Star bringing yorbel

Well, I graduated today. Got some money from relatives. Still haven't finished packing, but I have started the sketching process for the next animation I'm doing (see previous post). I plan on staying up all night, as I find it very difficult to sleep only a couple of hours, and I must away to the ATL at 5:30 tomorrow morning. My plane leaves at 8:35 (!). Hopefully I'll sleep on the plane, as we start driving on the Alcan immediately.

Okay, but graduation. It was good. I graduated Summa Big Honor. Our valedictorian actually had an interesting message. Shirley Franklin, the mayor of Atlanta, was the guest speaker. As with most speakers, her words were mostly fluff, but sincere enough, I guess. The thing seemed to go pretty quickly until after I had received my diploma. Then it dragged on and on. We had about 300 people graduate. I'm sure some of you out there might say "Feh. That's nothing. My school's super huge." May be. Whatever. I was still bored. Somebody brought a couple of beach balls and blew them up and they were bounced around the graduating class for a while. At the end, when we were standing up, waiting to go, they started throwing one with a smiley face on it around again. It came towards me, so I hit it. It landed on a girl's head some ways in front of me, knocking her cap (and, I believe, her glasses) off. A guy two seats to the right of me said "Hey, that's my girlfriend!" I shrugged and said sorry. About three minutes later, someone hit the ball and it landed on the same girl's head, again knocking her cap and glasses off! Fuh-nee.

Oh well, the packing time, she comes.

Bustin' makes me feel good!

Well, I've been packing a bit for my trip to Alaska. I'm bringing about 15 books or so, my DVD/VCR system, a buncha sweet DVDs, my CD collection, all that gear I mentioned last time (and what I had before), a buncha clothes, maybe a nice big jacket (if it'll fit), my thermal underwear, my brand spankin' new digital camera (thanks mom and stepdad), my video camera, my rare Taco Bell for-kids-under-3 Yoda figurine, a couple a' my Kinder Surprise toys (yes, one of them is somewhat racist), Pete (a little ducky my last girlfriend, Nina, gave me years and years ago--he's so cute I can't stand to put him away), all the new clothes I just bought for my work uniform (white shirts, black pants, 5 pair of black socks), my Flash animation software (if I can find the stupid disc for it), my new (though actually about ten years old) Morph 2.5 software, towels, toiletries, um...and a pad of paper to sketch on. And I'll definitely be bringing a fresh box of parentheses with me. I've just about used up all the ones I have here.

I do plan on making another animation this summer, completely for fun. This past January, I came back to the United States from Berlin--as I was going through customs, my dad, little brother, and Nina were all waiting for me. Now, my little brother, Jonah, is 5 years old. Waiting for 3 hours in an airport can be torture--for those who have to watch such a one. Well, Nina devised the idea of getting Jonah to write some stories of his own, just to keep his mind occupied and keep him sitting in one spot. Well, for what the stories lack in plot and character development, and overall making sense, they make up very well in being absurdly random and hilarious. In fact, here's one of them (the better of the two, in this blogger's humble opinion):

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who lived with his friend. Then some soldiers came along to help them get to the castle. Then three ninjas came along and then some men who were on fire (but the fire didn't hurt them. That was their super power.) Then another super power man came named Superman. Then Superhero Static Shock came along and then ten soldiers came. Then five geniuses came. Then six sailors came. Then the king came. He was a grown up king. Then there was a wall. They all had to climb up to the top of the wall to get over it. They found a trail of clothes leading to a boat. One of the sailors drove the boat. Then they came to an island with thousands of geniuses. There were labs and all sorts of genius stuff and robots. There was every kind of robot. There was one robot that was left out of the games. It was a helping robot. Then he ran away because everyone was being mean to him. The helping robot helped the other people who came to the island by boat. He helped the sailors. Then they sailed off and went to a kid's house at an island. They met some friends at that island, and they got the little boy out of the house. There came an aqua man. He was the fire man's brother. They they all sailed off. There was a big storm that hit them. There was lightning! Then some people tried to get on the boat and they jumped on. They all went home and ate snacks. They they went back to their boat and went to a French island. The end.

Now, don't steal that or nuthin'. I'm planning on making a cartoon out of it. Though it really upset my brother when we laughed at the story, this thing would be pure internet cartoon gold. I'm sure it won't hold a flame to Numa Numa, but I think that the randomness of it is right up there with How to Kill a Mockingbird. I plan to give the animation to my little brother for his birthday. I think it would be neat at least every couple of years to have my little brother write a story, and I make a cartoon for it. It would be really cool, years later, to look back on them and see how both his story-writing skills, and my animation skills, developed over time. So, the paper pad is for sketches for this animation. Though I have no idea if I'll have any sort of scanner access up there in the AK. I'd hate to have to mail all my sketches home just so my mom can scan them and email me the files.

Oh, by the way, I graduate later today. Finally. I found out that I'm actually not Summa Cum Laude, I'm just a Magna. Though there are about 20 people in my class who are Summa. Grade point averages aren't the most important things in life, though. Oh, no. There's also the new Garbage Pail Kids stickers I just bought yesterday. But seriously, a few months from now, no one is going to give a single crap about what my GPA was. Especially not me.

Finality

Well, there you have it. The animation is not exactly finished yet, as I still have to put in the credits at the end, and work out a few of the more minor technical details, but aside from that, I'm done! Done done done done done. Did I mention I'm done?

Yesterday I rode out to Lawrenceville to spend some time with my friends Chris and Wes. Chris is the guy with whom I'll be riding out to Alaska from Colorado starting May 1st. Which reminds me, I need to purchase a plane ticket to get to Colorado. I suppose anyone who reads this knows me already, but to any potential passersby, I'm in Georgia. We hung out, ate at Mellow Mushroom, which is the best pizza place around, in my opinion. The restaurant in L-ville isn't near as nice on the inside as the one in Chattanooga, but the pizza was still superb. Then, we went to the REI store that's a ways south of Lawrenceville on I-85 to pick up some backpacking gear. I bought a wonderful 20-degree Cat's Meow sleeping bag (Chris was jealous), a Petzl headlamp, a Nalgene, gaiters, a breathable shirt, rain pants, an extra pair of socks and sock liners, and a sleeping pad. I think that was it. Cost me around $440, but hey, it's well worth it. We're going to try to camp out most of the time during our 5-6 day trip on the Alcan highway rather than stay at hotels. Plus, we plan on doing all sorts of stuff once we're up there. I mean, we plan on climbing all the way up Mt. McKinley, and that's just for the first week. But seriously, I'm going to get a ton of use out of what I bought, even outside of actual hiking/backpacking/camping. I'm looking forward to it, for the most part at least. It's going to be weird, and it's one of those things where you don't feel fully confident in your decision to do it, but there's nothing else really calling your name. Don't worry, though, I'll still post here when I can and want to. I just learned from a cross-section of my demographic today that chronicles of activities I do and adventures I have might be well received if posted to the blog (said cross-section usually goes by the name of Katie). I'll do what I can.

Lastly for tonight, my current favorite Firesign Theatre quote comes from the latest album I just bought (see earlier post). The scene is an auction for a soldier's uniform, and the auctioneer says "What do I hear for this?" A voice in the audience yells out "That's metaphysically absurd, man! How do I know what you hear?" Golden.

Good times, Part Deux

Earlier this semester, I took the German exit exam, as I'm a German major. I made a 97 or 98 %, something like that. I was pretty stoked about that then. But wow, let me tell you. I just found out from my friend Deb that I did better than the German major who is actually a native German speaker.

I don't know what to think. I mean, sure, I spent last semester in Berlin. But man, she's a native speaker! I can't believe it. Maybe I did better on the small section that involved questions about German culture, society, government, and history. I find that I tend to play down my achievements, though, find some hole to poke in whatever argument says that I'm smart. That's mostly because it seems that, whenever people realize that I tend to do superbly in academic areas, they put me on a level above them. They'll say, "Man, you're a genius." And I'll usually think "Man, I wish I weren't defined by that." Intelligence is not the greatest thing one can have in life. The past couple of years have taught me that social support is often much more desirable and beneficial than smarts. I mean, my term papers, diplomas, and academic achievement awards aren't going to come to my funeral. My tombstone won't list my GPA. When I'm dead and gone, no one is going to care how much I knew. I want to have left a positive impact on people's lives. The real trick is putting all that I've learned to use for achieving that purpose.

Speaking of my friend Deb, I just watched her sing with the Berry College Gospel Choir. I really didn't expect it to be as wonderful as it was. Definitely the high point of my week. These people aren't just a singing group, they're a ministry as well. In fact, I should say that the other way around, as the ministry part is their main focus. And minister they did. Man, it's really what I've been needing. I really felt my heart warm to God. Praise music is wildly contagious when done well and sincerely, like these people do. We were all up and clapping toward the end. I left the performance feeling uplifted and encouraged and in a praiseful attitude that I think I've been seriously lacking for the past while. I would go to the church on campus tomorrow morning to hear them again, except for the fact that tomorrow is my last Sunday here for about four months, and I want to say goodbye to the folks at my home church. It's probably goodbye forever, as I plan on finding a new church when I come back home. I think I'll let my membership stay, though. There's no way I can see to get rid of it without hurting a lot of feelings.

Speaking of contagious things, there are many games to which I have, in the past, become addicted. My favorite game of all, though, and the one I play most often, is called "Get Rid of the Spyware". Recently it's been ISTsvc and Apropos. Nasty buggers, those. I can't get rid of them completely, which means that they're the hardest ones I've dealt with yet.

Good times!

Well, I took both my finals today. I didn't do nearly as well on them as I had on previous tests for those classes, so that's sort of a sad way to end my college career. Hey, at least the animation thing is going all right. Aside from still having to do at least two full day's worth of work on it, I'm figuring out the last very important things that need to be set up to make all the sounds work correctly. The only sounds involved are Josh narrating the whole thing. It's getting pretty enormous. If you listen to the thing the whole way through, it's about twenty minutes. The way we have it set up, you could breeze through it just to watch the animations in about five minutes. So, understandably, I want to install some buttons that turn the narration on and off. I'm sure that the program can do that, but I don't know how. Luckily, I've found a way around it by making buttons that tell the animation to jump to different frames where the sound isn't playing. Hopefully it will work, though I really have no idea. It's going to be very repetitive work, and I'm not looking completely forward to it. However, as writer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (chick-sent-me-high) once said, "Consuming culture is never as rewarding as producing it." I find that a very true statement.

Oooh! Sweet! I just found an option where I can create a button that has the power to "Stop all sounds". Looks like I'm set. I'm sure most of you have no idea what I mean by a lot of this, but you'll see soon enough...hopefully. Sorry if this post might be somewhat boring to most of you. Used to, when I would have all sorts of thoughts like this running through my head, I would develop the need to tell someone everything that was going on. My last girlfriend is the person I used to unload all my thoughts on, but since we broke up nearly two months ago, this blog is a nice outlet. It's always nice to have someone to talk to. So, there you go, there's another of the reasons I'm doing a blog. I'm so used to having someone to talk to, that it was hard to give that opportunity up. The blog has provided me with a means of unloading my thoughts. Now, with the internet, I can talk to nobody, but potentially everybody, with a blog! Oh, the miracles of the modern world.

I don't know where I'm to find someone who'll host this animation when I'm done. With all the sound in it, it's already topped 2 MB. Anyways, here's a picture of part of it, if anyone's interested.



This is just one scene, and it doesn't even have the text yet, but it's there, it's nearing completion. This is the hunter from the story I published links to yesterday, in his bedroom discovering that there indeed was gold under them thar' pillows, just as the ugly old woman told him there would be. I know it's anachronistic, but there's a poster of Die Aerzte on the wall, too. I know that this is pretty insubstantial so far, but if anyone has any sort of comments on it, please let me know.

Finals

I just now noticed in my last post that I exhorted y'all to be forewarned about the Superman covers site twice in the same sentence. Looks like I need a trip to the Center for Redundancy Center.

Oh, today I've already taken one final, and there's another a-comin' at 1:30 today. Then, I work towards getting the animation finished that we've been working on. Have I mentioned that yet? My buddy Josh and I are making an animation as an independent German study project. We're parodying (sort of) a Grimm's fairy tale. It's a lesser known one, called Der Krautesel (Donkey Cabbages is the best translation of the name I've seen yet). Go read it...trust me, you'll want to, because I'm going to post a link to the animation here when we're done, and you'll want to know what's going on when you watch it...especially if you don't know any German, you losers. Er, I mean, Verlierer!

And now, to quote Doug from MTV's The State,
I'm outta heeeeeeeeee-rrrrrrrrrre!

Don't worry; you wouldn't understand.

We hate money!

This image comes from a website that showcases some really, really weird Superman comic book covers primarily from the 60s and 70s. Sexism, racism, friend-killing, and unintentional innuendos abound. Be forewarned, the commentary (and the site name itself) include some vulgarity, so be forewarned. But seriously, some of these covers are an absolute hoot. Come to think of it, they're a rootin' shootin' Teuton hoot.

And while we're not on the subject, I want to mention my thoughts about the new Pope. I really don't have that many, as I'm not Catholic (though I am Christian). But, the truth of the matter is, this guy I've never heard about before is now a world leader of a sort, and a religious leader at that. I realize the potential impact he will have on the world in which I live. Also, it's weird to think there's a new Pope. I mean, I had been expecting John Paul to pass away at some point, but he's been sort of a fixture of the world I know, even if he only occasionally shows up in my consciousness in the form of a joke about his Popemobile, or that really stupid sketch on The State ("Hey! I'm-a da Pope-a!"). I know that as far as my life goes, there are many more and larger changes that I face in the next months and years ahead. But still, it's weird to think that, not only is John Paul no longer with us, but there's some other guy in his place. I tell you this, he's got a tough act to follow. And if I feel that, I can imagine that feeling is about a million times stronger in the worldwide Catholic community.

Translation

Just a funny thought...funny to me, anyway. This past weekend, I drove down to Emory University in Atlanta to watch a couple of movies for the term paper in my German Film class, Der Untertan (The Kaiser's Lackey) and Die Rotation (The Rotation). They were both done by director Wolfgang Staudte (who wrote 'em, too), and are part of a trilogy of Vergangenheitsbewältigung films (coming to terms with the past, namely the recent Nazi past) which also included Die Mörder sind unter uns (The Murderers Are among Us). They're all interesting movies, and Der Untertan is even pretty funny.

The one thing I find funny about Der Untertan when I saw it this time around had nothing to with the story, or characters, or any particular scenes. It was with the translation. It's a wonderful translation, done, I believe, by those wonderfully fluent people up at the University of Minnesota. In one scene, Diedrich Heßling has just joined the Neo-Teutons. He's at a drinking party, and all the other Neo-Teutons are asking him to toast with them. He feels socially pressured to say all sorts of things praising the Neo-Teutons. In the translation, one of those phrases of praise was translated into "Rootin' shootin' Teutons!" Man, if only there were some situation in life where I could just bust out with that phrase, my life would be nearly complete.

Actually, I'm writing the aforementioned term paper right now. Well, taking a little-needed break from it, I guess, to share with everyone what I found funny about the movie. I honestly believe that many, many funny things are going to die with me and never make it into anyone else's head. That's why I feel compelled to publish them here. Or something like that. Whatever. It's justified for me to waste ten minutes from my paper to tell you that "Rootin' shootin' Teutons!" is the funniest thing since sliced bread's stand-up comedy tour. But listen. I've got a paper to write. Go read someone else's blog now, why don't you.

Speaking of life being more complete, I finally got the third album Firesign Theatre ever put out today. It's titled Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand me the Pliers, and I believe that the first four albums are more inter-connected than any of the other ones, so I'm pretty dang happy. Not to mention, also, that tomorrow is my last day of classes at Berry College FOR FRIGGING EVER. Oops, I guess I did just mention it. I don't know what to think about that, though, really. Anyways. Back to the paper again! Hoohah!

Death and Taxes...isn't that redundant?

Taxes are so much fun. Whoo! Hey, Berlin friends, how did y'all have to do your taxes? Any problems? I'm taking a small break from mine right now. I had some small trouble, in that I am completely unable to find a copy of my 2003 return. Luckily, Rome has an IRS Taxpayer Assistance center, and the nice woman there gave me the phone number of the automated IRS service. It was very painless, and I got to listen to some nice classical music while I was on hold. It's a good thing I really like classical music, I guess. The woman I talked to (I wish I could remember her name) was able to give me all the numbers I'll need to report on this year's return. She's even sending me a transcript of the information (I would have asked for an actual copy of my return from last year, but those cost a whopping $39.99). So, it's all working out well, and it appears I'll probably need to shell out a few hundred again, though I really shouldn't have to.

Here's what bugs me. Since last year, colleges and universities have been required to put scholarship amounts and the amount of tuition billed to students on the 1098-T (Tuition statement) forms. However, they are not required to list the payments received by the college for tuition. That means that, if you put all your stuff into one of those online forms at an online tax service site, it counts all of your scholarships as earned income, without deducting the amount they billed you. And that's not too cool for me, given that I receive numerous scholarships. For instance, the total amount of scholarships I received was $19,881. So, my total adjusted gross income, as far as ESmartTax is concerned, would be $24,371. I friggin' wish! So, understandably, I don't use www.esmarttax.com's services. I deduct the tuition billed myself. However, that still means that I have to count $4,151 of that money as earned income. You could argue that I earned it by being such a smart cookie and making good grades and good standardized test scores my entire life. But most of that $4,151, I can assure you, went to student housing, meals, and my housing while in Berlin. None of those costs count as "required" college expenses. Though, really, at some colleges, part of the degree requirement is that you live on campus for a certain amount of time (I was exempt from this, living 13 miles south of my college's campus). And at my college, you're required to have a meal plan if you live on campus. And you're always required to buy books; I, in fact, did, with my left-over scholarship money most semesters. I mean, my parents get to deduct the cost of my textbooks because I'm their dependent, but I don't! Why? Because it was my money and I was required to give it up, I feel wronged. I'm being taxed for over $4,000 more than what I worked for, and I never saw, much less touched or spent, most of it. Because of this, my earned income is almost doubled, and I'll have to actually pay taxes; otherwise they would be giving me money.

Eh, perhaps I don't have much right to complain. I mean, I did pocket a lot of the extra scholarship money I got my first year of college. Besides, I'm getting a presidential scholarship which pays my entire tuition costs. It should be no big deal that I have to pay a little. That part I don't mind so much. But the fact that the amount of tuition payed isn't listed on the 1098-T form irks me, though. Maybe I'll discuss that fact with my college's business office. If that can be fixed, it may help a lot of other students. I'm all about pestering people to make necessary changes in crap like that.

Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?

I don't dare attempt to answer the question about the porridge bird and his hypothetical egg, but I do wish to tell you of the question's origin. It's a line (and a pivotal plot device) in an album by the Firesign Theatre titled I Think We're All Bozos on this Bus. The Firesign Theatre is a group of four (or five, so they say, but I don't believe them) guys with a very (and I do mean very!) unique comedic style. They've been around since 1968, and I discovered them in 1999 or 2000. Of their 20-something albums, I own 5, which I have listened to more times than I can tell without you thinking I'm a total dork (which I am, but I don't want you to know that yet). I really want to describe this group to you, but I find it hard to start. Their stuff can be pretty confusing and hard to put a label to. Here, I'll give you a quote from their website:

The Firesign Theatre is probably best described, if it can be described at all, as an audio-based production group specializing in unique, multi-media form of non-linear comedy. The troupe has undertaken film-making, book-writing, television, radio and stage productions. Some twenty-plus record albums, three films, three television specials, two books and innumerable radio programs have been the result.

That pretty much sums it up, but at the same time it doesn't. Let's take that phrase "unique, multi-media form of non-linear comedy" and run with it, shall we? The multi-media part doesn't necessarily mean different forms of media, really. It's very unique, though. They use what I would call "layering". That means that, aside from the main dialogue of their spoken comedy, there is a rich variety of background tracks. You've got sound effects to set the place, which are often done by the guys. The background is filled with running jokes, supplemental jokes (supplemental to what's going on), puns, music, nature sounds. The multi-media part applies because often you are to assume that one of the tracks (or the whole album, in some cases) is television or radio, which really changes the way you picture what's going on. Many of their older albums had to be played on quadrophonic systems (4 speakers). They truly create a landscape in their albums with sound, making you feel like there's a real world there. For instance, in a scene from the album pictured above, the Babe character is driving along in his new car. In his world, road signs and billboards talk to you as you drive by. Firesign creates here the feel of a Doppler effect. As the signs are talking, the audio track moves from one speaker to the other, while the main dialogue stays on both speakers--it really feels as though you were passing by the signs.

Now, for the non-linear comedy part. It becomes somewhat linear after you've listened to it a few times. That demands a lot in our short attention span generation, but it's worth it. I remember the first time I listened to one of their albums. I hated it. After a few listens, I got it...well, more of it, if not all of it. They create a whole world in each album, which is wonderful, but comes with its setbacks. It means you have to think, and be able to picture things well. It also means that the world has to be fit into a whole album, which means that there's a lot of talking, and a lot of references to the world itself. It can get pretty dang confusing, because you not only are not a part of the world they put forth, you're also trying to listen to two or three layers of dialogue at once. You pretty much have to know what's going on before you can understand it. Firesign albums are very self-referential. That is, characters pop up on many different albums, certain phrases, concepts, subplots, and jokes keep coming back. That, of course, means listening to many albums to finally understand a little bit more what's going on. Some jokes are started on one album, and ended on another.

There are a ton of hilarious one-liners, puns, parodies, and such, that you can get on the first listen and be amused. But the real gold in these albums is the kind of joke that takes more time, like the self-referential stuff. Not only is there self-reference, but they play on all sorts of stuff that you definitely are not going to notice the first time through. They allude to all kinds of stuff...some of the things I know of so far are Disney, the World's Fair, James Joyce's Ulysses, the Beatles, old western movies, old and new radio programs, Jackie Chan, princess Diana, Zeno's paradox, old war movies, all sorts of history stuff, Elmer's glue, and hundreds of other things, I'm sure. Now, you may be asking "Why are references funny?" Well, in many cases, they involve puns or send-ups of certain trends, or twists on familiar things, but that's not what I like most. Whenever you realize something new on an album, it's the same as finding something secret anywhere else, like the Easter Eggs on a DVD, the extra animations in a Strong Bad email, or the negative level in the original Nintendo Super Mario Bros. game. You feel like you now belong to a secret, exclusive club. You notice something that no one else has, and it makes you more "in the know".

Aside from that, their comedy has a lot of really poignant commentary that still rings very true today. For instance, in their first album Waiting for the Electrician, or Someone Like Him, the first track presents a summary of the colonizing and frontier times of America. When the Spanish meet the Indians, they almost immediately ask, "You got any gold?" The Indians, offering corn, reply "This is gold." The Spanish become ecstatic. "Hey, corn! Now we can make tortillas!" "We been waitin' honnerts of years for this!" "I jees invinnit tacos!" Later, frontiersmen make the observation that "We're in injun territory!" and immediately a salesman-type voice comes on announcing "It's treaty time!" with a backdrop of patriotic music. Another track presents an alternate present, where the counter-culture of the 60s has somehow become the mainstream, where police arrest those who aren't groovy, and Kennedy signs a world peace treaty with the Soviet Sociables Respublik and the Hippie Republic of China. This totally doesn't scratch the surface of what Firesign does, and I'm sure I've got at least 50 more listens to figure out what the crap is really going on. I sense that their jokes and social commentary are as layered as the audio tracks. Their worlds are fun-house mirror-images of our own, which are way too often strikingly familiar.

Okay, this is getting pretty long, and both of you are probably getting tired of reading this. Before I go, I want to admonish you, if you get a chance to hear Firesign, give them a chance and listen to the whole thing. You may find you were happy you did. I also want to let you know who these guys are. Even though I'm sure you've never heard about Firesign (except maybe from me), I'm sure you've seen or heard some of their work apart from the group. Phil Proctor is a voice actor with innumerable credits; he was Howard, Phil and Lil's dad on the Rugrats and the drunk monkey in both Dr. Dolittle movies (his website, also funny, can be found here). Phil Austin was Nick Danger, in- and outside of Firesign albums, and has done voice-overs for Pizza Hut and Nissan (his wife, Oona, has prepared Kellogg's cereals and Taco Bell foods for television viewing as well). David Ossman voiced Cornelius in A Bug's Life and many various characters on The Tick, and also writes poetry, I believe. The only stuff I've seen Peter Bergman do outside of Firesign work was the computer game Pyst, a hilarious parody of Myst. It starred John Goodman as King Mattruss, and I believe I got my copy for under $5 a few years back at EB. I hope I've described them well enough for a post that was way too long. But, it's one of my interests, and you're either reading this because you want to learn about me, or you're slacking off from work, so I hope maybe you've learned something. Otherwise, get back to work!

And hey, somebody comment already on a post or something. I want to know what you think. Also, are y'all clicking on the website links I provide?

Shoot!

I had a really long, really good post all written out...it took me over an hour to do...then I hit the wrong button and now it's gone. Crap. I'll have to do it again later.

By the way, I got that job. I'm not writing anymore today, though. Way too frustrated.

Jitters

Oh man. Interview. In two hours. Oh man. I've never really had a real job interview before. I went to our college's Career Development Center earlier today to bone up on how I need to be prepared. Well, I've got a whole skeleton, and now I need to put some meat on it. And by that I mean they gave me a lot of advice, but now I need to sit down and do a ton of stuff, like prepare my answers to typical interview questions, research the Denali Park Resorts, and figure out which are the main strengths I'm going to sell to try to get this Gift Shop Supervisor job. I have to sell myself well.

Ugh. I just said sell myself.

So, for the no people who read this blog yet, wish me luck, say me a prayer, use your last wish from that genie, and I'll let you know how it went.

Why is a blog, part 4 in a series. Collect 'em all!

Tonight it's because, now that I've gone three days straight posting in my blog, I feel a sense of loyalty, dedication, purpose. The blog is a commitment now. My breast swells with the knowledge that I am doing something consistently, that I can persevere without giving up. There's something to this blog, or I wouldn't have kept at it for four days!

But truthfully, I have nothing to say. It seems so often, and with the most important things in my life, that I often find myself at a loss for words. I still have a buttload of stuff to do tonight: write a short paper for German Film, type up a take-home quiz for Psychology of Women, write up a rough draft of my resume.. In the coming two weeks, I must write a 5-page paper for Interpersonal Relations, write a 10-page paper for German Film, track down a book publisher for an extracurricular project for my Psychology of Women class, read about half a googol of pages' worth of material for classes, take a couple of final exams, finish my Independent Study project, do my taxes, complete the paperwork for my Psychology minor, write a letter to my current church indicating my wish to drop my membership, successfully maneuvre my way through a telephone interview for a job at a park resort in Denali, Alaska (more on that later, too), and go to classes and work at the library at least 15 hours a week. Whooohooo! I know that if I just work hard now, there won't be too much stress. It's just that, whenever the things I have to do pile up, I find myself resting from them before I really start.

Thanks, I really needed to get that off my chest. By the way, here's some of that really awesome online content I was telling you about. Or maybe not. You decide. And if that one didn't do it for you, try this one on for size. Zurück zum Filmreferat!

Disclosure

Along the lines of my "Why is a blog?" thinking is the question of disclosure. How deep (or shallow) a view of my personal life is required for readers of a blog? Should names of friends be mentioned? I foresee a problem...what if my level of disclosure is such that I mention how much something someone did upset me, and they read it here without me having told them? Well, I guess that's a dumb question. I realized even as I was writing the question that such matters shouldn't happen anyway--problems should be resolved as soon as possible with the person(s) involved. I'll try to articulate better the question I think I meant to write. Say something happens to me involving another person, and said person and I have resolved the issue as best we can. But, say the situation involved something very meaningful to me, or say it changed a certain course of events of particular part of my life, or say it provoked some line of meaningful thinking that I wished to share with others...how much do I disclose? Would I mention it? I mean, if said person(s) involved are able to have enough of an effect on my thinking or life that I wish to write about it, then they are probably close enough to me that there's a chance they'll read my blog. I foresee that I will make things vague enough to achieve a balance of disclosure and discreetness. It worries me to think that I will hinder my own thoughts for the sake of others. I mean, I see this as sort of my own journal. That, I suppose, is for me what makes blogs so unique. Forgive me for sounding so profound, but they are viewable journals of a sort. I suppose it's something that I will have to learn as I go. I suppose if I really wanted to have full disclosure of thought, I would just type out my thoughts in some sort of password-protected journal software. But there's a somewhat egoistic part of me that tells me my thoughts are interesting, deep and funny, and that others will enjoy them, learn from them, and wish to read more of them. That, I suppose is part of why I wanted to do this.

To give a reason as to why I'm writing this post right now, it's because I really should be working on about five or six different assignments for the classes I'm taking. For those of you who are curious, I'm a senior German major (and a psychology minor, if I ever do the paperwork) at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. I am set to graduate on April 30 of this year. These are the classes I am taking this semester, in no particular order:
Abnormal Psychology
Psychology of Women
Psychology of Interpersonal Relations
German Film as Refracted History
German Independent Study: German Fairy Tales

Overall, I would say that this has been my favorite semester by far. These are all really awesome classes. I feel I'm really becoming a lot more sensitive to women's issues with my psych. of women class. The interpersonal relations class is absolutely awesome: our professor loves life and has a teaching style that really makes you put your guard down and learn what he's saying. And you can never go wrong with German films (except maybe the Tin Drum). And the abnormal psych. class has shown me where Stephen King got a lot of his character ideas. As for the independent study...more on that later. I promise.

Me am not write post

I remember the first time I read a Superman comic with the Bizarro Superman character in it. I thought it was a pretty cool idea that everything in the Bizarro world was backwards. However, a question arose that has puzzled me ever since. Say, for instance, that in our world, you tell someone "Good morning". What would the Bizarro-world parallel be? "Good night" is just as much the opposite of that as "Bad morning". Or would you negate both aspects of the phrase and say "Bad night"? Or would the oppositeness occur in that someone else wished you a "Good morning" (or, possibly, any of the other alternatives)? I guess there must be a limit to how opposite something can be in Bizarro world, or at least it's only selective. I mean, he was Bizarro Superman, not Subman or anything like that.

Hey, come on, like you never wondered anything remotely like that. I'm just the only one who's brave enough to ask.

What is a blog?

This is a question that I have heard quite a few people ask lately, and one that I myself asked once. Come to think of it, I a lot of times don't ask about things like that. I either go find out the information for myself, or I file away the bits and pieces of info I hear about something until they form a complete picture in my head. Then they all snap together and I say "Whoa! That's what that is/how that works/why that means what it does." Then, of course, everyone looks at me for spouting such random words in public. I think that what weirds them out the most is that I say all the forward slashes. But, okay, I've known for a while what the crap a blog is. But, the idea I've been bouncing around in my head for the past few months (yes, there's that much room in there and I'm that bored, ha ha ha) is, namely, why the crap a blog is. I mean, sure, there may be as many reasons to blog as there are blogs themselves, and the reasons may be as different from one another as are the bloggers. My friend Matt Schneider (who is currently in Berlin) started a blog last semester for the expressed purpose that it was easier than keeping up with friends and family by emailing them. I'm bad at that myself, to some extent. But, can that be my reason? A way to communicate with all my friends at once? I don't know...that sorts of implies I have a lot of close friends. I have a few, to be sure, but not that many...or maybe my perception of how many friends one needs to have to be a happy person is messed up? Maybe I'm a type of person who does better with less, but closer, friends? But, then again, I do have an urge for more friendships, and to achieve being closer with the ones I do have. Some social barriers, real or imagined, can be very hard to overcome. The friend(s) you only ever joke with, the people to whom one may be ill-disposed because of odious personality traits/behaviors. My Interpersonal Relations professor always refers back to a concept he calls "Jerking the Wheel". Imagine the context of any relationship as a road, and the people involved in that relationship as a truck. If that truck always drives in exact the same line upon that road, over time, especially if it's muddy, that road will develop ruts, very strong ruts. Now, the thing to do in that kind of situation is to drive on higher ground, and to push the dirt/mud down into those ruts. However, we often continue the same way we always have, because it's more comfortable and familiar and non-threatening--our "comfort zone", so to speak. Ultimately, in many cases, we continue to drive in those ruts. Eventually, they'll get lower and lower to the point where your truck has sunk so low that it cannot move. The idea, then, is when we find ourselves in these ruts, to "jerk the wheel", to pull the truck back up on the higher ground. This means, as far as interpersonal relationships go, to try something new. Change your attitude, your behaviors, your way of relating. And after almost a semester of hearing that kind of stuff from that professor, I'm still trying to jerk that wheel in many areas. It's harder the farther down in the ruts you get, but I think it's worth it. It requires a lot of attention and work. Unfortunately, being a college student, I'm lazy.
But, really, I guess one of my main reasons for this foray into the Blog Land (I so want to call it that; I always liked how, on old television shows, they would sometimes speak directly to the viewers out there in "TV Land"--which is, of course, the origin of the television channel by the same name--I want to refer to all of those people out there in "Blog Land". And dagnabbit, I'm gonna.) is that I want to answer the question "Why is a blog?" Plus, I think it's good to write journals. I've never really kept one consistently for a long period of time. Maybe this will be a good way to waste time on the computer rather than watching Tunak Tunak for the thirtieth time. I always found it was exciting to write letters to my last girlfriend. I always discovered so much about myself. It's always wonderful to make yourself think your thoughts completely. There are so many thoughts inside of all of us, but we never give them the time to bloom. Hey, maybe I want to let some people in on who I am and how I think. Maybe I want to be able to provide information, wisdom (if that's possible), humor, fun, awareness, shoot, I don't know. Maybe I just think it's neat. Maybe I just want to give a SHOUT OUT to JeSSiPiE!!!!11!11!! w00t! sH3 r0x0Rssz mY BoX0rzzssszsz!!!!!11!!1!!! LOLZomgroflmwfbbqnaacp. But seriously, I don't think I know anyone named JessiPie.
I think I'm going to end this, though. I'm getting tired or something. Stay tuned for future messages, though. I know I will. And can't you people discuss my posts? Neato groovy, man. Though I suppose that it's a bit early for anyone to be doing that, much less reading this post. I don't know when I'm going to get the word out that I have one. Oh well, eventually, then, let me know what you think. Don't be afraid to be honest. My self-esteem is not made of eggshell china. Ooh, that would be pretty cool, though. Not necessarily that it would be made of eggshell china, but that something abstract and intangible like that could be made substantial. Wasn't Dilbert's self-esteem a character for a while?
Hey, so I ramble on and on. So what. I'll put news about me, real thoughts (that is, neat and slash or important thoughts), whatever. I think Matt's blog is pretty cool, just how he'll occasionally mention some neat science thing. Hey, I'll probably even post links to really awesome web content. So, like I said, stay tuned. If you do, it will give me a reason to keep posting.