|
Monday,
January 3, 2005
Yes,
yes, I am aware that it's time for a new weblog entry. Actually,
I probably owe you about 12 weblog entries. So, here's one;
I horpe it will suffice.
I've been
going to bed way too late here lately, and tomorrow I have
to work at 8 AM, which sucks because I'm used to going to
bed at about 4 AM. So I guess maybe I'll do this until I get
tired, and horpefully I can fall asleep at a reasonable hour.
The most
academically challenging semester of my college experience
is over, and I came away with 4 A's and a B, which brings
my streak of three straight semesters with straight A's to
an end. Despite all the papers and reading and crap, it was
still a lot of fun, blowing that lonely shithole of a spring
semester out of the water. I won't miss all those late nights
of three hours of sleep or less doing homework, though. Ugh.
But, my
future college endeavors have fallen under question here in
the last week or so. I found out that Semo reduced the number
of hours required to graduate, and if I play my cards right,
I might very well be able to graduate at the end of this year.
It's kind of a long shot, but if the English department is
following the new number of hours required, I'm hoping I can
get into some classes this semester that I was planning on
taking later and maybe graduate a semester earlier than I
had planned. But, I'm still thinking about it. When I was
struggling with the question of what to do with myself career
and degree-wise this fall, I can't count the number of people
who told me to do what I wanna do and get the education I
want, rather than looking for a quick and/or easy way out.
Yeah...
still thinking about it. My conflict lies in the art minor...
I still haven't declared it, and if I want to graduate early,
I won't declare it so I can free up time for other classes
I need. On the other hand, I like to draw. I really like it.
You all know I want to be a writer, and one of my passions
is comics, so I always tell people I wouldn't mind writing
comics someday, but I also wouldn't mind providing the art.
I've also dreamt of better dedicating myself to the comic
strip and maybe someday taking it so far as being a successful,
possibly even profitable webcomic. Tycho from Penny Arcade
once said that the one key to creating a successful webcomic
is to consistently create new strips. That's my goal, and
also the thing I'm worst at. There are a million webcomics
out there (literally), so even if I did, it may not matter
at all. But, if you don't take the chance, the angels won't
dance. I'm not a great artist, and I don't ever expect to
be spectacular or anything, but I think I worry too much about
how my stuff looks, anyway. Just look at any of your favorite
comic strips, particularly the ones you see in the newspaper.
They're cartoons. Charles Schulz's characters are all big-headed
and little-bodied. But you don't care, and neither do I, because
Peanuts is awesome for reasons other than how it looks. My
personal favorite has always been Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin
has gotta be less than two feet tall the way Bill Watterson
drew him. That's not anatomically correct at all and would
be spat upon by any pretentious "artist." But we
don't care because Calvin and Hobbes is a step above brilliant
for reasons other than the art. Not saying I think it's okay
to get sloppy and draw crappily because I can make up for
it elsewhere--that's not it at all. I take pride in my artwork,
I guess, but a story that people will enjoy can be crafted
without anatomical correctness and all of that. I think what
I'm trying to say is that my artwork shouldn't be my primary
concern, but I do still want to improve. I have a million
books on drawing comics and anatomy and whatever else, and
they're all great, but I might as well take another step if
I really am so set upon improving.
Hm...
that got a little deep. I don't usually do that, do I?
Christmas
was good. Got some DVDs and some books on making comics (of
course) and a nifty tool set and a bitchin' throw blanket
and some other stuff, and got to spend time with the family.
As it seems to be becoming an annual tradition, I got ragged
on for not having a girlfriend. I won't admit it to them,
but I really hate it when they do that... it hurts more than
I'd like it to. "So do something about it," you
say. Not that easy, chief. Not that easy. Find me somebody
to love first, and we'll talk.
My sister
and brother and I went to the Eagles-Rams game last Monday
night. Amy being a diehard Rams fan and Craig and I being
lifelong Eagles fans made for a fun night, even though the
Eagles didn't put up much of a fight at all because they were
resting most of their starters for the playoffs. It was sort
of a surreal experience because I didn't really feel any disappointment
at all that they lost. I guess I just went into it expecting
them to not do much. There were A LOT of Eagles fans there--I
guess everyone is jumping on the bandwagon these days. We
didn't get harassed at all... Rams fans are too cordial, it
seems.
This year's
New Year's bash was all right, only about a million times
better than last year's. I seriously think I was home before
1 AM last year, which was a total drag. This year was just
plain better. Ironically, I think I actually had more fun
the following night when we just did generic gaming/hanging
out. Regardless, Shayphr and I (and our mercenary helpers,
Josh and Ricky) are 3-0 in Trivial Pursuit so far during the
break.
Lastly,
I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, and I never mention
them, but here are a few:
- Make more comic strips (at least 10... many more, with luck)
- Write more stuff / Finish current projects (can't name any
of it for secrecy's sake--sorry)
- STAY in shape (last year it was GET in shape, so I guess
that's progress)
- Two others I can't mention (one because I'm too embarrassed,
and one because, even though they probably wouldn't see it,
they can't know about it just yet)
Even if
you include the first five months, 2004 was a pretty fantastic
year for me (many thanks to the Celebrated Summer for making
up for the crummy early months). But 2005 can be even better.
Let's get to work.
Wednesday,
November 10, 2004
Wireless,
glue-bound notebooks: These things suck. I used to get them
all the time because I'm left-handed and the wire on regular
notebooks would hurt my hand after several minutes of writing.
Now I remember why I stopped using notebooks altogether and
started using those 3-ring pocketed folders for everything:
I just filled up one of these wireless notebooks the other
day, and when I scrounged up another one, the pages all fell
out before I wrote anything. The glue holds for like two weeks.
I guess I'll switch back to spiral notebooks for my stuff...
I do still love those 3-ring folders for school-related nonsense,
however.
Hello,
by the way. I know it's been over a month since the last one
of these entries. I was told to update it, and since I can't
write in my regular journal because it just fell apart, I
will update it. (Yes, if you must know, I keep both a weblog
AND a regular journal for my deep and brooding thoughts, thank
you very much. I'm only a pair of dark-framed glasses away
from being an emo kid, apparently.)
I've been
playing Ms. Pac-Man and Gradius 5 on the rare occasion in
which I have enough free time to actually do so. I got 148,000
on the Ms. Pac-Man machine at Gumby's Pizza in Columbia over
Halloween weekend, and now I keep (unsuccessfully) trying
to beat that score. Gradius 5 is a lot of fun, but is also
the hardest video game of all time (right up there with the
other four Gradii). I haven't thrown my controller at the
wall just yet, but I assume it's an inevitability. We are
talking about Gradius, after all. If there was a second player
to help me out, perhaps it could be beaten, but I think we
all know that ain't happening anytime soon.
Speaking
of Halloween weekend, it was a nice escape from the perpetual
doldrums that are this semester. I dressed as some sort of
1930s superhero/private eye, or something of that sort. There
were other quality costumes, as well, but I won't spoil them,
since there might be pictures forthcoming (where're my pictures?).
We shuffled around uptown, hit the parties of some old chums,
and did a few other miscellaneous things. It was a good time.
In actuality,
I guess this semester has not really been all that bad. I
tend to focus only on the homework (and the loneliness and
crappy weekends that go with it) and the fact that two of
my classes no longer mean anything to my college future (lame
duck classes). A lot of times I think I'm more miserable than
I was last semester, but that's simply not the case when I
look at everything. Plus, things could be worse; I could have
Lucas Walker's workload, which is about five times as massive
as my own.
I'm a
small press publishing/soon-to-be-art minor now. And I can
fit both of them into my next (last?) three semesters here.
However, there's really no room at all for any electives that
may come up unless I overload myself or try to take something
in the summer. Maybe that just won't happen, though I already
passed on a screenwriting class that Mass Comm was offering
this spring. Speaking of that, I got my schedule figured out
for spring. It looks easy... no lit classes. Now I won't have
to read so much stuff and can go back to my old life of...
of... okay, so I don't actually have a life outside of homework.
You caught me. Just don't draw any unnecessary attention to
it.
I've a
small role in a play called The Adding Machine, by Elmer Rice.
Our own Tim Nicolai is directing and Lucas is assistant-directing.
I'm a guy named Mr. Three. Katie is my cruel and abusive (nothing
new there) wife, Mrs. Three. It runs December 3 and 4 at 8
PM in the lab theatre in the downstairs of Grauel. Come see
it. I like it quite a lot, and it looks to be an excellent
show.
Well, that oughta give you enough to chew on for another month
or so, or however long it takes me to do this again. Have
fun in the meantime.
Thursday,
October 7, 2004
Do you
ever have those times where your life seems to fall into complete,
utter, catastrophic disarray within the course of about a
week, and then all of a sudden one day goes by that sets everything
right? It wasn't even that great of a day--I guess everything
just fell correctly, for once. Whatever happened today, I
drove home without brooding. That hasn't happened in quite
awhile.
Since
I haven't updated this thing in a pretty long time, it's safe
to say that a lot has been going on lately. Some of it exciting,
some of it boring, some of it stressful, and some of it that's
just too damn stupid to get into. Per usual, the stupid stuff
was all very much imaginary stuff I brought upon myself. I
worry too much... way too much. About everything. And if there's
one worry or one downtrodden thought knocking around in my
brain, I can ride that thing from the greatest moment of elation
all the way back down to the pit. In other words, and you
should all know this by now, when I fall, I go down harder
and faster than when Don Zimmer got thrown down by Pedro Martinez
that one time.
School
continues to be a bother, but I've consistently been fustigating
every test, quiz, paper, and project that has had the nerve
to get in my way, and I'm really not even putting all that
much effort into any of it. So eat it, school. Of course,
there's a list on my wall that says I have nine assignments
coming up. That displeases me, but if they all go the way
of everything I've beaten the crap out of so far, bring it.
Theatre
didn't work out. If you haven't heard already (I swore I told
like two people, and within a couple of days even people on
the southern hemisphere knew about it), I'm leaving the department
and changing minors at the end of the semester. I already
had to drop one class on account of some time issues. It was
only half a credit, though. It's just not for me. I don't
have the passion to stick with it like I thought I did. Also,
as a minor, I don't really see myself making or wanting a
career in an acting/directing/tech role, and the curriculum
focuses very much on career preparation. That is certainly
not a bad thing, but it simply doesn't apply to me. It's not
my bag... I'm sorry, but it's not.
I miss
you guys. I know a bunch of us just did stuff this weekend,
and I know I see some of you fairly often at school, but it
doesn't matter. I still miss everyone, and when I do get to
see you guys, I'm just left wanting more. I never get to talk
to anyone like I really want to. We're always on our way somewhere
or we get interrupted or we have things to do... always just
not enough time, no matter how much time we really have. I
think this is the part where I get on the phone with people...
yeah, I'm still working on that. I do sometimes call people
these days, though. I'm somewhat over my little phobia of
where I always think I'm bothering my friends anytime I try
to talk to them or get a hold of them or whatever. Stupid
and illogical, isn't it? Yeah, well. Logic doesn't mean much
to me, apparently. I bet you guys really appreciate hearing
that, too, don't you? That I won't talk to you because I fear
I'm bothering you, that is. I'm sorry--I don't mean any offense
by it if you take it that way; I'm just sort of a weirdo is
all.
Huh...
well, this entry sort of broke down into a sad one. It wasn't
intended that way. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds.
I'll see you all soon.
Tuesday,
September 14, 2004
I'm slowly
coming to terms with the fact that I overloaded myself this
semester. It was a mistake to take two literature classes.
I read a chapter in one textbook tonight, and then I realized
I still have 40-some pages more of reading to do in the two
ridiculously-tiny-print literature books. Also, about 30 of
that is The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, which is a
very pretty language, but it takes about an hour to read five
pages of it. It is difficult to describe--not quite English,
not quite German, not quite gibberish. And if you read it
out loud, you sound Scandinavian. It's pretty much all about
sex, but you might not know it without the footnotes.
So I decided not to read that stuff tonight. Meh. I don't
have to read any of it until Thursday, but I wanted to read
it tonight because I have to write a paper tomorrow. Meh...
I'm basically used to not sleeping.
It's still better than last semester. It can't get worse than
last semester. It seems like there are always a lot of people
to talk to. And at least I haven't had a bad weekend yet.
Those get me down faster than anything, but they've been good
so far. The six hours of theatre workday on Saturday wasn't
even that bad, and that was a workday.
The Ivanovic show back on September 4 was great. The venue
was a tad warm, but a cozy little place, nonetheless. I enjoyed
getting most of the gang together again for one last fling
before school really started to kick in. As for Ivanovic's
St. Louis debut, well, I'd have to call it a success. You
guys need to release a CD or something. I'd buy one. Keep
at it... you may have something here.
I've been sketching stuff for the animated series. I just
like the sensation of flipping through my sketchbook and seeing
drawings on more than just the first page, which is how my
projects normally go before I lose interest, get too busy,
or start on something else right in the middle of whatever
it is I'm working on. I've also been drawing for like 12 years
now, and I just learned last week that all the lines in a
drawing don't have to be the same thickness (that being a
single stroke of the pen, in my case). I can make some lines
bold and make things look a lot better, more dynamic. Remember,
I've been drawing for 12 years. Geeze. Anyway, I'm thoroughly
excited at the progress we're making. I guess we're still
easily in the pre-production stages, but it's gone much farther
than it ever would have if I was trying to do this on my own.
Well, I think that's all. I thought I had more stuff to talk
about, but it has slipped my mind.
Izzie's headed back to Korea in a day and a half. I'll miss
you a lot, even though you'll be on MSN and such, I guess.
Take care of yourself.
Sunday,
August 29, 2004
Now that
picture is somewhat out of date because I got my hair cut,
much to the dismay of at least one of you. Don't worry, it's
not super short--I can't go back to that. Ever. I didn't want
to get it cut, but it was starting to get a little out of
hand. I had enough hair wings on most days to fly to Piedmont.
Or, if my hair was malevolent, there was enough of it to take
control of my brain and tell me to murder people. It's a little
shorter than I wanted it, but eh. It'll grow back in like
a month. And then I'll be back.
Oh yeah, and I guess the reason there have been absolutely
no updates to the site is because I went back to school this
week, and man, was it ever a busy week. I can only imagine
it's only going to get busier, as well. So, no updates for
four months. Sorry. No, I'm kidding, it's just a matter of
finding a groove and getting used to the workload and the
lack of sleep again, and then we'll be in business.
Surprisingly, school hasn't really been that bad. Because
I promised myself to do things right this time. Sure, I don't
get as much homework done during the day when I don't cram
myself into a library corner for two and a half hours three
days out of the week, but I'm not exagerrating at all when
I say the quantity of actual human contact this semester has
already surpassed the actual human contact from last semester
(well, maybe I'm exagerrating a little, but you get it). I've
done amazing and groundbreaking things such as hanging out
with people, eating meals with people, and talking to people.
Have you tried this stuff? It's awesome!
Sorry, that last paragraph was sort of a grim reminder to
myself that my own misery from last semester was pretty much
brought on by myself. Which I vowed not to do again. I think
I even wrote down "This semester will NOT suck"
somewhere. Pretty damn cheesy, I know, but I don't really
care.
The homework is not so great. There has been a massive amount
of reading so far, in the neighborhood of 200 pages of textbook
and website. That stat alone did most of the work in scaring
me out of auditioning for Anne Frank, even though I'm sort
of kicking myself now that I didn't. I feel somehow... compelled
to audition for this other dance thing this week, but I'm
still debating that. I can't dance, but apparently that doesn't
matter. I don't even know what goes into a dance audition.
Dancing, I guess, but what, specifically? On that subject,
this theatre stuff I just got into does seem a little overwhelming
right now, but I'm just not used to it, yet. It's all very
lab/hands-on, which scares the hell out of me, but that's
probably a good thing. I hate being scared to death of that
sort of thing, so I probably need this.
That's all I've got right now. I'm pretty consumed by school
right now. Just gotta get used to it again. Oh, but Blake
and I did get some work done on a super secret project that
none of you can know about just yet, but if all goes to plan,
it will be making its debut this weekend. (It's NOT a website
thing.)
Okay, now I'm done.
Tuesday,
August 17, 2004
Apparently
we did something right this time around, because I’m
not the only one who seems to believe this was the best summer
ever. I suppose it probably wasn’t for everyone, and
even though it’s not hard at all to top my previous
summers, this is one I will never forget. There have already
been some heartfelt things said on the board, so I guess I’ll
just be adding to those in the droning and reminiscing that
follows.
I suppose
it’s best to put things in perspective by going back
to the spring semester, four of the saddest, loneliest months
of my existence. Basically, the only communication I had with
people outside of the MSN Messenger was dodgeball every Friday
and French class with Tressa. I won’t lie—a lot
of that was probably my own fault for being a spoil sport,
depressed, or simply not being in the mood for what everyone
else around here was doing, but you see where I’m going
with this. Add to that a miserable class schedule (not the
classes, but the actual scheduling), numerous events that
led to serious reality checks and reevaluations of myself,
and a bunch of other crap I’d rather not get into, and
I was looking forward to school being out two weeks into the
semester.
The only
problem was that, while I was ecstatic when summer finally
arrived, things didn’t really improve right away. That
nostalgia week Josh mentioned hit me, as well, I wasn’t
having much fun with the few things we were doing (mostly
because I wasn’t letting myself), and I was still struggling
with some self-confidence issues. By mid-June, summer was…
well, like previous summers, except with a more noticeable
absence of fun. With my sanity at stake, the summer of ’04
would have to put on a serious clutch performance to redeem
itself. And it did. And so begins the great summer recap,
with bonus emotional tie-ins and thoughtful reminiscing (Apologies
in advance if this is too similar to what has already been
said. It wasn’t intended that way)…
Thunderblah!
Special Edition Premiere: Probably the only high point of
the early summer. In many ways, the Making Of was just as
difficult to put together as the actual movie, so it was great
to once again show our work to an appreciative audience. Granted,
the audience was not large because we barely advertised at
all, and Jon did most of the actual work on the movie, but
I was still proud of it and of No Budget Pictures. Alls I
know is Katie wouldn’t shut up during the movie or the
Making Of, but I guess all those questions she was asking
meant she liked it.
Shellshocked
3: Easily the turning point of my summer. I, as both a fan
and a guy who helped hang flyers and otherwise advertise,
thought it was a major success. Since its inception, Shellshocked
has consistently been an event that ends up being more fun
and a bigger success than I expect it to be. Oh, and the bands
were excellent, of course. It was great to see some fresh
and talented new faces up there, as well as the mainstays.
If it really was Rubber Conductor’s last show, this’ll
be the one I remember the most. Besides that, it was the first
time all summer that I actually saw and got to hang out with
quite a few people for more than like a minute or two. Plus,
it’s one of those events that tends to bring out old
friends you haven’t seen in awhile. After Shellshocked,
summer was officially on…
4th of
July: All of the mosquito bites on the feet were well worth
it. Blake, no more Gondry music videos. Well, at least not
that many all at once. That was a legitimate time warp. I
don’t remember when we started watching those, but twenty
minutes later, it was 5 in the morning. (But I do know it
was NOT 4:40 when we started watching them.) But hey, that’s
what summer’s all about, as far as I’m concerned.
I’m not going to sleep as long as there’s something
worth doing or someone to hang out with. And assuming I don’t
have to work the next day. Which I didn’t. So there.
24-Hour
Comics Day: Hell, even if you only came for the bbbq, I appreciate
your support. Even though productivity severely diminished
anytime people were around, it was still a grossly productive
day in comparison to the last two years, and it really got
me motivated to a degree I haven’t been at since I first
started CNMB. A lot of people I didn’t expect at all
showed up, and I realized there’s more interest in the
strip than I thought. I figured not that many people even
looked at it anymore on account of my own blazing stupidity
in updating it so infrequently.
The trip
to the drive-in theater: Not a huge event or anything, but
it was one of those different things we did that made this
summer so great. Except for the part where I was almost squished,
but even that is entertaining in hindsight.
Gorilla’s
Choice takes second place: Looking back on it again a few
weeks later, I can still legitimately say that was one of
the best weekends of my life, and probably the best trip I’ve
taken anywhere. We did something that seemed very unlikely
and far-fetched in the beginning and made an adventure to
remember out of it. Not only that, but it brought all of the
Gorilla’s Choice team members closer together. Remember,
not only are we Gorilla’s Choice, we’re the second
best co-rec team in the nation. Those are some pretty hefty
bonds.
Summer
Slam: As an event, it went much better than I expected, as
I predicted only 8-10 teams, and seriously thought there wouldn’t
be more than eight. On a personal level, it didn’t go
as well as I expected. I (probably overconfidently) went into
the tournament fully expecting That Team That Eats People
and Takes Their Faces to win, and it didn’t happen,
and it has eaten at me a little more than I anticipated. I
don’t think I played well at all and regret being a
thrower because I was really awful. No disrespect intended
to Mediocrity, as I can tell you firsthand that they were
spectacular and worked hard to get where they did. Davis gobbled
up absolutely everything that came his way. I also feel bad
for Vulgar Display of Power getting eliminated so quickly,
not only because I really like those guys and have a lot of
fun competing with them, but because it seems like they always
somehow get boned when it comes to tournament time (and once
it was my fault for being a crummy ref).
Softball:
It started out as an absolutely awful season for me, to a
point where I wanted to quit after the first two games. But,
it has slowly developed into a great year. I’m not a
great player by any means, but I started a ton of games this
year, and I feel like I’m very near a point of getting
the hang of things in the field and at the plate. Just going
out there, learning, practicing, and all of that get me really
excited. Once it’s actually time for a game, I no longer
dread being in the outfield or step up to the plate expecting
to strike out. Oh yeah, and not to mention the fact that I’m
really glad a bunch of you have come out to be a part of our
best season since I’ve been playing. 8-8 is not too
shabby, considering we were like 4-12 last season. Postseason,
here we come.
BBBQs/General
hanging out: We’ve done some new and different things
this year that were a major boost in comparison to what we’ve
done in past summers. I like my video games, but I’m
glad we stayed away from them for the majority of this summer.
I’ve always been one to play video games by myself,
so I’d rather do something else when I’m around
people. Whether it was watching movies, playing Trivial Pursuit
or Catchphrase, pillow fights, or just sitting around fires,
citronella candles, restaurant tables or televisions shooting
the breeze, it was good times.
Productivity:
I do regret not putting any significant effort into any movie
projects this summer, but I know some are coming up soon,
so those are things to look forward to this fall. However,
I did write a couple of things and made a total of seven comic
strips, plus there are some projects coming up I have put
a little bit of work into. I can’t say I got everything
done I wanted to this summer, but I never do. I did, however,
definitely get more done than I usually do.
That’s
all. I don’t know what’s coming next, but I do
know this is the first time in a long time that I haven’t
dreaded going back to school. In fact, I didn’t even
think about going back to school until a couple of days ago.
I’m interested in seeing how fun this theatre stuff
is going to be. It better be good. Aside from that, I’m
looking to hang around with you kids living around here more
often than I did in that awful spring semester. If you’re
ever bored, think of me, ‘cus there’s a good chance
I’ll be bored, too. But anyway, this was a summer for
the books. We kept busy, for once. We did some crazy stuff
we can always remember. Made a couple of new friends, got
reacquainted with some old friends, got closer to some friends
I wanted to get closer to. Ruled out all the bad shit I thought
about myself earlier this summer. Realized people are always
there for you as long as you let them know you need help.
Re-realized what friendship is all about, because I always
manage to forget. If you’re reading this, or anything
else I do for that matter, know that it’s there because
of you, the driving force behind… well… a lot.
Much love, God bless, sorry for the sap. It was a good summer,
is all.
“Now,
so much time has elapsed and I’m old now. I think it’s
time for me to tell you the whole story. I hope this story
will be told for a long time.” - Super Joe, Bionic Commando
(Yeah, it’s from my favorite video game and is badly
translated, but it works.)
Wednesday,
August 4, 2004
I have
some time to kill before I get off work. So let's rock.
I had
a relatively easy job of umping in that rained out rainout
game last Wednesday. Like, one close call, and I actually
managed to explain myself, even though it was a simple contradiction
of whatever it was the third baseman said. Hey, usually I
just stand there speechless, shaking my head while I pee myself.
Eh, gotta learn to be human eventually. I already mentioned
on the home page that we won later that night. The mosquitos
were terrible. Us outfielders could barely concentrate for
the first couple of innings before somebody dished out some
bug spray. Then it was on... defensively speaking, since the
score was like 2-1.
Post-dodgeball
tournament injury update: I think my back might be getting
better. Slowly. Very, very slowly. At least I can almost move
regularly again. And I no longer require drugs. Pain-killing
drugs, that is. Legal. Now, if Brett's knee would stop being
a bum and make a living for itself, we'd be getting somewhere.
Last I saw, Ricky was still molting.
I started
a sketchbook. Aside from the actual comic strips (and occasional
t-shirt art, etc.), I never draw ANYTHING, and suddenly it
was sort of bothering me. This way I can actually... y'know,
record my ideas for characters or scenes, or anything else,
for that matter. I'm suddenly so motivated to do things of
this nature... it's sort of a welcome change.
Sunday
was a day I had been looking forward to all summer. It was
finally time for you guys to come see a softball game. I went
to batting/fielding practice absolutely pumped, and had a
fine showing in both. I hit a ball farther than I ever have
before, almost to the fence in center. The game itself was
amazing--you guys were absolutely great. It was everything
I dreamed of and more. I can be pretty stupid sometimes; I
don't realize how much people care, and it takes something
like this to remind me. So thanks. The whole team really appreciated
your support. They all said you have to come more often. I
agree. Afterwards at my house was pretty freakin' excellent,
as well. I mean, Team Suck did "win" that Trivial
Pursuit game and all. And at least we didn't try to play that
Rock Trivia game with all the UFO questions, right?
Watch
Fandango, by the way. It's an excellent movie.
That's
really all I have right now. I'll be around.
Tuesday,
July 27, 2004
Ah, crap...
I guess it's about time I do one of these things, isn't it?
Well, s'not like I have anything better to do here at my place
of employment.
Man, there
is utility work everywhere I drive. Highway C, Perryville
Road, the spot where I usually park at Semo... most of it
is Eastern Missouri Industries, too. It's funny--my dad used
to be one of the bosses there, so I always wave at EMI guys
if I see them, even though I have no idea who they are.
I'm debating
whether or not I want to go into a lot of detail on this trip
we took over the weekend. I want to make an Ohio Adventure-esque
story out of it, eventually, so I'd rather not spoil too much.
I already know what I'm going to call it, too. (No, not "The
[Something] Adventure.") Then again, by the time I'm
done with such a project, most of you will know the story,
anyway. Then again, if I go into great detail here, it will
still defeat the purpose of doing such a project. In conclusion,
I will not spoil too much here.
And now
I'm not even sure if that last paragraph made sense. Why I'm
wasting your time to debate with myself is really beyond me
at this point.
My point
is the trip was the most fun I've had in a pretty long time...
possibly even some of the most fun I've ever had. That probably
makes me a very boring person, but whatever. Second place
was above and beyond our expectations of just how well we'd
do. Combine that with the good friends, laughs, hijinx, Ricky
Feinerisms, hours and hours on the road, and Brett Price's
limitless supply of coupons and leftovers, and I had myself
one of the best weekends ever, despite the heinous back pain
that kicked in Saturday morning. Now I'll shut up about it
before I say too much. If you wanna hear any more from me,
you'll have to catch me in person or on msn or whatever. Rock,
rock on, Gorilla's Choice.
I umped
a softball game last week... that is, I umped four innings
of a softball game last week. Then the game was rained out.
So I have to ump the game again on Wednesday. If we could've
got just one more inning in, it would have been an official
game. Man. I also made an allegedly bad call, as usual. I'll
believe my own eyes, which were five feet away from the play,
thank you very much, not the other umpire who was 60 feet
away with a bad angle and called the guy out when he was safe
and when it was my call in the first place. I hate umping
games so much. So naturally, this'll be my third tour of duty
as umpire this season (four if you count those two innings
I did at the end of that one game). It's just not for the
soft-hearted person like me, because there's always somebody
there to vehemently disagree with you and bitch at you, no
matter what you do, no matter if you're right or wrong. By
then, I'm too flustered to defend myself and my call, so I
just stand there. I wish I could be mean once in awhile. Not
even mean, necessarily, just... confident, collective, something
like that. Not a wuss. It's a Rhodes kids sort of thing. We're
all like that, especially before we become responsible adults.
We let people walk on us, we don't say no, and anything we
want or ask for from others is pushed to the back of the mind
pretty quickly. That makes us selfless and reliable people,
which is good, but it also makes us lapdogs and pantywaists,
which is bad.
Monday,
July 19, 2004
So, I
almost died this weekend. That got your attention, didn't
it? More on that later.
Sorry
this weblog thing has recently been becoming more of a weekly
deal again. I was hoping this Xanga thing would make me do
it more often, but I seem to be keeping busy or something.
At least I have things to talk about when I actually do make
entries.
We're
leaving for this dodgeball tournament up in Schaumburg (berg?
Whatever) on Friday, and I think it's safe to say we're all
getting pretty excited about it. Honestly, I'm just glad to
be getting out of the southeast Missouri region for once.
I think it's been like... geez, I can't even remember the
last time I was more than like 80 miles from home. It'll be
nice to go on a trip. And who wouldn't enjoy a weekend of
dodgeball and Chicago with your buds? Practices have been
going well, I guess. We need to have a mock game with another
team to really prove ourselves.
I was
leaving home Thursday afternoon to see Anchorman with Izzie
when my car battery died. My rear passenger's side tire was
also flat, as it seems to have a slow, perpetual leak (getting
that fixed today, hopefully). Panicked, I almost didn't go,
but I ended up driving my mom's van, instead, which sucked.
I hate driving large vehicles and I was afraid of getting
hit on by old men in Lincolns driving this thing around. I
think I prefer my dad's even larger, more behemoth-like truck
to the van--I should have taken it. If I had, maybe Izzie
wouldn't have made fun of me. Of course, there was also a
gaggle of girls approximately my age waiting outside the theater
when I pulled up in my awesome, grandmotherly van, because
this is how things go in life. The movie was good, by the
way; Will Ferrell and Steven Carell are killer.
Charles
and I sat in lawn furniture at a certain indoor dinner party
hosted by a certain person I will not mention for the purpose
of saving this person from the embarrassment of being known
as a person who makes other persons sit in lawn furniture
at an indoor dinner party. In all fairness, the lawn furniture
was actually porch furniture, but furniture belonging in the
outdoors, regardless. The food was excellent.
Saturday
brought about an exciting adventure to the drive-in movie
theater near Piedmont at which a truckload of us ham'n'eggers
saw Spider-Man 2. I rode there and back with Adam Davis, which
was a good time--we got to talking about all sorts of crap,
issues, memories, etc. By the way, Davis, I forgot my mp3
player, so it's a good thing we didn't go back to my car to
get it.
*switching
to present tense for dramatic, self-masturbatory story-telling*
Anyway,
so some of us are sitting on this blanket on the ground watching
the movie, right? MT's truck w/ more spectators in the bed
is behind us, Tressa's car is to our right, and a big-ass
hick truck is to our left. Well, sometime during the movie,
I hear the driver's side door of this truck close. Then the
engine starts, and I suddenly realize I'm about a foot from
the front right tire of this monster. The truck starts to
pull forward, and I realize the back right tire is probably
going to crush me. Meanwhile, everyone else is freaking out,
so I finally panic (which probably doesn't seem like much,
coming from me) and scootch to the right, hoping not to squish
Jones in the meantime. The truck rolls over the blanket where
I had been sitting, stops, reverses (the driver possibly considering
running all of us over, assuming he even knew we were there,
which I'm pretty sure he didn't), and finally pulls out of
the drive-in.
*end present
tense*
Good movie,
as well. Slightly better than the first. And now I have another
one of those stories I can begin with "Hey, remember
when I almost died?" After the movie, most of us went
back to Josh's and ate some pizza and stuff.
I feel
a little bit better about softball again after our 6-3 victory
over Apple Creek yesterday. No screw-ups in the field is always
nice. I still suck as a hitter, but at least I'm not striking
out. I drilled one pitch into center field--it was probably
the hardest I've ever hit a ball. If it hadn't hung in the
air so long, it could have gone to the wall. Instead, "Fly
ball... caught." And speaking of softball, there's like
three games left for you kids to come see. Seriously, don't
you forget about me. I don't mean to sound selfish, but I've
sorta been looking forward to this "getting a bunch of
people to come see a game" idea since certain persons
brought it up to me earlier in the season. You know who you
are. New Wells needs fans down the stretch.
I think
I've talked long enough. I'll try to be back soon.
Monday,
July 12, 2004
This will
be long. I hope you don't mind.
Sitting
here at work waiting for tech support to get back to me. My
password for access to the website I maintain for Semo stopped
working. Very annoying. Usually when that happens it's because
they've deactivated my access to the site for security purposes,
but they said I still have access, so I dunno what's going
on. Lucky for you, updating the website appears to be my only
work today... for now.
And they
just got back to me. Problem solved, work complete. Yay.
I didn't
sleep well last night, presumably on account of a maddening
combination of mosquito bites on the feet, 24-Hour Comics
Day fallout/screwed up sleep schedule, and the unbearable
heat of my room during the summer. I got somewhere between
1 and 5 hours, and I'm really, honestly not sure which number
I'm closer to. It was bizarre--I went out for a jog and nearly
passed out from exhaustion when I got inside, but then had
a terrible time getting to sleep and staying asleep. What
a weird night. At least I got 11 hours the previous night.
Okay,
softball last Wednesday--I didn't have a good game. It wasn't
quite as bad as that one really bad game that set me off that
time, but it wasn't good. I got the start in right field,
which was good, but certain problems arose. 0-4 at the plate,
the only bright spot being none of those were strikeouts.
Meanwhile, just when I was starting to get comfortable playing
defense again, a fly ball was hit to me, the first actual
fly ball hit to me in a long time, the only ball hit in my
direction all night. Of course, I didn't catch it--it was
over my head. But I think I had a legitimate shot at this
one, so I was naturally very disgusted with myself afterwards.
If I could judge better and had just sprinted to where the
ball was going to land instead of trying to catch it on the
run, I probably would have had it.
The part
that made it hurt the most was that, of all the games so far
this season, Dad came to watch this one. Now, Dad is not one
of these parents who yells at his kids when they don't do
well at a sport. He doesn't push you into things you don't
want to do, and he'll support you in whatever you do. Somehow,
all of that made me feel even worse about him seeing this
particular game. It feels like all the work we've put into
practicing is for nothing. The end result of everything we've
worked together on is me sucking hard. Most of all, I'm just
disappointed in myself because he came to watch what I do
to have fun, and I wasn't having fun. Not this time.
I don't
want to talk about that anymore. It's a good thing I hung
out with people later that night, 'cause I really needed it.
Friday
brought the last preparations for 24-Hour Comics Day. I got
everything ready the night before and slept most of the day.
Went to dodgeball, welcomed Izzie back into the fray, got
bit up by mosquitos, played video games for a bit, went to
Denny's, and finally got started on comics at 2:50 AM. The
hardest hours of the ordeal were probably 4 AM-2 PM, mostly
because there were no people around. They were the most productive
hours, but also the hardest and loneliest. Once people started
showing up, I paid more attention to them than the comics,
but I didn't care. I met my goal of getting at least four
done, which I felt great about, since (as I kept reminding
people that night) that's more comics than I made in all of
calendar year 2003. I was surprisingly less tired during the
last 12 hours than I was during the first 12, but again, I
had people to distract me. I would have to say the event was
a rousing and productive success. A big thanks to everyone
who stopped by, from those who stayed for hours and hours,
to those who were only there a little while. I can't wait
until the next one (or maybe I can...).
I do believe
that is all I have. See you soon.
Monday,
July 5, 2004
The Fourth
is over. My face is intact, which may or may not please you.
I would have done this yesterday, but then I remembered I
had to work today. As I type this, I've only used 42 minutes
of my seven hours here today, so hopefully I can drag out
this blog entry for a decent amount of time.
I really
didn't want to play a lot of dodgeball on Friday on account
of my bad hip, bad back, and every other injured and/or sore
part of my body (so annoying). So naturally, I ended up playing
the most I've played in one night since probably the tournament.
No harm done, however... well, maybe so... walking to work
today, my left leg felt like it was out of place or something.
Stupid hip. I am going this week, but I'm not playing at all.
I have to conserve as much energy as possible for the 24-Hour
Comics Day that begins shortly thereafter. That and I don't
want to stink (more than I normally do) for 24 hours.
Done with
six of the eight Mega Mans... Mega Men? Mega Mans... we decided
on Mega Mans, right? There were too many mosquitos distracting
me for me to remember clearly. What I really hate is how my
mosquito bites sometimes lay dormant for like a whole day,
then explode with itchiness when I least expect it. I woke
up this morning and left almost my entire epidermis in bed
from mad scratching.
Anyway,
the Fourth. It was a good day. Hung out with the family until
night, then went and saw the fireworks with some folks. The
park was definitely not as crowded as it usually is. I guess
people had too much fun at the soapbox forum that they were
too tired to stick around and watch the fireworks. Next year,
we need to plan ahead better and bring money so we can gamble
on what colors the explosions will be. I would have made off
with so much of Andrew Baldwin's money. Speaking of that guy,
Brett, Kyle and I made a fun game out of Andy getting us back
to Josh's alive. First of all, he got 1000 points for getting
us all back alive, 500 for not hitting any other vehicles
or pedestrians, and another 500 or so for various style bonuses,
good use of shortcuts, etc. However, he got a lot of point
deductions, as well, namely for breaking the law on numerous
occasions, getting stuck in traffic, not knowing where he
was at, poor use of shortcuts, bad singing voice, and not
getting us back to Josh's by 10:15 PM. He ended up with
about 12 points. The only thing that saved him from negative
points was the fact that his car clock has a stopwatch, which
we all agreed was pretty cool.
The bash
at Josh's was good times, namely the bbbq, good buds, and
past midnight, city-ordinance-violating fireworks display.
Later, we were all crushed to death in a tragic super orgy...
no. No, that didn't happen. We just watched the Best of Will
Ferrell and those Gondry music videos, which were more like
a timewarp or rip in the space-time continuum than actual
music videos. It was five in the morning when those were over,
and nobody's quite sure how it got to be five in the morning.
'Course, it all would have been a lot better if Katie hadn't
locked her keys in her car, but I'll spare her from any more
fun-making. You people also need to learn how to hook up a
Gamecube. It's embarrassing enough that you can't figure out
what to do with the numerous wires (read: two wires) that
come out of the back, but you also proved that you don't know
how to plug in the controllers, which is really bad. Honestly.
But it was all fun, so it's okay.
All right,
I'm out. Later.
Friday,
July 2, 2004
C. Koenig
keeps yelling at me for not updating this thing. All right,
Carol, I’ll update just for you, but I won’t enjoy
it. Ha. Too bad you’re probably already gone for the
weekend, anyway.
In about
a week, I’m going to be burned out on Johnny Cash and
Mega Man. I splurged a little this week (hey, I never spend
money on anything but food and gas) and bought the 3-disc
Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983 collection and the Mega Man
Anniversary Collection. Both are excellent, as one might expect,
but I’m spending way too much time playing video games
now. I’m through the first five Mega Mans, with three
to go, plus the two previously-unreleased-in-the-U.S. fighting
games I don’t really care much about. If you have a
PS2 or a Gamecube, you really should buy this thing. It’s
like 30 bucks. For 10 games. Do it. Come on, do it!
Not only
did we win our softball game on Wednesday, but I had to ump
the last two and a half innings of the early game. It wouldn’t
have been so bad except for this awful quagmire/super pickle
at second base involving two baserunners, first and second
base, and the entire infield. Neither runner was on second
at the same time, and neither runner was tagged while off
of a base, so I never called any outs. I’m not sure
if it was the right call or not, but frankly, I don’t
think anyone would have known. Because I’m a poor hitter,
I’m also going to have to ump another game toward the
end of the season (team policy). I hate umping so much. They
should get people who aren’t blind to do it. And by
that, I mean anyone but me. Or, at least find someone with
a decent attention span. By the second inning, I’m checking
the stands for hot girls and glancing toward the parking lot
to make sure drunks aren’t looting my car.
Other
than that, not a whole lot has gone on this week. Had a dodgeball
practice with Shayphr, Josh, and Ricky Tuesday night, and
there were bugs everywhere. One flew in my eye and managed
to get down under the skin under my eye, which hurt a lot.
I’m pretty sure I swallowed one, too. Josh harassed
this big scarab-looking creature, but it later hot-wired his
truck, leaving Josh stranded at the courts for several hours
until help arrived. Last night, Blake, Ricky, Josh and I watched
MST3K The Movie, which I hadn’t seen since maybe 7th
or 8th grade. I definitely forgot how funny it was.
I’m
off on Monday, which is awesome. Not that I work a lot in
the first place, but I was taught never to complain about
a day off. Didn’t want to work all summer, anyway…
I’ll do that during school, since I might (for once)
have a schedule that allows it.
In case
you’re wondering (I know I am), the Izzie counter is
down to about six days.
I’m
outta here. Looks like a good weekend. You’re rooting
for that, ‘cus that means a decent weblog entry. Unless
I take a firework to the face… you’re not rooting
for that. I need my face.
Sunday,
June 27, 2004
Before
I get into this, I have to point out a previous error: blernsball
is spelled with an E, not a U. I got that spelling off of
a fan site, but now that I’ve been watching my Futurama
season 1 DVDs, I’ve discovered the true spelling.
Now, on
to the real world. It seems I’m a little behind on this
weblogging nonsense. I already talked about the softball game
from Wednesday, so I guess I don’t have to get into
that again. After the game, I was bored and looking for something
to do, so I ended up painting the town red with Josh and Tressa…
y’know, watching a Queen tape and off-roading and looking
at stars and whatnot. It was actually one of the best nights
I’ve had in a pretty long time.
Not sure
if anything happened on Thursday or not, but I wasn’t
planning on going anywhere, anyway; I had a personal deadline
to meet in finishing the artwork for the latest comic strip.
I made it with seven minutes to spare, and the strip was up
the next day. I really like the feeling I get from posting
a fresh comic strip (assuming people still read it), and it
certainly is nice to be able to draw a new strip without having
to look back at the most recent one to see what is going on.
Deadlines… hmm… this is an idea. I’ve also
noticed that anytime I work on comic strips, I catch myself
watching more cartoons and thinking how cool it might be to
actually make a cartoon (a good one, anyway).
Dodgeball
on Friday would have been a lot better if I hadn’t injured
my ankle (which is better now) and re-injured my hip (which
still hurts—it’s that lingering injury I thought
finally went away, but has now resurfaced). I felt bad pain
in it three times. When Brett asked, “Why didn’t
you quit after it hurt the first time?” I said it was
because I’m an idiot, which is usually true. If I’m
not tired, I’m just compelled to continue playing, I
guess. We got waterballooned, as well. It was really bizarre
because these kids (one of them was Israel, not sure of the
others) just backed an SUV up to the court and started tossing
them… poorly, at that. I’m pretty sure the only
person who was directly hit was Joe Hellman, and that’s
because he tried to catch one.
Finally,
Shellshocked was Saturday, and there’s sort of an empty
feeling today because months of work went into it, and now
a day later, it’s all over. That’s not a bad thing,
though; the show was fantastic. I got there pretty early and
ended up helping make the various signs (sorry to William
for not cleaning his paintbrush when I was done… shows
how absent-minded I can be when running low on time). Did
some videotaping, some photographing (yes, Jones, I admit
I feel inferior because my camera doesn’t have a zoom),
hung out and goofed around with everyone, picked a fight with
Andrew Baldwin, and generally had a really good time. I have
nothing bad to say about any of the bands. Great job, guys.
I don’t remember the aftermath at Josh’s well
due to exhaustion, but I know Stephen Segal was in there somewhere…
whether he was in person or on TV is a mystery to me, though.
Could’ve been either one.
Okay,
I’m done. Summer has arguably reached a high point,
so now we have to keep ‘er going. I’m feeling
great, and I need more reasons to keep feeling great.
Tuesday,
June 22, 2004
So, for
Father's Day, I got my dad one of those little joysticks with
the video games built in that you plug into the TV. He probably
wouldn't admit it today, but back when arcades were big and
the family first got an Atari, Dad played a lot of video games
and was pretty good at them, too. He'd stay up really late
at night playing stuff... I just can't imagine him ever doing
that. This was all before my time, but that's what I've heard.
Anyway, getting him this thing (it has Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaxian,
Rally-X and Bosconian on it) was really more of a gag than
anything, but I think he likes it. I mean, he busted the package
open right away and took it into the living room to play Pac-Man,
so that says something, I guess. I think he's a little more
tolerant of video games now that I don't waste 15 hours a
day playing them like I did in junior high and sophomore year.
And no, that's not an exaggeration.
Other
than that, not a whole lot is going on right now. The early
part of the week is usually pretty blah on account of work.
I've been pretty lazy lately, as well, so I'm not getting
stuff done I need to be. (Well, not necessarily lazy... I
mean, I did dust my room the other day.) With that in mind,
I'm even more thankful I decided to drop that summer class.
I did get back to work on something you could consider creative
last night when I got home from whatever it was we did at
Josh's house. Alls I know is I suck at battle mode on Mario
Kart 64.
Thanks
to the Grecian, I got a Gmail account. It's silentfrog@gmail.com...
they didn't allow the underscore. I don't really know what
I'll use it for yet. I guess it'll come in handy if anyone
ever needs to send a really big file via email, huh? Plus,
it would be great to maybe eventually phase out my hotmail
address, since I have constant problems with it not sending
emails, not loading properly or quickly, etc.
That is
enough for today. See you soon.
Sunday,
June 20, 2004
Welp,
it’s the first day of summer. I always remember the
first day of summer because (and two of you may remember this)
I lied about always remembering and cherishing the first day
of summer in an oral report on The Great Gatsby for Fisher-Reed’s
class my junior year. She saw through it immediately, but
at least the rest of the report was solid gold. Anyway, since
that report, I always remember and cherish the first day of
summer, which usually just involves doing something outside.
It’s also Father’s Day, which I can only assume
Dad approves of. He’s probably irked that the Cardinals
lost, but we had fish for lunch, so I’ll wager that
evened things out.
Batting
and pitching have gone well for two consecutive days. I broke
the tether on the blurnsball yesterday. It may have been an
omen… today, I retied it, hit the ball a couple of times,
and the stake snapped in two. So I started socking softballs
instead, which was equally enjoyable. My pitching mechanics
seem to have evolved on their own, as well—in the past
two days, I’ve become more of a slinger, with full arm
extension and more wrist action, all without any real conscious
effort on my part to do so. But it’s working pretty
well, so I’m not complaining.
Last night
was another fun night, which made roughly four fun nights
in a row, which is astounding, which pleases me. Okay, that
last “which” phrase was thrown in on purpose;
I thought things could get a little more gratuitous around
here. The only bad part of the night was when Charles hit
me in the face with a phone. It hurt a lot, but it scared
me a lot more. I didn’t see it coming at all. And really,
who expects to get hit in the face with a flying phone? Really,
who? After that, a bunch of us saw the Dodgeball movie, made
fun of Katie for working at the movies, and then went to Denny’s.
I’m officially done with Denny’s for at least
one week—going two nights in a row and three times in
four days is quite enough for awhile, as far as I’m
concerned. Yeah, I know I said Denny’s last night, but
that’s because nobody else would make a decision. The
evening came to a close with 4-player Tetris, and Brett was
really mean to me. He must have picked it up from the residents
of Spain.
Dodgeball
was much better than I expected it to be. I mean, we’ve
only been hearing about this movie for years now, so I fully
expected it to suck with all of the anticipation. But I enjoyed
myself thoroughly.
I’m
feeling a lot better here, lately, and it’s about time.
Staying busy and being around people is always good. And I
just remembered I have nothing due tomorrow. Excellent. Well,
I’m off to dust my room. Pretty anticlimactic ending,
huh?
Saturday,
June 19, 2004
I got
a thing in the mail today that said I passed that stupid writing
test. That was some quick grading. I am pleased. I also got
Futurama Volume One. A good place to get DVDs is at Deep Discount
DVD. Stuff is often a couple of bucks cheaper than in the
stores, plus shipping is free. Seems like they’re often
sold out of stuff, though…
I beat
Zelda 2 today. I never want to play it again. It’s just
too frustrating, and not in the good way, either. I like my
games hard, but not annoying. Too many loops in the later
dungeons, some backtracking, the final dungeon pretty much
cannot be completed without a map unless you're really clever
(which I am not)... pretty much the last 1/4 of the game is
a nightmare. That's how the old games are, I guess. I'm just
glad I'm done with it. Anyway, I’m continuing with my
crusade to beat every game I own that I have not previously
beaten (or have beaten, but cheated using an emulator)…
next up: back to Viewtiful Joe, probably.
Friday
softball was rained out again... or I assume it was, anyway—there
was a big red spot on the radar headed toward Frohna (plus
you could see the lightning from my house, which was pretty
spectacular. It didn’t even matter that there were a
bunch of leaves in the way; the lightning was frequent and
brilliant enough that it didn’t really matter), and
then it rained again at my house like an hour later, so I
figure one of those two dropped a good deal of precipitation
on the field. But now that I think about it, I’m not
sure if I’m more annoyed by late Friday games, or having
to put up with an unpredictable Wednesday rainout schedule.
Do we play on Wednesday, or don’t we? And I’ll
be asking that every Wednesday for like the next month or
so. Nice. But anyway, dodgeball and the Army of Darkness late
show and the Denny’s after that were all pretty excellent.
I sure am in a better mood when I’m having fun. That’s
a hint.
Well,
that’s enough of this. I’m gonna go thwack some
softballs and pitch some more softballs. With any luck, tonight
will be as enjoyable as last night. Later.
Thursday,
June 17, 2004
I dropped
that summer class I was taking… I lasted not even three
days. God didn’t invent summer to sit around and do
things you’re going to get graded on, and I’m
not in the right state of mind to do a decent job right now,
anyway. It’s going to take me at least two more years
to finish college, regardless, so I’m not taking any
summer classes until it’s absolutely essential. Nevertheless,
it will probably end up biting me in the ass a couple of semesters
down the road. But right now, I don’t care. That’s
a big load of stress I no longer have to worry about. Eat
it. Couldn’t think of anything to write about for the
class, anyway. I have other things I’m starting to work
on, but I didn’t want to incorporate them into the class.
I got the writing bug, and I imagine it’s probably Carol’s
fault. (By the way, sorry I didn’t update this when
you were bored at work. I didn’t see your post until
like after 3.)
So last
night I went with Josh and Joe to see Storefront, and I thought
I played my role as perennial dick/party pooper extremely
well, as usual. And, as usual, a day later I’m extremely
embarrassed of my behavior, wondering what the hell I was
doing or trying to do. I actually did have fun, even though
you wouldn’t have known it. To Joe, Josh, Katie, Andy,
Chucko, and anyone else there who might accidentally read
this: I’m really sorry. I don’t know what my problem
is anymore… when something comes along that’s
a welcome change from being bored outta my skull, I manage
to find a way to ruin it, too. I’m always gonna be a
weirdo and a mess in every social situation, I guess. Storefront
was really impressive, though. I liked.
Batting
went well, pitching was better than last time. I need some
volunteers to come out here sometime and be live targets…
I mean batters. I pitched to my brother when he was around
a couple of weekends ago, and he hit pretty much everything
that wasn’t wild. My velocity goes way down when facing
a human—that’s probably a bad thing because it
means I’m scared of hitting them.
Bye.
Tuesday,
June 15, 2004
I changed
my mind... again. I'm not leaving xanga. To be perfectly honest
with you, I'm much too lazy to set up yet another one of these
weblog things, and all of you know it. As for the comments
thing, I figure if there's something you really wanna say,
you'll find a way to do it. Lastly, Izzie said she'd stab
me in the back if I left. Not figuratively, either... she
meant with an actual knife. And I know she's not bluffing,
so... yeah. Here I am. On with the show.
Well,
my weekend fizzled out quickly and monumentally. Saturday
and Sunday were quite dull, but I seemed to keep busy with
stuff, even though I apparently had no fun doing it. Batted
well and pitched poorly when I practiced softball. I beat
the Second Quest of The Legend of Zelda for the first time
ever and started working on Zelda 2, which I have also never
beaten. Did some other stuff, hung out with the baby, talked
to some people online, I'm sure. That's probably about it.
Yesterday,
I got up really early to take the 75-hour writing proficiency
exam at Semo. I hope I passed because that test really sucked...
two hours of writing about stuff nobody cares about. Woo.
I also stubbed my toe on this really unnecessary stair at
Academic's front door that I forget every time I go in there.
Why do they make those little stairs that only go up like
two inches, anyway? Eh, oh well... at least it didn't bust
my toenail up too bad. Didn't have to go to work, either.
I scouted some filming locations with Josh in the afternoon,
then went home and worked on some stuff that night. Went for
a jog at midnight and ran through way too many spider webs--the
spiders must've been re-spinning their webs each time I went
around because I kept accumulating more and more spider web,
even though I was running around the same circle. Gross.
That's
about it. Nothing deep to get into (yet), and nothing exciting
to talk about.
Saturday,
June 12, 2004
Well,
turns out we didn’t get to play softball. It was a washout…
not rain, mind you, but the sprinklers apparently either turned
on or leaked, and the infield got all muddy and well, that
was that. So no softball. Good thing there’s another
late Friday game next week—ARGH!
Luckily,
dodgeball was fun, but the heat and humidity were extremely
unpleasant. I actually started feeling pretty sick at one
point, which kind of took me by surprise. I wanted to play
longer, as I thought I was playing pretty well (for once),
but Charles made us leave. Lukas is home for a few weeks,
as well, so it was great to see him, even though his hair
is really lame now. And why does hair keep coming up in these
weblog entries, anyway? Weird.
Saw lots
of strange things on the way home… one limo at Denny’s,
one PT cruiser going the wrong way down highway 61 between
Cape and Jackson (really hope there were no crashes), and
one JCobb pulled over by the police.
I might
have some bad news for you xanga users… I’m considering
switching to something else. Why, you ask? Comments. I’ve
received comments, and they are good. But now I want more.
I’m a very emotionally unstable person, so I’m
always looking for more ways to get more reassurances from
people… or at least some evidence that they read this
thing. And see, with this thing, you have to sign up to post
comments, and that’s just dumb. I’m sorry, but
it is. I feel like I’m alienating a good chunk of folks.
Even though I technically signed up just to post comments,
I’m a humongous weirdo, and I certainly don’t
expect everyone to do the same. Anyway, we’ll see.
Possums
keep getting in my garage. I’ve chased one out two nights
this week. When I got home tonight, there was a dead one outside.
Not sure who killed it… surely not the cats. Very bizarre.
I really
don’t have anything else to say right now. The weekend
got a good start. Let’s keep it up.
Friday,
June 11, 2004
June 11?
Is that really Tim’s birthday, or is that some hoax?
Well, if it really is, happy birthday, Timmy! I doubt you’ll
see this, but eh. It’s the right thing to do.
New Wells
plays softball tonight versus Trinity, Altenburg. It’s
the late game—I really hate late Friday games. They
usually don’t start until around 9:00 and don’t
end until 10:30 or later, so I basically miss all of dodgeball.
They really screwed us on our schedule this season because
all but one of our Friday games are late, and when we played
that one early Friday game, I had to ump the late game. I
guess we play so late on Fridays (early games start at 7:30)
because a lot of farmers play (or used to play, anyway), so
they need time to get their farm stuff done first. That’s
my assumption, anyway.
So, we
took Shayphr to Lamberts for his birthday. It was pretty good;
I definitely had the best burger I’ve had in awhile…
it beat the ground chuck right out of Denny’s burgers,
that’s for sure. Prices sure are high, though, even
with the fixins’. But it’s okay because it was
a celebration. A celebration of Matt’s birthday. He
ate some pretty big shrimp, Brittany had a side of Swamp Thing,
Kyle ate some pig jowls, Josh almost died via beef overdose,
and Joe achieved lightspeed on the way home. It’s possibly
because we were listening to Queen.
Here’s
the obligatory shout out to Izzie: Hi! You’re lucky
I’m a nice guy, but I’m still not giving you one
in every entry. Sheesh. ;) But I’m glad you like my
hair.
Let’s
see… if you weren’t previously aware, I have an
online class that starts on Monday. It shouldn’t be
very hard, though—it’s a writing class. The first
time I checked the syllabus, I felt a little overwhelmed,
but I checked it again a little bit ago and it doesn’t
look so bad. Also on the plus side, there doesn’t appear
to be any tests or quizzes, just assignments that count as
quiz grades. At least I’ll have an excuse to get to
writing some stuff.
That’s
it for now. It better be a good weekend... I won’t lie,
summer has been far less than mediocre thus far.
Thursday,
June 10, 2004
Carol
told me I had to do a new entry. I guess she's right, since
I said I started using this thing for its ease of use and
all of that.
So I put up a (hopefully temporary) profile pic over there.
I'm supposed to be cool or brooding or something, I think.
I'm not really sure, actually. All in all, I probably just
look like a dork. Doesn't anyone out there have any pictures
of me in which I *don't* look fat or stupid that I can have/steal/borrow?
Semo is closed on Friday, so I don't get to go to work. I
don't mind not going to work, but I also like money, which
I use to buy things... expensive things like Denny's food.
That place really needs to stop putting out new menus or whatever
it is that makes them raise their prices every four months.
They're almost subtle enough that you don't notice, but they're
there, and I don't approve.
Matt Shayphr's birthday is today. Happy birthday, Matt!
We put up Shellshocked 3 flyers yesterday, which was pretty
productive, I suppose. My team hung up all of our flyers...
not sure about the other two teams, but I can only assume
they did well. We would've done even better if Cole Jenkins
came along, but he was too mean and lazy. Of course, once
I got home from that, it was another boring, lonely, and unproductive
night at HOME. Blargh. Well, at least I got to do my weightlifting,
which I haven't been keeping up with over the past couple
of weeks.
I guess
that’s probably all. I will talk again soon.
Weblog
Archive
|
