Saturday, January 1, 2011

First Adventure of 2011

I'd promised AJ that I'd take him building spelunking, whether he visited me in the city or not. While the Bethel Mansion had long promised an interesting exploration site close to home, only my brother had actually gone to visit its depths. The place is in fairly good condition for the number of windows that have been knocked out. We came in through the front window most devoid of glass, opening into a wood paneled den, immediately adjacent to the (grand) entryway. It is far too grand for us. The entryway is domed with golden scrollwork on shimmering blue. Water dripped onto everything, at once startling us for very closely imitating the sound of footsteps. Well, AJ rightfully imagined it to be the sound of walking. I imagined it to be the sound of a zombie eating brains. After all, the mansion is a lovely place to stage a film or a terrifying, small-town massacre. It's an interesting subject of exploration. Although we did not find the basement, nearly every room was searched. Upon finding a pantry sort of room, AJ found a large and beautiful locket of an owl, obviously meant for me. While it may only be beautiful for its history, that frequently happens with people. Later, on the roof, we discussed the pleasantries of living in such a building. I imagined myself a summer child, and the broken house as an extended fort.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Another night at Tom Jones.

Tomorrow night,
another night at Tom Jones.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Inputting, Outputting, Offputting

These past few days have felt like there is not enough time to learn everything that I want to. Today heralded my discovery of iTunes U, so the afternoon has been spent downloading various lectures from various prestigious universities across the globe. Open courseware is phenomenal, but I'm not sure if I have the time to actively focus on a lecture. Theoretically, the plan is to listen and attempt to draw everything that is being discussed. This serves both as a way to entertain without visual stimulus and to keep a rather eccentric set of notes as evidence of production. However, with all of this information I have yet to absorb, I wonder when I will devote time to the more fulfilling act of creative production. Of course, I have to have information to work with before I can make anything worthwhile, but I can't learn all my life AND make all my life. Luckily, making tends to infer a certain learning by its own right. It's an interesting perspective I'd never looked at before.

Holy Days

My favorite holidays are Halloween and New Year's. Both provide a reinvention. Halloween, for one night, a chance to be something more than anything I will ever be. I can be blatantly both witty and sexy. New Year's, the fresh start that is just another day, is a symbolic starting over. There are daily improvements I can make to myself and often try to, but for longstanding achievements, it is a good motivation. This year, my tentative resolutions include:

Host an impromptu art gallery OR have my art hosted by a legitimate gallery OR put up 5 pieces greater than 6x6" OR greater than 5 pieces of smaller art OR any combination of above
Get a literary work published in a forum reaching greater than 10,000 people
Compose an album of more than 10 songs, with at least half longer than 2:30 min.
Pull an all nighter
Sing all the verses of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall
Create a three minute film OR produce a documentary
Visit a foreign country
Write my manifesto
Write at least two letters to local representatives
Self-publish a satirical newspaper OR a semi-weekly guerrilla commentary
Write and submit articles to a Temple news publication, The Daily News, The Inquirer, and one additional media source
Attend a Phillies, Flyers, Eaglesr, and Union Game
Make out in the Kimmel Center
Watch Rocky
Eat a Cheesesteak
See the Liberty Bell
Visit the Academy of Natural Sciences

Last Night, When We Were Young

Neither snow nor rain...

Antiques Road Show last night showed clips in which people, by sheer luck, rescued pricey objects from the inevitable destruction of a dump. Jeff came over slightly after its conclusion and left slightly before my adventure to Tom Jones. His curfew was retracted some hours as his parent's wintry response to the hazardous roads. At TJ, for the first time in two years, I was conflicted; I was not in the mood for breakfast food. There is only one other time in the history of me and Tom Jones where I did not order the Blue Ribbon Special. Eventually, after stalling the waitress, I settled on the mozzarella sticks, an economically poor choice, seeing as they are $4.19, as opposed to the staggeringly cheap $3.79 of the unrivaled BRS. Also, another poor decision was that I saw Donna F.. It'd been a while since I'd seen her, and she was sitting far away. I called her name. Not Donna. However, I was in Tom Jones after midnight, so hopefully her party assumed some sort of inebriation. Dinner was delightful. Conversation was pleasant, and two of our party utilized their fancy iContraptions to call up "Talking Earl" and "Talking Carl." These apps are adorable little functions in which the users may speak to the cute lil' pixel blob on the screen, and it will repeat what they said in a high pitched squeak. It was brought to our attention that when reflected against each other, Talking Carl and Talking Earl will eventually reach a horrifying, high-pitched singularity of shrieking white noise. I unnecessarily laughed to tears. We left and came to settle in to one of our warm and interesting rooms. I do not subscribe to the culture of things, but there were many intriguing things in this room. We talked for hours, the others lightly imbibing at the outset. I was made to try the taste of Peach Schnapps for its non-alcoholic taste. Now, my total alcohol consumption has been less than three ounces of peach flavored beverages. Only peach flavored alcohol. Why peaches? We wound up leaving around six in the morning, and getting dropped off, my dad was up. Oh shit. I waved to him, said good morning, and went to my bed.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Media de Gracias

I had a rather lovely wikilinking spree inspired by investigations into international academic competitions and googling "notable prankster wiki."

By the graces of Mrs. G. and Netflix, I've watched four documentaries in three days. I dislike the informal documentary practice of referring to a practice or object as something else, perhaps calling a corporation a shark, then showing a clip of a shark for good measure.

My little brother outgrew frolicking in snow before I did.

The dark roots are starting to show, so I suspect I'll be dyeing my hair back before break is over. I think I lose my blonde forever after this.