two.points.collapsing

big weekend. so much has gone on since i was last in class, it seems. like school is such a slight flicker in my big shiny life these days. it’s so much better that way too.

so i have to say, i really love when old friends visit from across the country. because when one person comes all that way, all the people who like her in the near vicinity gather together to cram as much fun as they can into her stay, and everyone benefits. so i spent a lot of time smiling this weekend, directly and indirectly because my dear friend emily came from illinois. also because of a free rx bandits show, a trip to roscoe’s chicken and waffles (drooling…), and so much more. oh, it was good. are you ever walking down the street with a small group of friends, just four bodies in the evening walking and talking, and then catch yourself thinking that yes, these people make your life better? yes, moments like these are the little instants of happiness you measure the rest against? it’s a great time to be in, and i was so pleased to be in it.

and that’s not all. i was up until 6am saturday night. i wasn’t alone. and i’m excited about that. good, good weekend.

too bad i had to semi-spoil a day off work by not making it to the airport on time to drop off my friend. it cut our amoeba trip short and made for a very stressful battle against los angeles traffic. she was uncertain that the airline was obligated to get you on another flight if you missed your original one, and thought she’d have to buy another ticket. she almost had me second-guessing myself in saying they put you on the next available plane, but luckily i was right, i didn’t have to cover any charges due to my irresponsibility, and she got on the next plane okay (i think…i guess i’ll hear from her later).

oh and i decided i do like my morning jacket after all, so i got their cd at amoeba since they didn’t have the cursive cd i wanted. an absolutely acceptable substitution. so hopefully is the song of the week, and i’m gonna make me a sammich.

happy hootin’ and hollerin’ veterens’ day. thank you veterans, for killing in the name of our country and/or giving away your life to the government’s greater scheme.

i’ve been so busy doing nothing it seemed like a shame to interrupt that to go ahead and read or write any blogs. i had a good thing going.

alright that’s not it. i actually did have some work to do this week for once. being a marketing major it was foreign and somewhat frightening, but i got through it. then it rained. it actually rained! it’s still raining right now. in southern california, there is water falling from the sky. it’s fantastic.

last night when it began, i knew i absolutely must go for a walk with a girl in the rain. there was no choice. you don’t get a chance to do that every day here. not even every month. and i hadn’t felt a rain drop in so long, it was a need, not just a whim. so i went ahead and did that and it was pretty damn satisfying. then i had hot cocoa too. splendid.

i’m going to wrap this up because i feel like writing well doesn’t seem to be happening right now. just thought i’d check in though. i’m going to spend the rainy night indoors, hopefully avoiding the college social scene again this weekend. it’s usually best that way.

i did put up a wish list though for anyone getting ready to do some early holiday shopping. i promise if you get me something i’ll get you something back.

[now hearing this: centaur – “wait for the sun” from in streams. it’s nice, and makes a good rain cd.]

i just slept in until 1:23pm on a sunday afternoon. i was in complete disbelief when i woke up and looked at my bedside clock — it had to be an 11 and i just wasn’t seeing straight. but oh no, all the other clocks agreed. i had slept well past the a.m. and into the midday. i’m reconciling that though with having had a great and somewhat exhausting weekend.

see, thursday we had a spectacular halloween party. and we know how to have a halloween party. try taking black plastic tarp and covering the walls and ceiling, then using blacklight paint to draw skulls and bats and other halloweenery over all the walls, and that’s what we’re talking about. none of that pumpkin decals on windows crap. (if you’d like to see the photos, click on the robot house button on the right and go to ‘robotic imagery’ — yes, we refer to our place as robot house). and lots of people came in really great costumes (also viewable in the photos is the costume winner, our roommate dustin). amazing how almost 200 dollars of beverage can be disposed of in a manner of about four hours, but i guess having over a hundred people come through makes it pretty feasible. i had a great time even though my costume — shirt and tie with fake-skin and fake-blood construced bullet hole in the temple, that being “an economist” — didn’t seem to impress or get a laugh out of more than 25 percent of the guests. they just don’t get my dark humor. no one understands me.

friday night i just hung out with some friends, went to dinner, then sat around here with them until about 3:30am when they decided they were too tired to go home and we ended up all crashing here in my room. four people in a full size bed, now that’s a good night. no, i did not sleep next to a guy. two of the four did make pancakes in the morning though so that was a nice bonus.

and last night, oh, sweet dismemberment plan. los angeles crowds are notoriously immovable at shows, so the level of ‘getting down’ in the crowd was not what it might have been, but i didn’t let that stop me; i had a blast. fantastic show. a couple of the new songs they played sounded pretty interesting too, so i’m looking forward to getting them recorded and cleaner sounding so i can make more sense of them.

notice that aside from our own party which was really great and full of friends and fun, i didn’t even need to go out this weekend to have a good time, and how much better that works out in the end. i mean, it was so good i had to sleep until the early afternoon to recuperate, so i’d call it a success. now i get to look forward to laundry and homework, but these are little necessities that aren’t worth moaning about. onward, ho.

[now hearing this: creepy ice-cream-truck looping ‘pop goes the weasel’. this guy comes to our street every freaking day and parks somewhere on the block for about 20 minutes, just waiting and playing that terrible, grating music…oh god why won’t it stop!]

i was reading some news articles today and of course i clicked on the one about how vice city has people all riled up about violence in video games, because i am a nerd. it’s always the same old stuff though, and not really a compelling argument. i got a nice laugh at the article’s closing though, from a guy from the national institute on media and the family named david walsh:

Walsh said he is concerned about how the game will affect kids’ perception of what’s normal in real life.

“It’s not so much the copy cat factor … but kids and teens are in the process of shaping their norms,” Walsh said. “When you kill a prostitute after having sex with her — that’s not something we want boys doing.”

and i agree. it’s just not fair to the prostitutes to be doing that sort of thing.

[now hearing this: an inner ticking that awaits the magical time of friday at 5pm]

my day so far:

7:15a: wake up, get ready, go to school.

8:00a-1:50p: school. pretty boring. although my second class is usually pretty fun because the professor is both smart and amusing, and i sit in the back with a friend of mine who cracks me up sometimes (today being one of those times). our professor said something in jest about throwing a pen at a student, and perfectly synchronized, she and i both ducked our heads as if avoiding a thrown pen. it wouldn’t have been nearly as funny if we didn’t both wait approximately the time it would take a pen to fly across the room and then duck our heads at exactly the same time. pretty amusing.

2:00p: skate into driveway at home after class.

2:10p: pull out of driveway.

2:35p: pull into best buy, go in, look on shelf. no copies of vice city. fuck. turn around to store employee at info desk and see that he is standing next to a plastic crate up to his knee full of copies of the game i was looking for, selling them one by one to a line of four or so guys who came in before me. at this point i think to myself, “i’m glad they knew we were coming.” we being the line of nerdy guys who rush to buy certain highly anticipated video games on the tuesday they are released.

2:40p: pay 43.29 for hours of carnage to come. go sale prices. leave very happy. several people show up in line right behind me for the same game. i start wishing i owned stock in rockstar games.

3:00p: pull into driveway, grab root beer, unwrap and play game. kill people with chainsaw, bludgeon people with 5-iron, flip golf cart, crash motorcycles, listen to killer 80’s music while speeding through virtual streets…smile a lot.

5:15p: break for 20 minutes to walk to gas station and eat a few corn dogs. return to game. smile more.

6:05p: remember i wanted to watch simpsons while i check email and brag on blog about how great this game is even if doing so makes me sound like some sort of “gamer” tool. umm, watch me try to care….wait, i just can’t.

6:45p: get tired of typing. decide it’s time to grab a heineken and head back to vice city. outstanding.

(this part is merely a prediction at this point):

6:45-11:00p play video games until the daily show comes on, interrupted by a few short pauses where i think i should do homework but decide that it can wait until later. or tomorrow. or thursday…

11:30p finish watching tv and decide to read or something before i fall asleep having thoroughly tired out my eyes by staring at a screen all night. go to bed well aware that this will probably be the best day i’ve had out of the last 10. feel perfectly okay with that and sleep well.

[now hearing this: umm, more spoon. i can’t seem to remove this disc from my player. of course i don’t think i’ve tried yet.]

after waiting a week for someone to finally find time to go with me to see bowling for columbine, i made it out to my favorite little theatre tonight and caught the film i’ve been dying to see. now that i have, i couldn’t allow myself to go to sleep until i got on here to spread the word as quickly as possible. you really have to see this movie. it’s not just hilarious, but it’s so full. there’s enough in this film to think about for weeks afterward. yes, weeks. and it’s presented so cleverly. and michael moore, even if i may not agree with him at every turn (being a separte mind and all; there’s no one you can agree with every time), is a really incredible person and filmmaker. you should definitely support him and treat yourself to some savory food for thought. don’t miss it if you have the means. if not, you’re invited to my place for the dvd release party.

[now hearing this: a damn fly buzzing around my room. i hate seeing an insect right before i go to bed. it just makes me think about what might be crawling on me all night while i’m not conscious enough to swat it (or them) away…yech.]

i know it must be hard to imagine, but it has occurred to me that drinking and going to parties every friday and saturday night for the past month really hasn’t made me any happier or brought me any closer to finding someone special. it’s not impossible, in fact, that they’ve made me less happy on several occasions and have only accented the fact that it’s really really hard for me to meet people; and when i do they’re usually nothing to be excited about. that’s not me being arrogant and saying i’m so much better than everyone else. it’s me being frustrated because people matching my taste in potential dates seem to be painfully hard to come by.

people always say that you can’t make it happen and that you always find love when you’re not expecting or looking for it. how much more awful could that be? sure, it’s a nice blissful surprise when it happens. but sitting here racking up the months since a girl has wanted to kiss me . . . i’m not really seeing the benefit of serendipity.

of course certain songs seem to make you feel both better and worse at the same time when you’re in this kind of mood; bringing back memories of the lost ones and rubbing in the lack of present hope. i think we torture ourselves with stuff like this because on some level we like it. maybe it’s a form of self-motivation. i do know that this song from the about a boy soundtrack found its way on a mix i made for my car, and now whenever i’m driving and i hear it i almost want to cry. it’s so simple and beautiful that at least you know some good things come of heartbroken evenings.

so the song of the week is called a minor incident and it’s dedicated to someone.

[now hearing this: spoon – kill the moonlight, which i picked up at their excellent show and which i can’t put away. thought about making “paper tiger” the song of the week, but you all should have this cd already anyway.]

so. it’s friday afternoon and i’m at work. that’s fine. we got free lunch today, which is a big plus. this was the best though:

after a whole soda at lunch, it was time to let those fluids rejoin the water cycle via the mens’ room. it’s a big enough company where we have a public bathroom, not just one like at home. that means, lucky us, urinals! so i’m at urinal #2 (the lower one — injustice!), and some dude with a goatee is at #1 next to me on the other side of the divider. i much prefer mens’s rooms with dividers, by the way.

so apparently goatee dude’s cell phone goes off (must have been on vibrate), because he ANSWERS HIS PHONE WHILE AT THE URINAL. yeah, that’s right.that means he has his drain pipe in one hand, and is talking to someone on his mobile phone with the other. so he’s talking to this person — and this is definitely the best part — and he says, “no, hold on, i don’t have a pen handy…” oh my god i almost laughed right at him. i was washing my hands at this point, trying to stifle my disgust and laughter, and thinking to myself, “maybe he didn’t have a pen handy, but he did have a pen-15 handy…heh heh.” if you know what i mean.

but this is a warning to everyone in the world who i might ever call on the phone. if i telephone you and you’re in the middle of an excretory act, DO NOT ANSWER THE PHONE. i can wait. i can call back. you can call me back later. honestly, nothing is that important. even if i’m dying, i’ll be alright for another 30 seconds. yes, i’m serious. and if perchance you do answer my call while relieving yourself, you should have the heart to tell me what it is you’re doing, so that i can never call you again. ever.

woooo, friday.

[now hearing this: office chatter!]

i keep meaning to post and putting it off. it’s not like i’m busy or anything, what’s the deal?

alright i guess that’s not entirely true. i spent the afternoon writing ads for my class, which it turned out were pretty good based on class reaction to my presentation (laughter, which was the intent), teacher compliments (which are always good), and some personal remarks afterward. maybe i actually found a talent here. maybe everyone else is just really bad and it’s not hard to excel. time will tell.

did i forget to mention we saw spoon last (wednesday) night? well did we ever. i didn’t even own a spoon cd prior to that night, and i’d only heard a smattering of their songs. but they’re good. they’re very good. the show was just right on. i don’t know how else to say it. it was right there. right where it needed to be. kudos to those guys, and i picked up kill the moonlight and i’m enjoying it repeatedly. as an added bonus, standing in the crowd we found ourselves suddenly surrounded by the members of piebald, which was a surprise because they’re from boston so we didn’t know why they would be in LA, but a pleasant one because we love them. being torn between being friendly fans and lame guys that bother them when they’re trying to watch a show, we of course didn’t say anything to them (in hindsight, we should have i think), but maybe it was almost cooler just to be standing next to them thinking, “yeah, those are the guys from one of my favorite bands. pretty cool.”

i mean, my sister likes teen pop stuff. she’ll never get to stand next to one of her favorite singers. and look at me, mingling with rock stars. god, i’m so hot.

[now hearing this: silence. it’s time to get some sleep. but maybe i’ll put that spoon cd on one more time while i brush my teeth…]

i think it’s time for a society-corrupting video game update. i spent some time this morning planning out my attack routes for next tuesday and how exactly i will go about grabbing a copy of vice city as soon as possible. pre-order online? mad dash to retailers after i get out of class? i’m thinking the second one is the better bet. shipping can only delay the process. i’m worried about potential selling out though. this has to be the most anticipated game of the year (yes i know that’s what it says on magazine covers and all that but it’s probably also true besides all that).

i’m aware what a nerd i must sound like and you know what? there’re some nice music and movie-related posts on this page right now too that you can scroll to if you just can’t handle me geeking out. (oh and on that topic, punch-drunk love was pretty odd and not necessarily that great. i classify it in the “movies i’m glad i saw because it was sort of interesting but wouldn’t really feel the need to ever see again because i didn’t exactly enjoy it so very much” category. sorry PTA fans — which, by the way, is a weird thing to be referred to as. if anyone ever called me BML i think i’d walk away and scoff at that person over my shoulder as i left.)

back to nerdy video game stuff though. have you heard about this at all?

maybe if you don’t keep current on upcoming video games or don’t work a job that requires you to (i do both), you might not have heard of this game, bmx xxx. the premise is much like the tony hawk games, only on a bike. you do little missions like collecting stuff and whatnot and pulling tricks. only in this game, you do missions for the characters in the world which include raunchy hot dog vendors, raunchy pimps, raunchy hobos…and so on. oh, and you are rewarded with money which you then use to go to a strip club in the game (featuring real video footage of strippers from the famous strip club ‘scores’ in new york). sound immature and stupid and low brow? what about hilarious and fun? that’s what i thought anyway. apparently certain people disagree, because several major retailers like toys r us and kb toys have decided they’re not going to carry it, and apparently it’s been banned in australia. i didn’t even know they could do that.

so if you’re wondering what i’m going to be doing in late november…well, you can watch a game trailer to find out. i love their tag line at the end.

and did i mention you can customize your bike rider character to be a topless girl? and yes, they bounce. sounds like a reprehensible good time to me.

[now hearing this: the deftones wafting in from across the hall. i bet you didn’t think the deftones could waft, but they can. they sure can.]