Brian @ MindSay

The MindSay Quick Update: One of MindSay's most forgotten (and nonetheless, somewhat useless) feature MindSay ever came up with since MindSayBot.

Something needs to be done about MindSay's Quick Update feature. There are so much more present participle verbs that can be more useful than "feeling", "thinking", "doing", "watching", "listening to" and definitely "selecting". Don't get me wrong, I can be a heavy user of "watching" or "listening to", since they are the most flexible "quick update" verbs. But come on, "selecting"? That last line in the drop down selection has been changed so many different times, I don't even remember what they had on there in the past.

Before I start this fiasco, wouldn't this Quick Update feature be more usefull if it had a custom "verb to be" and "present participle" option availble in it? What this means is, wouldn't it be great if we can have this feature:

I   am, was, will be          custom                                          (.)(...)(?)(!)(^_^)( o)( o)

And if there's ONE main thing I could ask for about MindSay's Quick Update feature, it would be the ability for that feature to be able to update our calendar plugins.

First of all, does it have to be a present participle? Does the verb have to end in -ing? Remove the verb to be from it and I can certainly use "I felt" or "I thought" or "I will be listening to". The Quick Update feature would be an awesome feature if it was so much more flexible after the "I". You know why? It is because after "I", sometimes, I would rather use a past tense or a future tense for the "verb to be".

Wait, wait... To be continued (w00t Kari Sweet!)



Next on Part 2:

On the next entry, WE will play with what we can do with the Quick Update feature, if it would let us change the "verb to be" to past tense or future tense (considering that we're going to leave the present participle alone):

I am "feeling", "thinking", "doing", "watching", "listening to" and definitely "selecting"
I was "feeling", "thinking", "doing", "watching", "listening to" and definitely "selecting"
I will be "feeling", "thinking", "doing", "watching", "listening to" and definitely "selecting"

Input your thoughts in the comments and the destiny of the MindSay Quick Update parts 2, 3 and 4 might change. An actual change would have to be in the hands of the MindSay Administration team, who never listens.



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Dear MindSay,

Today, I celebrate my fifth "blogaversary", meaning you must have celebrated your fifth birthday very recently as well. What an accomplishment we have both made! For a half-decade, you have provided me the means to vent, network, & document various portions of my life among other things. It has been quite the journey.

Four years ago, I began a personal campaign via yearly New Year's resolutions to essentially straighten up my life in many ways. When I first established my blog, I was in my third year at a great private liberal arts university. I had just returned from study abroad in France where I traveled to phenomenal places that many will never see in their lifetimes. Suddenly, I came to an unexpected, unexplained standstill, and I dropped out of school, not returning to Europe for a few years. You were around for both the highest & the lowest points of my life. You traveled with me across the pond, and you returned with me to the great state of Texas.

Today, I am happy with what I have going. My life is more secure, and I am heaps more mature in many ways. I have returned to Europe once with another tour taking place next month. My mind is healthy, and my relationship dynamic is strongly vibrant. The greatest lesson that I have learned in these last five years is not necessarily to live in the extremes that I once did but to go with the flow that comes in every passing day. While I cannot say that my general improvement was a direct result of any MindSay therapy, I can say that MindSay helped me personally track the improvement for easy reading at a later time. To this day, I link to various past entries for easy reference in my current entries.

I hardly ever write for an audience, but today I will: I want to thank everyone for making this site so great over the past five years, and what good would this post be without a public display of gratitude to Adam, Brian, & Jen for even creating this website? Thanks, guys & gal. Y'all are, in a nutshell, amazing!

Many have come, and many others have gone. Many have terrorised, and many have blessed. Many have listened, and many have spoken. You can bet that I will be around for another five years & more to experience all that this extraordinary site has to offer.

Sincerely,
Andrew

k, so here's the skivvy...
1:  List 10 things you want to say to people, but know you never will.
2:  Don't say who they're about.

ONE:  a lot of times i wish you'd show more affection for me.  i know that things happened in our past, and i know that in a lot of ways, my move to michigan set us way back, but i'm here now.  i'm back.  i am right here beside you screaming inside because i know you'll never understand.  and maybe i won't either.  and i guess one of the things i'll never understand is why we can't just put it behind us and be happy and one and in love.

TWO:  i wish i could be a bigger part of your life.  i wish we could get together more and talk and share and be precious together.  i love that we're so different, but i wish i was more like you all the time...  i wish i was smart like you.  i wish i could write and draw and create like you.  i wish i could be free like you are.  and most of all, a lot of times, i wish we could be together...  but i feel so stuck.  i feel so trapped sometimes and i know it hinders our relationship.  and i'm so sorry for that.

THREE:  i hope your ribs heal soon...  i can't believe how quickly life can change.  it had only been ten or fifteen minutes between our phone calls and all of a sudden, BAM!!  it made me realize how fast things come at us in this life.  it made me think about how much i care for you and how much i wish i could be out there with you to take care of you.  i know i never said it, i know i never really showed it, but i love you.  i always have and you will always hold a special place in my heart.  forever....

FOUR:  sometimes i feel like i could go weeks without calling you and that would be okay..   sometimes when we talk, i get so annoyed and sometimes i just want to hang up.  i feel like you don't know me and like you never really have.  i still hate how you've treated him.  i still hate how you both did.  he is the biggest part of my life and has been for four years (to the day, by the way).  he is more of a man than you'll ever know and he deserves more respect than you show him.  some day he will be the father of my children.  some day he will be more of a father than any of the ones i had and i am so excited for it to happen.  i proved you wrong.  i am happy.  i am whole with him.  and i wish you'd just suck it up and admit you were wrong.

FIVE:  thanks for nothing...  i'll see you in hell.

SIX:  i miss you guys so much and can't believe i'm missing out on the three of you growing up.  i'm sorry if i was a bad sister.  i'm sorry i'm so far away.  but maybe some day you guys can come out here for a visit.  :)

SEVEN:  i saw what you did that night...  i saw you tear apart that ceiling fan when i snuck upstairs to find out what was going on.  i saw you rip off a fan blade and beat the rest of the fan with it.  i heard you yelling and i heard a lot of what you said.  and i'm pretty sure that was one of the most terrifiying nights i've ever been through... i was getting ready to tell the boys we were gonna sneak out the window and go to the neighbor's house to call the cops...  and that's just the beginning...  so,  i can't handle talking to you yet...  but maybe i'll get there some day...  i guess we'll just have to see how it goes...  and p.s.  i'm not coming to vegas to meet you...  and i probably won't be calling any time soon...  sorry.

EIGHT:  i'm not afraid of you any more...  i used to sing along with alanis when she said "soon i'll grow up and i won't even flinch at your name."  i thought i'd never reach this point, but now i have and it feels great.  i hope life is treating you as well as it's been treating me lately.

NINE:  some times i think i've underestimated you.  i've never given you the chance you deserve to shine and be heard and i'm sorry...  but maybe it's not too late?  ...  i will try to fix you.

TEN:  i guess i never really knew you...  but some how, now that i haven't been to church in just about two years or so, i feel closer now to your divinity than ever before.  my ideas about you are changing...  my ideas about life are changing...  and it feels pretty great...  i'm a big fan even though i haven't read all your books...  thanks for watching out for me.  :)

...was pretty darn good.  Good weekend, overall.

Highlights: 

- NY Cares Day.  Met up with a bunch of people at 830 in the morning on Saturday and we traveled to a public school in Brooklyn where we pained a giant black fence, re-did the lines/numbers on the playground, played a SICK game of Red Rover/Blob Tag, and then painted a very long fence completely yellow.  I thought that was foolish, but they asked us to, and we did. Pretty fantastic.  Met some really great, fun people:  Lara, PANTHER (you can call him Patrick), Ramie, Nina... 

- When we were signing IN to NYCD, I was talking to James, our IRHC rep/Community Service dude, and we were discussing how my residence hall really needs judges for the IRHC Talent Show.  So he said, "I'm probably available" and I quipped, "Cool.  Well, if you cant' come, why don't you send the kid I don't like?".  To give back story, there's this boy named Brian who is the VP of IRHC (inter-residence hall council) at NYU.  At the first meeting, when there was confusion about my role, Brian came over and was like 'no, you're wrong.  you need to show up every time and do this, this, and this, or you're going to be in bad-standing'.  Not even, 'Hi, I'm Brian, and no you're wrong bah bah bah'.  Just the mean bitchy part.  So I'm not a fan of Brian.
Anywhoo, James goes, "Who don't you like?" and I said "the VP".
And James says, "Oh, you mean MY BROTHER?"
Not just brother.  His (fraternal) twin brother, apparently.  Good times.  Oh well.  It's not even the worst faux pas I've ever done.  But it WAS a nice source of entertainment.  (I'm thinking at this moment of, "my mom's name is ellen!" even though that's not terrrrible).

- Saturday night, I decided to go to Felix's birthday party at Boss Tweed's.  I figured he was friends with my old roommates, and he was also friends w/ my freshman year floormates, so I had a chance to not only see Felix, but to also see other amazing people.
I ended up getting to see J.D., Eric (Ellen's ex-boyfriend, but sadly, not Ellen b/c it was Derrick's party somewhere), some of their HS friends who were HILARIOUS, and then from the freshman year crowd, Darren, Steve, Joe, Suzi, and Betty...who is going to ANTARCTICA FOR A YEAR.  wowowowowwow.
- The guys I didn't really know were playing beer pong for a while, and then suddenly EVERYONE I was with was like, freaking out, or whispering excitedly to one another.  So my first thought is 'hot chick', and then when Steve was grabbing Darren's arm and making him lean in close, I thought 'hot Asian chick'.  No.  I wouldn't know him from a whole in the wall, but
The Kid from The Sopranos
apparently was what all the fuss was about.  And it got to be an even bigger deal when he decided he wanted to play beer pong with a girl.  I think he inadvertently made these ex-Stuy guys' lives.  Especially when they beat him in 'overtime'.  What is that?

- Sunday, the grad students had a picnic in Central Park.  We didn't go too deeply in as planned, but still fun.  I was on the sack-race team that won (Damian and Tati!! WOo!), and we played a fake version of Steal the Bacon, played some BIG BOOTY, and this fun game where we all had to do a move and then add one of our own.  I think there were EASILY 30 moves before we got down to only one kid left (hey, his name was Felix, too! But not my Felix).

I can't really complain.  Well, I can complain about this paper I'm NOT writing right now, but I can't complain about my weekend.  Coming up this weekend is BON JOVI in concert, a sleep over with Erica, MAYBE going to Julie and Jonathan's Halloween party, and then going to LI to see Lisa and then TO AMY'S house for a party.  Oh wow.  I'm excited to see Amy.  I have to miss both Roaine and Val's parties, but I haven't seen Amy in...more than a year?