|
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my own private thermopylae
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|
|
| Red Queen's Race |
[25 Jul 2008|01:21am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 buzz-za-za-za-za-ed |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Coil - "Red Queen" |
] |
Nights like tonight remind me how awesome it is to live here with friends.
Jarrod and I concocted a steak and baked potato dinner for all of us, and aside from the meat needing a little more time to marinate and the potatoes a little more time to cook, it was a smash hit.
Watched Untraceable, which was a pretty decent flick, and then I forced Eddie and Joe to watch Dr. Strangelove (Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb), which is one of my faves of course. Some assorted anime and we chipped a little more away on our play-through of Final Fantasy VII.
I have to say that despite the fact we've been besieged by complaints from the Avalon HOA (which really boils down to one persistent and pernicious problem that should've been dealt with months ago) we've been doing quite well here. Once we get that out of the way and off our minds, I think we're going to be quite awesome. Sure, we could use a fifth roommate, but we're doing fine toughing it out for now.
I have to say what a boon it is to have Joe here. He's "clicked" (or is it "cliqued"?) well with us in a very short time, providing some much needed energy to the three of us who are normally a bit docile. He's become my "apprentice" in many ways... I'm very impressed on just how open-minded he's been. He's taken a shine to some of my favorite music (Devin Townsend in particular), under my tutelage in Tiger Woods '05 has become even better at the game than I am, and has developed a taste for whisk[e]y and scotch like I've just recently acquired.
I'm still struggling a bit. My mind is more scatterbrained than usual lately, in part because there's been some looming issues at home and at work that, quite honestly, will be dealt with soon enough, but until they are I am restless. There's so much I'd like to do - write a story, read some books, work out and lose some (okay, a lot of) weight - but I've been unable to really invest a focused effort into any of them. I'll start on one and then my mind will drift off to something else. I think I have ADD in that regard, but I'll wait until I get a professional opinion on that before definitively saying that I do have it.
Anyhow, I'm off to sleep. I hope this scotch I've had will be a decent dream aid.
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|
| Focal Point |
[08 Jul 2008|08:20pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 pensive |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Chrono Cross - "Quitting The Body", Tool - "Reflection" |
] |
Things are changing for me. Am I changing? I don't think so. My perception has been that people on the whole don't change. Rather, certain attributes of person are revealed about in certain environments and situations. I visualize it as a player's hand in stud poker, with some cards face-down and known only to the player, and other cards face-up for the whole table to see. To the other players, the hand appears to change as face-down cards are flipped up, but the hand hasn't changed at all, merely the players' knowledge of it. What starts as a flush draw may end up becoming two pair.
I feel that there have been cards in my hand that I haven't been able to turn up quite yet - traits that haven't been nourished such as to express themselves. One aspect in particular is my creative side - it has been neglected so. I've been trying to determine why, and it is not due to a lack of motive. Ideas swim around my head all the time, but I haven't been able to rescue them out of the swirling torrents.
I researched adult ADD last week and recognized that I may have it. My niece was diagnosed with ADD early in life, and thus there may be a genetic link. I've thought quite a bit, should I have it too, on how it hasn't been as debilitating for me as it has been for my niece. Reflecting on it, I've come to the conclusion that I haven't been challenged very much in life, and as such, I haven't had a need for a great attention span. With schoolwork, I either breezed through it or blew it off (I hated homework), and thanks to superb memory and test-taking skills I would often receive excellent marks. I never fell too far behind on big projects because external pressure was always there to kick in a sort of "survival" mechanism that allowed me to focus.
But the problem is that for my own projects and visions, there is no external pressure, and as such I'm likely to get distracted easily and procrastinate. So, I'm trying to take action as best I can to cut down my distractions - today I decided to cancel my WoW subscription. I hadn't really touched the game in a few weeks. But I hope that it will take one more thing off my mind and will be one less thing to distract me.
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| Stream of Consciousness Bullcrap |
[03 Jul 2008|01:04pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 content |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Neurosis - "Bridges" |
] |
So today is Total... Thursday? It's awkward but welcome for the end of the work week to be sooner, especially after putting in some hours over last weekend. I'm not doing that this weekend.
I can really use the rest. The past week has been a bit stressful for me at home and at work. As soon as I think that things are all settled, something else pops up that needs to be taken care of. I hope this weekend things can be resolved for a while, I'm done with this "no rest for the weary" business.
It doesn't help that my team is absolutely sucking right now. It'd be nice if they got their act together before tonight, considering that the Yanks are nowhere near as good of a team as the Rays are right now. I hate this "finding new ways to lose" streak they're on right now.
I can say one thing for sure - if not for the new found camaraderie in my house I'd probably be going nuts right now. I can't recall any time in my life where my residence has been as fun as Casa de Nobra is now. The new living room setup is far superior to the old one, the PS3 is rather bitchin' both on new games (COD4 and Ratchet & Clank) and old (our LOL-tastic playthrough of FF7), and there's just more energy being exuded here than there ever was before.
Saw WALL-E last night. Fantastic film, and definitely more geared toward adults than kids. Well worth the $8 to watch on the big screen. Though someone online brought up a good point about it - about the hypocrisy of Disney on a movie with such an anti-consumerism message and how Disney is still making toys and a load of other worthless junk based on the film. I figure that's on Disney's side though, honestly, I wouldn't mind if Disney fell off the face of the Earth. I just hope Pixar keeps doing their thing for many years to come.
Anyhow.. off the clock in a few hours. Can't wait for tonight, tomorrow (Cinco de Mayo II) and Saturday (getting shit resolved and off my mind).
|
|
| TOTAL FRIDAY |
[27 Jun 2008|02:42pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 happy |
] |
-Back pain sucks. Woke up yesterday with some acute pain in my lower back, and so I took the day off from work (my PS3 was coming anyhow, more on that later). Today it's been between the shoulder blades and annoying the hell out of me.
-Got my PS3+MGS4 bundle with an additional DualShock3 yesterday. Mostly just set up stuff yesterday. Thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) makiotwist the entire Casa de Nobra crew has their PS1/PS2 cards loaded on my system now. Tried out a few PS2 titles - and yea, there are some issues with the software emulator on the PS3. Soul Calibur 3 has a significantly reduced framerate on it for some reason, and Tiger Woods '05 has a small but annoying graphical glitch on it. But as far as I'm concerned, it's going to be the "partybox" of our house - not only being our movie-playing console, but also functioning as PS3/PS2/PS1 console and media center/jukebox. I'm going to run down to Waterford to get some component cables
-TOTAL FRIDAY. Off work sometime soon. Hooray.
|
|
| SBC 6/25/2008 |
[25 Jun 2008|10:26am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
cheerful |
] |
-I *should* be getting my PS3 sometime Thursday. This means funtimes this weekend. It's the MGS4 bundle, so I'll have something to play right away, but I'll be getting s'more accessories and games pretty soon. It's essentially going to be the center of our entertainment area - I plan to use it for movies and audio for parties.
-Casa de Nobra, a.k.a. "A" House or "We Were Here First" House, will continue to be for at least another year, though quite a bit different than originally constituted. Mallory and Rob will be departing, and they'll be missed - I had a great time over the past year living with them, and as much as it sucks that they'll have to be moving out, I think it will all work out for the better in the long run.
-There'll also be some internal shuffling going on. In a few weeks I'll start to take over the master bedroom downstairs. We're also likely to reconfigure the front room and living room, perhaps moving the TV over to the other side of the bar/separator into the front room for glare reasons.
-Getting used to functioning without caffeine. Dunno what prompted me to get back to trying to cut down on soda and such, but so far it's worked well.
-I'm developing a taste for scotch and other whisk[e]ys. It's another thing that's hard to explain, but I got over the bitterness and burn and I'm now actually enjoying the stuff either via straight shots or on-the-rocks. It's probably going to be my alternative to the "Beer vs. Mixed Drink" situation.
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| So Long Spring... |
[20 Jun 2008|02:22pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 peaceful |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Coil - Summer Solstice, Pelican - "Autumn into Summer" |
] |
Now, I'm not any sort of pagan or follower of any sort of post-Christian New Age horsecrap, but I did have today marked on my calendar. I don't believe there's any great astrological or spiritual connection with cycles of the sun - but I do feel as animals, we humans too are affected by the changing of the seasons. The change in duration of sunlight during the day, and the resulting change in temperature and weather patterns certainly have an effect on our biology, and as such, there are psychological effects as well.
Let me say that I am rejoicing the end of Spring and the entry of Summer, which will happen in little over five hours. Spring has always seemed to have been the most tumultuous season of the year for me. As I surmised before, it most likely has to do with the warming temperatures, lack of rain, and having to return back to work/school that just seems to overwhelm and exhaust me.
Summer, by contrast, has always been favorable and I'd say because it's always been the herald of a lengthy period of leisure time. But even now that I'm working and have no discernible period of off-time, I have to say I feel much better now. Something about those afternoon thunderstorms that seems to help me get over the oppressive heat.
And it's good, because I am going through a bit of a stressful stretch here, trying to manage things here now that Rob and Mal are moving out and we need to take care of a lot of things as a result - from switching the utilities over, to haggling the owner and his agents for a new contract, to replacing all the furniture that Rob and Mal graciously let us use over the past year. I've got a lot on my plate now, but it doesn't seem to be bothering me much right now. Had it happened a couple months ago, I would certainly be in a very deep panic right now.
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to enjoying another TOTAL FRIDAY, this time with some summer flare.
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| SBC |
[18 Jun 2008|11:56am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
amused |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Depeche Mode - "The Love Thieves" |
] |
First order of business:
Congrats to the boys in green, the 2007-2008 BOSTON CELTICS, on their victory last night. I'm not a basketball fan in the slightest (don't mind playing the game, but watching it is excruciating), but it's good to see they're joining the Boston sports renaissance in erasing decades of suck in all major professional sports. BRUINS, we're looking at you to get your act together. Meanwhile, keep doing your thing RED SOX.
TOTAL FRIDAY and such on, you know, Friday. I'm putting in a few extra hours each day leading up to it so I can take off early Friday afternoon. Some PTC action later - I'm gonna resume Parasite Eve. If you all want to hop in, let me know, or if you want to try another game (folks seemed disinterested to me, let me know if that isn't the case).
I managed to find the MGS4 Playstation 3 bundle online for a decent price and ordered it (STIMULUS PACKAGE!). Looks like it will be getting in sometime next week.
Won't be back home until later tonight, having dinner over at my mother's house after work. Take care everyone!
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| TFF:The Revenge |
[13 Jun 2008|11:37am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
excited |
] |
TOTAL FRIDAY
I'll be getting off work around 5:00pm so I'll be home around 5:30ish.
Total Wine run soon after.
I think I'll skip Pei Wei this week in favor of the old staple... VOCELLI'S.
Booze, pizza and classic games.
Can't frickin' wait.
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| Here's What I'm Thinking For TOTAL PTC FRIDAY |
[10 Jun 2008|02:29pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
mellow |
] |
Okay, so I'm probably going to stop by Best Buy or some place Thursday and get myself a PLAYSTATION 3 with Metal Gear Solid 4 and all. That will complete our ensemble of consoles in the A house living room.
We have a lot of options for PTC Friday. I know with MGS4 in hand that there will probably be a strong desire to play it, and since Thursday is a raid night with my guild I can probably leave it untouched until Friday night. I've got no problem with this, just that I wanted PTC Fridays to be more of a "retro" thing. Would folks be cool with doing a MGS-athon on Saturday? (apologies to makiotwist who will have played it two solid days before then)
I'm trying to think what cames to crack out. Here's a list:
Xenogears: A very good RPG, but very, very lengthy (~50 hours). I know a lot of folks haven't been able to play through it and are curious about the story (it's a very good story and despite the giant suckfest of the second disc, it's presented well). There are some very slow and frustrating parts to it.
Chrono Trigger: Very entertaining for a RPG, it's short and has a lot of replay value (New Game+ and multiple endings). Good story and cool characters.
Valkyrie Profile: With Joe's PSP-contraption downstairs we can put this on the big screen. You all know I like the game a lot despite quite a few flaws - mainly it's a very melodramatic game (it's about people dying, after all), there's some annoying voice acting and most of the game time is dominated by fighting trash and moving around the dungeons. The learning curve is also very steep, but that's why I recommend it as a PTC game because I can cut through all the crap with the menu system.
Parasite Eve: This is actually a game I own and haven't played through all the way. Dated now for sure, but it's a really cool blend of survival-horror and RPG. Some parts are creepy as hell and would work well downstairs with all the lights turned off.
Silent Hill 2: I think we have this, and I've been meaning to play it.
There's other games for sure, but those would be my picks for now.
I'll try to get home early (5:00pm or before) on Friday so we can hit up TOTAL WINE early and so we have plenty of time to game it up.
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| In seed time learn; in harvest teach; in winter enjoy. |
[07 Jun 2008|02:36am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
drunk |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Alice In Chains - "Over Now" |
] |
"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." -William Blake, "Proverbs of Hell", The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Righteous party here at Nobra House A, thanks to lechuckscurse. Drink drank drunk.
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|
|
[02 Jun 2008|12:48am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
happy and buzzed |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Silent Hill 4 OST - "Tender Sugar" |
] |
Hot sake. Venture Bros. Metalocalypse. Red Sox win, Yankees Lose. Solarian down.
If tomorrow wasn't fucking Monday, everything would seem right in the universe right now.
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[31 May 2008|01:14am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
drunk |
] |
|
|
| My Birthday... |
[28 May 2008|12:56pm] |
So my birthday is coming up and I have to answer the ever-annoying question: "what do you want [me to buy for you] for your birthday?"
It's not that I don't like people or their generosity, or that I have some grudge against the institution of gift-giving on birthdays (as arbitrary as it seems, it really doesn't bother me much). It's nice to have people express their friendship and affection for you once a year.
No, my problem with people buying crap for me stems from a few angsts:
1) I know rants about consumerism are so passé now, but seriously, you don't "have to" buy me anything. I'm rather dismayed by how much mega-corporations and their marketing affects our culture, and the worst tactic of all is the notion that we have buy other people useless crap or they won't think much (or forbid, worse) of us. I know that the price of gas is really starting to impinge on everyone's budgets, and at the same time that's causing prices of other things to go up (including potential gifts you'd buy me), and I know that you're probably not going to get any kind of significant raise from your employers anytime soon. So save your cash for things you need.
2) Thinking about it, gift-giving kinda becomes a zero-sum game. Certainly one intangible benefit is that there is goodwill exchanged between friends; but on a tangible level you've got two people spending money on each other and you run into problems of buying stuff that the other person already has or doesn't want, etc. As far as tangible things go, the two people are better off spending their own cash on what they want.
3) From a more personal level, I have a decent amount of money and I know a lot of my friends are artists, students or have financial obligations that limit their spending power. I'd rather not see people suffer as a result of buying me a gift when I have more than adequate funds to get stuff for myself - if anything, I should be the one getting them stuff.
So from this I have one request to folks: don't buy me anything. Friendship is a gift enough, but if you really insist on getting me something, make something for me. Don't buy me a card (this blog post sums up my thoughts on this), if you have something to say to me, write me a note or send an email with your thoughts, not some mass-marketed slogan. Draw me a picture, or if you absolutely must buy me something, get some good beer or liquor and we'll chill out and chat while hammering some cold ones back.
Pardon if this comes off as kinda bitchy. That's not my intent here. If you don't want to get me a gift, I won't be hurt (I don't really need anything to be honest, and if I want something, I'll go buy it myself). I know making stuff takes a while and time is also a commodity people are short of lately, but if anything I type this as a way of breaking my own self out of the lazy tendency of just throwing money around and to help cultivate my own creative nature.
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|
| More Writing |
[27 May 2008|12:50am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
nostalgic |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Intronaut - "Nostalgic Echo" |
] |
It's 12:50am as I start writing this, and I'm planning to force myself out of bed at 7:00am to get into work, but I'm going to go ahead with this. One of my worst habits has been to put things off until the next day, and by that time comes around the next day I've already forgotten what I was intending to write, or I had edited myself so much that I wasn't sure if it was worth my time.
Anyhow, I had a meditation today on the way over to my mother's house for dinner. Well, less of a meditation but rather an invocation of nostalgia - I was listening to Devin Townsend's Ocean Machine album and that was the cause of the memories flooding my mind.
There have been several periods of my life that I vividly remember - where certain experiences are tied to particular albums, games, smells and other sensory stimuli and there's no way to unglue them. Nor would I care to - such vivid nostalgia provides a way for me to look back at my life, how I was, what I loved, how I thought. And from these memories I can gauge myself, see how far along I've come, and what weaknesses and flaws I still retain.
Devin Townsend's music, particularly Ocean Machine, is tied very strongly with the summer of 2002, when I had just freshly graduated from high school. My mother insisted that I find a job that summer, I suppose as a way of injecting discipline and professionalism into my life, but also to give me a glimpse at what I could expect for work without a college degree. Universal Orlando held a job fair and I thought it was an ample opportunity - they were paying well over minimum wage and had tons of perks to boot. I was hired on the spot, and took a retail job working the late shift (3:00pm to "close", which was usually hours past when the park closed).
What I remember so vividly was waking up past 1:00pm most days of the week. I'd be driving the trusty Dent-mobile, Ocean Machine blaring, down I-4 from Winter Park. As the weather is wont to do in summertime in Florida, it was usually raining during my commute. What was so surreal to me, that resonated in me and why a normally drab commute became such a vivid memory for me was how well Devin Townsend's music melded with the raining urban atmosphere, and how his lyrics (which he wrote around the age of 18, my age at the time) affected me. In a way, I was dealing with the pains of isolation and alienation again (can't say it's akin to Townsend having to deal with his bipolarity as a youth, but I felt a connection anyhow); as I attended a private middle school I knew very few people at my public high school, and on my transition to college I had to deal with the prospect of starting my social life from scratch yet again.
But the imagery of coming back home, usually a bit past midnight, also has staying power with me. I was alone in my car, enjoying the nuances of the music, glad the day of work was over. There's something about seeing a city at night, even if it's a crappy town like Orlando, that's just beautiful in and of itself. I'd get back home and hop on my (then) new PC to play some Anarchy Online, and that was an exciting experience for me. The game, at that time, seemed so huge and daunting to me - Omni-1 and Rome (Omni-3) were sprawling metropolises, the skill system was complex, and I had yet to see even 20% of the world map.
Something has to be said about that feeling of wonderment that I had going all that summer - that feeling of the world (both real and virtual ones) being so large and mysterious, that I would oh so love to have back again.
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|
| More Boring Crap |
[23 May 2008|11:46am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
contemplative |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Strapping Young Lad - "Detox" |
] |
Writing more... writing more...
Pardon if this post comes off as a little angsty. It's one of those LJ posts about my personal love life (or, more accurately, my lack of one). If you absolutely hate reading posts on such matters, here's your chance to stop reading and save yourself a lot of time.
I'm hoping that this doesn't get bogged down in angst, rather I want to be very analytical here. However, that's not going to stop me from making observations that are more than likely a bit crass and that some people may find offensive; quite frankly, I don't give a shit anymore. People today need to get over their fucking postmodern temper tantrums and realize that truth doesn't change just because they don't like. There is no god, humans are animals, the universe is a harshly chaotic place that doesn't (or rather is not capable to) give a shit about how you feel.
This brings me to my first point, one so brutally unromantic that people will no doubt hate me for it. I don't believe in the concept of "soulmates". They don't exist. Or rather there is no empirical evidence to believe they exist (and hence the most reasonable conclusion is that they don't), let alone the whole malarkey about the "soul". I do not believe that there is someone out there who was "made for me". That's bullshit, fantasy crap that is contrived by weak minds who need to comfort themselves, either because they're single and "that person is out there", or they can't imagine their current lover is anything less than perfect. Suit yourselves.
On the flip side, we live on a planet where there's over 6 billion of our species on it. That's a big enough sample to believe that there's someone (perhaps more than one!) person out there that you are extremely compatible with. I find some solace in this fact.
But one thing I can't deny is the utter physical and biological nature of love, that my notions of more platonic love that I held when I was younger were very misguided and not grounded in reality. We are driven by nature to reproduce, and sadly our Western culture has been dominated by the mass moronism of Christianity and sexuality has been branded sinful. This has resulted in a very sexually-awkward society.
I think a far more natural system, and more importantly a system that maximizes human contentment, is something akin to the family philosophies of the ancient Greeks. There, men had wives which they were expected to raise a family with, but they were also allowed to pursue their sexual interests (which, of course, weren't meant for conceiving children). Now this is a very sexist mindset and it is there I find the major fault with the Greeks. But let's look at this from a more modern perspective: why don't we do this? I think a lot of people set themselves for disappointment by expecting all their desires to be rolled into one person. You find a person attractive but their personality is annoying or otherwise grating, why is it necessarily bad that you want to have sex with them? Sexual attraction is a purely physical impulse. On the other hand, why shouldn't we try to form close personal bonds with people who we "click" with, even if they don't fit our ideal aesthetic? I think the idea that our partners have to be someone who is not only a friend, but an attractive and suitable mate all at the same time is an expectation that can only lead to frustration.
Realizing now that I was going to direct this post toward my own frustrations trying to find someone to be intimate with, I think this is a good tie-in. There are certain facets of my person that I feel that I need to work on, but I feel my greatest hindrance right now is my physical appearance. I am overweight (my own fault there) and balding (which I can't do much about)- if I were a foot shorter I'd be a shoo-in for Jay Sherman. But otherwise I feel confident in the rest of my abilities and behaviors as a person, but I know that my appearance makes it difficult for me, and hence the source of my frustration.
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|
| So... (Random Thoughts Pt. 2725) |
[22 May 2008|11:41am] |
>>I need to start writing more. Even if it's more "conversational" stuff on LJ. I just need to get into the habit of writing my thoughts down instead of my usual procrastinatory reflex of "I'll do it later". I'm hoping to get to a point where it's more natural for me, where I won't have to stare at the screen or page and think about what I'll say next or how I'll say it. In the words of our favorite sweatshop sneaker company, "just do it", should be the motto.
>>From what I've heard on the latest Indiana Jones installment, I think I'll pass on it in theaters. I loved the original three movies as a kid - they were that kind of fun, entertaining blockbusters that I could get behind (like Iron Man was this year, or the first Pirates of the Caribbean flick). But if you're going to make another movie in a series for pure nostalgia or because you've run out of ideas for new movies or you feel the need to make a trilogy (ahem... Pirates of the Caribbean and Matrix, your attention please...), you probably shouldn't make the movie. I'd like to see all these remakes and tacked-on prequels/sequels go the way of the dodo. Want to conjure up some nostalgia? Why not re-release the frickin' old movies and classics to theaters? Hollywood could make a ton of money doing this, especially for those of us who really wanted to watch some of these movies "on the big screen" but never got a chance to.
>>2008 is shaping up to be ridiculously good for music. Been enjoying Bitcrush's and Torche's latest efforts. Not to mention Opeth and Mastodon are set to release albums this year.
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|
| Discipline |
[19 May 2008|12:00am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
ponderous |
] |
At the start of the year I resolved to have more self-discipline. Waking up relatively early for work (7:00am, which I know a few folks will scoff at), starting a regimen of both cardiovascular and weight training, start cooking more frequently, stop biting my nails, etc. Well over the course of the past two months that discipline, which I really started to cultivate in the first two months of the year, went to shit.
As much as I don't want to be irresponsible and blame this on something out of my control, I have felt uninspired since the change of seasons, and I've been trying to figure out why. As much as it's stupid superstition to try to look for patterns out of the chaos of modern life, I feel that there's something about Spring that affects me - I don't think it's a mere coincidence that the worst depression of my life, one that almost ruined me as a student, was in the heart of Spring. One main culprit, the veritable elephant in the room, is daylight savings time. The loss of an hour, adjusting to sunlight out during different times of the day seems to screw with my internal clock. There is also the schizophrenic Florida weather in early Spring (cold one day than searing the next), and the fact that the temperatures begin to touch the 90s before the summer raining season begins - I know I am not a warm-weather person and the heat tends to sap me of a lot of my energy. Perhaps the return of allergens in the air also helps contribute to that overall groggy feeling I've had for the past couple of months.
Whatever it is, I'm not sure quite how to counter it, at least as long as I remain here in Florida. I remember how refreshing it felt to be in Colorado Springs a month ago - the cool dry air and the snow seemed to do wonders for me. I've played around with the idea of promising myself to get the hell out of this state by January 1st, 2010. That seems like a reasonable time for me to build work experience, get a few raises and build my credit so I can move on up. Where I'll move I don't know - probably somewhere like the Pacific northwest or perhaps somewhere in New England.
Anyhow, I'm off to sleep. I intend to force myself out of bed at 7:00am anyhow, so I may not be the most well-rested tomorrow after work.
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|
| Entropy |
[08 May 2008|01:49pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 okay |
] |
Well, last night's Red Sox game was one of those stabbed-in-the-nuts kind of buzzkills (I had a good buzz going right when the Sox came back to tie it, and a really good one when they took the lead). Atleast Papelbon knows the Tigers got lucky (check-swing hits and broken bat bloops) and didn't go cry in the dugout like a Yankee.
I'll be passing on Speed Racer. I'm still rather pissed that I spent money on the Matrix sequels. No offense to those who want to go, it just doesn't seem like my kind of movie.
On the plus side, some of the latest additions to my music collection have really started to sink in. There's quite a few albums I bought a few months ago that I kinda brushed aside when I first got them and didn't really give them proper attention to appreciate them. To name a few:
Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream (I think this is in league with In Absentia as far as PT's best albums go)
Mastodon - Blood Mountain (not as accessible as Leviathan, but a "grower" for sure)
Buried Inside - Chronoclast (very tough to hear the sophistication in this metal through the drums, screams and noise, but I've finally heard it and it's pretty damn awesome)
Thrice - Alchemy Index: Volumes III and IV (Air and Earth) (definitely much more experimental and less mainstream/emo than Vheissu, a plus for sure)
Otherwise it's looking like yet another lazy weekend for me. And I'm fine with that.
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| Seven Songs |
[06 May 2008|05:32pm] |
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1. Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Volume Four (Earth) - "The Earth Isn't Humming"
2. Bitcrush - Epilogue in Waves - "What Would Hope Be Without Disappointment"
3. Jesu - Conqueror - "Brighteyes"
4. Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream - "Don't Hate Me"
5. Wolves In The Throne Room - "Queen Of The Borrowed Light"
6. Soilwork - A Predator's Portrait - "Grand Failure Anthem"
7. Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Volume Three (Air) - "Daedalus"
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| Impasse |
[30 Apr 2008|03:35pm] |
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mood |
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There's usually a ton of cryptic passive-aggressive bullshit from anyone on LJ and even I have to admit to resorting to it a few times. Well I'm really not up for games anymore; I think open communication is best, and I'm kinda reaching the point where I'm not too concerned about what other people think of me. So here goes.
Tomorrow will be May 1st, when the owner of what's come to be known as "Nobrahouse A" is obligated to tell us if he intends to renew the lease. I'm not too worried about it, to be honest. I highly doubt that the owner will try to sell the house this year, considering the rapid downfall of the housing market, the market value of this house is probably markedly less than what he payed for it. If the owner intends to live in this house sometime in the future, I'd imagine there's still quite a bit of the mortgage to be payed off as the house is not even one year old yet. For whatever reason the owner decides not to renew the lease, I'm fully confident I can find another house here in Avalon Park to live in.
I like it here on the "East Side" of town despite the relative lack of culture and development out where I am in Avalon. It's under ten miles to work, and despite having to deal with the terrible traffic for the commute, I don't have to brave the 408 or I-4 or go all the way to the other side of town. As much as I'd like to move out of Florida and go elsewhere that isn't such a subtropical dump and isn't overrun by retards, rednecks and evangelists. Eventually I plan to head out to the West Coast sometime, perhaps Seattle. But for now I need to collect some experience for my resume, build my credit up, and just get more comfortable taking care of myself.
It's a shame that the whole "Nobra in Avalon" experiment will more than likely be coming to an end soon, and as much as I'm going to miss having a good portion of ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) failnobra living within a few miles of each other, I understand it's for good reason. I've always heard others advising against living with friends, and while I haven't had many issues with it at all, it's pretty clear now that there's always unforeseen issues involving culture/living clashes, people being on different sleep-schedules, and so on. I don't take any personal offense by it; it's just that some living arrangements between people are incompatible although those people still get along as friends and such. I also understand that there's a lot of inconveniences for many of us living in Avalon, particular those folks who have to get all the way across town for work with the increasingly crazy traffic and rising gas prices.
In the meantime, though, I hope to have a good time while in Nobrahouse A. I'm hoping there's more movie nights, parties and the usual lazy weekends to come.
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