Seriously Cam, Stop With the Titles

I consider it my cross to bear that I am endowed with a mind that often sees the darker side of things. I have been called cynical, sarcastic, sometimes even a "Realist." Occasionally though, its worth it to be able to see a darker side to things. 

Take Pokemon for instance, a topic that has appeared on this blog more than once. The Pokemon world is a strange one: The largest crime syndicate in existence simply gives up its operation when a prepubescent kid's trained animals beat up their trained animals. Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't Giovanni just beat Ash senseless with a large stick? I do understand its a Video Game, but really Team Rocket, don't they have big sticks where you come from? Furthermore guys, what's with all the Raticates....

Moving on to a more accessible example: Harry Potter. When I read about the Imperius Curse, the thought that popped into my head was that if J.K Rowling's fantastical world were real, the Imperius Curse would probably be used like a roofie. Granted this thought probably didn't occur the first time I read through the books, because at that point the hardest drug I was familiar with would have been bubblegum flavored penicillin. But the point still stands: "Listen Albus, I've had a really great time but I think I would rather just go home alone tonight. Thank you for all the ButterBeers though!" A couple dozen Unforgivable Curses later, you have a happy couple. Apparently a homosexual one according to J.K. Rowling and some of the stranger fan-fiction writers.

Some people may be appalled, but I like to imagine that I'm merely thinking outside the box. It's not my fault the world outside the box is dark and scary.

Of Russell Crowe and Bobby Jindal

When I announced my weekend hiatus yesterday, I was working on the assumption Nathan would go crazy and, I dunno, post or something. But apparently that was a bit overoptimistic. Thoughts:

- I just watched Gladiator, and that may well be the most epic movie ever. The swelling score, Russell Crowe's frequently exposed abs, many decapitations, and of course the best post-battle bellow ever: "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!" Just writing that makes me tingly.
- Speaking of Joaquin Phoenix (he played the murderous young emperor in the aforementioned film, for those of you so un-pop-culture-savvy that you did not know such things), did you catch him and his beard on Letterman a couple of weeks ago? It's a long clip, but I encourage you to watch at least a bit of it.
- And speaking of that appearance, if you didn't watch the Oscars, Ben Stiller's Joaquin imitation was easily the highlight.
- Thing that I have never fully appreciated until taking this 20th Century Europe class: Hitler and the Nazis came damn close to winning that whole war thing. Also, Russians are even more badass than I had previously thought, which I wouldn't have guessed was possible.
- My Republican friends have been telling me for a while now that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is the future of the GOP, but if that's true, they're in trouble. I watched his rebuttal to Obama's State of the Union address, and wasn't sure whether I should laugh or lapse into depression. The man manages to sound like a cross between Kenneth from 30 Rock and Mr Rogers.

Of Washington and Cell Phones

It's currently 11:30, and I have an essay to do. However, I just received an email from a very very pregnant aunt who says she's started reading this thing (do you think the unborn child is absorbing my sparkling wit?), so I feel it is my honorable duty to write a nice, thoughtful post before I take a short hiatus. See, I'm heading down to Washington DC, attending some big climate change conference.There's actually 48 St. Lawrence kids heading down to this: we're all piling in a bus at the crack of dawn Friday, and not returning until late Monday night. Just as exciting as the whole conference thing is the fact that I'm staying with several old friends from high school while down there, and expecting some fairly epic times. While perhaps it's not as spontaneous as Nathan's Florida run, I still imagine I'll return with at least a couple of amusing tales.

So from Friday until yesterday, I conducted an interesting experiment where I tried living sans cell phone. Yes, perhaps this was prompted by the vanishing of my phone, and yes, perhaps it was me subsequently buying a new one that ended the experiment, but nevertheless! it was all done in the name of science. Turns out that there is a plus side: it's remarkably easy to dodge people who you didn't really want to talk to. On the downside, you also accidentally fall out of contact with people who's company you do enjoy. Seeing as my life has far more of the latter type of people than the former, my scientific decision is that I really didn't like being without my phone. No comforting weight in my pocket, no way to pester friends while I'm at work, etc. Very depressing. More than anything besides a computer, cell phones are the modern technology that I have difficulty imagining living without. This may sound very narrow-minded, seeing as the majority of people on this planet are making do just fine without, but the degree to which my social life is cell phone-dependent is kinda scary. Hm, getting too serious for this medium.

- Watchmen comes out in a bit more than a week! Eek! I'm seriously far too excited about this film...
- Trying to reaccumulate my contact list is bloody miserable. The numbers on this phone are also much harder to press than on my previous one, and I'm growing frustrated by my lack of dexterity. Not for the first time.
- I read a NY Times article today about an elementary school class that is experimenting with having no chairs. The desks are higher than usual, and the students stand at them. This sounds remarkably sadistic, although it's ostensibly for the benefit of the children.
- I had to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey for a class of mine. Wow. That is a painful movie to sit through. Epic and all, but numbingly boring. I do love the novel, however. Nathan and I have some history with that book...
- To the person who took my sheets out of the wash and left them on the lint-covered floor: not okay. Not Okay.
- I just realized that I've had headphones in for the last half hour, but never turned on any music...

Collected Thoughts

I'm not in the mood for writing anything with a central theme or unifying message, so here is a rambling list of thoughts I've had.

• At McDonalds, you can ask for special sauce and shredded lettuce to be put on your value menu double cheeseburger, and it effectively becomes a $1 Big Mac. I realize this may excite me more than it does a normal person. (Credit goes to the mysterious large man in front of me in line who ordered this)
  

• Pearl of a witticism: "He's so full of himself, I'm surprised there's room for internal organs."

• Has anyone read "The Terminal Man" by Michael Crichton? If so you should look at this.

• Ski Resorts in Pennsylvania are so proud of being ski resorts in Pennsylvania that I found myself enjoying skiing just because I was afraid of hurting their feelings.

• I hope you like hyperlinks as much as I like MAKING THEM

I have a question for those 3 or 4 people who actually comment on this blog: Jizz in My Pants or I'm on a Boat?

Of Oscars and Oreos

Well, the Oscars happened tonight. Maybe you saw them. Hugh Jackman is ridiculously good looking (although a bit song-and-dance prone for my tastes), the acceptance speeches and introductions were littered with some funny bites, but dear god, enough with the montages. Realllllllly gratuitous (much like the number of l's I used back there). Thoughts on the winners:
- If Heath hadn't won Best Supporting Actor, there would have been a riot. I'd be part of it, too.
- Wish Peter Gabriel's song for Wall-E had won best original song. The Slumdog love was not to be denied, however.
- Speaking of such, it's hard for me to speak about a movie I haven't seen yet, and I'm sure it was great, but Slumdog stole some awards from some movies I loved. I would have been much pleased to see Doubt, Frost/Nixon or Gran Torino win anything at all, and Dark Knight should've taken home more than it did.
- The Best Actor category seemed like a legitimate toss-up. From what I hear, both Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke could've won most years, but as it was, Sean Penn's acceptance speech was legitimately chuckle-inducing.
- I don't like Kate Winslet.
- If Wall-E hadn't won Best Animated Picture, I would've gone ballistic. Should've been nominated for Best Picture overall.

In other news: a friend of mine recently received a record player, and we listened to the Pink Floyd, Beatles, and Who albums I have in my room. Listening to Sgt. Peppers on vinyl is a gorgeous experience that everyone should partake in.
I had a bit of spare time this afternoon, and enjoyed a pleasant stroll down to the grocery store, where I purchased the usual Cheez-its, French bread, apple juice, and then some mint Oreos for good measure. The latter are quite delicious, and I highly recommend them.
By the way, if the weather gods read this: keep it up, fellows. I love this consistent 30 degree weather, with a dusting of snow every day. This is how winter should be.

Of Stomach Pains and Beanbags

Sorry for not posting for a couple of days, I seem to be suffering from some sort of slow-acting debilitating disease that has gradually been sapping my strength. Anyway, I'll keep this to a couple of unconnected quick-hit thoughts:

- I saw Coraline in theatres, and was much pleased. You should too. It was a great little movie, and as fan of the book it fully lived up to my standards.
- Next weekend I shall be in Washington DC, ostensibly to attend a climate-change conference, but I'm really looking forward to the bit where I get to visit several old friends who reside in the region these days. It should be quite an adventure.
- I'm in the midst of re-reading what is possibly my favorite book (The Killer Angels) for the umpteenth time, and it makes me very happy. I came across the following phrase, which thoroughly reinforced my belief that it is the best book ever: "Lee watched quietly as Longstreet gloomed about." Gloom as a verb! Brilliant! At some point in my life I really hope to do something half that cool...
- My treasured beanbag is slowly deflating, much to my chagrin. Still cozy and ideal for napping, however.
- Loyal readers may recall a much earlier post when I described the way that there seemed to be a great number of dead flies in the overhead light in my room, and I have an update. I looked up today, saw the aforementioned deceased insects, and realized how amazingly gross it was. So I unscrewed the light, and found to my horror that there were many, many, many dead bugs in there. I unceremoniously threw them out, but I STILL HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA HOW THEY GOT THERE.

The Pinnacle of Human Intelligence

Someone wrote once that it is impossible to say something so stupid in a YouTube comment that people can tell you're joking. Judging by some of these (presumably serious) comments I find this easy to believe:

thirdworldcop writes: "SHUT THE FRICK UP WITH THIS WHITE BLACK NONSENSE IF THE DUDE WASNT EDUCATED then he wouldnt go to university of houston DURRRR"  

Speaking of educated....

OMGSEASALT (Which is a wonderful name) writes: "No one wants to see you dancing around with a dog. OKAY?"

If you think this comment makes sense in context you are mistaken. I searched for a while to see who he was responding to, but to no avail.

marleysherb appeals for reason: "GO LOOK UP SOMETHING IMPORTANT. MICROWAVES, MERCURY in vaccinations, FLOURIDE in all your water, CHEMTRAILS, just to name a few... Please look deeper into 9/11 the media is lying to all of us to promote an ENDLESS WAR. Things are not as they appear.

This was a comment on a clip from a reality show. The conspiracies are all around us I suppose. 

itspinoyboy1231 lets out his feelings: "OMFG FCK MILEY FCK U!!!! M&M CREW SUCKEZZZZZZ... AND ACDC CREW FCKEN BEASTS YOUR UGLY ASS..."

I'm not sure who the ACDC crew is, but I am sure I don't want them beasting my ass.

At first glance the commenting YouTube population may seem like a racist/sexist/illiterate bunch, but I'm sure they are good people deep down. JK LOLZ!!

Of Small Doors, Lost Phones, and Impending Snow

I like Wednesdays quite a bit. I have only one class, lasting from 8:00-9:30 in the morning, which makes possible things like the four-hour nap I took immediately after. From there, I've had lunch, tidied my room, done laundry, realized I have a rough draft of an essay due tomorrow, and pondered the rapidity with which Nalgenes disappear. I know they're probably giving me cancer or whatever, but I had four at the start of the semester and am currently down to two. Most mysterious.

Other things making my Wednesday a good one thus far:
- I'm sniffling less and less every day, and thank goodness because if things had kept up at their previous rate, my nose might have fallen off by now.
- There's a big snowstorm heading this way. You'd think that after almost an entire winter in upstate NY I'd stop getting excited about winter weather, but we're coming off a balmy stretch that melted all our snow and made things muddy and generally unattractive. So a foot of snow over two days sounds pretty good right now.
- My phone has been recovered! I was sure it was gone forever; I'd spent over an hour religiously retracing my steps from the morning it disappeared, but the trail was cold. Yesterday, though, reports started trickling in of people being called by my phone by a voice that was most definitely not my own. Turns out that after I accidentally left it in the computer lab, several friends of mine found it and began calling people with and leaving Jack Nicholson sound clips on their voicemails. This explained why several people came to me and asked them exactly what truth it was that they couldn't handle....
- Yesterday I found the coolest thing ever. I was returning from Frisbee practice via the labyrinthine tunnels branching out under the athletic complex, only to encounter a most mysterious doorway. It's hard to convey in words, but here goes: it was about a 1 by 1 foot square door in the wall, about 5 or 6 feet up in the wall. It had a full doorknob and keypad on it, implying to me at least that there were perhaps great treasures behind it, or possibly an entrance to Wonderland or John Malkovich's mind or something like that. I have a picture on my cell phone, but lord knows I don't have the know-how to get that onto my computer.
- Spring training is underway, and being dominated by stories about A-Rod doing 'roids. Nothing like near-endless negative publicity for your archrivals.
- Conversation I overheard today: "I think I have the flu like wicked bad, just I don't have any symptoms."

Of Frisbee, Pixar, and Pre-Frosh

Apparently today is some sort of admissions day: I wandered into the dining hall and was greeting by a throng of scared-looking highschoolers edging away from their accompanying happy-looking parents, all of whom were being watched by a group of austere-looking admissions personnel. Initially the crowdedness made me grouchy, but then I realized that because of all these prospective students the dining staff had put out some of our most delicious food, so I ended up dining quite contentedly on chicken fingers and pasta with alfredo (so no, college hasn't changed me at all...), which are both items that I reckon oughta be pretty standard dining hall fare, but in actuality appear only infrequently.

In lieu of Nathan's mention of Monster's Inc and nostalgia for childhood movies, it seems worthwhile to mention that yesterday I rewatched Toy Story, and found it EVEN BETTER than I remembered. If you made me pick my favorite Pixar movie... I think I would eventually narrow it down to Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Wall-E. Actually interested what you loyal readers think about this one; if you had to pick one Pixar movie, what would it be?

Anyway, a couple of notes from an excellent weekend of Ultimate:
- So I played in an indoor tournament where the fields were the size of basketball fields, and the endzones quite literally not much more than two yards deep. This was difficult to get used to.
- We played something like 12 games over the two days, and despite the tiny field, let it be known that that is a bizarre amount of running.
- St. Lawrence had won the whole affair last year (and there are twenty teams there, so fairly impressive, eh?) but unfortunately was knocked out in the semis this year.
- For no readily apparent reason, on Saturday I was playing pretty much the best frisbee of my life, but of course on Sunday when the games actually mattered I was utterly, utterly, terrible. Still though, on Saturday I cracked starting line, which is enough to keep my ego boosted to an unhealthy degree for the next week or so, maybe more.
- Oh yeah. I laid out so hard that my watch broke. Cut into my wrist, leaving several nasty cuts, wristband snapped, stopped ticking for a bit, but now is working again. Despite the fact that I didn't permanently destroy the watch, I still feel so ridiculously badass. The catch was for a point, too. Byah! (Incidentally, that was my version of the Howard Dean yell, complete with fist pump. Didn't carry over well into this medium...)

On a concluding note, if you do find yourself reading this, by all means sign up as a follower. It doesn't actually entail anything, but makes Nathan and I feel all impressive (as if I need any more of that, right?)

Of Townies and Mel Brooks

I had been told that the non-college residents of Grove City PA affectionately known as "Townies" were strange. Nowhere is this more evident than the two town hotspots: Sheetz gas station and Walmart.

I saw the same two girls (I use the term loosely; its difficult to discern age in this neck of rural Pennsylvania) dressed as goth rednecks first at Sheetz then at Walmart the next day. My running theory is there are only 30 or so actual inhabitants in Grove City. They just spend their Twilight Zone-esque existence shuttling between gas stations and Walmarts.

Furthermore the checkout lady looked like the secretary from Monsters Inc. 

On a widely unrelated note, I rewatched "Robin Hood Men in Tights" the other night and was largely disappointed. The pleasant nostalgia of watching a movie so revered in my middle school years was not enough to overcome the sheer silliness nor quell the urge to stuff the protagonist's smug little mustache down his throat. That being said, a young Dave Chapelle in Air Jordan sneakers and medieval garb was pretty sweet.

Valentine's Day?

So, get this. On average, men spend twice as much as women on Valentine's Day. What's up with that, eh? I figure that yeah, men can be jerks and all, but why on earth must we buy girls all this stuff? Crass materialism, I say! Bah. Nothing like a holiday to get me ranting, but this one in particular manages makes you feel bad for being single OR poor for being in a relationship. Apparently there are over one billion Valentine's Day cards sent globally. I want to invent a new holiday, a better holiday! Maybe Nathan can come up with a whole post on that one?

So what's up, you ask? (All those who wanted a coherent post: beware!) I'm having a quiet evening; still feeling stuffed up and icky, got a tournament bright and early tomorrow (today?), buncha friends out of town for the weekend, etc. My roommate appears to be talking on the phone about a History Channel special on the apocalypse to someone, and I'm burning a couple of reggae CDs. Amusingly, my CA played beirut tonight with us (for those of you loyal readers from beyond St. Lawrence, our CAs are your RAs), and he was terrrrible. Terrrrrible, I say! On the subject of terrible things, if I am subjected to any additional lists on Facebook of 25 things I never ever ever ever wanted to know about you, I may... something. Blah. Those lists are just such an odd combination of intensly personal yet breathtakingly boring information, it baffles me...

In what was easily the highlight of my Friday, I received a pair of home-knit socks from my grandmother. I'm guessing she ran out of yarn about halfway through, because the toes and ankles are endearingly different colors. What else has been good lately? Slightly fewer people seem to be flu-infected... I had a lovely one and half hour dinner session tonight: we just sat and talked for forever. About weird stuff too, like our favorite animals.... My roommate just proposed that every time a character played by Keanu Reeve is killed off in a movie, an angel gets its wings... I watched the movie Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels for FREE on Hulu, and was much amused. If I'm going to keep randomly promoting Hulu like this, they should give me a couple of dollars, just enough to pay for my weekly apple juice maybe...

Well, I again apologize for actually posting my 2 AM ramblings, but I'll make it up to you with a handcrafted joke:
Q:How many indie rockers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: You mean you don't know? Hehe.

Trip to Florida Part II

The epicness continues. Scroll down if you missed the first part.

The orange farm consisted of hundreds of trees, ten stray dogs, a few pigs and piglets, four abandoned cars, an assortment of chickens, and one boy named Alejandro. All this was surrounded by a barbed wire fence which my friends and I waited outside of.

Alejandro was about 14 and we suspect the only member of the family who spoke English. He opened the gate and let us in. After explaining the squishy small oranges were the best, and giving us two 5 gallon buckets, he stayed close by, no doubt to make sure the strangely excited Pennsylvanians wouldn't find a way to hurt themselves picking fruit. 10 gallons of oranges later we were about ready to leave. We each tipped Alejandro heavily and had him take a few pictures of us. After dragging our trip leader Dan out of negotiations for the sale of a piglet, we began to drive away, exhausted and sticky. The man on the vespa escorted us out of the farmland like some sort of honor guard.

After a short stop by the side of the road to collect palm fronds (Dan's idea), we drove towards the shore. An hour later the sun was shining, it was January and we were eating subs on Daytona Beach among a lot of teenagers that all look like this:

The wind was blowing and it wasn't exactly hot out so I was the only one to actually swim. Spur of the moment trips to Florida, bartering for piglets, and hopping barbed wire fences to collect palm fronds for decoration are all well and good but swim in 60 degree weather? I guess only I'm that crazy.

After taking pictures and collecting enough shells that the people back in Grove City would believe we were actually at the beach, we started to pack up and leave the surf, sand, and aspiring Hollister models. Due to not having slept for about 24 hours, the ride back to PA was rather uneventful. The road from West Virginia to Pennsylvania at 4 in the morning is the most mind-numbingly boring stretch of road in existence. It didn't help that I was the only one awake and thus responsible for all of our safety. That being said I didn't drive off the road once.

We arrived back at college at 6 am. The cold temperature and sleep deprived grogginess made our recent foray into summer seem decidedly dreamlike. Waking up in my bed a few hours later, I wasn't sure that it hadn't been a dream, that is until I noticed I was sleeping among 30-40 oranges.

Tick

- Well, I had a heartwarming little tale of my own, but wouldn't want this blog to get too goody-goody, so I reckon I'll save it for a rainy day.

- I've despised A-Rod so much for years that his admission of using steroids didn't actually lower my opinion of him substantially, but it was definitely bad for baseball. His seemingly sincere apology on Monday showed that he's at least classier and smarter than Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, and all those who continue denying their steroid use.

- Here in upstate New York we're enjoying an uncharacteristic warm spell: it's supposed to reach 45 degrees today!! There is much rejoicing amongst the student body.

- All is not well on the northern front, however. Our school resembles nothing so much as a plague-stricken fourteenth-century European city. In a class this morning, not only was about a fifth of the class absent, but an informal poll revealed that a majority of the students who showed had at least a cold. A majority, damnit! That's a lot of people. My roommate's half of the room is colorfully accentuated by a plethora of empty cough syrup bottles, and yesterday I started sniffling myself, so currently we have windows open, fan blasting, and bi-daily Lysol and Febreeze sprayings, all in a probably futile attempt to prevent any further descent into sickness.

- A friend gave me about six hours worth of classical music last week, and since then I've taken to doing everyday tasks while blasting the Overture of 1812 and the like. Makes everything more epic.

- Seen two good movies lately: Into the Wild and Taken. It was the second time I've seen the former, and it only improved upon repeated viewings. Gorgeous movie in terms of cinematography, soundtrack, acting, and ultimate message. Taken was more or less a Harrison Ford "I want my family back!" plot with the badassry and action of a Bourne movie. All starring Liam Neeson, who (whom? never been sure about that) I like almost as much as Harrison. Fun stuff.

- It's just not a complete post if I don't provide a link, I suppose. Hulu subjected me to this particular advertisement last night, and it scared the hell out of me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghUVT_Z5oDs. There's one wide-eyed, snaggle-toothed devil-child who freaks me out in particular...

Friends

I'll repost a comment I made on one of Nathan's earlier contributions, because it was from a while ago and I doubt anyone will read it now: "I like these occassional reminders that Nathan isn't a cynical bastard but really a sentimental schmuck pretending to be a cynical bastard."

I think that could go for this whole blog.

Anyway, I haven't said anything on here for a while, and I was thinking about it today, and this made me think about a question I got asked the other day, which was whether my better friends were at college or back home. This felt like kind of a weird question, and I think I answered with some sort of noncommittal noise.

But the question stuck with me. Tonight I walked into my room after a volleyball match at the other university in town, and I found half a burrito from the local taqueria sitting by my laptop, which was delicious and understandably swayed me in the direction of my college friends for a moment, particularly in the direction of my burrito-bestowing roommate.

Last night we had a bunch of friends in my room and I made everyone strawberry milk and we broke out the guitars and the tiny set of bongos on my shelf and it quite enjoyable, especially because it was the first time we'd had a group like that in the room because our room is slightly smaller than all the others (my roommate was so excited he ran ahead of the group to tidy up).

The night before, I stayed up till 4:30 in the morning talking about philosophical things with people after an epic game of risk and then slept over in a friends room. These kind of things are fun, and they happen more at college than they have any right to with all the studying I'm supposed to be doing, and I suspect that my colleagues in darkest new york / rural Pennsylvania engage in such things with similar frequency. It sort of makes one wonder about this recession we're supposed to be having...

I've sort of lost the point of this, if there ever was a point, but I guess if this blog is meant partially to update people then I guess I'll say that currently I'm feeling pretty jolly about things, and that its nice to have friends everywhere, especially ones that will read your distorted musings at 2:00 in the morning and 3,000 miles away.

Trip to Florida

I got a call last friday at about 7:30. The nature of this call was of a seemingly wondrous nature. A person I didn't know was calling me from a place I had never been to offer me a spot in his car for a trip to Florida.

"Oh cool!" The uninformed reader may be thinking, "Perhaps Nathan was invited to a spring break trip." Silly reader. Instead, this guy (Dan Collins) was inviting me on a day trip to Florida, departing within a few hours. The plan was to drive through the night, arrive around 1, pick oranges, go to the beach, leave around 6, then drive through the night again. Thats a total of 30 hours in the car for those numerically minded people.

We decided to take shifts driving. The plan was to switch every 8 hours. What actually happened was we switched whenever the current driver started to hallucinate. The end of the first shift occurred when the driver stopped dead in the middle of the highway because he "Thought he saw a wall." I saw an orange cat. Running at 65 mph.

After a long drive (and many incredulous stares: we had snow on our car well into South Carolina) and a brief stop at the Florida border (They give you FREE JUICE), we were almost to the orange farm. As we moved farther inland, things became stranger. The restaurants and gas stations went from ramshackle to Camp Dread-esque. 

We saw at least 5 handmade signs advertising "MEAT GOATS CHEAP." What a meat goat is and why I would want to buy one cheap is beyond me. The apex of weirdness was reached when we saw a man by the side of the road sitting in a lawn chair holding a cardboard sign. The sign read "XXX movies." He was selling porn out of the back of his '89 chevy. The nature of these XXX movies is not something I allowed my mind to dwell on for long.

After being stared at scornfully by a large man on an old Vespa we reached the farm.

to be continued.... (http://nathansunoriginal.blogspot.com/2009/02/trip-to-florida-part-ii.html)

Why yes, I am just that lazy.

Adventures Amongst the Ice

I too apologize for the haphazard (I love that word) nature of posting lately, and unlike Nathan I can't really claim the hellish amounts of schoolwork excuse, so I'm going to revert to the argument (made originally by Nathan?) that there is a decidedly inverse relationship between classwork intensity and my blogging incentive. When trying to dodge a paper on World War One British poetry, blogging seems like a dandy alternative, but not so much when compared to the potential activities such as playing Risk on James' computer or going cross country skiing or whatever.

Speaking of the latter, I did attempt to participate in a cross-country-skiing-under-full-moon-and-enjoying-bonfires-and-drinking-hot-chocolate trip yesterday down by Lake Placid, as organized by our Outing Club (a wonderful organization, populated almost entirely by bearded and likewise wonderful people). Sadly, upon arrival last night, it turned out hot chocolate was only one of the beverages being served, and under-21s such as myself were not entirely welcome. Not at all welcome, actually, there were state troopers and such around. So us young 'uns were given a van, and told to have fun. Oddly, it worked out, as we discovered a huge ice castle & pirate ship, and had several other adventures. Nice to get off campus, if nothing else.

Thing that I watched recently and was blown away by: Platoon. I think I've been pretending to have seen that for years, but hadn't actually done so until recently. Damn. Good. Movie.

And hopefully, if Nathan and I get our acts together, this shall mark the return of daily posting. Have a lovely Sunday.

And I must reiterate, watch 30 Rock. I particularly enjoyed this week's episode. But please. It's funny. Don't let it go the way of the dodo and Arrested Development and get canceled.

Learning to Surf

Hi everybody. School has been hellish so I'm slacking on the posting front. A detailed log of my trip to Florida is in the works, but for now this is a speech I'm going to give at 2:00 tomorrow.

"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf"

                                                                                    Jon Kabat-Zinn

This phrase above all else describes me. It’s doubly appropriate because I was born in California, a place where the surf meets the sand.  Although I moved to Andover MA before I was even 2 years old, my mom has always said that at heart I am truly a Californian.

To be honest, though, I always felt a little uncomfortable presenting myself as being from California, after all I barely remember living there. But a few summers ago, something I did made me feel a little bit better about my native state.

During summer vacation, my family usually goes to NH for a week or two. Looking for a change, my parents decided that this summer we would stay with family friends in Ventnor NJ. You may be thinking to yourself “Nathan why would you want to spend your summer in the state which produces 2/3 of the world’s eggplants?”

I admit it may not seem like the best place to spend a vacation, but in fact the jersey shore has some of the nicest beaches on the east coast. And our friends had a house within a block of the shore.

The culture of Ventnor nj is by any name a beach culture. Every street has a surf shop, and every teen is tan with a t-shirt proclaiming their surf brand allegiances. On a whim I decided to rent a board and give this surfing thing a try.

Board in hand and about to set out for the beach the next day, I received some advice from Kevin, the 54 year old retired surfer who still lives with his parents. He said to me “You’ve gotta trust in yourself and you’ve gotta feel the wave, man.”

As I paddled into the water, I puzzled over this advice. Feel the wave? What is that supposed to mean? Having watched wave after wave go by, and more experienced surfers cruise to the shore, I grew impatient. When would my wave come? Gradually I realized that the point isn’t to wait for the perfect wave, but to seize the opportunity you’ve got. The next swell to come by, I paddled fiercely, and to my surprise felt the wave take me into shore.

I had caught the wave but I wasn’t surfing, I was still lying on my board. I was too afraid of falling off to try to stand up. Emboldened but discouraged I set out to try again. Once again I paddled into the path of the wave and felt it take me. I remembered what Kevin had said, Trust.  You have to trust. In one motion I leapt to my feet.

That day I did something I had never done before. Surrendering to a power greater than yourself and letting it take you is an experience I’ll never forget. Life is nothing but series of waves, and I for one plan to surf.

Christopher Walken

In lieu of anyone else posting today, I'll stick this here, even though I'm sure you have all seen it before. If you haven't, it is nothing short of the single best music video ever (and that's not even sarcasm; it really is). Here you go: Christopher Walken's greatest role.

A Marketing Revolution?

So watched the Super Bowl tonight, was rooting for (and had $5 riding on) the Cardinals. Was definitely disappointed when the Steelers triumphed, but wow, that was a good game. I wasn't even mad. I was impressed. Ridiculous catch at the end there. But even moreso than the game, that Miller High Life has really captured my attention. You know, the one-second ad? With the guy standing in front of a huge stack of beer and just yelled "High Life!" It got more laughs than just about any other commercial (besides maybe that Hulu/Alec Baldwin/alien madness), and it will almost certainly be the one I remember best, which I suppose is sort of the idea behind the whole advertising thing. Is this perhaps the future of commercials? Are we to be subjected to actors bellowing product names in machine gun-like bursts?

I did some research, and the answer is no. At one point the NFL considered airing 30 consecutive 30-second ads. However, a representative spoke thusly: "We have noted that a rapid-fire, 30-second segment of 30 one-second commercials could cause people with certain medical conditions to have seizures and was against network regulations." I'm no grammarian, but it seems possible that the NFL is implying that it has a policy against people having seizures due to advertising, and let me for one say that I am relieved.

Also, I watched the new episode of The Office immediately following the game, and it rather restored my faith in a show that has flagged at a few points this season. Several priceless moments (Angela keeps her cat in a drawer? Michael has an iPod shuffle-sized penis?)