Moved.

I've moved this blog to a new location, as Word Press has more features and control options than blogger does. You can find a blog about common things at http://blogaboutcommonthings.wordpress.com/. My schedule is still Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, with today's blog in the works. I hope you enjoy the new location and layout, bigger and better things are in store.

Thanks for your continued readership and/or bookmarking, it means quite a bit to know that others enjoy my hobby as much as I do.

Filling in the blanks.

It is right now five minutes to twenty-two. My eyes sting, my neck is sore, and I am very drained. The balls of my feet are peeling. I want to write something stream of consciousness, but I know I can't right now. A free-flowing thought exercise is easy when you're a touch typist with your eyes closed, but it's much more difficult when that touch typist is tired. I know that I'll have to spell check this while thing, and it will annoy me.

I should keep typing despite typos, but I have a habit of going back to correct my errors as I type them. I've not done it at all this line. I'm very proud of that. I'll hate it later on.

I don't plan on typing very long tonight, it was a very draining day. I suspect that I'll be finished by 22:05 by the time I'm done editing. This room is very warm. That was delicious pasta. Sweat is gathering on my brow like protesters waiting for someone to rile them up. I hope no riots ensue. That was an odd analogy. I'll leave it. It seems fun and edgy, vaguely politically charged. I've been making political jokes all day. I hate politics, I hate them so much. Especially local.

I should go back to playing guitar when I finish typing this. I'm too tired for it to sound like any of the songs I know, but it's a nice way to cap off a tedious evening. I should practice piano for class, but I don't think I have the energy for it. I must make sure I do practice in the morning regardless of what else I do.

When I played yesterday for the class I successfully butchered songs that I know inside and out. Two songs that I've spent a good chunk of time playing in my house just wouldn't come out of my fingers when I sat at the old Grand. It's embarrassing to fail in front of your peers when you know that you shouldn't. Normally I don't really get embarrassed. Normally I'm quick on y feet and can easily smooth over any lumps in the frosting of public performance's cake. Yesterday I jabbed my finger down and scooped out the inside of the pastry to smear on the wall and call art with my terrible performance.

It's 22:06. I'm a minute over my writing exercise. Blast. At the very least, I know I can force myself to write when I don't really feel like it. Just like high school.

My wrist is itchy where a friend's dog jumped on me. I don't think she can control her energy (most dogs, children, and people I know can't), but she was very affectionate. The scratches are nearly faded except for that itch.

Itchy itchy itchy. When I think about an itch, other parts get it too. Now my thumb itches. How does a thumb itch? I don't know. And my knee, and now my left calf.

I should stop.

Games filler rant!

Post number 70 is a throw away. Why? Because I have other things that are more pressing. I'll edit this with a proper post after I'm finished with my midterm, work, meetings, and getting an incomplete class fixed tomorrow.

Also; Nintendo needs to step up their game for the downloadable games. PSN's got a pretty awesome lineup. Granted, Nintendo's also much less expensive in many cases, but the quality of games is vastly different. Even just looking at the family friendly things, like puzzlers, Sony's finally matched Nintendo. Never thought the day would come.

Tuesday's Psychological Corkscrew

Hot shit, just inside my day's time window. Still Tuesday! This one's going to be a shorty, as it pertains to this blog.

Since I can't seem to regulate and harness my thoughts to repeat at set times and days, I'm considering removing the set posting schedule, and giving it one more malleable. This could limit it to one post a week (which is a lot less work on your part, reader), but I don't feel that's doing anyone a service. I could go back to a post a day, but then there's much more filler and fewer oddeseys into the things that life is made of (in my case, prog-rock, video games, and books by Grant Morrison are likely topics). I could swap it back a day in all cases, putting it at Monday/Wednesday/Friday, but there are so many things I'd rather be doing on a Friday night than writing about whatever I did that day that it would just be silly.

I've been considering this change for the past half hour or so, as I'm not really around a computer frequently enough to make sure I'll have a post at a set time for various days of the week. I could write my work in advance and post it later - it's a very good business practice, and I've done it before - but that requires too much time in one sitting when I could be doing something else that works as well. It's not a long period of consideration, so obviously it's not a matter of dire urgency.

I've been considering a number of other things lately. To cut my hair for the first time in ten years? To abandon all aspirations of writing or teaching and take up a city job in Sanitation or some obscure office? Abandon everything I've come to believe in an become a priest, soldier, or criminal so an organization with much more money can take care of me?

There are benefits to all of these things, and oddly enough, all can work together. I could easily cut my hair to a common length, quit writing and reading alternative literature (which should be the proper term for science fiction, graphic novels, and horror novels that have literary redemption plastered between the covers), and join the Army. I'd be set for life, however long that turns out to be. I wouldn't have to ask any questions anymore. I'd never scrounge for bus money again.

I think I'd hate life though. I appreciate what soldiers do for our country, but I don't think I would ever become one by choice. I'm as capable of following orders within reason and completing my objectives as anyone else, but I have less interest in it than most. I couldn't do it. I respect the people that can more than most others living, but realistically I'm not one of them.

I could get a job wrangling wild 22 lb bright paper, my cubicle decorated with pictures of my family and all the things that remind me of who I could've been before giving my life up, but realistically I wouldn't work out there for the same reason above. I have no interest, and I would fail. Besides that, I'd get better treatment, benefits, and food from the Army in that case.

My insecurity about the future might be the reason why I need to change the posting schedule. That's actually a lie, but I wanted some clever way to wrap it up without sounding like this became a tangent post.

Wish I made money off this stuff. With the whopping 22 clicks on average in bit.ly, I'd be raking in the pennies.

Little People in Extended Metaphor

Right now I'm too sick to really do this. My eyes are closed, and I'm typing by touch. I'll edit it after. My head feels like there's an angry bearded dwarf hitting the side of my skull with a war-hammer over and over, as if I'll let him free soon.

Believe me, dwarf, if I could let you free, you'd be out in the world. I'd love nothing more than for you to get the hell out of my head. Your gold has plugged my sinuses up, and I can only imagine what foul liquid you're pouring from my head. Get out, now.

Realistically, if an angry dwarf were stuck in my skull, he wouldn't be able to come out whole. I would have to take him apart and pull him out bit by bit. Medicine isn't working to dismember him quickly enough, it's just pissing him off. His beard's rubbing the back of my throat, like one of Giger's aliens trying to french kiss a space marine.

I can only hope this dwarf suffocates himself soon.

Hello reader. I'd like to play a game.

I'm playing a game. I'll write a list of things, where each word previously will lead into the next one. A concept or object, whatever the case may be. Each line will be linked to the previous one in some way. It'll be fun.

Things I Like:

Graphic novels as a literary medium
Reading in general
Video games
Board games
Card games
Folk music
Progressive rock
Electronica
Instrumental classical
Alternative metal
Live concerts and readings
Hacky-sack
Trees and flower gardens
Forests
Magic: The Gathering
Collecting things
Sarcastic action movies
Sin City
Inglourious Basterds
Quinten Tarantino
Well written dialogue
Superbad
Coming of age narratives
Innocent love
Tempered love
Self-resolving conflicts
Philosophy
Public speaking
Social settings
New friends
Intelligent conversations
Freedom of speech
The CBLDF

I'll cut it off there for this list.

It's a fun game, but it can tell you a lot about yourself based on what the answers are. I'd have something more substantial to write, but honestly I'm too tired tonight to give something meaty. I'll post a make-up tomorrow.

Bonus Content!

I was going to repost an old piece I wrote about Valentine's Day, but that would really just rip off my audience. However, I feel it might be helpful to explain why this "holiday" doesn't matter to me. After I'll post a real bit for the night.

Valentine's Day is viewed as a celebration of love, but that in itself is a lie. If love exists in a relationship, then it is celebrated every day. Instead, Valentine's Day has degraded into International Fuck-Day. Now candy, card, and condom companies around the world (though really, America's where it's at) are cashing in on the blind group think of people that feel inadequate.

VD (to borrow a joke from a friend) is sickening. Because of the need to cash in, the single would-be consumers are left feeling alone. They feel like there is something wrong with them that they couldn't attract and keep a mate, even though that's no easy task in reality by any stretch of the imagination.

Consider instead for a moment doing these things on any day besides VD. Pick a random day in May to go out to eat and see a show with your significant other, a date in August for random roses, and another in November for chocolate. You look like you actually care about them, rather than feeling obligated to do so by society around you.

I suppose I'll reference something that doesn't exist yet, but the post on love will tie into this heavily. Anyone can spend large amounts of money to buy a girl a gemstone, and it would mean nothing. You could do it, your brother could do it, her best friend could do it. It would mean nothing, especially for a day that you're almost expected to do it.

Want to celebrate love? Do something you don't want to for their behalf, and do it with a smile for them. Do something nice without feeling obligated to or expected to. Go to that opera they want to go to, even though you can't stand it. Leave the mp3 player at home, grin and bear it. Show that you're worth a shit the whole year round.

Check back later today for something oddly fitting.

The long days.

The last few days have been eventful, and for that reason, I could not post on time. You have my apologies.

However, as the days went on, I realized several things:

1) I need to organize my daily life better.
2) I write drama. I don't want to live it.
3) I have spent far too much time living in the past.

Organization comes to many things, but most recently it comes to my interaction with others. I need to plan better when things need planning, choose better when choosing words, and discern better when things need to be sorted. If a situation is bigger than I can handle, I need to admit it and move on. I cannot pretend I can handle everything thrown at me, even if I can handle most of it.

Situations for attention, on another note, create social friction in a way that I will no longer tolerate. I never was a fan to begin with, but after recent events, I find that the more it surrounds me, the more I want to be away from it. I want it gone, at the bottom of the ocean with Cthulhu for company. No matter how great or small the package it comes in, it is not something I feel I should ever have to deal with. This can be a culmination of a number of things: attention antics, false friendship, overt wordiness. They're all tactics that mean nothing. In all cases, they should be stifled and shunned.

Sometimes these situations aren't readily apparent, and cannot be avoided. Most of the time they can be, if warning signs are noted. Depending on the situation, they are sometimes also easily fixed. I must learn how to decide which can be dealt with, and which should be pushed away. I do not feel I've done anything wrong in most recent situations, only that I could've reacted better.

I don't expect any of you to understand what I'm talking about. Not what this pertains to, anyway. This is to keep me writing, and to try to stay sane.

Tomorrow I'll be back with a regular post. Not this bullshit.

Digital killed the Analog (Star?)

I was going to write a filler list of discographies I own (literally, on disk), but I realized just now that it's been a long time since I really got much new music on disk. I'm very close to having discographies for many bands, but fall one or two albums short (usually if it came out in the last three years). It's possible/probable that this is because of the decline of compact disk and the rise of the MP3 (which is terrible, actually. More on this later), but I think realistically it's a decline in my funds and the rise of college tuition.

Assuming that it is actually a media problem, then I have a number of issues with MP3s as a format. To be completely frank about it, MP3s are expensive and transient. They exist only as long as your computer doesn't crash and your mobile device doesn't decide to Hara Kiri. They can be backed up on disk, but most people don't bother. I've heard so many times (and even when I was younger experienced) a crash that wiped music libraries clean. In some cases this means repurchasing hundreds of dollars of music. Some services offer ways to get the music back through licenses and whatnot, but that also means it's something that must be done entirely digitally.

I'm always going to be an advocate for hard copies of everything, I'm the kind of person that backs up everything. I have print copies of everything I've ever written academically (except some of the blog entries on here, ironically), no eBooks, print copies of any recent art I've made (the old stuff was also destroyed in said crash), and other things that fall in these lines. I'm not saying that digital copies of everything aren't useful. They're pretty awesome too. I haven't used a CD player for my portable music in years. I still have a stereo with a CD player and a dual tape deck attached that I use frequently, but that's mostly for plugging the Zune dock into it and letting it play that way. I'd be a liar if I said that I'm against MP3s as a format, or any other electronic audio file. That's how I write/record my music these days.

I do, however, feel that there should be a rise in another physical medium of some kind. If not the CD (though it's still better quality than most MP3's, M4A, ACC, and pretty much anything besides a very high quality WAV), then some other thing. Video's jumped from the casette to the DVD to the BluRay in the CD's lifespan thus far. It's probably time for an update.

This has gotten very off topic and really only outlines my paranoia now. Oh well.

Three days? Oh noes!

Writer’s block is a bitch. Common knowledge. This particular bitch is also raging and hormonal at the moment, thus making life difficult.

I haven’t been around for a few days, mostly due to school work. There isn’t all that much of it left, but what’s there is enough to keep me away from this blog. To an extent, I’ve had topics for this in mind, but generally this past week has been about finals and closing projects for my last real term as an undergraduate. All that stands between me and a diploma is a final in Chinese Civilization, a reasonably short portfolio of poems, and a few months of downtime.

Why am I not graduating in January? The administration and internal workings of my institution are terrible. Most of my classmates, colleagues, and peers have discussed this to a huge extent, I don’t really need to talk about it. Feel free to share any insight anyone has in the comments.

Writer’s block, that silly whore, is not actually in my way when it comes to this blog. She’s sitting on the last poem I need to write for my portfolio, flinging bits of refuse at me whenever I try to get close. Maybe if WB wasn’t constantly pissing off the very people she should be attracted to, she’d get laid and be a much more pleasant conceptual individual.

Usually music subdues the block, putting her to sleep long enough for me to tiptoe around her heap of a body. Today she seems intent on jamming with me, and even when I put on something I doubt she’d enjoy, she tries to pull me up to dance. I never dare, knowing she’ll stab me in the ribs and steal my kidneys if I get too close.

She’ll pass out eventually, I just need to outlast her.

The Foresight Metapost of Win

In the time since I last posted, many things worth writing about have happened. I have not had time to write any of them down yet, but they were all noteworthy in their own ways. Here's a short list of topics I will be posting about in the next two days:

The MTA: Part 4.5
The Merits of Slavery over the Holocaust (derived from a conversation in a magazine office, of all places)
Grammar: Their is no thing two you're argument
Falaffel and the Oral Orgasm
Polyamorousity and Monogomy
Year of the Black Rainbow: A Fanboy's Expectations

I've been writing more often for classes, so each of these posts may or may not feel like a short, informal essay. This is fine though, this is the case for most of my posts.

Depending on my mood in the morning, I may do the Black Rainbow post first before I leave for class. The others will follow through the course of the day or shortly after.

Step One: Live Long
Step Two: ??????
Step Three: Prosper!

When you find yourself nearly watching two buses pass by within seconds of one another and you have a chance to shave an hour from your commute time:

Run.

Final countdown?

I feel accomplished tonight. I successfully wrote/rewrote two pieces, performed mass edits to a group piece (which I really, really dislike, but there's little I can do about that with 4 other people assigned to work in a 10 minute play. Two minutes a person? Not a very good idea, even in the best of circumstances), renewed one of my ID's, got the book needed to work on another paper for a different class, and am nearly ready for sleep.

Only major detriment right now is the state my floor is in. I'll clean it tomorrow afternoon eventually, I keep promising myself.

Somewhat related, after months of "cleaning," which means "months of being too busy to do anything," my bed is now clear and I can stop sleeping on the couch. Fantastic.

I don't have much left in me to say right now. I could talk some more about the MTA, but I'm too tired. It would be forced, and not as well planned as it should be for a subject so sickeningly important.

/end filler.

Rain Delays, but substitute "rain" for "sleep."

I apologize for not posting last night, I came in and fell asleep relatively quickly. Today probably won't be too much better, though there's a chance I won't be completely wiped out from fatigue when I get in. If this is the case, then I'll post something special. If not, it will have to wait for tomorrow.

I have to be on a boat in an hour, which means I have to leave in less than a half hour. Usually these posts take me between fifteen minutes and an hour and a half, I will not have time to even rush out a half assed filler piece for the sake of upkeep.

Merry Un-Birthday and/or Happy Birthday to all.

Not about to see your light...

I used to sing in a few bands when I was younger. Nothing big or special, but it was fun. One was semi-serious, and at the same time more fun than the previous attempts. That was in high school, when I still had time to sing/practice/whatever. I haven't had time to sing seriously since, and my voice has changed since. It's not that I haven't been singing (I sing constantly at work, waiting for the bus, when playing Rock Band, most other places), but I haven't been singing with a band.

Yesterday I worked sound for Live Band Karaoke at my school, and eventually got to perform. It's been so long that I've lost stage presence, and my voice started to give after a short period of time. It made me realize how much I miss being in a band, and how much I need to practice if I'm going to keep that tone of voice.

I'm naturally on the line between baritone and tenor, but my range goes down to high bass when I need it to. I'm more naturally inclined to sing something like Stone Sour or Godsmack over many of the bands I force myself into (my favorites are Coheed & Cambria and Rise Against right now, alto and tenor respectively). I'm used to pushing into that range now, it's not a big deal.

I didn't do something within my normal comfort zone though, I went for something fun. I screamed like I used to, singing "Mother" from Glenn Danzig. It was great for the first verse, and most of the first chorus. Then my voice cracked when I pushed my break with higher screams than was natural. I kept it for the most part later in the song, but it wasn't the same.

This means I need to scream with my full throat more often, and also that I need to find time for a band. Probably after I'm finally finished with college. It will be just like old times, but new.

RANDOM WON'T STOP PLAYING GOO GOO DOLLS.

In the late 90's and early 00's, the Goo Goo Dolls were on top of the world. They had one album that successively scored number one singles for a full four years. Dizzy Up the Girl is a fantastic album, and it earned them their spot. Normally this would lead to an album's constant play killing the band, and turning their albums into Frisbees. Not the case with these guys. Thanks for not fucking your own music up for me. Windows Media Player seems stuck on them, but that's fine with me tonight.

Today I was at a wedding and I realized that architecture is more important than what a location houses. Churches that feel narrow but overwhelming play more heavily on Christian guilt (specifically Catholicism, but it's all over the place, really). This is not how to lead sheep, shepards. You want them to feel welcome and invited.

This church was actually much more modern, and very open. It was structured like an ampitheater with a single level. The altar was centered with space behind, making the audience feel like they were equals with the altar. This is a nice change from the jumbo-claustraphobia rooms.

My feelings on religion are difficult to put into words, and I'm too tired to really place them to print and do any justice. Last night's post was somewhat halfassed and unedited, I don't want to do that two nights in a row.

Instead, I'm enjoying "Sympathy," wishing it was written in a tuning I'm likely to leave a guitar in.

Tomorrow night you get one of the following: Ubercon, MTA #2(now with logic!), or a requested post from months ago. The last one will be fun, but time consuming to write. We'll find out tomorrow I suppose, won't we?

Oh, "Acoustic #3" is on. Good night.

Avoiding Absence

This weekend (and the week so far) have been rather hectic, and I have not had time to post to this page. I apologize for the first of likely many times. In substitute, I offer something I wrote recently for class. It was written in about a half hour, so I'll pretend that half hour was devoted to this page. Enjoy. Entitled "Staten Island."

----------------------

Staten Island is the quilt warming the legs of New York City, made up of unique patches that grow more uniform the lower you look. On the top you find the grays and browns of midtown Manhattan and Harlem, mixing with the greens of forestry and the racial rainbow of the rest of the world. The yellow of the Ferry serves as the final extension to keep it hanging on to Manhattan’s lap.

As your eyes move down the quilt you find more green, less brown, and slowly realize the colors have less variance.

At the center there’s a gray patch, of both industry and blight. This patch was spray painted green, but the gray will never disappear in your lifetime. The superficial attempt at beauty is shunted into obscurity by the overwhelming cancer in the air, a last remnant of the Old New York.

At the bottom the colors are bleached and muted, as the color of free thought and action is drowned out by the immigrants that fled Brooklyn via the Guinea Gangplank for fear of change in demography and the failure to adapt. These patches should be snipped off, but were tacked on too near completion. Now the oranges and eggshell whites of blown out, taped up Guidos and silicone breasted bottle blondes with botched botox are weathering the whole quilt, like the effects of prolonged exposure to the sun, except the sun isn’t shining here.

Staten Island, contrary to popular belief, is not forgotten. It’s widely ignored. This is why.

Ubercon prep filler.

Ubercon is this weekend. If you're in the New York/New Jersey area, you should go. It's amazing. From previous years it can be summed up as 48 straight hours of gaming (all sorts.) There's other stuff too (Harold's Deli, anime screenings, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog as a singalong, etc.) but the gaming is really what matters.

I'm a geek, and I love it. I know of no other place where I can wake up at 3AM and play a "quick" game of Risk (3ish hours) and jump to Rock Band before my friends wake up. I'm not likely to see most of these games anywhere else, nevermind finding other people that play them. It's fantastic, and you should go. Look at their website (ubercon.com), register, and have fun. Do it.

That said, I should be packing for the weekend. Instead I'm typing to you. I demand you feel the love that pours from these keys. Tonight's not a productive night, even though I got in early from campus. I wasted time watching V (a full hour of my life gone for something that seems too compressed and rushed to be worth following seriously), and my continuing saga of trying to beat StarCraft's single player campaign ate another hour or two (if you play, Protoss 7 without expansion).

This is going to be a shorty tonight. One of the long-planned ones is coming up before the convention. Hopefully no more filler.

Apathy Posting #1

Tonight I'm feeling uninspired. This is nothing new. I'm known by many to have alternating bouts of apathy and productivity. Tonight's not going to be a terribly fruitful night.

I just erased five paragraphs worth of rant about holidays to type this line. They weren't very good, redundant and uninteresting. I commented that I hate most holidays, except Halloween, New Year's Eve, and Thanksgiving. The others can lick an ox's scrotum, generally. The reasoning was long winded, and didn't much matter.

Sometime soon, I'll write one of the blogs I promised months ago. There were three topics I've slapped out in conversation in the past that must eventually be written about, and one's coming up soon. Probably Monday, when the weekend's let me un-think my mind out of the corner it's squarely settled into right now.

Now, despite the lack of drive and content, I'm no longer a hypocrate (in this instance). I tell others to work through the sloth, and whatever comes simply is. Tonight, this just is. Something good's coming to make up for it. I promise this to myself.