Ok, so this really doesn't count

But bear with me.

I'm really excited about this new picture I started a couple of days ago. It's pretty awesome, and it's about my character- it's kind of two pictures in one, and they're not like oh ehm gee gorgeous pictures or anything, but they're cool and I SHOULD have enough free time tomorrow to finish them up and post them.

Either that, or I forget and you'll never see them ever.

Hopefully that won't be the case.

Technical Difficulties?

Ok, this might sound really bizarre, but I need to upload a random picture just to see if it will work.Ok, good.

I had to do that because there was this unexpected notice at the top of my page saying how "image uploads will be disabled for two hours" something something whatever.

Which, of course, is extremely lame. If it hadn't worked I would have put off the post until tomorrow. Since it is working, however, here goes.

Ahem.

Have you ever had a moment where you're so overcome by something that just happened that you convince yourself that it was much, much worse than in reality? I had one of them a couple of days ago.

Except I totally forgot until now that I was going to tell you the dissection story, so unfortunately the Fist Bump of Horror story is going to have to wait for a couple of days. Sorry!

So here we go, dissection story. To begin, since I can't recall if I ever explained to everyone what Archways was, I have to start with that.

Archways was a week-or-so long backpacking pre-orientation trip for upcoming freshmen. Several of you may recall that I had to leave Needham abnormally early? Well, it was for that. It was definitely worthwhile though- I got introduced to a ton of people who helped to streamline the whole "getting used to college" thing. If you remember Taryn from the photography post, she was in my group.

But anyway. This particular story sadly doesn't involve her, it's about Kelsey and Daniel.

...No, not THAT Daniel. Daniel Alexander, our student leader. I had been sitting with a couple of my other archways groupies, Kelsey being one of them, and Daniel apparently saw us and came over to say hi (he had been slacking off about the whole "staying in touch" ordeal... lazy bum).

We got to talking, and at one point during the conversation Kelsey looked at my head funny and said something about how "one of your ears is REALLY STRANGE!"

Well yeah, I said. That's my crazy ear.

It looks a bit odd because while most ears curl back in on themselves at the edges, this particular one does not. So it looks a lot flatter than other ears.

Daniel decided that this was something he HAD to see for himself. The first problem with this ordeal was with the order that everyone was sitting in:

The second problem was, as you may have guessed, that the "crazy ear" was on the OPPOSITE side of my head as Daniel. So, obviously, you just get the person to turn their head so that you can take a look for yourself.

WRONG. Within seconds of Kelsey saying that Daniel had grabbed my head.

The long and short of what happened was that I ended up almost sideways with my head pinned to the table, while Daniel and Kelsey and a couple of other relatively interested people looked at what must the most fascinating ear ever.

When they finally let me sit back up, I was taken aback by Kelsey taking a knife back from Daniel and putting it in her pocket.

Which reminds me, I should probably introduce Kelsey to you all.

Meet Kelsey. :)

Anyway. Kelsey has a habit of carrying a pocketknife around with her pretty much wherever she goes. In fact, she's sitting next to me while I'm writing this- and sure enough, she has one with her.

She's a really nice girl, one of the best. Yet for some reason (this explains why she was putting her knife AWAY) her initial reaction to my hapless position was to whip out the blade and hand it to Daniel.

...What??

If you're half as confused about that as I was, then you would be very confused. Although I was laughing so hard at the time though that I didn't really care- I mean, it's not like she or Daniel was going to stab my head or anything.

...Probably, anyway. :/ Temporary fits of laughter do a lot to help cover up those nagging thoughts about potential deaths.

Oh, bit of a non-sequitor, but I actually have a question for all of my adoring *cough* fans out there. I'm contemplating inquiring at the campus newspaper next semester to see if they'd take me on as a cartoonist/ article-writing-human. I'm not totally sure that this is a good decision though... swim team takes up a rather large quantity of my time here.

So hopefully, upon reading this, you'll weigh in. I'm about 90% sure that you can comment anonymously, so it wouldn't be a hassle- just say something like "go for it", "you should prioritize!" or "write about pandas, dammit!"

I probably won't write about pandas though, just a heads up. I do have standards, after all!

Low Battery Warning

I'm pretty tired today.

And yet here I am, writing a post for you guys anyway! You should be flattered. Or possibly worried about my bizarre sense of dedication to my readers, most of whom I probably don't even know are there.

The Christian College Invitational (read: swim meet) was on Saturday. It was a blast! There wasn't a scored meet, so everyone could try their best without having to worry about who was winning or not. Because while it is disgustingly cliché, we were ALL winners.

In all honesty, the only thing I can really miss about high school swimming is being the guy that the other swimmers look up to. It was a good feeling to be able to inspire confidence in the rest of my team. Here, I don't have that since I'm almost at the bottom of the food chain so to speak, but at the same time the camaraderie and just raw team spirit here is so strong it's intoxicating.

I love it. Swim meets are when I get to unleash everything, and just pace up and down the sides of the pool screaming and urging the competitors on. (Disclaimer: your throat will not be pleased of you are yelling at the top of your lungs for four hours)

But in spite of that, one of the coolest parts is getting to know the other swimmers. Take this guy, for instance:

Is this a swimming picture? No. Do I know who the girl is, and does she even go to college here at Asbury? No. But the guy in the picture is a bit of a hero of mine, and let's face it, this is a pretty badass picture too.

That's Daniel, see the photography post if you've forgotten who he is. He is, legitimately, THE fastest and most well rounded swimmer I've ever met. Barely two months into the season and he has already qualified for I think it's five nationals events, not to mention the three team records he's DESTROYED.

And he's incredibly humble about it all, too. He doesn't really boast about anything, he's really smart, personable, trustworthy, and he photographs pretty well too.

Haha, sorry- that's an artist thing. Being photogenic is a standard I sometimes secretly hold people to.

Speaking of art, by the way, I'm working on a couple of different pieces at the moment. One of them is really intricate/ about half done, and the other one is just a design. I don't know when I'll be able to upload them, though- my scanner has been on the fritz. That's my excuse for a lack of legitimate concept art lately... bad tech.

Bad tech, however, means that I have lots of time to listen to music. And since music is really good for the nerves, stress has been almost bearable lately!

Fantastic stuff. I actually enjoyed doing Daniel's bio- I might do others.

But I promise that the next post will be the near-death-dissection story. That was a good time. Especially since I got out of it very not dead or gutted. :P

Evidence of Intelligent Design, part Double Gamma

Let me just begin by saying that I love my new swim team. Every last one of them (including the people whose names I'm still figuring out).

It was one dinner conversation that inspired this post. It helped me to realize that I have been quite negligent in my duty to helping you, as my reader, stay safe from all manner of impending harm.

We were discussing our zombie apocalypse plan.

First of all, it was decided that the entire population of the (un-infected) Earth would have to move to Canada. Now, before you all start complaining about how awful that sounds, think about it- Canada is cold.

Very, VERY cold.

So cold, that I bet that stuff there freezes. Like, say, the blood of a dead creature with no means to heat itself or intelligence as to ascertain how. Example, zombies. And since it's rather hard to bite/ kill/ do anything when you're frozen like a popsicle, Canada seems like a pretty safe place for when the zombie apocalypse arrives.

What?

No, of course it's coming. Stop pretending it won't, you're just being silly.

Anyway. So now that we all live in Canada, it stands to reason that people would need some kind of secure shelter. Allow me to propose a simple yet effective house:

Ok, I'll admit, most of the space in your house at this point is completely arbitrary- just so long as you have a set of good, thick walls, and Chuck Norris vigilantly standing guard on your front porch.

Hopefully I'll at least be old and senile before this happens. It would put such a damper on my day otherwise!

Oh and expect one of two things for the next post: either the strangest gift box I've ever received, or something about almost getting dissected on top of a dinner table in the caf.

College? Adventurous? Heck yeah.

A Classic Response

I started this little habit a while ago- maybe last year- of leaving a small picture everywhere.
It's not supposed to be artistic or anything, just simple and easy: so you can draw it quickly and leave without anyone seeing that is was you who did it. So I called it the "stealthy ninja", because it was supposed to just appear and disappear. And so on.

And so this hobby has gone on for a while, and I took it with me to college and have left a couple here and there, but I saw one day that someone ELSE had taken a notice.

Normally when people see them, they're just all "Huh, that's cool" or something along those lines. No, not this person- they were creative, and they RESPONDED.

It was easily the highlight of my day. So whoever you are, Mr. Burly Pirate, just letting you know that you're my hero.

And my eternal rival. Ninjas will always prevail, it's inevitable. Sorry!

On the subject of prevailing, I made a list of ideas for future posts- so now it will be a) easier for me to make them and b) get rid of my excuse for NOT making them consistently.

Yay productivity :)

A Silver Girl on a Storming Sky

This post is a little different than the others, but bear with me.

Let me tell you a story. It's not about superheroes or some great injustice in the world- it's about two totally normal people. But this story is special because one of them is me, and the other is a girl I wish I could have been friends with for much longer than I have.

She's an artist, like I am. We got to know each other at difficult points in our life- separate events that had nothing to do with each other, but it was obvious that we both needed someone to support us. You'll have to forgive me since I don't remember exactly how it all started, but we became best friends for a time. And it was at some point during those tough times that she gave me one of the greatest gifts anyone could hope for.

I was really down and out. We were talking, and for me, things had gotten quite hopeless. I felt like if I were to just up and leave Needham, never to return, no one would either notice or care. And I told her that. I was unneeded, unwanted, and just in the way.

The moment those words had left my mouth, without hesitation, she said "But Brian, you dummy- I DO need you!"

She was the first person to EVER have told me that I meant anything to them. Think about that for a second, in case you don't really grasp the significance.

Or you don't have to, I suppose. It's your call. But this girl will forever and always have a special place in my heart.

So... thank you, Katie Peck. You're the best friend a guy could hope for. :) I can't wait to see you again.

Swan Crossing- Watch your Children

Hello humanity!

Today's been pretty much a regular tuesday for me, so far. Nothing too exciting, I woke up late (as is my usual fare), went to the gym, had my daily brush with mortality, got lunch, etc.

Today's episode was on the way down the stairs- I was headed over to the library, where I am now, and I passed one of my hall mates. I said hi, waved, continued on my way down the stairs- and almost fell to my death.

What had happened was he'd grabbed the back of my shirt and shoved- and no, I hadn't provoked him at all. Apparently this is one of the ways guys connect on an emotional level, causing harm to each other.

So I tripped and almost fell down a flight of stairs today. Think about that- trying to explain why you couldn't swim anymore to your coach.

"Brian, why is your neck broken?"

"...One of my friends tried to kill me."

"Why?"

"You know, I'm not totally sure. I should ask him!"

Now, what I can't figure out is how the next conversation would go. THAT would be interesting.

I had had another one of those crazy thoughts today. You know how the atomic bomb worked by transforming matter into energy at a really high speed? And it made that gigantic explosion?

Well, I don't know the intricacies of the principles involved in why matter makes giant craters, but the thought hit me- what would happen if you took a person and instantly converted them into energy?

And if you were to take people of different sizes, would it make craters of different sizes?

Hm.

I wonder.

But anyway. Our first swim meet is on friday! It's a pretty exciting event for me, aside from the fact that I'm not going to be doing any of my normal meet events... normally I'm in the 100 fly and 200 IM, but now I got the 50 and 100 free. And relays. But since now I'm an all out sprinter, which by the way is something I have always secretly wanted to do, it's not THAT big of a deal.

People are convinced that I'm going to be a big shot sprinter, but in all honesty the OTHER two freshman are where it's at. You've seen Daniel, and the other one is Pat. They're AMAZING. They've both already either beaten or tied the pool records for Asbury in their respective events. I might do bios on them at some point, who knows.

But yeah. They're wicked fast. Swimming is going to be on a whole new level of intensity.

And yeah, you've all probably decided that there aren't any large birds in Trustees, and you're right. But it just seemed cooler to fall on top of an angry bird than a surprised guy sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

Which may or may not have happened. But regardless. Gnight!