Stone Mast

[stonemast]

Draft of my golden disclaimer

I’ve been wanting to write this for a long while: a sort of golden disclaimer that ought to be attached with anything I communicate.

My words are is not final even if they seem to be.

My words are only one articulation of my ideas at one moment of time.

My words may need clarification even if it seems clear.

There are a thousand words of elaboration behind every word I say.

You can listen to what I say but you will probably always be a distance from understanding my ideas without trying to collaborate.

I will always be a distance from understanding my own ideas without trying to collaborate with you.

[stonemast]

Leaving abruptly, emotions, and transparency.

It was an odd sensation for me on Wednesday morning. I was tired that night and had some idea that I would wake up as you were leaving for work to get a selfie pic with you and say goodbye. When I found out that I missed that window; I felt pretty unsettled by that-- a lot of emotion was pulsing through me that day. I had it in my mind that you were gone and it didn't matter if I just gushed out any emotions I was feeling. I try to be mature about physical attraction. My strategy for that is to firstly to acknowledge that it exists. Denying it is a delusion and just causes more problems. Second step is to decide what to do about it because the feelings aren't always well placed in the emotional/intellectual realm. In a case with a person like you, I typically numb it down because I don't have enough insight into your climate (or my own) on those matters. Regardless, the combination of emotions from missing you that morning and the idea that I was leaving to go far away spurred me to gush out what was on my mind. I am sorry for that and I hope it was’t too unsettling and misplaced for you.

[stonemast]

Why I flew down to see you.

The question of exactly why I interrupted my route to see you has been brought up in your blog post and our conversation. Put simply I just wanted to see you at least once in person to get a richer understanding of your life and person. I feel like it was a success and that is probably because I came in with very small expectations.  I'll elaborate on those these thoughts some more. In general I found it was very pleasant to converse with you while I was traveling. It seemed like we were having some nice chats and discussion that had some depth to them. I was looking forward to you replies as well. There seemed to be a nice balance of resonance and dissonance of our ideas and we both seemed to be open to listening. Reading some of your blog I found at least a couple posts that I wanted to pick your brain on further too.  I certainly wanted (and still want) to continue this through chat or otherwise. The missing piece is that it would have been nice to see you once and know you in-person at least for a short time. As we know the limitations of internet communcation: our minds fill in the blanks and the blanks are more numerous than we conciously realize. Considering that I didn't know if I was going to come back to your country anytime soon the extra effort to see you was worth while to me. The flights lined up very nicely with my existing rail tickets and I had nothing planned for that time anyways. I thought it was a nice visit especially being able to go out for coffee/shopping with you on Tuesday. Once your mind was cleared of work a little bit, I really got to see the person I was reading and talking to over the internet and it gave more confidence to some ideas I had of you. I enjoyed that time a lot. Despite you not enjoying some parts: it was significant to me to see you as "not yourself in all its entirety" while I was there. I mean this in reference to the times you were burnt out from work. I think that is still who you are but just in different circumstances.  It's what I call sharing a slice of life with someone, good and bad, instead of some dressed up guest party. It was great to fly down to meet you and I hope from here we can continue growing our friendship.

[stonemast]

On something being the way it was meant to be.

What does it mean that something has a way it was meant to be? If something was meant to be a certain way then there has to be an agent which plans that something's future. For example take a train scheduler who arranges a train to arrive at 5pm, but due to a hijacking, it never arrives.  I think in that case we can see that the train was meant to arrive at 5pm (by authority of the scheduler) but it didn't arrive. So the train ride was not the way it was meant to be. So I think knowing when something is not the way it's meant to be first comes from identifying the agent holding the intention for the something and the intention itself. This becomes tricky in the next scenario. The criminal means to sabotage the rails so that they can steal the goods.  The train scheduler means for the train to arrive safely.  Looking at the criminal: the train ride went the way it was meant to be.  Looking at the train scheduler: it did not. We can go one step higher and look at something higher than us people like the state nature or 'God' perhaps.  Skipping the elaboration: I think on that level everything we perceive goes the way it was meant to be. It is impossible for things to go against the way it was meant to be.

[stonemast]

I think it's important to regulate means of communication and availability between desktop and mobile device.

Problem: Google Chat is on my computer and my phone. Some people talk to me the same whether I am on my computer or whether I am on my phone. I cannot always digest their communication the same way across devices. This insufficient communication causes repeat information, makes it look like I'm ignoring them, and other wasteful behavior.

Potential Solution: Go offline when on my phone or do not use Google chat on my phone.

Problem: Sometimes the best way to communicate with someone for logistically critical information is through hangouts. (Data plan cheaper than texts.

SMS: It's nice to have it limited to 160 characters because it tries to limit the amount to digest.  Though it doesn't stop some people with keyboards to send large amounts of information.

It does not matter to a lot of people whether the mobile device icon is showing on Google chat.

Best solution may be education; a digital communications class.

[stonemast]

Pittsburgh Bus

Things that I have learned about the bus system in Pittsburgh.

61 & 71

Pittsburgh is a triangle on it's side. There are two main arteries that go through Pittsburgh, 5th and Forbes. You'll find the 61(ABCD) and 71(ABCD) bus cycling around those roads.  Check the map to see which part and direction they'll be going.  The difference between the lettered busses are how they 'fan out' as they go out into the part of the triangle with lots of latitude. 

71AC Fans out north while 71BD continues east.  Later 71A and 71C go opposite ways and so do 71B and 71D.  Same gig for the 61 bus.

Boarding & Fare

If you're going towards the triangle point (downtown), then you pay when you get on the bus. There are times you pay when you get off the bus and that is if you're going away from triangle point (east) and it is during peak hours (4am-7ish). Ask the driver. Also, everyone enters and exits through the front of the bus always.

Transit times

This is a rule for all bus transit in my opinion. The scheduled arrival/departure times on the schedule are unrealistic.  The only thing I rely on is that I can see a bus leaves from the beginning in an interval, so I can expect waiting for a duration around that interval for a bus.

If you have an android/iphone please download and use this Pittsburgh transit app: http://www.tiramisutransit.com/

[stonemast]

Koreatown was a lot of fun but I ended the night early because had to catch a flight in the morning. Subways are great and the red-line hurried me where I needed to go-- which was the bus stop into Astoria.

It was getting late and I didn't want to miss my transfer. So I climbed down to the bus stop and waited. It started to snow. Snow on my spring breaks seems to be a thing.

There was a crowd of people waiting at the bus stop. 20 minutes passed. I heard them start to call cabs and their friends.  I waited another 30 minutes until there were just a few remaining.  Sludge 2 miles in the snow? I have to get sleep sometime. Lets go.

I got about a half mile into the trek jumping over slush puddles on the curbs and crunching on the uncleared sidewalks.  Half way through a block I saw the bus zoom past me.  What's done is done-- I can't wait for another one.  

Crossing the street to turn north: I stepped in a trap.  An even dusting of snow was camouflaging a soupy slush puddle underneath. I was wearing breathable sneakers.  I froze and the moisture started tickling my feet.  OK, I'll figure it out.

I was frozen and cold by the time I made it. Every step was a soggy squish.  I didn't feel like waking my hostel-mates in the dorm I was assigned, so I took off my shoes in the hallway.  I had remembered that newspaper in the shoes dry them up quickly, so I picked two up from the gas station next door.  Apparently the neighborhood is so bad that they lock the doors and only let you order stuff through a walk-up window.

After stuffing my shoes, I entered the room-- nobody was there after all.