Code Orange

I'm going to write down a couple of different ideas here at the top so that I can just come look at them if I ever need a good one. Feel free to judge.

-people i know here at college

-the orange candy thing

-art (oh yeah, whatever happened to "art blog"?)

-swim team

-ninjas

-uhm.

Something really bizarre happened today. My facebook got hacked somehow! I was just sitting there at my computer, minding my own business,

When all of a sudden, Hillary called me over and said "Hey... uhm.. did you send me some link on facebook just now?" I was pretty sure I hadn't, but I walked over to her computer and sure enough there was a link on her page from me. I was confused, but not really concerned or anything- it was probably just a bug on her computer or something, right?

...Right?

Well, when i got back to my computer,

...I found out that well over thirty people had been sent a similar message. I don't know how whoever it was managed to get onto my account while I was logged in, but it bothered me. I spent the next ten to fifteen minutes frantically trying to inform everyone on the endlessly stretching chat bar at the bottom of my screen as to what had happened.

To all hackers: STOP IT. You're inconvenient.

Codename: Generation Y

This is going to sound really weird, but here goes-

Tonight I hung out with some guys for the first time in college. No girls. It was interesting.

No, I'm not trying to say that I'm a ladies man or a pimp or whatever, because that's just clearly not true. I... well...

Oh, you know what I'm trying to say.

It was a great time though. For me at any rate, there's only so far you can let down your guard with girls- yeah they're nice, yeah they're fun to be around, but there are few things in this world like just watching The Matrix and lazing around in someones dorm room playing Halo while being with other guys.

I feel like I owe you people another teaser for the ninja fight picture, but... I think i'll just put up another slightly older picture I found on my scanner when I unpacked it. I think it's pretty cool personally.

You have three guesses as to what inspired this picture. And for the record yes, I do love that tv show.

The one thing about this picture that bothers me: look at the face of the guy on the bottom. He's supposed to have this scar on his face, but it ended up with him just looking like his nose protrudes out into eternity.

Other than that, though, the picture is fine- and so in my book it's a hit.

I will close tonight (this morning... curse you, 1:15am) with a couple of things: one, that the bag of skittles in my room is starting to bother me. I've eaten all of them except the orange ones, and since I'm neurotically afraid of orange candy, it's an issue.

I also discovered for number two that Cali will chase the little red dot on the ground laser pointers make. It's hilarious, I promise. Try it some time.

For those of you who actually read the guest post I made for Ari, I apologize, this is going to look a little familiar. Feel free to actually comment on this one, though. :P

TOP TEN AWESOMEST MUSICS EVER

#10: Anything on my iPod not listed below

The way that I get my music is actually a little pretentious- basically I listen to the radio/ Pandora for about a month or so, write down the names of all of the songs I really liked, and then I go buy them. I haven't fully warmed up to the idea of buying albums yet.
And for those of you who are going to ask, no, I don't use any of those "music sharing websites" or limewire or any of that crap. I get my music the legitimate way.

#9: Bad Romance, Lady Gaga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAoi_-_EVio

The reason this is here is because back in Needham over the summer I went on some day trips with one of my good friends. He's a bit of a music nut, in a good way, and so we frequently ended up listening to techno music, Gogol Bordello, Mumford & Sons, lots of other bands...

And Lady Gaga. It's an acquired taste, I guess.

#8: Dynamite, Taio Cruz & Ludacris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3oih-vQXzk&feature=related

Ugh. Youtube has failed me badly on this one- there were no good recordings. For better results, buy it- it's a good song.

#7: Dreamscape, 009 Sound System

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCs5jLA4MS8

#6: Animal I've Become, Three Days Grace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqds0B_meys&ob=av2e

I know that I don't normally pick the music videos, but this was the best recording of it I could find. Sorry if it's bizarre.

#5: I Don't Care, Apocalyptica

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJmA2v5eEfg

There's something about a hard rock band that uses chellos that appeals to me. Why? I dunno, it's cool.

#4: Awake and Alive, Skillet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXE0MOzI-vQ&feature=related

#3: Hero, Skillet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuyupBmHfVQ

What? TWO Skillet songs in a row? Well, yeah, they're a great band.

#2: Going in Blind, P.O.D.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_ZB7ulWnAU

#1: In the End, Linkin Park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AWbgkRpYwc

The actual music video for this song is just plain old weird. It's got some egyptian looking stuff, flying whales, very obvious green screening, etc.That doesn't stop this song from being at the top of my list, though. It's awesome. I listen to it before I race for swimming to get the ole' adrenaline going, and it works.

And there you have it. Musics!! :)

I for one am still anxiously awaiting Andy's guest post, whatever it may be. Come on, lazybones, get you act together. Seriously. I must have checked my email at least five times looking for it. :P

Oh yeah, that reminds me, art exists. Speaking of art! I'm working on this picture right now of a bunch of ninjas all fighting each other- it's a pain in the butt since I hate drawing faces, so I have to figure out how to make different masks for each one, and outfits, and weapons, etc etc. But in the end it'll totally be worth it since ninjas are awesome.

Uhm but yeah, I do apologize for disappearing like that, I've been really busy these last couple of days for no readily apparent reason. If this keeps up then I'm thinking that the whole blogging-every-day-thing is going to rapidly fade into the past, but I will certainly devote an appropriate amount of effort to seeing that this doesn't happen.

Here's a sample of that picture I was talking about, by the way. I really like this guy in particular, and yes he does look a lot like this other character I have.

Yes, that's a ninja. Don't argue. He's awesome. Ninjas are awesome. Therefore, he's a ninja.

No, that doesn't mean this principle applies to all things that are awesome. Just him. Seriously, people.

One last thing, before I go: if anyone ever has any ideas as to some topic they'd like to hear about, by all means TELL ME. It's not as easy to come up with all of these ideas by myself.

..this post had a picture! I'm really happy about that, actually. I hope you guys are too.

Until later!

WARNING: WRITERS BLOCK

Ugh.

I know I haven't updated in a while, but I have a couple of reasons for not doing another post today.

First of all, I'm very sleep deprived. It's a long story but it ends with me being sleep deprived.

Second, I already did a post today! Well, it was a guest post, and you can view it here: http://thesaddestlight.blogspot.com/

...but it absorbed a gratuitous amount of my creativity for the day. If something particularly interesting happens, I'll write about it later, but for now don't be surprised if I disappear again.

I actually do feel kind of bad, but I can't live at my computer, after all.

Just because you're older doesn't mean you're smarter

It's been a long, painful road to this realization, but I'm finally starting to come to grips with it.

For example: I woke up this morning to a loud crash. In my disoriented state, at first all I was capable of was bleary indignation at whoever had disrupted me. It took about 10 or 15 minutes for me to get to the point where I was capable of becoming suspicious as to the source of the noise, and so I got out of bed to investigate.

My entire desk was overturned.

The fact that the only way this could have happened was me kicking it did little to improve my disposition at this point. But yet there I was at 7am, picking up everything off the floor and putting my desk back together. I'm very grateful that all of my tech still works as far as I can tell, especially my printer which fell off of the top shelf, hitting my chair on the way down.

However, once is never enough. It couldn't possibly be considered a full day without at least one more mishap.

Which came later when I was walking back to Trustees, my dorm building. I jumped up the stairs as usual, swiped my card, opened the door, and knocked my glasses off of my face.

I'd hit myself in the FACE with a DOOR. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that even 5 year olds could open that door without almost knocking themselves out. What compounded the problem was that there were other people nearby to judge me for the horrendous nature of my ineptitude.

Let's face it, stuff like that is EMBARRASSING.

The list goes on, but I'll abbreviate the rest of todays: I discovered that my motor skills are sub par when it comes to doing anything other than the basics like walking. I realized that I'd forgotten to actually purchase the books I needed from the campus bookstore almost two hours after it closed.

Alright, that one does need a little bit of explaining. Basically what had happened was I went into the bookstore looking for some of the textbooks I'd need for class. I found what I needed for three of my four classes, and decided to go look up the ones I'd need for the last class at the Student center next door. I piled the books on one of the shelves, telling myself that it'd be fine since I was coming straight back.

In reality I remembered right after a two hour swim practice that I'd completely forgotten to GO BACK AND BUY THEM. Now I have to wait until tomorrow, and I feel like a complete idiot.

Hopefully someone else will be working there, otherwise I'll have to have one of those "Wait... weren't you here yesterday?" conversations. Those are never fun if it involves you having lapses in memory.

At any rate, college has been mostly off to a good start. I haven't failed any of my classes, haven't been seriously injured, have been fairly adequate at social interaction, and the crown jewel of my collection: I haven't DIED.

On a very positive note, as a slight deviation, swim team has started! I'm quite excited to see how this season goes. Cali keeps insisting that the fact that I'm decent without having ever swam club means that by the time Gary and Dorothy are done with me, I'll be nothing short of in-freaking-credible.

While I'm still skeptical about that level of improvement being possible, I did manage to pull off a 24.9 50 free after the first day of practice. I had to start from in the water, too, since Gary didn't want me to use the blocks.

Needless to say I'm quite pumped about that time. My best 50 free ever is a 22.65, and that was at my peak with a special racing suit. Gary (who's the guy swim coach, sorry, I should have mentioned that earlier) told me that he was impressed, and that he felt like I was going to be a solid, helpful addition to the team this year.

"You're going to help us." Given all of the things mentioned above, that sentence is a pretty good confidence boost, don't you think?

Democrats: An insider's perspective

I will start by saying that this post has been a long, long time coming. Having grown up in their stronghold and somehow making it out with both my morals and body intact, I feel compelled to share about them with the rest of the world.

This also might be a small token gesture of revenge to all of the people who bashed my ideology/ faith during high school. But it might not be. :)

At any rate, I present to you:

Democrats

First of all, all democrats do not talk like Obama. While they are frequently well versed in what they think should be done with our nation, they are fully capable of communicating in ways other than motivational speeches and pausing for effect every six or seven words.

They also do not march places. Unless they're in a marching band, and then they only march sometimes.

It is also a well established reality that the Democrats of New York have maintained a fully operational ninja strike force team since the founding of their state in 1376.

The NYNs (New York Ninjas) have been responsible for many things over these past few centuries. A few of the more significant ones were Abraham Lincoln's hat, Swiss cheese, math, and of course Neil Patrick Harris.

In Massachusetts, you can never be too careful of them. They have eyes and ears everywhere.

All donkeys in MA are really cyborg drones. Even the PEZ dispensers.

Since they're everywhere, it's vitally important to be prepared to do battle. Often just sensing a non-democrat nearby is enough to send some of them into a frenzy of righteous indignation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgppLxrFm0k

Sort of like that, only they do it for political reasons as opposed to just for kicks.

When fighting Democrats, there are a couple of weapons that you should equip yourself with. I try to bring at least three of them with me everywhere I go, just to be on the safe side.

1. Logic

While I have admitted most Democrats are well versed in what they believe, that doesn't necessarily mean that they know WHY they believe it. Countering their arguments with common sense and reason will frequently cause them to resort to the "Well, you're wrong because you disagree with me", which is the argumentative equivalent of a sword through your own brain. It's also hilarious to watch them squirm.

2. Any picture of George W. Bush

Like a red hot knife through butter. Their irrational fear/dislike for anything Bush did will send them packing almost instantly.

In the interest of being fair, however, I tried the same thing on a Republican using a picture of Obama. The effect was the same.

3. Not sharing your money

Nothing demoralizes them faster than holding onto your own hard earned cash.

4. Handguns

This one has little to do with whether or not the person you're engaged in combat with is a democrat and more to do with the fact that guns are pretty effective on anyone.

5. Sunlight

You know the zombie apocalypse everyone is always talking about? Enough said. Flashlights don't work as well, but will suffice when you're in a pinch.

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And now for the disclaimer. None of the stuff in this post should be taken seriously and/or personally. That is all. I wrote this for funsies.

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It also appears I lied about having a list of music this time around. I apologize for that. In an attempt to make it up to you, I'm letting the Andy (go look at the post on coffee- that Andy) do a guest post of his very own. I don't know what it's about, so it will be a surprise for everyone!

We'll see how it turns out. Until next time, then.

Movie Night

So originally the plan for tonight was for Cali and myself to go study somewhere, do homework, whatever. Probably just hang out in the library for a couple of hours and be productive for once.

What happened was I was supposed to meet her outside her dorm building at 7:30, which I was there for. Since I was under the impression that you couldn't go inside the building without a proper card key, I sat on a bench outside and waited.

And waited.

I was still waiting when one of the other girls who lives in that dorm walked by and asked me what I was doing, since I "looked like such a creeper just sitting there." I'm not kidding, she actually said that. I told her, and she said that that made more sense as she pulled the door open and walked inside without using a card key.

I had been sitting outside for 15 minutes waiting for someone to open an unlocked door for me. Not to mention that now people think I'm suspicious.

Once I'd finally gotten inside, it became apparent rather quickly that we would not be going to the library- we would be watching a movie instead. Since I wasn't much of a movie person, it was going to be the girls choice because they actually owned movies.

Oh, right- Katie Duncan had joined us by this point. This is Cali, the first girl:

and this is Katie:
Both are really cool girls. That being said, the movie they decided on was... something else entirely.

I realize now that it was a trap I'd set myself up for when I said that I didn't have an opinion one way or the other on chick flicks. That having been said, they decided on a movie called Bride Wars. They both assured me that it was a good film, and that it was pretty decent even in the realm of chick flicks. So, we settled down, and after struggling with the TV's settings a little we sat back to enjoy the show.

I must admit, I hadn't thought it was possible at first, but this movie showed me otherwise. The director of that film single handedly crafted an hour and a half long film comprised of nothing but bridal drama. I had to sit there in disbelief while two girls fought to sabotage each others weddings because they both wanted to have their weddings on the same day at the same place.

I'm trying to say this in the nicest way possible, seeing as whoever it was must have had to put some kind of effort into that movie and I don't want to belittle all of that work- but having seen Bride Wars, I'm now HORRIFIED at the movie industry.

It wasn't even a story!! They could have literally just had the two main characters slap-fight and insult each other for 90 minutes and the end would have been almost exactly the same.

Is it even possible to like drama so much that you glorify it in film? Movie people, I came to college for many reasons, but one of them was to GET AWAY FROM ALL OF THAT. I *hate* drama. It's petty and useless.

Fortunately watching that film with a couple of girls- actually I forgot, Hillary was there too, she came at around the halfway point- but watching it with a couple of girls offered an excellent opportunity to provide a running commentary about what I thought of the film. :)

I don't think they appreciated it as much as I did. I had to duck a lot during that movie.

Speaking of appreciating things, I'm on another music hunt- but I'm also very unhappy with my ipod, since I can't get it to connect to the iTunes store anywhere on campus. Rrgh. That aside though, I think my next post will have some songs I'm thinking about for input. Music is awesome!

Until next time, then!