the tools I needed, ate a slice of pizza for nourishment, and got to work. About two hours or so later I had all new strut mounts on and was pretty sure I had the suspension leveled out. I was finally able to put some wheels on it and see just how low it would go. The Jetta's front lip is now about 4 inches off the ground and I'm stoked about it! Then I backed it out into drive way for a wash and some final decision making on the ride height, tested and changed some fuses, it was ready for the road …or so I thought. Then the problems started.

At first the car cranked but wouldn’t start, so I went through some checks under the hood and found that my glow plugs (yep it’s a diesel!) weren't hot. So I got a volt meter and started to follow the glow plug cables to see where I might be losing voltage. (Stay with me here!) I traced it back to a fusible link that was supposed to be getting 12 volts but was only getting 9 milivolts. Now I’m thinking that the glow plug relay must not closing. I check it out, and the relay clicks as if it’s working but I have a little extra relay, so I go ahead and change it. Now getting 10v and that’s fine with me! I try to start it up again and it doesn't even crank!!!! :[ I immediately test the starter positive, battery, cable drop, and starter solenoid. All were well. I ended up tracing some wires to a small connection between the battery and the ignition that was disconnected. I tightened that up, charged the battery and it started right up!!!

I was stoked and ready to drive it. I hopped in, threw it in reverse, backed it out and put it in first gear, and all of a sudden I had no gear selection at all! I looked under the hood at the shift linkage that I had rebuilt a few months back and one of gear selectors had fallen out. I put it back on and put it in first gear again, let off the clutch and it immediately died. No jolting or anything. It just died. And that is because I was actually in third gear. Apparently I had something binding the linkage and keeping me from putting it in first. By that time Pat and Jen had showed up and I was overwhelmed and needed some additional parts so I just had them help me get it back into the garage and left it for another weekend... but Saturday ended with gumbo, bubble tea, video games and lots of entertainment that helped take my mind off my Jetta. I guess it was, overall, a productive day! Stay tuned for my next Jetta Update, I bet you can’t wait!

matt

PS. PICTURES COMING SOOOOOON.

Too Much Indie for One Hand!

The Preceding video sparked the proceeding conversation:

MATTHEW: I totally watched this Tegan & Sara video today, and it was sooo good.
BRITTANY: Forealz? I kind of love Tegan & Sara...actually I think I just love the name Tegan
MATTHEW: Yeah, I think Tegan for a boy would be cool.
BRITTANY: Huh? Tegan is totally a girls name.
MATTHEW: I think it's unisex, babe--
BRITTANY: TEGAN IS A GIRLS NAME!!!
MATTHEW: Ahhhh, okay you win. Totally a girls name.
BRITTANY: Let's name our kid Tegan.
MATTHEW: YEAH!!!! Tegan is a super indie name.
BRITTANY: I know!!!
MATTHEW/BRITTANY (talking over each other with extreme excitment): We have to force our kid to be indie by giving them NOT generic names like Matt and Brittany!!!!! YEAH!!!!!
BRITTANY: Yeah, we have to give them a headstart intp indie-ocity--and our kid's gonna be HALF-BLACK!!!!
MATTHEW: I Know!! How indie is a HALF-BLACK GIRL! With an AFRO! Named TEGAN?!?!!!
BRITTANY: TOO INDIE TO HANDLE!!!!!!

several minutes later...
BRITTANY: If my name was Sara and my sister's name was Tegan, I'd be pissed.

...and that's a backstage look at conversations between Matt & Brittany. How dumb are we? I LOVE IT.

-Matt & Brittany

I Think My Head's About To Explode! (Matt Blogs)

It seems like everyday I wake up at the same time
Go to work at the same time,
& go to school at the same time
My life is on loop & it gets old pretty quickly

It's not like repatition is a bad thing,
and I'm sure in some cases it's beneficial to getting things to run smoothly
but my repetition lasts about 16 hours a day.
& I'm getting kind of tired of it, to be honest.
I'm constantly on the move & I barely have time to stop and think.
Or take care of things. Or have a hobby!

& on those rare occasions when my world stops spinning long enough for me to relax and think about things, my mind is usually filled with stressful thoughts:
How am I going to make my life work?
What do I need to do to achieve my goals?
Basically, what it all boils down to is time. There isn't enough of it.

One of the most stressful thoughts I've got right now is moving to Dallas.
It is going to be a big step into uncharted territory that I am excited, but scared to take. What will I do about work? Will I make enough money to live the way I want to? How quickly will I find an apartment? Am I even ready to go out on my own?

Even though all those crazy thoughts are flying through my head all the time, I know that I will be graduating in four months, and my life will be much less stressful then. I also know that I have family, and friends to pull me through this super stressful time in my life. And I know that this won't last forever, but right now I'm having a hard time seeing the light at the end of this tunnel. This type of thinking usually hits me about once every month, and I go into freak out mode, and since starting this blog, I've gotten the opportunity to vomit my freak out here, to whoever wants to read it. Maybe now that I've written it all down, I can move on a bit from it. I don't know, I guess we'll have to see.

Has anyone else had a situation like this? How do you get through your stressful times?

-matt

The Great Big Known

For the first few days of Spring Break, I will be in Dallas, Tx! I'm sure everyone knows that Matt & I will be moving up there in the next six months or so (Sorry Patrick), and since I've never actually been to Dallas, spring break seems like the perfect time to road trip. I'm really excited, but extremely sad that Matt won't be joining my mom & I on our sojourn. And, although I am excited about moving to Dallas, the excitement is accompanied by feelings of nervousness.

My whole life I've been wondering what I wanted to do with it, and I still had no idea when I transferred schools last fall. I came to UTSA as an engineering major, and had done so just to appease my father and hopefully avoid another fight. I enrolled for only science and math classes and as the semester continued and I struggled to keep my head above sea of schoolwork, I was getting swallowed up by doubt. I ended up meeting with a career assessment advisor and deciding on speech-language pathology, which isn't offered at UTSA. The argument I tried to avoid ensued, but in the end a weight was lifted from my shoulders. But, as a result of finally deciding on a major, Dallas feels kind of like the beginning of the REST OF MY LIFE. Because, before I was floating along accidental-like on a breeze, and now I've actually got...a plan. That's never happened to me before, and I don't want anything to go wrong.

So now I'm going to this new city where I've got to go to school and do well and make new connections all over again, which is scary by itself cause I've never been too good at that. All I know is that I'm so, so thankful that I've got someone in my life who is willing to take this journey with me. Matthew August Farris is a dreamboat. (!!!) Expect a blog from him soon you's guys.

-be.

Rant off, Dance off

EVERYONE STOP GETTING MARRIED.
WE'RE TOO YOUNG!!

Blogger Status, & Randomness

FINALLY REACHED BLOGGER STATUS!!! Get it? It's a play on the phrase "Baller Status"

...So, the blog is up, and kind of in working order, but seriously Blogger, could you be more confusing? The site is going to take some serious getting used to. I feel like this blog should have sort of a mission statement that lays out all the things Matt and I plan to do with it, but I don't think we've got all that figured out just yet. I know Matt will want to update everyone on the progress of his project car (and everyone should ask him about it all the time--he needs motivation!)& I know that this blog'll give us a place for us to post the (super amature) pictures we take, and give us an excuse to go on more picture dates! But aside from that, I think this lil' beauty will just be a soundboard for the things that are going on in our lives & our thoughts and feelings about everything. Or anything. Or both. All I know right now is that I'm really excited to start reading everyones blogs & seeing how this thing evolves!


So I think I'm gonna send you off with this (whoever you happen to be):

THANKS JEN FOR GETTIN ME ADDICTED TO TTR CAUSE I LOVE THIS SOONNNG

First!

YOU GUYS.

WE'RE BLOGGIN'!