Moving Day!

If you're reading this, then it's moving day and I'm on the way back to college. The hilariously sad part of this particular moving day is that, should things work out the way I want them to, I'm moving up to college today, and I'll be moving again at the end of the month to my awesome new Apartment of Awesomesnaps (TM). So, yes it is a bit of a wasted effort, but I also need to have a place to stay for the next two weeks.

I gotta say, it's a bitter sweet feeling going back to college. I do like college, I like living on my own (no offense to my family. They're fantastic and have been amazingly supportive during for the past month, but I do like having my independence back), but I will also miss my family. We've kinda reconnected a bit since my accident. It's the kind of experience that brings any family together.

One of the most surprising (and strangest sounding surprises) is that I really like my brother. I mean, I've always loved him, and I've always been there for him, and he for me as well, but I caught just a glimpse of the man that he's turning into, and I'm very pleased. I think he'll do great in this world. He graduates this may, can you believe it? Well...I mean, I'm sure you can. You don't really know him at all. But trust me, if you knew him, and you were his brother, you would not be able to believe how fast he's grown and you'd probably be astounded that he's going off to college in the coming August as well. I'm very proud of him.

The other bitter taste to the sweetness of independence is independence without Darling Dearest. She's not going to be there, and even though I've gone to college for several years without her, I can't imagine how I did it, and I definitely can't imagine how I can go back. The one cooling salve to that sting is that she will only be an hour from me because she got accepted to a very exclusive rehab program and will be soon getting training in all of her physical and mental skills. It's a 2 week program that is pretty hardcore, and then she'll be sent for a more prolonged stay at another rehab institution. But the fact that in just a little over a month, she's already come back this far is astounding and I'm impressed more everyday by how amazing she is. [/awestruck]

Anyway, so as I was saying, I'm moving today. And then moving again at the end of the month, but to my Apartment of Awesomesnaps (which will eventually get a much cooler name).

On resolutions news, I'm doing okay.

Health wise, I almost don't even need my cane anymore. I darted across the room the other day without it to clean up a spill in the living room. It was a little uncomfortable afterward, but it means I'm aaaalmost ready to be totally caneless.

Reading wise, I have started on the Twilight saga, which is much, much better than I first gave it credit for. Of course, the movies are vile pieces of garbage that should never see the light of day, but the books are pretty good. It is kinda creepy that Edward is so very old compared to Bella...who is but 17 (*coughpedophilecough*), but I guess love comes in all forms. And I am...shamefully...Team Edward. There I said it. I have finished Twilight and New Moon, and since I do not have Eclipse or Breaking Dawn (or as my brother so elegantly retitled it, Breaking Wind), I have moved on to Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

I didn't think I'd like it as much as I liked American Gods--and I really liked American Gods--I'm not hooked into Stardust as well, and look forward to finding out more about Tristan Thorn and his adventures in Faerie. So, two so far with number three closing in fast. After Stardust, I will move onto a non-fiction book called Children of Jihad in my ongoing efforts to read outside of my norm (fiction), and in my ongoing efforts to keep myself informed.

Writing wise, I've been doing okay. Just working on notes, and came up with an idea that should have been obvious from the get-go, but was not so obvious for some reason (I don't understand my thinkings!!). I have trouble nailing this one down, and just thought of more things this evening that I missed in my earlier drafts of my outlines. Don't want to talk about it too much. I always wind up not finishing them.

Homework wise, there is nothing to report. I have not been back to school yet.

So, anyway, that's how my Sunday is going to be going--moving, unpacking, tidying up, etc. How has your weekend been?

Let the Countdown Begin!

25 Days

25 Days until I go back to college. My girlfriend leaves two days early, and I'll be going to help her move in, and I may leave the day before I have to go back up so that I can get there early to move in.

Just thought I'd pop in and update a little. It's been busy. Last week was full time, and this week is back to part time, but I still have two weeks of work left.

Still Alive

I'm still alive, ha ha, just up to my eyeballs in school work. The move was successful, and I'm much happier than I was. Hopefully my school load will lighten in the near future, but Edgar Allan Poe and Modern American Lit look like they want to team up to kick my butt.

Short Posts Are Annoying

I'm sorry for posting so many brief posts and such over the past several days. I've been extremely busy, and it doesn't look like things will be getting any better. I've been keeping careful track of my grades to make sure that I can keep my scholarship. Next semester is going to be a fun one though. If I can, I'm gonna try to take Fiction Workshop, and a class specializing on Edgar Allen Poe, both of which have me very excited.

Beyond that, I've also been working on my latest project. It's coming along pretty well, but every time I think I'm ready to write, I remember something that I need to have settled before hand. The plot is still very convoluted, and the idea is so complex I'm having trouble tackling them. I don't want to have the story too complex -- no one will understand what's going on, but I feel there's more the story than I originally thought. So, after a test scene, I think the story will work, but I need to work on it a bit more. On the plus side, I made quite a bit of progress on it, yesterday. Today is going to, at least partly, be devoted to catching up my homework. With the end of the year fast approaching, I'm feeling the noose tighten so I'm scrounging for every point I can whether I need it or not, ha ha.

On the other news front, I've been busy with more than just school work. I also got a part in my school's production of The Pirates of Penzance. I'm only a part of the chorus, but it's still fun. It's quite an adventure though, since I don't know how to read music. I'm having the others in my group teach me, or at least explain where I can follow along a bit better.

I've also been reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I know that he's taking over The Wheel of Time series, and I was curious of his writing style. I really like the book so far, it has a very interesting magic system, and I might start dropping hints for the second one to my family for Christmas.

And finally, movies. I'm a huge movie buff. When I treated myself yesterday with a trip to Hastings, I found a movie that made my jaw drop. It's called Sinatra -- it's about the life of Frank Sinatra. More importantly, Frank helped with the movie some. I've been talking about how I'd like to see a Frank Sinatra movie for while. Little did I know there was already one made. So, I might be spending part of this evening reveling in the story of The Voice. I also rented Speed Racer, just out of curiosity. Some of my friends told me it was good, some told me it was horrible. I'm easily pleased, so I suspect I'll enjoy it, even if I don't love it.

Anyway, that's all for now. For those of you participating in NaNo, how are things going? Some of my quitter friends have already dropped out. I teased them about it, but I can't say too much since I didn't participate at all. To those of you still in, good luck, and I can't wait to see what comes of it.

Long Time No Speak

I'll write a much longer post later with catch up news. I only have one thing to say right now. I just got back from seeing Wall-E for a second time. My college showed it as part of some special thing they do. You know a movie is really fantastic when an auditiorium of cynical, hard nosed, smart ass college students break out into applause at the end of the movie. That movie always leaves me with a smile on my face.

That's all for now. A real post later.

Sweet Revenge

A little news first: I finally got to quit my job!! I'm so happy! Now I'm free to do what I want for a few more months. In celebration from being out of the job from hell and graduating a few months ago/getting away from the teacher from hell, I'd like to bring to you, this post! Oh, and Happy Friday the 13th!

_____________________________________

Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for America's favorite gameshow!

Crowd: Blast that Bastard!!! Whooo!

Announcer: And now, the host of your show, it's Preppy McTooeager!

Preppy: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, we have a great show for you tonight. All the way from Nowheresville, USA, it's Jason Rayburn. Jason, say hello to the crowd.

Jason [sheepishly]: Hello.

Preppy: Alright, do you know the rules of the game?

Jason: I'm supposed--

Preppy: Whoah there buddy, let's explain it for the folks at home, shall we?

Jason: But if this is "America's Favorite Gameshow", then--

Preppy: Alright! The rules of the game are, you have to guess the identity of each bastard that we bring out from behind video screen. For every one you get right, you get 200 points! Whether you get it right or not, those bastards will be brought out and sat on stools while you get to stand a minutes torture from each of them. If you can survive a full minute, for each minute you survive, you get 300 points.

Jason: Wait, what?! Tort--!

Preppy: After that round, the points will be tallied up and if you win enough points, what does he get Johnny?

Announcer: He gets to blast one of those bastards right outta here!

Preppy: But you can only pick just one.

Jason: No way! I get tortured by all three and I can only hurt one.

Preppy: This game teaches that revenge is a family event, and that lifes not fair. [rubs Jason's head] Alright, it's time to play...

Audience: BLAST THAT BASTARD!

Preppy: And now it's time for round one. Can you guess who this person is?

[A silouhette of a short fat lady with frizzy out of control hair is brought into the video screen]

Jason: That's my old boss--

Preppy: Hey! [rushes over to Jason's chair and begins patting on the face...well more like slapping him] [whispers] Shut up and let them talk. The studio is kind enough to sponsor this show even though we're flopping. Shu'up and play the game right! [to the screen] Hey! Bastard Number One! Go!

Bastard 1: HELLO!? IS THIS THING ON?? IT BETTER BE! I HAD TO LEAVE MY JOB WHERE I MAKE FOUR TIMES AS MUCH AS EVERYBODY ELSE TO COME DOWN HERE! I DON'T MAKE A LOT OF MONEY, SO THIS BETTER WORK! LOOK AT THIS PLACE IT'S A WRECK! DUSTY, COBWEBS! IT'S WONDER YOU GUYS AREN'T SHUT DOWN!

Preppy: Alright, let's here our player's guesses.

Bastard 1: ...WHAT IF THAT WERE TO FALL ON MY HEAD! GET OVER HERE AND PICK THIS UP! I MIGHT SLIP AND FALL!

Preppy: [into his sleeve, quietly] Johnny cut her mike!

[Bastard 1's mouth continues to move as she shouts, but no sound comes out]

Preppy: Do you have any guesses?

Jason: Like I tried to tell you before, that's my old boss Sheila O'Shreekerton. Say, she's a girl, so technically wouldn't she be a--

Preppy: Alright, let's bring out our next bastard!

(40 minutes later)

Preppy: Alright, we're back, and were just about to enter the final round! Jason got some bonus points when his old gym teacher tore through our video screen and began pounding Jason to a pulp. You okay, Jason?!

[Jason wearily raises his hand. He's holding a bloody rag to his nose with his other hand and a bag of ice is propped on his head carefully.]

Preppy: That's great!

Coach Sassy Quatcha (Phys. Ed. Coach): I always hated that little pansy. He never like wrestling or anything like that. Always writing stories in his little notebook.

Mrs. Crani K. Britche (Art Teacher): And he was never reading like he was supposed to. He always spent all his time doodling in his notebooks and writing those stupid stories than reading like he was told to. Maybe if he'd been any good at drawing instead of drawing those ugly little creatures...what do you call 'em? Amine? Animeat? Anyway, everyone knows those aren't real art.

Preppy: Okay, guys, that rounds over, remember?

Jason: I'm getting dizzy. I think I need to go to the hospital.

Preppy: Nonsense! You're a trooper!

Jason: I think I'm dying...

Preppy: And now it's time for the final round! Judges, what's his score!

Announcer: It's 2600 points!

Preppy: Aww, I'm sorry. That's too bad. Looks like you didn't earn enough to blast one of 'em! Until next time folks!

Jason: Wait, what? No way, I'm getting my turn!

[Jason rushes forward, laughing maniacally and grabs one of the laser cannons from the shelf]

[crackle! crack! sputter! flip-flip-flip...]

WE'RE SORRY. THE SHOW YOU ARE WATCHING IS EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. PLEASE STAY TUNED TO CHANNEL 8--"AMERICA'S NEXT TOP RADIOACTIVE MONSTER" IS NEXT.

And then it all blew up.

No, not my story. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen it in several days. No I'm talking about Real Life. She stuck her fat nose in again, and now I'm worse off for it. Turns out, my guidance councelor told me at the beginning of my Senior year that I only needed 3 math credits. I asked what I'd need a 4th for (This being my last year at the school, if I wanted 4 math credits, I had to take one that year) and she told me it was just for a scholarship that I hadn't even been trying for anyway. Imagine my surprise when my college sends me a letter telling me that I have to have a fourth math credit, that I'm short one. I went so freaking crazy insane angry. I stomped around the house condemning the entire school to the blackest pits of the underworld (insert maniacal laugh here).

It gets worse. The college algebra class at the local community college that I have to take to make up for the missing credit is a summer course, and has already started. The class is an entire semester of math crammed into four weeks. Algebra Crash Course is a better name. And it has already been going on for 4 days. So now I have 7 assignments of make-up work, the rest of the weeks assignments, a project, and a test, just this week. Oh yeah, and I have to miss another day--Wednesday--to go to my college to register for classes. And I have to work everyday (except Wednesday). As weeks go, this one isn't exactly great.

I have some Meme's I want to do, but they'll have to wait. Here's hoping I make it through the storm unscratched.

Graduation: The Day After

Well, it's the day after, and I'm still in one piece. My mom--of course--cried during my graduation. It was actually not as magical as I thought it would be. When I arrived, I was with my friend. We went to the changing room and changed into our robes. Actually that was a waste of space--the changing room was useless. All the robes do is go over your regular clothes, so I missed the point of the changing rooms in the first place, but whatever. It's their party, I'm just attending it.
After we changed, we stood around for half an hour asking people where we were supposed to meet for the march. Of course, no one knew. When it finally came time for us to march in, we stood around for another 20 minutes at least. The people at the front started getting really bored, so they kept trying to convince--or bully us in some people's cases--into doing the wave. By this time, I was sick of everyone there and if I NEVER saw them again it would be too soon. Call me short tempered, but when a guy threatens to karate chop you in the throat if you step on the back of his robes, you don't suddenly feel a bond of kinsmanship for him.
Our principal told us not to bring beachballs, air horns, noise makers, party poppers, or anything like that. Silly string must be saved until the END of the ceremony. You can see where this is going right? By the time we got to the G's the silly string came out. I got nailed in the eyes and up my nose with a blast from the gentleman who threatened to karate chop me. Then, I got nailedi n the back of the neck with the hillbilly from behind--and trust me, he was a hillbilly in every sense of the word.
A beachball hit me in the head, knocking my glasses and graduation cap in to the floor. I had to scramble around and find them. Then, someone got mad at me for dodging when he tried to hit SOMEONE ELSE with silly string. His comfort words were, "Trust me, if I had been aiming for you, I would have hit you." The funny thing was, when he actually did aim for me, he missed.
By the time we go to the M's, it was chaos. Silly string was everywhere, and I was covered in it.
That night, to the surprise of no one I know, I did not party. I went straight home, and straight to bed.
All in all, though, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. When I went up to graduate, I heard my uncle, me cousin, and my grandpa screaming louder than my friends. It was, in a sense, magical at that moment. When I took my diploma in my hands, I had the sense of my past and my future colliding into one brief moment that made my heart skip a beat in fear and amazement.
I'm out of high school. I'll be out forever. I'll never go back. Now is the moment of the rest of my life. True, I'll have to go to college, but that's not the same as high school. The wheels of my life, more than ever, are turning. I imagine I'll feel the same when I graduate from college, but it feels like this is one of the most defining moments of my life. Afterall, everyone goes to high school, not everyone goes to college. My mom, although she did go for a couple of years, didn't finish college. She dropped out because I was having health problems, and my did never finished high school. This is a big first, and it's terrifiying and exciting. I hope I can make my family proud.

Happy Graduation to Me

Today is the day I graduate. I should be asleep, but I'm nervous, really nervous. Today is the day I get the preverbial foot in the keister and sent out into the real world. Pretty soon I'll be moving out of my house that I've known as home since kindergarten and forced to live with some stranger in a town that I've only spent a total of 8 hours in in my whole life.
I can just imagine how the first day will be:
I try to drive up to the town, but become so sleepy in the two hour drive that I miss the one important turn and become hopelessly lost. I'll have to call my mother on my cell phone describing the flat landscape, the horrible smell of cow poop, and the cock-eyed stare of the local man who runs the "Hand-made knives" stand on the side of the road.
Once I finally make it to town, I'm late for Freshmen Orientation, and cause a big commotion arriving with no place to put my luggage as I missed my dorm assignment and am having to drag all my luggage with me on the detailed tour of the campus that I cannot miss or I will be come hopelessly lost and miss all my classes for the first week. After I finally find out where my dorm is, I have to trek across the entire campus to find it, enter the all-girls dorm by mistake, almost get kicked out for "peeping", and finally arrive at the right dorm hall and the right room.
After I open the door to my room, I see that my room mate has more piercings than the guy from Hell Raiser, has painted is half of the room solid black, and is currently giving himself a tattoo while listening to some rocker group that screeches so loudly and so incoherently they've reverted back to primal speech. He'll ask me what my name is, and about what time I think I'll be going to bed.
Then obviously, I'll learn that my problem isn't my creepy roommate--who likes to sharpen knives and laughs at all the gory parts of Saw--but the guy next door who looks like he's 35, is built like a professional wrestler and doesn't like "quiet, brainy guys." I, surprising myself, the professional wrestler in training, and every person I've ever known ever, spit out a snide comment about how I don't like steroid using, inbred, hilbillies....
when I come to...
You know what, I better stop now. I don't want to jinx myself.
Happy Graduation to me.

Laptop Update

Hey everyone!
So I got a new laptop...I'm actually on it right now. Did I get enough for a Mac, no. But, as my mom pointed out, I didn't really stand much of a chance of that anyway. I was lucky that I got half as much as I did, and I'm very pleased with this new laptop. It's 4x as fast as the computer in my room, it comes with upgrades to all the new gizmos that I like, and I can always buy and add programs to my computer that are similar to the ones on a Mac. So, for now at least, I'm sticking with my PC. It's an Acer. I've never heard of it, but it runs like a dream. We just got through watching a DVD on it. It has WiFi, and techno-geekiness stuff that I don't even begin to understand.
Writer updates...I've added nothing. I've been studying for AP Goverment. Our AP test is Monday (gasp!) and Friday night (tomorrow night) is Prom Night, and the only night I've had off all week. I'm really tired, so I'm about to go to bed and sleeeeeep, because I won't sleep at all on Friday night. We plan to watch movies and stuff until our eyes won't stay open (after some of the "after-prom activities" that our school does).
So anyway, I thought I'd pop in and let everyone know how my laptop quest finished up. It's not a Mac, but I'm proud of it.
And with that, I'm going to be.
Hasta!