On Following Your Own Way

Man you guys I am super sorry I dropped the ball on reading through all this shit.  I FEEL LIKE I MISSED SO MUCH WILL I EVER GAIN YOUR FORGIVENESS?  I'm slowly working my way back through time, reading all of your posts and comments... I'll finish some day!

Anyway, I got really excited reading Missy's event list.  I feel the same way... counting down the days until what?  For me, I've got the weekend.  Every week I count down until the weekend.  But what if we had more things to count down to?  I think it'd be great if we counted down to, well... each other.

So I'd like to make a calendar of 2014 events!  The Summer Celebration is already undergoing planning, and hopefully that date works out well for everyone.  Let's add some more stuff to that list!

-June 20/21st: Idk I just really want some sushi man.  Also it's my last weekend before Brendan comes!  Anybody been wanting to do anything special?  Movie Marathon?  Beach Day?  We'll go do that!
-July 4th: Independence day! I'm not quite sure if I'll be in town (I was considering visiting my brother), but we should plan a gathering that day too (unless you typically spend it with your families?)
-August 9th: Summer Celebration!
-October 31st: Have we ever had a group Halloween party where we watch Hocus Pocus and eat entirely too much candy?!
-November 29th or December 5th: Second Thanksgiving!!
December 31st: Drunken New Year's!  What should this year's theme be?!

An event each month should work out I hope!

In other news: The other day I was watching some ridiculous post-apocalyptic movie (oh, it was the new Godzilla!), and I had a crisis about my complete lack of useful skills in the event of a disaster...  I just want to be a useful person who contributes something to the world!  I'm thinking I'll leave my current job in September or December, and maybe go back to school part time or something at COD or Harper.  I hear Harper actually has a good 2-year engineering program that, if you make the grade, will transition into an actual degree from U of I!   Maybe I'll just go build robots, guys.  Or maybe I'll just bake.  Or maybe I'll build robots that bake.

Anyway.... I've also been reading this web comic, hopefully you guys have heard of it: Ava's Demon
It's by some like... Pixar artist or something, and I really like the art and how it's presented... I think it's how the medium of webcomics should be used.  It's really slow to update sometimes so it's also pretty easy to catch up with!

How is it nearly May Already?

I have a dry erase calender that I keep on hand in my bedroom. Every month I write out the days, filling in my work schedule, and every day I cross off a square. Counting down the days to...nothing, really. It's a disconcerting thing, watching time slip away like that.

I feel like I'm at a crossroads of sorts, and I'm not sure which road to take. Keep pushing for an office job? Stick with what I have and try to advance? Work on getting something that's more in line with what I actually went to school for? ...Go back to school?

I don't know.

I do know that I'm not quite who I used to be. I'm not entirely certain what that means, or the exact ways in which I am different. But here I am, listening to weird ass indie folk music--music I adamantly refused to listen to back in the day. It was rock or alternative or techno and nothing else, for so many years. Not anymore. I feel this is mostly your guys' fault, and I thank you for it.

I do know that I have a story I want to write, and maybe this time I'll write it.

I do know that I say shit like that a lot and often have very little to show for it.

I do know that I'll probably keep doing it, too, until the day maybe comes when I finally do have something to show for it.

I guess we'll find out.

Don't Think About the Size of the Ocean

Wow. No body has had anything to say since November of last year. Damn.

Well, I guess I will kick this blog in the face because, hot damn I miss you guys.

I guess the big news of my life is that my parents accepted an offer on the house on Elm. So pending bank approval, that house will no longer have any ties to me. As weird as it seems, I'm not too broken up about it. I haven't considered that house home in a very long time. This is a discussions we have had time and time again, at least I have had it with a few of you.

You make home with people, not with places. Sure, you can decorate your temporary homes. I most certainly do, I believe in the present and making a home because that's what you need. But people are homes that you can carry with you and people can always be a beacon, a home base to seek solace and comfort in. The same cannot be said of place. You all are my home, wherever that may be.

In other news, this week is CARNIVAL! It's my last one, so it's fitting that it's the 100th anniversary of Carnival. I have been slaving away, painting booth until the wee hours of the morning, putting off work, and damn near killing myself. But such is life here. It's exhilarating and crushing all at the same time.

Recently, I went to a concert. I saw the Pigpen Theatre Co. whom I have mentioned before. But man they are a bunch of goofy CMU alums that started a theater company, which is amazing. They are so good live.

So here some music from them:

And then, here's this other guy I recently saw in concert. His name is Douglas Fur and his genre of music is "abrasive dark banjo punk."

Things to do Before 30

Been having one of those days where I think about how old I am. 23 isn't exactly ancient, sure, but still...where the hell has the time gone? 23 years old is two years away from being 25, and that's FIVE YEARS FROM BEING 30. And just...I want to do things. Things that should be accomplished in my twenties. I'm sure when I hit 30 I'll have a list of things I'll want to do within that decade as well, but for now the time is ticking for my 20s.

I guess I should specify--this is not stuff like...Get a college degree, get a job. These are things that exist outside of the daily humdrum of life. I don't want to look back at my twenties and only see "oh, I did a lot of school work" or "oh, I got a part time job and paid some bills."

Here's a list of shit I'd like to see in addition to that, shit that I'd like to do with all of you lovely people:

1. Write and produce a radio play
2. Make a poorly filmed horror short. And I mean really poorly filmed--crashing through the trees in our sneakers, shaky cameras, flailing in the night kind of shit. 
3. Writer's Retreat//Road Trip, though they can be separate things
4. 48 hour gaming session. I did it when I was ten, I should be able to do it in my 20s.
5. Learn a random a skill or craft 

I'm sure there's more, but I have a nasty habit of going too big with my ideas, so I'm keeping it at five. I am dead serious about all of these things, so if any of them interest you, let me know!

<3

And another song

toot toot here comes the sad train

I hardly think this is the time for panicking

I don't know if you all recall, but a few weeks ago I went to the ER for lower abdominal pain. Well, since they couldn't find anything, it's still a thing. It's a manageable twinge of pain that comes and goes.

But, good news! I have narrowed the causes of my pain to two sources: stress, or more likely, voodoo magic.

The problem is that I have no idea who I pissed off and who has access to magic powerful enough to make a very effective voodoo doll of me. So I suppose this means I have to get to New Orleans to find someone to help me break this curse, since I can't find who has the doll and convince them to stop. Road trip anyone?

Or you know, I could take up yoga or something to help me decompress, since despite my wishes for voodoo curses; this is definitely stress. Except, I don't like yoga. And I messed up my back...again.

I do however like to make coffee and sit in cemeteries, contemplating life. But it's getting too cold to spend my weekends there. I woke up to snow on my car this morning and I don't have waterproof gloves. I mean I don't drive my car on a daily basis, but as I stood in the kitchen, looking at my snow-covered car and making coffee, I realized I am not ready for winter.

To be honest, I am not ready for a lot of things. But I am not going to get into that again. We have had this conversation many times. None of us are ready for anything. But it's cool. We'll get through this, together.

I just gotta keep it together in the meantime, which some days is easier said than done. I've explained this at length to Trisha, and I don't think it's something I should discuss on the rather public forum.

I had the realization yesterday that I kinda miss writing papers. None of my classes this semester require papers, and it's kinda killing me. Semester-long group projects are the bane of my existence.

In any case, I am not sending out a distress signal, for once. This is just a signal. Just a friendly little tap on the shoulder, to remind you all that I am, in fact, alive and I am thinking about you all.

This song has been on loop in the background because it makes me think of, in Trisha's words "kickin' ass and chewing glass" so I've been stomping around campus listening to it

Also, are you guys familiar with Necropolis by Jake Wyatt?

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE AWESOMENESS

It's this pretty badass webcomic that's in the making. It's about a girl who goes around kickin' ass, she goes by Third Sword, which is her title not her name.  I want to cosplay as her so badly.

Quick Update

It's been a while since I posted here, but here goes:

• Finally got a job (part time, sure, but still! money!)
• Nanowrimo starts in like half an hour

...and everything else is more or less personal, so I won't bore you with that. 

Have some music (and maybe send some my way, eh?)

I like her voice.