Monday, June 30, 2003
OK, I was going to finish that last post as an edit, but then I thought it would make the blog much too long, and also I am too lazy to go back in and work from a post I already have posted. So if you haven't checked here recently, read the last two blogs or so before you read this one, or else you'll be missing a great deal of o no i just lost my mind and my thread of thought thusly i begin to blither doodly doodly doo yes, um, a great deal of continuity. Or something.
So. Orientation.
Day 2 continued
The dorm has a message board down by the main lounge, where parents can leave notes for their kids, since they're not allowed up in the actual dorms, and they don't see their kids at all. My mother keeps leaving notes, I should probably be embarassed, but the notes are funny so I don't mind.
Met a nice girl today named Qiaojian, pronounced Chow Ran. She's very nice, we chat much. She's in the room right next door to me, along with Vanita and some girl named Shallu or something like that. So Qiaojian and Vanita spend a lot of time mooching about in our room. Because we have a fan. It doesn't work all that well, but in this weather it's a good sight better than nothing at all. Anyways, Qiaojian is going to be in the Mosher-Jordan dorm in the fall, which is the dorm that I'm going to be in! There's a slight possiblity that she could be my roommate. I don't think I would mind, she's a cool personage.
In the night downtime this evening, when nothing was going on, I went to sit back up in my dorm room after watching the incomprehensible playing of Mafia. I was Bored. So I called Jess up and talked with her for a while. Me, on the phone? Volunatarily??? For a reasonably long amount of time? NEVER! Yup. That's boredom for ya. Also, the joys of no roaming charges on the cell phone. Woo yay.
Then everyone else came back from their peer editing, and I had ice cream with Erika, Vanita, and some other girl named Eyvan (pronounced like Yvonne). Then we went to the computer lab, which they had opened specially that night so that we could try to work out some of our class registration woes. I mentioned this in the Thursday, June 26 blog, so see it there.
Day 3
Woke up at 5:45 today and showered. It wasn't as bad this time because a) it's cooler out today and b) there was no one else taking a shower at that time. I feel a bit out of it because I woke up that early and I went to bed pretty late, but at least I think I slept straight through, as opposed to waking up every hour or so.
I found the bus stop and made it up to North Campus for registration right around 8 in the am. The buses are air conditioned, and this makes me happy.
It turns out that Chem 130 is a prerequisite for Bio 162, so my freshman year consists of nothing but art and chemistry classes. The plus side of this is that I no longer have to worry about trying to get the impossibly timed bio class into my schedule. The down side of this is that I utterly despise chemistry and remember absolutely nothing about it. Thusly I weep.
Last night on the phone Jess asked if I've been taking pictures. I've only known these people for 3 days! My rule of thumb is to wait at least a week before breaking out the camera. Otherwise I think I freak them out a little. Not that I don't freak them out in any event, but I like to think that this restraint on my part ameliorates the freakage some.
Then I took the sheets down off the bed, packed up all my stuff, and went back to my Bubbie's house in dear ol' Southfield, that being my family's base of operations for UMich adventures. And I fell asleep.
Then we went to a Tigers/Diamondbacks baseball game! Hooray! It was actually fun. As you may or may not know, I'm not a particularly avid fan of baseball, especially not compared to football or hockey. But the Tigers actually kept the game going until the 7th inning or so. Then they crashed and burned. As is their wont.
But the stadium, Comerica Park, is all brand new and whatnot, and lemme tell ya, that is one DEEEE-AMN nice stadium. It's gorgeous. Absolutely freaking gorgeous. And the food's pretty good.
There was a big board on one of the walls that had the scores and innings of other baseball games going on that night. We were keeping an eye on it, because the Red Sox were playing that night, against the Marlins. The Sox put up 14 runs in the first inning. We couldn't believe it. It ended up being 25 to 8, if I recall aright. There was much exclaiming about this in our section. At points we were watching the scoreboard with the Sox score on it more intently than we were watching the Tigers game. Oh well.
Yup. Next day we came home. And I was very, very tired, so I slept most of Sunday. And now it's Monday. And it's hot here, but my mother the Floridian is refusing to use our perfectly good air conditioning. Thusly making me miserable when I have no need to be.
But in happier news, my actual plastic license came in the mail! Joy. And I got put on the insurance. So now I can drive the car if I so desire. I express much happiness.
One more thing. Found a website for you. It's the Cat of the Day! I used to draw a Cat of the Day in my sophomore english class. This site reminded me of those good ol' days. Have youself a merry little look-see.
5:39 PM
Saturday, June 28, 2003
Greetings dear, loyal readers. If you're new here, greetings dear, hopefully-soon-to-be-loyal readers.
I have returned from my sojourn in Michigan. I am now almost unspeakably tired but I will stay awake to blog because that is what I have to do. Also, I don't think I could go to sleep right now. You know how sometimes you're utterly exhausted but you can't go to bed? That's me. Might be the caffeine.
Anyways. Michigan. We left on Tuesday, by aeroplane. We got to use the new terminal E at Logan, which was actually very nice. But bag check in is now done with these computerized thingies at Northwestern, and they don't really work, and no one knows how to use them, so they ended up being more inconvenient than when you just had people checking your bags.
I got my carryon bag hand searched at airport security, because I had accidentally left a pair of scissors in there. I am a filthy catdamned terrorist. My scissors were removed from my possession. I was also travelling with a stuffed lemur in my bag, though, so I don't think they considered me much of a real threat. How many martyr-driven terrorists travel with stuffed lemurs in their bags? (and by 'stuffed lemur' I mean a stuffed animal like a teddy bear, not like a taxidermy sort of thing)
Yup. So. Orientation. As I said before (see previous blog), I took journally notes before bed each night so that I can tell you about it all in great and fascinating detail. I will also use present tense, as though I am there at this very moment. Let the joys of orientation come to life before your very eyes. And such. Erm, this is going to be a long blog, since the past few days have been action-packed, and I still won't be able to post everything that happened herein, but hopefully I can sate your curiosity.
Day 1
It is incredibly and unbearably hot here. Vurry vurry hot. And sunny. So walking around campus on all these tours is not quite as fun as it might otherwise be. Hope I didn't get sunburned today, that would suck a reasonably large amount. Hot as Hades, it is.
I've yet to meet another art student. I'm not entirely sure why this is. Everyone I've met so far is either in the LSA or the Honors program or the Engineering school. No other art students. I know they've got to be around here somewhere, but I'm at a loss as to how I would find them. Then again, I did just get here.
The dorm room I'm staying in is titchy small. It's in East Quad, which is a goodly sized dorm building with some pretty nice lounges. During the fall, East Quad houses, among other things, the RC (Residential College... if there's one thing I've learned already at this orientation it's that people use abbreviations for every damn thing). Think hippies. But that's just a side note. The room's very small. But I'm pretty sure it's a double which is housing three people for the purposes of orientation, so perhaps that's to be expected. Two of the beds are lofted and one of them looks like it was just wheeled in for orientation. I'm in one of the lofts.
The bathroom, from what I've seen of it, looks just gawdawful. For some reason I refuse to contemplate, there are urinals in the girl's bathroom. There are four showers for all of the girls on this hall, which is definitely not enough. I haven't used one yet, obviously, but I'm not much looking foward to it. The boy's bathroom in this hall is closed because something vital isn't working, so I don't know what on earth they're supposed to be doing.
I've already met some cool people. Everyone here has a midwestern accent! I guess I never really noticed it when I came up here to visit my family, because none of them have it all that strongly. But pretty much everyone at UMich has it hardcore. The girls seem to have it more strongly than the guys, for some reason. I started feeling like I should be talking in a midwestern accent.
Also, when you ask the people from Michigan what town they're from, they hold up their right hand in a mitten shape and point to various parts of it. This was very confusing until I realized that they were using it to represent Michigan. You know. The state's shaped like a mitten. Anyways. Once I got used to that idea, I was only mildly confused since, you know, I haven't the slightest idea where anything in Michigan is.
So, as I said, I've already met some pretty cool people. I met this girl named Amber who's sort of the blonde, earnest, sporty, midwestern girl stereotype. But nice. I met a guy named Henry who strikes me as being very, very smart, and sort of quiet, but also nice. I also met a girl named Adrian who was very funny in a pragmatic, midwestern sort of way. I don't know, maybe you'll be able to see more what I mean if you know a bunch of midwestern folks.
I met a guy who's going to be in the engineering school named Seth, from Dearborn MI. He seems more like an art student than an engineer, which is a good thing. Naturally. And also a Mac fan! You know my thoughts on computers... there is no lord but our Mac, and so on. He also has one of the new iPods! Such as myself. Ah, good times.
I also met this girl named Vanita whose family is Indian, so she looks Indian, but she's British, so she has an impeccable british accent. But she's from Pittsburg. And going to the University of Michigan. When she swears it's in a british accent and it makes me want to start sniggering. She's fun.
My roommates for orientation (I won't know my actual roommate for next year until sometime in August) are of the number two. I'll be in a double in the fall, so only one roommate. Both of these two are from Michigan. One's Erika... I can't really say I know her yet, she's awfully quiet and doesn't seem too keen to offer up information about herself, but I think that this is a quality which I would appreciate in a roommate. She looks like any other suburban, quiety preppy girl would look. The other one is Daphne, this crazy little Chinese girl who doesn't stop talking. She's very smart though, she's in the Honors program, and she took classes at Harvard last summer, so we had conversations about Boston. I certainly don't mind rooming with her for the few days of orientation, since she is fun in a quirky sort of way, but I don't think that my temperament would let me room with her in the long run. Which is just fine, because she's not staying in the same dorm as me in the fall anyways.
We took some placement tests today. The math one was simple, I think I maybe got two wrong out of 25. The chemistry one was an unmitigated disaster, I barely even remember taking chemistry. It kept asking about moles, and all I could think about were the little fuzzy burrowing critters. I don't think I got anything right on that. The french one was actually pretty tough, I think I did sort of middle-of-the-road on that.
i have everything to do with chemistry
We break up into groups when we're going around on tours, and each group has an undergraduate student as their group leader. My group leader, Rob, is... well, I think he's going to be a junior this year. He keeps cracking jokes about being an asocial engineer, but I happen to think he's kind of cute, and he's certainly social enough to be a funny tour guide.
On one of the tours we ended up at this big fountain thing with a just hideous sculpture in the middle. Rob said that it was tradition for new students to wade through the fountain, so he made everyone take off their socks and sneakers and wade through this icy cold water, which came up to my knees. Obviously this isn't tradition, they just wanted to make us wittle froshies walk though the fountain. Despite this, it wasn't bad, since it was such a terribly hot day out. I couldn't put my socks back on, though.
Day 2
I woke up at 6 this morning to get one of the few showers without having to wait in line. I got one, but it was not fun. There are curtains, not doors, and the curtains don't really stay in place properly. I think I only got three hours of sleep last night. People came into the dorm at around 3 am last night making tons of noise. I couldn't sleep for more than a hour at a time anyways because of the heat, so I kept on waking up. It's now 6:50 am and I feel like 10 miles of bad road.
I'm sleeping in a loft, as I said yesterday, so of course this means that it's like being on a top bunk in a bunk bed. It makes me nervous. I don't trust the ladder, it seems a wee bit rickety. Also, if I sit straight up in bed, I hit my head on the ceiling. The only good things I can say about the bed are that a) the mattress wasn't too bad and b) it was long enough.
We had the most boring speaker ever today. She was an economics teachers, and she gave this hideously long-winded speech, and it was early in the morning. I actually fell asleep during it for a bit. I was sitting between Seth and Vanita. Vanita was sort of gazing at her with unfocused eyes, and I think Seth was falling asleep like me. He was slouched down in his seat, in any event. Not fun times.
We went up to North Campus today (at U of M, Central campus has pretty much everything, South Campus has the football stadium, and North campus has the art school and the engineering school). It was very hot out again, so it wasn't exactly fun to be walking around up there, but the walkways you take to get everywhere up there are really pretty. They're all wooded and forest-y. I'm sure I would appreciate it more if the weather were nicer (i.e. if it was cooler out). Also, the food at the dorm up there (Bursley) was much better than the food they've been feeding us in East Quad.
I met a nice kid named James on the bus ride up to North Campus. He's from Troy, MI and he's in the engineering school. We chatted about Boston schools and about hair coloring and such. The blue streak in my hair seems to be doing me good as a conversation starter. People, especially guys, tend to strike up conversations with me by saying something like "Hey, your hair's really cool..." Hey, what do I care? If it makes 'em start conversations, then gosh golly gee, I've got no objection to it.
After lunch the engineering and art students split up, thus providing me my first glimpse of some of my fellow art students. The issue is that all of the North Campus (i.e. not in LSA or Honors) kids I've become friendly with thus far are engineers, and I don't really know any of the art kids. So I was sort of stranded. But this girl who looks like someone straight out of an anime comic has kind of latched onto me, so I have someone to talk to. Her name is Gigi and she's from California. One of the very few non-Michigan people I've met here.
We have 2:30 to 5pm on North Campus with nothing planned for the art school kids, so I'm sitting in the art school lobby right now in one of the big comfy leather couches they have. I'm reading (I brought Sherlock Holmes with me) and doodling (I took off my shoe and drew it, for lack of anything better to do). Oh, and of course writing all this down. I could go down and check out Pierpoint Commons, which is right across the street from the art school and has McDonald's and things in it, but I'm too damn lazy and this couch is murderously comfortable.
I'm writing this tonight, now. When we finally got back from North Campus, there still wasn't anything planned. I headed over to one of the numerous Starbuck's located on campus. I met up with Seth on the way there, so we sat and chatted for a time. Then we headed back to East Quad because the LSA, Honors, and Engineering kids all had peer advising. But not the art kids, since we had already had it up on North Campus.
So I sat in the lounge for a while doing nothing. I watched some guys playing this Michigan card game called Mafia which they all are obsessed with, but I don't understand at all. Sort of like how we are here with Asshole. I asked the Michigan kids, and none of them know how to play Asshole, so I guess Mafia isn't the only regional card game.
Found out today that I'm going to be in college for five years, right off the bat. I mean, that's before I even begin to contemplate grad school. I've already signed on for five years. It was sort of an immensely depressing idea, five years of college. This is what comes of double-majoring, folks. Damn that intellectual curiosity o'mine.
I tried to work out my schedule today. I can't do it at all, they had better be able to do it tomorrow when I register for classes.
Ugh. There was so much downtime today, they should've just let us register and leave tonight. We wouldn't have to spend another night in this ick-ful dorm, then
Whenever I tell people where I'm from around here always say the same thing, "You're from Boston Then they always ask, "What are you doing up here?" I'm afraid that I don't have an entirely comprehesive answer for them.
Literally fallin asleep at keyboard, will maybe finish this pst as edit tomorrow. So tired.
Good night and the rest of the story tomrrow I promise.
11:22 PM
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Howdy folks.
I know I said that I wouldn't have a blog while I was being all oriented-like in dear ol' Michigan. I am still in Michigan, lest you suffer any confusion on that point. I would hate to cause you poor sods any mental confusion.
But I digress! UMich has many computer labs in all of the dorms, obviously. I wasn't expecting any of them to be open during the summer, and they weren't. But on this, the last night we are spending in this beautous East Quad dorm, they opened up the computer lab for our enjoyment and also to let us use the UMich websites to set up our classes for registration, which occurs on the morrow.
I have used this great resource to determine that it is absolutely impossible for me to take all of the classes that I need to take. I need to take a certain biology class. I need to take a certain art class. Never the twain shall meet. One runs 11-12:30 on Friday. One runs 12-1 on Friday. Obviously there's a wee bit of conflict here. Neither class has an alternative time slot. College makes me cry, and I'm not even in college yet.
I suppose I never took all those people seriously when they said that scheduling is hell. I suspected hyperbole, but now I know better.
Anywho, I have to get up tomorrow at 6 so that I may use the showers before too many other people wake up and the dreaded lines form. Four showers for the entire hall. Not good times.
So, to bed I shall go. Don't worry, I've been taking little journally notes at night on what's been going on here, so when I get home I can make an incredible long blog and it will be just as though you, yourself went to the University of Michigan Summer Orientation.
But you don't get an MCard. Suckas!
10:31 PM
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
!
I hate college applications.
So, um, other than that...
Today we muralled for the first time in decades. But first we went to the Buck of the Star, in the hopes that coffee would energize us to be really productive on the mural (it didn't). Many of our compatriots were there. It was like a party, only not at all like a party.
We saw a woman with an enormous black fur hat. It was big and vaguely cubical.
We also saw an old man sitting in his car, smoking this crazy pipe. He was really puffing away on it, but the windows showed no evidence of being open, so there was all this smoke in the car. Ha ha. I laughed. He was great. He had some stuff hanging from his rearview mirror that was very hippy-like. It looked like beads, or a dreamcatcher, or somesuchathing. Rebecca thought it was a voodoo doll.
I am so hungry right now I could eat this keyboard.
Maybe I will.
You don't know what I will and will not do.
Today in french we finished the play "La Leçon", which is about a teacher who kills his student. Madame was reading the part of the teacher, and she read the killing bit with a little too much relish.
I don't need no schoolin'. I learn by DE-fault.
Or maybe it's 'I larn'. Whichever sounds better to you.
As we were leaving the building, our lovely superintendent stuck his head out of his office for a moment. He opened the door, saw us, and closed it again. I dunno, it was amusing. Also amusing was the fact that he was wearing Sprocket's clothing. You know. Tight, black mock-turtleneck shirt and black pants. On the superintendent. Gloriousness.
Did you know that he has his own private bathroom in his office? That's incredible. I think that it should be opened to the public, since every other bathroom in the school is either locked or unspeakably filthy. Or both.
Happy 6th Night of Chanukah!
The Alarm is totally '80s music. I feel so dorky listening to it, but it's dorkily good and enjoyable.
We took a personality test in psych, and the way it came out for me was completely correct. Freakily so. Wait a sec and I'll go get the sheet. I shall write it herein for your reading pleasure.
OK. Here it is:
Usually have original minds and great drive for their own ideas and purposes. In fields that appeal to them, they have a fine power to organize a job and carry it through with or without help. Skeptical, critical, independent, determined, sometimes stubborn. Must learn to yield less important points in order to win the most important.
It's, like, so totally me! Isn't that just wild?!?!?
Alright. Enough of that now.
Well, I am imploding from hunger, so perhaps I will go nosh. Yes, I will now take my leave for the moment.
This supremely momentous moment.
(let that mean whatever you want it to. Mwah ha ha ha ha ha!!)
3:31 PM
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Couldn't resist a quick one before I leave for Michigan.
I found this by tooling about the web as I often do. It's from Joel Veitch's Rather Good.com, which has much funniness upon it.
This one is described thusly: If Destiny's Child were kittens from Northern England, this is what they would sound like.
The creepy thing is, that describes it perfectly.
Anywho. Just go look at it. Independent Woman performed by kittens
Now you can go have a good week.
12:16 AM
Monday, June 23, 2003
Guess what I got?
I'll give you a hint. It starts with an 'L' and it ends with an 'e' and it means that airport security won't be able to harass me on a particular point anymore.
If you don't know, I stick my tongue out at you. Yes, you, sir or madam.
Anywho, I haven't blogged in a few days but life has been slightly busy/insane for a few days, so I'll use that as an excuse. There's also going to be a blog hiatus for this week (after this one, obviously), as I will be in Michigan, getting all oriented-like. So unless I get some time at my grandmother's house to blog, I won't be blogging until... probably Sunday. Jus' thought I'd let you know so no one emails me thinking I'm dead or somesuchathing.
So! Leslie was here this weekend, woo yay and houpla, of course. Swampscott is always more tolerable when Leslie's here... it sort of motivates us to do things. Not that there's much to do, but it feels as though there is. We're allowed to delude ourselves on this point occasionally, it doesn't hurt anyone.
We went to the Jack Johnson/Ben Harper concert at the FleetBoston Pavillion on Friday, 'we' being me, Leslie, Jess and Stephanie. It was really a very good time, much more so than I had been expecting. I am not a Jack Johnson fan, and I didn't really know who Ben Harper was, so I was just tagging along for the comradery of it all. But it ended up being glorious in pretty much every way that a concert can be glorious.
The weather was perfect. The Pavillion is an outdoor venue, so weather matters. It's under a big tent-ish thing, so I guess it wouldn't have been cancelled if it rained, but it would not have made the evening more fun. But we had the most splendid concert-going weather you can imagine. Not too hot, not too cold, not a drop of precipitation. Magnifique.
Jack Johnson was OK... like I said before, I'm not much of a Jack Johnson fan. He sounded pretty good live, as it happens. His music is acoustic and he's got talent, so it doesn't sound different live like some bands that use a lot of electronics do. And he doesn't suffer from the Britney syndrome, where the performer sounds like crud live because, in real life, they can't sing any more than I can. So he was OK in concert. But still. Not particularly a fan. And his performance was... quiet. Sedate. It didn't do much to get the crowd going.
Ben Harper, on the other paw, was a-frelling-mazing. I didn't really know his music, but once he started playing I recognized some of his songs. He had a real band (as opposed to Jack Johnson, who just had a bass player and a drummer) and they were all these great, slightly crazy characters. One of the drummers was from Boston... he played the bongos and this musical box thing, and he was glorious. Ben Harper definitely knew how to play the crowd, which made him a much better show than Jack Johnson. And I found myself actually enjoying his music. I still don't think I would get one of his CDs, but it was enjoyable to listen to for a concert.
The people at the concert were full of craziness and gloriousness. There was a woman sitting right in front of us who may or may not have been pregnant. Anyways, she looked to be in her... well, late 20s or early 30s, maybe, but I'm not good at judging that sort of thing. She had her hair in braided pigtails, but her hair was sort of old-person stringy, so it looked retahded (say it in a Boston accent). She also had these awesomely cheesy plastic little-girl barettes in her hair. She was a beautiful specimen of womanhood. I took a picture, let's all hope it comes out, shall we?
There was a group of maybe six or seven guys sitting in the row in front of us, several seats down. They were rather hot. We rather enjoyed regarding them. One of them had a Michigan hat on. Yup. Enjoyable.
It definitely was not a little kid concert. Most of people there looked like they were college students, or in their 20s. It seemed as though we were the youngest folks there... rather, there were others around our age, but we were in the youngest age group present. This is, in my opinion, a good thing. You know my thoughts on *shudder* young children *shudder*. There were also a somewhat surprising number of middle-aged folks there, no idea why. I conjecture that they were Jack Johnson fans, since he is the more calm singer, out of the two. But that's merely conjecture on my part.
We also saw a number of our teachers there. Gasp! No! They... they have... lives??? I never would have believed it! Hee hee hee. Yup, we saw Mr. Schwatrz, Ms. Labouda and her non-teacher boyfriend, and Ms. Ganci, who was presumably there with her boyfriend but we didn't see him. The amusing bit was that all three were liberally partaking of the expensive alcohol provided by the Pavillion.
We only saw Ms. Ganci for a little bit, so the only sign of her, um, slightly impaired state which we saw was her explaining determinedly to us that she wanted to have both Jack Johnson and Ben Harper's babies, but Jack Johnson's baby first, because Ben Harper already has a baby, and do we know who his girlfriend is? She's this actress, and she's got his baby. As this was laboriously explained to me, I was trying very hard to not start sniggering. You'd find it difficult as well, no doubt.
Mr. Schwartz we got to see more of, because he was sitting in the row in front of us. While Ms. Ganci seemed to only be a bit tipsy, Mr. Schwartz was well into the realm of drunkenness. He kept on shouting things at inappropriate moments and his actions became more and more uninhibited as the concert wore on. A 19 year old girl whom Jess knew from camp was sitting next to him, and he began to hit on her. Severely. Whispering in her ear, putting his arm around her, etc. It caused us much mirth.
During Ben Harper's performance, a man asked a woman to marry him. Ben Harper brought them both up onto the stage, and the guy read some poem into the mic and then got onto his knees and proposed. The crowd went absolutely wild. It was incredible. It prompted Mr. Schwartz, who was rather inebriated at this point, to begin yelling, "Fuck that, man! Don't do it!" Oh yes. We laughed some more.
So, it was a very good concert over all. I was a bit worried about how it would be going into it, but after the fact I thoroughly approve. Yessiree. And yes, I was sort of dancing. Sort of. More like swaying back and forth, smacking the camera into my palm in time with the music. I only mention it because you're bound to hear it from someone else and I don't want you to form any erroneous assumptions. That would be simply... tragic.
After the concert we walked back to South Station, since we had decided that it would take about as long as waiting for the shuttle anyways. It's actually quite a pleasant walk, considering that you're walking along highway most of the time. You're right on the water and Boston looks all purty and whatnot. It's also really easy to find your way along except for one teensy little bit.
This teensy little bit is where you have to get up or down. See, the way we went, the road you use to get to South Station is raised up, like an overpass, and the Pavillion is on the ground level road. On the way there, we just used a staircase inside of the Boston World Trade Center Hotel to get down.
On the way back, things were slightly more difficult. We found our way into the Trade Center Hotel just fine. Once inside, however, we couldn't find our way out onto the upper level. So we were running along all these unmarked, anonymously hotel-looking corridors, trying to find a door that wasn't locked or a hallway that wasn't roped off. Very nerve-wracking. Eventually we managed to get out, but not before getting ourselves in a bit of a blither about it. After all, this is the World Trade Center we're talking about here. It was around midnight. I admit that we were not a particularly threatening-looking group of people, but still. We're pretty lucky we didn't run into any security folk.
Once we found our way out of that, it was smooth sailing (other than sore feet, of course). I took some pictures of Boston at night, because it looked vurry vurry cool. I hope they come out. I think that I am in love with Boston. It's such an extremely glorious city. This is why I have to go out of state for college. If I went to college in Boston, I'd never leave.
After we got back in the general vicinity of home, we decided that we were hungry. After all, dinner had been quite some time ago, and we'd spent most of the intervening time on our feet. It being rather late, our choices were limited. So we decided to go to the 7-11 in Revere. In case you are unacquainted with them, I now have the priviledge of telling you that the late-night 7-11 crowd is full of strange and frightening wonderousness. I really wish that I had had my sketchbook on me, or, better yet, my video camera.
When we came in a woman was at the counter harassing the cashier, claiming that he hadn't given her enough change. The poor man was most unhappy and flustered, and the woman was not acting in a gracious manner. By the time we had gotten our provisions and made our way to the counter, another couple had entered and were attempting to make some purchases.
It was fairly evident that they had been smoking the ol' grass, and I don't mean the kind that's on your lawn. The man just seemed sort of out of it, but the woman was clearly in an altered state of consciousness. So to speak. As we were standing in line, she cornered us and began to blearily yet intensely talk to us. "So, you girls hungry, huh?" Here she gave a significant nod and what I assume was an uncoordinated attempt at a wink. "You should go to Kelly's. I just came from there and had a huge thing of fries." Then she attempted to lower her voice conspiratorily, although it didn't really work. "It's the best thing for the munchies."
We just sort of smiled and nodded, figuring that it wasn't really worth it to try to explain to her that no, we were not high, just hungry after a lengthy night of entirely sober concert-going. So she grinned at us and said, "Well, at least you're honest about it." More smiling and nodding and glancing at each other with barely suppressed amusement. Then she jerked her thumb over at the man she was there with and said, "Never get married girls. Look at me. Married twice with four kids and I want to shoot myself (here making a gun gesture with her thumb and forefinger)." We nodded solemnly and took this advice to heart. Of course.
The dispensors of wisdom are often to be found at 12:30 at night, in a Revere 7-11.
Anywho. We eventually got home and threw some rocks at Noah's window to wake him up so that he could see Leslie before he left for the west coast. I don't think that his mother was very appreciative of the amount of noise we were making. Mais quoiever. I trotted in the door around one-ish. A highly glorious night, all in all.
The next day I got Harry Potter! The fifth one. I read it all. Already. I'm already rereading it, actually. It was frelling wonderful. Yes, it was long, but I sort of wish it were longer. Sooooooo good. Captivating, entertaining, as deliciously written as all the previous ones. Go and get it if you haven't already. If you're not a Harry Potter fan yet, what the frell is the matter with you? Huh? Punk.
Harry Potter! Wotch out fr'that bleedin' owl, woodja? She'll take that arm straight off in a bleedin' second, she will!
Oh kay, this is a looong blog, but it's probably the only one you're getting this week, so you best be lovin' it. I posted links to The Levellers and Poe under the Music section, and I put up the Weebl and Bob board link under the regular links section. As I said before, the board tells you when there's a new Weebl and Bob animation. You ought to check it regularly so you don't miss a single fantasmic one.
I desperately want a Harvery Birdman-- Get Ready to Feel the Power... of Attorney tshirt. Desperately. If you watch Adult Swim you know what I mean. Lawdy, it makes me laugh like a deranged little house elf.
No Return to Sender update this week, which makes me sad. If you haven't read it all yet, do it now. You fools.
Arright. I figure that ought to hold you until maybe Sunday. Have a good week, folks.
5:01 PM
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Hello.
I would like to say that shots are full of hurtfullness and I do not enjoy them. I especially do not like going to the doctor's thinking that you are only getting one shot, and then discovering that this was only trickery, and you really are going to get two. And they hurt. And needles are not fun things to contemplate.
And I especially dislike that TB tester shot thing that makes your arm swell up right where you got the shot. Decidedly not good times.
Were you watching the congressional questioning of Billy Bulger? You should've been. I only watched a bit of it because he obviously was not telling the entire truth and I started to get sick of it. But it was amusing because there was a guy sitting behind him who was smirking broadly the entire time. On occasion this fellow would lose it and he would duck down a little and start laughing. This made the entire process more interesting to view.
Last night was... surreal. I was just settling in to do some crazed artwork with the ridiculously large number of art markers I purchased yesterday when Noah and Jason came over and asked if I wanted to see a movie. So we went over to Noah's house and watched this movie called Jackpot. It was OK... funny at points, but very very slow at others and not much seemed to happen during vast portions of the movie.
Then Noah decided that he was hungry (as usual), so we drove out to Burger King, having nothing better to do. Jason and Noah began going insane. By this I mean that they were warbling along with the radio much too enthusiastically. They were also snapping their fingers and exhibiting other Tourette's-like symptoms. I was forced to take drastic action and smack Noah a few times. Jason, being the driver, was exempt. The two of them just amplify one another's particular insanities, until the entire thing is out of hand and they've lost their minds entirely.
Eventually, after much driving around and arguing, we ended up with some other folk at Kelly's on Revere Beach. There are some loverly folks down at Revere Beach that time of night. There were a bunch of kids playing what may or may not have been drunken soccer. There was a car parked right in front of Kelly's blaring Spanish and rap music. Kate and I both sort of wanted to start grooving to this music (so to speak), but we were afraid that if we reacted in any way to it, we would get shot. The owner of this particular vehicle had that certain I-own-weaponry-and-I-often-use-it sort of look to him. Much amusement.
Then we drove home, and there was a car behind us with one high-powered headlight and one normal one. This prompted Dave to begin speaking in ebonics. I won't even try to recreate it herein, you had to hear him doing it. It was heeeelarious.
So I got home around 12 in the am, which was good, because I thought I'd get to bed nice and early. Nice and early for the summer is any time before 1. So I washed up and put on my pyjamas and was all set to go to sleep. Suddenly I hear a knocking on my window. Well. Who would be knocking on my window at 12:15? Who else but my slightly deranged next door neighbor. So I went outside and chatted with him until around 1. Meaning that I didn't get to sleep early. And I was very very tired this morning when I had my doctor's appointment. Which made me even more irate about the fact that they used tricksy falseness to give me two shots, rather than one.
If you don't mind occasional sexual crudery, you should check out Achewood. 'Tis an online comic. 'Tis much amusement. 'Tisn't particularly well-drawn, but the drawing style sort of goes with the overall feel of the comic, so all is well. 'Crudery' isn't a word, but I rather think it should be.
Finally got prom pictures. Hoo-rah. They actually came out OK. If you want a copy lemme know and I shall garner one for you.
I can't believe that they're making a Punisher movie! What the heck is DC doing? Marvel is just cranking out movie after movie! And why Punisher?? No one knows who Punisher is! Except for me and some other incredible dorks. If you're interested, here's a site about The Punisher (AKA Frank Castle for the uninitiated). I dunno, I didn't really look at the site, but it seemed as though it might be informative for you plebs.
'Tis all.
1:32 PM
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Tonight I had dinner at L'Espalier in Boston with my family, for a graduation present.
It was a very, very nice present.
If you've never eaten there before, it's an incredibly fancy restaurant with very, very, very good food. And a very solicitous waitstaff. And most of them had French accents. And this made me happy.
Also, the maitre d' was unbelievably hot. And had a French accent. Thus, perfection.
Anywho, the food was superb, so it was a thoroughly enjoyable dinner. There was a cheese plate before dessert, and this was good. It was a sampler plate thing of cheeses... all sorts of cheeses. Goat, sheep, cow. They ranged from very mild to very sharp. Mmmm. Cheeses. I tend to be a cheese-enjoying sort of person, so this really sort of topped the evening.
They ask, when you go there, if you're going there for a special event, so my dad told them it was for my graduation. People kept on congratulating me all night long. The waiters did, the maitre d' guy did... even the valet congratulated me while we were waiting for the car after dinner. I get a kick out of that sort of thing.
Yes, so, good times at fancy restaurants.
I have found for you a fascinating little example of fun with video. Here it is. It is set to the song 'Gay Bar' by Electric Six (better known for their song 'Danger High Voltage'). The video is a highly wonderous little bit of editing. Whoever made it must have some crazy editing skills. Anywho, it came out quite well. And I can't believe how well the lyrics fit the animation, but it's a real song alright. Just check it out.
I just noticed that there haven't been any pictures, pirated or otherwise, on this here blog for a few posts. So I shall go into a little rant which will lend itself well to pictures.
Those of you who know me personally are undoubtedly aware of my prediliction for fedoras. The fedora is, quite simply, the best hat ever made. Some of you may know it better as the Dick Tracy/detective hat, or perhaps the Indiana Jones hat. Guys look attractive in fedoras. This is fact. Everyone looks good in a fedora. The fedora is cool, it is classy, it is 125% glorious. I am desperately waiting for the fedora to make a comeback. When it does, I will be a happy camper. It is one of my dearest wishes to find a hat store somewhere that sells fedoras, so that I can buy one. I am not a hat-wearing sort of person, but if I had a fedora, a real fedora, you can bet your last kitten that I would wear it.
yup. dick tracy wears a fedora.
I also just realized that I don't have a permanent link to Weebl and Bob on the side. I will fix that... erm, at some point. If you click on the link I just posted, you get sent to the Weebl and Bob posting board-like thing, which tells you when the new animations are up and running. I'll still try to post a link to each new animation as it comes up, but maybe you should check that out on occasion anyways, just in case I miss one.
Hey, I ain't infallible or nuthin'.
Quote of the evening--
My dad: How 'bout that, dear? You got cheese and you got the Turnpike! *maniacal laughter*
Eli: That coffee wasn't decaf.
12:23 AM
Saturday, June 14, 2003
I saw Identity. It was pretty damn bad. As I had thought it was going to be. Would've much rather seen X2 again, or the Italian Job, which I haven't seen yet but sort of want to see.
Anywho. Identity. The first half hour was boredom incarnate. I know it was the first half hour because I kept on checking my watch. After that, it got boring and stupid. Liz and I were talking pretty much the entire time, which was, ultimately, the only thing that kept me from leaving the theater in disgust. I mean, it's funny if you've got someone to discuss it with. But about half way through it I told Liz that I could leave the theater at that very moment and not feel like I was missing anything. I maintain that statement now.
The movie is pretty much exactly what you would expect. The sort of portrayal of mental illness that gets the psychiatrists all in a tizzy about how unfair and stereotypical and inaccurate it is. The opposite-Beautiful-Mind, if you will. The same sort of setup and execution of the plot (hee hee. double entendre) that you see in every single cheap horror movie ever made.
It's like Babo used to say about Shakespearean plays: everyone dies. Only, unlike Shakespeare, you don't care. The characters die and you don't give a damn. They reveal something about half way through the movie (I won't say it here, just on the off chance that you're idiotic and still want to see it) that makes you completely and utterly uncaring when it comes to whether or not any particular character lives or dies.
And I've got news for people. It's always a bad idea to let the bad guy go. Always always always always always. You think someone would've learned that by now.
The end was funny, though. They put in a 'deep and insightful' quote at the very end, but to no avail. Our entire row was laughing hysterically. Not what I assume the intended reaction is. But lo! we all shared our reaction. I mean, honestly.
So, no paws up for Identity. Not a one. Don't go see it. You can live quite happily without ever seeing it. You have no need to see it. If you think that you want to see it, that's only because you don't know about it and you are severly deluded.
If you saw it and liked it, you pretty much know what I think of your brain right now. The word 'stupid' comes to mind quite readily.
Afterwards, we were standing around in the theater. They do a live performance thing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and all the actors/actresses were getting into their costumes and milling about in the lobby. They were extraordinary people. They were, for the most part, immensely obese. Both the girls and the guys. They were also wearing corsets (the guys) and bras (the girls) and fishnets and panties (both) and not much else.
One of the girls was asking around, "Does anyone have a pair of undies I can borrow?" She went up to a portly fellow and asked, "Jimmy, can I borrow your undies?" "I need 'em!" Jimmy replied.
I sort of wanted to stick around and see this show, since these people were so awe-inspiring in their sheer awfullness, but then Noah saw a girl wearing only black panties, a black bra, and tights. He started getting agitated, so we thought it would be prudent to leave before there was a scene.
Also, check out this guy's art website. It gives me headaches.
12:15 AM
Friday, June 13, 2003
Well. It appears as though Blogger has addressed my archive problem very simply. By deleting the archive.
This was not the sort of result I was shooting for, but at least it's progress. Of a sort. It's not stagnation, I mean.
Yes. Trying to convince myself this is good. *begins weeping*
Anywho! I have some fresh and crunchy new links for you, because I am too boring to have any stories to tell you.
Here is a lovely little comic which is highly surreal. It disturbs me a little bit. But amusing. A photo comic, if you know what that is.
Animation! It is called Skippy the Goth Kangaroo. And that's what it is. An animation. About Skippy. A goth kangaroo. There's a song too. And a funny accent. Well worth seeing, I'd say.
Here is a little animation about geese and those who enjoy eating them. Not particularly well animated, to be sure, but I feel that it's something you should see.
An animation about blobs. Or something. I just like the music and the vague hint of political commentary.
Wow. I have no idea what's going on in this animation. I quote b3ta: ""I made a video for a nice Italian band called Giardini di Miro," emotes Craig Robinson of cult design site Flipflopflyin. "I kinda ignored the lyrics and just followed the mood of the song." We didn't understand it at all, but it made all the little hairs on our arms stand on end. Watch it." I think that pretty much sums it up. Exceedingly incomprehensible and also exceedingly disturbing. Warning to dial-up folks, it's a pretty enormous file. If you can't see it 'cause you've got dial-up, go over to a friend's house so you can see it on cable. Because you need to see it.
Do you like to beatbox? If so, you can now do it online! And it's fun! Beatboxing by Weebl. Hours of noisy entertainment.
That's all. I hope that you enjoy.
5:13 PM
Thursday, June 12, 2003
Woah.
This is a new blogger. Apparently, the changes which they claimed would occur have occurred. I only hope that this doesn't screw up my blog as you see it. I must say, what I'm looking at right now, posting, is rather different. But hopefully you folks won't see any difference.
Except, of course, in the archives. I sure as heck hope they fix my archives. Probably not, but one can dream, non?
Went into Cambridge today with Maddie and Corey. It was good times. It felt sort of good to get up and go somewhere, rather than sitting around all day. Don't get me wrong. I adore sitting around all day. There are many days when that's all that I ever need to do. But it's nice, every so often, to get up and get going.
On the T over, we encountered a field trip. At the Aquarium stop, about 10 million children got on. They were shrieking and shoving and there were so many of them that the conductor had to do one of those "Please move all the way into the train so that everyone can board" sort of announcements. The noise level of the T car was intense. Then they all got off at the next stop, leaving everyone else with ringing ears and shell-shocked brains.
Anywho. We had fun. We had Finagle A Bagel for lunch, which was unexpectedly sketchy. There's a whole downstairs section indicated by a giant flashing neon arrow that looks entirely out of place in a Finagle A Bagel store. The downstairs is much larger than it has to be, and even though it's all done in bright yellow and purple, it still has a sort of dark, creepy quality to it. They serve alcohol down there. And hot dogs. And there was a small table with small chairs for, presumably, small children. But this table was underneath the stair case. I don't know, it was like the entire place was slightly... off.
Then we went to Newbury Comics and I got new CDs! I got Green Blade Rising by The Levellers, Haunted by Poe, The Very Best of Elvis Costello, and Pretzel Logic by Steely Dan. I'm listening to Pretzel Logic right now. I can see by what you carry that you come from Barrytown. Classic songs. And o so very wonderously good.
The Levellers is also good stuff... I research all these CDs before I buy them, so don't wonder that I always like them when I get them. I wouldn't get them if I wasn't pretty damn sure I would like them in their entirety. Anyways. The Levellers are... well, I'm pretty sure they're British, but their music have a very Irish sound to it. It sort of reminds me of a combination of the Dropkick Murphys, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and maybe Spoon. They're definitely not as hard as the Murphys. It's good stuff, I enjoy it.
Poe is also pretty good. I had heard her song Hey Pretty on the radio before (if you listen to FNX or BCN I'll bet you have too... they used to play it some and once you heard it you'd recognize it right off... it's rather memorable). She sometimes sounds like Natalie Merchant, sometimes like Dido, sometimes a good bit like Garbage, and sometimes (to my untrained ear) a little bit like Bjork. Sometimes like something else entirely. The only thing I don't like is that this CD is sort of weirdly tied into this book called House of Leaves, which was written by her brother, and having not read the book, I miss out on some of the nuances of the CD. As McWatt would say, Oh well, what the hell.
The Elvis Costello CD (double CD, actually) is just great because it's got practically every song of his that's any good on it. All his classic songs. Thank you, Corey, for the tip on that one. My dad saw that I got it and he got all excited. Ha. I like a singer that my parents like. I am a dork.
Two, actually. I like Steely Dan. My parents have all the Steely Dan albums. How old school is that, eh? And now I'm buying the CDs. What goes around comes around.
Yup. So we were in Newbury Comics and I blew a major wad of cash (even if it was in gift certificate form) and felt silly for spending so much money. Then we went to the Harvard COOP and I got a book, thereby blowing more cash. I never spend money, so this was sort of crazed for me. Then again, when people are hanging out and they go shopping, it's usually clothes shopping, which means that there's zero temptation for me to buy anything. It's this CD and bookstore shopping that's dangerous for me and my wallet.
We got blessedly caffeinated beverages at Starbucks, and then we sat in there for quite some time and chatted. There was a wonderful girl sitting at the bar thing with us, lying on the countertop and writing frantically in a notebook. Later we were conjecturing as to what she was writing about. She may well have been writing down our conversations. Cat knows we were talking loudly enough, and our conversations were insane enough to attract anyone's attention. Our conversations ranged over such topics as Which type of cracker is best for spreading paste made of souls? and The physical qualities of kiwis, manatees and pterodactyls; and Star Trek fraternities; and How to set up a schedule for doing art over the summer; and Parking Attendant 4-Eva tshirts; and other such things.
Heck, if I was sitting in a Starbucks with a sketchbook and I heard such things, I'd probably write them down. Anywho, Corey wanted to one-up her, so he drew her lying on the counter writing. Just in case she was writing about us. It was highly amusing. I have discovered that, with the right combination of people, you can sit in Starbucks indefinitely.
can you say 'product placement'? and i don't even get paid for it...
Then I came home and worked on the immense scrapbook thing which I am making. It has pictures in it from 1998 to 2003. I've been collecting them forever. Then, because it looked sort of bland, I decided to add a little interest to it by putting in all the doodles I did in school junior and senior years. I already had them cut out and saved, so I'm just sticking them on the pages. It still looks pretty plain, but I think I'm going to keep it that way. I don't think I want it all hucked up.
Then I went and drove around with Jess and Liz. That's another thing you need the right crowd for. I mean, I can sit in a car with Jess and Liz, just driving around and talking, indefinitely. But I most assuredly cannot do this with all people. You need the right people. But I digress.
We were hungry. So we went to Store 24. Liz got a pint of Everything But The ice cream, which is Ben and Jerry's, and has all different sorts of ice cream mixed in with practically every kind of candy you can imagine. And Liz ate it. All. Pretty much. I think Jess had a few bites, but it was mostly Liz. Not only did she eat a pint of ice cream, we also stopped at Wendy's and she got fries. I was impressed.
Then we drove on the single most terrifying road in Marblehead to drive on at night. It's all unpaved and forested and it seems like there are creepy people hiding in the trees just beyond your line of vision waiting to jump your car. The MediMobile was sort of flying over the ruts in the road, and I imagine that it was not much good for the suspension.
Er. Yup. We also had much good conversation, although it was interspersed with The Return of Liz the Metronome, which sort of disrupted things. Also, Jess kept on making us listen to Magic, which must be the most heinous non-rap radio station on the Northshore. I suffers, I does.
Listening to Poe now. This stuff grows on you damn quickly. More well-adapted than fungus, I would say. More effective at growing on you than haustoria.
Yop. S'all for the nonce.
1:23 AM
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Day after graduation. Still can't say I feel much of anything about it. It's very unremarkable. But I got a brand spankin' new iPod for a graduation present, so that has me all excited and whatnot. I've got more tangible emotion about that than I've got about the fact that I've graduated.
Anywho, that was just an excuse to post this:
hats off, swampscott high 2003! (but not '4-eva')
For once, the picture is actually mine! I took it! Those are actual Swampscott High hats floating around up there. I am so proud of myself for not using a pirated image! Even if it's just this once. In order to be poetically just, someone will have to pirate this pic from my site and use it for their own nefarious purposes. But I'm hoping that poetic justice is not served and that no one actually does this.
I slept pretty much all day today. Ah. So nice to be able to do that. Later in the day I went mini golfing with Liz, Jess, Megan and Kate. We tore up the turf, you betcha. Kate does not like the fact that I hung my tassels on my bag (hey, it's not like I've got a car or anysuchthing). Nuh uh! Fashion blunder! Both Kate and Megan wanted to keep score, so we actually stayed on task this time and finished the course without resorting to ball-tossing or ball-kicking or other such un-min-golf-like behaviors. We did it play it from the rough, though.
On the way there we drove much of the distance behind a large souped-up truck. It was lifted up extra high to accomodate these massive wheels and massive axels and things. Hanging from the back of it was, um... well... it was... er. The truck had balls. And I don't mean the soccer kind. I mean the kind that goes bye-bye when you neuter your cat. Yup. They were very entertaining. We spent a good portion of the ride debating on whether one makes such an ornament, or whether it is bought, and if so, where one would go about purchasing such an item.
Yup. Afterwards we got ice cream. We saw Maura et. al. playing mini golf. I wished to go over and heckle them until they missed their putts, but no one else was of a similar mind. Alas. Then we piled back into Peppito, and Liz honked very loudly at them. Unfortunately, at the time there were three people standing right in front of Peppito, making out. With each other. All three. I imagine that would be more messy than enjoyable. Anywho, they jumped when Liz honked and glared at us. Everyone in the car began rapidly dying from laughter. So Liz opened the door, leaned out, and yelled at them, "Sorry, I was honking at them!" [gesturing to indicate Maura et. al.]. This caused us to burst into renewed bouts of laughter. Then we drove away.
My brother has finals tomorrow. I do rather hope that my loud typing is not hindering his precious sleep.
Go check out Small Stories. They're funny. And well drawn. Some of them are quite well drawn. If you scroll down a bit you see a section where it says 'serials' and 'shorts' and so on. The serials and shorts are both pretty damn good things to look at. Highly suggested by me, the Feline Anarchist.
That's all for the evening. G'night and have a pleasant tomorrow.
12:21 AM
Sunday, June 08, 2003
Well.
I have graduated. Creepy. Doesn't feel like it. I wasn't sad at all... then again, I wasn't expecting to be. But I did rather expect some sort of closure. Nope. None o' that. All I'm feeling right now is tired (up 'till 2:30 am last night finishing everyone's graduation presents) and pained (I somehow managed to get a massive sunburn on a day with very little sun).
We had breakfast at Kate's house before graduation, and it was nice. There was a spinach quiche which was DElish. Mmm mmm finger-lickin' good. I gave the people who were there their graduation presents (DVDs with photo slideshows on 'em, complete with random music no one's ever heard of, for the most part). We watched them, and people seemed to like them, so that makes me quite happy. Cat knows I spent long enough on the suckers. Up all night writing those sleeve notes... I was quite proud of some of them. Ha. That sounds pretty stupid. But I actually did spend quite a bit of effort on that aspect of it. I really do hope people get a kick out of 'em.
Graduation actually wasn't as horrid as I had been worried it was going to be. It was our principal's last graduation after 30-some-odd years at Swampscott High, so we were expecting a horrid and lengthy speech. He actually kept it tolerable... although it was definitely about him and not so much about our graduating class. Yeah, he tied it in at the end, but still. He introduced his old teacher who's now in his 80s or something and he went off on that for a bit. People seemed to think that was so sweet, but I'm not so sure I enjoyed it. After all, it had nothing to do with us. Rien.
The superintendent has a penchant for giving notoriously horrible speeches. Never one to break with tradition, he gave a horrible speech. But it was short, which ended up being its only redeeming quality. He started out by asking the lovely singer Cher, wherever she might be, to refrain from wiggling her toes or tweaking her nose so that our good weather would hold. That ought to give you some idea of the sort of speech it was.
Ooo! Wonderwall! I like this song!
We had four student speakers, due to some mildly heated controversy at school which I won't get into here. Anywho. Our class president is a gawdawful public speaker, and he didn't have anything interesting to say, so that speech was a waste. He also won the award for 'most improved over the four years of high school', which sort of makes me wonder in a worrisome way about his grades earlier in his career, since, unless I am much mistaken, they're not overly stellar now. I shouldn't say that, I guess. I don't really know. I pay less attention to our class president than I do to the birds outside my calculus room window.
Anywho. The honor graduate who spoke was Jake. His speech was actually quite good. There were some funny bits in it and the things he said were at least interesting enough to hold my flighty attention. It was a little depressing though, because he indicated that life was essentially downhill after high school. Not really something you want to hear at graduation.
Then we had an 'average student' speak. This was Tom. No offense meant to him, but it wasn't a particularly good speech. I mean, he's only been at our school for maybe a year and a half, and his speech wasn't really about our class. It was more about him and how he lives his own life, and how this is a good example for us to follow. I dunno, I'm not really a fan of the preachy graduation speech.
Then, of course, we had the valedictorian speech. Noah. His life as a screenplay. I think it is safe to say that there's never been another graduation speech quite like that at Swampscott High. It was like Adaptation (you know, the movie), only it was Noah trying to write a graduation speech, rather than Charlie Kaufman trying to write a screenplay. It was very funny. Humorful, one might say. And there were some pretty good points in it. It was, however, too long. Interesting though it was, I think it could've been shorter. I know I saw some of the kids sitting behind the honor grads across from me fidgeting and nudging their friends and looking at their watches. I don't take that as a good sign. But it was a very creative and amusing speech anywho.
Then we all got our diplomas, and no one fell, although Liz almost did. And Danielle Tupper lost her hat. I didn't even know she was still at our school. Ha. I adore people like that. Our diplomas are pretty classy. They come in these nice little book things, with the diploma on the bottom and a little drawing of the high school on the top. People were curious to see if the honor graduates would get a different sort of diploma from the rest of the rabble, since we were already cruelly singled out by way of gold tassels (everyone else got blue and white) for the National Honor Society members and ugly, inconvenient medals for the honor grads. The diplomas are the same, except the National Honor Society kids get a cheap little gold National Honor Society sticker on their diplomas. Just in case you were wondering.
Aargh. I keep on yawning. But I do not wish to go to bed yet. Adult Swim is on tonight, and I shall watch it. I am determined. I have need of some twisted yet bizarrely familiar-seeming humor tonight.
Ha. According to this quiz thing, I am the Twins from Matrix:Reloaded. Well, here. See for yourself.
You are The Twins, from "The Matrix."
Bad, but with a sexy streak- surprisingly
refreshing. You know what you want, when you
want it.
What Matrix Persona Are You?
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Note the 'classy'. I may be many things, but somehow I doubt that classy is one of them. We show up at the Graul family graduation party today... everyone else is at least nicely dressed, even if they're not overtly dressed up. I arrive in sweatpants, a lurid U. Michigan tshirt, and prom sneakers that completely and utterly fail to match anything else I'm wearing. Ha. Yes. Class.
I got my prom pictures back. They came out pretty well, for the most part. This is something to be pleased about. Now we just have to see how the graduation ones come out. I'm a little nervous about them, because the flash wasn't going off at all, but the lighting looked a little suspect to me. I hope they're not all overly dark. That would be... unfortunate.
Alors, I think I am going to go stick my head in a vat of aloe vera in an attempt to alleviate the pain of this sunburn. Probably won't work. I'll wake up tomorrow and I won't be able to move my face at all. Something to look foward to.
schlup schlup schlup gurgle gurgle <--the sound of me with my head in a vat of aloe vera
10:54 PM
Friday, June 06, 2003
this blog is an illusion. it don't existerate. it is a Bad English Blog.
i should be sleeping but i am awake. i am needing to sleep because on the morrow we are practicing our graduation. our class leaders claim that this will only take 45 minutes but i am thinking that their saying of this is a Lie.
passive voice reminds me of my english satire paper which wasn't that funny but the teacher got a kick out of it so hooray for passiveness of voice.
all that this blog is doing is saying that there are more webcomics which i read posted there on the side with all the other good stuff that you either check out or you are stupid. *sticking out of tongue* there is DerfCity which is insanely drawn and full of much politcal commentary such things.
there is also evilspacerobot and i haven't looked at anything on the site other than the Life with Leslie section which is a journal comic that is very well done and also i like his drawing style. i have read them all. they are good. he works at newbury comics which is a store full of goodness but not as much as lovely lovely records.
which reminds me. weebl and bob have a new animation up, finally. erm. linkage here: it is called wee-lo and i laughed
i digress. the other online comic is Elftor which is very poorly drawn but damn funny ha ha ha. and crude. very crude. don't read if you are easily offended. but if you are a callous individual then by gosh golly you should be reading this and laughing as well.
the people at b3ta have my sense of humor. sometimes exactly so. frighteningly so. but i hear from somepoorsod who has no cable that it takes much time to download the messageboard if you have no cable. i am having the cable. i am having the INTERNET OF THE FUTURE (said in echoey old sci fi movie voice). but if you don't visit it, you're really missing out.
i oughts to be goings. now.
probably i will read this tomorrow and get ill from the badness in it. but i will probably leave it up because i am too lazyful to delete the entry. hoo ha.
1:03 AM
Wednesday, June 04, 2003
First an' foremost: Much thanks to Chris for dragging his bum on out here for the illustrious Swampscott High prom, for acting like a mostly normal human being around everyone, for nobly dealing with my psychoses for an entire night, and also for the purty corsage. I appreciates it, I does. It takes a courageous person to deal with me for an entire night.
Things Which I Learnt From the Prom
--It's OK to be late to Town Hall, the buses are not going to leave on time anyways. So don't bother getting mad at your date, even if he hits massive traffic trying to get to your inaccessible town and is half an hour late.
--No matter how hard the photographer tries, it is patently impossible to take a picture of the entire grade in front of Town Hall.
--Bobby pins are fun. They hold your hair up, but you can also use them to pick a lock or stab someone in the eye in a pinch. How handy!
--Don't touch the food. Poor Noah found this out the hard way. He gorged himself and spent the night being violently ill, which of course sucked mightily for both him and Maddie.
--You may think that there won't be many people there wearing bright red dresses. You would be wrong.
--Wearing sneakers was the best decision I've ever made in my life. Ever. They were comfortable beyond comfort. And, as Maddie pointed out, I got a cool pair of sneakers out of it which I can wear in the future.
whee! prom sneakers!
--A tight black and white sequined dress will, in fact, make you look like you belong more on a street corner somewhere than at a prom.
--Bring money for the professional pictures. Or have nice friends like Jessica.
--Watches which are not digital are hard to read.
--Calculator death threats are a load of bull excrement. My brother went to school yesterday and came home unscathed. Everyone survived the prom. Yippee.
--Contrary to popular (Stephanie's) belief, three rolls of film is not a lot of pictures for me to take at such an event. Surely you recall that I took two rolls of film in one hour at a Mock Trial meet. But I guess it's not too pathetic. They had better come out.
--Those shawl things are annoying.
--If it had been about an hour shorter it would have been so much better.
--Listen to your bus driver. On the way home ours told us two stories:
1. He was driving to DC on the highway when a man jumped over the jersey barriers and smashed his head on the bus' side mirror. Turns out the guy had just killed someone and was fleeing from the cops, which was why he jumped the barrier and consequently didn't see the bus.
2. He once was a bus driver for Motley Cru (sp?). On one of their tours, they stopped at a beach and all got roaring drunk one night. The next morning he woke up and couldn't find Tommy Lee anywhere. So he and one of his bus driver friends got out of the bus to go look for Tommy Lee. They found him sleeping on the roof of the bus, naked, "with a seagull sittin' on his ass".
--Wearing dead animals as part of your prom outfit is wrong in 10 million ways. MURDERER! MURDERER!
--The concept of a good DJ at a Swampscott High event is contradictory and, thus, would never happen. Last night was no different.
--I shouldn't have wasted time worrying that my date wouldn't know anyone there, because a) Chris actually conducted himself quite admirably and b) something like half of the people there were either in another grade or from another school entirely.
--The prom is like every other school dance you've ever been to, except you have to wait a long time in line to get your picture taken. You also have to spend more money on dress/hair/etc. Ugh.
...and finally...
--If Liz had been there, it would have been much more glorious.
So, that's what I learned at the prom. Err. Ya. A thoroughly educational experience, as you can see. It wasn't entirely horrific, but I can truthfully say that I'm quite glad it's over with and I don't have to go to another one.
Next time in the Feline Anarchy blog! Things I should have blogged before but didn't because I'm a bad person! Mini golf insanity with Jess, Liz and Megan! Part 2 of the nocturnal driving adventure of me, Noah and Jason! My journey to Brookline!
Or something else entirely! i am such a bad blogger
2:28 PM
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