I want this shirt!

It is so on the stage, as you know well enough, that someone sits and prompts by whispers; [he is hidden;] he is the inconspicuous one; he is and wishes to be overlooked. But then there is another, he strides out prominently, he draws every eye to himself. For that reason he has been given his name, that is: actor. He impersonates a distinct individual. In the skillful sense of this illusory art, each word becomes true when embodied in him, true through him—and yet he is told what he shall say by the hidden one that sits and whispers. No one is so foolish as to regard the prompter as more important than the actor.

Now forget this light talk of arts. Alas, in regard to things spiritual, the foolishness of many is this, that they in the secular sense look upon the speaker as an actor, and the listeners as theatergoers who are to pass judgment on the artist. But the speaker is not the actor—not in the remotest sense. No, the speaker is the prompter. There are no mere theatergoers present, for each listener will be looking into his own heart. The stage is eternity, and the listener, if he is the true listener (and if he is not, he is at fault) stands before God during the talk. The prompter whispers to the actor what he is to say, but the actor’s repetition of it is the main concern—is the solemn charm of the art. The speaker whispers the word to the listeners. But the main concern is earnestness: that the listeners by themselves, with themselves, and to themselves, in the silence before God, may speak with the help of this address.

The address is not given for the speaker’s sake, in order that men may praise or blame him. The listener’s repetition of it is what is aimed at. If the speaker has the responsibility for what he whispers, then the listener has an equally great responsibility not to fall short in his task. In the theater, the play is staged before an audience who are called theatergoers; but at the devotional address, God himself is present. In the most earnest sense, God is the critical theatergoer, who looks on to see how the lines are spoken and how they are listened to; hence here the customary audience is wanting. The speaker is then the prompter, and the listener stands openly before God. The listener, if I may say so, is the actor, who in all truth acts before God.

- Soren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart

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Though it’s not nearly as bad now as it was in, say, high school, I have historically had a lot of angst. I’m talking J.D. Salinger levels of angst, here. Not that I’m always gloomy or pissed off about something—far from it. It was just this vague disposition. (Remember, angst is, by definition, nonspecific.)

After a few solid years for this, I realized that I really had trouble relating to people who hadn’t had some sort of anguish (either external or internal) or Existential crisis. (I’m not quite that pretentious anymore. But if you knew me or read my journal while I was in college, you probably know what I’m talking about.) It seemed to me that people without that kind of life experience had a propensity for identifying and solving all the wrong problems (of problems dealing with anguish or personal crisis, anyway). I had enough trouble identifying those problems by myself, so I pretty much avoided anyone who “just wanted to cheer me up.”

You know that old saying, adversity breeds character? The opposite is also true. All of that really seemed to come together when I read this quote from Nicholas Berdyaev:

Not the worst but the best of mankind suffer the most. The intensity with which suffering is felt may be considered an index of a man’s depth. The more the intellect is developed and the soul refined … the more sensitive does one become to pain, not only the pains of the soul but physical pains as well. … But for pain and suffering, the animal in man would be victorious.

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If you don’t already know, I’m slightly obsessed with typology. My co-worker Mandy and I just taught a class on it at work, so I’ve been putting a lot of thought into it lately, and I focused some of that thought onto my favorite TV show: Lost. Here’s what I came up with:

ESTJ – Sayid/Ilana
ISTJ – Jack
ESFJ – Penny/Charlotte
ISFJ – Jin/Boone

ESTP – Charlie
ISTP – Sawyer
ESFP – Hurley
ISFP – Kate/Sun

ENFJ – Locke
INFJ – Richard
ENFP – Libby
INFP – Desmond

ENTJ – Miles
INTJ – Ben
ENTP – Daniel
INTP – Juliette

The NTs were easy for me—each of the characters I chose just seemed to fit the type so perfectly. The only ones I’m not entirely sure about are the ESFJ (Penny/Charlotte) and the ISFP (mostly Kate, although I’m pretty sure about Sun), but the rest all seem to make sense.

A word on introverts and extraverts: introverts aren’t necessarily quieter than extraverts; they just need to process information internally. Sawyer may be a smooth talker, but spends a lot of time in his own head. It’s the same with Jack. Ben usually won’t act unless he’s thought something through (although I know there have been cases where he has).

NFs are typically the most mystically-minded of the archetypes, which places Locke right in the middle of them. It’s pretty clear from his centric episode that Richard is an NF as well. Desmond spends a lot of time on the brink, so we don’t really get to see the apprehension typical of most INFPs, but I’m pretty sure that’s what he is.

Claire doesn’t get a personality because she’s really more of a plot device than a character.

And if you’re wondering, the Man in Black is obviously another INTJ. Not as sure on Jacob, but he might be another ISTJ.

Anyway, that’s my take. I know there are a lot of characters I didn’t place, but I figured this was enough to complete the analogy. Thoughts?

But not like any acoustic music you probably listen to. Allow me to introduce Rodrigo y Gabriella.

I listened to their album a bit and I couldn’t really wrap my mind around how in the hell Gabriella was strumming so fast. Even after watching this video, I have no idea how she’s doing it.

Anyway, apparently, both of them met while playing in a speed metal band (think Slipknot) in Mexico City, and decided to do an acoustic version of that with some Spanish guitar influences, and this is what they wound up with. They actually do covers of Metallica songs and other metal songs in their shows. This is crazy awesome music, folks.

Wouldn’t you know it, I scheduled some time off today and then got sick. A little backwards, I know. It’s some sinus and throat thing that I think I caught from the people in the cube next to me at work. Anyway, I don’t really feel like leaving the house right now, so I flipped through the on-demand movies on our DVR and discovered, much to my delight, that they were showing the movie Hackers. It’s actually a terrible movie, but it puts together two of my absolutely favorite things: computer geekery and Angelina Jolie. Yes, you read that right: Angelina Jolie as a hacker.

I saw this movie in theaters when I was 14. Even at 14, I knew that all of the actual hacking in the movie was complete bullshit, and I didn’t even think the movie was all that good. Here’s a sample clip that pretty much sets the tone for the entire movie:

The plot is basically that an evil corporate hacker has created a virus and infected his own company with it. The virus holds the power to capsize oil tankers and spill their oil all over the ocean. (I can’t make this stuff up.) The virus is actually a cover-up for a worm that he created that skims a few cents off of each transaction his company (a bank) makes and puts it into an off-shores account in the Bahamas. He needs the virus, apparently, so some other hacker can take the fall for it. This is a Captain Planet level of cheesy evilness. (Remember when that Captain Planet villain went back in time to sell a nuke to Hitler? That’s what I’m talking about.)

But there were two things I pulled away from this movie:

• The preferred mode of transportation for hackers is rollerblades. Hackers rollerblade all over the place, including subway stations and high school. Unfortunately, every time I put on skates of any kind, I end up with a bloody face. Status: fail!
• Hackers are destined to fall in love with Angelina Jolie. Status: check!

Just for the record, I should point out that I’ve never done any real hacking. I broke into the display computers at Wal-Mart a few times, but really, who hasn’t?

I’m a big fan of recycling—I recycle cans, cardboard, old computers, postal stamps, and mouthwash—but when it comes to recycling my childhood memories, that’s where I draw the line!

If you don’t know, Disney re-used a lot of their animated sequences in a lot of their earlier movies. I don’t just mean that they re-used the same ideas or storyboards. They re-used the same animations and painted over the old characters. If you haven’t seen these before, they will blow your mind. So, prepare yourself… for recycled Disney animation!

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