So Once I Had This Blog Thing...

...But then I graduated high school and stopped updating it. Anyone who reads this should hopefully know me, and anyone who doesn't, good luck getting to know me through these writings. I never really planned on doing any more work on this blog, but last week something interesting happened: I was having a chat with my youngest older brother, and we were talking about writing, and it made me curious to see how my writing had held up, so I stopped by here and reread some old posts.

I was pleasantly surprised; Not all of the stuff on here is utter drivel! And in addition to that, I've been churning out schlock fairly consistently of late, because I have to for a class here. So I won't be updating regularly, but every now and then I will post a piece from my writing class, or a failed idea with some interesting concepts, political manifestos, etc.

Anyway, here's a mood piece I did last week. I was feeling hyper, and couldn't concentrate enough to actually produce something, so I wrote instead:

Spring Fever

2/19/11

Spring is in the air, and my bones are twisting out of their shells. I'm trying to write this all down before I go stir crazy and start punching things, but I'm not optimistic. Spring fever is a gloriously frustrating sensation; it's typified by a burning desire to tear down empires and raise galaxies, but it's accompanied by such a frenetic caffeinated jittering that you can't actually produce much of anything other than incoherent shouting.

I think it's best at night: you get that achy bittersweet remembrance of childhood, unmarred by any recollection of what your childhood was really like. It's a blessing, the night air. It's intoxicating like the sweetest incense, and fleeting like unfaithful love. It makes you remember the smell of baking dust, of roads too hot to walk on in bare feet (but of course you went barefoot anyway, and you tried to find the tarry patches of road because somehow the gooey, barely contained ooze felt cooler than the concrete). It makes you want to run forever, just pick a road and start running until you hit ocean and towering whitecaps, throwing dreams into the sunlit, sea filled air. And you know they're lying, but your bones tell you that when you see the ocean coming, you’re going to go in swimming, and go down fighting.

It makes you want to drink water from strange and dangerous places; wells, streams, hoses if you're lacking in resources. You want to run the through the grass, and maybe wrestle in it too. You want to see people have expressions that shows the kind of wonder that's too happy to stay but still feels strangely, peculiarly right. You want love; fleeting, ethereal, springtime love that's doomed to die by summer but leave you with a bittersweet tang of unused potential.

You want to grow, and die, and live forever. And you know it's a beautiful lie, but you also know, deep down, that this time, this summer, you're going to live forever.

Well Hullo Thur

It's been a while, and while that's my fault, I am not going to apologize for it. It's a well known fact that Internet speakers (or "interspeaknetterkers", to use the "hip lingo" of "young ones" "these days" "") are like wild animals in that they can scent your fear, and will annihilate you once it has detected. I mean, just look at AOL.
Before I wander off on another tangent, and that almost certainly will occur, I'd like to introduce the central topic of Today. I sometimes read the blogs of my beloved spawn siblings (notice that I have not included Evan on this list because he does not have a blog [this is my subtle way of telling Evan he should go make a blag, and write things on it to entertain me like the dancing capuchin monkey that I happen to know is his totem creature{GO GET A BLOG EVAN YOU HOBO}]), and it occured to me that two of them were both sounding super motivated and stuff, and I happen to know that one of my other sisters is also super motivated with her super cooking, while only one of them sounded as confused by things as I am. Maybe it's because she lives in Utah (I know I would be confused).
Anyway, my own bewilderment stems from the fact that recently I've been spending unhealthy amounts of time working on scholarships recently, and A) I really, really hate the scholarship process, and B) I know way less about my future goals than I would like to admit.
I mean, I know that I want to graduate, then get my Associate's degree at NC State in Computer Information Systems, and then I want to go on my mission, and then I want to... Things. Also words.
This wouldn't bother me much, except that scholarship committees really, really, REALLY love learning about my future. Am I some kind of superentrepenuer? ...Kind of, I guess? I mean, I guess could run my own company, but it's not what I would describe as a burning passion. Or something I want to do at all. Am I super motivated for my eventual super career? Kah-ree-ar? what is this kahrear that you are speak of? Are you a super motivated super learner? YES! Yes, I am that. I like to learn things. Put that one on my check list. Am I willing and ready to write a couple of hundred (thousand) essays to reach my goal of an amorphous, undecided future? Not really, no. Too bad for me, I get to do that anyway. I just feel uncomfortable telling people about how pumped I am to get my Bachelor's in the supertechwizardmaster field so that I can eventually reach my goal of fixing the snot out of EVERY COMPUTER EVER, and possibly also fighting bears. Maybe Computerbears (cyberweasels, even). I hate to admit it, but I am not actually that pumped about getting a career some day. I don't like working, I like learning. Learning is my thing. I want to go to college because I have a passion for book smarts.
That's pretty much it.

And now, because I am a loving (albeit neglectful) blog poster guy person adjective, I am going to
PUMP

YOU UP!

With music. I am pretty fond of it, and while most of you have probably heard a lot of it before, listen to it again. It is good music. First up: Bishop Allen. This is an indie group that I was introduced to by the previously mentioned itinerant hobo, Ervin. Those of you who have Buzz, a handy feature recently released by Google (which Evan ALSO doesn't have, possibly because cardboard boxes don't have internet access), will already know that I am a pretty big fan of Bishop Allen. Here are some songs by them. Most of these are repeats of my Buzz buzz, but they are all good so listen to them again. Next up is the Aquabats! I first learned of The Best Band in The World from Meggan, who at the time was a worldly something-older-than-me visiting from College, bearing gifts of Ska, TMBG, and A Capella. I was enraptured by all three, especially this one A Capella anthology she had (Scottish Spring anyone?), which was listened to until its surface was scratched like a well used ice rink that hadn't been visited by a Zamboni in years (me and my young brood companions were not kind to CD's in the old days). Anyway, after Meggan abandoned me to wend her way to more fruitful pastures, my interest in music waned and didn't reawaken until years later, when I found out that A) The internet is a thing that exists; and B) Youtube has every song ever. At all. Seriously, all of them. And that led to a renaissance of discovery, including, recently, the Aquabats. They are probably my favorite Ska band, and ska is awesome, so go check out their stuff. Also, here are some other songs that I am too lazy to write descriptions for. I have eclectic taste in music.

Lastly, have a good day, or night, or whatever time it is wherever you read this, and go check out Jonathan Coulton, because he is awesome but I don't want to spend even more time linking to him because I have spent a lot of time on this already. And finally, one more link: The whale song by Modest Mouse. It has arguably the most surreal music video I've ever seen, and I LOVE IT. Awesome

Hey you Guys (Gals?)

Hey, long time no post.

Which is my fault.

Let's let bygones be bygones, ok?

Anyway, this is kind of depressing, because I'm going to be going on hiatus soon. By which I mean a month ago. Which kind of sucks. As for reasons, it's mainly laziness. I was never overly dedicated to this project to begin with, and I just started running out of things to talk about. Honestly, I've always thought that was impossible, but.... it's not. So yeah.

Also, I've had a lot of school, the aliens are holding my loved ones hostage, I'm scouting out colleges and jobs... there's just a lot on my plate.

basically, I'm switching the update schedule to its original format, which is "Whenever I feel like it, and my fans can go choke on their anger vomit." Love yall!

Expect an update next..... time.

Thing a Week 47: (metaphorically)

This is a piece I wrote for English a few weeks ago, that I liked enough to post. unfortunately, I lost the paper that had my only copy of it, so until I find it, this is all that's available to read. In other news, I've decided to finally get off my butt and do enough posts to fill out my backlog; therefore, in the following days i will be producing three more posts to catch up.

Also, in quick (but relevant) side note, when I consider my writing habits, I'm reminded of a quote by the brilliant Douglas Adams: "I love deadlines. I love the sound they make when they go whooshing by."

There's a telephone pole located right by my house, in the grass by the sidewalk in front. It's a pretty typical telephone pole, as far as these things go, but it recently struck me that I've become so used to it that it's become effectively invisible.
I've lived in the same house for almost all my life, and I've always had this 50 foot tall stick jutting out of the lawn right by my sidewalk. It's one of the things that I ought to know like the back of my hand-but if it comes to that, how many times have you really paid attention to the back of your hand? It's the most familiar things things in our life that we pay the least attention to.
Most of the details I can think of are snatches of memories of growing up: Making snowballs to throw at the

Thing a Week 46: I Totally got Mugged a Few Weeks Ago

Welp, here is the double post, as promised. I will do my best to create well thought out, creative, emotive pieces, because I'm a pretty cool guy who's filled with creative ideas and artistic integrity.

Yes!

Anyway, I've got a few things to talk about.

First up: I am kind of an eagle scout now, and I could use some pictures of me committing various acts of Eagle Scoutlery upon innocent bystanders. If any of the people reading this (read: my direct family) have pictures that fit that profile, I'd appreciate if you let me take those pictures, and use them, and then maybe remember to vie them back. Also, I am totally having my court of honor after Christmas, and anyone who reads this is invited.

Next up: I got mugged a few weeks ago, and didn't really talk that much about it, so here is the account, as fully as I can remember it:
Two or so weeks ago, I went to the library to pick up some books. As I was walking, three guys approached me walking in the opposite direction. I kept walking, they passed me, and then when I looked down, I noticed that their shadows had stopped walking away from me. Instead of turning around and saying moderately inappropriate comments about their hygiene, lineage, and personal habits, then running away (which is my plan for the next time this happens),I continued to walk, and then they started walking after me. Then they caught up with me. At this point, I was pretty sure I was going to get mugged, possibly because I'm psychic or not an idiot. The guy who seemed to be in charge said Syper? (siper? ciper? cyper? sigh-pur? I don't know, but apparently it's some sort of code) at me a few, times, became impatient when I stuttered confusedly, and then proceeded to express his disagreements with my bewildered comments via the traditional method, i.e. having me briskly hit his fist with my face. They then proceeded to punch me one more time, this time in my temple, and then removed my backpack, searched my pockets for items of value, took my mp3 player, told me repeatedly that they had a gun (I'm pretty sure they were lying), and then ran away. I stood up, and continued walking to library.

In response to the questions that people always seem to ask when I tell them about this:
No, I didn't fight back. It's a bad idea when you're outnumbered, and it keeps the muggers from hurting you severely
No, I didn't get hurt badly. They only punched me twice, and neither time hurt that much, it was just disorienting,
Yes, the muggers were all black. Why does everyone I talk to ask me this? IS IT THAT VITAL TO KNOW THE RACE OF MY MUGGERS? Why are people so intrigued with the fact that I was punched by minority figures?
As to what was taken: My backpack was the main loss. I've had that thign for at least 3-4 years, and it's lasted great up to its being stolen. next most important was my mp3 player, which was a piece of junk, but had my music and I miss it. I've got all my songs backed up, but I don't have convenient access, which is frustrating. I also lost two school ID tags, which is annoying because they cost cold hard cash, a commodity I tend to have in short supply. I also lost a library book (the Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud, if you were wondering), somethign else I'm going to have to pay to replace. In total, I'm probably going to end up being about $60-$70 in the whole to replace everything I've lost.

That is, in a manner of speaking, two separate items of writing. I'm also going to be posting I descriptive piece I wrote recently, but the only copy that I have of it is written on treeflesh, and I won't be able to post it until I get my hard copy back.

P.S. As an aside, money/items to help pay for items lost in muggings make GREAT christmas present,s if any of you were wondering.

Thing a Week 45: A Whine!

Right, I failed yet again to post on time, and this time I have chosen to blame (noun) Thanksturkey day. It made me fat, it slowed my reflexes, and prevented me from typing.

Don't question the logic, accept the magic.

Anyway, I will be double posting again because I fail.

Still trying to Make Up for My Artistic Failures

Since I've been dropping the ball pretty regularly on my updates recently, I thought I'd try to make up for it with an additional post mid-week. The topic is one which will probably estrange three of the four people who read this blog, since they are all my sisters.

I'm talking about Twilight, of course. This has gone on long enough. It is time to stop. Pop culture, as a whole, needs to get over its collective fascination with sparkling angst-beasts, and move on to something else (which will probably be equally retarded, but will at least be DIFFERENT). To fend off any questions, no , I still haven't read anything by Mrs. Meyer, nor do I have any intention. I was embarrassed by the thought of reading it back when it was simply the obsession of every female I knew, but by now I'm actually scared to read it, lest I start mooning over Edward (He's SO supr dreamy, rite? lol), and trying to move to wherever those things live. Somewhere called Fork, I guess.

I mean, honestly! This has reached a pandemic scale. New moon SET THE NEW WORLD RECORD FOR FIRST DAY TICKET SALES. THE WORLD RECORD. IT BEAT THE DARK KNIGHT! This is no longer annoying, this is an epedimic, and I'm getting to the point where I'm tempted to start using traditional methods to cure the disease: burn all the bodies of the infected.

THE ARTICLE FOR THE NEW MOON MOVIE HAS MORE CITATIONS ON WIKIPEDIA THAN GEORGE WASHINGTON. I'm sorry to be the one to say this, but vampires, no matter how dreamy, are not as important as the father of the United States of America.



THEY JUST AREN'T