Friday, July 30, 2010

Revelations [The Edit]

A web comic in the tradition of great webcomics inspired me to Google Image search Barack Obama this evening. I forgot how attractive our president is, and I feel like a bad citizen for neglecting this important fact of government.


[Edit: www.en.wikipedia.org/Beewolf: Not to be confused with Beowulf

EVIL BEES!!!!!

My mom knows nothing about me!

I kinda want to write "Pit: The Musical." Or the very extensive music video.]

Nearness of You

Okay, so I loved Nora Jones, not so much for her voice, but for her composition of the song "The Nearness of You." While continuing my search for the perfect Sinatra album today, I found that she merely covered it! While I appreciate a beautiful singing voice, I find the beauty of creation far more stunning and admirable. Alright, alright, I don't think Sinatra ever wrote a song, but his voice isn't beautiful, it's a classic tradition that is more connotation at this point.

Started on my super secret project today, which was exciting. I took care of an obligation, briefly met with Dan G., hopped over to Molly's, though she was busy, so walked over to Lauren's while she was finishing up. Both visits were pleasant and overdue. Sitting on Molly's floor was sad to feel the pressing of so many memories that are no longer relevant to who we are. Afterward, I dropped off something for Keith at Wawa and continued on my merry way home.

Pulling into my driveway, I called Nick F. up to see if he was still at the sale. With all great fortune, he was. AND! with his lil' sister! I joined them for lunch, then went downstairs to find the Sinatra album I'd been desperately seeking. No luck, but I did find a good one for a dollar, and have reasoned that Sinatra covered every song Billie Holiday ever sang. It's nice.

From there, we drove over to Nick's and hung out. We did a lot of driving today for not doing much. At one point, sitting in the living room, Nick opened a vague forum for suggestions of what to do. Myself a veteran of the VB creek, opted to make a dam. That suggestion was turned into "look for tadpoles," even though it's definitely not tadpole season (as was later proven with limited experimental data). So we drive away from the neighborhood to this "swamp," where a stream supposedly held the baby frogs. Nick, Alex, and I search through giant muddy tire tracks filled with gunk to no avail. We saw one frog, and in a moment of "What the fuck?" see a giant tire swing in the distance. Excitedly running over to it, we realize we are in a clearing of magic. I could probably describe it pretty well here, but it's something I want to keep vague until it can be seen in person. It's interesting.

We went back there after getting Liz, traveled to the Grist Mill where I showed them the geocaches and explained the concept to Alex, who was very amused. He and Nick came up with startling abuses of the system, but hilarious ones, admittedly. Returning to the home of Nicholas, his mom sliced up some steak for us to make sandwiches. Brilliant, as I hadn't eaten dinner and it was ~8 by this point. We watched most of Superbad (which I'd never seen), and then "What Would You Do?" for an hour. It was an evening I had not expected, and one that I will attempt to recreate for others.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Dreams

I had 2.5 dreams last night.

The first one, both excellent and lengthy will be recapped here for memory's sake. The second has more cause for thought and will be written about elsewhere. The 0.5 was when I had the first dream, woke up and appreciated it, then fell asleep and continued it.

In Nick F.'s car, I was in the back seat behind the driver, with Brendan D. in the passenger seat. Coming up on the Sunoco near my house, Lil' F. greeted us wearing a shirt that said something to the effect "Oprah was a Teenage Prostitute." We exchanged pleasantries (while driving), but eventually went past and on to 202. The dream was cast in the purplish dusk of "right after twilight" time, and our destination was Brendan's house behind GV. Once at the school, it had the layout of a church I used to attend, and the place was swarming with Boy and Girlscouts celebrating Halloween. Being stealthy and whatnot, Brendan and I took great pleasure in scaring the children through the hallways. Stopping to help out right before leaving, we felt it made up for our mischief. While exiting the school and traipsing across his dewy yard, I woke up.

Eventually falling asleep back into the dream, I returned in Liz's house, where she was excited to see Nick. We all set about to joking, until Nick and Liz made it obvious they were going to hook up, and I realized that I could probably get with Brendan. I'm pretty sure there was more to this dream, but I don't remember it.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Somebody Else's Blog

Apparently these were all written by high school students, but there was some sort of objection to that. tl;dr. Either way, they're funny.


1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Naughty & Nice

Naughtiness failed. Nice was rockin'! Or hip-hoppenin', more like it!

Turns out Birds & Bees Risque closes at 7 on non-Friday weeknights. A terrible shame. Either way, I drove over to Kim's house and waited for her to come home from Vacation Bible School so I could serenade her. Her personally calculated E.T.A. was for 9:30. Because my shopping adventure ended abruptly, I had a little more time on my hands than original planned, and so serenaded Kim's neighborhood for a half hour or so. One guy sang a little Zeppelin, but the majority of dogs and passer-bys avoided my evening practice sesh. At 9:33, I decided to stoop it out on Kim's front step. There, I scared away her cats, and a few minutes later, I scared her mom. "Who is hooligan stoopin' it with a guitar?!" I explained myself before she could say that, but her thoughts may've beat me to it. She called out Kim, sneakily explaining that she needed help with the groceries. Bam! Kim was so surprised. For whatever reason, I did not spend my half-hour prep period attaching my shoulder strap to my guitar, so I pulled some nifty moves in holding it up/playing... "Whatever You Like" was the chosen song for serenade, as the result of a long dormant inside joke. Inside, she offered me water and "Chocolate Fudge Brownie" ice cream while watching the Barbie Fairytopia movie that I could. not. follow. Personally, I like to think I was charming and amusing during my time as her guest, but that is biased. All in all, while I did not get any exotic toys, I did make a lasting memory.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Passionate

"Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists."
-G. K. Chesterton

Every so often, I want to throw myself into a life of Bohemian abandonment. Maybe write a few articles for radical publications, volunteer at the anarchist book store, such and the like. It's not because I am exceptionally passionate about social reform. I can talk about the ills of society all day long, but what have I done to combat poverty, its hunger and homelessness, its destructive lack of education? Right now, I equate being informed with being involved. If I actually participate in the process of fighting injustice, I can alleviate my middle-class guilt, but that is still not the attraction. These moods are appealing because I wanted to be surrounded by passionate people. Artists and anarchists, I'm sure, have fantastic stories and excitement in their lives. It's the same with poetry, music, and art. The subject is appealing, but the people are what draw me in. Hopefully they won't call my bluff.

[Edit: Temple has THREE separate socialist clubs on campus!]

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Numbered

It's true, and I suspect it is in reference to Iron & Wine.