Attack of the Revenge of the New Phantom Jedi Strikes Back

Too... Much... Star... Wars...

AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE FOR HOGSWATCH, SMALL HUMAN?

Merry Christmas everybody! And merry every other holiday celebrated at this time of year also!

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

We were supposed to be bad at juggling, but I was bad at juggling because *I wasn't any good at it.*

Marten came to visit me at work at the JC Penney and he JUGGLED THREE PAIRS OF PANTS. It was awesome. Snotty Linda glared at me, and I didn't care because I don't like her.

In speaking of awesome, it's time for some STAR WARS RELATED CHICANERY. I propose December 30 for the saga screening, and I would also like to ask anybody who has Episodes I and II to bring those, because I have them, but I have them in fullscreen, and that's no fun.

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

wake up on a Lazy Sunday in midafternoon

YOU MUST WATCH THIS

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

On behalf of the Square Guild, we welcome you to Metric Land. Are you a good geometer, or a bad geometer? ~Triangle & Robert

Opening night went incredibly well. Yeah, pyro got messed up a couple times, but the mere fact that we had pyro in a high school production was basically awesome, aside from the fact that it had the audience coughing half the time. Ms. Fischer likened it to Putin smoking out the Chechnian rebels. MY SPEARS DIDN'T BREAK! [And the non-sequiter award of the year goes to... --Michael] I made spears for the winkies(yo hee ho, yo ho), and they have all been broken at least three times each, and I am really tired of fixing them. I got an applause for my Coroner thing, which was pretty awesome. I guess I'm a really good munchkin. This kind of worries me, and sort of brings me back to freshman year when I was good at being that annoying Undersoll character. Oh well, at least I know that I rock no matter what character I'm playing. Hey, everyone, come see the show. It's good and stuff. Sorry about such a short post, but I'm so tired I could kill something out of fatigue.

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

Probably guilty of contravening the Being Bloody Stupid Act of 1581

Hey, I have posted a holiday offering on Notebook. Go, read, and learn to love Gilgamesh. Please?

I am now going to relate the story of The Stupidest Thing I Have Ever Seen.

Sit back, kiddies. This is a good one.

So, my roommate (for want of a better word; our rooms are separated by a sheet, but we share a bathroom)has in the past mixed water with electricity. The building where I live has a "hot tub," by which I mean a small inflatable pool filled with hot water, out front. I've never gotten in, because it strikes me as a bit manky. But my roommate is a big fan. She has in the past, with friends, played video games from within the hot tub. Yes. That's right. To which I responded, "Well... that sounds safe."

But in any case, the other night I come back from the ADPi house, and the first thing I notice is that the TV in the common room is no longer in the common room. This is a fairly big TV, and it's not like it could have gotten up and walked away. Still, I do not think much of it, just that it's inconvenient to anyone who might have wanted to watch a movie out there. Anyway, I come into my room and I pass by the bathroom door, and there are multiple sounds issuing from within: 1) running water, 2) male and female voices, 3) music, 4) a TV.

O...kay, I think. Well, I certainly don't want to go in there; God only knows what they're doing. I go and get on my computer for a few hours and try to ignore them. During this time, the roommate comes out briefly and, while her clothes are wet, they are definitely on her, which makes me feel slightly better. It gets pretty late. I put on my pajamas and prepare to go to bed. But I can't get into the bathroom to brush me teeth or anything, because they're still in there. This, I convince myself, would not be such a huge problem, I could go one night without brushing my teeth, no big deal. I should just go to bed. Only I can't, because now I have to pee.

They have to come out of there eventually, I think. They just have to. I mean, it's FINALS WEEK, for goodness sakes. But they don't. More time passes. I actually seriously consider my other bathroom options. Save crossing the street, there really are none, because every sane person in the building is asleep. Okay, I just have to go over there and knock, and ask to use the bathroom. MY bathroom, dammit. So, at 2 in the morning, I do.

"Oh, sorry, do you want us to turn the music down?" roomie asks.

"Um, no, that's okay, but I... I'd kind of like to use the bathroom?"

They, very accomodating, leave. The sight that I behold... well, I'm going to try to provide a diagram here, because it is quite hard to describe without.

Basically, the TV, on its table stand, is in the room, but it barely fits, so it is pushed right up against the toilet. I can barely open the door. There are video game controllers attached to the TV. Now, the shower/tub in our room has a little seat on the end because it is meant to be handicap-accessible. So, they had been sitting on this seat playing video games, and the tub is filled with water. They had been sitting on this seat with their feet in the water or even sitting in the water itself playing video games. And balanced on top of the sink? Is a boom box. There are power cords trailing all over the floor. I look around and I say to myself, "Wow. This may very well be the single stupidest thing I have ever seen."




Why would someone do this, you ask?

Clearly, these people want to be electrocuted. It's the only explanation.

And it didn't even occur to them that I might have to use the bathroom. Because it's not like that's what the bathroom's actually for, or anything. So I have to move all of this stuff around and in the morning my first thought is, "I wonder if they got electrocuted or not?" and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of probably the stupidest thing I have ever seen. The end.



I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

Lament of the Serial Monogamist

I haven't written about my own romantic issues for a while now, but I can't sleep and I'm worried, so please indulge me. I've been thinking a lot, and it seems like in a few months I'll be headed into a no-win situation. On the one hand, I can't leave Amy. I love everything about her. When I broke up with Ashley I thought I'd never have another relationship like that and I found Amy almost immediatly. I went from a nine-month relationship into a year-and-still-going-strong one within three months. I've gotten luckier twice than most people, especially people my age, have gotten even once. I think trying for a third time would be pushing my luck.
But maybe it isn't luck. Maybe I just attract really great women. Maybe the next one will be even better. Or maybe I attract the same kind of women as other guys but then delude myself into thinking they're perfect and trick myself into being happy and that's why all my relationships are so long-term. Or maybe I've just been reading too much Ibsen. I don't know.
Anyway, on the other hand, I really don't want to have a long-distance relationship with a High-school student when I'm in college. I think it would keep me from really experiencing my college years and making the most of them to have an obligation like that. I think I could live with it if it were just 1 year, but there's no chance we'll be at the same college and almost no chance we'll be in the same state. I might even be ok with four years, but Amy wants to go to Med school which is at least eight if not more. And I don't think I could wait nine years even for her.
So that was rambly. But its what's been bothering me. Thank you for reading it, if you did. If you didn't I don't blame you. I think I'm gonna go back to bed and try to sleep now.

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

Dance of the Cucumber

So, two things happened last night worth reporting. First off, Narnia rocked! At first they were trying to be Lord of the Rings, but then they realized you can't be Lord of the Rings with talking animals and it becames it's own brand of fantasy, more serious than Shrek, but more light-hearted than LotR. The kids were very talented and the special effects were amazing. Most impressive were the CGI animal characters who managed (with the notable exception of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver) to be serious characters and not pure comic relief, despite the fact that they were talking animals. And there was a random rhinoceros, which was awesome.
Thing number two: I got accepted to Hanover! I'm still apply to Drew and Wooster, but now I know at least if I don't get into either of them, I'll have a place to go. And I might go there anyway, since they're offering me money, and they have lots of theatre and writing and Erin.
In other news, everything was cancelled on account of snow, including things that wouldn't have happened anyway. And Amy is apparently allergic to Nickel, which means I can't buy her any earrings that aren't pure gold or silver, which means I need to find her a new christmas present. But at least I found out now instead of three weeks from now.
And no, the title has nothing to do with the post.

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

Tell Me On a Sunday

Well, I hate to continue the string of emo-angsty postings here, but I have to break the news that I no longer have a boyfriend. He broke up with me last Sunday night. On the internet. At two in the morning. While I was finishing the 15-page paper I'd been working on all day.
This is how it happened. We were talking online, and I was being rather cute. He suggested that we both skip medieval lit, I said I couldn't do that to Dominique, he said it wasn't like he was asking me to kill her firstborn child, I said I'd never kill Perry, he said he didn't know why he even bothered, and I concurred. But then the conversation turned, as our conversations have the horrible tendency to do, when he takes something the wrong way or some offhand comment I make makes him start to Think About Our Relationship, and then we have to Talk About Our Relationship. It's really annoying. Or was, rather. He's all, "I never get to see you anymore." I said, "I know, I'm sorry." He said, "I feel like we're not even together romantically anymore." I said, "I know," because I did know. He was absolutely right. We never saw each other outside of class and lunch because things are crazy, but we never really made the extra effor to, either. I agreed, but at the same time I was thinking, in a sort of bemused way, "Is he about to break up with me on the internet? Seriously?"
He said, "I feel like our interests are diverging more than ever," which I take to mean that I'm on a Pride and Prejudice kick and he's absolutely obsessed with the new Prince of Persia game. He said, "I wonder if we should be even trying to have a relationship with all the" blah blah blah or something, I forget. I said, "What do you want me to do? It's not my fault that school is crazy right now, it's not my fault it's dead week" and he added Gideon, the upcoming play to that list of things, and then said something like "With all this stuff going on and [blah blah blah] maybe we should just be friends." And I was a little relieved, I'll admit, and in agreement, and sad, too, and my answer was "You're probably right. I gues." I was really sad about it, but he was right. But my initial mental reaction was an extremely bemused, "Oh my God, he totally did. He totally just broke up with me ON THE INTERNET. At TWO O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. While I'm trying to finish the FIFTEEN-PAGE PAPER I've been working on all day. And he KNEW THAT." And then I started to become indignant and angry.
And THEN he went and said that he knew the internet was not a great place to break up, but that was "the only place" he talked to me anymore. And then my thoughts were, OH MY GOD, we see each other at least twice a day at least three days a week, you asshat, bite me. But I decided to remain silent. After a pause, he said, "Are you hating me right now?" And I answered, truthfully, "I don't hate you, but I'm not very happy with you. I would really just like to finish my paper and not talk about this." Because I knew that if I let myself get all worked up about this, that paper was never getting done, and it was due the next day, and it was already 2:00 am.
AND THEN! He decided that for some reason, even though he had broken up with me in a most offensive way, he seemed to feel that he was entitled to turn this into a personal attack ON ME. I mean, at this point, if anyone was entitled to make a personal attack, it was me. But I was trying to be cool about it. But he says, "And that's another thing." Y'all, nothing good ever begins with "and that's another thing." "I finally realized that your schoolwork will always be the most important thing in your life." And I really, really wanted to slap him across the face ala When Harry Met Sally and say, "FUCK YOU!" but I didn't. But that was a really unjust, unfair accusation which he made just because he's a slacker and never does anything and I actually care about my education, which he tries to skew into a bad thing. So I'm sitting there seething and trying to figure out something more eloquent to say, when he says, "And that will never leave any room for a romantic life." And that was when I lost it. I just said, "You know what. Shut the fuck up."
He then has the nerve to say, "I don't mean to make you upset." At this point I didn't even think about it, I put down exactly what I felt and wanted to say, which was, "Then maybe you shouldn't have broken up with me on the internet at two in the morning while I'm trying to write the paper I've been working on all day. Now leave me alone." Which he did, save for a "Sorry, goodnight" a while later.
The next day, I got an email from him. Here are the highlights: "I just don't feel the same about us anymore," "if you want to talk, about this or anything else, email back or IM or call or come over or whatever." Gee, thanks. Okay, so it was a fine email and all, but it definitely doesn't make up for the night before, and I still haven't answered it. I'm debating whether to answer it with, "I would like my copy of Wyrd Sisters back please" or explain the reason I am angry and then, "PS I would like my copy of Wyrd Sisters back."
Anyway, now it's really awkward to see him, and I kind of miss him but mostly the idea of him, and I'm scared that it will be five more years before another guy likes me.
Sorry to drag out all of the details, but it's a nice form of catharsis. You may now go back to your regularly scheduled lives.

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

the only difference is what might be, is what i'll do (Outsiders)

I won't lengthen the page but I did a quiz.


I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

but i just don't know, What You Meant

So I'm done feeling sorry for myself. I'm just going to be me, and stop complaining about it. I'm a decent human being. I'm just not satisfied. And to want is to be man. So right now, I want to become an Indie Music Snob. I'm getting there I think.

-I'm reading a lot of reviews.
-I'm listening to a lot of music you've never heard of.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Wolf Parade
Animal Collective
Sleater-Kinney
Deerhoof
The Mountain Goats
Bright Eyes
Bloc Party
Bear vs Shark
Broken Social Scene
Modest Mouse
Franz Ferdinand
(Well you might have heard of the last two but I bet you haven't heard any of their songs other than Take Me Out and Float On. See got you.)
- I'm reading Questionable Content.
- I talk about music on pompous forums.
- I dislike bands that shamelessly try to make money. *COUGH*
- I'm likely to say, "That band was so much better before [insert breakthrough popular record.]"

I think it suits me. I'm having a lot of fun listening to music and can't wait till I have enough money to buy an iPod. Come on Christmas money.


I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

I think you broke Haley ~Order of the Stick

I broke Kaylee. I suck. I am exactly as bad as that other guy. Well, fuck. Maybe I'll just be an asshole from now on. What the fuck else was I supposed to do? I knew the only way this could possibly end was with her hating me, and now I can't even live with myself. I told myself I'd never do something like this and I did anyway. I gave myself up to myself for what? A farce. A fucking 8 month farce. The sad thing is, I'm probably better off after the whole thing. I'd never have done anything all summer. I wouldn't have a job now. I feel sick. All this goes back to me rebounding from sophia. I was weak then and I am weak now. I am a weak willed, manipulative jackass.

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

Great shot, kid! That was one in a million!

I WIN NANOWRIMO! I REALLY, REALLY DO! JUST NOW! LOOKIT!
I have just done a victory post on my LJ. Go to that for details! Whee!!
:D



I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

Everyone get out of the plot and help me push ~T&R

For anyone who is interested, I added more to my last story post at untitled. It seemed more like it fit to the end of that than the beginning of a new post. I'm having some trouble with my new story, mostly because I don't know things about the job that I gave to my main character, and it might take awhile before he gets to the part where God talks to him. That aside, I finally posted on Society's Pants (insert dramatic victory fanfare). Everyone go read it, there's some interesting plot being developed, but plenty of room for Nate and the rest to add-lib and add-on, as the saying goes. You know, anything can become a saying when you add "as the saying goes." It's a convenient generic saying-suffix; sort of a lighter version of "in accordance with prophecy," but stronger than "as they say." At this point, Michael will accuse me of making a random and pointless connection to whatever it is that I'm writing about, but now I've got the perfect term to use agains him and against Guthrie whenever she argues with me about whether or not Hitchhiker's Guide has any real value as a piece of literature. It's a japanese term: zuihitsu, or "writing by the brush." It means to allow ones writing to skip from one topic to another through free association. Stick that in your college app and smoke it. < I'm not entirely sure what I meant by that, but it sounds funny. Hey, I can juggle, now!

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

WE'RE OFF! WE'RE OFF COURSE! WE'RE OFTEN LACKING FORETHOUGHT! ~Sluggy

So I pretty much wasted my half day. After school, Kiel, Lina, Jessy and I were going to hang around Kiel's and eat the free pizza Kiel and Lina earned by talking to middle school kids about sex. It was a pretty awesome deal; they both got cards good for $10, a free large pizza, and a bunch of other coupons. Only problem was, Kiel's wallet got stolen, so we had to go to the BMV to get a new one for him. Why we all went, I have no idea. We figured we'd call Domino's from the BMV to order our food, but apparently Dominos does not believe in lunch, as every store we called was closed. It wouldn't have mattered much if they were open, though, as we were stuck at the damn BMV for two hours. After rushing to Penn Station and finally getting something to eat at about 2:15, they had to rush me home to so I could leave for my voice lesson. Naturally, just before I got on to 465, I realized I forgot my dance shoes for Central Sound rehearsal right afterward, so I was about 15 minutes late to my lesson. Once my lesson was over, I followed my mom as she frantically searched for a barber shop(the one productive part of my day; I got my haircut and I am now sexier than ever). I didn't have time to get dinner, so I went straight to school to find out I had been danceled (term coined during Chess for canceled dance rehearsals) due to bad weather. Now, I risk power surge to waste the remainder of my day online. How's that for an informative, coherent post, Michael?

I ran off to chase a monkey? Is that what kids are calling it these days?

and i've never been to boston in the fall because i am the Pirate That Doesn't Do Anything

I have the easiest life ever. I am a rich (comparatively) white smart male, under the age of 21. I have no real responsibilities. I have to go to school but I don't have to think, I go to public school. I don't have to deal with being oppressed. I am the white devil. I only have to work probably twelve hours out of the week and that's generous. I have a car to drive, a computer to play on, and a cell phone. I have a TV in my room. I love my music. Why do I hate my life so much?

I don't have a girlfriend. That is what makes me so damn unhappy. Most people compensate for that by working harder or trying harder with the ladies. I don't, I work less than anyone I know. I just obsess about girls I have no chance with. No girl in their right mind would date a guy whose favorite way to pass time is go to math competitions and play Fluxx. I waste everything I have. I could dapper myself up, yet i go unshaven. I could work harder but I rest on my morals. I could get smarter but I just do enough to get by. This hits me the hardest when I do crappy at competitions. I lost horrifically to Lawrence Central and Cardinal Ritter at "United We Stand" government competition today. I did really bad on the Rose Hulman math competition.

I'm not close to anyone I was a year ago---or even six months ago. The only constants in my life are my family and church which are like my family. But I don't like most of those people. Michelle is avoiding me, and I can't blame her. Like I've said before, I measure myself by my relationships and I'm only really happy when I'm with other people. For an introvert I sure like company. I'm only happy two days out of the week. Thursday evenings when I'm at academic team, and at church on occasion on Sundays.

I should do so much more with myself but I don't, I suck balls.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

Traffic Cones

It's been a while...

I apologize - I'm in a play. (Lately I've been using that as an excuse for everything. I even tried to use it as an excuse for being late to play rehearsal, but for some reason it failed me there.) The play is November 11 and 12 at LN and the cost is $5.00 and you should come, or else your eyeballs will be eaten by canaries and I'm not just saying that to scare you.

So I promised that I would blog a funny story that happened to me. Over Fall Break, my father and I went on a trip to Dad's hometown of Berea, OH where my dad was invited to preach for his homechurch's 50th Anniversary. We arrived Saturday afternoon at my Aunt Martha's home (Actually my first cousin twice removed, but who's counting). We had a lovely dinner at a nice restaraunt and came home, watched some TV and slept. The next morning we got up at 8, to get over to church by 9:00 for the 9:30 service. We arrived at the church at 9 to find it completely deserted. We did not find this odd - we're Presbyterians after all. However, when therte was no one there 20 minutes later we began to get worried.
We presented each other with a lot of theories - "They've fumigated the building and church is being held elsewhere and they forgot to tell us," or "This is a big practical joke - 'Let's invite Dave Comstock to preach and then all not show up! Ha ha ha!' "
By now you probably think you're pretty smart and that we just didn't change our clocks over at the border and this was a silly daylight savings time hijink. Well, you're wrong. We did change our clocks over and as of 8 am, both our cell phones (which automatically update) as well as Dad's watch, said it was 8 am.
Well at 9:30 we drove into town, and oddly enough, the town hall clock said 9:30. Well, it was at this point that the time change possibility occured to us as worth looking into. We checked both our cell phones, and, sure enough, they said 8:30. But that didn't make sense! The cell phone, the town of BErea, and the watch (which Dad swore he reset) were not in agreement. Finally I said,
"This is so much easier when we're on the same time. When do they change the clocks anyway?"
To which my father replied absentmindedly: "Last weekend of October."
And then, more surprisedly: "Last weekend of October!?!"
And it was then that it all made sense. We had changed our clocks at the border, only to have the rest of the civilised world change there's to match ours the minute we fell asleep. Except of course for town hall, because they hadn't gotten around to it, and Aunt Martha, who is 85 and therefore allowed to forget that sort of thing on occasion.
Anyway, we used our newly found half-hour to obtain donuts and everyone lived happily ever after.

I'm not going to even really think about NaNoWriMo til after the play. (Well this is not true. It's been thoroughly thought about. But after the play is when I'm writing it.)

Also I was unable to write a Celebration Post for the blog's birthday, so at this point I'm going to hope that you're appeased by a chorus of 1,000 elephants trumpeting "Celebrate" by Kool and the Gang. Picture it in your mind and heart and there it will be.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

Listen to the children of the night. What music they make!

I have posted my first day's NaNoWriMo work on Notebook. Only mild cheating has occurred.

Also, I saw Dracula the play this weekend in Louisville and it was awesome. The special effects were AMAZING, Dracula was teh creepy, and Baby Vampire Lily was great. They had a lot of blackouts, and I was in an aisle seat, so I was constantly afraid that something was going to run by and grab me because it was in the round. And when they staked Mina OMFG she bled so much it went *splorch* and her dress was soaked. That wasn't the only cool part, but it's a part that neither myself not my techie boyfriend could figure out how they did it, unless with really well placed tubes and a pump offstage. Also, a lot of screaming. The role of Mina had to be played by two actresses on alternating nights because it was so hard on the voice.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

Rubber Pants. Most of my clothes are 100% energy proof.~Sluggy Freelance

The title doesn't make any actual sense, I just thought it sounded funny. Halloween was pretty awesome. I went to Lina's, grabbed a trashbag, poked holes in it and declared myself a ninja. I spent the trick-or-treating time saying "ninja" and hitting other members of the party with my foam sword between houses. After candy, we decided that for our likely last halloween we ought to cover something in toilet paper. We lost the nerve to do a house after we bought the stuff, so now every fire hydrant in the neighborhood has been tee-peed. Not the greatest prank legacy to leave behind, but hey, it was something different.

I'm doing the show, for now. Depending on the next few days and what the schedule for it looks like, that may or may not change.

I started my NaNoWriMo, but there isn't much to it as of yet, but there will be more as I get chances to write when I'm not procrastinating. Check out Untitled. Comment. Inspire me to write more.

Senior year is marketed more than Christmas, and I can't stand it. You know something has gone wrong when there are more problems with ordering senior stuff™ and pictures than filling out the FAFSA. Madness. Total Madness.

I can change the template now!

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

You know, it's now technically OK for me to hit a girl. I'm just saying. ~Order of the Stick (Roy, after donning the belt of gender-changing)

I don't feel much like addressing my Kaylee problems specifically, so I'm just going to shout EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO EMO! There, now, feeling any better? No? Oh, well, I guess I'll just work myself to death so I don't notice. I don't get to sleep next month. I'm writing a Novel, no matter how upset I am, I'm getting a new job, I'm going to be involved in a musical in one way or another, Gov/Law is starting to get serious, and Horrigan's gone mad and I have to research ways to prove her teaching methods are illegal. On top of that, I've still got 4 other classes that will hand me mundane homework which I will finish in a timely manner because I want to go to college. I'd rant more, but I don't have any fucking french fries.

I'd give an arm to be ambidextrous!

Him who raise him head above him heart, him diamond

Hey! Our very own Jonah and Nathan Comstock are in the Star for being awesome! Way to go, guys!

The play is over (thank you so much for TRYING to come) and fall break starts tomorrow. W00t! I have updated Turtle with details on the play.

Also, I'm twenty years old, gaaaah!

Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me.

Thank you, gods, for your well-timed explosion. ~Order of the Stick

I just had the greatest drive home ever in the history of driving home. I understand that few of you will be able to fully appreciate why, but I'm going to try and explain as best I can. On my way home from GAY, I was listening to the soundtrack for The Empire Strikes Back. As I merged on to 465, the Asteroid Field track began. It was a perfect accompaniment to my driving. The little flourish at the start was immaculately timed with my swoop under the bridge that connects 465 to Shadeland, and, soon after, I was pursued by a perfectly large semi that, in my mind, represented a Star Destroyer as the music segued into Imperial March theme that opens the bulk of the piece. The strings came in with their fearful tunes as I rapidly changed lanes to avoid the slow-down before the exit to I-69. A pair of smaller cars sped past me at perfect intervals in place of the TIE fighters that chase the Falcon through the field. As I put I-69 traffic behind me, the maine tune of the piece burst in perfectly and I flew over the hill towards my exit. I slowed down with the music, and quickly changed to my turn lane for the final flourish in the piece that plays when the Falcon does it's upside-down U-turn into the cave. It was perfect.

Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me.

R.I.P. Pinky, 2000-2005

He was the best Guinea Pig a family could have. He enjoyed eating carrots, Lettuce and apple peels, and being sung to. I've been sitting her with his empty cage crying for a while now. I never thought I'd miss him this much, you know? It's not like he ever did anything. But he was just there, you know? He kept me company when I was home by myself. He cheered me up when I was sad.
Here's to you, buddy. I wish I could have given you just one more carrot or apple peel, or felt you nibble on my finger once more. But I hope you're happy whereever you are.

Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me.

You never rest fighting The Battle of Who Could Care Less. Unearned unhappiness? You're my hero, i confess

[Just wanted to point out that this is the 900th Compendium post. --Michael]

It's really hard for me to come up with good songs for my title scheme, but I think I nailed it this time. The sad thing is that no one cares. They're all good songs anyways, at least.

I'm pretty bored since tennis ended, I should work on my Eagle project with all the spare time but I don't.

I did a fun little thing over on my lj using google. That's what I've decided to use it for, funny little things. Here is for actual blogging.

I think I might take up Michael's 50 book challenge up a notch just to upstage him. I haven't decided. I have 86 books to read off of this list which are supposed to be standards. I might do it.

So school is super easy other than English and Calculus, and at least those are interesting.

My paragraphs are supershort today, heh.

I might have the inside track to a new girlfriend. Wish me luck. Her name is Samantha and is the cutest little thing ever. It's like you went into photoshop and took a regular sized person and resized her down to what she is now.

I'm really digging my new music. I've got new Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Switchfoot [If Switchfoot comes, I'm taking a nap. --Michael], Thousand Foot Krutch, Fall Out Boy, Nine Inch Nails, Foo Fighters, relient K, Bright Eyes, and The White Stripes. It's awesome. Also, I downloaded the Firefly theme.

Which is why I posted as I wanted to change the bottom thingy, and I had to post to do it. Muahahaha. Seriously, I'm bored and need an activity. Give me suggestions.

Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me.

But what is your motivation for doing so? Don't you want to know why you're killing him with ice magic?

Because he's immune to fire.... ~Penny Arcade

So I think I might actually participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I've got an actual idea, with inspiration and everything, but with little enough of it to write it sloppily by the seat of my pants. It's about this guy who feels like he has no purpose in life, and is very upset about it. Someone tells him he should pray, and, though he thinks it's silly and probably won't help at all, he does so. God promptly splits the sky and speaks to him, basically telling him that he doesn't have a particular plan for him, per say, atleast not a very specific one, so he could just sort of do his own thing and God will get back to him, no sneaky sinning and such behind God's back, mind you, God could make whatever plan for him he wants, he's God, you know, and I just sort of run with this. Its kind of an antithesis of Joan. what do you think?

I think British pirates just don't say 'Ar.'

Revenge of the Irony

So, I think the first thing I'm gonna do is tell everyone who wasn't there on Saturday that Jonah got hit on by a gay guy. It was very amusing.
Speaking of Saturday, Kudos to Kaylee for the play. It was excellent.
Now, on to irony. I think Laura Harvey has a crush on me. I'm not one hundred percent certain, but it certainly seemed like it. God has a real killer sense of humor, answering a prayer two years after someone stops praying it. Reminds me of the dead letter office.
Don't take that wrong, I'm still in love with Amy, and there's no way I'd break up with her for anyone else (and this should be proof of that), but it still seems pretty ironic to me.
Finally, I want to repeat Matt's recommendation of Serenity. Awesome movie. See it.
I think British pirates just don't say 'Ar.'

You want to pull the strings,you got to pay the piper. ~Order of the Stick

I'm important, but I'm tired of it. I don't like working. The whole reverse senioritis thing is kind of getting me down. I miss the days of procrastination; the video games, the internet time, the books, the video games, the long stretches of time in which I did nothing at all. I remember when I worried about things that I enjoyed, rather than things that are widely accepted as important. Why am I doing this? On top of my painful attack of work ethic, I took the responsiblity of unit leader in Gov/Law, and I have a tendency to make mini-lectures to get people involved in the class. My essay is the example in english, and people come to for advice in chem/phys. I'm tired of all this doing stuff! I'm thinking of dropping out of high school and becoming a vigilante crime-fighter. Sure, it might actually be more difficult than high school, and certainly more stressful, but think of the awesome! I'd be a crime fighting.... um... pirate. Which doesn't make any sense. So I guess I could turn to a life of piracy. It kind of sucks that people can't do that anymore, or at least not in a cool way. Pretty much the only way I could be a real pirate in this day and age is soft-ware piracy or go crazy like those guys on The Life Aquatic. What happened to the good old days of single-shot weapons and swash buckling? Guns are kind of boring now. No finese, no one-chance intensity, no suspense, it's all "short controlled bursts" and "hand me another box of ammo." If it were up to me, we'd still use swords and ballistic weapons would have stopped at six-shooters.
Okay, I've gone all over the place with this post. I'm done for now.

I think British pirates just don't say 'Ar.'

you gotta give it up to get off sometimes, i know but you better STOP

I ain't got much to say but I am excited about HouseCon, count me in. Also go see Serenity. It's quite good, and I want a sequel. My life is pretty boring as I am out of tennis and I don't have a girlfriend and I just basically have no one to hang out with. Talk to me. Peace.

I think British pirates just don't say 'Ar.'

Flames

Jeremiah was a Balrog.
Was a good fiend of the mine.
I didn’t understand a single word that he said,
But we fought for a long, long time.
And, Boy it was a mighty deep mine.

Joy to Middle Earth!
All the Elves and Dwarves!
Joy to the land of Mordor where the shadows lie,
And Joy to you and I.

If I were the king of the world,
Tell you what I'd do.
I'd throw away the orcs and the wargs and dark lords,
And return the ring to Mount Doom!

Sing it now...
Joy to Middle Earth!
All the Elves and Dwarves!
Joy to the land of Mordor where the shadows lie,
And Joy to you and I.

You know I love the Hobbits.
To help them with that ring.
I’m an eagle flyer and a Shadowfax rider,
And a white mage returnin’ the King.
I said a white mage returnin’ the king.

Joy to Middle Earth!
All the Elves and Dwarves!
Joy to the land of Mordor where the shadows lie,
And Joy to you and I.

I think British pirates just don't say 'Ar.'

Don't mind me, I'm just here to strangle your captain. ~Sluggy

No way we're changing the template after 4 posts.

I think British pirates just don't say 'Ar.'

Oranges

I've once again changed my title scheme. The new scheme, until I come up with a better one, is "Things that are orange" It was going to be things that are norange, but I realized that there are simply way too many.
So, excellent news! The cast list finally came out for "The Magical Lamp of Aladdin," and I am not only in it but Aladdin himself! Rif-raff, street rat, Prince-Ali-mighty-is-he Aladdin! And Nathan is my monkey, Alakazam. (Certian characters have different names than in the Disney version because of copyright reasons). Anyway, I don't know when it'll be yet, but I'll post when I find out.
Also, keep an eye out for Nathan and I in the Indianapolis Star on Thursdays. At some point we're going to be featured as "Exemplary Youth." This would have to do with our National Merit Semifinalist Status. Basically, life is good.

You have a time-ukulele that's powered by love and you didn't tell me?
I did tell you, but you forgot when the robots used it to alter the timeline.

Each one of you shall help to make things slip by telling to stories on the outward trip to Canterbury

I just had a thought, and I wanted to put it out there before I forgot it. Since I think it's safe to say that we've all pretty much abandoned the SP Writers' Contrast, what do you say we use that blog for our NaNoWriMo stories this November. To give encouragement and whatnot. Just a thought. I don't know, what do y'all think?

I think British pirates just don't say 'Ar.'

Parley! I invoke the Right of Parley!

I must state that I did not, unfortunately, know that it was Talk Like a Pirate Day. I was not informed. But! Since I was corseted today, I think I played the part of the wench, or perhaps the kidnapped maiden. Probably the latter. Oh, I will go on at length about my corset later. I adore it.

Let's see... what do maidens kidnapped by pirates say?

"Have I been taken away by the pirates? I must've been!"
"Oh, I'm scared again! Look, it's me being scared!"
And, of course...
"Look at that cleavage!"

Look at that cleavage indeed, me hearties. Look at that cleavage indeed.


I think British pirates just don't say 'Ar.'

Let me get this straight. You're a bunch of geeks and nerds taking advantage of a dangerous situation to play pirates? ~Sluggy

Ahoy, me hearties. I'm supposin' I ought to have a go at the pirate talkin' business. I'll start by anserin' Nathan's question. I'm thinkin' the British pirates don't spend a lot of time saying 'Arrr,' or they drop thar accents all t'gethar and take the classic piratey di'lects. Me second order of business is to lament over the quickly approaching removal of me wisom teeth. I'm afraid we can't afford the drug to put me to sleep, other wise I'd tell ye to wake me at the zenith of the moon. In othar news, a particular stick-weilding ninja has sullied me woman's honar. I ought to run 'em through, but the filtyh bilge rat aint worth me given him the black spot. I'd rather not elaborate on the particulars, but it is enough to say that he'd've seen the unfriendly end of me cutlass had he been around.

I think British pirates just don't say 'Arr.'

Lament O' the Irish (Scottish?) Pirate

Arrr, it be international talk like a pirate day, and a fine day fer talkin like a pirate too. But the bloggin' must go on regardless.
Me Beauty, she's half a mind too make me walk the plank, and I'm none too certain what I did. As far as I know, she be angry at me fer not sayin' goodbye to her when I was gonna see her five minutes later. Arrr!, it shivers me timbers.
I was thinking today about British Pirates. British people don't pronounce the R's at the ends of words, so would a British Pirate go "Ahhhh"?

So they were trying to reinvent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help.

They say that this youth has set my lady's heart aflame...

So, I'm back at Hanover and it's really busy. I've had one or two meetings every day since Monday. I have an 8 a.m. class four days a week. I have ADPi and German club. And now I have a play.

I got cast in our first play of the year, called She Stoops to Conquer. It's a Restoration period farce. Which means-- awesome costumes! and awesome comedy! It's a really funny play and you're all invited to see it on October 14th, 15th, and 16th. I'm really excited. I didn't think I was going to get cast,especially since this major veteran of the theatre was up for my part also, but man I really wanted it. And I got it! And then I went "Squee!"

I'm really proud of the way I'm handling everything. I'm just sort of taking it one day at a time, and it's going okay. The only problem is that I tend to have trouble sleeping because I have so much to keep track of and it all keeps running through my head.

I don't have a roommate now, and I still don't know how long that's going to last. The roommate I was supposed to have transferred. But I really enjoy the extra space so I hope she doesn't get replaced. My books are living in her dresser.

It feels like I've been down here for ages, but it's only been a week. Yargh.

So they were trying to reinvent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help.

They won't see us waving from such great heights, everything looks perfect from far away...

Well I feel bad now that I accused all of you of being lazy slackers who don't update enough because now I can help move us along and I still don't update. I've been pretty busy with tennis and school and personal life and just haven't gotten around to updating. So here it is, my month or so.

Listen:
I read a lot these past few bits here. Lots of Vonnegut (Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse V) and more dystopias (1984, Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange (which I just started)) and some King (still working on Needful Things.) I also have played 8 tennis matches which takes a long time. (I've won a whopping two of them, both against IPS teams. not good) I have also learned some Calculus, done some homework and just did normal Matthew stuff. I also broke up with Michelle and used too many parentheses.

...Oh, you want to know more about that last bit there? Not the part about the parentheses? oh, ok.

Well she went to college, duh! What else was supposed to happen? I had expected it but it still doesn't make it hurt less. I miss her but I think it was for the best. She sounded kind of distant and like she needed some conceptual space along with the actual space she just got. She needs to grow some right now and doesn't need me bogging her down with my high school lifestyle.

I also got my driver's liscence, yay! I'm driving to school almost everyday which is helping with the convenience but not with the gas bill. ouch 3 bucks a gallon. Luckily, since I'm going to school, the parents are paying for it. We hooked Andrew up to the internet in his room so, we see even less of him now. I also am still waiting for the stillborn King Lear thing to come back to life. I'm hoping since I have a liscence that I can get up there to see some of you guys soon. Good talking at you guys, hopefully the next wait won't be so long.

So they were trying to reinvent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help.

Pimping of My Other SIte

Chapter I of City of Mages is up! And it rocks! Read it! Tell all your friends! It's a chance to get in on the ground floor of a Nathan story that will live on a long time.

I trust that because it's a robot and it doesn't have love, except with the phone.

Love is an Epic-level challenge ~ Order of the Stick

I have returned! My computer works, more or less, and I will once again be posting at school, so all of you with whom I do not live on a semi-regular basis get to know to what the hell I'm up. Well, that was a fun piece of grammar... moving on. I work now! I assist in the construction of yurts at Great American Yurts. Its a funny word, but it pays well. I managed to quit my job at the drycleaner, it kinda sucked. Yeah, I got payed for doing nearly nothing, but the sanity cost was too great, and I couldn't take the hours. What I did this summer aside from work: Chess was awesome, and the cast rocked. The rest of my non-working time in the summer was spent either at dagorhir, with the Comstocks, with Kaylee, or all three. I'm glad I got as much Kaylee time in as I did, though, because with school, work, and other such time-expensive things, I'm afraid I wont get much time durring the school year. It's been awesome though, and I'm still not entirely sure how it happened. She's just this amazing girl who decided to date me for some reason. I don't know how she puts up with me on top of everything else she has to deal with, it's pretty incredible.

I trust that because it's a robot and it doesn't have love, except with the phone.

It was a nice day. All of the days had been nice.

So, the deities of the stairs realized this morning that I had been living in a house with two sets of stairs for a week now and hadn't fallen down a single step. So this morning I fell down about three steps, grabbing the railing to catch myself and scraping up my arm. Stairs hate me.

School starts in a week. Woe. And I finally got my room all done and everything.

I trust that because it's a robot and it doesn't have love, except with the phone.

There is a school of thought that says that witches and wizards can never go home again. They went, though, just the same.

This is my last night in this house before the final day of moving tomorrow. I have been driving back and forth a lot with stuff, with only two minor incidents, barely worth mentioning at all, really. Ahem. I am both sad and happy, which is a weird state of mind to be in, especially when you're just mostly tired.

My job at JC Penney is done, hallelujah!

For more, please visit my lj.

I won't have computer for the next few days, but I will have phone. Just so you know.

I trust that because it's a robot and it doesn't have love, except with the phone.

Satisfied Red Pepper II

I just spent the last hour sitting in front of my computer in the North Star Room trying to come up with the topic for a column. I got nothing. I even went through the archives of WKoL looking for something useable. The problem is not just me but my audience. I need to find a topic on which I can wax philosopical in a way whcih students haven't seen before, but with which they'll all be familiar. These are people who don't generally follow the news. I mean, even if my friends do, they make up a very small portion of the total student body. A topic like intelligent design or the Indiana state budget is not going to appeal to a large audience. On the other hand, typical "high school issues" are either cliched or boring. The hallways are crowded. Ok, we know, who cares? Meanwhile, anything deep or philosophical just doesn't seem right for the paper. The quality of column #1 will determine whether I get a column at all and it's frequency. I know I can write as good a column as anyone on staff, but I need to find something I'm passionate about. I'm about ready to give up and do a book review.
I'm already sick of school, btw. And it's only day 3. And I like all my classes. I'm just not thrilled with the whole school thing in general. Ah Well, back to work on the thinking...

I trust that because it's a robot and it doesn't have love, except with the phone.

"The Cafeteria would like to remind Sidekicks to stop ordering Hero sandwiches,"

Considering I went into it expecting a mediocre, Disney Channelesque film, Sky High amazed me. It really was, as Jonah put it, like mean girls with super powers. The tongue-in-cheek humor worked not as much because of writing as because of brilliant delivery - especially considering the kids were almost all unknowns. The special effects were good, the action sequences were exciting, if a bit infrequent, but then they weren't really the focus of the film. As a superhero movie, it had a long way to go. As a comedy, it was brilliant. I would even go as far as to call it my favorite superhero spoof, certainly better than Mystery Men, and at least on par with The Incredibles.
When this comes out on video, we could totally do a super-hero spoof con and watch all three. And we could all come dressed in impromptu super-hero outfits! It would be fun. I volunteer my house.
I have severe musle pain, but I don't really have anything else to say about it. On a closing note, Thomas' superpower is the ability to turn into a fetid pile of whale dung. Unfortunately, he hasn't figured out how to change back.

I trust that because it's a robot and it doesn't have love, except with the phone.

if i had a million-zillion wishes, i'd choose one to let you know that Gibberish is...

So I'm back from my post hiatus. I've not done much interesting lately so I'll spare everyone the boring details. I'm here to talk about the future, man.

I have no idea what I want my life to be. One day I'm very close to God, while others I don't even think God can exist. One day I love Michelle, the next I pray that she doesn't call me. I want to be so smart but I don't want to try. I want to have fun and be goofy with my friends but I don't want to get too close to anyone.

It all comes down to relationships with me. I define myself on what I feel others feel about me. I really don't care what others actually think about me, I just need to think that I know what they feel. I take my life on in mostly a third person. It is very rare that I feel that I am anything but a casual observer in my life. Those few things are: Tennis, Basketball, watching aforementioned sports, and being very happy. When those things occur, i feel as if i am a part of them and that is good.

The reason I am talking all about this now is that I am very scared about who I am going to end up as and who I am going to end up with. Not just in the sense that I'm with a woman as my wife but the entire collective of people around me. And that frightens me. I don't know if I'll have any of the same friends that I do now. I don't know if I can keep the same mentors in my life in a big role. I don't know how I intend to make new friends when I barely keep the ones I have.

Julia and Valerie and Essex are my true friends and I see them going out of my life very soon. Julia is on a path that is much bigger than I am. I can see that for sure, she'll find a cause or something. It's her destiny. Valerie is an enigma and I'm not even sure if she thinks of us as close. Essex is flaky and has some serious emotional issues and is already an adult and I find myself having a harder and harder time dealing with him.

I think that's all I have to say for now. I don't know. I guess this is the conundrum all people in major transitions go through. I'm about to leave one place for another, will the people around me stay or serve the same purpose they once did, and do i even want them to? I hope I find out soon because I hate the constant state of limbo I'm in right now. Talk back, please.

"Ratio tile, the wish power are together with you."

Unholy Parsley Sprig XXIV

I've decided we need to do some house cleaning around here, in terms of examining our links. We've got a lot of them, and I think some are unnecessary.

Links
Stream-of-Conciousness Blogs
variably titled (Marten's Site) - Yes, this one is good to have even if it's stuck currently.
The Taj Ma Lobby (Marten's dead site) - I don't deem this neccessary. It is, as it says, dead.
Confessions of a Canadian Girl (Evelyn's Blog) - Yeah, I think enough of us read it and it updates often enough to keep it on.

Stream-of-Unconciousness Blogs
Nathan's Dreams (Nathan's Dream Journal) - I want to keep it because I love the category name, but the blog doesn't really update anymore.

Journals
Someday A Turtle Will Learn To Fly (Erin's LiveJournal) - Keep.
AMARISMOON.COM: BETTER. THAN. SEX. (Sarah's Site) - I don't have any objection to keeping it, but I think the name is making our site get caught by porn filters, and it's kinda random.
Posse Comitatus (Michael's new blog) - Hasn't updated in ages, but hasn't been officially declared dead. Michael's opinion would be helpful.
What Kind of Day Has It Been (Michael's Site) - Doesn't even, actually exist.
What Kind of Day Has It Been: Old School (Michael's old blog) - I can see keeping it for archive purposes, though all that stuff is on my site too.
What Kind of Life Has It Been (Jonah's blog) - I'm biased, but I vote to keep it. I do update every now and then.

Story Blogs
Proving Ground (Nathan's blog!) - Keep for sure.
Tales From the Other Side of the Corndog (Jonah's Story Site) - Diddo
Society's Pants (Jonah, Nathan, Marten, Erin, and Evelyn's Story Site) - This one too.
Notebook Mythology (Erin's Story Site) - Yeah.
The Society's Pants Writers Contrast (Jonah, Nathan, Marten, Erin and Evelyn's other Story Site) - I don't see us needing to link that one here if we link it at SP, but if you guys disagree I don't mind leaving it.

Collaborative Blogs
Oh, My Aching Sushi! (Sister site of Compendium. Ha! Doompun!) - Yeah, we'll keep it.

Miscellaneous Blogs
Michael Christie's 50 Book Challenge (The Epic 50 book journey) - Definitely a keeper.
Blogg the Art Show (Jonah's Art Blogg) - Again biased, but I think my pictures are pretty.

So I'm gonna give you guys all a chance to disagree with my assessments in the comments on this entry, and if there are no objections within a week or two, I'm gonna delete and/or rename some of the links. It's not a big deal, but I want to keep our little corner of the internet as uncluttered as possible.

"Ratio tile, the wish power are together with you."

I still feel at home in my house.

Update: We bought a house. It's off Sargent Road and is bigger than our current house, having both an upstairs and a basement. I don't know. We're moving apparently in less than two weeks now, on the fifteenth. We're packing and everything. My books and my closet are all packed. And it still doesn't feel like there will come a point when we won't be coming home here. Today I found in my closet these embroidered things that were on my wall for the first decade or so of my life. They were the first thing I saw when I woke up in the morning, the last thing at night. That was about when it started to hit me that I'm actually leaving that room, this house. The full impact hasn't happened yet, and probably won't until the house is empty. My mom told me to ask off work for moving day so that I can be here, but I'm not sure that I want to. On the one hand, I suppose it would give me closure. On the other hand, I'm not sure I want to see my house all empty like that.

A lot of people at Hanover say that as time goes on they start referring to Hanover as home instead of their actual homes. As of the end of last year, I was calling both home. Leaving school I would say, "I'm going home," and going back I would say, "I'm going home." There is supposedly a point when the house you grew up in isn't your home anymore, and I'm not sure I would ever have reached it. So it's being taken away from me. Wow, that was quite melancholy. I'm not really as depressed as that makes me seem. I actually finished typing another chapter of my fanfic today, and now I'm going to go email it to my beta.

"Hypogonadism." Ain't that a great word? Thanks, we don't get to say it enough.

Home is where they catch you when you fall. And we all fall.

This is the third time I've done this post. My computer doesn't want to work for some reason.

So, we're really moving, it seems. And soon. Last Wednesday I came home from work and my mom looked up and said, "We may have sold the house." I was very Scarlett O'Hara about it, very "I'll think about it tomorrow." Actually, what I was thinking was "Oh, wow. We're going to movie. I'm going to be just like Zach Braff in Garden State, not having a home anymore. Except not doped up on meds. And, obviously, not male. Zach Braff looked so sad in Garden State. I'm glad he got nominated for an Emmy. I wonder if he'll win. Probably not. It's getting late, I should probably call Alicia. This really isn't sinking in at all, is it? No. Well, I suppose it will eventually." And it still hasn't. Even though on Friday the people who are buying our house came to do paperwork. They seem like very nice people. They have two little girls, and I feel bad because I do want them to have the house. I just don't want to leave. This is my home. I grew up here. I have memories here. And wherever we move, I'll only be living there a few months out of the year. It won't be my home. It will be my parents' home and my brother's home. I don't know where my home will go. The family is coming on Friday to close. We have to move before September 4, because that's the day the new family wants to move in, and it's also the day I have to go back to school. That's really soon. We saw a house yesterday we liked, but I don't know if we'll get it. I really don't want to move. As consolation, I have been promised a second bookshelf. And if I don't get it, by God there will be hell to pay.

Secondly, I would like to say how much I love the people on this blog. Except that I don't actually know some of you, but the ones I know, I love. The day I came to play Diplomacy at the Comstocks', I was in a really bad mood, I was mad at my aunt, and my dad was mad at me and had just gotten done yelling at me. Then I came to the door and suddenly there were a whole bunch of people shouting "Erin's here!" and hugging me, and I instantly felt so much better. Last week Marten and Jonah came to visit me at work. It was my third day in a row of working eight hours, and I was really pissed about it. But then they came and followed me around while I picked up clothes (even into the girls' and underwear sections), and we talked and laughed and it made my entire day. Seriously. It's so good to feel loved, and I wanted to take a moment to tell you guys how much I love you in return.

And that's all. Pleasepleasepleaseplease post!

"Hypogonadism." Ain't that a great word? Thanks, we don't get to say it enough.

Foam of Destruction

Well, I am officially a Dagorhir person now, I guess. I don't know if I'm actually a member of Mittelmarch yet (There may be paperwork involved), but regardless, I have my own sword, and that has to count for something. She's not the most effective weapon ever, but I'm hoping when the glue dries on the weight I've added to the pommel she'll handle a little better. Regardless, she's a sword, and she's mine, and that makes me happy. Her name is Gail.
I miss Amy. The whole "Here for three days, gone for three weeks" thing is really getting on my nerves. At the same time, the fact that I miss her so much gives me a real hope for our relationship. Another relationship I know just ended because "they didn't miss eachother while they were apart".
I'm looking forward to Chess. I'm looking forward to driving. I am not so much looking forward to school starting.
"Hypogonadism." Ain't that a great word? Thanks, we don't get to say it enough.

Look, another one! (No I'm never going to stop)
http://www.ayaz.com/photography/view.asp?albumid=72&photoarrayid=168

Where did this template come from? It's amusing. [It's from House, MD. I put it on before I left. Having fun in Canada, by the way --Michael] So I'm on Levi's laptop, which I must say is pretty cool. I wish I had one. While I'm wishing, I'll also wish for an ipod, a car, more time on my summer reading (which I would undoubtably waste anyway) and a real, working lightsaber.

"Hypogonadism." Ain't that a great word? Thanks, we don't get to say it enough.

Levicorpus!

I am on a period of temporary emergence from Harry Potter. I started it yesterday afternoon and am now a little more than halfway through. Very good so far, but I do feel inadequate when I see all the people who finished it Friday and I had to carefully avoid their spoiler-laden lj posts. This is a common misconception people have about me: they think that I am a fast reader when in fact I read at probably about an average rate of speed. I just read a lot, so it seems like I'm reading quickly.

I said a while ago that I'd say what I thought of Fantastic Four, but I was a lazy bum and didn't, so now I am. I thought it was somewhere between okay and good. It's a very fun, comic-book-y movie and has a lot of very funny bits. Even aside from "This solar cloud has fundamentally altered our DNA in different ways so now we have different special powers and only another solar storm-type thing can reverse the process," even accepting that, there are still a few plotholes I found it hard to get around. Like this one:
Reed: Guess what, guys?
Fantastic Other Three: What?
Reed: You know those suits we were wearing when the cloud hit us?
Fantastic Other Three: Yeah...
Reed: Well, since we were wearing them, you know, in the cloud, they have adapted to THE EXACT POWERS THAT WE HAVE SO THAT SUE'S WILL TURN INVISIBLE AND JOHNNY'S WON'T CATCH ON FIRE AND MINE WILL STRETCH AND STUFF!
Fantastic Other Three: ...
Reed: Cool, huh?
Fantastic Other Three: Sure, but... how? And why?
Reed: You know... solar storm!
Fantastic Other Three: Okay, but...
Reed: Just go with it, guys! It's so much more convenient!

And this one:
Reed: We don't have enough power to create another thing that's like a solar storm to take our powers away.
Ben: Sad.
Doom: Ooh! I have power over electricity and stuff and I can therefore up the power on the thing for you, Ben!
Ben: Awesome!
Doom: *does so*
Ben: *is normal again*
Doom: *kicks his ass*
Ben: Ow.
Doom: *goes to kick everyone else's ass*
Ben: Oh, no! I must un-reverse my powers!
Later...
Ben: It's clobberin' time!
Johnny: Dude! You're fugly again!
Sue: But... how?
Ben: The machine!
Reed: But... the... power...
Ben: Shh! Script!

That said, Ioan Gruffudd makes me happy. Reed and Sue reminded me in certain ways of Carrot and Angua. Carrot is also the kind of guy who would start a proposal with "I found a gasket." Or, more likely, "I found some iron ore."

Well that may be, but at least I never slept with Lumbergh.

Unexpected Sweet Potatoe CVXVII

Just FYI: Thanks to a power outage and procrastinating on installing a surgew protector, as well as other technological factors, Nathan and I are currently without internet. I also seem to have developed some kind of typing injury that makes typing somewhat painful for me. So it may be a little while before you here anything substantial from me. For now, I'll just say I am so glad summer gym is over, I could cry. Michael: we WILL finish that play eventually.

Well that may be, but at least I never slept with Lumbergh.

I'm a magical pixie or something! ~AZWP

hey, everyone, I added a link! Aside from that, Thomas is like yesterday's cornbread, stale and crusty. That is all.

Well that may be, but at least I never slept with Lumbergh.

too much Carbon Monoxide for me to bear!

So I've spent the past few days in Lafayette. The heart of boilerland and my heart blackens as i say that it wasn't terrible. I don't get that twinge in my cream and crimson heart that I used to. I'm slowly accepting the fact that I will end up at Purdue. But that's not why I was in Lafayette.

As odd as it seems, I went to go look at wolves with my friends' cousins. That is the lamest excuse to drive for an hour and a half ever. But it was still pretty fun. I ended up staying the night up there. We played cards and I was accused of flirting with Corri's twelve year old cousin Tori. (i was just being nice) I went to there little Fourth of July sauree. I owned at miniature golf. It was an all and all good time.

Tonight we went to see the fireworks which were very poorly positioned. They were too low to go over the bank one building on the circle. It looked like the building was exploding, which was cool but not what I went to see. Kind of a let down for my first Independence Fireworks in five years. (i'm always at boy scout camp that week) Now I'm being an insomniac and breaking my Mom's crazy, "I wouldn't let you on the telephone this late," rule. And apparently I'm Goneril.

Well that may be, but at least I never slept with Lumbergh.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. But... I mean, if it's a thirsty horse, I can't really see why it wouldn't. ~AZWP

My name is Marten Dollinger, and I am now officially the second person on this blog to be old. I don't really feel different quite yet, but I'm sure that will change as soon as I call in for one of those T.V. adds that says you have to be eighteen or older to call. W00t for adulthood! I wonder if that makes my car insurance any cheaper...

In other news, I still lack a working computer, and will not be catching up with anything else until a sufficient machine is found. The past week was fun, I pretty much spent all of standing stone watching Family Guy on my cousins laptop. Don't get me wrong, I spent some time outside, swimming, pingpong, tennis, pointless walking to the dam and back. Very few people were there this year for varying reasons. So, most of the time was spent inside.

I did see Revenge of the Sith for the fourth time on my birthday, and I finaly spotted the Millenium Falcon on the landing platform. The day after, we watched Return of the Jedi, half because I was going to anyway, and half because RoTS pissed my cousin off to no end. Albert, a friend my cousin brought, and fellow Star Wars fanatic helped me to explain the inner workings of the Saga's plot and defended its subtleties against the pop-culture giant that is the Lord of the Rings. We also noticed several parallels between RotS and RotJ, such as Palpatine's strategies for Luke's conversion. I recognised that Liea more physically resembles Shmi than she does Padme. There were several more revelations, but I don't remember them.

Oh yeah, happy birthday, America.

Wait, wait. You did what to that waterfall?

Revenge of the Beach Shop

I'm in Florida, and it's raining. It's been raining pretty much since we got here. But it's been nice. My aunt is here as is the world's smartest cat (sorry Kcub, Pippin.) The cat is Mia. Apparently, she wandered into the house one day just after a hurricane, and they kept her. I swear she understands English. She knows exactly what's going on, and she can definately sense our emotions. She offers the best solution to grief: scratching a cat on the belly.
I bought a pair of sandals, but they broke on the way home. So I traded them in for another pair. They also broke. My father is off trading them in for a third pair (they don't do refunds.)
My mother keeps showing me pictures of identical rooms. I don't know why.
Last night my recently deceased uncle contacted me in my sleep. He wouldn't tell me anything about the afterlife except to ensure that it exists and that "we're all quite happy here,". Still, at least now I know with even more certainty that such a place exists.
Not much else to say. There is a Dragon post nearly half finished that should be up shortly after I get home. I continue to miss Amy. Also some general advice: if you're dating a girl, make sure you know what color her eyes are off the top of your head, or you could get in serious trouble.
Wait, wait. You did what to that waterfall?

What the hell did we say? The Good Times are Killing Me.

I'll try and make this as little like Tolstoy as I can. It shouldn't be too hard as I haven't done anything interesting or funny since I came home. I talked to Alex once and he's out with another crew right now.

I hate my grandma's (dad's side: code name=Nanny) "friend" Darrol. He is way to serious even when he tries to be fun. He's hypercritical and passive about it. It makes visiting Nanny unpleasant. On a brighter note, I rock at miniature golf. Rustic Gardens is fun. If anyone is up for it, contact me cuz it's loads of fun.

I haven't seen Michelle in 23 days and it sucks. She needs a new car because hers keeps dying. I've been without human contact since Sunday. (Scouts and Family don't count.) I don't know where Essex is and I think Julia's in Ireland. Val is nowhere to be found but I might hang out with some people next wednesday but that's about it for social life. I should get my license. I'll work on that next week.

I'm out, I'll try to be funnier next time. If only I was better at that, maybe I'd have some friends worth making an effort to hang out with. I think that's my problem. I'll work on it.

PS: Jonah, you didn't answer as to whether SP2 was just for original SPers or if I could enter in the Contrast.

PPS: oh I'm sorry. I send my condolances down to Florida.
Wait, wait. You did what to that waterfall?

We are adored! We are loved!

Today I was super-productive. I updated "Home Again" on fanfiction, and I updated Notebook Mythology as well. Home Again has been reviewed nineteen times. In one day. To sum up my feelings about this, I present you with: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

In other news, Hanover College apparently does not share my public's enthusiastic opinion of me. They have declined to hire me for their Writing and Speaking Center next year. This makes me smad. To them I say, "Dear Hanover College, You suck and your writing center sucks and your hiring process sucks. Love, Erin."

In regards to the people who did wish to hire me, I can say that being employed doesn't suck majorly. The people I work with are nice, the people I serve sometimes suck, but I'm learning to use the register pretty well and am also getting good at avoiding having to use the register by pretending to be busy doing something else. Training was really boring, except for sometimes there were corny fun videos, like the sexual harassment one about Norman the Sexual Harasser. Being actually on the floor is better. When they play good songs on the PA and it's not busy I can groove. When I have a long shift and I get an hour break I can go to the bookstore.

I used "suck" as a verb five times in this post. Forgive me. It's very early in the morning.

Wait, wait. You did what to that waterfall?

Your knife will fall out of its sheath, but you still don't like to leave before the End of the Movie.

So I went to Minnesota to go canoeing for fifty miles and see some beautiful scenery, etc. I did all that. Here it goes. Some more players for your knowledge.

For all intensive purposes Zach Schmidt is equivalent to Andrew (my brother) basically.
Zac Hinds is a jock/hoss who is a pretty cool dude.
Jacob Yarling is the quiet straight man who can do anything
Jay Yarling is his dad.
Jerry Hinds is a military dude and Zac's dad.
Bill Thomas is a slightly challenged 54 year old who came as Schmidt's partner
Alex Duchak was our interpreter and now is just the coolest dude ever.

Also me and my dad went.

First of all, the entire time, it was beautiful. The weather was great and it was just beyond words how beautiful it was. damn.

Ok Saturday, we drove all the way to 45 minutes outside of Ely which is the outfitter town outside of the Boundary Waters. It's like 800 miles to there.

We watched the matrix, we drank energy drinks and Frappucino, we laughed, we listened to cake. It was an all around good time. Did I mention we had to wake up at 4 in the morning???

Ok, Sunday we stopped in Ely to do some shopping and messing around. I got awesome sunglasses. We had brunch at a cool little cafe. We drove to Northern Tier where we played some voyeuger games and I kicked a little ass. I went into outspoken/group activity mode. Jonah and Thomas have seen it. I'm normally in depressed teenager mode except when I do these kind of things. Summer Camp, Triennium, Youthfest, etc. Well Dad was kind of freaked out cuz he doesn't really ever see it. It was pretty cool to get to show that side around him. So we go and meet Alex and we get all set up for the next week. We shake down all our gear. We get our food. You have three grey whale bags with everyone's sleeping bags, the tents, and your clothes. You have two green bags with green plastic tubs inside them. One for food and one for cooking equipment. That makes five bags, four canoes, and nine people (see the pattern?) and one personal bag for Alex that he keeps seperate. The cabin we stayed in that night was like an oven and it was hard to sleep.

Monday we wake up and do our final pack, eat and get in the water. We had to wait until we got Jerry's seat that broke in his canoe (jerry's not a big guy) fixed and so we got a late start. We canoed 16 miles that day. The portages were slow and hard because we hadn't done it before. (portages are where you go from lake to lake and have to carry all your stuff. I carried a grey whale, so did Jacob and Zach. Zac carried the food box (heaviest.) Bill carried the Kettle box (other green bag.) Dad carried an Aluminum canoe. So did Alex, along with his bag. Jerry and Jay carried the Kevlars. (Kevlars are lighter, faster but more susceptible to wind) I was in an Aluminum most of the week. We got lost near the end of that day but we got to where we wanted to, leaving an easy day for tuesday.

Tuesday we only canoed 6 or 7 miles and got to Edy Lake where we stayed two nights. It was pretty easy. Dad took over the back for good ( i suck at steering but i'm great on the front where all you have to do is keep rowing) We spent the afternoon messing around and swamping canoes, going up waterfalls, and then crapping in them. Ok so i might need to explain that.
I was climbing the waterfall which was spectacular and i hadn't taken a crap for three days and i really had to and i couldn't get to the top or bottom so i took a dump and then washed off in the waterfall. While Alex and Zac were watching. Needless to say, everyone knows and it was the main topic of conversation the rest of the week. All in all. Good Day.

Wednesday we didn't pack up our gear, we just took the canoes and we went. We met the other crews from my troop along the way. We jumped off cliffs. We played battleship. For a detailed explanation of battleship, contact myself on aim or navarcus34 (alex.) its piles of fun. We found a US forest service cabin in the middle of nowhere. And behind it we found the latrine to end all latrines. It was dark, bug-free, and closed in. Normally we were going to the bathroom in a plastic cone out in the open. a paddle was the bathroom door. And then we headed back. We thought the day was over. So we ate and then started to pack so we could get an early start the next day. It turns out Jay left some of his fishing equipment (by the way he caught some tuesday and we had fish and oatmeal for breakfast wednesday morning. It was good.) at the cabin. So Alex and Zac, and Dad and I went out at 9:30 at night to go and retrieve it. It was twilight until about 10:30 and after that it was Dark, Buggy, and Awesome. We found it as soon as we got to the cabin. It was on the shore. We saw the the Northern Lights. It was just a great night. (oh most of the day, it was me and Alex in the canoe.)

Thursday. The day that will live in Infamy. We went like 19 miles. we basically got home almost but it was not smooth. We basically skipped breakfast. Jerry set a monstrous pace into the wind. Alex was getting pissed the entire today. I was duffing (sitting in the middle of the canoe.) in Jerry's canoe and people were falling behind. So i started paddling with Dad and Alex went with Bill and Zach duffed. That kept us pretty together most of the way till lunch. We were killing the portages. All of the ones that hurt us on monday went like cake. We found a nice place to have lunch and we were all famished. We ate and messed around for like an hour. And then without really reaching any semblance of a decision, it ended up that we left and kept going instead of calling it a day. We canoed more and got to the last portage of the week and that went badly. There was a group that was getting shuttled with motorboats on the other side and we couldn't get through so we were stuck carrying the heavy stuff for too long and that made us cranky. We finally got to our final destination and the camp was a piece of crap. The campsites out there are all very primitive but this one just sucked ass. And Alex was angry and he goes, "We should have F**kin stayed at the other campsite." Jokingly, not realizing he was really pissed, I say "Whoah, he's cussin," and then to him, "you're tired." He yells "F**k that excuse!" and points at me. Jerry goes ballistic on him and they have a little shouting match and its pretty awkward but it gets better. Everyone is fine now and we all miss Alex. One of the other crews from my Troop was within spitting distance and so most of our crew went over and stole all but 0ne of their paddles. That pretty much brought the morale back up.

Friday, it was me and alex again. We gave the paddles back and talked like pirates all the way till lunch. We ate, cleaned the campsite and officially got our fifty miler done. (you have to do 10 hours of service too) and went all of 3 miles that day. We had our rendezvous and we showered and we wished it wasn't ending. There was a hugful and almost tearful goodbye to Alex.

Saturday we drove all the way home. We got up at four again. Basically last Saturday backwards.

It was a great trip. Sorry for being so long. Talk to you guys again soon. Adios.

Wait, wait. You did what to that waterfall?

This is something I did for Chess, the musical Jonah, Marten and I are in. It's about Chess and the Cold War, so I tried to combine the concepts. I think it turned out pretty cool. 

The King is dead. Long live the King.

Our TV died last night. *funeral dirge*. It was 13 years old.

In happier news, I FINALLY got a job yesterday. That's right, I am officially employed. I start Monday. At JC Penney. W00t! I think the place is desperate, because my interview pretty much went: "When can you start?" I was so sure they weren't going to want me, that I walked out of the little hidden office behind the blenders in a daze. "Whoa. What just happened?" Then I went to the bookstore for an hour.

Since I haven't posted since I've been home from school, I am now going to share a few bits of wisdom with you, that you may learn.

What I Learned In My First Year of College:
1. You will always crave Easy Mac at approximately midnight. This is an inexplicable phenomenon, but it's there.
2. Bedtime does not exist. You will pull more than one all-nighter. And even when you're not, you find yourself staying awake far longer than you would ever have dreamed of at home, talking on AIM.
3. Naps exist a lot. Sometimes you fall asleep doing homework. Sometimes you fall asleep just lying there. Naps will save you. Use them wisely.
4. Quarters are worth their weight in gold. You would never have thought laundry was that expensive.
5. Wal-Mart is your best friend. And your arch-enemy. This is not just true of Hanover, where Wal-Mart is the only place to go. Wal-Mart is an evil corporation, but it is cheap, and you will find that that is all that matters. But when they don't have what you want... Damn you, Wal-Mart! You toy with us so!
6. What they say about college students is true: we are very messy. You will be amazed by the untidiness of others. You will be equally amazed by your ability to live in squalor, because you're too lazy to take out your trash.
7. You will inevitably live near someone you can't stand. For me, it was the girls on either side of me who thought that 11:00 was a good time to start the music and the partying. There will be at least one of this type in your hall.
8. Actually, the bookstore is your worst enemy. Textbooks are ridiculously expensive. They are bought back for about 2% of what they're worth. Then the bookstore tries to lure you into buying merchandise, and sometimes you do because it's closest, but it's also more expensive. Stupid bookstore.
9. Dead week has two definitions. Either could apply at any given time. Dead week is either the week before finals, in which the campus is "dead" because there is no work to do; or dead week is the week before finals, in which you are dead because you have so much work to do.

I think I'd like to start updating Notebook again, if everybody's as caught up as they're going to get. Please let me know where you stand on this. PLEASE.

Also, I am about to do a post on Turtle. Go check it out because if you don't I'll be sad.

Oh, no! This is how the mutant carp will get you!

YEAH! Burnin that Gasoline. rinse. repeat.

Yeah, so today has been the most boring day ever. I got up at noon. I talked to Michelle on the phone. I've been on the internet. My mom's being annoying and nobody wants to do anything and it's too late now. I have to go shopping for Minnesota with Dad later and then thats the end of the day. WOOHOO! Life is great. sorry about the brevity of this post but that is how boring today is. That's all that has happened.

Oh, no! This is how the mutant carp will get you!

Obvious Collared Green ICXXX

I suppose I should jump on the compendium revival bandwagon and make myself some kind of a post. Today in summer school I learned that although I may be reasonably fast for a skinny nerd-boy, I am not superman. I did run the mile voluntarily and in 6 and a half minutes, but it just about killed me. I have never felt so faint in my life. I contemplated going up for track or cross country next year, but I'm fully aware that I don't have the time, or probably the work ethic. So I'm content to remain a surprisingly fast skinny nerd-boy.
I've also recently begun to read a book for school called "An Essay on the Principal of Population Blah Blah Blah," by Thomas Malthus, which is 140 pages long and 207 years old. At first I found it dry and uninteresting but once I got into it it really picked up. It really makes capitalism make sense. And it unexpectedly switches from philosophy to theology towards the end and sheds some very interesting light in that area too.
I'm going to conclude by bashing Thomas in order to conclude as to whether or not he ever reads this blog without prompting (also to take up space!). If he does he will either get mad at me and respond in kind or merely begin to cry pathetically. If he doesn't then he won't respond at all, thus proving all that I say true.
Thomas is an inconsiderate, massively pungent, completely inedible carpetbagger and his shoes are as dull and unpolished as an ugly stock broker. If he used cheese as his only hygiene product, it would be an improvement. On his free time he plays basketball with orphan children or puppies. Unfortunately he uses them as the ball, and uses a basket made of spiked fire.

Oh, no! This is how the mutant carp will get you!

Attack of the Small Children

I've been being Levi this week, making a fool of myself in front of little kids for VBS. My Show Choir training has actaully come in handy there. I got to wear Levi's Spandex on Sunday, and today we got to use the boat from a year ago, and this time we filled it up with small children. A good time was had by all, especially the small children (even though Max had some trouble getting into the boat.) Tommorow we have a big party and then its all over.
I miss Levi and Amy and everyone else I know who's in another country. I really want to go to another country. But still, I'll be happy when everyone is back.
In other news, I'm trying to reread all the Harry Potter books before book six comes out. Right now I'm a little over halfway through Chamber of Secrets, but I have to say J.K.'s plot-weaving is far more complex than I would've given her credit for. I found a reference to the prophecy from book five in book one that I never would have noticed before, and there's all sorts of stuff like that. Trying to write a story with interweaving plots like that has given me a whole new respect for her.
Another great author is Gregory Maguire. His plots aren't nearly as complex, but he creates settings and characters with such amazing detail and imagery that the plot is no longer the point. I'd recommend Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister to anyone who like moral ambiguity in their novels. (I can't get enough of moral ambiguity. One of the reasons I loved Episode III so much.)
One last thing: I successfully made an egg Sunny side up! For those of you who don't know, this is a very big deal for me: I've never been able to crack an egg without breaking the yolk before.
Oh, no! This is how the mutant carp will get you!

What I Need seems so far away

(by the way my titles are parts of songs, all by artists I listed so you get a high five if you guess the artist, the title of the song is part of the title of the post normally)

Ok, back on topic. I slept on the couch last night. I personally love our couch because it is a.) longer than my bed so i don't have to do my cucoon impression and b.) is not as lumpy is my bed. I can't go to sleep before midnight anymore. I feel like I'm wasting precious doing stuff time. But I don't do anything productive after 11 anyway so I don't know what my deal is.

This is Mom's day off (wednesday) and so we went and got my physical. Apparently I've shrunk for I have lost an inch and a half since the last time I was measured. Meh. Aside from the coughing it was pretty much forgettable but coughing is always freaky so I remember that. Also I feel silly at the Pediatrician's office because if you added all the ages of the kids in that room up it still wouldn't be as much as me.

Then we went to lunch with Corri and Sally(corri's mom) and saw a crappy movie. Monster-In-Law is a complete waste of time. It's just my luck that the only showing of Batman was at 4 and that was out of range. Now I'm going to Nomads (youth group) where no one will be because Kyle, Neil, and Corri are going to a birthday party and Zach's in Mexico. And then to scouts. (yeah I'm a scout, what are you gonna do about it?) I feel hopelessly unprepared for Minnesota.

Did I tell you I'm going to Minnesota next week? No? Oh, well I'm going to canoe for fifty miles in the boundary waters and Dad's coming with. So I'll be gone for a week right after I start this little thing. Hmmph. Interesting. Well talk to you guys tomorrow.

Oh, no! This is how the mutant carp will get you!

If the World's at Large, why should I remain?

Welcome to my life everyone! If you didn't know already, I'm Matthew Hogg. I went to triennium with Jonah and Nathan and Thomas and I roomed with Jonah. I'm 16 and will be a senior at Arsenal Technical High School this fall. I slack far too often but I'm quite intelligent but not quite creative enough. I'm here for a couple of reasons:
1. to see how you guys think my life is just based on this.
2. eventually do a story site (ala corndog and hopefully someday ala pants)
3. cuz I'm tired of the lack of response on my lj so please respond with your thoughts when you have them.

Ok, let me introduce you to the players in my life:

We'll start with my girlfriend, Michelle.
We met at Youthfest in February and we've been a couple basically ever since. She's very attractive and fairly intelligent though she would not give herself credit for either because she's very insecure. She's going to the International Business School this fall to study to become a Travel Agent. I've told her I love her and I think I do but there's some gray area there. I don't think she is who I will end up with but she's fun most of the time and she loves me and I'm just taking advantage of the situation. However bad that is.

Ok family time.

My brother is an asshole. His name is Andrew. I'm really sick of him acting like he has all the answers and I should listen to him. He's 14 and thinks he's better than me. This will change when he gets to high school hopefully.

My mom and dad are still together. They're pretty good parents and they give me everything I need. My mom overreacts and my dad's a little distant. But overall good parents

Friends:
Julia is my ex but we were just best friends from the start really. Never quite did anything except label ourselves a couple. She is an enigma. I can never tell what mood she's gonna be in but I've come to love all of her. She is a great person and hopefully she'll come to know it soon. She doesn't always make the best decisions. She is at the Indiana Academy for Juniors and Seniors in High School up at Ball State.

Val is her roommate there and she's my tennis/venting buddy. She really listens well and is fun to be around

Alex, Mario, and Vinh still go to Tech and are all good friends with Val and each other. I hang with them sometimes but am not really part of their little group. (alex from bangledesh, mario's parents were born in Mexico, and Vinh's Vietnamese)

Andy is also an asshole, but a sensitive one. He'd like you to think he's a punk skateboarder but he's very emoy and sensitive. He has ADHD so he's kind of frantic sometimes. He's been much calmer and better to be around since his gf broke up with him.

Karl is me if I applied myself and was a recluse. He reads a lot.

My church friends are Kyle, Neil, Zach, Abbi, and Corri. They're ok and I hang out with them a lot so they're getting old.

Essex (Last name, his first is Matt so you can guess why he's essex. I'm piglet) is a really cool guy and he's me if i was more comfortable with myself and others. He's great to be around.

Just as a recap: Essex*K + Karl*E=Me where K and E are constants and the absolute value of the difference of K and E is less than .5 Did I mention i like math?

Not every post is gonna be this long but I thought this little experiment required a solid beginning. Happy Blogging everyone!

Oh, no! This is how the mutant carp will get you!

I just found this while I was hunting for other things and thought perhaps I should post it. 

Unparalleled Okra MMCXXVIII

Quite a bit has happened since I last posted. First and foremost, for those of you who didn't figure it out, you have me to thatnk for the week of "Compendium: Episode III" as well as for the current description. You have Michael to thank (or boo, as you see fit) for the fact that it only lasted a week. And props to my friend Matt Hogg for providing the starfield image. I have to tell you, I went through hell trying to get that damned thing up, and it ended up to be all the fault of a semicolon. But now there's one more thing I know how to do, so the next time there's something worth celebrating you can expect a similar overhaul. If you want to suggest such an overhaul and don't feel like attempting it yourself, just mention it to me and if I agree that it's a good idea I'll oblige.
On that same note, or at least a very similar one, I am the luckiest Star Wars fan ever. Showing up at 10:00, when the line stretched around the theater, I managed to get in to see Star Wars at midnight on Wednesday, and I managed to sit with the whole enormous LN section, and I had my brother and our excellent hats along. The movie was fantastic. That's all I need say here.
As far as school goes, the last week was boring as hell; I brought nothing but a yearbook the last three days. I did manage to fill all the sig pages, the table of contents, and the first page of said yearbook with notes. I also took to showing up on time for first period than leaving shortly thereafter and wandering the halls for the rest of the day, and suffered no ill consequences. No one ever seems to stop me in the halls, and no teachers seemed to take attendance. It was like EVERYONE had senioritis.
Since then I've been cleaning and scurrying to open houses, and having the new most frantic soundboard experience of my life at church; showing up at 10:00 and being informed that no one else was here to run the soundboard, and that the powerpoint had to be opened and set up, the tapes set rolling and the mics set in the next ten seconds. Naturally, I put the tapes in backwards and tried to record onto them and was rewarded by a large "BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" noise which, because I'd forgotten to mute the tape output, came out as more of a "BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRREEEEEEEEEEE!" right in the middle of dad's announcements.
ANd then yesterday I'm told Ihad my wisdom teeth removed, and the gaping holes in mouth confirm this, though truth be told I don't remember this at all. THis is dissapointing, as I was hoping to have some kind of psychedelic experience. The whole recovery thing has sucked, but I can't complain because two very cool things happened.
1. I got invited to a going away party for Ana-from-Moldova tomorrow!
2. Nathan and I got cell phones.
We asked if they were an early birthday or Christmas gift. Dad replied that they were a "Us finally getting with the 21st century" gift. Either way, I've added you all to my address book except for THomas, who's cell # I can't remember and Erin, same deal.
Ok, final note, crazy things are going down at various blogs. Michael keeps on trucking with the 50 book challenge, Erin as been insanely prolific at the Notebook (Not to mention writing a heck of a post at SP), Nathan is setting up some kind of crazy tournament, I'm making fun of him, Paul has set up some kind of blog but I haven't been checking it on account of he hasn't added it to the LINKS yet, and, last but certianly not least, my cousin Evelyn, who will be in town in under 2 months, has written what i believe to be her best story yet over at her blog. SO now that you're all out of school, get caught up!

Ford? I think I'm a sofa.

The Revenge of the Nathan

Ok, so it's the last day of school. I'm doing nothing in any of my classes, so I decide to wear pajamas and a bathrobe to school. I'm on my way to first period, and a woman who I can only assume is part of the administration very rudely tells me to take it off. I comply, grumbling, and she asks me to give it to her to put in the deans office. I very politely say no. she grabs my arms and drags me into the office. At no point in this does this woman ever show me the respect Savage is always talking about. I ask her to point out to me where exactly in the handbook it forbids me from wearing a bathrobe. She yells at me to get to class.
So I go to choir, and I get a pass from Dingman to go to the Dean's office and talk to Mr. Savage about getting my bathrobe back. The rude woman eventually lets me in. I hand Savage the student handbook with the page opened to the dress code and ask him to please point out where it says I can't wear a bathrobe. He is unable to. I ask him if I can have it back. He says no. I ask why not. He says to stop wasting his time and go back to class. I say no. He threatens to send me home. I decide to retreat for now and figure out what to do.
I can't let them win. I need some way to make the administration say "We should never have messed with Nathan Comstock," without actually breaking any rules. We've got something in the works, but it's looking like it may not work. I need ideas - how do I strike back?
Ford? I think I'm a sofa.