This will be my last post from Amsterdam. Perhaps the less astute readers (readers? Hah!) will notice that it is also the first. Hopefully we can gloss over this unfortunate fact. There's something about the....let's call it the áir....in Amsterdam that makes you just want to wander around and really do nothing at all. Also, the computer I'm at has this sick coin slot that wirelessly broadcasts the fact that you have added coins to a computer locked under the desk. I wonder if the guy who owns the bar, or maybe a friend of his, built it from scratch. Anyways, we'll chalk it up to the fact that this was more of an exploratory journey, and that I will be returning to Amsterdam sometime in the future, with big ideas for a Google my map.

I had a very sad dream the other night that my sister wanted to tell me something but then chickened out at the last minute. It made me think about my relationship with my parents and my family and feel a little sad about the fact that I'm not closer. In fact, if they are reading this, it will be their first clue that I'm in Amsterdam at all. The trip was booked partially as a "Fuck it, I don't need to ask my parents' permission to go to another country. I'm 22 years old and I can book the flight and hotel myself" kind of experience.

And then last night, I dreamt about a teacher I had in high school that I wasn't particularly fond of. It was the second day of class, and our assignment had something to do with baking in various shapes. I had gotten very angry with her, because she had assigned the first chapter of our vocabulary book which was filled with nothing but shameless self promotion for the previous book in the series. Questions were something like "What would you say you have learned so far from our vocabulary book series?" and then a multiple choice response with presumably only one correct answer.

Of course, everyone says this, but it makes me really consider and appreciate the importance of good teachers at both the secondary and post-secondary level. And I definitely think that WPI has some damn decent ones. I mean the teacher has to sort through maybe a hundred years of kruft that has accumulated around their given subject, and somehow condense it into a 50 minute lecture that is relevant to students of today. I definitely see myself teaching someday, though probably not until after I've retired.

You know, I think that even if no one is reading (And obviously there's some really skeetchy geeky MIT girl who is...), it is important to write down one's thoughts each day. Keep the old brain working, and make sure that you manage to actually have some thoughts. I'm really going to try to post to the blog everyday, and hopefully post musical ideas every couple days or so. AND, I've decided to try and write a five paragraph essay each week on a subject of my choosing. This week's topic is: "Given his miserable and abused upbringing, explain why Harry Potter isn't more of an asshole."

Also, the teacher that I was thinking of in High School reminds me a lot of Professor Snape. And my piano teacher's surname is Snape, so as I've told him previously, he has a lot riding on whether or not Snape turns out to be a good guy or a bad guy in the 7th book. Though I hear that Rowling has said she is going to kill off Harry Potter so that people can't write him after she's gone. Cool idea.

If a blog gets posted in a forest and no one is around to read it...does it really exist? I suppose there is some statistic I could read to see how many visitors I actually have. But it would be tainted, because a long time ago I realized that I had become a target for spammers. So all of my visits are actually spam bots trying to post their viagra and porn ads.

Quite honestly, that is REALLY depressing...

I thought about it tonight, and I realize that I have an RPG driven view of life. Like, I'm supposed to be somehow 'levelling up' my stats in various skill areas. And generally, in my life, the thought that I wasn't doing so would drive me nuts. I think the major stats are things like "musical ability", "worldliness", "general knowledge", and "contributions to Wikipedia". Subconsciously, I'm pretty sure I've included in these such stats as "Decadence" and "Risk Taking", though I feel like in the last couple summers I may have maxed these out.

I have finally come to the sad realization that these 'stats' are illusory at best. Life plods on, day by day. You can't stop it, you can't change it...so what are you going to do? Minute changes from day to day hardly have a chance of adding up over time...

Actually, today I was contacted by a recruiter at Google and I was very excited at the chance to send her my resume. Seems like they are aggressively hiring at Youtube, and seeking to poach some young Brightcove talent. Seeing as I am the first result for "Travis Briggs", I guess I should start being more careful about what I post on my blog? But honestly, in light of the ideals of 'free speech', 'net neutrality' and general open-ness, I can't really bring myself to censor my posts or color my ideas based on the fact that I want a job at Google.

It's fundamentally wrong to me. And I think that's okay.

Daddy's swimmin in the ocean
Mommy's hangin on the beach
Sister's standin with a boyfriend
Everybody's out of reach

The prime minister is boring
And the president is lame
Now I'm looking out my window
Everybody looks the same

Take a monkey to the office
Put a bunny in a box
Eat an apple in the morning
Make some money selling stocks

When there's purple in the sunset
And there's laughter in the rain
Go and climb the highest mountain
You and I are both insane

--Me

This post is awesomely vulgar, but very, very funny. Please don't think less of me for sharing:

A Playlist For Life's "Special" Moments

If you know why this is funny, then I am proud to have you as a friend of mine, sir (or madam):
http://digg.com/tech_news/unfortunate_placement_of_yahoo_ad