Odd Ramblings :: Modern Society
So What's So Good About Now?
Friday, 09.12.2005Phew. It's been forever since I've last managed an opportunity to write here. "This space has been intentionally written in."
Anyway, I've started to take my bike out for rides recently (I'm trying to keep healthy here--there isn't any Poly requirement that I have to take x amount of PE classes per semester or year), and there's a lot of things I realized that I've been missing without exercise, or even outside exposure.
Poly's one of those strenuous all-study schools--the curriculum's pretty hard, and whatever you do, you've got to be focused in order to ace something. Not many people here (there are some) have the ability to relax and just pass classes without thinking much about it. I've managed to survive like that until now, but it's painfully apparent that I need to get off my chair and start working.
To work, though, is sorta hard for me. Up until now, Poly, middle school, elementary school, and any other programs I've attended have managed to be trifles for me--I was able to relax, put things off until the last moment, and still succeed at pretty impressive rates. To start working and to finally follow a dictated regimen has been nearly impossible for me; procrastination's in my flesh and blood now.
Which means that I've been really stressed as of late, with odd sleeping habits, little or no exercise, and basically creative braindeath.
Exercise brings a lot of things up to my mind--it's helped me in this situation. At least now, I have some sort of activity that I can truly relax in without worrying whether or not I should be doing something better. And with that relaxation, there's a true escape from stress, and my mind's at peace. Without exercise, I've been so distracted--"Should I watch anime, should I do homework, should I sleep? I have lots of episodes to watch and they're lolicious, and I haven't been sleeping lately, so I think I'll watch anime and sleep. Homework can wait until the morning.
Yeah, that was a good strategy--if I wanted to die early from stress. Mornings are never good times to do homework, it seems. I'd always rush, and, well, almost never finish.
The creative situation's even more exacerbated because I have no time for my own thoughts; it's either dedicated to anime, sleep (mmm), or homework. With the recent semi-daily bike rides, I have some time of my own again.
And on these bike rides, I've managed to go out to some pretty peaceful, nice, tranquil places. There's a park maybe about 2 miles from here, and that's where I've ended up biking.
To be so removed from the hurly-burly of modern life is really soul-settling. I just got back from watching the afterglow of the sunset. It's amazing, astounding, undescribable. There are ducks in the pond, and to see them play around and swim in the water is calming.
On my way back, I noticed something: it's been getting dark rather quickly as of late. I'll leave at 4:30, say, when the sun's still up, and by the time I get back at 5:30, it's pitch black. When the moon is already casting your shadow, you know that night's fallen.
Biking on the trail's an experience to remember in of itself. In darkness, nature has an entirely different look than at midday or afternoon. Seeing all of the subtly different shades of blues that Luna causes gives a whole new meaning to color; it's like nothing else in the world. The chilly air all too often brings back memories of camping; it's just like that out here, despite the fact that I'm only 1 mile into the wilderness, less than a minute away by car. And luckily, there isn't too much light pollution--you can see freeways and industrial complexes rather clearly, but they're far enough away that they're ignorable, except for one: the golf course.
Golf courses have this habit of staying open later than anyone would sanely play golf; who goes out at 8 PM for a golfing spin? And when those golfers want to golf, they've got to see, so they fire up these gigantic high-voltage HID lamps that'll give them bright blue-whitish light so they can see their teeny-eensy-weensy ball go. Mind you, this is just for the driving range, and there's got to be at least 6 of these intense light sources up on 60' poles.
Light, of course, obeys nobody. So, even a mile away, I can see these lights, and in the middle of the wilderness, they're even brighter than the moon. I have a shadow cast by them! It's a ridiculous example of how one's leisure is another one's downfall.
There's a lot of ideas that've popped into my mind as I've begun to relax on these trips. I'll post them later.