Transplanted Canadian

Big News

2008-05-07T11:58:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back after a little more than two month hiatus. I promise I didn't plan it that way, but so it goes. Obviously much has happened in those two months, but I just can't go through it all. There have been several very large bits of news that happened recently, so I will share those.

First, and most importantly, I am officially engaged! Jessica and I are going to get married next summer, after I graduate from AU in the spring. Probably May or June. There isn't really a romantic story to go with it, but we kind of decided one night to call our relationship what it was and actually call ourselves "engaged." We went to Atlanta a couple weeks later and told her mom in person, and then told my parents the Thursday after when they came up to Clinton for Pops on the Porch. We didn't get her a ring until Friday afternoon, but that was a kind of scary and at the same time romantic trip-we spent the afternoon ring shopping (and Mother's Day shopping), and then went to dinner and a movie. We asked Dr. Hobbie, one of our favorite professors who is an ordained Presbyterian minister, to officiate the other day at lunch, and he said he would. We're thinking about having the wedding in Clinton, and the reception on the campus somewhere. We figure this is where we met, it's really pretty in the summer, and it's about halfway between Summerville and Atlanta. It might make for some interesting planning snags with us being in Washington, DC, but I think we'll manage. So, yay!

Second, I found out a couple of weeks ago that AU would be giving me a scholarship and a small assistantship! It's by no means a full ride, but it's about 1/4 or so of the costs. The good thing about it is that the assistantship is only 10 hours out of the week, so I can find a part-time job as well (and I definitely will be finding one). Add federal loans to the scholarship, and I'll be pretty close. Other things are starting to line up for the move as well; Jessica has a job interview on May 13, and it looks really good for her. So, we're taking a trip up there next week, and we'll be looking for an apartment while we're up there. The plan is still to move the May 31/June 1 weekend, but that really depends on whether Jessica gets this job. I will let you all know more as I know more.

I'm still in Clinton for now, but I will be moving out of my first apartment on Saturday. I'll be headed to Atlanta for a day, and then Jessica and I will head to DC for a few days. I'll be back at least from the 15th to my birthday, but maybe longer if Jessica doesn't find a job before the last weekend in May. I'm hoping to make it to Canada this summer, at least for a little bit. Flights from Detroit to DC are rather cheap, and my Grandma graciously offered to take care of the airfare, so it looks good. I'm hoping I can take Jessica too, but again that will depend on the work situation.

Well, that's the big news for now. I'll keep everyone posted, and I hope that I will do this more as I settle into DC and my new surroundings. Thanks for reading, and I hope it won't be too long before I do this again!

Currently Listening to: Colin Meloy Sings Live!
Mood: bored at work.

P.S. Check out my Twitter on the bottom of the sidebar under the links and LastFM boxes; it's like an up-to-the-minute blogging app that is limited to 140 characters. If you want to find more, go to http://twitter.com

Hi-yah!

2008-02-06T12:21:00.000-05:00

I went to a Jiu-Jitsu class last night. It was awesome, but I'm sore today.

Currently Listening to: CNN
Mood: sore.

Weekend in Atlanta

2008-02-04T19:56:00.000-05:00

Friday afternoon I got off work early, and Jess and I headed to Atlanta for the weekend. We got some Arby's on the way up, and just settled in and watched some TV for the rest of the night.

Saturday morning we got up and went to see the World of Coca-Cola. Jess had lived in Atlanta her whole life and had never been there, and I felt like doing something at least a little touristy. It was actually pretty fun, and here are some pictures:

Jess in the lobby, waiting for the little intro movie to start.

A delivery truck from Argentina they had in the museum part.

This is by far the coolest thing they had in the museum part...it's the Coke machine they had in either the Challenger space shuttle or on the Mir space station!

Jess in the taste-testing area.

This was a beverage from Japan that was actually really good, despite the name and that it looked like it had carrot juice in it!

The "Stoney" one was from Africa, and it tasted like herbs--mostly like Rosemary. It was gross!

The "Beverly", with Jess' thumbs-down beside it for effect, was by far the worst. It faked you out--it was very lemony and refreshing to begin with, but then the aftertaste was the most bitter thing you've ever tasted!

We tried just about everything in the international taste-testing area, and there were only a few (like the rosemary one) that I didn't like. There was also the museum area, a pop art gallery, a 4-D movie, and a little bottling plant, and a theater where they showed old commercials. At the end, you see this:

The bottles from the bottling plant are sitting there for you to take one!

After you leave, there's a huge Coca-Cola store with all sorts of merchandise, and I got a Coke glass to sit next to my Coke in a glass bottle.

After the play time, Jess and I got to work and went to her storage unit to get some things she wanted to sell for our upcoming move. We spent the rest of the day watching TV and cataloging all the stuff she had--including 460-something Ty Beanie Babies (which we are selling, by the way, if you are looking for a specific one--great Valentine's gifts!). Sunday Jess went to her Dad's in the morning, and then we went out to lunch with Emily Davenport at the OK Cafe, which seems to be a famous Atlanta establishment. I got the chicken pot pie, which looked like this:

That's a puff pastry on top, with the gravy underneath...it also came with collards and mashed taters, all of which were amazing. We packed up and headed back to Clinton after that and watched the Super Bowl and House for the rest of the night.

I hope you liked the pictures! I'm going to try and put more of them in there now that I have a nice camera and video phone. Let me know what you think!

Currently Listening to: "Come Together" by The Beatles
Mood: relaxed

Lots to Catch You Up On

2008-02-04T19:10:00.000-05:00

Since the last post, I've been a busy little bee, and actually before the post, I've been pretty busy!

The Monday before I posted last (the 21st), a college buddy of mine who works for the Barack Obama campaign called me up and drafted me into the campaign, and I worked that night calling people for the phone bank. That was definitely an exhausting job, as I am not very good on the phone with strangers--and these were disgruntled strangers because we were effectively telemarketing them.

Wednesday was Jess and I's year and half anniversary, so I cooked her dinner and we hung out that night.

Thursday night WPCX booked a concert, and I helped set that up, as well as took a conference call for my job that I would be doing on Saturday during the primary. The show was great, but I was exhausted by the end of the night.

Friday night I went back out to the campaign office to get my instructions for Saturday, and I can't really remember much else that happened that night--I think I went to bed pretty early.

Saturday morning I got up really early and Jess took me to Laurens before she headed to her internship, and I helped Jack out with the Obama campaign all day. I was what's called a Poll Runner, and when I wasn't doing that I was calling people to remind them to go out and vote. I worked from 6:30am to when the polls closed at 7:00pm--it was a very grueling day. After I was done, Jess and I went and hung out with Joseph and Erin and had a great time playing poker and Twister late into the night.

Sunday I pretty much took it easy, until Eric came over. He had cut his foot on Friday night, and obviously cut it pretty deep. He came over on Sunday night white as a ghost and shaking, with Kleenex and a plastic bag around his foot. Apparently it had not stopped bleeding all weekend, so we took him to the Lauren's County Hospital. He could barely walk into the hospital under his own power, but they discharged him several hours later saying he was "a bit anemic" and that he was passing a kidney stone (which he already knew). Luckily they bandaged his foot up, but they probably wouldn't have done that if it hadn't started bleeding again while we were there. He stayed at my apartment that night so I could watch over him.

We got up on Monday morning, and he cooked me breakfast before I went to work, and I took him back to campus--he was feeling much better. However, I get a call from his girlfriend shortly after I got to work saying he couldn't stand up and was vomiting. They rushed him to the hospital in Simpsonville (because obviously Laurens County wasn't going to help and after getting a hefty speeding ticket), and they admitted him for the night while giving him IV fluids and 3 units of blood into Tuesday. Jess and I visited him Tuesday night, and they had finished his transfusions but were still giving him fluids. We stayed with him until visiting hours were over. The nurse got mad at all of us in his room, because his friends raised the bed almost as high as it would go, but it wouldn't come back down. It was embarassing!

The doctors told him Tuesday that he had nicked an artery in his foot, and when all was said and done he had lost about 5 pints of blood! All told, they gave him 3 pints of blood and about 7 IV bags of saline.

I went to see him and pick him up Tuesday morning before work, but he wasn't discharged until about 1pm on Wednesday. I went into work late on Wednesday, and he stayed at my apartment Wednesday night again so I could keep an eye on him.

Wednesday and Thursday were really busy at work, and I ended up staying late on Thursday night and missing Jazz Band. I spent Thursday night cleaning the house so that my parents could stay at my apartment over the weekend, because they were going to Columbia for Andrew's hockey game and wanted to continue up to see Eric after his near-death experience.

I think that's good enough for this post...I'll make another for this weekend, because I have some pictures and video to put in it.

Currently Listening to: Baumer
Mood: meh

Still not much to report

2008-01-23T12:26:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here at work with nothing much to do, and not much to report. Richard and Emmaly came down this weekend, and we had fun. Friday night we went to Laurens to have dinner at Senor Garcia's, then went to my apartment and watched Elizabethtown, which was a good movie.

Saturday we slept in, ate our leftovers for lunch, watched some Planet Earth, cleaned Charlotte's new donated mansion, Jess and I went to Wal-Mart to get some hamster bedding while Emmaly and Richard made cookies, and then we went to Dr. Thompson's for dinner. I had Brunswick Stew for the first time, and it was pretty good. We hung around talking for a while, then Jess and I went home to put Charlotte in her new home. Dr. Howiler (my neighbor) had a hamster, but it died, so he gave us the huge cage to borrow so that Charlotte would have a little more room. We both laid down to wait for Emmaly to come home, but ended up calling it a night because we didn't wake up.

Sunday morning we got up and headed to Greenville a little after noon. We ate at the Atlanta Bread Company downtown, and then went to the Mast General Store. We shopped in there for a while, and they had a huge sale. I ended up getting some $80 Columbia hiking shoes for $40 (I need new shoes anyway), and some hiking socks (which I'm wearing right now and are very comfortable). After that we walked down to the park by the little river downtown. It's a very nice little park, and we were all amazed that none of us made it there while we were at PC. Since it was getting late, we walked back up to the car and grabbed some warm beverages on the way, and then headed home to have dinner with Hobbie. We had a very nice dinner, and then went back to the apartment and watched Shoot 'Em Up (it was totally ridiculous, but I loved it), and baked cookies.

Monday we had some coffee at the Depot before they left, and I got Jessica a new sticker for her new car.

It was a fun weekend, and I hope we get to do it again!

Currently Listening to: Coheed and Cambria
Mood: bored

Ok, well it's next post...

2008-01-14T21:41:00.000-05:00

And not much has changed. But this is the long road to writing more often, which is resolution #1. So here we go!

I just got back from taking my doofus brother to the hospital. He didn't do anything to himself this time, but he knew about this problem for a while and did nothing about it while we were home. Like I said, doofus. So he instead took his chances with Laurens County Hospital, where we spent an hour and a half to wait for a prescription for painkillers for a much more serious problem. He's got a doctor's appt. tomorrow, so here's hoping they will pay more attention to his other symptoms, instead of just the pain.

Anyway, there's a lot to catch up on, isn't there? It seems it's time for another list! If (When) I keep Resolution #1, you won't have to deal with these anymore, God-willing.

Jazz Concert: The week after my last post was the Jazz Concert, and it went very well, except for a couple of solos by an unnamed individual (not me, I only had one the whole concert). The next night was the Wind Ensemble concert, and I didn't play in it, but it went very well too. We had a busy week at work to get ready for Parent's Weekend and the Soccer 30th Anniversary.

Home and Charleston Southern Game: The week after that I went home and went to the Charleston Southern game by myself. The fam went to visit Brad and Withrop with Andrew, so I had to kill some time. It was a good game.

Thanksgiving: Not too much to report...watched too much football and ate too much.

Christmas at PC: The parents came and stayed with me the first weekend in December, because Andrew went to the High School State Championship football game in Columbia that Saturday for Band, and then they had tickets to the PC Christmas program on Sunday. So we had a big dinner on Saturday night and hung out in the apartment, watching movies and having a pretty good time. It was cool actually having my family stay in my place for the first time!

Trip to Greenville: It was Jessica's birthday that following week, so the next weekend we went to Greenville to eat at The Olive Garden and see The Golden Compass. We got lost trying to find the place, but we eventually got there and had a very nice dinner. We killed some time between dinner and the movie with some shopping at a Goody's and Old Navy in the shopping center, and then to the movie. Jess and I both liked it, having both read the books, but we thought it was far too short. We hope they make the other two in the trilogy of books!

Christmas Holiday: Not too much happened in the weeks of December left before classes ended. Work was tedious, as I spent most of it converting people's 8mm tapes to DVD, and trying to organize them all. Luckily I got off when the students did, so I got 3 weeks of paid vacation! Didn't do too much during the break. Saw Emmaly and had movie and a dinner with her, and Christmas was fun. I got a used Fender Mexican Strat (black), a new hard drive for the laptop, a metal sax mouthpiece, a cold-weather sleeping bag, a really cool king-sized air mattress that folds into two twin mattresses or a couch, and some other cool things. We went to see Blast! (which was Eric's Christmas present), and it was a really great show. I felt like a marching band nerd again! Jess came down the week after Christmas in a rental car, because someone had hit her car while parked and it needed major body work. She got me a big set of Pyrex cookware and some new cologne. She stayed for New Year's, and we had a pretty big party because Brad's girlfriend came down too. We ate a lot, watched football, and watched the Ball drop in New York, then watched the guy that jumped a football field on a motorcycle. Either that night or the night after, someone set off a firework that landed in our yard and caught our lawn and sweetgrass bushes on fire. Jess and I went to the SC Aquarium the week after New Year's, and bummed around the house until she had to return home to return the rental and go car shopping, because the body work was going to cost more than her car was worth.

Before that, however, we decided to tell my parents about our new plans. As per Resolution #4, I am intending to move to DC in the late summer or fall. Well, Jessica decided that she is going to join me, and we are going to move in together. She is going to take a year off and work to save up for Vet School, as well as to get Maryland residency to make it cheaper. When I get a job after I graduate, we'll switch and I'll be doing the working while she goes to school. It's a pretty big step, but we're both very excited about it!

Jess got a new car when she got home--a 2006 Ford Focus (white). It's a pretty nice little car.

Last week: Nothing. Nada. Boring! This weekend was fun, though, as we hung out with Joseph and Leah on Friday night--had dinner in Laurens, bought some party games at the Wal-Mart, and then spent the rest of the night carousing. Played Nerf war on Saturday, and cooked all day Sunday for Eric and Jamie and Jessica. I guess that's enough for now. My fingers are getting tired, and Jessica wants my full attention. I hope I can do this again soon...if there's news to report, I will be sure to report it. See ya soon.

Currently Listening to: the space heater
Mood: tired and headachy

Two out of Five Ain't Bad...

2008-01-14T16:08:00.000-05:00

So far, I've only kept up with two of my resolutions. We'll see if I can improve that number by next post!

By the way, they are 3 & 4a.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T20:51:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

My resolutions, in no particular order:

1. Write more often.
2. Practice more often.
3. Get some freakin' exercise.
4. Get to Washington, D.C. for Grad School, come Hell or high water.
4a. Save money, rather than spending it all.

Let's see how this works!

More to come later....

Since camping...

2007-10-25T13:40:00.001-05:00

Not too much happened the short week after Fall Break, and this weekend was lots of fun. Friday nights have become a night where Jessica and I hang out with another couple, Joseph and Leah, and do fun things like watch movies, talk, play Texas Hold'em or other party games, and generally have a good time. This week we played Twister. It hurt. Saturday I hung out with Joseph and Leah some more and went and played Capture the Flag and stuff with Nerf guns. I ended up with two "kills" and as "MVP" of the war. After that, I had to work in the radio station for the football game (7 hours!), but it was a very exciting game, so I didn't mind too much.

Sunday Jess and I went up to Greenville to get her some new sweaters, and they had a big sale, so I got a couple of things too. I got this really awesome gray sueded blazer that fits me really well, and a white collared shirt with a gray sweater to go with it. We also went to PetSmart, which was why I went to Greenville, and I got a new friend to keep me company in the apartment. She is a hamster, and her name is Charlotte, because she likes to climb on her cage like a spider (Charlotte's Web...get it?). She's still getting adjusted to her new home, so we haven't had much bonding time, but I'm sure it will be fun when we do. I'll share pictures when I get a decent one.

This week hasn't really been much special, so I'll just say that it was good and let you all take a break from reading for a while. I hope it won't be as long a while as before! This weekend might be pretty low-key, but I have to work in the radio station again for the football game. Anyway, blog at ya later!

Currently Listening to: the cat next door
Mood: tired and grumpy

Camping in NC

2007-10-24T22:19:00.001-05:00

**Note: To catch up to this point, read the previous post!**

During Fall Break Richard, Emmaly and I went to the Mt. Pisgah National Forest near Asheville to do some fall camping. Emmaly didn't get to come up for Homecoming because her sister was getting married, so it was nice to see her again. She picked me up dinnertime that Friday (the 12th) and we headed toward the Blue Ridge Parkway and a National Forest Service campsite up in the forest. We got there shortly before dark and got the last tent campsite in the park, and set the tent up in the dark (like usual). Since we didn't have adequate supplies, we headed back down into Asheville to have some dinner and do some shopping. After an aborted attempt at a fire, we headed to the more reliable heat of our sleeping bags.

The next day we decided to scope out the area and go down to the Ranger station near Brevard, NC and get some information about the Forest and the trails in it so we could go hiking on Sunday. We saw Looking Glass Falls on the way down, got our information, went into Brevard to pick up a few other things, and then headed back up into the mountains. We went to the gift shop at the Inn they have up there (which the volunteers at the Ranger station told us would have better information, and then headed to a good place to watch the sunset; we got there too late, and the sun had already gone behind the mountain (which happened to be Cold Mountain--yes, the one in the book/movie). We cooked hamburgers and hashbrowns in the dark, had another unsuccessful fire, and went to bed.

The next morning we made pancakes and bacon, and then decided to do a trail called Graveyard Fields, which took us to Yellowstone Falls and possibly several other falls along the trail. Graveyard Fields was a place where something called a wind blow uprooted all the trees about a thousand years ago and their rotting stumps used to look like graves; that is, until the fire several hundred years later destroyed what was left of the forest on that side of the mountain and the grave-like stumps. The area was eerie and desolate, but it was rewarding when we got to the end and the waterfall. It was very pretty, and fun to climb when we got up there. The whole hike took us most of the day (3.2 miles, I think it was), and we considered doing another hike but we were too pooped, and I didn't want to cook in the dark again. So, we headed back up to the site and I cooked teriyaki chicken, asparagus, rice, and shrimp, and we had a far more successful fire--and S'mores!

Monday morning we had some breakfast, broke camp, and then decided to take a small hike to a place called Skinny Dip Falls before heading down into downtown Asheville to look around. The falls were absolutely beautiful, the hike wasn't bad (except for a "shortcut" I took that wasn't a shortcut at all), and the falls were fun to hop rocks on. The trip to Asheville was kind of fun, except we were all stinky (the campsite didn't have showers), and we didn't really know where we were going. As we were trying to find a place to eat, the weirdest thing happened. Justin and his friend Graham drove by! They told us to stay put while they parked, and we had a neat little reunion on a street corner in Asheville. We decided to eat at a little bistro at said corner, and they joined us before going in search of antiques. We headed down to the Mast General Store, coveted things, and then to a Marble Slab for some ice cream. We headed back to the parking garage and parted ways, and Emmaly and I drove back to Clinton.

It was a great weekend, and I don't think I've every felt that nonchalant about not showering for days.

New Things

2007-10-23T13:49:00.001-05:00

Obviously, since I haven't written for several months, there are lots of things new in my life. Let's start at the beginning!

Moved to Clinton: I moved in on Aug. 15, but only into a temporary apartment while they waited for someone to move out. I moved into my apartment a week or so later. The apartment's nice. I have a very small kitchen, a decent sized living room/dining room, a bedroom, an office, and a bathroom. It's got ugly plaster, cream colored, textured walls all over the apartment and silky, floral print wallpaper in the kitchen. I borrowed a kitchen table from Justin (the one that was in our apartment last year), and found a couch by a dumpster that I Febrezed, covered in bedsheets, and got a new cushion for. It's pretty neat having my own place, but it definitely gets lonely sometimes.

Work: is not bad. It goes through cycles where we're really busy, and then there's huge dry spells. It's basically a Kinko's-type place, where we do large-format printing, high quality color printing and copying, laminating, vinyl signs, and then on top of that run the college's cable, play movies over said cable, do video production and editing, and convert tapes and vinyl to CDs, as well as VHS to DVD. We also rent out projectors and laptops, sound equipment, and are in charge of all the video projectors in the various classrooms all over campus. I've done lots of tedious things (like today I made up lots of programs, then found out they were wrong and had to un-do them all), but also some cool stuff (like re-wire all the equipment and install new stuff for the cable system by myself). This job should look really good on resume, with all the stuff I do, from answering phones, directing traffic in the Media Center and multi-tasking, to making repairs around campus!

Jazz Band: I've still been playing with the Jazz Band, and it's been pretty fun. We're playing some good stuff, and it's a challenge. I've recently (like, this week) taken up doubling on flute so I don't have to sit out as much on a couple of tunes. I'm playing 2nd Tenor, which isn't the best part to be on in my opinion, but Dr. K has to put the actual students first, not the old guy who is just sticking around. I miss Combo. Jazz band also means...

Football: I've been playing with the Pep Band at all the home games, and so far I've done three away games in the radio station. The team is doing very well, and last week we beat a team that made the Division I-AA playoffs last year. The radio station pays me to operate the board and broadcast the local AM station's feed of the game over our FM frequency. I was very upset about that relationship last year, but I guess it's working out ok. So far there haven't been any problems.

Parent Visits: Always fun!

Homecoming/Canadian Thanksgiving: Most of "The Group" came down and stayed with me at least one night for Homecoming. It was good to have us all back together again, although it was a little different from when we spent every waking minute with each other during college. It was weird going actually having to consider going to Alumni events (I didn't really go to any, but I could've...) I did go to the Formal on the Friday night with Jess, and then to the Young Alumni tailgate on Saturday (I was a little too young I think). For the most part The Group hung out, went to the game, drank a lot, and on Sunday I cooked Canadian Thanksgiving again for the few members of The Group that stuck around and lots more of my friends. It turned out better, I think, than last year's, so that's good. It was a lot of fun, too!

That catches us up to about three weeks ago, so I will start a new post with the more recent events. Enjoy!

Currently Listening to: the hamster wheel next door.
Mood: sleepy.

More Good News!

2007-08-03T16:36:00.000-05:00

I got an apartment!

Someone from PC called me this afternoon and told me that one of the coaches was moving out of the college-owned apartments, and that they had an opening. So, all I have to do is send them the deposit and the rent for August (they're only making me pay half the monthly rate because I will only be there half a month), and I'm in! I'll have to arrange to get the power and gas turned on next week, and maybe the cable. I'll just use the college's wireless internet.

I'm excited! I woke up this morning worrying about the application for another apartment, but it turns out I don't need it! I think I'm all set to move, and that is a lot of stress gone.

Currently Listening to: Andrew singing "Peaches"
Mood: excited!

Good News!

2007-08-02T18:51:00.000-05:00

Well, there has been some good news in my life recently, and I feel I should share!

I got the internship!

I went up last Wednesday for an interview, and when I got there we went over what the job was all about, pay, etc., and then went out to lunch and he asked me some interview-related questions, although a lot were just about getting to know me. We went back to PC to check when he might want me to start, and he told me the job was mine if I wanted it!

Here's the deal: they're going to give me a set amount for the 9 months I'll be there, but it's enough for me to live in Clinton and pay the bills, pay my student loans, and have a little left over. I don't get any benefits, but I do get some perks like eating in GDH for less than three bucks a meal, and Dr. K told me that I can take a class or two for free (he wants me to take Jazz Band again!).

I went to see some friends on Wednesday night, but I stayed in Clinton for a couple of days starting the apartment hunt and living off the charity of others (Thanks Justin and Hobbie!). There are a few prospects, but I haven't got anything set. It's starting to make me nervous, because I have to go in a week and a half! I'm sure it will all work out. I did find pretty much everything I need to furnish an apartment, so I don't have to worry about that. We haven't really figured out how we're going to get me and Eric up at the same time, but it'll happen.

I'm excited! I think the experience will look pretty good on a resume, and if I get another part-time job I can save a little bit towards grad school next year. Plus, I will have Jess there, and Eric, and all my friends I still have at PC.

Not much else has happened in the week since. I'll keep you all posted on the apartment hunt! I should be hearing back from someone tomorrow....

Currently Listening to: Dntel
Mood: bored

The Summer So Far

2007-07-17T13:10:00.000-05:00

Well, since the bad news in the last post, nothing too drastic has changed; however, because I am in somewhat of a pensive mood and feel like writing something and I haven't posted in a while, I thought this would be a good time to let the internet know what's going on in my life.

Since I made the decision to stay home for a year, I have been searching for a full-time job. I officially told American University that I was not coming in the fall, and they deferred my acceptance until next year. Luckily, by doing that I am now eligible for the merit-based scholarships and assistantships, where I wasn't before because I turned in my application too late. It could happen that I don't need to save up too much because they will pay for most of it...but I don't know that yet.

The job hunt has really been unsuccessful so far. I have applied to lots of places, including banks, wireless carriers, restaurants, software companies, Wal-Marts, Targets, grocery stores, and probably some others I don't quite remember right now. The closest I came was with a Catering Assistant's job at Atlanta Bread Company, but they ended up hiring someone in-house. The next closest was a tech support job at Blackbaud, which is a software company for non-profit organizations, and they said that I was a potential candidate, but they had filled their August start date and they would contact me when they got closer to their next one. There's one other job I'm really interested in at the Charleston County Library doing archiving of their historical documents. I'm working on that application now--just waiting on some reference letters.

I also applied for an internship back at PC doing media-related stuff, and I am really excited about that possibility. They would give me enough money to live on in Clinton for the school year, and I could get a part-time job to do some saving. I don't want to jinx it, but I'm very hopeful about this job!

I am running out of ideas and getting very frustrated as time goes on. I have some people I know asking around, but they haven't got back to me yet. I'm also running out of money. I literally have enough money for my August loan payment, and that's it. I need to find something soon. I'm going to pound the pavement tomorrow and see if I can't find something part-time for a little while to tide me over until I find a full-time job. It may be flipping burgers or something, but I can't stay poor.

Other than job hunting, I've been hanging out at home alone and house- and dog-sitting while my brothers and parents are in Canada. I probably could have gone for a little while, but I had some applications out that I was waiting for calls about and I decided I could go too late to make it work.

Luckily, Jessica has been around to keep me company. We bartended one night at her gallery for a big event they were having, and it was a lot of fun. The next day I went to my first wedding; my freshmen roommate and his girlfriend (who also went to PC) got married in Clemson this past Saturday. It was a nice wedding, and the reception was crowded but at a very nice country club in Seneca. We saw some PC folk, had a good time and drove back later that night; it was a dry reception (root beer and Coke for drinks), so we didn't have to worry about staying the night or arguing about who would have to drive home :) Jess and I have also been splitting food between us, so we've been eating together most nights since my family left. It's nice having a lot of time to spend with her, especially knowing we could be apart for a year or more later on. I don't have many friends around home anymore, and no really place to make new ones, so I think I would go mad without her around!

I'm really disappointed in myself in regards to my lack of artistic practicing. I haven't revised any of my old stories, written anything new, or practiced my sax since I've been home. I'm doing terrible. I need to find something to motivate me, because for some reason I just can't manage to do it myself. I think I'm just too comfortable at home--I need a different atmosphere to be able to work hard I think. That's why I think living in Clinton for the school year would be good--a place where I know I can get some work done and have more resources for finding jobs or internships for next summer until I make it to grad school the following fall. I really want the internship, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up in case it ends in disappointment like all the other applications I've put in.

Well, if anybody who reads this has any job prospects for me, let me know! Thanks for reading, and I hope I can bring some good news next time!

Currently Listening to: Secret Machines
Mood: hopeful

Now the bad news....

2007-06-13T22:04:00.000-05:00

*Note: Read previous post for context--thanks!

Now the bad news (and the reason I started the previous post in the first place). Dad had me do the math for what I would need for grad school at American University, and it turns out I would have to borrow $50,000 total for just one year. Needless to say, it's not looking good. I already have lots of loans to pay off for PC, so it would be a very unwise financial decision to try and make this work. I'm going to try one last ditch effort to see if American can help me, but I'm already sure of the outcome. I really had my heart set on going to DC, but it really is a ridiculous amount of money for one year. And it's not like I can't try again next year or the year after--I did get in once. I may even be able to defer my acceptance. And if I re-apply, I can make sure I do it in time to be considered for scholarships and assistantships. Dad said I could live here until I saved enough money to go. So, it looks like I'm going to be holding here for a year or more until I can save up. I could take night classes or something at one of the 3 schools around here and see if I can knock some credits out. I could also start writing again, and see if I can't produce something worth publishing. All in all, it's not the end of the world. I'm not going to say I'm not disappointed, but I think it will be ok. I just have to find a job! Wish me luck....

Oh, and I almost forgot about the laptop! It's a Toshiba Satellite A135, with a 15.4" screen, Pentium Dual Core Processor (1.74GHZ), upgraded to 2GB of memory, Vista Home Premium, and DVD burner. It was relatively cheap, too! I got it instead of Eric because we originally thought that I would be heading to DC by myself, because everyone else would have been in Canada. It would have been easier to carry a laptop by myself rather than a desktop! Anyway, I'm happy with it, and am looking for a case and a surround sound card for it. But I need a job first!

Currently Listening to: The Crane Wife--The Decemberists
Mood: tired

Lots Has Changed

2007-06-12T22:19:00.000-05:00

First off, I am writing this from my bed with my brand new Toshiba laptop! We got it on Sunday, so Eric would have a computer to go away to college with. We will discuss why I got the new computer shortly.

Well, since it's been a long time since I have blogged, I shall do as I have done before and go over my life between posts in digest form. Enjoy!

EXAMS: Went well. Not much to discuss. Hung out with Hobbie several nights during exam week, which was amazing!

BEACH WEEK: Despite some initial drama (as usual), Justin and I headed up to Timber Lake Campground in Whittier, NC (and almost got sideswiped in the process by some jerk on a cell phone) late on Friday night after exams. We got there and put the tents up in the dark, and then built a fire and talked for a while waiting for the others. Eventually we got bored and gave up waiting for them, and went to bed--they got there at about 3am. The next day we got up kind of late, and headed to Bryson City. We ate at the Arby's there, and then walked around the shops downtown. I found some flip-flops on sale, and then spent the money I saved on some Stan Getz records at an antique shop a few shops down. After the shopping we headed up to Deep Creek to see if anyone was renting tubes, and found a place that was open, so we headed back to the campground to get in swimsuits and returned to Deep Creek. There were several injuries this time, much like last time, but it made for good stories! Some people probably won't get in a tube in that creek again :) I think we headed back to the campground to meet Anna, then went to the booze store and grocery store to pick up things for dinner. We ended up cooking in the dark, but the food turned out well and was really good. Spent the rest of the night drinking and making s'mores :) We couldn't really decide what to do the next day, as Anna brought her untrained puppy and we couldn't really take it on hiking trails, as was the plan. Eventually four of us decided on a trail and tried to find it, but didn't have any success. We ended up going up to Clingman's Dome (the highest point in the Smokies) instead, and the view was really neat. We headed back down the mountain and to the campground, and then to the grocery store again to get food. Cooked chili and hot dogs in the dark, and then spent the night much like the previous one. On the final day we went back into Bryson City to eat lunch at a restaurant there, and Anna and Justin left. During lunch we mentioned that we were about to graduate, and the waitress asked us if "we had employment lined up," and the entire table exploded into laughter. It was a funny, if not inexplicable, situation. The rest of us couldn't decide whether we were going to leave or stay another day, but decided to finally head home later that night.

THE REST OF BEACH WEEK: Not too much happened, but we had the Richbeiter's over for dinner (Bio professors), and packed. I think we went over to Hobbie's a couple of times.

FRIDAY BEFORE GRADUATION: Went to the Senior Class gift dedication and rung the bell, and then Mom and the Grandparents came into town and we went to eat at Steamers before the Baccalaureate service. I really enjoyed the service, and then we all went back to the hotel afterward and hung out. After getting back from the hotel, the apartment and assorted friends tried to drink all the leftover alcohol and stayed up way too late. We didn't succeed.

GRADUATION: It rained hard all graduation day, so we had to have graduation in the gym. I didn't mind having it inside as much as I thought I would. I was a mess the whole day; after we processed in I just about lost it when I saw all my family sitting up in the stands. I did finally lose it after getting my diploma and sitting back down, and then again after we were outside. It was emotional :'( We all marched in the rain to GDH for the reception, and it continued to be chaos for the rest of the day. Dad headed home with the Grandparents, and Mom and Eric and Andrew helped me move out the rest of my stuff (Jessica had taken some on a trip to Charleston earlier); I had much more stuff than I thought, so the van was pretty full on the way home. And it only stopped raining right as we were leaving; Mom was soaked :( I was exhausted, so I slept most of the way home. We went out for a fancy dinner at Central Grill (one of the fanciest restaurants in Summerville), and there was an embarrassing situation involving the wine. Dad ordered my wine at the same time as his, and we had told the waitress that I had just graduated--she thought from high school. So she got the manager, who said that I couldn't have a glass of wine, even if he ordered it. After I showed her my ID, I got the wine, but it was a really weird situation. That was graduation!

FINDING A JOB: Still a work in progress. The first place I tried was a new Best Buy that opened in Summerville. I got an interview, but they told me they would "let me know in a week." A week later, I go back and I find out they were only going to let me know if I got a second interview; they were going to leave me hanging if I didn't. It really pissed me off. So I began looking other places, and have been looking since. I've applied 8-10 places and had almost as many interviews, but nobody seems to want me. One place did want me, but that job was out in Mt. Pleasant (45 mins away), needed a car, and was essentially selling knives door to door--the parents nixed that idea. I had two interviews at Target yesterday that prove promising, but I won't know 'till early next week or later this week. If that doesn't work out, it's back to square one.

JESSICA VISIT: Jessica came down for a couple of days to sign her apartment lease for her internship that she's doing right now. We went downtown to Hyman's and Kaminsky's, and went to look at her apartment. It was a really fun weekend!

ACCEPTANCE: The day Jessica got here, I got a call from American University telling me that I was accepted! I was so excited I ran around the house a little bit, and went and jumped on Jessica, who was having a nap at the time. It was a very exciting time in my life...but bad news later.

THE GATHERING II: Several people came down to Charleston again the weekend after my birthday (Memorial Day weekend), and we had a great time. The first night we ate at home, and then went downtown to Kaminsky's, and stayed out really late because it took us forever to get a table. But, once we did, the manager gave us all our desserts free, and we only had to pay for our booze! The next morning we got up early and went out to Fort Sumter, and it was a beautiful day. We ate lunch at the Southend Brewery downtown, and then spent the rest of the day wandering around downtown; I got a new hat and sunglasses. We ate dinner at Hyman's Seafood, and then headed back up to Summerville for Mom's desserts. We ate and drank and were merry, and I think we just headed to bed early. Everybody left the next day, and that weekend was over.

SINCE THEN: Since then I have been looking for a job (unsuccessfully, as previously stated), and just kind of hanging out at home. It's been a frustrating summer so far. But Jessica's here, so I've been hanging out with her since she got here the first week of June. Dad finished his chemotherapy, but he's still on the path to recovery; his prognosis is very good. I went to the doctor several times for my stomach problems, and went to a gastroenterologist last week to make sure it wasn't anything serious. I'm going to have a colonoscopy done later this month, and we'll see what's up with me.

To be continued....

Currently Listening to: Gray Room--Damien Rice
Mood: sad

Firsts and Lasts

2007-04-23T13:16:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

Today was my last day of classes at PC. I'm glad it was Christian Doctrine with Dr. Hobbie, who has been one of my all-time favorite professors. We tried to talk about a theologian, but ended up goofing off most of the period (someone brought bubbles).

I also had my last public performance at PC. It was last Thursday, and called Pops on the Porch, and it was supposed to be a big deal, with lots of invitations sent out and several things going on. It was a benefit for Habitat for Humanity, as well as the CD release party for our bluegrass rock group, HoseGrass (they combined Blue Hose and Bluegrass to come up with the name). We set up during the afternoon, amid a high percentage that it would pour on our heads--and it did, half an hour before the performance. We moved everything inside, and, naturally, it wouldn't work right and we had tons of technical difficulties. Apparently there is a large grounding problem in Belk Auditorium, so the equipment would just cut out and shock Dr. K. We played pretty well, though, and Dr. Griffith, the President of the College, came up and sang Proud Mary with us. It was pretty funny. Went out to El Jalisco afterward and tried to drink a jumbo margarita by myself. Not a smart idea :)

I also got my first envelope from a grad school. It was from American University (my first choice), and they put me on the waiting list. It's definitely better than getting an outright "no," but I hate the waiting to find out if I make it in. They won't let me know until June! I'm still waiting to hear from the other two schools.

The last couple weeks have been filled up with lots of Senior departmental parties, music performances, and meetings.

The meetings were mostly about the radio station, which the Athletic Department wants to use to broadcast the football and basketball games. There are complicated reasons why we can't and/or don't want to do this, but we feel like it might be inevitable. I'm not really happy about the situation (they've got us between a rock and a hard place), and it just serves to disillusion me farther about the school where I've spent four years. I've realized that PC is not the school I applied to, and I'm ready to get away from all the politics and bull that goes on here. Don't get me wrong, the professors and people here are still amazing, but the school itself is taking a direction I don't like. Maybe Eric can fix it!

Oh, Eric decided he's coming here next year. I'm excited for him!

I guess I had better get to studying. I have an Optics exam tomorrow afternoon! Luckily all my other ones aren't until Thursday and Friday, so I have plenty of time to study for them too. Hopefully it won't be too long before I blog again. I think we're planning to go camping during "beach week" between exams and graduation, and probably leaving either Sunday or Monday. It'll be nice to hang out with my friends without any cares at all. Well, goodbye for now!

Currently Listening to:
Mood:

Out of My Hands for Now

2007-04-03T18:26:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody.

I just wanted to let you all know that I completed my grad school applications today. Now they are out of my hands, and I'm waiting on acceptance (or rejection) letters. I'm hoping they will be acceptance letters!

On another note, The Decemberists concert is on Friday! I'm very excited.

It's really starting to sink in that I'm leaving in a month. I can see Graduation Day on the calendar on my desktop. That means it's too close. There's a lot to do until then. But it's still too close.

I don't really have much to say today, but I thought it was a momentous occasion, so it warranted a blog post. I will let you know when I start getting letters!

Cheers!

Currently Listening to: Third Eye Blind
Mood: meh

Another month later...

2007-03-25T22:11:00.000-05:00

Um. Hi.

I didn't realize until today that it has been a whole month since I have blogged. I suppose a lot of stuff has happened since then, so I'll try and remember it like last month:

I can't remember what happened two weeks before spring break. Sorry.

The week before spring break, I had two Physics tests and that rough draft of my Doctrine paper due. It was very stressful. I thought I did well on my tests, but when I got them back that was not the case. I studied with all the rest of our class and tried to get help, and I thought I understood it. I don't think my grade reflects what I actually know, because I don't think Dr. Bell grades fairly. There are only 3 or 4 problems on the tests worth 20 points each, and he takes 5 points off for the stupidest of things. It makes everybody angry. Anyway.

I turned in the Doctrine paper a couple of hours late because I had to study for Physics tests and couldn't put a lot of time into it. I got it finished Friday night really late, and left PC on Saturday morning. I just spent Spring Break chillin' at home, and watched a couple of movies--Tenacious D and 300--and spent a large amount of time in front of the TV. I thought both movies were pretty good. Everybody I've talked to think 300 was the best movie they've ever seen, but I'm not sure if it was for me. It may be the best action movie or comic-book-related movie I've seen (although Sin City may beat it), but I didn't think it was the best thing ever. The Tenacious D movie was funny, but a lot of the jokes that were on the CD were in the movie, so it wasn't really anything I hadn't heard before.

I also spent a lot of time at doctor's offices. I got a massage, chiropractic adjustment, doctor's appointment, teeth cleaning, and ophthalmologist appointment all during the last couple of days of spring break. I found out from the doctor that a stomach sickness I've had problems with recently is most likely stress-related, so he put me on medication to fix it and it seems to help a little bit. I forgot it at home when I came back after Spring Break, so I've only been taking it for today. I'll start taking it regularly tomorrow and see if it helps. The doctor said that if it didn't help in a few weeks, then I should get him to refer me to a gastroenterologist. I hope it works! My glasses prescription changed a little bit, but my teeth are fine.

I also got one of my applications for grad school done, so I'm now waiting to hear from American University (which is #1 on my list). I even went so far as to get delivery confirmation on the package I sent them with all the rest of my application materials. I have no idea when they will get back to me, but I hope it's soon! I still have 2 short essays to write for the other two schools, and then I will be done. I hope to get all that stuff done this week.

This week hasn't been very eventful. It has felt really long, and not very exciting. Wednesday I got my class ring, and it's pretty! Thursday night one of my favorite independent bands came back and played a great show, and I had a really good time. Friday night Jessica and I went out to Greenville for dinner, and then coffee at the new bookstore, an improv comedy show, and then watched the movie Babel when we got back. It was our 8 monthiversary (yes, I made up a word), so we thought we would celebrate. Yesterday Mom and Eric came up for Accepted Students day, so I hung out with them during the morning. I played Nerf with a bunch of the freshmores and freshmen yesterday afternoon, and then made dinner and we had Dr. Thompson over. We made shish kebabs and rice and pasta salad, and it was very good. I think Dr. Thompson had a good time, and he appreciated us cooking for him. Today I went with Celtic Cross to Spartanburg to go to church, and I felt terrible the whole time. I had a stomach attack while we were there, and when I got home I slept for two hours. After that I went out to Fatz with Jessica and her mom, who is up for Jessica's Junior Recital tomorrow night. I had a meeting tonight, and practiced some, and now I'm sitting here blogging. I really am sorry that I can't blog more. My senior year has turned out to be busier than I thought, and I just don't have the time I thought I would. I'm fighting a bad case of Senioritis, so it's getting harder and harder for me to care. I think I'm ready for classes to end, although I don't really want to leave PC. Hearing about it on Accepted Students day almost made me fall in love with it all again. It'll be hard to leave this place. Well, enough depressing stuff for now! I hope I can blog again soon!

Currently Listening to: new Modest Mouse album
Mood: sleepy

For reals, I been busy

2007-02-25T14:06:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody.

Things have been crazy-go-nuts recently, and I really haven't had much time for blogging. Perhaps I will now make a list of things I've done since the last post. Look, here it is:

Job interview in Columbia--went well, despite a terrible sickness I had before and after. Had to take the rest of the day off to recover.

2 Physics Tests--didn't go as well as I'd hoped.

Valentine's Day--nothing special happened.

Handed in another Short Story for Creative Writing--it is up on Free Expression for your reading pleasure, but with a warning that it is graphic. I didn't know what to write for this story, so I took one of our exercises on descriptions and made a story out of it. It began to take a weird direction, and I went with it. Basically the whole story was an exercise in descriptions, so if you are disturbed by them...good!

Last Basketball Game--despite some drama at the end, it was pretty fun. Took some pictures that I realized should be on my Picasa pictures for you to see. I'll get on that.

Filming for Emily's Honor's Research project--I made my acting debut in a pilot TV episode my friend wrote and is filming for her Honors Research project. I play a frat boy. It's a stretch, but it was fun. I think I have one more scene to do, and only 5 lines or so in the whole thing.

Doctrine paper outline--I'm writing a paper on the doctrine of evil (why is there evil in the world if God is all powerful, loving, and just?) and Jurgen Moltmann's take on it (he's a German theologian). The rough draft's due in two weeks. Oddly, Jessica and Richard are doing the same theologian.

Got WPCX working 24 hours!
--my beloved radio station is now running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, after about 4 hours of my Tuesday afternoon trying to get the software to behave.

Sick on Wednesday--I didn't feel well. I think I was very sleepy, and just needed rest.

Last Wind Ensemble Concert--Mom came up, and it was an amazing concert. It went very well, and I hope I can hear a recording of it sometime.

WPCX concert--Jeff (the new program director) invited some really weird bands to play, but there were only like a dozen people there. There were a lot of things going on Thursday night, so it's not really our fault. One of the bands had a theremin--I want one.

Friday night--made Chicken Cordon-bleu without getting my mom's recipe until after it was done, and basically hung out all night with Emmaly's friend Billy, who came to visit.

Yesterday--went to Greenville for shopping purposes, and had a great time. I couldn't buy anything because I have 50 cents in my bank account, but I found lots of stuff I wanted. I needed a day off to just do something fun. Made chicken curry last night, and it was really good but too spicy for me to handle. Watched a movie called "Trust the Man," which was actually really funny for never having heard of it.

I guess that brings me to today. I'm just sitting here in the computer lab with one other person here, blogging. I have combo rehearsal tonight, and then I desperately need to do laundry afterwards. Not much going on this week, which means I can finish up my grad school applications and work on my Doctrine paper. Check out my story (if you dare), and I'll put some pictures up soon. I hope I'll talk at you all soon!

Currently Listening to: Brand New
Mood: lazy

Too Much Drama

2007-02-07T00:33:00.000-05:00

Well, I survived the weekend, but it wasn't without drama. Friday night Jessica and I headed down to Columbia to watch Andrew play hockey, and after parking in the wrong parking lot we finally found the place. The refereeing was terrible, and Andrew ended up breaking his thumb after a nasty hit. We grabbed some late night Wendy's and took Eric back with us to PC. He bonded well with my friends, and seemed to have a good time. He said his audition went well on Saturday morning, and I think he had fun at the basketball game. The rhythm section let him play with them on a couple of tunes, so he got to show them what he could do. Saturday night was a lot of drama that I don't want to talk about here, but Jessica and I got in a big fight but made up shortly after. Mom came to get Eric about noon on Sunday, and I went to lunch and work, and then had to go to a Student Government Senate meeting at 3 because of the Super Bowl (usually it's at 7). I didn't actually watch the Super Bowl at all, but checked the score every once in a while, while I played the newest Zelda game for GameCube. I foolishly spent more than an hour on one of the puzzles in the game and got really frustrated and had to look on the internet to cheat. I actually spent yesterday catching up from all the procrastinating I've done, and I think I'm finally in good shape just in time for it to pile up on me. Next week's going to be really busy, but the upside is that after the 17th, there will be no more basketball games!! I will have weekends again, and I can actually go home! Today I ran some errands and got some work done, as well as had another mock interview with an HR guru from outside PC. She said I had a lot of promise and was "well qualified", and that I just needed to write down all my good qualities for job interviews. That gave me a little confidence boost, but I don't really like bragging about myself. I guess that's what's been up since last post, and I'm tired so I will go to bed. Goodnight!

Currently Listening to:
Mood:

SNOW DAY!

2007-02-01T22:41:00.000-05:00

That's right, people! We had a snow day here at PC after a night of "wintry mix." This picture is the scene out my window as I got ready to go to lunch at 12. After lunch I spent my afternoon (despite broken internet) researching Graduate schools, and I think I narrowed it down. I am going to apply to American University in Washington, D.C., University of Florida (which is in Gainesville), and University of Alabama (in Tuscaloosa). Those are really the closest places that have actual professional journalism programs that I didn't already miss the deadlines for. I probably would have applied to Miami and Georgia too, but I already missed the Fall deadlines for them. I also researched the GRE, which I have to take for all the applications; it costs $130!! The good thing is that there are several locations in Columbia and Greenville, and you can take it any day of the week. It's not like the SAT or ACT, where there are only several dates throughout the year. And it's on a computer.

After that, I hiked across campus with Richard and Emmaly to hear a presentation on Cricket and Apartheid. The history department is looking for a new professor, and the candidates are coming to campus to present their areas of expertise and so the department can get input from students. He got his Ph.D. from Stanford, and his talk was kind of interesting. He knew what he was talking about, but I'm not entirely sure he'd fit in here.

I got back to the room, took a nap, sent some emails to get recommendation letters, went to dinner, played some videogames, watched Grey's Anatomy (yeah, I know...), and now I'm blogging! Aren't you proud of me? That's really all for now...I think The Daily Show or Colbert Report are on now....

Currently Listening to: Jimi Hendrix
Mood: relaxed

Blog Changes

2007-01-31T15:07:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody! First off, do you notice the changes I made on the blog? I updated my profile, put some links back, and added links to my Oxford journals and my new creative writing blog. I've put my first poem up, as well as my first story. This is the original version, and I'll be making revisions soon and I will let you know when that happens. I got a Creative Commons license for my work, which means anyone can use it as long as they give me credit, don't alter it, and don't sell it. I also did some research on copyrights, and found out some stuff I didn't know. It was enlightening.

Life has been hectic for the last few days as I mentioned in my last post. I have a case of senioritis, so all the procrastinating I've done caught up with me and I've been trying to catch up. I think after this week everything will be ok.

I'm really excited about this weekend, as my my second-to-youngest brother Eric will be coming up to visit for the weekend. I'm going to watch my youngest brother Andrew's hockey game in Columbia on Friday night, and then we are taking Eric back to PC with us after the game. He has a music scholarship audition on Saturday morning, and Dr. K said he could come sit in on the basketball game Saturday afternoon. He's going to stay Saturday night, and then someone's going to come pick him up on Sunday. It should be fun!

I submitted several resumes last semester for an interview day that's coming up in 2 weeks, and I got word back that I have an interview with an electrical distribution company. I don't really want that job anymore, but I think it will give me interviewing experience. I had a mock interview last night, and it went pretty well. I'm still doing the things I was doing while getting ready for seminar, so I still need to break my bad public speaking/interview habits. In my defense, I didn't really have time to prepare for it, so if I prepare more I will be ok.

I haven't done much more work on the grad school front, but I'm hoping I can get started this weekend. A lot of deadlines are in June or July, so I think I'll be ok. The problem will be paying for all the application fees and the GRE, and then finding out how to pay for grad school. Still have a lot of work to do!

Other than getting ready for the "real world," things are pretty much normal around here. Still getting over my cough, but it comes and goes now instead of being constant. Jessica and I are doing well. I guess that's really all for now. I really hope I can find more time to do this more often! Please stay tuned, and head over to the creative writing blog and let me know what you think!

Currently Listening to: Stan Getz
Mood: dragging

Uh...

2007-01-30T11:36:00.000-05:00

Well, maybe updating every day was too lofty a goal. I would've updated before now, but procrastinating homework and studying for tests seemed to pile up, and after a weekend spent in the service of the basketball team, I've been struggling to catch up. In fact, I am still trying to catch up, so this is a post about how I will post later. I hope tonight! Thanks for hanging in there!

Currently Listening to: Angels & Airwaves
Mood: tired

2007-01-23T00:11:00.000-05:00

I've had a cough for a while now, and it's starting to get worse. I've had a busy and productive day, and I only now realized that I've been feeling hot for most of it--and it's cold out. So, as I make my resolution to blog everyday now, I have to postpone it a little further. Technically, I did blog today, but I will put up something of substance tomorrow if I am feeling better. Right now, I just need rest.

Currently Listening to: Richard playing Zelda in the living room
Mood: sick and tired

Ok, for real this time

2007-01-21T22:36:00.000-05:00

Seriously, guys. I'm going to start writing in this thing again. I came to a realization yesterday. I want to be a writer. I love stories--I think that's why I decided I liked being a history major after all. I love movies, novels, short stories, reading and writing. I love doing book research, rather than experiments. My new favorite band is The Decemberists, because each of their songs tells a story. History is a series of stories, and they all interlock, making it the ultimate story. And sometimes truth is stranger than fiction! I decided yesterday that I want to go to Grad School for journalism, which I see as a stable way to start writing as a career. I love researching, I love traveling, and I love writing. I eventually want to branch out to more creative writing, like short stories or a novel (at least a book). Maybe poetry. And it would be like making history!

I've only started looking at schools, but the list so far includes American University in D.C., Auburn University, University of Florida, University of South Carolina, and maybe University of Miami. UGA was also on the list, but I would have to take a year off, because I missed the deadline for application and they won't allow people to start their Masters in journalism in the Spring. A lot of those schools allow applications up to sometime in June, but I'm going to get on it as soon as I can. It's a lot of work: I have to get 3 recommendations per application, write a bunch of essays, take the GRE, and fill out all the applications.

I've heard many people say that to be a successful writer, you have to write everyday. I have to make myself do this everyday. It's going to be a lot of work, but I hope it will pay off. I'm also taking a Creative Writing course in fiction, and I've written my first of 4 stories and it's up for critique this week. After it gets picked apart by my peers (how's that for alliteration), I'll try to revise it and post it either here, or start a new blog just for my writing. I hope you all (if there's anybody out there anymore) will read them and give me your own constructive criticism.

I will give an update on my life so far in 2007 coming soon, but I won't make this entry longer than it needs to be right now. Please, if there's anybody out there still reading leave me a comment and let me know. I know I've probably estranged anyone that once was reading, and I'm sorry. Please come back!

Currently Listening to: The Decemberists
Mood: fine

2006-12-22T17:47:00.000-05:00

2006-12-22T12:13:00.000-05:00

2006-09-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

The Oxford Journals are up! Start reading at the bottom of the page, and work your way up. I'm hoping to find a way to read them top to bottom, but that'll take a bit. Also, I'll be editing and adding to the entries, so I'll keep you informed of when I do that. These are the basic, topical ones I had to turn in for a grade, so they don't really have much personality. Hope you enjoy!

*Edit*
I made the page more chronologically-friendly. So you can start at the top, and read to the bottom. Hope this helps!

The Year So Far

2006-09-21T10:24:00.000-05:00

After much harassment by my parents, I've decided a new post is in order.

The year so far has been, in short, busy. Mostly it has involved reading, and lots of it. I have something like 13 books to read for this semester. Plus, my semester-long research paper (hereafter referred to as seminar) adds more on top of that. All of my classes this year are history or music, two of the most demanding departments on campus. Needless to say, blogging has been on the proverbial back burner :P

There have been some fun moments too. The first football game was a lot of fun, and the parents came up to watch and meet Jessica. Jessica and I went to my home last weekend, and we had a great time. Jessica met all of the family, and Oreo, and loved downtown. Dr. K notified us on a Monday night that we had a gig the next night, so that was interesting and fun. And also, the apartment has become a hang-out place, so we usually have visitors every night.

Speaking of Jessica, we're obviously back together. We broke up the day before exams last school year, and then had kind of a rocky summer. We were still talking, but Jess wasn't ready for a relationship yet. But I called her before I left for Oxford, and she met me at the airport and we hung out for a couple hours. She met me when I came back too, and then things took off from there. It'll be two months on Saturday! We're having a great time together, and we're really happy.

Speaking of Oxford, I'll be starting another blog that will be the electronic version of the journals I took over there. I didn't figure you all would like to read it in the regular blog, so I'll start another one you can read at your leisure. It'll be linked all the time on this blog, so you can read it anytime. It'll be up soon...I already have them in electronic format, so I just have to create the blog, cut and paste, and we'll be set.

This week has been pretty good. Not stressful, but I have been feeling a bit under the weather. My European Nationalism class was a lot less boring this week. Music stuff's going well. Not really a whole lot to talk about!

I'll be giving you impressions on classes and things as they come, so I won't start now. I will honestly try to do this more often. I've realized how much I missed it!

Currently Listening to: Angels & Airwaves
Mood: fine.

Beginning of the End

2006-08-23T14:23:00.000-05:00

Well, this is the first day of classes of my senior year! First of all, welcome back after a summer-long hiatus. Second, we have a lot of catching up to do. But for now, I just wanted to post to tell everyone that I will eventually be writing a post about the summer. Right now I must finish reading for class, so I'll be back later.

Currently Listening to: Angels & Airwaves
Mood: good

2006-04-26T10:26:00.000-05:00

what's your cowboy bebop theme song?

I thought to celebrate the blog's 2 year anniversary, I would redo the quiz that was the first post. This is by far my favorite song on the Cowboy BeBop soundtrack! Talk to me sometime and I'll let you listen!

End of the Year

2006-04-26T10:05:00.000-05:00

Well, my school year is over. That is definitely kind of weird. It's been a good year, and it's going to be a great summer. I don't think grades will turn out quite the way I'd hoped, but hopefully my Oxford classes will pull the GPA up a bit.

The last few weeks have been crazy, but that's to be expected around exam time. There were concerts, juries, papers, and end-of-the-year get togethers all over the place. I found me a ladyfriend for about 2 weeks, but things got complicated and she needs some time to figure things out. It hurt a lot, but I'm getting better, and not all is lost yet. We'll talk about it more once I know what's going to happen one way or the other. But don't hold your breath.

I bought The Fray's album, and also a band called Augustana. Very good piano rockers, both, and I dig them a lot. It's sort of a phase right now.

I really feel like there should be more I will say, but I don't think I will right now. I think I need some time for my thoughts to become a little more solid before I recall the year. For now, I'm going to run some last minute errands and go to lunch while I wait for Tyler to wake up so I can pack. I have to buy a book for Oxford (can't find it cheap anywhere!), get some photocopies for Oxford, and get my sax. So, I'll be off for now. Look for an update soon!

Currently Listening to: The Fray--How To Save A Life
Mood: busy

Spring has sprung

2006-04-09T16:08:00.000-05:00

Hey guys. Not too much of an eventful week. Last weekend we went out to eat on Friday night, I studied for Physics Saturday, cooked at Emily's house Saturday night (stir-fry and fried rice), and didn't really do much Sunday.

This week I had a Physics test on Monday, which went well. I spent most of the rest of the week not doing much, until Wednesday when I started studying for my Calc test on Friday. Thursday night was Lewis' Junior recital, and then another concert put on by the radio station, which I spent studying in the back. Friday I took my test and smoked it, and then did radio shows, and went out to eat with the freshmen. They all came back to my room and we watched Out Cold, and then I went and hung out with everyone else when Justin and Anna got back from her sorority formal. It was Richard's 21st birthday, and he went to Greenville to spend time with his family and twin sister, so he came back late and we had a surprise party when it technically wasn't his birthday anymore. Yesterday I woke up around 11, ate lunch, and practiced for a bit for the gig I had last night. It went well...not perfect, but well. I did really well, and the horn section did awesome in general. More hanging out with the freshmen after that, and then a bunch of us that live in Barron watched The Emperor's New Groove and hung out late into the night. Got up today around noon, talked to Mum for a bit, showered, lunched, and went to work, where I have been since. It's nice outside, and I'm trapped in this silly computer lab. I may go for a walk.

Happy Birthday Eric! It's his 17th today!

And it's almost the Blog's birthday too! It's hard to belive I've been blogging for 2 years now. I guess that isn't even counting the Blurty, which I moved from before that. So, I've been blogging for a long time.

Well, I shall talk to you all later. I think it's a light week, and a short one at that. I'll probably be going home on Thursday night, so I guess there won't be any blogging this weekend! I'll try and do a post before I leave. Bye!

Currently Listening to: nothing
Mood: headachy

Get busy, SETI!*

2006-03-30T11:11:00.000-05:00

By my estimations (for my class on Extraterrestrial Life), there are 28,014,525 extraterrestrial civilizations capable of communicating with us here on Earth. That would mean we would have to search 14,278 stars to find one. Choose wisely!

Currently Listening to: The Decemberists
Mood: busy

*SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Well, almost a month later...

2006-03-29T11:53:00.000-05:00

Er...a lot has happened.

Let's address first the subject of the last post. I decided over Spring Break to bail out of the Physics major for sure. So I'm well on my way to being a History major...I'll get the forms signed and turned in today, and it'll be official. I decided trying to do the Physics major would just make me a complete basketcase. Now I'm going to do a History major, and Physics and Music minors. Who knows what I'm going to do with that, but at least I'll have a degree. A well-rounded degree.

The school pulled the plug on the big concert we were organizing. They were worried about the money issue. Also, there was a lot more red tape that they sprung on us at the last moment. Anyway, we had a smaller event that went really well and was a lot of fun anyway. A couple weeks later I had a meeting with the Student Life people about doing it again next year, and they really wanted to see it happen. They just wanted to make sure we knew the policies and whatnot so the same thing didn't happen again. Meeting with one of the VPs of the college is still a bit intimidating :)

Spring Break was fun. My friends and I went camping at Hunting Island State Park, and we had a great time. There was drama in finding a place, and we were all stressed out from the pre-spring break craziness. It all worked out in the end. We headed down there late Friday afternoon, made camp and dinner in the dark, and went to bed. We went shopping and to the beach on Saturday, went to the beach at the Park and lighthouse on Sunday, headed to Savannah on Monday, and then left Tuesday. After we got back, I just chilled at home and did very little but read for my Fantasy Lit class, watch TV and movies, and eat.

Last week went pretty quickly. I haven't had much schoolwork to do, so it's been low stress. I spent a lot of it talking to professors about switching my major. I got 100 on a Physics test! Last weekend I didn't get much sleep because Tyler was partying in the room. Went shopping last Friday at the Columbiana mall (got a shirt from Hollister that I'm wearing today), and then went to see V for Vendetta.

It is definitely the best movie I have seen in a long time! The acting was great, the plot kept you interested through at 2.5 hour movie, the action sequences and special effects were amazing, and the political commentary was very poignant. Altogether an amazing movie! If you ask me about it, I'll definitely talk more, but to save space I'll forego any further comments.

This week I've been concerned with finding PSA a place to have our retreat in Charleston. The place we usually stay is renovating, so I'm calling all the other churches around and asking if they have room for us. It's time consuming. I have a bunch of stuff to hand in on Friday in Extraterrestrial Life on Friday, so I started that last night. I've just mostly been reading for classes. I've been reading Little, Big for Fantasy, and I hate it. It's boring, has no plot, and doesn't make any sense. In contrast, I've been reading Contact for Extraterrestrial Life, and it's gripping. I had my last Oxford classes on this continent, and that is very exciting! The bad part was that the Preservation Hall Jazz Band was here last night, and because I couldn't miss Oxford class, I couldn't go. This made me very very sad. I found out today that I've been nominated for a Department of Student Life Award, which is very suprising. Also, I've been elected 1st Vice President of Delta Omicron, my music fraternity. They want me to go to the national convention in Illinois the weekend after I get back from Oxford, and they're going to pay for it. So, it looks like I might be taking a trip to Illinois. Thursday I have my induction into Omicron Delta Kappa, a national honor society. I guess people think I'm pretty smart or something.

The schoolwork's picking up next week, so I guess the stress level will increase a bit. Hopefully I won't go this long without blogging again. Like always, I can't make any promises! Hopefully I'll talk at you soon!

Currently Listening to: Michael Buble
Mood: getting hungry

AAAAAAARRRRRGH!

2006-03-02T13:58:00.000-05:00

That's about how I feel right now. Yesterday was a really bad day. I found out that, because two classes aren't being offered next semester (when I have to take them), I can't finish my Physics major. That's right. I can't finish my Physics major, because a professor is going to be on sabbatical. Well, I could. But I would have to take 20 impossible (I'm not over-exaggerating here) hours spring of my senior year. That, or find summer school classes at another school (probably a University, and even then they probably wouldn't transfer because they're major classes and I can't afford them), or stay another semester (which I also can't afford). The third, and at the moment best, option is to change my major. I only need 4 classes to finish a History major. And I can still do a Physics minor. It's just really hard to think that I wasted all this time, and I really don't know what to do with a History major. Mind you, I didn't know what I wanted to do with a Physics major but at least I had ideas. I'm really upset with the Physics dept., mostly because they misled me into thinking I could do this. grr.

Another thing that is stressing me out is a really big concert we are organizing for next week. I made a couple of blunders, and now one of the VPs of the college is involved, and it's a much bigger thing than it once was.

I also had a Calc test today. Thank God it went well.

So, things are stressful. Luckily, I'm going home this weekend and I can talk to my parents and they can give me their advice and things might clear up a little bit.

I got paid a lot this week. Two paychecks (one mysterious), and the rebate for my cell phone came in. So, I'm not poor right now! And I haven't spent it already! I haven't deposited it either....

I have another concert I organized tonight...I hope it goes well too.

I guess that's it for now. Hopefully it'll be better by next post.

Currently Listening to: C&C
Mood: stressed

5 Days Later

2006-02-26T14:52:00.000-05:00

Well, taking baby steps getting into this thing again. Better than nothing, right?

The rest of the week went pretty well. I felt better by Friday, so I think I'm cured of whatever it was. Still puzzled as to what it was, but I guess it doesn't matter now. I got to sleep 'til lunch on Wednesday, so the rest might've helped.

I only had lab on Wednesday, so that went well. I also had an Oxford class that night, and then had to go from there to the basketball game. We won both of those in the last couple of seconds (and they were on TV), so it was exciting.

My Thursday morning 9am was cancelled, so got to sleep in there too. Went to Calculus and found out that we have a test this coming Thursday (which, naturally I'm not excited about). I think it should be ok. Ran around doing radio stuff for the upcoming concerts we're having for a while, then grabbed some take out and wrote a paper in 3 hours :P I was sick earlier in the week, so I couldn't get it done. But, I finished it so all is well. Dr. K flipped out on us on Thursday at Jazz Band...I was about ready to walk out. It's getting to be not so much fun anymore. Anyway, he sent an apology later, so I guess that took some of the sting out of it. Thursday night I went to someone's Junior recital, and then didn't really do much else. Oh, except watch the Project Runway reunion show and Project Jay with Justin ("What happened to Andre?" and "Where the h*ll is my chiffon?!" are now catch phrases for us...don't ask). I don't usually watch these shows, but I did. Don't judge me.

Went to all my classes on Friday, and then normal radio station hang-outage for the afternoon. It was Emily D's 21st birthday on Friday, so we went out to TGI Friday's, she ordered an alcoholic beverage, we sang to her, and had a jolly old time. After that we went to East's house and watched Saw II and hung out. I stayed the night, because yesterday we went to Columbia to see a couple of guys from Red vs. Blue (see link in sidebar). It was in the Criminal Justice building of USC in a little auditorium there. We hung out with other fans, watched most of the episodes, the RvB guys bought pizza because it was raining, and they had a Q&A session at the end, which mostly focused on alcohol (not Red vs. Blue). There weren't that many people there, and even fewer intelligent questions. I was disappointed. I'm sure they were too, because they came all the way from Texas, their luggage got lost, etc. and there weren't many (intelligent) people there. It was fun nonetheless. We headed back to Clinton around 6, and I made spaghetti later that night after a couple of games of Halo. We watched a SciFi channel movie, and then everybody else came over after The Vagina Monologues (Justin, Preston, Richard, and Emmaly). It was a real party. My spaghetti was a hit!

Well, that's the rest of the week in review. There is talk of Richard going to Charleston to see his sister play softball, so I might get to go home this weekend! YAY! I just have to get through classes and a Calculus test. And another concert I organized on Thursday night. Also, the drama department's play (which Emily D and all the students in the play helped write) is this week, and I make a cameo appearance in a video. They asked people what they thought religion was, and I answered the question. I didn't think I said anything really erudite or life-changing, but I guess they liked it enough to put it in. I get a free ticket out of it! There's a catch, though: they're showing it Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and I have the concert on Thursday night, and I really want to go home on Friday and Saturday. So I might have to be late to the concert again (which I didn't like doing last time). We'll see how it all works out. Talk at you later!

Currently Listening to: "The Dream of Evan and Chan" by Dntel
Mood: bored in the lab

2 Week List!

2006-02-21T22:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm sorry I've been gone so long. As usual, no excuses. And I'm quite alive, if anyone wondered if I'd dropped off the face of the earth. Although right now, I'm not feeling too well. I have dizzy spells and my legs feel weak. I'm not nauseous or feverish, so I have no idea what's going on. Sleeping helped a little, so I'm glad that my morning classes for tomorrow are cancelled--so I can sleep in!

The last couple of weeks have been full of stuff I can't remember right now (in no particular order): A gig in which I wrote some sax parts to a friend's songs (opening for Madison Fair, a band from Columbia), Basketball games, fun weekends, Wind Ensemble concerts, Olympics, buying roses for my girl-friends on Valentine's Day, partying with rock stars, lots of sax playing, some school work, Oxford classes and paying my last payment (so it's official!), radio shows, eating out, organizing concerts, getting a nationally-signed band to come to PC (Halifax), some tests, and probably another long list of things I've forgotten.

I really don't know why I don't do this more often. Mostly because I think my day-to-day life is mundane enough without having to tell anyone about it. But Dad says he enjoys reading about what I do everyday, so I'm really going to make an effort (yet again) to do this more often. I'm really starting to get homesick (I need some good healthy food and a haircut).

Let's see what has happened so far this week. Monday is my day of 5 hours of saxophone playing, so I had a lesson, lunch, Combo, and another lesson. Dr. K's been giving us a lot of lectures lately about "giving it your all," and I'm really getting tired of hearing them. Mostly this is because I always do that, and the rest of my bandmates don't. Therefore, I get to hear the speech in 3 different groups. My saxophone also lost a pad, so I have to get that fixed sometime soon. This is the first time since I got it that it has broken (and even this is a minor thing), so I guess I'm lucky. Unfortunately Dr. Oleson used to take care of our repairs. The new sax guy is a cool guy, but a little bit of a hard-nose when it comes to sax playing. He wants to completely change some of my fingerings (which I have used since middle school) and my brain's not having any of it. That whole thing about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks applies here, I think. Although, right now I can't seem to play to the level I used to for some reason. I get winded easily and can't seem to find a good reed and can't play in tune. I hope it passes soon.
I think I might take up running for the stamina issue. Or some other aerobic sport.

Today I got up and went to a class that was cancelled, so I went to go read for my Oxford class but ended up falling asleep more than reading (it was Hume, so it wasn't very interesting). Also, I felt bad. I did go to Calculus, and then to a CEP on blues guitar and music. It was great. Ate lunch, then went to bed to try and feel better and woke up for Jazz Band. Dinner, then Oxford class. Some reading, blogging, maybe some visiting in a few, then bed. See, mundane!

Oh, and I'm back over to Linux after a brief Windows spell.

Currently Listening to: Cowboy BeBop soundtrack
Mood: sick

I need a break

2006-02-02T22:01:00.000-05:00

Just finished my take-home, open notes and book, Extraterrestrial Life test, and I need a break.

Lots going on, but I can't really remember it all. Is that a bad thing?

I have a Calculus test and an English test next week, and I'm going out of town this weekend. Isn't that just my luck? So, any free time I have this weekend will be spent with my Calculus book, rather than with one of my favorite singer/songwriters, David LaMotte, who's leading the retreat. I was hoping I could pick his brain about music stuff. Oh well.

I really need to focus on schoolwork more. I just feel that this needs to happen.

I got exciting news in the mail. Apparently I'm in the top 35% of my class, so I got invited to join Omicron Delta Kappa, a national honor fraternity. Apparently the current President was a member. I'm not sure how I feel about being in a fraternity with the President of the United States of America. Maybe he's not an active member anymore? Still. I must find out more about this. I'm not really sure if I can add anything else to my list of clubs and organizations. I bet it would look good on a resume, though. Hmm....

I'm glad this week is over, but I'm not keen on getting to next week. It's going to be busier. At least next weekend we don't have a basketball game. Oh! Speaking of that, the Pep Band is supposed to do a 90-second spot on a Columbia TV station that they're taping at 6:51 on Thursday morning. So, I'll be on TV in Columbia. Too bad the family's in Summerville! I'll see if I can get a tape.

Calc test on Tuesday, Basketball on Wednesday (this might be my skip), English test and another concert I organized on Thursday, and nothing next weekend. I hope I can get a ride home. That would be nice. Or, perhaps, a trip to Clemson or Winthrop. I think I like the home idea better.

I finished Harry Potter. I want to keep reading the other books. And see the first 3 movies. I saw the fourth one this summer. It was good. This fantasy class is making me miss my pleasure reading.

Both Phonecia and Tyler got new computers this week. Phonecia got a Dell I helped her pick out, and Tyler accomplished a life goal by purchasing a Mac Powerbook G4. I'm jealous of it, but he said I could touch it if I wanted :) The switch over to Linux on my computer's coming along pretty well. Tyler still needs to help me from time to time, but I think it'll be ok soon.

Well, I think that's all in big news from PC. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know :) Sorry for the ADD post.

Currently Listening to: Garden State Soundtrack
Mood: meh

Yipes!

2006-01-30T20:56:00.000-05:00

I don't really have an excuse. I've just forgotten about blogging. I have been busy, but not too busy to blog. I guess I just don't feel like anything of great importance has been happening in my life. Classes are still going well...I had my first "test week," and it went ok. Not as stressful as past semesters. Went to Columbia a couple weekends ago and had an interesting time. Basketball's been going ok, and directing is getting less stressful. Organized a show for the radio station, and it went really well. A couple of guys that I play with in Jazz Band started a trio and opened, and an Atlanta band called The Californias came in and played as well. We had a lot of people show up, and it was a great show.

I shaved my beard last night. I'll put up a picture as soon as I can get to my camera. I'm making Emmaly's new computer happy right now. Also, I am making my Linux hard drive happy. I'm finally getting it to where I can use it all the time. I look forward to that day!

This weekend I'm headed to Myrtle Beach for the PSA Statewide retreat. David LaMotte is the keynote speaker, and I'm pretty sure it will be an amazing weekend for that reason. We'll see if he remembers me...I doubt it. Although I did get all "creepy fanboy" on him last time. I'm sure I can control myself.

Not too much up this weekend...I have to practice a lot, to make up for my busy last week. Also, I have to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for class, which will be fun! That's really all I can think of right now. Hope everyone that I didn't lose while on hiatus is having a great time doing what they're doing. I hope it won't be as long between posts this time!

Currently Listening to: Motion City Soundtrack
Mood: a little tired

2006-01-12T20:10:00.000-05:00

I love my friends.

sigh

2006-01-12T13:41:00.000-05:00

So things didn't work out with Alison. Just friends we will remain. Not the first time this has happened since I've been single. I guess I was kind of being unrealistic about the whole thing, but I still fell for her really hard. And hit the ground, apparently. I'm not going to lie and say I'm ok with this, but I will be. It's kind of nice, though...I've been super stressed about the whole thing, so I guess there'll be relief of that. Just some *cough* minor side effects first.

This week's been pretty low pressure. Not really a whole lot to report. Band's going ok, lessons aren't so far (but I can fix that). I met the new woodwind teacher, and he's very...effervescent. He seems kind of geeky, so I guess we'll have something in common. He's a young guy, not too much older than me, and sounds like he still likes a lot of college-student things (like Adult Swim, for example). He says he has high standards, so I guess I'm going to get better quick. Dr. K wasn't impressed with me our first lesson...I guess he's stepped up his expectations too. I'm fine with that, except a little warning might have been nice :D The Wind Ensemble concert is going to be a tribute to Dr. Oleson. Kari (his daughter) told me the other night that the blog entry I wrote about him has been circulating around the family...I'm a little embarassed, but I guess it's nice that they're reading my thoughts about him.

I've been reading a lot for classes, and that's really taken up most of my time. Really a lackluster week it's been around here.

My best friend from high school, Will, is coming down tomorrow to visit for a couple hours, so that will be fun. Saturday I have the basketball games...it's my first one as student director, so wish me luck! Dr. K's at a big Jazz Educator's Conference in NY, and he gets to hear a lot of great jazz and I'm very envious. We get Monday off, so it's a long weekend! That means a possible low stress week next week, which will be nice again.

Well, that's about it. Nothing terribly interesting but a bit of girl drama. Oh, and I can't stop listening to Coheed and Cambria.

I'm thinking about getting a penguin template for the blog. I don't know why.

Currently Listening to: Coheed again
Mood: heartbroken

Munich and Other Things

2006-01-08T23:56:00.000-05:00

Just got back from Greenville where I went to go see Munich and eat and shop with Emmaly and Taryn and Richard. Emmaly and Richard had to go for a History class, so Taryn and I tagged along because we wanted to see the movie and hang out. We went to downtown Greenville and the Mast General Store, then to Target and Carrabas for dinner. We had a great meal, but the movie (in my opinion) wasn't very good. It was long, and not very interesting. For a movie about assassins, it wasn't very action-packed or suspenseful. Anyway.

From Wednesday on wasn't very interesting. Friday night we did, in fact, have a get-together at Emily's house and had a lot of fun. I got to meet some of Anna's friends from home and the whole Group was there for once. Did I mention it was lots of fun? The basketball games were on Saturday, and I got to be student director for a little bit of it. I have a few bugs to work out, but I think I'll be ok doing that. Plus, Joseph and Josh get to help, so I'm not alone. I missed dinner, so Emily came and got me, we went to Wendy's and we chilled at her house for awhile, then hung out back in Richard and Justin's room well into ze night. Got up this afternoon and went to lunch, watched an episode of the US version of The Office that I downloaded on iTunes, helped Emm with her computer for a bit and then headed to Greenville. Told you it wasn't very interesting.

I'm in kind of a yucky mood for some reason. Maybe the movie had a bigger impact on me than I thought. Or the company. Who knows. Well, goodnight for now. Class tomorrow!

Currently Listening to: Jimmy Eat World
Mood: moody

Exams, Holidays, and Back to School

2006-01-04T21:48:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess it's been a while. Exam time was super-crazy last semester, and I didn't even get a chance to complain about it! All's well that ends well, though, so I survived and came through on the other side pretty well. My grades were pretty good, except for Calculus, which tanked my GPA for the semester. I ended up with a D. The rest were A's or B's, so it didn't my cumulative as bad as it could have.

I headed home earlier than most (the Saturday night after my last exam), and then started work the following Monday. I was working at the local sewer plant installing the electrical bits for the new system they're putting in. It's right next to my old high school/middle school, so it was a short drive to and from work. It was pretty mucky and smelly work, but not really that hard. It was rather cold most of the time.

I saw Emmaly and Alison and Beth over the break. Emm and I watched movies at my house, and she came and ate with the family one of those times. Alison and I went out a couple times...I guess I haven't really told the internet about Alison yet (she was the girl I cryptically mentioned last post). I think it's safe to talk about her now ;)

Alison and I met at freshmen orientation way back, and we hit it off pretty well right off the bat. We were both being wallflowers at the dance they organized for us, and ended up talking most of the time. Needless to say I felt some chemistry then, but we both were tied down in relationships, so we remained just friends. Now we are both single, so I asked her out a couple times and we've just ate and talked. I think we determined we are casually dating. I think. Relationships are a little more complicated in college. I'm ok with moving slow, though. She's a really great girl :D

Back to the narrative. Beth and I met up for lunch and ice cream and talked about her time in Europe and our semesters and our futures. It's really nice to talk to her because we still seem to have a lot in common even after high school. And we read each other's blogs :)

Christmas was a little different this year, but it was still really nice. Grandma and Grandpa didn't come down this year, which hasn't happened since we moved to South Carolina. There was definitely something missing, but we carried on our traditions anyway. Went to church on Christmas Eve, and ate a big ham dinner afterwards. Christmas morning we woke up later than usual; the normal time was 7:30am sharp, but we woke up at 9am this time. We like to sleep in now that we're older :) I got a new iPod and all the gear that comes with it, memory for my computer, DVDs, some clothes, lots of money, a Gamecube game and controller from the brothers, and a CD and iTunes gift card. I hope I didn't forget anything :P I got Dad the entire first season of House, M.D. (which is our favorite show), Mom an accessory package for her new photo printer, Eric a pair of green Chucks, Brad a Coheed and Cambria DVD and T-shirt, and Andrew got my old iPod. I think everyone liked their gifts...I really do like giving more than getting. Our normal snacky lunch, calls to all my friends to wish them a Merry Christmas, and then a big turkey dinner. Eating a lot is definitely a tradion at home. I ate A LOT.

New Year's was fun...we watched House and the ball drop and ate fancy food, and then I headed back a couple days later. I'm at school now and have been through 2 days of classes. So far everything's going well. Books were not that expensive this semester. I have 4 classes with one professor: 3 he's teaching, one he's learning. I have a feeling we'll be best friends after this semester :P Tyler and I moved rooms down the hall to get away from our noisy neighbors, so we're all moved in and settled and all that business. It's nice having peace and quiet!

The first basketball game is on Saturday, so I got out of going to Montreat for the Celtic Cross retreat. Friday night I think we're having a housewarming party for Emily East, who got her own apartment for the semester. That's about it for the short-term plans. For now I'll sign off, because this post is long and I'm sure you're tired of reading. I really enjoyed my holidays...they were exactly what I needed. I hope yours were great too!

Currently Listening to: Coheed and Cambria
Mood: stuffy

Some Down Time

2005-12-04T19:54:00.000-05:00

Hey guys. I didn't quite drop off the face of the blogosphere like I said. Time for your Weekend Update!

A lot of this week was spent fixing the hard drive mentioned in the last post. I finally got the program working--patience is a virtue. I just left it running all night and it worked. Problem is, it corrupted all my Microsoft programs, so I couldn't get my email or write my paper or anything important. So, I try to fix it and, to make a long story short, end up corrupting my boot file on the new hard drive in a botched System Restore attempt. Luckily all the data was still on the old hard drive, so I booted with it and retried the whole thing again. This time it worked, so now everything is fine. I'm keeping the old hard drive full for now, just in case I find more problems. Eventually I will reformat it and make it a Linux drive. Well, enough geek talk.

On Friday night I ushered for the Christmas program, and got to see the show without having to pay :) My friends all went to Greenville to Olive Garden and other places. Emily E. and I went to Taco Bell and then watched Willy Wonka. Richard came over after and we played Halo 2.

Slept in on Saturday, grabbed some take-out, and worked on my Religion in America term paper most of the day. The girls and I went to dinner, and I continued working on my paper. Had to run to the library for more books, but the library was closed. Isn't that crazy the weekend before exams? Anyway. Work ground to a halt after that, so I hung out with the girls for a while, did some ironing, and then went to tea in Senior Apts. They made me sing carols. I had to sing one before they would let me leave.

This afternoon I had lunch...with a girl :D I'm not going to talk about it more than that here (yet), so don't ask :D This made me happy. So, I've had a good day. Went to the library for about an hour this afternoon to do some more research, then went to a Christmas party. Dinner, and now I'm chillin' before a meetin'. I'll go practice for a while afterward, and probably go to bed early. Now when I say early, I mean, like, midnight. Unless I decide to work on my paper some more. I haven't decided. I should probably get some more work done, but I do need my beauty sleep. Enough thinking aloud...I'll let you all get on with your lives. Does anyone but my parents still read? Leave me a comment, please! In the words of Pink Floyd--Is There Anybody Out There?

Currently Listening to: Dave Matthews Band
Mood: sleepy but happy

Mmm...Turkey

2005-11-29T15:46:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving was all I hoped it would be. It was relaxing and filled with good food. I watched a lot of TV and movies, ate a lot, and didn't really do much work. I needed the vacation, so it's all good.

Now there's 2 weeks of school left, and I'm going to be super-stressed. I promise I won't whine about it too much :)

I have a Calc test on Thursday, and then I need to work hardcore on my research paper and studying for exams. I have a jury next Tuesday, an exam on Friday and Saturday, and I'm going to try and move my computer class exam so I'm done on Saturday night. My Calculus exam is take-home, so I can do it whenever I want! Also, my research paper is due on Saturday with my Religion in America exam.

I'm not too stressed yet, but ask me later :P

I fear my wisdom teeth are coming in. It hurts when I bite down on my left side. This is not a good thing.

I got a new hard drive for my computer over the break. Circuit City had a 160GB Seagate hard drive on for $40, so my Dad bought it as a Christmas present. However, the rebates are due before Christmas, so I got to put it in to test it and use it. The installation went well, but for some reason the setup program freezes when I want to copy the old data onto the new drive and make it the primary drive. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of this. Ideally, I would like to make the big one a Windows disk, and the small hard drive a Linux one. Just for trial purposes. We'll see how it goes.

That's all that's really new around here. I may not have a lot of tme to post between now and the end of school, so if I drop off the face of the blogosphere, don't worry about me. We'll talk again over Christmas break! So, bye bye for now.

Currently Listening to: Margot and the Nuclear So and So's
Mood: pretty good

Existentialism on Saturday Night

2005-11-20T18:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know it's not Saturday night. It's a play on a song title. Props for those of you who got it. Read further for context.

This weekend was very whirlwindish. Friday afternoon activities went down as usual, and we headed to Greenville for Miyabi afterward. It was awesome, and I actually got full for the first time in a long time. Richard got sick, so we didn't really hang out much after that.

Saturday morning I got up and went to Dr. Oleson's funeral. It was a nice service. There was naturally a lot of singing, and it was a great way to remember him. The students from the PC choir did a Benediction at the end that Dr. Oleson wrote, and it was really beautiful.

From there all the pep band kids went to the game. We ended up losing :'( We fought hard, but we just couldn't come back from their ridiculous passing game. They grow those boys big in Arkansas. Their team was huge! Apparently we were also televised on College Sports South. It's really too bad we lost, but my parents are happy I'm home for all 5 days of Thanksgiving break.

After the game, I headed to Montreat with CJ, and we got there just in time to eat at My Father's Pizza, a staple of Montreat fine dining. We went to get coffee after that, and then back to the lodge for a devotional, hang out time, and a movie. We watched I *Heart* Huckabees, which is a movie steeped in Existentialism (see title). It was pretty heady stuff, and I was kind of lost afterwards. Mike played his guitar for us for a while, then I headed to bed early this morning. Apparently I was sleeping hard, because I didn't hear anyone else wake up. The whole group came and woke me up 5 minutes before they were going to do worship...it was a little embarassing. Headed back here after that.

That's really all I have to report, except that I'm losing my voice from all the yelling and singing I did this weekend. And I have the normal wintertime sniffles. I hope I don't get whatever Richard had. He didn't eat at the Japanese restaurant, so it can't be that. I'm still really looking forward to going home on Tuesday afternoon. Very excited.

Oh, and Tyler re-arranged the room while I was gone. I mentioned it to him that because the beds were blocking the door, and our neighbors were noisy, that I would like to move them so I could sleep. I figured he'd wait until I got back so I could help him. He gets serious roommate cool points. So we'll see how this goes in the next few days.

Currently Listening to: John Mayer
Mood: sleepy

Come on, Thanksgiving!

2005-11-15T23:09:00.000-05:00

I want this week to be over.

I'm physically and emotionally exhausted, and I just would like to go home and eat some great food and watch a movie and spend time with my family.

I have a test tomorrow, and then it should be home free for schoolwork for the rest of the week. Dr. Oleson's visitation is on Friday night, and the memorial service is on Saturday morning. I'm not going to Montreat on Friday for the PSA retreat, like I was supposed to, but am going up on Saturday night after the football game. I'll return Sunday and hopefully be in a better mindset for a couple days before I head home.

Not really much happened yesterday worth mentioning...got up, went to class, studied for my test, went to PSA and Hobbie's discussion group, helped Justin with a project and crashed. I woke up feeling really sick in the middle of the night, and fell asleep in the bathroom (just in case) for an indeterminate amount of time. I haven't felt right all day...I really hope I'm not getting sick. Maybe it's just stress.

I had a test today that I forgot about, but it was in my computer class, so I aced it anyway.

That's really all that was interesting today, other than studying for this test tomorrow. Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll get some sleep....

Currently Listening to: Lab sounds
Mood: tired

It's Official!

2005-11-14T13:26:00.000-05:00

The Oxford trip is a go! It'll be a little shorter than before, but we'll still get mostly everything done that was going to happen anyway. It only really cuts 4 days out, 1 of them being travelling, and 2 being a free weekend. I'm so excited!

Oh, and if you buy a Threadless shirt using the link on my sidebar, I get $3.00 towards a Threadless shirt. I *heart* Threadless shirts. I got:

and

for example.

They have a bunch of funny and interesting shirts, and they only print so many of each design, so not too many people will have your t-shirt. Each design is submitted by random people. Anyway. Feel free to browse, and if you want to buy, use the link! Yes, I sold out. I'm sorry.

For Dr. Oleson

2005-11-13T13:14:00.000-05:00

I found out some bad news yesterday.

My saxophone teacher and band director, Dr. Orval Oleson, died yesterday. Dr. Oleson had been fighting cancer (stomach, I believe) since Spring semester last year, and he was going through radiation, chemo, and surgery to try and get rid of it. Everybody had thought he was getting better, but last weekend he woke up coughing blood, and was rushed to the hospital. He had internal bleeding and lost a lot of blood, and they kept him in ICU all week under sedation. They were going to try and wake him up gradually this weekend, but I guess there were further complications. That's all the details I really have.

He left behind a wife, a son who graduated last year, and a daughter who's a freshmen here at PC. We haven't seen her yet, so we don't know how she's doing. I can't imagine going to a school where your father worked for many, many years and then him not be there anymore.

Dr. Oleson was probably the nicest person I've ever met. He was one of those people that everyone loved, and for good reason. He was always upbeat (even despite everything he had been through), had a good story to tell, and just loved to talk with students about everything and anything. He was very modest, and took a very laid back approach to music. He was never intense, even when we didn't know our music at the rehearsal a few hours before the concert. He just had faith in us that we would do what we knew how to do. He would get really nervous while conducting us, and he would take any mistakes he made it stride, poking fun at himself if he had to. He wore an Elvis wig while conducting our Pops concert one year :) And, we played pieces with floor polishers and vaccuum cleaners as instruments. He made making music fun, which remains one of my strongest beliefs...music should be fun, not work.

Most of our lessons were just spent talking. We talked about everything to do with saxophone and set up, reeds, etc. He loved my saxophone, and would tell me all the time what a nice horn I had, and was lucky I got it the way I did. We talked about Lake Huron, and his frequent trips to Sarnia when he lived in Port Huron. Dr. Oleson gave me a lot of advice about my major, and about connecting computers, music, and a physics major. He would always try to help me apply physics concepts to saxophone playing, and we would talk about our iPods and computers, Smart Music, college radio, and all the other "geek" stuff he knew I was interested in. He would always ask me about my brothers and the Summerville Band, and was interested in what they were doing too. He was patient with me when schoolwork had to take precedence over the material he gave me to work on, and when I had eye surgery he got me out of doing a jury for that semester. We mostly worked on technique, and even though I never worked on it as hard as I should have, he always had faith in me that I would get what he was trying to say to me--and he was right. My technique is so much better than it used to be. I learned very much in our lessons, but it wasn't always saxophone-related.

I only had one class with him, but it was as laid back as his music making. It was called "Introduction to Music," which was basically a Music Appreciation class for music majors and minors. We went over music history, but examined larger issues about what music was for and how it really applied to our lives, and how music was used and appreciated all over the world. He really cared about teaching music, not just notes and rhythms, but the deeper underlying qualities of music. We would start off each class with Bach, as a "Blessing on the House," and we would just sit there and listen. We would watch movies and laser discs, and I will never forget the time he showed us the director's cut of "Amadeus". There is a nudity scene in the director's cut that isn't in the regular cut, and he got so embarassed that he showed that to us. It was a funny and endearing situation. It just showed us his modesty and morality, and that he was a fundamentally good human being.

People like Dr. Oleson are few and far between these days, and he was an amazing example of a Christian man. He accepted everyone, and talked to people like they were intelligent and were worth something. Even though he had a Doctorate in music, he never pretended to know more than his students, and, in my opinion, never saw himself as an authority or specialist in music knowledge. He would do anything for his students, and showed amazing servant leadership. He believed in Liberal Arts, and in the idea that learning about God's Earth was a way to glorify Him in our everyday lives. He lost use of his legs when he was young, and he showed amazing strength everyday in getting around and just functioning normally. He did it so naturally, that there wasn't much he couldn't do. He was simply an amazing human being, and it's hard to put into words all the things that made him that way. He was a man that had a profound influence on my time here at PC, and I will miss him greatly.

Rest in Peace, Dr. Oleson.

Blue Hose Football!

2005-11-12T14:04:00.000-05:00

Oh, and I forgot!

The Blue Hose are undefeated in Division II SEC! Which means we are first seed in the playoffs! Which means I could be playing at football games into December!

We get a bye this week, and we have a home game next week. If we win, we'll have one on the 26th, and I'll have to be back early from Thanksgiving break. If we win then, we'll have another game on December 3, and if we win that we'll be playing in the Final in Alabama. On the second-to-last day of exams. And I will have to go. Dr. K assured us that no money would be paid out of our pockets, and we would get money for food over Thanksgiving when the dining halls are closed. If we make it to Alabama, we'd stay in a hotel for free and get free food and whatnot. The other perk is that some of these games end up on ESPN 2. Which means you could see me on TV! I think it would be fun. But, also stressful being during exams. I will keep everyone posted as I get more info. But isn't it exciting?

The week

2005-11-11T16:43:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back a few minutes after posting that last one.

Tuesday night the Combo played for a Black Tie Gala that PC was having to raise money for a new scholarship. It ended up going really well, and it was pretty fun. We had to cut a girl out of a seatbelt. And we got a drunk driver arrested (well, we assume). No event can go without a little drama! We all did well as a whole, but I kinda sucked. It's ok...Dr K was happy with my performance...I just wasn't.

I took a Physics test the other day and it went really well. I'm really glad, because I needed that grade to pull up my Physics grade (see last post).

The concert that WPCX had last night went really well. Another girl and I have been organizing this for a couple weeks, and it pretty much went off without a hitch. There weren't that many people there, because it was Fraternity Bid Night, so the freshmen guys, and all the guys in frats, were doing that. The band had a good time, the people that were there had a good time, and it was a really good show. So, I guess it was a success.

There's stuff I want to talk about, but I don't think this is the place to talk about it. I'm scared :P I wrote an entire paragraph but decided I needed to delete it. I shouldn't have to censor myself on a blog, right? Well I am. Get over it :)

Currently Listening to: My Chemical Romance--Helena
Mood: rocking out

Er..

2005-11-08T11:57:00.000-05:00

Hey guys.

I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive. Things have been ridiculously busy and blogging has been the least of my worries. All the tests, papers, and concerts were.

School has not been going as well as I would like, and I'm really getting discouraged. I put as much time as I can into studying, and it doesn't seem to be enough. Physics and Calculus especially, which really sucks because they're my major courses. Luckily, next semester should be a GPA booster. I'm taking Physics and Calculus again, but the other two classes, Extraterrestrial Life and 20th Century Fantasy in Literature and Film, should be really easy. And I think I'm dropping some of the extracurriculars that take up all my time. Although it's good experience, I'm thinking about giving up Combo...apart from performances (which don't happen often), it's no fun anymore. Nobody wants to work, and we're horribly inconsistent.
It just ends up being drudgery. In other music news, the school is offering bagpipe lessons next semester and I'm still debating whether or not I want to do it. I would love to, but I think I would have to pay for them myself. But maybe if I give up improv and Combo, that scholarship money could go to bagpipe lessons....

It's almost official that I'm going to Oxford and Edinburgh during the summer to study Scottish History. They're still working out the numbers and plans, because they had a few less students than they wanted. Originally, two of the Emilys were going to go, but now we're not sure about one. Also, Richard is still deciding if he's going to go. I would really like him to go, but I can understand his hesitance, because he's already going to the Galapagos for the Maymester.

I started this post 4 days ago and I'm only now getting back to it. I really don't remember where I was going with this. So, I'll just say this one's done and start a new one!

Currently Listening to: My radio show
Mood: happy-ish

Halloween Party Pictures

2005-10-31T22:04:00.000-05:00

Hey guys. I just wanted to show you some pictures from the Halloween party I went to Saturday night. I was a zombie...picked up a $6.00 3-piece suit from the thrift store (that fit me perfectly, oddly enough), and did my own makeup for that dead look. My friends and I are zombie movie enthusiasts, so we had a lot of material to work with. I won scariest costume, and then we took pictures of me rampaging about campus, feasting on the statues and being chased by Richard, who was a zombie hunter.
< This is all of us that went: Justin as a Ravenclaw (from the Harry Potter Books), my (im)mortal enemy, Richard, Emily as a 20th Century Muse, and me.

Me attacking Richard at the party>

< Me rampaging about campus.
Attacking a statue on campus >

< Richard after a hard night of vanquishing the undead.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Happy Halloween!

"Landscaping for the Lord" and Other Stories

2005-10-17T14:50:00.000-05:00

I've been up to a lot recently. Any time not spent in class, meetings, or sleeping really has been consumed by my Religion in America paper. Most of Fall Break two weekends ago was also spent doing that. Also, Calculus. Thus, Fall Break was really uneventful. I got a haircut, some real food, and spent some time with my brothers and their girlfriends. That's really all.

The short week after was busy. That's about it.

This weekend was ok. Thursday night I got an email from the Student Union Board asking me to DJ for Midnight Madness on Friday night. So Friday afternoon after class was spent running around campus looking for bits of the library's sound system. We got that together, and then I hung out with Justin during his radio show. We all headed to Pizza Hut in Laurens for dinner, and had a good time. The waitress was really funny and she joined my friends in abusing me. Later that night I set up for DJing, did that for about an hour (and got paid $25!), and then played in the Pep Band for Midnight Madness. Now, Midnight Madness is a big celebration to start the basketball season. The NCAA regulations say that the basketball teams can't practice before a certain date, so that night at midnight they have a thing to kick off the season. The Pep Band had to play, and we rocked. Our drummer, Stephen, had the guitar player from his band play with us and he was really awesome. It was pretty fun. Saturday was Youth Day, so I had to give tours to youth groups that came to PC for the day. After that I changed real quick and ran over to the Christian music festival PC was having for Youth Day to see two of my bandmates, Stephen Humphries and Jeremy Barber, play in the festival. I really enjoyed Stephen's band, and they were all cool guys. I don't dig Jeremy's music as much, but he did really well. Worked on my paper for the rest of the day. Sunday got up, went to lunch and then to a service project for PSA. There was only like 4 of us, so they really needed me. I'll tell you the story behind it sometime (it's what the title of the post is in reference to). It's a really sad one. I wish I had the time to tell it right now. Came back and actually wrote the first paragraph of the paper after dinner and a long stint in the Library.

To save time and space, I won't post about today. Someday in the future I might get to tell you about it :)

P.S: I've been reading The Zombie Survival Guide. Justin and I watched Shaun of the Dead the other night and came up with a Zombie Survival Plan for PC. You must always be prepared for the undead legions!

Currently Listening to: Jack's Mannequin in my head
Mood: feel like crying

This is Why I Like Dave Matthews Band

2005-10-04T14:43:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to share with you guys this story I read:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051004/music_nm/davematthews_dc

Amazing, huh?

A weekend of fun

2005-10-03T13:46:00.000-05:00

This weekend was quite fun.

Friday after radio shows, we all decided to head to TGI Fridays in Simpsonville for dinner. It ended up being (alphabetically): Emily D, Emily E, Emmaly, Joseph, Justin, Michelle, Tyler, Richard, and me. We hit a traffic jam on the way up there, and it ended up being almost 9pm before we got there. Then we waited 20 minutes. Finally, we got to our table, ordered, and commenced the silliness. Friday's has conversation starters on the sugar packets, and we anwered those until our food came. I made a couple jokes at the waitress's expense, to try and cheer her up because she looked like she was having a bad night. So, naturally, this was picked up as flirting by my peers (to be continued). There was a large attempt to make Richard down a shot of Jack Daniel's barbecue sauce that came with my steak. The "steaks" were high (lol)...a whole 5 bucks cash! He didn't end up doing it. I went to the bathroom at that point, and apparently the whole table talked to the waitress about me. After we paid, Justin left her my number and where I was sitting on his receipt. I was mortified. Strange thing is, there was a hang up message on our answering machine the next day. But that happens all the time....

Richard and Emily E and Emmaly and Joseph and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some X-Box controllers so we could all play. Emily and Richard were busted for going in the wrong door by a creepy old guy. We shopped for far longer than we should have, then went back to Emily's room to play Halo into ze night.

Got up Saturday morning to help set up for the Pep Band tailgate. Dr. K apparently has award winning chili, even in Texas. He made it for us and it was gooood. Had a fun time hanging out and talking with my bandmates, and then we went in and played awesome. Both the football team and the band. PC won again, so now we're 5-1! Spent after dinner trying to study for Physics, but I kept falling asleep, so I called it quits about midnight-thirty and went to bed.

Woke up at 11 on Sunday, ate lunch, then spent the rest of the day doing Physics. Except for my PSA and Senate meetings.

Got up early and studied some Physics some more before I took the test this morning. It went well. Late to Religion, though. We went over my Calc test in, well, Calc. Not good. Don't want to talk about it.

Well, I guess that's it. Fall Break this weekend...I'm looking forward to it. I really need the time to catch up. Also, a haircut. After the last time, I don't think I'll get my hair cut up here anymore.

Currently Listening to: The Postal Service
Mood: headache

HTMHell

2005-09-27T22:47:00.000-05:00

I added a few new webcomic links.

It's really amazing how one quotation mark can FUBAR a webpage.

I hate HTML.

Let me know if anything is amiss.

And give her my number ;)...just kidding.

Currently Listening to: Jack's Mannequin (yes, again)
Mood: tired

2005-09-27T10:57:00.000-05:00

So, you know that resolution I made to blog everyday...not so much.

Actually, I did post a little while ago, but I ended up losing it. I was very angry, because it was long and detailed and funny. You would've enjoyed it.

I guess I was mad at Blogger for awhile, so now we have reconciled our differences and I'm back.

Things have been busy, and school has not been going well. There's a lot to talk about, but to save space I won't rant. It's mostly just schoolwork.

Mom and Dad and Brad came up this weekend for the football game, and we had a good time. It was really cool to see everybody again.

Later that night the freshmen and I watched movies and played Soul Calibur II for a long time. It, too, was lots of fun.

Sunday I realized I had a paper outline due for our large term paper in Religion in America, so that took up most of my Sunday, except for PSA and Senate Meetings. Stayed up 'til 3am doing that. It's going to be on American Cults and either their development or their persecution. I haven't quited decided yet.

Monday I kind of walked around in a haze from my long night. It was the usual stuff, nothing too exciting. It was Open Mic night...for the next one, I think Joseph and I will do the Dead Parrot Sketch from the Monty Pythons. Went to Hobbie's Discussion Group for the first time in 2 weeks, tea with friends, and then bed.

I guess there's not too much going on in my life. I need to work harder in school, I guess. I spent some serious time studying last week, and it really only paid off in Religion in America--I got a 93 on that test. Physics and Calculus didn't really go as well as I'd like. I guess I got my wake-up call. I'm currently wondering why I like the things I'm not good at, and don't like the things I'm good at. For example, I'm good at History and English, but I really like science. It's weird.

Ok, class is over now. My computer class is pretty much a joke, so I sit in here and blog. Better than spreadsheets. After Friday, I think we'll be doing C++, though. I think I'll start paying attention then. Hopefully it won't be too long before I blog again!

A new record!

2005-09-16T11:06:00.000-05:00

So that lasted, what, two days? In my defense I had a quiz to study for last night and forgot about blogging.

Classes went fine yesterday. I had a radio show, too, which also went well. Although yesterday I had to send a mean email to the DJs. For two weeks in a row I went into the station for my show and the board was off. This is a big no-no, as it messes up the equipment. I come to find out later that it's one of the new DJs who was improperly trained. grr. So, now everybody knows.

Dr. K actually gave me a compliment in my lesson yesterday and said I did good work. So yay.

I talked to Dr. Heiser, one of the profs for the Oxford trip, about the price tag of said trip. He suggested I go to Financial Aid and see what they can do for me. So I will be definitely doing that. Also, Emily E and I are trying hard to come up with moneymaking schemes. It's really hard to think of (legal) ways to make $4000 by the Spring. I s'pose I could start gambling. But I have horrible luck, so maybe that's a bad idea.

I hung out all afternoon with my freshmen, then went to Jazz Band, dinner, and a faculty recital. Came back to the room and started studying, then Tyler had some friends over to watch Top Gun. I didn't really have any place to go, so I tried to study until the first dogfight--then just gave up and watched it with them. I forgot how much I loved that movie. I hadn't seen the full version in a long time. Anyway, after that was done I stayed up studying for a quiz today, 'til about 1:30am.

Got up this morning and went to breakfast with Justin, and we had a good time.

I'm out of town for a retreat, so no weekend updates!

Currently "Listening" to: Dr. Bell
Mood: TGIF

I am Le Tired

2005-09-14T22:05:00.000-05:00

9 hours of class really takes it out of you.

Physics test went ok...it could've gone better. Dr. Hiltgen said in lab that he curves the first test pretty high, so that's good.

Other classes were fine. Went to take my yearbook picture before lunch, grabbed a couple of pieces of pizza from GDH, did my advance questions for lab, and ran off to lab. I was the last one there, because I got behind doing things wrong :( I still got out about an hour early, so I went to my room and chilled for the first time all day. My iPod was acting up again for some reason, so I reformatted it and reloaded it. Now it's fine, so I'm happy. iPod = happiness.

Wind Ensemble sectional, then chilled at dinner with my friends for a long time, killing time until Combo. Combo went well and went short, so I stayed behind and actually practiced for my lesson tomorrow. That took a lot less time than I thought it would, so I came back to the room and downloaded all the tunes for Combo and Jazz band. Dr. K picks such weird music, that I can't find some of it. Oh well. I also came across a Dizzy Gillespie CD I bought this summer and forgot about, so I've been listening to it. I think my radio show tomorrow will be a Jazz show. And then the Friday show will be rock. I think that's how I will work it.

Now, it's off to bed for me. I'm exhausted.

Currently Listening to: Dizzy Gillespie
Mood: exhausted

Boys jeans and Jazz

2005-09-13T22:19:00.000-05:00

I've made a new resolution. I will blog everyday. I need the time at the end of the day to decompress. Therefore, you readers out there (if, in fact, there are any of you) may take part in my quite ordinary life.

I can't remember last week. Sorry.

This weekend was fun, though. I went back home for the weekend, because Dad was leaving for Europe to climb the corporate ladder, and PC was playing CSU in Charleston, and the friends I went home with went to Wando, and Summerville was playing Wando.

Got home, hung out at our place for a while, then went to Zaxby's and the game. I ended up hanging out on the Wando side with Michelle and Joseph (my adopted band-related freshmen). They went into an extra quarter, and Summerville ended up winning. The band was lacking energy, so I didn't really get a good look at their show yet...hopefully I will at some point!

Saturday morning I didn't really do much, except visit with Dad before he took off. Michelle and Joseph and Sam (another adopted freshman) headed to CSU Saturday afternoon to cheer on our Blue Hose. We ended blowing them out of the water 40-something to nothing. We left in the 4th quarter and it was 35-0. Now the Blue Hose are 3-0! That's a good sign for the year so far. Saturday night I did some homework and watched Sahara with my brothers. It was funny and there were lots of explosions; therefore, it was a good movie.

Sunday went to church and Sunday school, then went to Target and Kohl's with Mum while waiting for Michelle to pick me up. I got some $40 headphones for $20 because they had them in the wrong place, so I was happy about that. Mom and I headed over to Kohl's because I needed some jeans and shorts, and I ended up having to go over to the boys section, because they didn't have any jeans in my size. It's kind of hard to find 28-30s, so I guess the equivalent is 18 boys. I'm 20 years old, and still wearing boys clothes. Oh well, I got one pair free, and they're my favorite kind of jeans! I also got 2 pairs of shorts. Mummy spoiled me :D We headed back, and I did the normal Sunday night stuff...PSA meeting, hanging out...I think I did some homework in there too...

Monday was pretty normal. PSA went well, and I studied for my Physics test tomorrow instead of going to Hobbie's discussion group. I finally got my Religion in America book. That's about all that's interesting about my Monday.

Today was filled with lessons, computer class, lunch, studying for Physics, and then a Combo gig. We were playing for a banquet the Hospital was having...it went pretty well. The audience didn't really acknowledge us at all. Which is good, because my solos were pretty much crap. It was a good performance for the first one of the year. Grabbed some food at the banquet, went and changed, then went to work. I've been studying for Physics for 3 hours straight, so I decided I needed a break. So I'm blogging. Then I think I will get some food, and hit the sack. I have 9 hours of class on Wednesday. What on earth was I thinking scheduling my lab on Wednesdays? I really should have moved it to Tuesday. 3 hours of class in the morning, 3 hours of lab, a 1.5 hour Wind Ensemble rehearsal, dinner, then a 1.5 hour Combo rehearsal. eep. I promise that's the last time I'll complain...I did it to myself.

Currently Listening to: Coheed and Cambria--Blood Red Summer
Mood: tired and hungry

I waste too much time

2005-09-05T13:56:00.000-05:00

It's really hard for me to get motivated for some reason. All my classes are boring/not challenging, so it's hard for me to justify spending any time on them right now. I could be reading or something...or catching up...but instead I'm blogging and doing laundry. Go figure. Worried yet, parents? :D

This weekend was pretty fun. Friday night was the Black Tie Ball, or PC Prom as some called it. It's PC's 125th Anniversary this year, so they threw the whole campus a $25,000 ball, which was free for everybody. They had a live Motown band, a 6-layer cake, dance floor, oysters and shrimp, an ice sculpture...the works. It was a lot of fun, even though I didn't have a date. Saturday was the football game, and we thrashed a team that made the NCAA playoffs last year. So PC football is 2-0 for the season! That's good start. Next up is Charleson Southern, which I will probably go and see when I go home next weekend. Saturday night we missed GDH because it was a late game, so all my freshmen friends and I ganged up on Sonic in Laurens. Then, we watched movies late into the night. Good times were had.

I really didn't do much yesterday but go to meetings. The Blue Stocking (school paper) wanted me to get my DJs to do album reviews, but somehow I got roped into being a writer for the Entertainment section. Yipee :| I will definitely be pawning some of those articles on the DJs. I would only have to write one article every 2 weeks, so I guess it's not that bad. So there was that meeting. Then I went to the Student Government Association meeting to represent WPCX. That was pretty much a waste of time. Went to bed too late. I've been doing that a lot recently. I guess I've become more of a night person. Which is cool, because people used to make fun of me for going to bed so early.

It has seemed like the last week-and-a-half has been the longest, um, week-and-a-half of school in my career. That should make for the longest semester of my career as a student here at PC. I guess that's good...we'll see how long that opinion lasts.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll post some more this week. I need to practice writing :)

Currently Listening to: Incubus
Mood: ADD

Wow.

2005-09-01T14:41:00.000-05:00

I have been really busy. I mean, really. I mean, usually I at least post once a week.

Lots has happened since then. Classes are going well. Some of them are boring me out of my skull, but that should just improve my GPA, right?

I've sold a couple books on Half.com and got some extra funds. I also ordered the right book for one of my classes and it's still not here, so I don't really know what's going on with that. I really need it. And one of my friends has my Calculus book, and he hasn't given it back yet because he left it at home. So, in short, I don't quite have all my books yet. But they're coming.

My computer gave me a scare yesterday. One of my fans was making a weird noise, so I took the computer apart, cleaned the fan off, and everything stopped making a weird noise...or so I thought. It did it again this morning. Hopefully that doesn't mean it's dying. I almost bought more memory on eBay the other day too, but I decided that would not be the best use of my funds at the present moment. In other computer news, the speed of my internet connection went down because Charter actually got the tier system working. Which means I get slower internet unless I pay for a higher tier. Which I'm not doing on the principle that I pay $30,000 to go here every year, and that should really cover something like internet, which the whole school practically requires. Anyway. It's not that big of a change, so there's really no complaints.

Speaking of funds, last night I went to the informational meeting for the trip to Oxford over the summer, and found out that it's twice the price that I thought it would be, so that's not looking good at all now. Which is really depressing, because I've been really excited about this trip since I heard about it. I'm not quite giving up hope yet. I could sell all my worldly belongings and have enough money...

Which brings me to the fact that it's selfish to be thinking about spending $4000 on a trip to Europe when New Orleans is under water. And that depressed me too. So, last night I was basically really depressed. I watched Fox News for a while last night, and I just couldn't get over the gall of the reporters. There was one that was holding a microphone up to people wading out of the projects of New Orleans, asking if they're ok. Not helping a lick. Of course they're not ok! They were trapped in the submerged projects of New Orleans, making their way through contaminated water to the nearest highway overpass and relative safety. No food, shelter, or help available at all. Stranded indefinitely on an overpass until help arrives. And the reporter is there, doing interviews. I think people have survival on their minds, not answering a reporter who's not doing a thing to help them. I'm sorry. I'm sure there is a reporter side to the story, but that's all I saw. Tonight the campus is having a worship service and an organizational meeting to start doing mission work down there...more updates to come. Until then, keep everyone down there in your prayers--I have some friends with family and friends down there.

One good thing about last night was our first radio meeting. We had a lot of new faces show up, and the meeting went really well. We have about 50 hours out of the week taken up with shows, and that is stellar. Hopefully all of them will stick with it, and WPCX will continue to grow.

PSA's going well, too. We're taping a skit for the first meeting on Monday night tonight, so I'll be busy 'til late.

Also, the Black Tie Ball for PC's 125th Anniversary is tomorrow night, and Anna's going to give me a mini-makeover. I don't know what all is entailed, but I think my eyebrows and my hair are the big goals. Please pray for me :P

Let's see...that's about all. I have to get ready for Jazz Band now, so if I think of anything else I'll post later. Maybe not tonight, but later.

Currently Listening to: computer sounds
Mood: very tired

Class is imminent. Prepare accordingly

2005-08-23T18:02:00.000-05:00

Well, class starts tomorrow. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Actually, I think I will be glad, because I'll have something to do. Not that I haven't for the last few days. On Monday I had a 5 hour PSA meeting to get started for the year, and on Sunday I went to dinner with my Music Director and Faculty Advisor for the radio station to get that going too. Also, I've been out playing with my new band freshmen friends, and my old ones too. Bowling last night, a concert and variety show the night before that, and movies last night after the bowling. It's been fun! Sorry no blogging :(

Turns out I bought a wrong book for one of my classes. The author wrote two books with "Religious History of America" in the title. One is "The Religious History of America" and the other is "A Religious History of America." What kind of person writes two books with the same title, even if separated by a simple part of speech? Anyway, I picked the wrong one on half.com, so now I have to try and sell it and buy the other one. Luckily the wrong one cost me less than $5 and I have already ordered the new one. *sigh*

GDH has been quite intolerable since I've been here, and I have not been feeling 100% as a result. Like tonight. I couldn't even finish before I had to (figuratively) run to my room and lie down. I really hope it gets better soon. Or I will make it *devious laugh*. It's sad that I miss real food already :(

I was going to do a bit on pep band and the athletic department, but in the interest of length it'll have to be another post. Let me just say that the athletic department blames us for not pumping up the crowd and wants ridiculous things from us. So we're doing them. And pretending we're happy about it :P

Well, tomorrow I jump headlong into the fray that is school, so I guess things will get more interesting from now on. Keep reading and leave me comments. That's how I know you love me ;)

Currently Listening to: Fall Out Boy & Something Corporate
Mood: sick

2005-08-18T13:19:00.000-05:00

Turns out that I had to post for it to change. So, new picture yay!

But there's good news...I just saved a bunch of money on my books by buying them on eBay!

2005-08-18T12:06:00.000-05:00

Yay for me! I got my books today, and realized that I saved $97 on books by not buying them at the bookstore. This makes me very happy. If you have read any of my posts around book-buying time, you know that usually gets me really grumpy. Not this time! Now it is a joyous occasion.

Yesterday morning we had practice and it went well, and then had freedom for the rest of the day. I mostly spent it in front of the computer doing whatever it is I do on the computer for hours on end. Took a glorious nap, and then helped Tyler some more stuff in. Wal-Mart run yesterday too, where I got some more stuff for the room and a beard trimmmer. You all could see my beard if the picture on my profile section of the blog would update. I wonder why it isn't?

Anyway, had practice this morning, ate lunch with the new freshmen, got my books, and helped Emmaly with computer stuff today so far, and I'm sure I'll be drafted into helping someone else move in. We'll see!

Currently Listening to: Jason Mraz

Back in...Red and Gray?

2005-08-16T09:45:00.000-05:00

After a long hiatus, the Transplanted Canadian is back! As I've said before, it gets hard to blog with dial-up. But, now I'm back at school and have the glorious internet and all its splendor instantly at my fingertips! Moved in about 5pm yesterday, and had Jazz Band practice at 6:30. So, I just kind of dumped my stuff in my room and went to practice...and skipped dinner. The band is very young this year. Most of them are freshmen, and play low brass (trombones and baritones). But, we sound good so far...they can sightread pretty well. I'm the only tenor sax so far, which makes it hard to play 2 parts by myself. After practice I went back to the room and unpacked and hung out with Emily and Lewis while they watched me. Anna took me to McDonald's about 11, I ate that and then went to bed. Didn't really sleep, though. I get in major freak-out mode when I have to sleep in a new place. Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight. It's kind of weird having the whole room to myself and nothing in it. Maybe things will feel better when Tyler brings his stuff. Well, that's it for now. Aren't you glad that I'm back? :)

Currently Listening to: 3 Doors Down
Mood: hungry

Summertime!

2005-05-09T19:37:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! I know I haven't posted in a while, but I'm home and with that comes the dreaded dial-up. And Blogger is not optimal at dial-up speeds. Anyway, so far my summer has been uneventful. I have done a lot of relaxing and not much of anything important. Really, there isn't much to report. I decided I didn't want to pursue the job as a camp counselor in Mount Pleasant, so I could go to Canada with my family. So, as it turns out, my Dad found me a job at the same company my brother works for, and I start on Monday! So, I have to suffer through another week of relaxation :) My first job is out by Seabrook Island with Brad and another guy, so I can learn the ropes pretty comfortably. Apparently we're working on a very large house out there.

I'm really looking forward to the vaction this year. It all starts with Dave Matthews Band in Charlotte June 28th (YAY!), and then we're contiuing on to Ohio (it is rumored), where we will spend a day or two at Cedar Point, our favorite theme park. They are always a contender for a world record roller coaster, so it's sort of the Mecca of rollercoasters at least in the USA, if not the world. Then, to Canada and staying on the boat for a couple weeks. Brittany, Eric's girlfriend, is coming up with us and flying home, and then Megan, a good friend of mine and Brad's, is probably flying up and driving back with us. So there are some friends involved this year too. Plus, we'll be there during the regatta again, so Brad and I can kick some butt in our Laser >>. It's just going to be great!

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm sure I'll update at least once before we leave, but I make no promises. It's pretty hard to blog under these conditions!

Currently Listening to:
Mood:

I'M FREE!

2005-04-27T16:10:00.000-05:00

Well, my last exam is over! That means my school year is officially over. It's all sort of surreal right now. It wasn't that long ago that I moved in. Now I'm moving out! Well, not right now. I'm kind of relaxing right now. I really don't have much to say--both my exams went pretty ok.

I'm sure I'll have some end-of-the-year thoughts later. Right now I have writer's block. Talk to you soon!

Currently Listening to: Incubus
Mood: groggy

The Day of Reckoning

2005-04-25T22:07:00.000-05:00

In one of the webcomics I read, the author had a vision he would die on a certain day. I took a test, and it determined that I will die August 27, 2051, most likely from cancer. This is completely goofy and unscientific, but interesting.

On a less morbid note (well sort of), I had my first exam today: Music Theory, Ear Training, and Sight Singing. They went pretty ok...probably could have gone better, but at least they're over. English is tomorrow at 2pm, then the last 2 (Calc and World Civ) are on Wednesday. Then I'm headed home on Thursday afternoon. The only news will be studying and exam results. Stay tuned! If you dare...

Currently Listening to: The Killers
Mood: losing steam

Rockin' Out

2005-04-22T10:49:00.000-05:00

Well, my last class of the year was this morning at 9. So, school's...out...for...summer! Well, almost. There are the dreaded exams. I'm not terribly worried right now, but ask me later this week.

Yesterday was pretty busy...class all morning, radio show, Earth Day celebration, practice, Celtic Cross cookout, concert, then a CD release party for my friend (who I play with in the Jazz band). After my paper was finished, I've pretty much had an easy week, which I could've done a lot of things, but have ended up slacking off. I really don't think exams will be that bad. And I'll have all weekend to study for them. I will be fine....

Not much else to say. Justin's freaking out right now because Richard's Grandma is coming and the room's not clean. So I guess I'd better help him.

Currently Listening to: The Starting Line
Mood: happy!

Remix!

2005-04-17T18:01:00.000-05:00

I really don't know why I titled it that. But I did.

The week's been full again. I just forget to blog. I had an English paper due, and a Calc test to study for. Both went really well. Also, a Wind Ensemble concert that went pretty well too. Honestly, that's about it. I had a really good Friday...it was just a nice day and someone told me something really nice. So that was neat. The weekend has been boring...staying up late, sleeping in late, working occasionally. I have actually got quite a bit accomplished. I had a strange urge to write something last night...I have a story I started, but never finished. Maybe one day I will finish it. I originally wanted to submit it to the PC literary magazine (which I ended up reading last night instead), but I think it will end up longer than could fit in the magazine. Who knows.

This is the last week of classes, and then exams! Two weeks until I'm out of school for the summer. That's pretty crazy. I think I might have a job...I finally got in touch with the Day Camp at Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church, and they sent me an application. I've already got 2 references working on it, so now I just have to finish my part and send it off. Downside: I probably won't get to go to Canada with my family. But, it looks like I might be going with my Dad the first week after exams to put the boat in. I think I'll ask the lady if I can get a week off to go, but I'm not counting any chickens.

That's about all that's going on in my life. I say I'll have time later in the week to blog, but almost always forget. So, I'm sorry again. I will really try to keep you guys updated! Later!

Currently Listening to: The Kills
Mood: bored

Nothing Gold can Stay

2005-04-10T13:17:00.000-05:00

If this was a job, I'd be fired, wouldn't I? Sorry, guys. Things happen and I forget to update.

Thursday night I went to go see the spring musical that PC puts on...this year it was The Fantasticks, which was apparently the longest running musical on Broadway. It was really good, and my friends that were in it did a wonderful job. After that I studied for the Cal quiz I took on Friday between classes. Friday night we went out to Simpsonville and ate too much at Cracker Barrel. Also, we saw Sin City in Greenville. I thoroughly enjoyed it. People said it was gory, which it sort of was, but it wasn't disturbing because of the style it was in. It was very much like a comic book, which apparently is one of its endearing characteristics. I went to bed after that and woke up late the next day, went to lunch, and then started (and finished) a World Civ paper. After I finished, I ate some smoked ribs with the guys in the dorm and then hung out with Emmaly and we watched Good Morning Vietnam. Waffle House after that, and then bed.

Got up early this morning and went to Spartanburg with Celtic Cross to First Presbyterian Church. It was the sunday that we thank them for being our sponsor, so we all went to the service and had lunch. Now I'm just killing time before a Handbells concert. I have another paper to write and a Calculus test this week...nothing gold can stay. You know, there's only 2 more weeks left of school? And then exams?! EEP! Then it's my summer. I still don't have a job. I really should find one. I've been playing phone tag with a church in Mt. Pleasant about a paid internship. Hopefully that won't fall through, but I have my doubts. So I still have to find a job. Any ideas? Let me know!

Currently Listening to: Third Eye Blind
Mood: worried

2005-04-06T20:29:00.000-05:00

And, I just realized, 5 days ago was the birthday of Transplanted Canadian: The Public Record of a Canadian Living the College Life in the US of A! I've been here at Blogger for a year! Wow, time flies. And I forgot your birthday...I'm sorry, blog, how will you ever forgive me? *cries*

New toys!

2005-04-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

I got a new toy that makes it real easy to post pictures to my blog. 2 of these are from the Charleston trip we all took for Spring Break, and the other was just a random night where everybody went out to eat at the Clock (where the picture was taken) and then went bowling. There are so many pictures that I couldn't possibly put them anywhere where you guys can see them. I did put up the ones from my camera here and I'll put it in the sidebar for future reference. Just thought I'd let you know why random pictures were up on the blog!

Currently Listening to: ahh...silence.
Mood: procrastinating

2005-04-06T20:10:00.000-05:00

Everybody! Everybody!

2005-04-06T20:01:00.000-05:00

We're roommates! We're roommates!

2005-04-06T20:00:00.000-05:00

Me standing below Customs House

Sleepy time

2005-04-05T22:16:00.000-05:00

Well, today was a beautiful day. I mean beautiful.

We had English on the front steps of Neville, and it was short. I went back to the room to fiddle about for a couple of hours, then went to World Civ (which was pretty normal). A quick lunch, purhased a ticket for the spring musical "The Fantasticks," called me Mum, and then lay outside reading for English tomorrow. Jazz band, then dinner. At dinner, a horrible joke was played on me and it took a little while to get over that. Watched Desparate Housewives with Justin, then went to work. Now I'm at work, talking to 5 people and killing time until bed. I had a good talk with my brother Brad tonight; it was fun. I'm not going to make it home for Eric's birthday, which will probably be disappointing to him. If you read this, Eric, I'm sorry! Well, that's about how interesting my day has been. So yeah. And stuff.

Currently Listening to: Incubus
Mood: sleepy/still have a tummyache

Monday and Other Things

2005-04-05T09:53:00.000-05:00

Well, yesterday was...a Monday, I guess.

Went to classes as usual. Ear Training and Theory went ok...I got the grades back on the tests and did ok. Theory and sightsinging went well...ear training, not so much. But then he didn't tell us what was going to be on it in advance. Plus, I had bigger fish to fry. Like the Mahi-Mahi of Calculus (that goes along with the Mackerel of Reality...don't ask). Calculus went well too. I ended up with a 65? on the test after the corrections. I could've ended up with at 74, so I wasn't very far off. Went to lunch real quick, then worked most of the afternoon on the WPCX Station Manager application. Apparently, I'm the only one that is willing to take the responsibility. What have I got myself into?! There is a good possibility that I will get the job, so will be in charge of running the day-to-day operations of the station. That's a pretty big job. Eep.

I went to my friend Karen's senior seminar, and then to Wind Ensemble. Dinner, then PSA. I was elected Treasurer again. Again, the only one willing to take that job. I really need to stop volunteering for things. Also, Delta Omicron made me the Service Chair. So now, I guess I will be an officer in everything that I'm involved in. Relaxed for a little bit after PSA, then went to Bible Study. God some Waffle House food after that, then bed. That's about it for my Monday. I'm going to be a busy boy next semester!

Currently Listening to: blink-182
Mood: tummy parts hurt

2005-04-04T10:38:00.000-05:00

Wow. I really keep forgetting to blog. I'm disappointed in myself.

Last week was pretty short. I went to class Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and one class on Friday was cancelled, and we weren't doing much in the other one, so I just didn't go. I spent the time correcting a Calculus test that I originally made a 56 on, so I could get a better grade. It took me awhile, because I had to be thorough to get all the points. We'll see today how that went.

Also, some not so good news. I broke up with Courtney on Friday. There were a lot of reasons I felt it needed to happen, and I'm really sorry I hurt her. I really hope we can still be friends, but I guess that's up to her...I can understand if she wouldn't want that.

Saturday I slept in really late and cleaned the room all afternoon. I helped Emmaly with her blog, went to dinner, played pool with Emmaly, watched Jerry Maguire with Emmaly and Tyler, and then played cards the rest of the night. Sunday got up really late because of the time change, ate lunch, spent all afternoon writing a composition for Theory (then realized it was all wrong and had to do it again), went to meet the Moderator of the PC(USA), went to a DO meeting, went to a PSA meeting, went back to the room, made some tea, redid my Theory composition, and went to bed...grumpy, for some reason.

Gotta go to class! See ya later!

Currently Listening to: Jamie Cullum
Mood: sleepy

er?

2005-03-29T20:12:00.000-05:00

I really don't have much to say for today. My 9 o'clock class was cancelled, so I got to sleep in 'til about 10 before Richard and Justin woke me up. Went to class, lunch, then played frisbee with the roommates for a bit, went to Belk to go practice, then jazz band, dinner, and now I'm doing this. I don't have too much to do...I do have to write a paper before Friday, but I can knock that out in not too much time, and do some reading, but that won't be a problem either. Tyler got our room today...we're in Barron 210, I think he said. It's one of the suites, so we're hoping Richard and Justin will be in the other half, but there's still a lot of people with numbers higher than them. Hopefully no one will take the other room. Well, I guess I'll go for right now. People actually need my help in the lab tonight!

Currently Listening to: Louis XIV--Finding Out That True Love is Blind
Mood: relaxed

The Return of Blogging

2005-03-29T00:01:00.000-05:00

Hey Guys!

It was a hellish week last week (and the week before), so I didn't get any time to do this. I had 4 tests last week, so I was really busy studying etc. Suffice to say I was glad for a 4 day weekend for Easter. The weekend was really relaxing, and exactly what I needed. I watched too much TV and didn't practice at all, which is not good if I have a concert on Thursday. It should be really great anyway.

Oh, and btw Justin helped me to put links back on my page, so check them out!

I don't have a lot to talk about right now...I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive. Hopefully this week will allow me to blog more. I don't have class until noon tomorrow! This is happiness in sleep form. Well, goodnight for now. Talk at you later!

Currently Listening to: Rilo Kiley--Portions for Foxes
Mood: Not bad.

Beware the Ides of March!

2005-03-15T23:13:00.000-05:00

I didn't really have any cause to beware, thankfully.

I didn't really do the reading for English, and apparently I dodged a bullet. Dr. Thompson didn't feel the need to pick on me as he usually does, so that's a plus. I got a muffin from Springs and make some orange tea-like stuff and wasted two hours before World Civ. World Civ went ok, and then lunch. I decided to do my schedule for next semester without any advising this afternoon, and you saw how it turned out. Hopefully after talking to Dr. Rains I will not be doubtful about whether or not I can pull off a Physics major. I mean, now that I think about it I'll be taking 3 classes that go toward my major. Plus one that goes toward a history minor (Religion in America--I figured why not, I only have to take 2 more classes). And it's one of my favorite professors, Dr. Hobbie, so I'm looking forward to it. Plus, Emmaly and Emily D, and possibly Richard are taking it as well. So I'll have moral support. After that I went and fiddled around with Emmaly's computer for her, got ready for my gig tonight, and went to jazz band. It was a very good rehearsal, and I popped out a solo from somewhere in left field. I seriously didn't know where it came from. It was a pleasant surprise. I rode with Dr. K over to the gig, played a pretty good set (while being ignored), and didn't get to eat dinner. I'm very hungry right now. I got food waiting on me in the room, though. I'm looking forward to that. Got a lot of work done at...um...work tonight, and I'm feeling accomplished right now. Well, I guess I'll go for now. A couple of posts today! You guys are lucky.

Currently Listening to: Jamie Cullum
Mood: Hungry

Schedule

2005-03-15T14:37:00.000-05:00

Here's what my schedule looks like for next semester so far:

Monday:
10 Physics
11 Religion in America
12 Calculus III

Tuesday:
12 Computer Methods for Science and Math

Wednesday:
10 Physics
11 Religion in America
12 Calc III
1:30 Physics Lab

Thursday:
9 Physics
11 Calc III
12 Computer

Friday:
11 Religion in America
12 Computer

And, as usual, rehearsal from 4:45 to 6:15, but now Monday-Friday. That's right, I'll be in Wind Ensemble 'til 6:15 on a Friday. That really stinks. Also, this might change. I can't talk to a Physics advisor until Monday to see if I can actually pull off a Physics major. If not, then there will be more computer classes. Anyway. Also, I added a little information to the bottom of each post to let you know my music and mood. Hopefully this will become more sophisticated, but for now this will have to do. Talk to you soon!

Currently Listening to: Jack Johnson's new album
Mood: Tired

2005-03-14T21:21:00.000-05:00

Need to shift out of vacation mode

2005-03-14T21:10:00.000-05:00

I don't really feel like doing anything. And that might just be dangerous.

Last night I stayed up until 2am trying to get a scholarship essay done, and actually woke up on time and bright eyed and bushy-tailed this morning. Class was ok. My iPod gave me a scare, and I've been trying to fix it all day. It was doing the same thing it started out doing. And then I remembered that 2 out of the 3 plugs on my FireWire card don't work and that causes major system failure. So I plugged it in the right one, and all is better. Which is good, because I purchased the iTunes version of Jack Johnson's new album and wanted to put it on L'il Brudder (that's what I named my iPod). Anyway.

Not too much exciting has happened, so I guess I'll sign off. There might be an audio post from me later! I'm gonna test and see if it works. Bye!

2005-03-14T13:40:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures taken on my camera from Spring Break! Enjoy!

Spring Break Report

2005-03-11T12:50:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! I know it's been forever since I blogged, but the dreaded dial-up has eaten my will to connect to the internet.

The first weekend of Spring Break was a lot of fun. In the beginning, it was Richard, Justin, Emmaly, Davenport and me, but Tyler and Anna joined us later. Friday we ate dinner and hung out at Emmaly's house, played Battle of the Sexes (us guys kicked some serious butt) and then Richard and Justin and I headed to my house to crash.

We got up at a decent hour on Saturday and headed to downtown Charleston for the day. We walked around Waterfront park, and up and down Market Street before we realized we were hungry, so we headed over to Tommy Condon's (a local Irish pub) and had a really fun lunch there. We wandered the Market some more and it started to rain, so we headed into a cafe called Kaminsky's, which has the most awesome desserts and coffee in Charleston, and waited for the storm to blow over. It was done by the time we were, so we walked down to the Battery and took pictures and things on the way. We had decided to go to Mount Pleasant for dinner, so we took the new guys over the Cooper River Bridges...they weren't as scared as we hoped they'd be. Some of us weren't hungry, so we tried to find the Mt. Pleasant Town Center, but Emmaly couldn't remember where it was, so we basically got lost in Mount Pleasant for an indeterminate amount of time. Finally we headed to RB's on Shem Creek for dinner...it was pretty mediocre and none of us were that thrilled with it. Tyler met us at RB's during dinner. After that, we headed to my house to watch Saw...everybody headed back to James Island pretty late.

Sunday morning we slept in and eventually made our way downtown again. The original plan was to meet at the Battery to take some more pictures in the light, but plans unexplainably and quickly changed. Turns out the new plan was to order some pizza and eat it in Marion Square, but I had told Anna we were going to meet her at the Battery. I had a hell of a time trying to find Marion Square first of all (my downtown Charleston compass doesn't work very well) and it was hard to tell Anna how to get there. Especially because we parked somewhere completely different at a friend of Tyler's. It was very stressful and confusing, but finally it all worked out and we ate our pizzas, Tyler got mistaken for a girl, and we had a good time. It was very cold and windy, though. We went into Millenium music for a while and looked around, and then decided to walk down to the Battery as originally planned. Marion Square is a far way from there. Anyway, I got cold and grumpy and after all the pictures were taken, we headed back to Emmaly's for a bit, then to my house for dinner. My mom cooked a lot of food, and everybody seemed thrilled with the meal. We were too full to do much else, so we sat around and watched the tape of the first Town Haul episode with Laurens in it (Laurens is the town next to Clinton, and TLC did some renovations as a makeover show on steroids). After that we watched some reruns of CSI and everybody headed back to James Island.

Richard and I got up early (when I say early, I mean early) and hauled it to Folly Beach to watch the sunrise on Monday morning. We got there a little late, but it was still picturesque. We stayed on the beach for a couple hours hunting for shells, and then we went to breakfast at the Sweetwater Cafe on James Island. We went and walked around Emmaly's church and the graveyards, and then headed back to Summerville because Anna and Justin were finally up. We basically lounged and napped around the house until about 3, when everybody decided they needed to leave. It was a really fun weekend, and I was kind of sad to see everybody go.

The rest of the week has been spent sleeping in, reading, practicing, watching TV, eating and just plain relaxing. I went downtown again yesterday and spent the day with my Mum, shopping and going out to lunch and things like that. Nothing terribly exciting to report! I just thought I'd try and put down the memories from the weekend before I forgot. Brad's on his way home now, and should be here eventually, and it'll be good to see him again. It's his Spring Break this coming week, so my parents have another hungry teenager to feed! Well, I guess it won't be long until I am blogging regularly at school...I'm kind of ready to get back. Keep reading, and I'm sure that story will change....

So Sue Me!

2005-03-04T12:45:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I haven't updated since Tuesday. oops.

I've had a busy but not stressful busy week. Does that make sense? Ok, it was a week spent slacking off. Basically.

So my friends are headed with me and Emmaly back to Charleston for the weekend. Justin, Richard, Tyler, and Emily D are all coming. Justin and Richard are staying with me in Summerville...it'll be just like here, but in a different place. Hopefully there will be fun times, even though it is supposed to rain on tomorrow.

Thursday night I went and got a new graphics card at Wal-Mart. Yes, I've taken a big hit to my geekness by getting it at Wal-Mart, but it was $50 bucks, yo! A 128MB GeForce 5200 Ultra...pretty nice. I installed the drivers and stuff and started playing the Half-Life 2 demo and it was hanging up, which shouldn't have happened. So, I do a Spybot and AdAware and spyware=very yes. Also, I did a couple of online virus scans, and virus also=very yes. So basically, my memory was being eaten up by malicious software. So, I downloaded the free trial of Norton and got rid of viruses. Twice. And then I installed Splinter Cell, which came with the graphics card. This also hangs up. As does Unreal II. Which means I need more memory. So, that will be the next thing. I don't think I really need a faster processor that much. If I end up getting a lot of RAM, then I think my computer will be pretty sweet. Yes, indeed. Maybe another hard drive too...ahh the dreams of a self-proclaimed geek.

Well, I started this post shortly before lunch, went to lunch, and have now since packed to go home. Hopefully we will be leaving shortly and I can get home soon! Well, for now I will go. Maybe I will post while I'm home. See you later!

Interesting

2005-03-01T21:56:00.000-05:00

It's been somewhat of an interesting day.

Thankfully this morning Justin had his alarm set for Richard to get up at 8, because somehow I turned mine off.

We did journal entries in English again today, which is good, because if there was reading I wouldn't have had it done.

I went back and chilled for an hour, and then went to a CEP. We're having a symposium on African Americans in the Media and have had a couple of speakers to that effect. This morning we had Morris Dees, the lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center speak on the subject. It was a good lecture, and not entirely a waste of my time. In fact, I learned a lot and was actually interested. Went to World Civ to find the class was cancelled because the prof was feeling under the weather. So, went back to the room and sent an email to the president of our chapter of the music fraternity I'm in.

I'm proposing a fundraiser for the Music for All Foundation. It's a national fundraiser to promote music programs in the United States. Seeing as my life has obviously impacted by music education, and that music education programs are disappearing in the US, I think this is quite a good charity to support, especially by a music fraternity. Anyway, they are selling the awareness bracelets that everyone has nowadays, and they only run a dollar apiece. So I thought we could sell them to the music department and/or rest of campus. Hopefully I did a good enough job convincing our president to do so.

Lunch, then more hanging out with the roommates. Went up to practice for a while, then had Jazz band. I went to dinner, and then another CEP. This speaker was none other than the Rev. Jesse Jackson. I just got out of that and came to work, where I am now. I really liked his talk, and realized a lot of his ideas make sense. I would like to look more into his and his foundation's ideas.

Anyway, now I'm doing this and talking to multiple people, while putting off my Calculus homework. I got an 86 on my last test! This is good news. Anyway, off to more stalling. Bye!

Home again, Flannagan

2005-02-28T14:34:00.000-05:00

My Dad used to say that to us all the time.

Anyway, I went home this weekend, and there were adventures. Well, getting there and coming back.

We left on Friday about 2:45, and got to Summerville in a pretty timely fashion. We got about 10 minutes from my house, in one of the busiest parts of Summerville at rush hour, and ran out of gas stopped at a light. Emmaly and I got out of the car and crossed 5 lanes of traffic twice to get to a gas station and asked them if they had a gas can, which they didn't. So I began to call people in my family to ask them to bring a gas can. Finally got through to my Mum and she saved us.

I got home and hung out, etc. Courtney came over, and Brad was home and had friends there too, so it was a good time. We hung out in Brad's room singing Emo songs and watching Andrew play GTA San Andreas ("Nobody's going to tell me when to use the john!" or "I smoke 'cause it gives me knowledge!"). It was pretty fun. We started watching Cellular about 10, and Courtney had to leave early.

Dad got us up on Saturday morning because Mom had made a big breakfast. Dad and I went to go run some errands, and then when I got back I went to the mall with Brad and Andrew and Brad's friends. I got a sweet hat...it has a patch on it that says Canada (see picture)...that I found at American Eagle. I have too many hats, but I couldn't resist. I also got Richard's birthday present uber-early; I thought it was in the next few weeks, and it's in April. I was sorely mistaken. Oh well. Came back, had dinner, and watched Anchorman. It was pretty off-the-wall funny.

Sunday morning I was a dutiful son and went to church early with my Mum, and then stayed for Sunday School. Packed up, hung out and watched Shall We Dance? all afternoon, and then Tyler came and picked me up in the pouring rain. We got out of town and his wiper blade decided it would come attached, so we stopped quickly and fixed it. We got to about Orangeburg and it happened again, so luckily Tyler had some tape and he taped it on there. Got back to PC to find an email stating that my weekly officer's meeting was moved to 7:30, so I had to run to that, then they made me go to the Senate meeting at 9, which was a waste of my time. I came back and started my homework, but Emmaly came over to do hers too and we ended up talking about some really weird things instead. I ended up finishing my homework at 1am. So, now I'm tired and will probably take a nap.

This morning I had a sightsinging quiz, and Dr. Davis had said we were going to do them privately, but that was not so this morning. So I did horribly. I guess it's just that I freak out. We did busywork in Theory, I just read blogs and webcomics between Theory and Calc, went to lunch, and now I'm wasting a lot of time, because I really don't have that much that's important to do. I'll get a bunch of practicing done tonight because Wind Ensemble is cancelled, but then I'll be out all night doing various religious things. Well, I'm going to take a nap now...I hope this wasn't too boring...it's through the veil of sleep that is affecting my eyes. Night night for now!

www.googlism.com

2005-02-23T18:42:00.000-05:00

Here's what the internet thinks about me:
A Googlism for James

Apparently I am also Lara Croft and Chris DeBurgh, and have made a new album and am apparently headed to the desert to be Phoenix's premier party DJ.

Be careful, however. Apparently I am also not well liked on the internet (there are dirty words there too).

2005-02-23T16:08:00.000-05:00

Until I can figure out how to fix things that bug me about my last template, I'm going to switch to a Blogger-generic one for a while. I need to find a person with mad web-design skills and have them fix it, because I think it's quite beyond repair (as far as with my nonexistent HTML coding skills). Hope you like the new (possibly temporary) change!

I am so tired

2005-02-22T20:29:00.000-05:00

Well, this week has been very busy. Now it has all stopped and there's nothing to do. For now.

Friday night we went out to eat at the Clock and then came back and watched movies...Cellular is good, but Kim Basinger does a really horrible acting job. Trust me.

Saturday I got up early and started on a World Civ paper, and wrote that all day Saturday. I took a break to go see my bestest friend Emmaly in PC's production of The Vagina Monologues. It was the first time I saw it, and to tell you the truth I was a little scared to go. But, it turned out to be wonderful and I really enjoyed it. My friends wanted me to go to the cast party with them, but I went back to the room and finished my paper like a good little boy. Emmaly did so great! I was very proud of her.

Sunday I got up early-ish again and began my English paper. Went and had lunch, then did a radio show for a couple hours with some studying thrown in. Came back, studied Cal a little bit before dinner, grabbed some take-out, then went back to writing the paper/studying for Cal. Then, about 11, some strange things went down. Ok, not strange, but how quickly it happened was strange.

Justin and Richard had been having some roommate problems. I had been having a few not-quite-as-major roommate problems. So, Justin, Richard, and I decided to see if we could arrange me moving in with them and their other roomate moving in with Dave. Justin and I went to Wendy's to obtain some food, and when we came back Richard had negotiated the switch. All in the matter of an hour. Everybody agreed, and there were no bad feelings. Erick and Dave get along really well and have similar living habits, and I've always wanted to live with Justin and Richard. That was the original plan for the year, but I got in the Infirmary too late and they had already agreed to live with Erick. Anyway, we figured we could all have a better living environment if we made the switch, and luckily it turned out well.

Monday I got up, got showered, etc. and started heading to class. It was pouring outside, and I was exhausted from staying up too late working on my paper. So, I stood looking out the door of Reynolds debating whether or not to go to class. My conscience got the better of me, and I headed to class. I get more than halfway across campus, soaking wet, and some girls in my class tell me its cancelled. I throw a hissy fit, then trudge back to my room, throw my pants in the dryer, and work on my English paper some more (I had to get as much finished by 8pm last night as I could). I work and talk to Mom until 12, take a Calculus test (and kick its butt, I might add), go to lunch, work on the paper a little, and then move into my new room. I go to Wind Ensemble. I played so hard in Wind Ensemble on Monday I think I strained my left bicep, because it is killing me now. Dinner, chilling out, writing center appointment and then finishing moving in. Bed in my new room!

English was optional this morning, so I didn't go. I got up late and took a cold shower, finished the last little bit of moving in, worked on my paper a little more, recorded a new answering machine message, visited with Justin and Emmaly, and then went to World Civ. I got a 99 on the test! I was one of the 2 in all of his classes that got all of the multiple choice right. Lunch, paper writing (I finally finished!!), chilling, and then Jazz band. Dinner, chilling, emergency second writing center appt., and now I'm at work.

Whew. That took a lot out of me. I'm still tired....Must...not...fall...asleep...at...work....

Rainy Day Song

2005-02-21T10:55:00.000-05:00

I'm thinkin' it's a sign
That the freckles in our eyes are mirror images and
When we kiss they're perfectly aligned

And I have to speculate
That God himself did make us into corresponding
shapes like puzzle pieces from the clay

And true,
It may seem like a stretch
But it's thoughts like this
That catch my troubled head when you're a-
way when I am missing you to death

When you are out there on the road
For several weeks of shows and when you
scan the radio I hope this song will guide you home

They will see us waving from such great heights
Come down now
They'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
Come down now
But we'll stay

I
Tried my best to leave
This all on your machine
But the persistent beat it sounded thin upon listening
And that
Frankly will not fly
You will hear the shrillest highs and lowest lows with the win-
dows down when this is guiding you home

They will see us waving from such great heights
Come down now
They'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
Come down now
But we'll stay

--The Postal Service, "Such Great Heights"
(Iron and Wine does a good cover, too--that's the one I'm listening to)

Hit me baby 9 more times

2005-02-18T10:26:00.000-05:00

9 more hits and I'm at 1000! That is really neat.

So blogging has fallen by the wayside again. I'm sorry, guys. Things are staying busy here. Good news, though...Spring Break is in 2 weeks!! Yay! Next weekend I may go home for the first time since Christmas--Tyler's going to Charleston, so Emmaly and I might go with him. However, because I said something about it, I'm sure I've jinxed it.

So this week has been ok. Tuesday night I got someone to cover for me at work so I could go see a male vocal ensemble called Cantus that came for a CEP. I got extra credit for my english test (which means I got a 100 on the test; 95 on the paper--darn commas! They will be the end of me) and recital attendance credit. They were really amazing, and I've been singing all week. Maybe then I will become good at it--I'm not bad, but I'm definitely not as good as them.

Wednesday night was the last basketball game I had to play at, and it was Newberry (our rivals) to boot. It was fun, and a relatively good game--there were some bad calls that got the crowd going.

Yesterday I really didn't do much past going to class. I had a meeting with Dr. Beasley (my professor) to tutor me in Cal, because it is not going well at all. I've been stressed and irritable all week, and I think that's why. I don't know what my issue is with the Calculus...I understand the stuff, and Dr. Beasley knows I do, but I consistently do really bad when I'm tested on it. grr. I did a radio show yesterday, too, which is something I haven't really done with any regularity this semester. I also went to a friend's senior recital--she filled up Edmunds, our smaller recital hall. She was wonderful. Hmm...that's about it. I really should have got some work done last night, but t'was not to be.

Speaking of work...next work is a "hell week." I have 2 papers to write this weekend, a Calculus test to study for on Monday, and a Wind Ensemble concert to practice for. *sigh* It never ends. Oh well...builds character, right? *rolls eyes*

Well, that's all for now. Please forgive me for the lack of updates. I will try my best to keep you up on the current events in my life, but I have bigger fish to fry for a while. Love you all! Thanks for reading!

2005-02-16T14:47:00.000-05:00

WHUMP!
*head hits desk*
*drools*