The giving of thanks

I'm thankful for all that I've lost, all that I have, and all that is to come, not just today, but every day. We are all a sum of the additions, deletions, divisions, and multiples that have occurred during our time here.

Enjoy your turkey, family, football, la dee dah, but most importantly enjoy your life. Enjoy the experiences, good or bad, that got you to this point.

Be thankful always.

I Wrote This For You...

Today during my usual tour of the world wide web I found what could possibly be the best blog ever.

Click it.

You should discover it too.

Oldie: Say Something

I was clearing out my hard-drive when I came across this gem. Enjoy.

******

When was the last time you had a conversation with someone?
And when I say conversation I mean face to face.
Not over the phone.
Not over the computer.
Personally, that is the kind of contact I thrive on.
I'm a face to face person.
The phone? Ehhh.
It's ok I guess. I've had a few worthy convos but I tend to stay away from it.
AIM?
I'll do it to keep in touch, but I'm not it's biggest fan.
I personally think that technology takes away from the face to face contact that can tell you about a person.
Wanna know how someone feels? Read their away message or Facebook status.
I can guarantee that on any given day, no matter how many people are on, at least one person will spill their hearts out in that little box, even though they would never directly express these thoughts to the person they're meant for.
It's as if they want everyone except the person the message is meant for to know how they feel because when you think about it, if you have that big of a problem with someone, technically you wouldn't be their friend on AIM or Facebook which means there's really no guarantee that they will see it.
You can never tell what a person is really thinking over telephone or cable wires.
55% of what we say is non verbal.
Yeah. Chew on that.
The sounds that reach your eardrum are a little less than half of what someone really wants to convey.
Face to face is the only way to tell if someone is nervous, excited, happy, lying, etc.
After all, that's the only way you can see the body language that corresponds to the above.
I hate when people try to have a serious conversation over AIM or through texting.
To me it's disrespectful.
If you're miles away I can understand.
But if you're down the road it basically means that you don't think it's important enough to address.
Why have we become so depended on technology to express ourselves anyway?
It completely eliminates the contact that makes all relations successful.
I dunno.
I think it makes everything a lot more difficult because of the confusion that can happen and the missed signals.
Don't get me wrong.
The phone and computer are some of the greatest inventions clearly but I feel that we're getting to the point where we've become too reliant.
What would happen if everything just...
stopped.
No phone connection.
No internet.
Nothing.
Would we be so willing to go back to the face to face that got us to this point in the first place?
Hmm...

3 continents down, 4 to go

This past weekend I went to Egypt.

Holy crap that sounds so obnoxious, but in my defense I had Tuesday off and it's only three hours away from my current location.

...

Nope. Still obnoxious.

But I'm so glad I did it.

Hands down one of the coolest things I'll ever do.

Highlights of the trip include the Great Pyramid and King Tut's tomb/treasures.

Fun fact: They had hinges back in the day. Yurp. We're not that cool.

I'm on a boat. On the Nile River.

Yurp.

This looks photoshopped. I love it.

Wonder of the ancient world. Awe inspiring.

The standard camel ride. It was quite pleasant.

The Sphinx

Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Egyptian Museum. Sadly I couldn't take photos inside, but wowsers. Amazing.

Yeah they have KFC. And it delivers. I had to capture it, cuz I wouldn't even believe me.

An electronic means of communication and capturing visual memories

I had to swoop through for this random though:

Although the video is straight hogwash [someone was a little too excited to play with their new editing tools], 'Video Phone' makes me wanna do a little one two step in the worst way. They were puttin in work too. Go on witcho bad selves.

Beyonce ft. Lady Gaga - Video Phone Official MUSIC Video

Excuse my french...

... but hindsight is a female dog.

You know that question about what super power you could have?

Well screw flying, x-ray vision, and all that nonsense.

My super power would be to know.

To know every twist and turn, know every angle, know every possible outcome.

I'm talking about the cheat sheet to this 'choose your own adventure' that is life.

Now you may be thinking that the whole 'unknown' factor is what adds the spice to life.

I say hogwash! No, no it is not.

Sure when things work out and you get a nice surprise, like finding a few bills in a random coat pocket, or snagging those lone fries at the bottom of the bag, yeah that's nice.

But when you sit and realize you should have seen something from the jump and have to face the fact that the opportunity may have passed you by, that blows. A lot. Much like a helium tank at a birthday party.

So the moral of the story is hindsight is a major womp.

...

Although hypothetically, if an opportunity was that great and meant to be, shouldn't it still be there once you wisen up to it?

Ok I see you Rhi Rhi

Come here rude boy

Webster knows a thing or two after all...

intimacy: the ability to fuse one's identity with that of someone else's without fear of losing your own

Kodak moments

I guess I should throw up a couple of those pics huh. Well seeing as I've taken nearly a thousand thus far (I wish I was kidding), I'd be damned if I sat here uploading them all, so here are a couple that truly highlight the experience.

The American College of Thessaloniki. One of the two buildings that makes up the campus. The other is the library. No chance of getting lost in this bad boy.

It was Halloween. I'm in Greece. So clearly I had to whip out the toga. Don't act like you wouldn't do the same.

Group shot. Yay.

This place is so fricken beautiful it's disgusting.

Chillin on top of an active volcano. Twas an explosive experience.

Sunset in Santorini. This is the stuff postcards are made of.

Went to a professional football (soccer) game this past weekend. The crowd was really wild and reckless. I'm talking about fireworks before the team even scored.

And when they score in overtime? Whew. The place goes wild.

During my fall break I went to Crete and took a tour of the Peloponnese. This is the ancient Amphitheater in Ancient Messene. Twas quite large.

The boardwalk in Thessaloniki. It's really cute and gets awfully live in the evenings.

I get to look at this every night before the sandman comes and takes me away. Pretty schweet.

So now that pics are there, I guess I should add some words in addition to the captions huh? Well... let's see. Greece is awesome. I've been here for about a month and a half now and I have 6 weeks left. Holy goodness. Where does time go?

This experience is shaping out to be exactly what I wanted it to be and so much more. Even though I received some earth shattering news within a week or two of my arrival, I'm glad I decided to stay and see it to the end.

I have midterms coming up soon which means I have to put the 'study' part back into this trip, but eh, we'll see.

Um... what else?

I'm making it my goal to update at least once a week. We'll see how that goes.