nbell1's Guestbook

Date: 11th December 2008

communities
natham, this is great. so interesting and, as catie said, brings up so many issues. this was exactly what i struggled with after coming back from india...suddenly surrounded by people in their cars with the windows rolled up, who won't make eye contact with you in the street, automated check-machines, even just having so much space in our houses here. i read a study that said the reason that so many people remember college as the best years of their life is because those were the 4 years they lived the way, deep down, we want to live - in a close community, surrounded by each other all the time. an awesome book that looks at this issue in the context of environmental sustainability is Bill McKibben's 'Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future' keep up the good work. see you soon!

From Blog: Essay "Loss of Contact"

Date: 27th September 2008

Soccer-Football
Gosh Nathan, In this piece you write with a fluidity which I do not think that I have encountered before in your writing. Your passion and grace are moving and I "almost" feel like kicking a ball around the backyard so that I too would be accepted in a pick-up game in Memorial park. This is an inspiring next step in your journey. Love, Mom

From Blog: Little journal entry about soccer and writing for Public Essay

Date: 1st August 2008

Get It Up
Nathan, Nicely done! As an extrovert I've always been intrigued by those that have hang-ups about strangers. Your essay covers this topic well, with some good insight into people's personal spaces and how they conceive their "buffer zones". As an Elevator Constructor, I'm constantly amazed at the inherent fear attached to elevators. The Hollywood vision of an elevator plummeting 40 floors at 100 mph is bad cliche and, due to modern (being in the last 125 years or so) safety mechanisms and regulatory-body mandated safety inspections, not likely at all. Like your research shows, vertical transportation is a very safe way to travel. The multiple and redundant safety features and circuits make today's elevator a safe and reliable ride. If there is a mechanical malfunction or a value out of parameter in an electronic circuit the elevator will fault-out and shut down. This is a good thing. In the worst-case scenario I'm in an entrapment (the elevator is faulted out for some reason or other and has stopped at whatever point it is at in the hoistway) like Mr. Chen. The logical thing to do is not to panic, but to assess the particular car that I find myself temporarily inconvenienced in for which corner I might need to avail myself of if the duration of my stay requires it and then have a seat. Maybe take a nap like Mr. Chen. DO NOT attempt to escape the car ala Bruce Willis with two guns blazing as you leap through the "escape" door. This is in actuality an access hatch for service and depending on local regulations may be locked. This is where people get seriously hurt or seriously dead as the elevator may run on automatic at any time and will not even care that a flimsy human hero is scaling the hoistway wall adjacent to the car on its way for help. Take a break and wait. If you're lucky you might be on the clock like our Mr. Chen. Life has it's ups and downs- Enjoy the ride! The International Union Of Elevator Constructors - Local 133 - Austin, Texas "We Bring You Up When You're Down"

From Blog: Elevators

Date: 8th May 2008


Wow! Your mom was right. You love(d) baseball! I see the same diligence with your writing. Maybe one day you can be a major league writer. Just don't wear our your wrists. Nice piece Nate. ps. To all other readers... I hit the curve!

From Blog: Essay about my youth playing baseball

Date: 6th May 2008


I enjoyed your essay. I was in Gokarna briefly last year and the memories came flooding back. I even bought a necklace from a very friendly Tamil family - maybe the same people. If I had a criticism, it would be that your take on events could come across as a little smug. Your greater understanding of the real India, the effortless way in which you converse with and delight the stallholders, the intolerance of the hippies - I'm not saying these recollections aren't true, but a little more modesty might warm the reader to the story. I also thought it was a bit misleading to suggest that the hippies were quite so dominant. As I remember it, a large proportion of the tourists are Hindus from elsewhere in India visiting because of Gokarna's religious significance.

From Blog: Personal Essay/story of Gokarna

Date: 1st April 2008

wow
Nate, you made me tear up and hold back crying. What an amazing piece you've written. Thank you for sharing!

From Blog: NY Times Modern Love college Essay competition

Date: 29th February 2008


Wow. This is really really good. The emotions of the characters are visceral and powerful without being melodramatic. Email me a copy if you want me to make a couple suggestions for line edits. Holla! Your writing is getting mad good kid.

From Blog: Story for fiction

Date: 26th February 2008

Fire
Son, shit is fire. Here's what I've noticed since I've been at school- I use some Yackisms, but def not as often as when I'm chillin at home and especially not as often as when I'm chillin with you, Em, and Shane. Remember when we were in Spain? We went OD on the Yackisms, using at least two per sentence. Part of it was being with close friends from the same hometown, but part of it was that we were in a place where most people weren't gonna understand us anyway, so we were free to speak our basterdized yackspeak. I remember Shane sayin he used to drop yack vocab on heads when he was up at Vermont, but I wonder how thick your yack speak would be if you and Emi, and now Shane, had all gone to different schools. I'm not sayin I completely stop talkin like a yackhead when I'm at school, and sometimes my friends even pick up on ish, like refering to a friend as "my boy". It sounded maaad funny when my preppy friend Dave leaned over to me at a party when I had a friend visiting and said, "I like your boy." In yack speak, it would have been prudent to add "no mo", or something along those lines. Anyway, I've noticed that I'll only drop a yack word every once in a while, and definitely not two or three times a sentence when I'm at school. So my question to you is, if you and Em had gone to different schools, do you think you would use the yackilect as often as you do? Holla atcha boy.

From Blog: Essay on Nyack language

Date: 25th January 2008


Fantastic story Gnat! and very cute. I agree with Tad that it was somewhat heard to read in the format presented, I lost my place a couple of times and such.... but overall a real pleasure to read. There were a couple of sports (literally 2 I think) where I believe there were typos: a what that should've been a that and..... dammit I can't remember the other one. thanks for the great entertainment. sending <3 <3 <3

From Blog: Short story I wrote over break

Date: 4th December 2007


i really like the first one; the lines are really well chosen to tell the story, but incompletely. it's really hard to say what someone would say if they didn't already know the story... maybe ill introduce it to one

From Blog: Two Poems

Date: 8th November 2007

2 comments
Looks like I'm currently your biggest blogfan Nata. I have two comments- 1- Different civilizations/cultures/socities (whatever you want to call it) have different approaches to learning. The most interesting cleavage in approach, in my opinion, is between Western (European) and Eastern (Chinese) civilizations. In the West, the traditional approach is to introduce the student to a wide range of knoweldge, and gradually allow them to specialize based on their particular skills and interests. This is evident K-12, as we are required to take Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Gym, etc etc. To a lesser extent, this is also the case in college, where most schools require students to complete core courses outside their chosen major. The image one could draw of this style is a pyramid, starting with a base of general knowledge, and then narrowing as the student persues a specific interest. In ancient China, the approach was signficantly different. A student was allowed to chose a subject based upon their personal interests right from the begining. The theory held that exploring this topic would introduce the pupil to other, related topics, and the student would naturally gravitate to these subjects in order to compliment and support their core subject. The image here would be of a spiral, starting at a signal point and growing wider and wider as the student developed mentally. This leads me to my second point, related to what you said of incentive. My first semester at college, the adviser who 'helped' make my schedule 'encouraged' me to take core classes (a math course, a science course, a diversity credit art history course, and a study skills course) completely unrelated to my government and politics major. There was a lot of other issues going on that semester, but suffice to say I did terribly in my four non-major courses, and grabbed an A in my gov class. Compare that doleful semester to the one I had last spring. I took five history and goverment courses, all of which related to one another in some demension. My Political Theory class could be applied to my Dictators of Latin America course; my history of Mexico could be applied to my history of Latin America course, and so on. I chose courses that interested me, courses which were engaging and interrelated. I was able to use concepts and information I had learned in one class in a paper or on a test in another. This was extremely helpful. Of course I worked much harder, was more focused, and happier last semester than my first at college, and all these factors contributed to my improvement as well. Suffice to say I went to work. Holler atcha boy. And expect long comments from me from now on. If I've gotta read your long ass blogs, you're gonna hafta read my long ass comments. Peace. Owen

From Blog: Musings and an Essay on Grades

Date: 30th March 2007

awed
Dear Nate, your chapter on community gave me the chills. It is so well-written and so sincerely from the heart. You have put a lot of thought into this work. I am humbled by your beautiful writing. Thanks so much for sending it to me. I saw a few very small editing issues. Love you so much, Mom

From Blog: Next Chapter