Foray into non-musical madness
So.
This is a lot harder than I thought.
DAY UNO
Woke up, clock radio alarm went off, 93.3, the Preston and Steve show was on. All was well until Linkin Park's Somewhere I Belong came on to the radio waves. Didn't really realize it at the time but at 6:15 AM, the first day of my transcendentalist experiment, I failed.
Didn't really help that the bus driver had classical music on the radio.
I think the transcendentalist gods were spiting me.
DAY TWO
Woke up, fortunately only the Preston and Steve show was playing and no songs were heard. All was well until the bus, which had classical music, again.
I figured that I'd just tune it out because all the kids on the bus were talking and I could barely hear the music anyway so it'd be all good. I don't really consider that failing to the same extent as yesterday but it was a minor blemish.
Fast forward to the volleyball match. Pump up music was playing for our warmup. FAIL
So yeah
Music is definitely a lot more pervasive throughout society than I first thought. I was first thinking of just giving up my iPod but I thought that that was too easy. I could find my musical pleasures elsewhere. So I decided to up the ante to no music at all, with the exception of background music to movies or games. While they don't count, I'm still making an effort to avoid background music.
But music is almost essential to everyone's lives. I posted on a forum I'm a part of and none of those who replied said that they could give up music easily.
I'm guessing the reason for this is because music plays such an integral role in changing emotion. Whether it's to pump you up for a big game or just to make the boredom go away, music plays a huge role in human emotion.
In case you care, I'm gonna try and do daily updates within this "thread." You can read about how I crash and burn each day with my goal of no music. Perhaps on the weekend it'll be better.
This is a lot harder than I thought.
DAY UNO
Woke up, clock radio alarm went off, 93.3, the Preston and Steve show was on. All was well until Linkin Park's Somewhere I Belong came on to the radio waves. Didn't really realize it at the time but at 6:15 AM, the first day of my transcendentalist experiment, I failed.
Didn't really help that the bus driver had classical music on the radio.
I think the transcendentalist gods were spiting me.
DAY TWO
Woke up, fortunately only the Preston and Steve show was playing and no songs were heard. All was well until the bus, which had classical music, again.
I figured that I'd just tune it out because all the kids on the bus were talking and I could barely hear the music anyway so it'd be all good. I don't really consider that failing to the same extent as yesterday but it was a minor blemish.
Fast forward to the volleyball match. Pump up music was playing for our warmup. FAIL
So yeah
Music is definitely a lot more pervasive throughout society than I first thought. I was first thinking of just giving up my iPod but I thought that that was too easy. I could find my musical pleasures elsewhere. So I decided to up the ante to no music at all, with the exception of background music to movies or games. While they don't count, I'm still making an effort to avoid background music.
But music is almost essential to everyone's lives. I posted on a forum I'm a part of and none of those who replied said that they could give up music easily.
I'm guessing the reason for this is because music plays such an integral role in changing emotion. Whether it's to pump you up for a big game or just to make the boredom go away, music plays a huge role in human emotion.
In case you care, I'm gonna try and do daily updates within this "thread." You can read about how I crash and burn each day with my goal of no music. Perhaps on the weekend it'll be better.
posted by Albert | 7:53 PM
13 Comments:
so hungry...
hahahah
sucker
just use the stove or something
I tried waking up earlier to do my hair...
But I went back to sleep.
No wonder transcendentalism failed.
DAY QUADRO
like the razor
Yeah... failed again.
You guys think I'm not trying. I really am. I just feel that if other people feel like listening to music in my presence, I don't have to listen to their music. I can just tune it out.
So I really don't think the bus rides to school with the radio on are failures. Just minor mishaps.
But I did really fail in vball today. After practice someone put on our pump up cd and I wasn't about to turn it off.
Why spread the suffering?
Oh yeah, in bio Winnie put on a song from her cell phone. So I failed then too.
But seriously.
I don't think the objective of this little experiment is to succeed at what you set out to do. It's to realize what changes when you make that drastic change or analyze why it failed.
Too much success is boring.
True, everyone wants to see videos of people succeeding, blah blah, but I think it adds flavor to the mix seeing someone fail.... 15 minutes into the first day of the experiment.... like me :D
my room's been clean for the past 3 days, and i'm going crazy; my messy nature can't handle it. i'm the polar opposite of OCD.
Laz, my mom loves you for assigning this project.
psh.
I don't know what day I'm on, but I'm pretty sure this is the last day, if not yesterday.
The weekend went pretty well in my opinion.
Friday was the only day where I'm pretty sure, music was not heard by mine ears. All the other days, music invaded my aural spaces and it wasn't good.
The experiment pretty much fell apart on starting Saturday. I went to the movies with my friend and he had music playing in his car. I didn't bother to tell him I wasn't listening to music because I didn't want to deprive him of auditory enjoyment. Sunday was a little better but I chose to listen to 5 second sound bytes of songs. So Sunday was the day that I, in my opinion, truly failed in my experiment.
Today, I think, I'm allowed to listen to music again. Because Monday was day 1, Tuesday was day 2, and so on, all the way to Sunday, which was day 7, making a week. So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to listen to some music now.
Doing these little experiments of changing ourselves or changing something important in our lives we learn some things. For example, whether it was the point of the project or not, i realized people just naturally suck and are naturally judgmental. I don't mean to generalize during this but on the day i came in dressed in all black i didnt hear one nice comment all day. I was called either "gay" or a "faggot" at least a hundred times that day. It is nice to know that people you have previously been introduced to can treat you like a whole different person just by changing your attire or one small thing about yourself.
I don't know if Transcendentals or Hippies were cut down or criticized publicly like I was. But, I now know that I will stop making judgments about people. I will not treat someone differently because they might have a different style.
I hate realizing sick truths about society.
I try to relate this to the actual project...is the point that you can't be individualistic in a world of conformity?
On a happy note, atleast i found out that i'm happier as the Prince of Darkness and listening to Slayer.
I only learned that there is a part of refrigerator that has food that doesn't need to be microwaved. :)
well. that was definetly an interesting experience. I chose to spend time in nature for the past seven days.
I do believe i've come closer to nature then i really would have liked, however not as close as Adiel. I think i got used to the bug bites after the first couple of days.
I was in Virginia for break, so i decided to spend my time in nature either on Assateague Island (it's a nature preserve and there are trails all over and remote beaches.) or down by the bay at our house. On Monday I was sitting peacefully thinking about how calm the water was when I was greeted by a visitor. The only thing is it came in the form of a legless, slithering, black and yellow snake. He was only about 2 feet long, but that was plenty for me. When he discovered that I was unknowlingly blocking his path to his hole, he became quite angry. He sat up and puffed up his head like a cobra. ( some nonpoisonous snakes have a similar hood to make other animals intimidated.) He certanitly scared me! Needless to say, I got out of there quickly. I'm generally not scared of snakes since I work with them at work, but this one was a little much.
I can say that I am no longer a fan of these nice sits in nature, or at least in Virginia. So whenever your in VA and decide to be transindental, just beware of the snakes!
After writing that paper, I am curious? Who got something out of their experiment?
I want honesty now.
I truly think that I did learn something. It has been a long time since I just sat still and unoccupied with all but my thoughts. I guess I forgot I could do that. The results were surprising. Perhaps it was because I picked the place where I used to play when I was little as my natural setting, but I found myself remembering things forgotten long ago. All the nostalgia made me a little sad.
Have any of you stopped to look at how much things have changed? The transcendentalists condemned this change. I'm not, but I think we should take the time to acknowledge it. Emo musing, I know Albert.
Well I can honestly say I learned something from my experiment. Going out into nature without being able to do anything else was hard however. I think we all should have a happy medium of finding our way into nature, and how many distractions we bring with us. Now I go outside and do homework instead of sitting infront of the TV. I'll take a book outside when the temperature is just right at night, before the bugs come out. It is truly nice being outside, and even though I already realized this before this project, it only reinforced my beliefs that spending time in the world around you will do a person good.
Here's a little supplement to my essay. The day the project began, I compiled a short, incomplete list of things I haven't accomplished because of the Internet:
*Read
-When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron (my dad is into Buddhist self-help books and thinks I should be too, apparently)
-The Stranger by Albert Camus (both English and French versions)
-The Book by Alan Watts
-A book about Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi
-A friend's magazine
-One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (I'm kind of a 40 year old woman...)
*Learn
-How to cook properly
-How to speak French a little better
-About anything other than what blogs and trashy news sites tell me about
*Get
-Better grades
-A job
*Take
-the recyling out
*Um, think, in general
See, if I completed any of that list, I'd feel a lot more fulfilled or satisfied. While I think I was particularly addicted to using the computer, I also think our culture is kind of abandoning traditional means of learning new things or exploring new ideas. And as I wrote in my essay, I don't think our new means of doing these things is much more efficient or useful--we might learn more in one day with the computer, but I feel we understand and truly grasp things less now.
I guess I just went on a bit of a tangent, but the above-entry kind of explains how I feel about the Internet/how much I used it before the project. I think I gained a lot from the whole thing. I found out that exercising is good and walking through Moorestown isn't the most miserable thing in the world. And I think a lot more clearly when I don't use the computer. The project mostly involved putting into practice things I had already realized. I've kind of gone back to my old habits, now, but I am online less and intend on being even more forceful in my fight against the World Wide Web. So, um, in summation: experiment=success and good and helpful. Thanks Mr. Lazarow/transcendentalists.
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