Mike Oren.com

Bridge to Terabithia is one of the saddest movies I've seen in awhile, even with the softened ending (the sad part comes several minutes before the end, and there's no allusion to Jess having throat cancer). But that's fitting since it's one of the saddest stories I've ever read, so sad that even though I don't think I've read the book since elementary school, I remembered exactly how Leslie died and Jess's reaction to her death... It's a story that I feel anybody with even an ounce of creativity (so pretty much everybody) can relate to and the loss just has this cold reality to it that is made all the harsher when contrasted with the imaginary world the children make up. I'll admit that my eyes starting watering while watching the movie when the water level of the river was rising, since I knew the cruel fate that would await. Then when Leslie died, I really couldn't stop from crying (so probably a good thing I was watching it alone, and next to some tissue). The power of that moment is just incredible, and I feel it's made more incredible by my remembering my own made up worlds of my youth (hell, as a hobbyist writer, I still have imaginary worlds), and I saw Leslie's death not so much as a death of an individual but as the death of this great imaginative passion--this creative power. It's a powerful tragedy, for me at least.

Now that that's out of my system (I just finished watching the movie, I bought it today, and I'll probably cry every time I watch it...), I'll get back to some updates. So, I don't think I mentioned this before, but besides Google's much hyped Tech Talks, they also have this wonderful program called Authors@Google, where they invite authors who have recently published a book to come speak, sometimes they are non-fiction writers discussing current events, but on other occasions they are creative writers (oh, and Google is also kind enough to purchase some books which they give out to employees attending the talks on a first come, first serve basis)--I'm not quite sure why this isn't hyped up more, as I think it's awesome that they aren't just enabling employees to improve their technical knowledge, but also allowing employees exposure to the humanities (which more often than not are ignored by those in tech/sciences). This past week Aimee Bender came and did a reading from her book Willful Creatures, which is her collection of short stories (described by the New York Times as "contemporary fantasy"). Her writing style is fairly typical of modern American short story writers (I describe this modern style as "prosaic poetry", with its short Hemingway inspired sentences and the vivid imagery and heavy use of similes and metaphors traditionally associated with poetry). However, Bender differs from most contemporary short story writers (especially those who elevate writing to its highest levels) in that she has an imagination. She doesn't try to do realistic short stories, she delves into the creative depths of her imagination and paints pictures of worlds, exploring ideas and paths. She is one of the few modern writers I have found whose stories are idea driven, rather than character driven, and yet she still manages to breath incredible depth into her characters. That's not to say I think she's a phenomenal writer, I don't--I think she's a fairly good writer, but not particularly exceptional. However, in the realm of the modern short story, she is a bold and refreshing change from the typical stuffy academia inspired realism that has all but destroyed the short story for modern readers. As such, I highly recommend picking up Willful Creatures both as a way of supporting this divergence in short story writing as well as to have a nice enjoyable read that can be done in short bursts (15 short stories, that can be read fairly easily during the daily commute--assuming you're not driving, that is).

I've continued being busy on weekends--last weekend I took a trip to Big Basin (a state park), where I walked around and enjoyed the fresh air. Then last Sunday I threw a Wii party where roughly 20 people showed up, so good times were had by all (and it wasn't all video games--I played some Fluxx, which is an incredibly fun card game made by Looney Labs). Then this past weekend, I went to 2 movies (Ocean's 13 and Nancy Drew--one was technically Thursday night), plus I went to Monterey where I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and then had dinner over in Carmel. Monterey Bay Aquarium was fun, smaller than I had thought since I had heard it was one of the best aquariums in the world and such, but it was a good time (and one of the interns I was with took over 270 pictures...) I didn't even bring my camera (and I really wouldn't have been able to get any pictures to turn out with my camera given the lighting conditions at the aquarium). It was a great trip though, and then a couple of us watch Moulin Rouge when we got back (I was playing on the songs on my MP3 player as we drove in, and I hadn't seen it in a long time, so I figured it was as good a time as any to watch it again). I've learned that I now have most of the songs memorized, which I'm told is impressive, but most of the people I know have a decent number of them memorized (I think), so I'm not sure it's really all that impressive...

Some other news, is that one of my very good friends from DePauw sent me a box of delicious food about 2 weeks ago (brownies, grape jelly--made from Indiana grapes, and Indiana honey). Very thoughtful and very nice--needless to say I'm trying to find something nice to send her as a thank you (either something Californian or perhaps some nice Google t-shirt or something). So I'll have to look into that. I also still owe another DePauw friend (from Nepal) a t-shirt because he was awesome and brought me back a hemp bag and Nepali t-shirt when he visited last summer. So I should really get on top of that ASAP.

posted by Mike Oren  # 10:36 PM 0 comments links to this post

I'm hopefully going to be returning to weekly (or at least bi-weekly) posts again and this post is an attempt to return my postings to their regular scheduled intervals. There is no news to report this week, since as I've stated I am not going to be writing about work. The only events that occurred since my last post was the fact that Danielle and I have now both come to the conclusion that our relationship is effectively dead (we have conflicting life goals and seem unable to compromise on them). This has been expected by me for quite some time, so it's not really news. Expect a change to my border design sometime in the near future. And then yesterday I help organize a birthday party for a fellow Google intern who had just turned 19, so a small group of us saw what we could of the sunrise over the Golden Gate Bridge (couldn't see much due to the fog, bt it was fun), went go karting, had a guava cake (which was pretty good--apparently I did a good job finding a fairly good baker with interesting fruit type cakes in such a short notice; I had just found out about her birthday a little over a week before), and we all saw a movie (Knocked Up) and had dinner. It was a pretty fun/interesting day, but no really good stories for me to tell.

Lately though, I have been bothered by questions that for the longest time I've always known the answers to; however, lately I haven't been finding the answers. Namely the question of: what next. I have always had some type of goal to shoot for, but lately I have found that I've been reaching most of my goals. While some people might be happy with that, for me reaching a goal is only a transient pleasure--deserving of a golf clap or a pat on the back. The fun is in the pursuit and reaching constantly higher--striving toward self improvement and goals that seem unattainable. Then there is also the issue of relationships--I don't want to waste another 4 years in a relationship that ends up going nowhere (plus I feel I'm less physically attractive now than I was 4 years ago--although now I'm much more confident and more social than I was 4 years ago, so it might balance out). Plus, while I used to enjoy random flirting and random dates (random meaning both spontaneous as well with random people I've never really met) the appeal of these things just aren't there as much for me. I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner rather than later but until then, these are the thoughts that have been racking my brain as of late.

UPDATE: I have a new short story posted on my former blogspot page. I will try to periodically create new works of short fiction for my blogspot page every so often. I will also probably integrate those posts into my writing space sometime in the near future.

posted by Mike Oren  # 1:43 PM 0 comments links to this post

So it's been quite a bit since my last update (roughly 4 weeks or more). Since then, lots of things have happened... The day before I moved out of my apartment in Iowa for the summer, I found a subleaser (hurray!) so that meant I am losing less money than I was fearing I would lose from my apartment. The next big event after that was my drive out to California, which was uneventful and (sadly) a very dull drive in general (not as much scenery taking the northern route to California as there was in the southern route). My apartment out here is sort of small, but it's in good condition and I can't really complain for the price I'm paying (relative to the other housing in the area). I also started my internship at Google, which I won't get into the details of other than to say I'm enjoying it, it's presenting me with some interesting new challenges, and the food is great. The only other thing I'll say about it is that on week two of my internship I ended up going out to the New York City office for a week, which was a very interesting week in terms of work, but it also gave me a chance to see Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Plaza, and the Nintendo World Store (where I bought some souvenirs).

The day after I returned from New York, I attempted to go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom with a group of 7 other interns. Apparently this was a mistake on Memorial Day weekend as the traffic quickly made us decide to change our plans. We ended up going to Napa Valley instead, where I had the chance to do a wine tasting (for future reference, go to Sonoma Valley for tasting where it's less expensive and not as crowded) and I also bought two bottles of wine from Mumm's (a Cuvee M Red and some sparkling rose wine that I don't recall the name of). On the drive back, I somehow managed to take the long route, which turned our 1.5 hour drive into 4 hours... We'll just call it an adventure.

The weekend after that (this past weekend), I ended up finally making it out to Six Flags, which was fun but there really aren't nearly enough "good" coasters there. The only one that was really more than a yawn was the Medusa ride (where we got the front row), but that was still a lot tamer than a lot of other rides I've been on. It was still a fun trip though, and I got to see a dolphin show and a killer whale show. I wouldn't recommend it for anybody who has to pay full price (we got tickets using a discount and for that it was worth it). We had another little adventure when we were leaving the park a I had forgotten where I parked the car... So we spent maybe 20-30 minutes looking for it with me walking down the rows of cars hitting the panic button (incidentally, the panic button doesn't work on that key... good to know for future reference...)

On Sunday I took a trip out to Muir Woods with 13 other interns and one new full time person. We hiked about four miles, which was fun and more or less manageable for me despite my being out of shape (I had no problem with the majority of the hike, but for whatever reason, I found it VERY difficult to go up steep slopes... it caused discomfort in my lower back and such...) But I wasn't sore the day after, so it wasn't that much of a work out. And it was a fun trip, but no adventure that time (I didn't lose my keys, get lost, lose my car, lose anybody I was responsible for driving or anything else of that matter... what fun is that? On the plus side, I wasn't the responsible one... it was a person who had ridden in my car for the last 2 trips and had apparently learned not to trust my driving...)

I've also made a commitment to not necessarily eat "healthier", but at the very least eat less (although I do plan on trying to eat healthier... but I'm not applying that rule to desserts--Google has great desserts...) I also have one of my goals for the summer to work out at least once per week (so I'm not just using the cafes, but I'm using the gym as well). And I did, in fact, go to Google early this morning and worked out for about an hour (good for me).

So I've been having fun and work has been going well (and I've been enjoying it). And, yes, I am still alive (in case anybody was worried).

The thing that hasn't been going well is my relationship with Danielle. Some of you know the long story behind it and some of you don't. I have no plans on getting into it at the moment. But to boil the current situation down to a nutshell--all relationships have one of two ways to go: long term commitment or a break up. The plan up until 3 months or so ago was leaning much more toward the first option, but for the past 3 months it has been moving closer and closer to the second option. I am very tired of this situation that has lasted for well over a year now and thus at this point I have more or less given up on it until she figures things out or whatever. It is now on a very thin line that can very easily be snapped by one of many potential future occurrences. We shall see how it ends though (I say we because I see myself more as an observer at this point than a participant in the events, and more out of being okay with either ending than feeling it's out of my control--I could easily preserve the relationship if I really wanted to, but there are two problems with that: 1. because of how things have been lately, I'm not sure I WANT to do that; and 2. a relationship that's lasted four years with still no future isn't really worth holding on to).

So there you have it, the short and sweet of what I've been up to lately (mostly just short and sweet because there's so much I could write about that I don't have the time to write about it all).

posted by Mike Oren  # 10:45 PM 0 comments links to this post