Thursday, July 31, 2008

Trailer

So I watched the trailer for the sixth Harry Potter movie. After being disappointed by the previous movie, and the trailer of the fifth, I was ready to pass judgment on this film. But to my pleasant surprise, it looked much better than I expected. The little boy they picked for Voldemort as a child looks perfect. I just hope that the actors actually try in this movie and that it is not as rushed as the fifth. The biggest failure with the fifth was that it was the shortest movie in the series, causing them to cut out a lot and change a lot. They created new plot holes, and I'm eager to see how they end them or screw them up even more. I miss the innocent acting of the first two movies where they didn't try so hard and were fine actors (not the best, but good).

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince/

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Step Brothers

I went and saw Step Brothers yesterday with Nick, Kenny, Justin, Mike, Tim, Zack, Julie, and Theresa. It was a terrible movie, but it did have a good message, albeit a cliched one, of being true to yourself and who you really are. It was filled with crude humor, graphic testicular contact, immature dialogue, and plain nonsensical crap. But I saw with my friends and was invited, and I never skip out on a chance to do something with my friends, even if it's to see a movie I know I will not like. I always enjoy movies, but a lot of them I don't like. Anyways, I walked to the theater with Kenny, Justin, and Mike. Their eyes were red, I wonder why. The theater was empty except for us and a few other people. I sat between Theresa and Justin, finding Justin funnier than the movie (and I think vice versa). After the movie was over, I didn't feel like walking home this time, so I got a ride with Theresa and Julie. I called shotgun, but the door was locked and when Theresa got in, she started the car without me in it. Then she started driving slowly, so I kept up with the car trying to open the door. They were being mean. Then she drove faster than I could run, but I was still keeping close so that when she finally stopped, I ran past the car before stopping. Then she just decided she was going to pretend she was going to drop me off in a dark area and leave me. But eventually she decided she was going to take me home, so we got back on track and she dropped me off. Why is almost everyone mean to me for no reason? I think it is something wrong with our society. Being nice to people is no longer in fashion I guess.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Wackness

Since yesterday was a Monday, it was only natural that I see a movie at the Cedar Lee for $5.00 and a free popcorn. Justin, Simone, and I went to see The Wackness, starring Josh Peck and (Sir) Ben Kingsley. It was a wonderful movie. It was set in 1994, after Kurt Cobain had died (important to a joke in the movie), in New York during the summer. Josh Peck played Luke Shapiro, a pot dealing graduate trying to make money for his parents to save their relationship. Ben Kingsley played Dr. Squires, a client, shrink, and friend of Luke. It follows Luke through the summer, his rocky relationship with Dr. Squires' stepdaughter, Dr. Squires' relationship with his second wife, and the dealing of pot. It was wonderful to see Josh Peck in something other than Drake and Josh. He was, to no surprise, spot on in his white boy trying to be ghetto role. I'm never surprised when children's show stars become good actors, usually in indie films too (plus he had like three sex scenes just in this one movie). Ben Kingsley was hilarious, playing the obvious comedic role of the adult having a midlife crisis and wanting to be young again. Simone had a laughing fit when Josh Peck was showering naked and the audience got a view of his lack of gluteus maximus. She said loudly, "He has no ass!" and starting moving around as she tried to hold in her laughter. It was funny watching her. Oh, and we once again ran into Matthew P. Childers (I don't know why, but he just has a name that you have to say completely). He was there to see The Wackness also. He probably kept looking over at us during the movie, seeing as we were across the aisle from him and making a lot of noise.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Sunday

Yesterday was a laid back day. I went to Tom's house for a meeting, but Steve was not there so we couldn't continue with the castle. We just played mini games. Then I went to Justin's graduation party and had some snacks. It was at the point where you just relax and talk with your friends. Nick and Simone were fighting over me, making me choose one pretend relationship over the other. Nick stole my hat, and him and Ben were playing keep away with it. I didn't really care though. Simone gave me a Tarot reading (which I don't really put any faith in, but I thought I'd humor her), which revealed some interesting truths, but I think those things can be attributed to anything and anyone, just like horoscopes.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Nick's Graduation Party

My day started around eleven. It was a beautiful Saturday, and I only had one thing on my mind, my good friend Nick's graduation party. Since my family was gone, leaving me with the house, I decided to walk to David's beach club where the party was being held. I saw a man ahead of me who either didn't know how to walk or was already drunk at four. After he vanished and I came upon 216th, I saw Mike Taylor. We were heading to the same place, so, as common courtesy dictates, we walked together. When we were almost there, Kenny pulled up and parked on the street. He walked with us until he realized he could have parked in the little area for parking. He asked me to move his car with him, so I agreed because I'm nice and I found it funny. Then the fun began as we arrived at the party. I ate, chatted with people I hadn't seen in awhile, and enjoyed the beautiful scene of the beach and the calming sound of the waves. I finally met Emily Proctor's Jewish boyfriend, Cory. David was grumpy because he hadn't eaten. Simone got tarot cards from Garth, Sarah Proctor's father. I learned that you're not allowed to buy your first set of tarot cards, someone has to give them to you, but I don't believe in bad or good luck, just bad or good coincidences. Then Sarah, Simone, and I went to the little playground near the party. We swung on the swings while the guys played frisbee, and then I pushed Sarah in one of the baby swings. Then I was attacked by Ben, Kenny, Justin, and sort of Dan. Then Ben, Justin, and I continued to swing while the rest of them went back to the party. We returned and more people started showing up. Everyone watched the slide show, made of course by David, and the Proctor sisters cried because they grew up with Nick. Simone almost started crying (she's really emotional, sorry Simone). I went on a walk with Sarah and Simone and discussed Kenny's past relationships. As the night grew old, people left for other obligations, some people came, and I sat and enjoyed the company of them all. When the party was finally over, I helped clean up, and decided to walk back home, but decided against it when David gave me one last chance for a ride home. That was an odd ride home. David and Anna kept talking about how they couldn't wait to party with me and get me drunk at OU. I just humored them. I also learned that David spiked drinks once. The things you learn about people. I'll just have to get a new drink everytime I put mine down. It's funny how naive I am. I like to have innocent views of people, until they prove themselves guilty to me, revealing, sometimes unsettling, things I didn't know or would never suspect them of doing. Well, I'm in for one eye opening time at OU, I gather, not that it's a bad thing.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Castle of Doom

Yesterday I went to Tom's house from twelve to five. It was great. First, it was just me and him, so we played this game called Times Square. There are two players that are competing bars. There are six people you can attract to your bar, Saucy Sue, her two bodyguards, the whore, the manwhore with an accordion, and Champagne Charlie. The first five have cards that you play to move them, you can only play cards for one person each turn but as many as you have, but Champagne Charlie moves one space towards your bar for every person you have in your bar spaces. I won, most likely from luck of the draw. Then we just sat there once everyone else arrived and talked. We talked for a while before I asked if we could start roleplaying. Tom had most of the final encounter planned, so we started. We got off the island, learned that Shuriken, a character from Rachel's backstory, and Steve's Uncle Astair were the leaders of the two nations, and that the planar seals were opening letting creatures escape. The source was a strange castle with an odd object at the top. That was our target, Steve's castle that was taken over by the Captain of Nightmares and his Nightwalkers, and Sarim, the paladin fallen from grace. We fought some Nightwalkers at the back door, before exploring the numerous rooms on the first floor. Alex put on a necklace that tried to control him, we were attacked by flying knives, found some goodies, ran into several other interesting rooms, and Steve defeated the Captain of Nightmares causing all the Nightwalkers to leave. We didn't even finish exploring the first floor by the time the meeting was over. I would like to go back, but I'm not sure Steve will want to.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Dance Party/Rave/Drugfest

Yesterday was amazing! Okay, so it started out with me writhing in anticipation for the dance party at Ben's house, which was supposed to start at six. I ate dinner sometime between six and seven, I don't really care I was too busy thinking about the rave, and left for Ben's. When I got there, it seemed like it was dead. I was confused because I was like an hour late. Apparently, several of the girls went to buy food, so it was Dan, David, Theresa, Julie, Simone, the burnouts (Kenny, Justin, and Mike, no offense), Ben, and I. Then the girls came back, and it just got better from there. More and more people starting coming, I just kept moving from the living room to the smoker's den in the basement (just to see how they were doing), and sitting outside. Theresa chose to smoke (got high and wouldn't stop talking, it was funny), Nick came and then disappeared, Simone and I went on a walk when the living room became a temporary smoker's den, and then Nick reappeared with a guitar. We sang songs, I listened to his theme song for Life Lessons with Mr. Wags which was hilarious, and danced. I danced throughout the entire party. It was crazy. We had glow sticks, a strobe light, and techno music. We had to take back the rave several times when the girls started playing bad, not techno music. The whole night was insane and so much fun. I learned that Simone and Kenny broke up, and that Kenny and Nick have been kind of distant from each other. Earlier in the night, I was embarrassed when Simone read my post about my terrible marijuana episode to the entire room. I think that was before the girls returned. When it started dying down, we just started listening to Vampire Weekend, Tegan and Sara, and other bands. I don't know what else to write. I don't know how else to explain that night. You just had to be there. Unfortunately, I had to go home, but so did Nick, so we got to walk home together. It was nice. I like walking and talking with Nick. It's really cool to hear what's going on in his head. And to all my readers who think I have a man crush on Nick, who cares. I am secure in my sexuality to not feel insulted. Just because the sound of his voice was what saved me during my episode, doesn't mean I'm secretly in love with Nick, so shut up!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Master of Computers

I just sat on my computer all day long yesterday, but I did some productive things. Okay, maybe just one. I made my computer, with many thanks to Ben. Ben knows what is good, I guess. He is like the wise and powerful, Master of Computers. Probably not, but I'm just having fun. Justin told me there was Frisbee, but I was told after the fact. That would have been nice. Then I could have had my first post on Ultimate Frisbee. Nevertheless, I am excited for the 24 hour dance rave at Ben's house tonight. It's going to be insane. I hope it's not too crowded, but I still hope there is a lot of people there.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Movies and Mary Jane

Don't worry, I did not smoke marijuana again, but we'll get to that later. As usual, I don't do anything until the evening. I asked a handful of people to go see Reprise with me at Cedar Lee yesterday, but it ended up only being Kenny, Justin, and I. Apparently, Kenny is wasting all his paychecks on weed which he seems to be smoking constantly (he admitted to smoking all day Saturday on the ride back, but that comes later also). I walked to Kenny's house, was intercepted by Justin halfway down the street, and went up to Kenny's room. Everything was completely moved around and it was clean, only the second time I've ever seen it clean. Kenny was sitting at his new laptop with a bong placed on the desk next to him. Justin took a hit and we were off. But Kenny's smoking didn't stop at his house. He brought his bowl with him in the car and would duck down to light it. At one point, Justin tried to hit it while driving, but Kenny was having a little trouble lighting it and I was scared we were going to crash, but eventually he lit the bowl. We arrived at the theater, Kenny heavily high, Justin only slightly, bought our tickets, got our free popcorn (I upgraded for a dollar more), and sat down. Kenny finished his popcorn really fast and was so excited to see that I had bought a bigger thing of popcorn, so I happily gave him some of mine. I thought Reprise was going to be in English, but it was Norwegian with English subtitles. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful movie. It was the tale of two young writers and best friends who submit their novels at the same time, one getting published, the other rejected. It follows the published one's recovery after his psychotic breakdown apparently caused by his obsessive relationship with his girlfriend Kari. The rejected one reworks his novel and finally gets published, receiving mixed reviews. The film's story is told through flashbacks and "what if scenarios" through the use of an omniscient narrator, much like the French film Amelie, but much darker. A beautifully sad film, told eloquently and effectively, Reprise takes the audience through a rollercoaster of emotions, irony, and seemingly disjointed moments. Kenny and Justin were a little confused by the movie, but I found it easy to understand. Of course, I wasn't high. The ride home was calm, and again I found myself thinking, which I also do when I am alone in the backseat. I listened to Justin and Kenny's conversation about smoking weed in the future and telling their kids about how they were burnouts. It made me think how the future is so unpredictable, how I have done nothing worthwhile in my life (brought about by Joe's graduation party, where I wished I had been rich or gone to a well off school), and how I haven't found myself. I don't know. Maybe I just like to think. I seem to end with "I don't know" a lot.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Party at Joe's!

Yesterday was a very nice calm day. I wanted to go to my friend Joe's graduation party, but I had no way there. Luckily, my friend Alex lives on the west side and Joe lives in Chardon, so I'm right in the middle. I jumped online to ask Alex for a ride, and after several moments of uncertainty, he finally managed to make room for me in his dad's car. To make it easier on them, I walked to the library which they know how to get to. I had some books to drop off, and then I went to sit on the bench, but a guy was sleeping on it, so I went and sat in the shade. Eventually I got up to see if he had gone, only to find he had moved to sleeping under the tree. So I took the opportunity, and sat on the bench. The Colemans arrived, and away we went to Joe's house. It was a nice ride. I started reading the Wanted graphic novel, which is, apparently, totally different from the movie. We arrived at Joe's house, said hello, met some of his rich Hawken friends, and dived into the food. The burgers were delicious, and there was kiwi in the fruit salad, yummy. It was a very relaxing party. I watched people play cornhole (I suck at it), played Super Mario Galaxy with Alex, inspected the numerous paintings and photographs that Joe's father had done, and ended the party playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl. I said goodbye to Joe, and rode back with Alex. I couldn't believe it when Alex instantly plugged his laptop into his mother's Prius. His reliance on technology is a little too much, but it made me think how we are moving towards that. If I have a laptop, I'm supposed to bring it to my orientation because registering for classes is done all online now. It's frightening how the world is progressing towards complete technological dependence. Someone will ask, "What's the weather today?" and everyone will instantly Google 411 instead of just looking outside the window or checking the paper. It will be like Futurama, where they have robots writing for and acting in shows. We might even have robotic trees that are able to photosynthesize better than actual trees (which I'm pretty sure is impossible).

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Facebook Rocks!

Facebook is awesome. They just had an advertisement for Team Zissou tee shirts. I love The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Wes Anderson is a great director/writer. I recently saw Rushmore, which was hilarious. I still have to see The Royal Tennebaums uncensored all the way through. I think everyone should just have Facebook. Facebook dominates myspace and twitter. Just look at the Current SuperNews episode, Social Networking Wars.

Team Zissou Shirt link (red hat sold separately):
http://www.threadpit.com/store/product.php?productid=167&flyer=face_aquatic

Current Video:
http://current.com/items/88913552_social_networking_wars

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Pioneers and Avatars


Alright, now this is for today. Yesterday was unimportant and the only thing worth mentioning is that I have the house to myself for the weekend. My family left for a wedding in Nebraska, that I wasn't invited to. Anyways, so today, I woke up at nine and Kayla picked me up at 10:30 to go to Pioneer Waterland. Now, I don't know how to swim, and am afraid of going underwater. I've tried to learn how to swim, but I always end up freaking out because I feel like I am going to go under. But I love Pioneer Waterland, mainly the lazy river. We picked up Nick and drove down Route 6 until we saw the sign for the park. We got in free because it was Kayla's dad's company picnic. We ate a lot of food, and then left for watery fun. We started on the lazy river, and had fun messing with each other. We went twice before losing Kayla to the short path, then we got out. We went to the water slides, and Kayla and Nick were going to race on the big, blue, twisty slides, and I went in the Black Hole, my first water slide ever, and only water slide ever. I went to Pioneer Waterland when I went to Euclid Parks and Recreations Summer Camp; that is when I first swallowed my fear of water, and went on the Black Hole. It still scares me. I had trouble getting out of the gate as I was filled with water, but luckily Nick and Kayla were there to direct me out of the gate (plus I couldn't see because my glasses were by our stuff). Then we decided to take a short break back at camp after Nick and Kayla went on the speed slides and we played terribly at putt putt. I stopped to use the bathroom and when I came out they were gone, but I eventually found them in the pool. They tried to teach me to swim, but it didn't help, and Kayla accidentally flipped me underwater and I swallowed some water. After they were done traumatizing me, we went back to the picnic area and ate some more. We then went paddle boating where we bumped into some little girls on purpose and made fun of the mean lifeguard lady. She was getting really impatient because we were having trouble getting in the dock, and I told Kayla she was really mean, and Kayla was like, "You're gonna make him cry!" to her. It was funny. We went back on the lazy river again, then on the slides some more, and then ended on the go kart track. The first race sucked because my car stalled. The second race was awesome because I passed everyone up. I was a speed demon. Plus I was lucky I didn't spinout at all. I kept coming close during the really tight turns, but I was able to maneuver well. We returned to camp/picnic, ate some cake and ice cream, and returned home. I instantly turned the TV on and started watching my recording of the series/season finale of Avatar the Last Airbender, the best show ever! It was fantastic, I was on the edge the entire time. I almost consumed the blanket I was using as a pillow. I cried a few times when I thought things were going bad, but they ended it perfectly. But they also had some loose ends, leaving some suspicion for a fourth season, or for what the live action movie is going to be about. I really hope M. Night Twistalawn (obviously not his real name, but I love the episode where Robot Chicken makes fun of him) doesn't completely ruin it. Darn this is going to be posted after today has ended. Curse my need to write down all my thoughts!!!

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Christian Conundrum

I was watching the Colbert Report just now, and Stephen was having an interesting conversation with his guest about universal healthcare. She said that universal healthcare is healthcare for everyone. Stephen responded by saying that there already is healthcare for everyone, it's called prayer. This reminded me of a book I say yesterday at the Coventry Street Arts Fair that talked about how the only question never answered in the Bible was: why do we suffer? I'm pretty sure that question has been answered by almost all religions. The fall, or corruption, of man is explained in even the oldest religions. In Christianity, curiosity and the childlike innocence of the ignorant is what is attributed to Eve's decision to pick the apple. Yes, the serpent/Satan did goad her into picking it, but the natural curiosity was there. Because of her ignorance and curiosity, she bit into the fruit, which was most likely not an apple but it is merely a story and is not to be taken as literal. They received knowledge, but with this knowledge came suffering, which helps prove that ignorance is bliss. In Greek mythology, a box was given to a child by the name of Pandora. The gods told Pandora not to open the box, but did not tell her why or what was in it. Driven by curiosity and her innocence and ignorance, she opened the box. From the box came disease, famine, war, and all that caused suffering, but also hope which can also be considered knowledge as knowledge creates hope. It seems that knowledge is the cause of suffering. With knowledge comes all the bad. You take the good, and you take the bad. Those are the facts of life, as the song goes. So the moral of the story? Simple, that the pursuit of knowledge creates not only good, but bad. It's simple to see how true this is. We've created medicine to resist disease, but stronger diseases have been discovered. With technology that helps, comes technology that destroys. I'm sure there are some holes in my theory, but that is what makes it a theory. Unfortunately, even though this is the question that sparked my existential crisis, answering it for myself right now has done little to help.

A Dark Night

This technically includes early this morning, but I consider the end of my day when I fall asleep. Alright, so this started yesterday morning, I woke up early, as usual, to watch my annoying sisters. Thankfully, I escaped to Tom's house for mini games, and, sadly, no roleplaying. We went from 12-4. We started with Caylus, which I placed second in, and then played Settlers of Catan. It was amazing. I had a settlement on a six brick and an eight wood, and the other numbers weren't that good. It was great because I instantly leaped into longest road as I made my way to a wood port (next to the 8 was a 3 and 10 wood, not that great, but good for a wood monopoly). Wood was one of the rarest resources too, so I could milk everyone for more than one resource. I built almost all my roads, five settlements, and one city in the midst of my wood, and finally won after developing several times to get a victory point card. I finally won a real life game of Settlers of Catan against my friends. It was great. Then I won at Bang!, a Wild West card game in Italian. Then Joe, my "not Jewish" friend from Hawken, dropped me off at home, where I looked at the Coventry Village website for more details on the Coventry Street Arts Fair which Alex reminded me of at Tom's. Justin and I went, stopping at Tommy's, American Apparel, and the head shops. Tommy's didn't have a Lemon Lime Ginseng Up and never called Justin's name when they finished his milkshake. We met Matthew P. Childers at American Apparel, his place of employment, and Justin and I chatted about the perverse advertisements and the overpriced articles of clothing. $44.00 for a track jacket! Outrageous! Just because it's American made and they pay their workers well doesn't mean they have to charge that much. Plus, they are just a basic clothing store. Most of the money they make has to be from selling template shirts. I see a lot of band shirts made on American Apparel tees. After a very disappointing Coventry Street Fair, Justin and I returned to Euclid, and I waited to leave for the midnight showing of The Dark Knight. I walked to Kenny's street where I met up with him, Justin, and Nick. Then we walked to Lakeshore 7 theater where we met with the rest of our friends. The movie was great, no it was amazing. Heath Ledger's Joker was spot on, perfectly maniacal and crazed. Christian Bale was pretty good, though I thought his Batman voice was kind of funny. Maggie Gyllenhaal was great as Rachel. I loved Alfred the butler and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne's accomplices. It was a great movie. After waiting until the end of the credits, like any good nerd, I left on foot for my home, alone seeing as Kenny and Justin booked it out of there, most likely to smoke some more hashish, ganja, mary jane, whatever you want to call it. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my quiet walk home in the moonlight. It was a clear night and the moon was pretty much full. I had an interesting contemplation on meaning, purpose, and this constant impatience I see in a lot of people. I again contemplated death, something I do a lot when I'm alone. I wondered how many of my friends are actually resigned to death, and what their respective beliefs are regarding death. I wondered if the ones who do not believe in a deity of some sort, will have an existential crisis at some time in their life. I've had an existential crisis, oh, since maybe seventh grade, which I think is when my cynicism took root also. I don't know. Hopefully college will help me find whatever it is I'm looking for.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Project Funway

Alright, so yesterday I found a codec that works and I've watched the first five episodes of Samurai Jack. The quality of mkv files is amazing. The video is perfect and the audio is better than when I watch it on TV. I also watched the season five premiere of Project Runway on Bravo. This season is shaping up to not be as good as last season, but I actually have someone I want to win already. The winner of the first challenge is named Kelly, and she owns her own store, the Black Market, in where? Why, none other than Columbus, OHIO!! Now Ohio has had representation in the past, but she was from farm country and more craftsy fashion. Kelly was innovative and creative. This year's first challenge went back full circle, all the way to the original Project Runway challenge, at Gritedes Mega Store. The challenge was to use products found in the grocery store and make an innovative garment using nontraditional materials. A lot of people went for tablecloths (fabric substitutes) and did okay garments, but the smartest designers used surprising materials. Kelly used vacuum cleaner bags that she bleached to create a marble effect, coffee filters that she burned, and the spiral of a notebook for clips. Daniel Feld, my other favourite, used blue plastic cups to make a beautiful cocktail dress that looked like something Feist might wear. Now, even though the season doesn't look like it is going to be another fierce fest, it does have its share of nuts and weirdos. This really odd guy, Blanye or Blaine (I don't want to know how to spell his name), made the most hideous outfit ever. He called it Girliscious and it wasn't. He just took stuff and threw it on. I think he should have left instead of the fat, gay, Asian guy who made an outfit for a serial killer. I don't know about this season. I just really hope Kelly makes it far, because that brings publicity to Ohio, and people will learn how much comes out of here.


Odd guy's outfit. Hideous, isn't it?





















Fat, gay, Asian's outfit. Serial-killeresque, no?



For more of the designs, especially Kelly's, visit:

http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway/season/5/index.php

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

I did something, I think? No wait....what?

I don't remember what I did yesterday. I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything. Oh, I read the rest of the Claymore manga on ifyouwas.com. That's a really interesting series. It seems to go on forever. I should read the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. I wonder how different it is compared to the anime series. I think I did something else, but I can't remember. I know that there is a meeting at Tom's house tomorrow. Oh, I need to find an MKV video player or converter. I searched for them last night and had some trouble. The converters all needed codecs, and I installed the codecs, but it still said that I needed them. The video player needed to connect to the internet for the installation setup, but was trying to use Internet Explorer which for some reason can't detect my internet connection. I'll look again today, but comment with any links please.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Rehabilitation

Yesterday I did nothing but stay at home to recover from my terrible ordeal. I can definitely say that I will not smoke weed again, even if it gets better after the first time. I just don't want to take the risk of freaking out and not having Nick there to sing to me. I sat at the computer for the better part of my day, and the rest was spent sleeping. But I found a place to play Settlers of Catan online. I also played an odd version with David. The map was huge for three players and there were boats and mining fields, where when the number was rolled you got to pick any resource. I won, at the original and the one I played with David. I finally won at Settlers of Catan. I want to play Caylus again. I wonder when the next meeting at Tom's house is?

Monday, July 14, 2008

Warning! Criminal Activity! Warning!

Alright, now I am going to fill you in completely on what transpired yesterday, my 18th birthday. I started the day by waking up at 12:00pm. I got ready for my birthday bash on Coventry Rd, texted everyone to remind them, and waited for their arrival. Everyone arrived pretty much on time, except for Kayla who had to get her oil changed and it took longer than she thought, and we left for Coventry. Kayla almost went the wrong way, but luckily Justin was looking out for her. We ate at Tommy's and then we went to the Grog Shop for the Hush Sound concert. First, the Morning Light played, and they were okay. Then Steel Train played, and they were awesome. Then the Cab played, and they were terrible. While they were playing, this really gay guy was talking with Kristen and Kayla about how the Cab sucked and the Hush Sound was the s#*t. It was really funny, but awkward for Kayla and Kristen. Then the Hush Sound played, and they were awesome. They covered Back in the USSR and sang songs from all three of their albums. When they were done, Nick and I stayed back while everyone kept walking out the door. Once again, Nick and I won because the Hush Sound came back for an encore of two more songs. Luckily everyone else got back in to hear and see the last two songs. It was awesome. After the concert was over, we drove to Justin's house to pick up some supplies for a fire, but when we got to Jared's beach club, the waves were really rough and there was no place to make a fire, so we went to Justin's house. Now, Kenny has been trying for ever to have me smoke weed with him, and I promised him I would do it on my birthday. Well, yesterday was the day and I was ready to try it. I took three hits from what is called a bowl, and didn't feel high. It was strange, I felt like I was acting high, but I really was. It started out okay. I was really quiet and wasn't laughing at things I normally would laugh at. Jared was high also, and when Jared is high, he acts really strange and laughs for no reason. Now when Jared would laugh for no reason, it would get me started and I would laugh. I didn't want to take anymore hits, and every time Kenny would stick in front of me I didn't know what was going on, it was weird. Then somehow, I finally took a fourth hit, and everything just went downhill from there. First, my legs kept flinching and I felt really cold. Then my head kept twitching from side to side. It was freaking me out, because I couldn't stop it. When I would try, I would feel like I was grating my neck. It wasn't fun. Then Ben, who doesn't smoke, started chasing Jared, which wasn't helping my head twitching because I kept turning back and forth towards any noise. Then Jared fell, so Nick, who doesn't smoke either, went over and told Jared he was Jesus and Jared was freaking out. Then it got worse for me. Jared sat down next to me and then started touching me. It was freaking me out and I was trying to get away from him, but I felt like I couldn't get out of my chair which freaked me out even more. Then I saw Nick out of the corner of my eye unzip his pants and come towards me, and I lost it because I thought he was going to rape me. Then Jared and Nick were on opposite sides of me and I was losing it, so everyone else was telling them to stop, but I was still freaking out, so Nick started cussing me out to try and calm me down, but my head just kept twitching. I started to cry because I wanted it to stop but it wouldn't. Nick got me to calm down for a short time by telling me to take deep breaths, but it didn't work for long. Then everything got better. Jared was moved to keep him away from me, and Nick sat down next to me and talked and played guitar. For some reason my mind calmed anytime he sang. If he stopped or made a mistake, I would start twitching again. If everyone else was louder than him, I would start twitching again. All I wanted was for Nick to sing and everyone else to shut up. When I would try to sing it sounded terrible, and I knew it but there was nothing I could do. Then when Justin's dad came out with Linus, I was finally calm. It was a terrible experience, and I'm pretty sure I would be really messed up if Nick wasn't there. The combination of Nick singing and petting Linus at the end of it all was what brought me out of that horrible experience. I don't know how Kenny and Justin can enjoy it. I guess everyone must experience it differently, but I am definitely not smoking marijuana again, in any way, shape, or form. After my rough patch, I went to Kenny's house to spend the night. We were supposed to go to the recording studio for Happy Kodiak, but things didn't go as planned, so I got dropped off at home and crashed on my couch for four hours.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

What the Fudge?

Okay, this is for yesterday, but I have a valid excuse. I was only home for an hour and it was from four to five. I woke up at nine, zoomed over to the eye doctor to pick up my new glasses (it feels weird to have two stems), and teleported to the library. There I played mini games with Justin, Tom, and Steve. It was endless hours of fun, which was cut short at four. Apparently not so endless. We played Caylus, a more advanced version of Settlers of Catan, which I tied with Justin, Man Bites Dog, a fun card game of newspaper headlines that are funny or make no sense, Bang, a sheriff vs. outlaw vs. renegade from Italy, Star Wars Duels, epic battles with cards, some Magic, and finally Liar's dice, which I won. If you don't know what it is, watch Pirates of the Caribbean, it's in one of them. Then, as I said, I left at four to get ready to go to dinner with my family for my birthday, which is today but I am doing stuff with friends, so we had to do it yesterday. Olive Garden was closed because it had no power, so we went to BRAVO!. It was really good. I started with Italian Wedding soup, then moved on to a Hickory wood-smoked Salmon. It was absolutely delicious. Then I got stuck in my brother's car which was going to the Mentor Gabriel Brothers. I saw this cute little Spanish family there, and I was excited because I could understand what they were saying. Then we arrived at my Grandma's house, but my Cd player's batteries died, so I had to listen to my brother's terrible tastes in music. I really hate that pocket full of sunshine song. I'm pretty sure a five-year-old could write that song. Then I had a delicious piece of chocolate cheesecake at my grandparents' house and left for Dan's graduation party. I played badminton, danced in a strobe light rave, and then sat around a short lived fire before leaving to get some sleep. Now I'm here, still thinking it is Saturday. But I am 18 today. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Today is going to be awesome. Now, I must get my beauty sleep and prepare for my debut into the real world. Here I come everyone! (CHEESY)

Saturday, July 12, 2008

SuperNews

Everyone should start watching SuperNews on Current.com. Just click Current under my new Cool Sites link list, search for SuperNews, and enjoy. Some of my favourites are the American Apparel, Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates, and the Battle of the Social Networking Sites videos. They are hilarious. Plus, if you like fake/joke news, just click the Onion link and enjoy. Also feel free to browse my musical tastes and my friends', and Khaela Maricich's, blogs. This is not a post for today. There will still be one tonight.

Friday, July 11, 2008

A Movie, Chinese, and Arabica

Today, I was awakened to watch my sisters (surprise). Thankfully, they were up in their room, so I was able to watch movies on IFC. I watched Millions, a cute little British movie, and this really odd movie called The Bee Season. It was this really strange movie about this girl with an unnatural talent for spelling and her crazy, religiously messed up family. The father was a professor of Kabbalah (spelling?), the mother would sneak into people's houses and steel shiny objects for this giant display in a warehouse that she made because of some philosophy in Kabbalah about bringing together broken pieces and light, and the son was having a religious breakdown and became a Buddhist or a Hindu, the movie wasn't quite clear on that one. Then the father became obsessed with his daughter's ability and was talking about how this ancient mystic, essentially a Kabbalah priest, thought you could reach god through the permutation of words, rearranging the letters into every possible combination even if they aren't real words. So anyways, the girl went all the way to nationals, and then when she had origami, (not a final round word, and I know seeing as I have watched the Scripps Annual Spelling Bee several times), to decide the win, she purposely misspelled it for some reason, and the night before that had a seizure when she was permuting words to commune with God. It was a messed up movie. The father was insane, the son hated his father, the mother was in a mental institution after being finally caught in someone's house, and the daughter was stupid and lost on the easiest final word. Also, the little girl looked kind of like this girl I know, Sarah Taylor. It was really weird. Then I had Chinese from First Wok for dinner, and then went to Arabica on 185th Street. I got a Nantucket Nectar Lemonade, and it was good. David, Nick, Ben, and I sat in the nice little alcove and had fun talking loudly over the very loud Jesus rock band, as Nick put it. Nick jokingly thought about going over there and saying, "I am here my child," and then doing a religious pose to see if she would faint. Oh Nick.

Blog, Blog, Blog

Guess what? I'm a believer. I'm a person who likes to blog about my ideals. Here goes: blog, blog, blog blog blog blog. Blog Bloblog, blog bloggen blogbloblog. Blogetyblog, blogle blog. Blogblog blogblog, blog blog, blog. Sorry just had to do that because of that annoying Twix commercial. It just makes me want to blog, literally. I mean, literally, people just have to want to after seeing that commercial. They just literally want to blog, literally. I hate when people use literally too much. I'm pretty sure we get if you're being literal or not. I'm not sure why that came up, it just did. Anyway, we did not roleplay at Tom's. On the bright side, he finished laying out all six floors of Steve's castle, so I'm sure by Sunday Tom will have an actual encounter ready.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Nothing

I haven't done anything for the past two days, including today. So that is nothing done for yesterday and today. Absolutamente nada! Tomorrow looks promising though. Toby, my parents' chocolate lab, is going to be neutered. He is going to look hilarious with that cone on his head. Then I am going to Tom's from 12:00 to 5:00 (which may be cut short because I might have to be at home by 4:00 to watch my sisters after the birthday party they are going to is over), and I really hope he has a D&D session planned because I am not going off to college until this campaign is over.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Movies

Yesterday I didn't do anything until 7:00pm when David picked me up to go see Mongol at Cedar Lee. We picked up Nick and then Justin, and we only had about ten minutes until the movie started. We missed about the first fifteen minutes, but other than that it was a really good movie. It was all about Genghis Khan's life before he became Khan. I really liked it. It was really well done, but the ending was a little disappointing. It was already two hours, the worst they could do is make it a little longer. Also, at times it seemed like the audio was off from the lip movement. Nevertheless, I would still recommend it. Then David dropped us all off after finding out his and Nick's favourite, cheap, Chinese restaurant, Tasty Buffet, was closed and the space was up for lease. Nick was crying out the window, "Why did it close?" I think from now on I'm going to write all my posts the day after. It's a lot easier because I get really lazy late at night, even if I'm on the computer already.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Connecticut, Day 5 and Day 6/The Return

Okay, I'm sorry that I haven't posted, but now that I have a readily accessible computer I will be posting as usual. Now this post is for Saturday, July 5th, and Sunday, July 6th. First I will start with Saturday. Saturday was my last actual day in Connecticut, so I was hoping to go into the city with my cousin Jackie and my cousin Andrew. Unfortunately, Jackie went to a friend's the night before and slept over, plus it was in NYC. She came home late morning, and everyone else went to see WALL-E, while Jackie and I stayed home. She took a nap because she was up late partying, and I blogged for Friday and watched Wimbledon. I saw Venus beat her sister. It was really intense. It was a pretty chill day with nothing exciting happening until the evening. My cousin Jackie found out about the movie Young@Heart and wanted to go see it at 8:00pm. She invited her friend Katherine Sinacore, who is hilarious. Last year when I visited Connecticut, I went to a Harry Potter release party at Barnes and Noble with Jackie, Sarah, and several of Jackie's friends. Katherine was one of them, and she was involved in some hilarious antics concerning He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. We ate dinner at 7:30pm and Andrew was getting a little anxious because he wanted to see the previews. Katherine arrived, after being mauled by a biker, in a dazed state. Poor Katherine. We hopped in the car, took a few wrong streets, but ended up in good spot to find parking, and then subsequently had trouble finding a parking spot. We made into the theater, bought our tickets, and then almost walked away without them, but Katherine was there to save the day. We rushed into the theater just in time for the movie to start. It was a charming documentary about a senior citizen choir in North Hampton, MA called Young@Heart. It followed them for seven weeks as they prepared for their new tour, Alive and Well. It was a rollercoaster of emotions, from hilarious and happy moments, to sad and disheartening ones. Like the narrator said, I felt like I had gained 24 extra grandparents (now 21). It was very touching, and though some of them were tone deaf and had trouble remembering the words, it all came out fantastically. Their opening show was sold out, but was unfortunately marred by the loss of one of their best performers. They lost two performers during the making of the documentary, and one more after the documentary was filmed. It was a touching movie with a wonderful message about living life to the fullest even if it is trying to keep you down.

Sunday/yesterday we had bagels from a Jewish bakery my Aunt Deni and Uncle Victor really like, and then left for the long drive home. I listened to Vampire Weekend, Ingrid Michaelson, Tegan and Sara, Ben Kweller, and The Blow. I found I really like Vampire Weekend. We got home after six, I ate, and then left for a meeting at Tom's. Unfortunately, we did not roleplay, so I did not get to find out the climactic conclusion to the campaign. He said he'd try to write something and have a meeting during the week. I hope he does because I want to finish this before I have to go off to college.

That was my vacation. Hopefully I will get to visit NYC with my friends before the summer ends.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Connecticut, Day 4

Yesterday was July 4th, otherwise know as Independence Day in the United States of America.  So what was I, like any good American (even though we are United States Citizens like our passports say), to do?  Why shoot fire into the sky and be deafened by the resulting explosion of light and loudness.  Now I'm not unpatriotic, I just think the U.S. is a stupid place filled with only a small percentage of smart people.  Unfortunately, most of the smart people aren't involved in the government (which is good for them, but bad for us).  I must get back to what I did because I could fill the whole page with my feelings on the U.S. and any subsequent related topics that I may tangent off into (like my desire to move to Europe, but have a beautiful loft in New York City for when I wanted to visit the motherland).  What did I do yesterday?  I'm not sure I quite remember.  I read a little bit of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.  It's somewhat biofiction.  I think I should coin that term.  It can be applied to a lot of things like Night by Elie Wiesel, or 30 Rock my favourite television show.  My Aunt Betty and Uncle Tom left for their home yesterday, and then my cousin Andrew came in from the city.  Andrew is a really cool person.  He's really smart and has a great personality.  He's working for CBS as an intern and rarely gets time off.  He rents an apartment in the city from his parents who own it for my Uncle Victor (who sometimes has to sleep in the city because of his work).  I had the most delicious soup from Chef's Table, one of my favourite restaurants in Fairfield, CT.  It was called Mulligatawny, and it was filled with deliciousness.  I love soup so much that I could live on it.  It can every food group in it.  You can eat it ate every meal (Miso soup is technically for breakfast).  It's just wonderful, and I don't understand why a lot of people aren't really into soup.  If I can't find a writing position in a newspaper, I would love to be a food critic so then I can taste every restaurant's soups.  Also, if I become successful enough to a point where I can retire and be set for life, then I would like to open a cafe that serves only soup, and open it near a college with really cheap prices and delicious food so all the students and faculty will eat there for lunch or dinner.  Anyways, yesterday was pretty much a relaxing day since it was really cloudy.  We sat on the beach for a while until we thought it was going to rain.  The fireworks were pretty nice, but there were so many I didn't know where to look.  Everyone was shooting off expensive fireworks not to far from us.  It was very calming, but it felt very surreal.  I wanted that moment to freeze in time, so I could sit on the beach and listen to the waves with my family forever while fireworks lit up the sky.  I kind of don't want to go to college.  I don't want to worry about money and taxes, getting a job, creating a family.  I wish I could freeze time so I could enjoy summer forever and never become an adult.  I don't care if I don't make money to buy material possessions.  I just want to enjoy life.  I don't think we were put on this planet, or were a scientific accident, just so we could create society, technology, cities, and responsibilities.  I think we were put on earth to enjoy life, to build beautiful cities and then enjoy them without worrying about economies and oil for cars.  Maybe I'm just a little nervous about going to college.  I don't know.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Connecticut, Day 3

Thursday's post.  Dictated but not read.  Written and posted on Friday.  

For a vacation, I really didn't do much yesterday.  Sarah, my cousin, left for a friends which she will be staying at until after I leave.  Jackie plays lacrosse so she works out, but she is also helping out at this cooking school for underprivileged children, so she not home for most of the day.  So I was stuck with a bunch of older people, no offense to my relatives, but I'd rather be around people close to my age.  But my aunts and mother wanted to go shopping, so I, hoping for a good photo opportunity, tagged along.  Unfortunately there were no good photo opportunities and we went into all these women stores.  But I made the most of it.  We stopped in Pottery Barn first, which a quaint store.  I looked at their selection of frames for my prints.  They had frames with mattes in them, but I wanted to find ones that I could fit my mattes in.  They did not have 11x14 mattes, but I did have a nice conversation with the girl who works there.  She measured the frames for me and told me about her friend who was into photography.  She said her friend was going to take a year off of university to travel around the world and take photos.  We then went into a bunch of uninteresting stores and finally came to this independently owned store called Life Is Good.  It was a nice little store with positive messages on the shirts.  Unfortunately they did not have men's size small and their mediums were to long, so I couldn't get a nice shirt.  Then we went into this store where this lady put this stuff on my hands that made them really oily and took away my natural softness.  It was this natural store for body products.  It smelled really strong in there.  Oh I almost forgot about the cute little British family at GAP Kids.  The boy and two girls all had blue suckers so their mouths turned blue and the youngest was this cute little girl with blonde curls.  Then we went to eat at this little cafe, but I saw a Lucky Brand Jeans store, so I wanted to look there.  They were really expensive, but we found a discount pair that were 62% off.  It was really nice because they would normally be a hundred some dollars, but they ended up at thirty-six dollars.  Then we ate at the Katzberg Kafe.  It was quite nice.  The cashier was, I think, a woman with a really deep voice, so my mother and my aunts were discussing after we left if she was a man or woman.  I forgot to check if she had an Adam's apple or not.  Of course, as we were walking back to the car, my Aunt Deni took us by the Starbucks to see if anyone wanted some so she would feel thirsty for coffee.  The Nesi family is know far and wide for their Starbucks obsession.  It is said that the Fairfield Starbucks was built just for them.  Then we returned home and I finished the Magician's Nephew, which I had read once before but wanted to refresh my memory.  When were leaving for dinner, Jackie returned home but was going to go out to a party at a friend's house.  I was going to ask if I could tag along, but I didn't want to invite myself to a stranger's party filled with strangers, so I went with the rest of the family to Vino...On the Boardwalk, a quaint, family style, Italian restaurant.  It was pretty good.  Then we went to dairy queen afterwards and returned home, where I relaxed and then retired early only to find History of the World on AMC and Tomb Raider on TBS.  That kept me up till around twelve when I finally decided to turn off the TV because I couldn't watch it in a comfortable position.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Connecticut, Day 2

Today, what a day.  Well I woke up at five something, and I was wide awake.  I was able to fall back asleep until six something, and then until 7:20.  I set the alarm for 7:30, but I just said close enough, turned off the alarm, and took the best shower ever.  The water was the perfect temperature, and my bedroom was connected right to the bathroom, so I could strip in the room and walk to the shower.  Then I had a slice of delicious banana bread for breakfast, another one of my food weaknesses.  Then I went on the Nesi boat, which doesn't have a name yet but my aunt wants to name it Sandy Cheeks.  It was wonderful and very calming, plus I got some shots on my Canon Rebel Ti.  I have so much film I will have to develop.  I'm going to try and save it until I'm at OU and become good friends with the Photo teacher.  We rode on the boat for a few hours, even though it only seemed like a short time.  Then we had lunch from the Firehouse Deli and I got a vegetarian wrap.  It's weird.  I prefer vegetarian choices, except for meat substitutes, but I don't think I could ever become a true vegetarian because I love soup and most of it is made with meat broth of some kind.  Then we just relaxed, and during that time I was able to finish The Pearl, by John Steinbeck.  It was a wonderful read, and short.  It has cancelled out my hatred of Steinbeck, which I received after not reading Of Mice and Men.  It took me an hour to read the first chapter of the latter book.  It was so dry, boring, and not able to hold my attention (the only book that has ever failed to do so), so I read the last chapter and Spark Noted the body of the book.  I think I did terrible on the test too.  Anyways, then Sarah got me addicted to this game called Text Twist.  You get six letters, and then you have to arrange them in at least one six letter combination that makes a word to move on to the next level, but you can gain more points by figuring out all the three, four, and five letter words you can make.  It is really addicting, and I find I miss some of the more common words.  Then we ate hamburgers (or hot dogs, but I hate hot dogs) for dinner.  Then I continued to play Text Twist thanks to the burst of energy from my Starbucks White Mocha.  Then I did yesterday's post, and now I'm sitting in my cousin's awesome kitchen island writing this one.  And now, since I'm done with this post, I'm going to play some more Text Twist.

A Day Late

Okay, this is yesterday's post.  I was a little busy being glad that I was no longer in a car, so I was unable to locate a computer to update my readers (if I have any).  So yesterday, my mother, my two sisters, and I all got in the car at 7:30, and off we went on our journey to Connecticut.  To make sure we got there, we had an atlas of the states (complete with every important city, exit, and highway) and TomTom GPS device.  We took 271 South to Youngstown and then got on 80 East for the majority of the drive.  I 80 is huge.  It goes through Ohio, all the way through Pennsylvania, and then about halfway through New Jersey is when we got on to 287 North.  Then we followed that until it joined with 86 East, and then took 95 North until we reached Fairfield, CT.  My mom was freaking out because we didn't have my Aunt Deni's new address, but I tried to assuage her paranoia with the fact that I knew, thanks to my visual memory, exactly how to get to her house once we got off the highway.  She didn't trust me, as usual, so I had to search for my aunt's house phone number because she wasn't answering her cell.  Now, I hate talking on the phone unless absolutely necessary.  I never no what to say, and I always feel a little awkward.  We hit a little traffic near the end of our drive, but for the most part it was smooth sailing.  Everyone was surprised at what great time we made.  We arrived at 5:45 and made ourselves at home, myself especially seeing as I love the Nesi house.  It is right on the sound and you can see Long Island from their backyard.  It's a beautiful house with so many rooms, and plenty of bathrooms.  I took the best shower of my life today.  But back to yesterday.  We ate homemade turkey tacos for dinner, and then had cheesecake for dessert (my top two secret food obsessions).  It was wonderful.  Then I went to bed at 11:00.  I was exhausted and didn't even stay up to watch Adult Swim like I usually do.