hey there everybody! want to hear a bunch of the same songs you’ve heard before in your own cd player, only lower quality and over the internet? well if you say so. it’s radio show night so in about half an hour head over to kscr (link at left) and you can do just that. mmm hmm.
also, i’ve just found collapsing friend #11. i (heart) slatch. nice to be part of a growing family.
i’m still reading about a boy, even though it’s only about 300 pages of very easy reading. not because i’ve been too busy or because i’m a slow reader, and especially not because it’s dull. it’s because i’ve been reading it in doses of only about 10 or 15 pages because it’s so good, i don’t want it to stop. i’m savoring it. honestly, i haven’t been this affected emotionally by a story in a while. i’ve enjoyed other books more, but as far as being moved by characters and their thoughts and actions on a printed page, this one is really getting to me in a wonderful way. i highly recommend this book to anyone, whether you liked high fidelity or not. this isn’t much like that book, although i loved that too. but the writing is very human, and very honest, and very good. so this is me recommending it to you.
a quotation from this week’s reading for my asian religions class from laozi’s daodejing (the way of virtue):
Weapons are inauspicious instruments, not the instruments of a cultivated person.
But if given no choice, the cultivated person will use them.
Peace and quiet are the highest ideals;
A military victory is not a thing of beauty.
To beautify victory is to delight in the slaughter of human beings.
One who delights in the slaughter of human beings will not realize his ambitions in this world.
for the first maybe 45 minutes (out of two and a quarter) of mulholland drive, i thought maybe we were going to get a linear storyline that just happened to be a little bit out there and weird. that was the wrong thing to hope from david lynch, because at one specific point, everything in the movie went ass crazy. not one of the four of us could even begin to decode the fragments of a story that were thrown at us in seemingly random order without any solid connecting points. so it was pretty much, in the end, what i was expecting. if you don’t like that sort of thing, the weird for weird’s sake kind of storytelling, this movie will naturally frustrate you. but although i can’t say i loved the movie, i loved seeing the movie. it gives you something to talk about for a while, and it makes you at least try to think about what’s going on. let’s just say i’d rather see more movies like that being put out that are just too fragmented but at least stylistic, then a whole crop of movies like the fast and the furious or joyride. call me crazy, but i prefer things that are over my head to things that are obviously and embarrasingly targeted to those with no apparent desire to use their brain unless they have to.
you’ve heard of six flags doing “fright fest” around halloween right? well last night we went to something sort of like that. i’ve never been to fright fest, so i can’t compare. the place we went was knott’s berry farm (a man starts out making really good fruit preserves, selling them by the roadside. they catch on, he starts a company. that company eventually spawns . . . and amusement park? i didn’t quite see the jump either, and yet it happened — hence the berry farm), only transformed by night into knott’s SCARY farm. i know, it’s terrifying.
it was fun though. besides not getting to ride many rides because the line was long, i enjoyed it. there was fog everywhere and people in really impressive costumes/makeup jumping out from all over the place. there were temporary mazes set up that were like mini-haunted houses, and they were pretty good at making you (well, me, really) jump out of your boots. in one called the alien attack, there was a black room with little green flecks all over the walls, lit only by blacklight. but there were, after closer inspection, also people dressed in all black with green flecks standing against those walls, who came at you from all directions as you walked through. it was so weird, you couldn’t see them at all at first glance. that was the time i have to admit to actually being scared into darting out of the room. good times. i also got to ride my favorite amusement park ride, the good old sit in a chair, get pulled straight up a pole (this one was the highest i’ve ever been on — really intense), and then just get dropped and fall really fast. rollercoasters are fun, but the whole giant drop, free fall, tower of terror, whatever you may call it is always my favorite.
tonight the plan is to go see the newest bizarre spectacle from twin peaks/lost highway/blue velvet director david lynch, mulholland drive, and get some in-n-out. i don’t even think i’ll really like the movie, but they’re just so weird, historically, i can’t allow myself to miss it. it’ll be fun to talk about how insanely screwed up it is afterward and try to decode whatever sort of “story” is nestled in with the madness. if you’ve ever seen lost highway you know what i mean. and hey, at least we get tasty burgers either way.
the weather here lately had been fantastic. for the past week it’s been noticeably cool instead of boring old perfect like always. still sunny, just cooler, and more autumny, which is so nice after about 6 months of absolutely constant lack of weather variation. i’m liking it a lot and it’s making me more cheerful.
this weekend is parents’ weekend here at school. exciting, i know. my parents live too far away to come (don’t worry mom, this isn’t me saying my parents don’t love me), so really this has no effect on me. except that today in my asian religions class, a girl had brought her mother and father to class, and the three of them were sitting a couple rows in front of me. this allowed me to make a few observations:
1) i could never bring my parents to class with me. it just would not work. even if it was a huge three hundred student lecture class, and they wouldn’t be that noticeable, i still could never do it. what made me think of this specifically was when the girl’s mother, sitting beside her, put her arm around the girl for a minute and sort of squeezed her shoulder. it’s a normal, motherly sort of thing to do, and it was very brief, but seeing that in a classroom setting was somehow very offputting. but even if nothing like this were to happen, i still couldn’t bring my parents to class with me. not to say that i wouldn’t want them to see what my classes and teachers are like, especially the good ones. i think it would be really great for them to experience what my classes are like; but for that to ever happen, i’m afraid my parents would have to learn to become invisible. it’s just the way things have to be.
2) speaking of experiencing the classroom — i don’t think parents know what it’s like to sit through lectures, in a lot of cases. these two certainly didn’t. bear in mind, this is one of the more interesting, attention-holding lecturers i’ve had at this school, not to mention it only being a 50 minute class. after half an hour, the father began looking at his watch pretty regularly, and both of them looked about as restless as any party-recovering college student on a friday morning after a thursday night. i’d like to see one of my parents, or any parent, go through a week of classes — setting aside the fact they might not know what was going on, just assuming they already knew all the prerequisite course material — and see how really unbearable it can be sometimes. maybe it would make them appreciate more that college isn’t always very fun at all.
3) (and this one isn’t quite as lofty as the previous two) parents usually don’t really know how to dress casually and still have any sort of style. i think they get used to dressing business-casual for work purposes, and just give up on the idea of being fully casual but still having any fashion sense. this isn’t a harsh critique; you kind of have to love a dad sitting two rows in front of me with a little “Gear For Sport” insignia on the back of his windbreaker, but honestly, when do you think was the last time this guy played any sport? it’s one of those loveable but baffling things about parents that i’m not looking forward to falling victim to if ever i become one. it sounds judgmental, but don’t hate me. i’m only saying it because it makes me smile, not because i think it’s bad.
the best video ever made is gone. if you missed out, i’m sorry, but it was there for almost two weeks.
but i like the idea of posting stuff i think is especially good, so for now i’m gonna post a song i can’t stop listening to. now it’s somewhat embarrassing to have to admit, but i had never really listened to sunny day real estate, only heard of them as one of those bands i should have already known all about. at least i’m being honest here. but i finally checked them out and although it’s too bad i’ve missed out so far, i decided that this way i get to “discover” this great band out of nowhere and have something new to listen to that blows my mind. this song does that especially lately. of course, most of you probably already have the cd or are over them by now, and that’s fine. i’ll just listen myself and be glad that i’m that much more informed musically — finally.
this rocks my world. new songs new songs new songs. truly exciting.
to compensate for yesterday, i totally owned my marketing midterm today. that test was my little marketing manservant and i abused it properly. so at least one of the two will bring back a good grade. i feel better.
i had to go to the post office today. and boy, do i love the post office. i get to stand in line for a nice long time not just listening to music (i always go equipped with headphones), but seeing a nice collection of people stand around being impatient, not to mention experience the delightful customer relations of the local postal workers. it’s a lot of fun, and luckily average wait time is something like 45 minutes, so the fun just goes on and on! the post office is not without its irony, however, because the one time the television set in the corner was showing batman beyond (exceptional cartoon), i didn’t get to see the end because of the ill-timed availability of a post office teller. it was a riveting episode about the nerd at school who used a large robot bodysuit to get revenge on people that picked on him, hence becoming a bully himself, and i never found out how batman foiled his reign of terror. drat.
today was good though because it wasn’t at all like i said. i only waited for maybe five minutes tops, and all they were showing on the television was news. this way, everybody wins.
i found out from a link at biscuit city road fan club (which is now residing at your left) that if i were a robot from blade runner, i’d be roy batty. i am pleased with this verdict. and slatch is a good blog.
give me more life.
i didn’t do as well as i would have liked on the test today, i’m guessing. we’ll see for sure next week. i’m blaming my poor performance on my roommate beating me twice last night at video games in two separate first-to-eight punch and kick battles. at least today after i came home and told him it was his fault i’m not going to get a good grade, i promptly challenged him to a rematch, winning 8-5 and reclaimed the title. things have a way of evening out like that, it would seem.
now i get to study for ANOTHER midterm for tomorrow, this time in marketing! grand!