Here's a super current events story for you: the school year is almost over! In one and a half weeks, we will all be happily at home rolling in our 12-18 shiny brand new credit-hours. In a week and a half, I don't have to look at my roommates every day. In a week and a half, I can use a real kitchen instead of a microwave, and I'll be allowed to use the charcoal grill that I bought specifically for the purpose of cooking food at college only to be foiled once again by silly rules apparently prohibiting us from having our own cooking devices for fear that we immature 18-19-20 year-olds will burn down all of campus with them. In a week and a half, I can make noise after 10:30 on a weeknight without getting yelled at by an RA (although my parents yelling at me won't be a huge improvement).
Anyway, it's been a great year and all, but I am really looking forward to this summer. I won't get much of a break, though. My last final (a comprehensive test over how many pieces of pizza and cinnamon rolls I can eat in two hours) is May 8, and I will be home just under a week before I pack my bags and head to North Carolina for five and a half weeks to work at a Young Life camp there, making sure high school kids don't kill themselves or cry too much on a ropes course. Then, I'll be home for a few weeks before running off to Minnesota for another week of Young Life camp, this time as a leader for the students at North Posey High School. Then I'll be home for another couple of weeks, and guess what! Another Young Life Camp, this time in New York state, once again on the ropes course for three or four weeks.
In the in-between times, I'm going to be learning how to screenprint t-shirts and Michael Patzer and I are going to be building houses for under $8,000 to get our money from the stimulus package (just kidding... I think), so I've got a pretty full summer planned out. It's going to be a good time.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Back in the Theatre
In high school, I was a theatre guy; I was in every single production that happened in the high school since my sophomore year. The auditorium became my second home, where I would go every single day after school regardless of whether or not there was a production going on at that particular time. I loved the wacky, senseless traditions of the theatre: that people say "Break a leg," instead of "Good luck," that we're never allowed to speak the name of that Shakespeare play about the Scottish king, and the secret, sacred ceremony called "The Brotherhood" that no females are allowed to know about. It gave me something to do, gave me the most ecclectic group of friends ever assembled, and I loved everything about it.
When I got to college, though, I stopped. I didn't even know where the theatre here is until halfway through the spring semester. People would occasionally ask me if I missed it, but I was staying busy, so I never really had time to think about missing it. It's actually sort of sad, knowing that I stopped doing something that I loved so much.
This weekend, I went back to see my high school's production of Beauty and the Beast, as well as another high school's production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Both shows were AMAZING. I made it to Beauty and the Beast just in time to participate in The Brotherhood. It did my heart good to see those folks breaking legs left and right, singing, dancing, and acting all over the stage. I never realized how much I actually do miss it.
Now, of course, the logical thing to do would be simply to get involved with the plays here on campus. I might do that sometime if I get bored with my 18-hour class load next semester, but the plans I have are so much grander. I've tried my hand at acting, and I think I did pretty well, but now I'm going to try my hand at playwriting. That's right, I've decided to pen a play.
I'm still sort of working out the details. I don't have a setting or a plot, characters, or even a good idea of what it's going to be. But rest assured, it's going to be amazing when I get it done. It will be a magnificent, opulent, tremendous, stupendous, gargantuan, bedazzlement (for you Moulin Rouge fans). So watch out for it.
When I got to college, though, I stopped. I didn't even know where the theatre here is until halfway through the spring semester. People would occasionally ask me if I missed it, but I was staying busy, so I never really had time to think about missing it. It's actually sort of sad, knowing that I stopped doing something that I loved so much.
This weekend, I went back to see my high school's production of Beauty and the Beast, as well as another high school's production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Both shows were AMAZING. I made it to Beauty and the Beast just in time to participate in The Brotherhood. It did my heart good to see those folks breaking legs left and right, singing, dancing, and acting all over the stage. I never realized how much I actually do miss it.
Now, of course, the logical thing to do would be simply to get involved with the plays here on campus. I might do that sometime if I get bored with my 18-hour class load next semester, but the plans I have are so much grander. I've tried my hand at acting, and I think I did pretty well, but now I'm going to try my hand at playwriting. That's right, I've decided to pen a play.
I'm still sort of working out the details. I don't have a setting or a plot, characters, or even a good idea of what it's going to be. But rest assured, it's going to be amazing when I get it done. It will be a magnificent, opulent, tremendous, stupendous, gargantuan, bedazzlement (for you Moulin Rouge fans). So watch out for it.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Post-Lent Reflections
Rewind 41 days. It's Fat Tuesday and I was preparing to offer up my Lenten sacrifices. This year for Lent, I decided to go for the gusto and do forty days without my facebook or text messaging. I considered giving up all modes of communication invented since 1900, but the Pony Express went out of business some years back, so that would have pretty much left me out of luck if I needed to communicate anything to anyone more than a mile away.
So facebook was out. It wasn't that difficult; I simply deleted the link to it on my computer and didn't have too much problem staying away from it. I didn't even miss it that much. One of my friends also gave up her facebook for Lent, but she had to have her boyfriend secretly change her password so that she couldn't get it, and she tried several times in vain to hack into it.
Text messaging was a little more difficult, because I didn't actually disable it on my phone, so people would send me text messages all the time, but I couldn't respond to them. Sometimes I cheated a little bit, but only when I really needed to tell someone something, and a call would not be appropriate.
Then, on Easter Sunday (or, if you read my last post, "Holy Sh*t Sunday") I took it all back. I started text messaging again and I logged on to facebook. I spent the next three hours or so just trying to catch up with all the crap that had happened on facebook - 34 friend requests, a bunch of wall posts, 27 messages in the inbox, and about ten thousand different application requests of people throwing sheep at me, sending me flowers, asking me to adopt virtual pets, and biting me. Even focusing only on responding to wall posts, mail, and friend requests, it took me several hours to get back up to speed. It was ridiculous.
I really could do without it with no problem at all. I mean, if it weren't the easiest way to keep in contact with my friends around the country, I would have just done away with the stupid thing a long time ago. I probably sound like an alcoholic when I say things like that ("I could quit anytime I want to... I just don't want to!), but it's true. One thing that the Lenten season threw into perspective for me is the fact that I have so much stuff that society tells me that I need to be cool and well-informed - facebook account, cell phone, television, etc. - when really all I need to be cool is a few little personal skills. Now, doesn't that just warm your heart?
So facebook was out. It wasn't that difficult; I simply deleted the link to it on my computer and didn't have too much problem staying away from it. I didn't even miss it that much. One of my friends also gave up her facebook for Lent, but she had to have her boyfriend secretly change her password so that she couldn't get it, and she tried several times in vain to hack into it.
Text messaging was a little more difficult, because I didn't actually disable it on my phone, so people would send me text messages all the time, but I couldn't respond to them. Sometimes I cheated a little bit, but only when I really needed to tell someone something, and a call would not be appropriate.
Then, on Easter Sunday (or, if you read my last post, "Holy Sh*t Sunday") I took it all back. I started text messaging again and I logged on to facebook. I spent the next three hours or so just trying to catch up with all the crap that had happened on facebook - 34 friend requests, a bunch of wall posts, 27 messages in the inbox, and about ten thousand different application requests of people throwing sheep at me, sending me flowers, asking me to adopt virtual pets, and biting me. Even focusing only on responding to wall posts, mail, and friend requests, it took me several hours to get back up to speed. It was ridiculous.
I really could do without it with no problem at all. I mean, if it weren't the easiest way to keep in contact with my friends around the country, I would have just done away with the stupid thing a long time ago. I probably sound like an alcoholic when I say things like that ("I could quit anytime I want to... I just don't want to!), but it's true. One thing that the Lenten season threw into perspective for me is the fact that I have so much stuff that society tells me that I need to be cool and well-informed - facebook account, cell phone, television, etc. - when really all I need to be cool is a few little personal skills. Now, doesn't that just warm your heart?
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Holy Sh** Week
I hope everyone is enjoying their day off, and I just thought I'd take a quick second to remind everyone of the holiday that we are celebrating.
As many of you know, today is Good Friday... well technically yesterday was Good Friday, since it is 3:37 a.m. on Saturday as I am writing this, which I suppose would technically make this the day that some Christian theologians refer to as "Uneventful Saturday," but since I'm operating on college student time, for all intents and purposes, today is Good Friday. And if you didn't know, Good Friday is the day that Christians and sadists celebrate the death of Jesus Christ, which, although incredibly gruesome and disturbing, is actually a good thing for humanity, because Jesus' blood fulfills all need for atonement of sin, making that old custom of mercilessly hacking up farm animals obsolete. Now, let's think about the implications of that act. Without Jesus, most everyone from PeTA would be going to hell (along with all of the rest of humanity). Without this day in history, the world would be a radically different place. Imagine history without the Holy Roman Empire, without the Crusades, without the Dark Ages, without the Pilgrims, the Reformation, and the Holocaust, without the Salem Witch Trials and the Spanish Inquisition. Granted, most of those things were pretty bad, but all of them had their roots in this day in history (Please don't think I'm trying to blame Jesus for any of these atrocities; most of them were rooted in Christian faith in name only. Obviously Jesus wouldn't condone genocide, stake burning, bloody conquests, fanaticism, and that sort of thing. Sometimes people can take good ideas and twist them into terrible atrocious ones.).
The day before Good Friday is known as Maundy Thursday. 99% of Christians have no idea what happened on Maundy Thursday, which is not surprising since most "Christians" know next to nothing about their faith. A quick trip to visit old Mr. Webster will tell us that the word "Maundy" is defined as "the ceremony of washing the feet of the poor, esp. commemorating Jesus' washing of His disciples' feet on Maundy Thursday"
Then, of course we have Easter Sunday, which is the capstone of Holy week, commemorating the day that a gigantic mutant rabbit annually sprinkles the landscape with plastic eggs filled with candy. Oh, and I guess Jesus rose from the mother-f**king dead, too. It's probably a coincidence that those two things happen on the same day.
One kid in my philosophy class wondered out loud why Good Friday is called "Good Friday," so being the good Christian that I am, I explained to him that it is good for us because it is the day that Jesus paid the price for our sins. He responded with some of the most amazing words that I have ever heard: "I wouldn't have called it 'Good Friday.' I would have called it 'Bad Friday,' and then I would have called Easter 'Holy Sh*t Sunday.'"
Holy Sh*t, indeed.
As many of you know, today is Good Friday... well technically yesterday was Good Friday, since it is 3:37 a.m. on Saturday as I am writing this, which I suppose would technically make this the day that some Christian theologians refer to as "Uneventful Saturday," but since I'm operating on college student time, for all intents and purposes, today is Good Friday. And if you didn't know, Good Friday is the day that Christians and sadists celebrate the death of Jesus Christ, which, although incredibly gruesome and disturbing, is actually a good thing for humanity, because Jesus' blood fulfills all need for atonement of sin, making that old custom of mercilessly hacking up farm animals obsolete. Now, let's think about the implications of that act. Without Jesus, most everyone from PeTA would be going to hell (along with all of the rest of humanity). Without this day in history, the world would be a radically different place. Imagine history without the Holy Roman Empire, without the Crusades, without the Dark Ages, without the Pilgrims, the Reformation, and the Holocaust, without the Salem Witch Trials and the Spanish Inquisition. Granted, most of those things were pretty bad, but all of them had their roots in this day in history (Please don't think I'm trying to blame Jesus for any of these atrocities; most of them were rooted in Christian faith in name only. Obviously Jesus wouldn't condone genocide, stake burning, bloody conquests, fanaticism, and that sort of thing. Sometimes people can take good ideas and twist them into terrible atrocious ones.).
The day before Good Friday is known as Maundy Thursday. 99% of Christians have no idea what happened on Maundy Thursday, which is not surprising since most "Christians" know next to nothing about their faith. A quick trip to visit old Mr. Webster will tell us that the word "Maundy" is defined as "the ceremony of washing the feet of the poor, esp. commemorating Jesus' washing of His disciples' feet on Maundy Thursday"
Then, of course we have Easter Sunday, which is the capstone of Holy week, commemorating the day that a gigantic mutant rabbit annually sprinkles the landscape with plastic eggs filled with candy. Oh, and I guess Jesus rose from the mother-f**king dead, too. It's probably a coincidence that those two things happen on the same day.
One kid in my philosophy class wondered out loud why Good Friday is called "Good Friday," so being the good Christian that I am, I explained to him that it is good for us because it is the day that Jesus paid the price for our sins. He responded with some of the most amazing words that I have ever heard: "I wouldn't have called it 'Good Friday.' I would have called it 'Bad Friday,' and then I would have called Easter 'Holy Sh*t Sunday.'"
Holy Sh*t, indeed.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
A confession... on the topic of vampires
Ok I'm tired of hiding it.
I'm reading the Twilight series.
It's not what you think... if you haven't read the books, then you just wouldn't understand. I mean, it's not just some sappy romance between a clumsy girl and a desecration of all classical vampire myths. Well, it is that a little bit. But it's so much more than that; it is a fantastic story with a riveting plot that won't let you stop reading, and although it tells me four times a page that Edward is beautiful, that does not mean that I believe, nor am I the slightest bit in love with him, so don't get the wrong idea here.
It should be illegal to make books that good. The first time that I picked up Twilight, I finished it almost exactly twenty-four hours later, reluctantly stopping to eat, sleep, and do other responsible adult-type stuff. I thirsted for more like Edward thirsted for Bella's blood.
I dated a young lady that had a keychain with a picture of Edward Cullen on it that read, "I [heart] boys who sparkle," It always made me a little bit jealous (not really jealous, like she was going to run off and have a secret affair with a vampire in the Pacific Northwest or something, but just sort of like, "Oh, that sucks because I don't usually sparkle,"), but when I read the book, I suddenly understood everything. I heart boys who sparkle, too! Er... umm... I mean, I heart girls who sparkle... yeah. Alice is totally hot.
I'm reading the Twilight series.
It's not what you think... if you haven't read the books, then you just wouldn't understand. I mean, it's not just some sappy romance between a clumsy girl and a desecration of all classical vampire myths. Well, it is that a little bit. But it's so much more than that; it is a fantastic story with a riveting plot that won't let you stop reading, and although it tells me four times a page that Edward is beautiful, that does not mean that I believe, nor am I the slightest bit in love with him, so don't get the wrong idea here.
It should be illegal to make books that good. The first time that I picked up Twilight, I finished it almost exactly twenty-four hours later, reluctantly stopping to eat, sleep, and do other responsible adult-type stuff. I thirsted for more like Edward thirsted for Bella's blood.
I dated a young lady that had a keychain with a picture of Edward Cullen on it that read, "I [heart] boys who sparkle," It always made me a little bit jealous (not really jealous, like she was going to run off and have a secret affair with a vampire in the Pacific Northwest or something, but just sort of like, "Oh, that sucks because I don't usually sparkle,"), but when I read the book, I suddenly understood everything. I heart boys who sparkle, too! Er... umm... I mean, I heart girls who sparkle... yeah. Alice is totally hot.
Obligatory News-Related Blog
So, I know it's been a while since I have posted any blogs that were at all related to anything other than my personal life, opinions, and sense of humor, so I need to get in a blog to remind everyone how well-informed I am and how much I treasure my citizen-of-the-world status. But it's really tough, because my news ticker is still out of order, so I don't have my link to the wide world of news. I mean, I wouldn't be caught dead reading a newspaper and I think I would actually rather die than sit down with my roommate for a little bit of quality CNN time together (I couldn't watch news on my own because he always has it on, anyway, plus I've successfully managed to go about the last six months or so without turning a television on, and I don't want to break that streak now, since I'm pretty proud of it). He mostly watches the Judge Hatchett show on BET these days anyway.
However, here's something that I have picked up recently in my Cable News gleanings: Michelle Obama's fashion. Even before the election, the news was all about what she (and other female political figures) were going to wear to such-and-such debate or this-and-that cocktail party. Now, President Obama is on his way to Europe or something like that and the most creative thing that the media can think to cover about the whole story is what the first lady is going to wear. What a crock of elephant... well, nevermind. Now, don't get me wrong: as a founding member of the North American Theocratic/Apathetic (NATA) party, I don't particularly care for President Obama (or any non-deity politicians, for that matter), but I really think that the American people probably care about something other than first lady attire. We ought to be caring about things like, you know, making sure that the EU doesn't get fed up with our crap and decide to nuke us to United Kingdom come... not that they would, but I have to admit that if I were a European leader, I would be pretty insulted that the best thing that we could cover of the diplomatic meeting was Mrs. Obama's dress... not to mention all of the other reasons that the rest of the world has for hating us. And those Europeans can only take so much American BS before they pop off. You know what I'm saying?
P.S. I want to apologize for any falsities that I may have presented regarding the diplomatic situations discussed in this blog. I assure you that they are not intentional, but rather are a direct result of the fact that I did absolutely no research or fact checking in preparation for writing this. I simply don't care (this is where the Apathetic part of NATA comes into play). Thanks for understanding.
However, here's something that I have picked up recently in my Cable News gleanings: Michelle Obama's fashion. Even before the election, the news was all about what she (and other female political figures) were going to wear to such-and-such debate or this-and-that cocktail party. Now, President Obama is on his way to Europe or something like that and the most creative thing that the media can think to cover about the whole story is what the first lady is going to wear. What a crock of elephant... well, nevermind. Now, don't get me wrong: as a founding member of the North American Theocratic/Apathetic (NATA) party, I don't particularly care for President Obama (or any non-deity politicians, for that matter), but I really think that the American people probably care about something other than first lady attire. We ought to be caring about things like, you know, making sure that the EU doesn't get fed up with our crap and decide to nuke us to United Kingdom come... not that they would, but I have to admit that if I were a European leader, I would be pretty insulted that the best thing that we could cover of the diplomatic meeting was Mrs. Obama's dress... not to mention all of the other reasons that the rest of the world has for hating us. And those Europeans can only take so much American BS before they pop off. You know what I'm saying?
P.S. I want to apologize for any falsities that I may have presented regarding the diplomatic situations discussed in this blog. I assure you that they are not intentional, but rather are a direct result of the fact that I did absolutely no research or fact checking in preparation for writing this. I simply don't care (this is where the Apathetic part of NATA comes into play). Thanks for understanding.
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