The board arrived today.
While I did a bad thing and took it for a 40 yard coast, it was totally worth it. I have to hand it to Sam though, for three reasons.
- It moves like BUTTER. So smooth. So very smooth.
- It is gorgeous. Made of bamboo (yes, my favorite plant.) and just, ugh. I can’t do it justice by words alone. Simply gorgeous.
- It’s got lime green wheels. It is officially the mini-green machine. While I’m going to have to work into carving, and gently ease into it, oh man. It’s a blast to ride already.
It’s a great board, and while I’m still feeling it out, it seems like a very solid choice. Bravo amigo, bravo. I’m slightly bummed that it’s so rainy outside today. However, it makes me focus on my work. I had my last tuesday/thursday classes today, which was slightly depressing on some accounts (Mainly saddened by the Empire Meets Itself. It was a hard class, but Havholm’s leaving. While he’s such a cool guy, the class kicked my ass, so I’m torn with how today went.) but elated in other classes being over. Namely Photography. That all being said and done, I’ve got one more paper to write, then it’s off to the weekend! I’ve got three exams, and a final portfolio after this final paper, so START THE COUNTDOWN. I’m off to go present my Conceptual Art Project tonight. I’ll hopefully load up the photos sometime this week if I’m able to scan them all in. Fingers crossed that this goes over well.
Anyways, before I go, I highly suggest you hop on over to (www.apple.com/trailers) and check out trailer #2 for THE HANGOVER.
Um, YES?
Looks hilarious.
Calming, no?
In keeping with this strange theme of Christmas in May, I’ll explain to you what I’ve got left before I’m off of my Junior year. Sing out loud the following sentence to the tune of “The First Day of Christmas.” : 3 written finals, 2 photo projects, and a single paper ’til I’m onto Senior year. Yep, that about sums it up on my end.
In calming myself a good bit before my weekend sneaks up on me, I’m going to reflect a bit on how this year has progressed. We’ll see how that goes. I’m going to take a deep breath, and just dive on in.
Here goes.
This year has been a growing year for so many people I know. It seems that in particular regards, it’s been more of a recovery rather than a total regrowth. It could be compared to a tree of sorts, which keeps growing no matter how many times you chop it down.
I am very sad to see many of my Senior friends depart from Wooster. I’m staying in Wooster for graduation simply because of this little fact. I wish I could make it to Eriq’s graduation, or Katherine’s. Wonderful people, yet so far away.
However, one must keep in mind that change does eventually happen, and to “go with the flow” when faced with such change. As a general perception, and this is just my opinion here, you can set yourself apart from life’s current, that’s one thing for certain. However, you can’t deny the fact that change will happen. You can’t rebel against it, no matter how hard you try. It. Just. Won’t. Work. However, that all being said and done, you can try and change the change that happened As Ghandi once said, one should “Be the change you see in the world”. So, that being said, I intend to keep in contact with my older buddies. I won’t, simply won’t accept that these people will drift out of my life. Had it happen, don’t like it much at all. It’s hard though, (I never said changing change was easy though, right?) because each and every one of them are being sent to the four corners of the world, if they’re not already abroad.
I won’t see them as often as I have this year, and that in and of itself will make quite an impact on my life, I’m sure.
Be it the way you view the world, the way the world views you, or any other possible combination of things, change will happen. This year, as cheesy as it might sound, I’ve met people that have changed my life. The way I perceive things, the way I look to the future, everything. People I can certainly see sticking around down the road. I’ve found new ideas of what I want to do with my life, from owning a skate shop to bookshop, and everything in between. I’ve found new and interesting things. New places I’ve seen, more stories to tell. It’s always been a development through college, but sometimes, (borrowing from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off here.) You’ve got to stop and smell the roses, or else life will just pass you by.
” I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I’m going to take a stand. I’m going to defend it. Right or wrong, I’m going to defend it. ” -Ferris
I don’t care if he’s a fictional character, you know he’s right. When faced with life’s opportunities, I usually question myself not with what I’m ‘going’ to do, but what I’m ‘not going’ to do. Accomplish all you can, take what you can and really, give nothing back. Go big or go home.
I might not have gone abroad like many of my friends have, but I think my world is quite detailed enough right here. I would like to add that I really doubt I’ll stay in Ohio much longer. Granted, I’m still in Ohio, but I crave sunshine, long boardwalks and sand. After close to twenty years of mountains and long gravel roads, you start craving different mediums. Opening my own skate shop doesn’t seem all that bad in my book. I’d be down for maintaining it. It’s like a novel you wrote, or a picture you took. Your own work of art, imparting your goods onto younger generations. But that’s a story for a different day, for sure.
That being said, this year has been interesting. Things never seem to sit still in my life and so far, quite a few revelations have been formed in my time here. Time marches on, as they say, and who knows what the future might bring. I’ll give you this though, if you somehow come across this blog, be it randomly or you check back in on me regularly, I can tell you this:
Your in for an adventure, and that’s for certain.
DO IT.
Today is a day of reckoning. Just wanted to let you all know that. (You reckon?) Yea. I’m actually pretty surprised I’ve got even 50 post’s thus far. I’m pretty excited. This is going wonderfully, and I love how it’s turning out. I’d like to share with you a little bit of knowledge I just recently found out. In the classic movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, the German Mechanic is played by a guy named Pat Roach. I find this interesting because I would have thought that he’d fallen into the background, lost in the proverbial time-and-space continuum of extras in movies. However, this is really not the case with Pat. Not only was Mr. Roach an actor, but very prominent ENGLISH WRESTLER. Not only was he the crazy German mechanic, but also the orange-haired bouncer in A Clockwork Orange. That’s not all though! He was also in Robin Hood as well as Red Sonja. Mr. Roach, I commend you on your impressive acting resumé, but when you were inadvertently thrown into a plane propeller in Raiders of the Lost Ark, I’m pretty sure it was the highlight of your career. Bravo, good sir.
Anyways, I know it was a little ridiculous, and if your still reading this post, well, I hope someone gives you a hug. Thank you for your comments thus far, and please, keep ‘em coming. Tell your friends, your co-workers, everybody you know, if they want to read something funny, give ‘em my link. In celebration, I’m going to give you all a bit of food porn. Mainly because I find this slightly disturbing, disgusting, and delicious. Also frankly impressive, simply because the person who built this tower of delectable filth was able to keep the frosting relatively level. Hooray us!
Too much is never enough.
Burnt out.
So, tonight has been a pretty busy night for Odin. After cranking out 5 (or six, depending on how you look at ‘em.) photo prints out of the 10 that I need, I ended up watching Stand By Me with Matt, Sam, and Bain. Seemed to be a very solid choice, good ‘guy’ movie. Saw Jerry O’Connell, Keifer Sutherland, and Corey Feldman in the movie, which was a serious throwback. Not only did I find out that the entire movie was based off of a Stephen King novel, but also that it was made before I was even ALIVE. (1986, jeez.)
Brace yourself, mini-rant ahead. Hell Week is far from over though. Tomorrow, I’ve got to finish the Conceptual Artist photography project after working out with Sam at 8, as well as figure out housing forms for this coming summer, (Namely, sign stuff, have Mary sign stuff, turn it in to Residence Life. ) Start/Finish Children as Reader’s paper, as well as watch “The Queen” and write a movie review, all after I work for the I.T. Department from 6-8pm. Sound busy? That’s just tomorrow! Thursday is worse. I’ve got the photo project’s critique, as well as finding out exactly what will be on my Empire Meets Itself exam. Oh! Little side note:I finished my Empire paper, (18 pages, so proud.) only to find out that we have A FINAL IN THE CLASS AS WELL. I bought Havholm’s book, in thinking it’d be a great college memento to have him sign it, mainly because I think it has been by far the most challenging (as well as interesting.) class I have taken at the College of Wooster to date. Doesn’t mean it’s easy though. Hard as HELL. Anyways, Ontop of figuring that particular exam out, I’ll also be turning in my movie review, as well as finishing up either my Children as Reader’s paper, or starting work on my Final Portfolio for photography. (Which I will no doubt be working on in the coming weekend.)
It does kill things.
On the upside of describing why I ended up watching a movie with my boys, I was so beat after photography that I really couldn’t think. Difficult as it is, you can’t concentrate on something like that for so long and not take a break. I mean, I couldn’t think. Like, at all. The weather all day has been a sort of rain/cloudy day with gusts of wind that die down little by little. Weird. Plus, turned the sky a sick yellow tonight.
Poor Yannie. I hate when I try and fix something for someone, and it’s just broken and I can do nothing aside from telling them “Your stuff is broken.” I worked on his computer to try and get his Hard Drive to work, but really, the thing is broken. RIP Matt’s Laptop. You had some sick tunes on you.
Oh man. Hell Week is bad.
So, I thought it a good idea to take my laptop with me to class today. We’re just reviewing books for Children as Readers, and I’ve finished every one so far, so not a big deal in my book. Anyways, not such a great idea because I’m still freaking out over my paper for Empire. If anything, I’m more intimidated than anything else. I’ve been staring at this 15-20 page paper since last night, and I’ve only got 13 pages so far of jumbled ideas. It’s really bad, especially for this class, since I really want to try and impress the professor, and if I let him down I feel like I’m letting my grandfather down. The professor is a legit genius in his field, and in other words, I’m stressed out beyond belief.
Hell week is finally upon us, and I’m already up to my eyeballs with work. This morning I developed three rolls of film, all with a couple of photographs that might work for my Conceptual Artist project. (Which is due Thursday, mind you.) A couple of photographs for certain won’t work, but I really like them. I’ve got a couple of Sam longboarding down the Kauke Arch path, but they don’t really deal with scars/tattoos/piercings. Well, really up until we get to the Frisbee pictures, then you find a couple with Sam laying out into the dirt and EATING IT, or Scott pointing to his elbow. Hell, or Matt’s leg and Jess’s hip. In summation, a good little break from writing papers, but still packed with work.
In taking these 35mm pictures, I’ve really wanted to get to use my digital camera this summer. I mean, so far the mentality has been “If I’m going to take a photograph, I might as well do it for class, right?” But this summer, oh man, that’s a different story. Everything is fair game, and I intend to fill my computer up with so many photographs. I want to try and figure out how to use the Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK), with which I’ve seen countless stop-motion films created. I can set up my camera and just have it start shooting until the SD card is full, then make a movie from the photographs taken every SECOND. No doubt that it will fill up an 8gb SD card pretty quickly, taking a high quality photograph every second. That will be one particular project to accomplish this summer, but I’m more confused with what to first do with updating my software ON my camera. That being said…
If anybody has any idea as to what I should do to in order to…
- Update my firmware on the Canon Rebel SXi.
- Install CHDK on my SXi.
I would be eternally grateful in any kind of pearls of wisdom you’d be able to give me. Seriously, eternally. Anyways, I’m off to work the Morgan Help desk, so I’m sure I’ll update later! (AFTER the dreaded paper is finished!)
Clear the Streets!
Who’s excited? This guy is excited. So, I ordered my longboard yesterday, in hopes of getting to know longboarding better this summer, and to save some cash in scooting around Wooster. I ordered from Sector 9, finally arriving at a conclusion from my longboarding associates. (Sam and Matt.) I ordered a beautiful board from the Bamboo Series called Laniakea. Gorgeous board, overall feels like it’s a surfboard, which is what longboards are supposed to feel like as opposed to shortboards. I am glad to get out of the shortboard territory for a number of reasons. Reason #1: Riding shortboard around Wooster is SUPER loud. If you hit anything aside from RECENTLY paved street, your board reacts. Especially if you’ve got a shortboard with 36mm wheels. Reason #2: Your board reacts to EVERYTHING Wooster can throw at you, especially if you’ve got 36mm wheels or smaller. Longboards don’t necessarily have this problem, and react well to the more minor bumps. One of the reasons I’m excited about this switch in boards is because now I can, as Sam said, “Trust the board.” It’s hard to transition from not being able to use much of your board and distrusting it, to being able able to trust it and pull turns with your entire body. Matt and Sam both agreed that I’d need a tail for my beginning longboard, mainly because of stability, so I thought about it for a while. Made sense, right? If your going to do something right, might as well start from the beginning board rather than with the intermediate board. Again, very excited. I’ve also decided that since the little advertisements on my wall are starting to look more and more crappy as time goes on, I’m going to stop that particular trend next year and put my skateboard decks on my wall. I’ve got two shortboard decks I’ve broken in, specifically a really bland basic one, and my Enjoi board (Which I’ve hardly broken in at all, due to construction and crap around Wooster this year.) Hopefully, that’ll make three boards up on the wall, and if I like longboarding enough on THIS deck, I’m probably going to end up ordering a longer board. But we’ll see, can’t jump the gun just yet.
Beautiful, ain't she?
Anyways, This is my relaxation time before I head back into reading Tagore and Kipling. Springfest is tonight, which should be sweet as hell. I haven’t been to any good concerts in a while, and no doubt it should be relatively spectacular tonight. I’ve got to rework my Empire paper for Tuesday, finish four seperate rolls of film of people’s scars, go to Springfest and watch a movie with Jen tonight. Weekend just keeps getting more and more packed! Fingers crossed that everything goes well, and hopefully I’ll be able to post a little something in the coming weeks. Wish me luck!
My favorite quote in a long time.
We’ve finally made it to Friday. Today is supposed to be the I.S. Symposium, where a whole bunch of Senior’s present their topics and findings in every department. Last year we had killer catering from Coccia (or however it’s spelled.) House and other places around the area, but this year it seems like the College decided to go with little quiche appetizers instead of actual food. Now, does that seem like a good thing to fill college students up with? No.
It seems like the entire campus is holding it’s breath and bracing itself for next week. I know that this particular weekend is going to be pretty rough from the get-go. Final Empire paper due next tuesday, final Conceptual Artist photo project due next Thursday. I also need to finish Children as Readers paper BY May 1st so that I can actually spend time with my friend Stephen. (Who’s turning 21.) As well as preparing myself for my Modern Britain History final exam, my Children as Readers final exam and my final portfolio for photography, which as a finale will be the coup de grâce of this year as a whole.
If you haven’t seen it already, this 100 meter photograph is amazing to wade through. Yes, you have to scroll for a while, but the candid expressions of the people who are unaware of the photograph being taken are amazing. (I mean, some people notice the picture being taken and make a bit of a scene.) check it out HERE.
So, as I embark on my final project for photography, I think I’ve come up with a conceptual idea that I really like. I’m going to be focusing on portrait work as my particular medium, but thematically I’m looking at people’s scars and the stories behind them. If you’ve personally met me, you’d no doubt eventually notice the big scar on the back of my head from me breaking my neck, so the subject in and of itself is very dear to me.
Let’s go greet us a Friday!
and on, and on...
Cupcake...Monster?
It looks pretty grim outside. Not a good start for the middle of Hell Week if it starts raining fire and brimstone in the MIDDLE of the week. I mean, it’s supposed to be 78 degrees and sunny on Friday, but it’s like the weather went crazy for a day or so. Today alone it’s been like this: It’s sunny. It’s rainy. It’s sunny again! It’s sunny but raining? It’s sunny AND raining. No, that’s not rain, it’s hail. Sun again, but now it’s so bright you need to wear sunglasses. Oh, would you look at that, I’ve got a sunburn. And we’re back to sunny, no. Rainy. Finally back to sun. (But raining outside still! Surprise!) On the same note, I think contact lenses are the bomb-diggity. Mainly because now I can wear any kind of sunglasses. Not just the prescription-lenses kind. (Double Hooray!)
“Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry,
Go to sleepy little baby.
When you wake, you’ll have cake,
And all the pretty little horses.”
If you can find it, Grant Campbell does my absolute favorite version of the song “All the Pretty Little Horses.” I’ve been listening to it all night. Pretty interesting stuff to be sung around the civil war. (I hope that one day my voice sounds like that when I sing. Fingers crossed.)
- I love, for really no reason in particular, Japanese Gardens. I think bamboo gardens are some of the most serene places on earth. Forests in general, for that matter, are wonderful places in my mind. Usually in the post spring or summer time, at the height of the ‘green’ scene.
- I really wish they would make an incense of Blueberry Poptarts. I personally love Blueberry and S’mores Poptarts, mainly because I used to eat S’mores Poptarts with Rainor and Baldur, while the Blueberry Poptart smell reminds me of staying on Sanibel Island when I was younger.
- I never used to be such a clean person, and was very messy when I was younger. We’re talking piles of clothes just heaped in front of my closet. No real reason, just heaped. That changed completely when I came to college, although I think my wall of advertisements is a bit messy. (Although I love the giant collage effect on my wall.) I’m not necessarily OCD or anything, I just like having things neat and tidy.
- I love randomly found Polaroid photographs.
- I’m a slightly inverted nerd. I love to workout and be outdoors, but I really like working with computers and love little handheld gadgets. Seriously, handheld games? I’ll take them any day over actual video games. (Not like I play video games anymore though. I’m kind of useless when it comes to them.) We’re talking handheld here.
- I have a new found obsession with StumbleUpon, and it’s starting to get slightly unhealthy.
- I detest 35mm photography, nor I do not find photo labs particularly calming, mainly because I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to printing out my photographs. However, I really like digital photography, I will spend hours on a computer with Photoshop.
- Embarrassing as it may be, I fall asleep when I’m reading something I don’t like. I don’t mean to do it, I really don’t. It’s becoming a really bad habit especially when I have to read it for class.
- People can never follow my train of thought. If they try, they think I’m seriously insane. And yes, it worries me from time to time. Mainly because I hate when people don’t know where I’m coming from. Seriously, it frustrates the living hell out of me. To this day it still feels like NOBODY has ever truly ever understood where I’m coming from.
- I wanted for the longest of times to be a toy inventor, that and to own a cookie shop with my brothers. I have no real clue what I’ll end up doing with my life, but I want to own my own business at one point. Restaurant, Bar, Bookstore, Toy Shop, who knows. Those all sound great to me thus far.
- My music taste has not changed that much over the years. Just to name a few that I constantly listen to: Incubus, The White Stripes (The Raconteurs as well.), Iron & Wine, Gorillaz, Jack Johnson, AFI, The Black Keys, Silversun Pickups, (Next two are throwbacks, but hey, everybody listens to these from time to time.) Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, 311, Boozoo Bajou, Mindless Self Indulgence, Radiohead, and finally Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire. Simply put, it’s a pretty eclectic mix to say the very least.
- I love to snowboard and surf, but I rarely get the chance to now-a-days.
- My favorite lucky number is 13. I mean, come on. Who really has had a bad Friday the 13th aside from the kids at Camp Crystal Lake?
- OK, if you didn’t get that last movie reference, then shame on you. I’ve got a soft spot for horror movies. I’m really not a guy to be scared of scary movies, I usually end up just laughing at them. Specifically the Saw series. (I mean, come on. How ridiculous are those.)
- I love, love, LOVE peanut butter and jelly.
- That being said, I am obsessed with making sandwiches. I really do like sites like (http://scanwiches.com) just because the scans that they have of particular sandwiches make me drool. It’s like food porn, it really is. I also really like perfecting my chili recipe. (Secretly I love spaghetti-o’s. Only the folks at home really know that though.) Oh, and cookies, for sure. Cookies are my absolute favorite desert. I’m pretty sure the staple of my diet has to consist of soup, sandwiches and a good cookie. Bag it up, plop me in a book store, and you might not find me for days on end.
- I own a coffee machine, but I use it to heat water for tea. Rarely do I ever use it for coffee, but rather when I need hot water. I used to drink coffee all the time freshman year, not so much anymore.
- Omelet, cereal, and fruit for breakfast. The omelet is optional, cereal and fruit not so much.
- I don’t watch much television at all these days. I watch House on a weekly basis and Chuck when I can, but that’s it. I don’t even own a television. It does not bother me in the slightest though, it’s one less thing to tether me to the couch.
- I love to be outside. Climbing trees is something I miss most from my childhood. We had a huge white pine when I was growing up that I used to climb all the time. I remember going up as high as I could in the branches, having my hands covered in sap for days on end, practically ingrained into my palms. I also remember watching Robbie paint his truck, and I thought I was being so secretive and sneaky, and it is without a doubt he saw me. I still like to think that if I ever turned into a ghost, that would be what it’s like.
- I love to run. If I had a single super power, I think it’d be super speed. Well, super speed and the ability to have my body and clothes be able to withstand the massive amount of force my body would generate in order to run that fast. Oh, and the reaction speed to match. Can’t be tripping over a log at the speed of sound, right? I mean, that happened and there would be nothing left.
- On the same note as super heroes, I’m a Britannica when it comes to knowledge of super heroes and villains from comic books. Any series, any hero or villain, I’m sure I can rack my brain for some kind of fact. I mean, granted, I can’t retain a lick of the Spanish language for the life of me these days, but I could rattle off superhero facts for days. Some days, I wish I could exchange one for the other. Just some days.
- When I find myself bored in class, I make titles for stores I plan on owning later in life, or end up creating in my fiction. Ask anybody who knows me about my restaurant names. I don’t mean to brag, but I mean, they’re pretty damn clever if I do say so myself.
- I have some of the coolest cousin’s ever, and I’ve never even met them before in my life. I seriously plan on changing that.
- I have a ridiculous imagination. It’s rampant, no joke.
Don't be shy! Comment!
I’m sure to be posting more of these as this blog progresses.
So far…
- 1st Draft of Empire Meets Itself Final Paper = 11/20 pages. Done. Must have 15-20 pages by next Tuesday.
- Photography Project Conceptual Artist = Shooting two rolls tomorrow, another two Thursday, developing Thursday night. Printing all next week.
- Photography Exhibit Paper = Going to the Exhibit tonight, writing paper tomorrow.
- Children as Readers paper = Nothing. Going to work on it Saturday.
- Modern Britain Final Exam = Procuring Notes and Review tomorrow. More review and reading this weekend.
Welcome to Hell Week.
DO NOT WANT.
