Sunday, July 31st
Daria
In an effort to post more often, I'm going to post right now.
I know a while back I said I was going to update the look/feel of the website for our 3rd birthday, but I decided why bother. I'd be making a major visual overhaul that would take a lot of time just for the sake of doing an even bigger overhaul for the new blog next year. Plus I really like the layout the way it is now.
However, I do think I know what the new blog will be. I'm thinkin' of going with some sort of elevator-motif. The new one'll be the -ground floor- with all the extra pictures and stuff a couple of -stories up- and I'll keep the ol' BrakBlog in the basement so you can come relive the glory days whenever you want.
Just a thought. I'd like any feedback you've got though.
My schedule for school came in the mail yesterday. It looks like this:
Sem. 1
AP Gov't
AP Calc
AP Lit
Hon. Physics
Study Hall
TA Debate
Adv. Debate
Sem. 2
Living Faith (replaced the less popular Dead Faith)
AP Calc
AP Lit
Hon. Physics
Catholic Social Teachings (replaced the less applicable Tao Priest Daily Seminar/Luncheon)
Video Production
Forensics
So. Senior year really is as empty as they claim. I could have taken another science, like AP Bio. I could have kept taking German with the new Deutche Schuler, but nein. I mean no. I won't. I normally enjoy myself at school more than I should, but I'm going to take it to the extreme 2nd semester and not do a damn thing all day.
Saddly, this is going to have to change though. No fuckin' way they're sticking me in study hall. I want my damn psychology credit. Also Mr. Creach is my homeroom teacher, and he always seemed pretty with it. Then again Ms. DeTray was with it too, but the people in that period still made it f-ing unbearable.
All this thought of school has kinda got me excited for it. Not a lot, but certainly a little, mostly for physics. ALSO: My locker combination is the exact date the the Deparment of Defense was established. Is that ominous or what?
I started reading Jane Eyre and I actually hate it a lot less than I thought I would. Sure, it's no Thorn Birds or Illustrated Guide to Episode II: Attack of the Clones, but it doesn't totally suck. Now if only I could get started on that math packet...
We filmed the first scene of [Waking Up] in a Wendy's two days ago. It took us forever but I think it's coming along quite well.
Yesterday I helped my uncle Jim mow his lawn out at his new house in the boonies of Missouri. The house is actually going to be pretty nice, but jesus-god would I get sick of mowing that lawn. He also gave me this really fast processor. That doesn't work in my motherboard. So I'll get a new motherboard. That's going to need a new power supply. Ok fine. Also your old memory won't work. FINE. And you should probably change out that lame beige case too. FUCK. So to do anything usefull with my processor I'm going to need about 280 dollars.
I was also looking into getting a digital camera for around 180 so I can have more picture-blogs like the last one, but with this new computer thing, and my... lego-problem... I have no idea where I'm going to get all this money from.
I'm probably going to start going in to work a lot earlier or
kill a prostitute or something.
Just a thought. I'd like any feedback you've got though.
Going up, Cowboy?
As was prophesized by Tom at 12:44 AM CST
[Unique Link]
Friday, July 29th
Where Soul Meets Body
Rachel Klem, I salute you.
I think that's the most photogenic I've ever been.
Here's another:
She's on vacation, so I can embaress her.
Shaaaaaaaaa-wing.
I'm done with pictures now.
I got a new lego set the other day, it's of the ARC-170 from Revenge of the Sith.
Seriously, done with pictures now. But that thing is totally worth every penny I paid (all four million of them). Three clone guys, a droid, and the ship- oh. I can't even communicate the level of awesomeness it posesses.
I need more legos. And more time.
The other day I had to go to church to do candles. This basically means me and Erin have to cover for this job my mom volunteered for and now can't do becuase she's working more. This task entails changing out 80-some-odd votive candles, and 4 or 5 big ones. I hate this job and I hate candles. I got so mad trying to get the silver top thing off of one of the big candles that I threw it onto the ground. The silver thing came off fine. I did it with the next. It worked again. before I knew it I was throwing expensive silver onto the ground in a rather angry nature.
I'm hoping I get banned from doing candles.
Erin's taking a driver's education course. I have to take her. I feel like a driving zombie getting up at 8 am for the little 7 minute ride there. On the way back I roll the windows down and blast oldies to keep myself awake. Sometimes though I think back to my driver's ed days. I remembered how terrible of a driver I was then. And then I realize that I'm still a bad driver now, only in different and more intentional ways.
Example:
You're supposed to turn the wheel "hand over hand". I turn the car by grabbing the wheel, and spinning it like the wheel on the price is right, and hitting the gas. It's awesome.
Speaking of roads though... they've torn up my entire neighborhood.
I swear it's a conspiracy just to inconvenience me on my way to work.
Laura Thomas mentioned that she was looking at a college in chicago (where I am also school-looking) and we had the following conversation:
Daemon1330: You should do the chicago thing. we could hang out and ride the public transportation system.
ladybug7685: haha that'd be fun...ridin' the l
Daemon1330:
Tom and Laura's Chicago adventure:
Us riding the el.
Us at the sears tower.
Us in south Chicago.
Us getting shot at.
Laura leaving Tom for dead on a street corner.
I know this has been kinda disjointed, but I'm feeling weird and putting off doing more work for Waking Up, but there was the blog and it's numerous illustrations and failing attempts to entertain.
Cowboys prefer pictures.
And shotguns.
But mostly pictures.
As was prophesized by Tom at 01:14 AM CST
[Unique Link]
Wednesday, July 27th
Blog's 3rd Birthday
Greetings and salutations.
Recently I've been quite busy just keeping up with work and college applications/visits/summer reading. None of which are that fun. Somehow though, I, with considerable help, have been able to scrounge together a cast for my movie. We have a little under a month now to complete principal photography before school starts, but I think it's do-able. For more information, see the page regarding [Waking Up], which I recently (today) redesigned and updated.
In other news, the blog is three years old! Houray!
Seeing as how I spent most of the day working on the Waking Up site, I'm really not up for any more typing. I'll have something new by the end of this week though.
As was prophesized by Tom at 06:42 PM CST
[Unique Link]
Monday, July 4th
The Only Living Boy in New York
I was balancing my bank account (yuck. a months worth of spending) and for some odd reason today I came up 100 dollars short. I went back and checked the statement... Midphase billed me automatically for 95.40$. So guess what? The Brak Blog is going to keep going for another year.
I can tell you're all just bursting with excitement.
Towards the end of this month (July 24th) we'll be celebrating our two-year anniversary on this server, 3 year aniversery of the blog as a whole. I’m going to try to revamp the look of the site by then, and it’ll be a taste of what’s going to happen next. I’ve always said that the BrakBlog was strictly a high school experiment/success/failure, and that I’m going to do similar but distinctly different things afterward. The next, and presumably final re-vamp is going to be the testing grounds for my blogging beyond high school.
I just got back from Chicago where we were up looking at colleges. I’ll get to that at a later date though. I didn't figure out the topic of this blog though until midway through the drive home from the airport. We were talking on the way back about how creepy this one guy was on the subway that was bothering people for change. That kinda made the mass transit thing less cool. I then remembered having to trek through a crappy part of town to get to the University of Chicago. I also remembered my dad talking about how the Cubs hadn't won a world series in the crap of ever. It then occurred to me that Chicago's not that great of a city. And neither is New York. And neither is L.A., or Houston, or Philadelphia, or Kansas City for that mater. After the initial grandeur wears off, you’ve just got a bunch of big buildings, tourist attractions, strip malls, and poverty.
Everywhere pretty much is not that awesome. And don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't enjoy going to all those places, because I did. But there's something wrong with every damn town in this country, and probably on this planet. I noticed with Chicago though that people were still having a good time. People still wore Cubs shirts, and people still rode the elevated train. People in New York ignore the honking, and people in L.A. get over the gang violence, and people in Houston get over living in Texas, and people in Philadelphia get over the fact that their downtown makes one want to induce vomiting. And people in KC get over the fact that that the inner city is having its life sucked out by the 'burbs.
People get over these things because they love their homes. Example: I don't mind the potholes all down Wornall road, but I'll bet Lizz does. Lizz doesn't mind living in the suburbs with cookie cutter houses, but it drives me nuts. It’s something about where you were raised. There's something to be said for that bond that you forge with your home turf; that no mater what happens to it or what anyone says about it, you're still going to love it. You'll love it in spite of its glaring imperfections simply because you're so comfortable with it. Familiarity breeds attachment.
On the more human level, the same can be said for your family. On this past trip I got annoyed with my parents and sister almost hourly. Sometimes I even got angry. (In all honesty, only about 50% of that was probably justified) And yet still on that drive home I realized I love them a lot. I spent the past two days reading Death of a Salesman where the protagonist Willy fights with his son Biff for about half of the play. I fight with my dad a lot. I fight with my mom less. I fight with my sister least of all now that we have kind of come to understand each other. I expect that when/if I have kids eventually, I'll come to fully understand my parents. I love them all though, and I know that, despite the fact that I can be and usually am the biggest ass around (and more recently not around), they love me back.
That's family.
Like your hometown.
Flawed beyond oblivion, but so important it's like they're a part of you.
I don’t understand that at all. Imagine though that you were able to capture that type of bonding energy, and apply it to other stuff. Imagine being able to honestly trust a total stranger with your life. Why are we all so suspicious of one another? Inherently we are fearful. What if we were all inherently trusting? I don’t know. I suppose that’s what makes loneliness so terrible. The feeling that you’ve lost that bond with any of your fellow humans has to be devastating.
I’m not trying to get you down or anything. Promise.
But I honestly think people do not think enough today. If we all thought more about the repercussions of our actions, entirely considering all of their effects, I think we’d all be better off.
In any case, I’m rambling. I’ll just close in saying that I’m continually amazed by how little I understand about this world and these people in it. If you’ve got any additional insight, I’d love to hear it.
[And if anyone’s seen my debate box, I’m looking for it.]
Cowboys hardly ever see their families.
In all honesty it's kind of a crappy gig.
[P.S.: When I get the rolls of film from the trip developed I'll actually give you a whole run-down of the lighter and more entertaining points of Chicago]
As was prophesized by Tom at 12:33 AM CST
[Unique Link]