Last night at around 1am, I got up to go use the bathroom. I opened up the door and closed it, but before I got down to my business I noticed some crunching noises outside the bathroom window. I live on the first floor, so my first thought was "someones walking around in the back of our dorms, probably a thief or peeping tom" . But as I stood there for a little while analyzing the sound in my head, I noticed that the sound never drifted closer or farther. I thought that this was peculiar because people don't walk in place. So I proceeded to do my business and flushed the toilet, hoping the noise would scare off whatever it was outside. But as the swooshing from the toilet subsided, the crunching noises stayed the same. I knew that if I raised the curtain and looked out the window, whatever it was outside would see me and probably react in a negative manner. So I turned off the lights and opened up the door, but instead of walking out, I remained in the now pitch dark bathroom. I figured the darkness would give me a bit of camouflage from whoever was outside. I stepped to the window and raised the curtain a little so I could peek outside. I surveyed the area and I couldn't see a thing; looked both left and right. I thought that this was weird because the crunching noise seemed to come from right outside my window. I took one last look, when all of a sudden a good sized deer walked out from the bushes about 5 feet in front of my window. Imagine my wonder at being this close to an animal that I usually only see when I'm swerving around it in my car. This animal did not notice (or maybe it just didn't care about me) my presence and continued to go about its business biting away at the berries on the bush. I stood there observing the deer for a little while, until I realized that if one of my roommates walked into the bathroom, it would have been one of those awkward turtle moments, so I took a final look and walked away. When I climbed into bed that night, I felt relived that it wasn't a thief outside my window, yet I also felt guilty because I'm imposing on the deer's living spaces. I'm thinking about hanging a salty treat out on that bush for the deer to munch on, yet that might backfire, because I don't want to wake up to an entire herd of deer waiting outside my bathroom window.
As for my life outside the bathroom, everythings going alright. My classes aren't as hard as I thought and I've made a few new friends. Theres been a few crazy stuff that's happened here at the dorms, but that's a story for some other time. Till next time,
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Whatever happened to the bass?
The bass guitar is turning into one of the least known instruments of this era of music. It seems like its just fading off this planet. I've had friends come over my house, take a look at my bass guitar, and go "wow awesome guitar!". It makes me cringe a little on the inside because I don't know if they really know its a bass guitar or if they just see a stringed instrument and assume its an electric guitar. I admit that they do look similar, but to me its pretty easy to determine that a bass guitar is both longer and usually has less strings than a normal electric guitar. But seeing some of my friends unable to tell what a bass guitar is just tells me that the role the bass guitar has in music is fading away.
Can you name a band in popular music today, where you can truly say that the bass guitar is a defining aspect of their sound? Sadly I can only name a few, for example RHCP's Flea is probably one of the most influential bassists of this day. Usually in music today, the sound of a bass guitar is almost nonexistant. The bass guitar is always there, but it just gets covered up by everything else. If you can get past the layers of loud, distorted guitar, and whiny vocals, then you can find the soft sound of the bass guitar. And heres the kicker; usually the bass guitar is really a plain and simple bassline that consists of a repetition of one or two notes. Whats wrong with the bassists in these bands? The bass guitar is one of the most diverse instruments I can think of because of all the different sounds and beats that come out of it. It just disturbs me to see the bassists in these bands today being really uncreative about the music that they play. Playing bass guitar in that way is really boring to me; I prefer slapping and popping because its fun to play and it sounds funky, unlike the droning sound that bassists usually play in rock songs.
Bleh two rants in a row. I'll continue with the posts about my life in the next few posts
Can you name a band in popular music today, where you can truly say that the bass guitar is a defining aspect of their sound? Sadly I can only name a few, for example RHCP's Flea is probably one of the most influential bassists of this day. Usually in music today, the sound of a bass guitar is almost nonexistant. The bass guitar is always there, but it just gets covered up by everything else. If you can get past the layers of loud, distorted guitar, and whiny vocals, then you can find the soft sound of the bass guitar. And heres the kicker; usually the bass guitar is really a plain and simple bassline that consists of a repetition of one or two notes. Whats wrong with the bassists in these bands? The bass guitar is one of the most diverse instruments I can think of because of all the different sounds and beats that come out of it. It just disturbs me to see the bassists in these bands today being really uncreative about the music that they play. Playing bass guitar in that way is really boring to me; I prefer slapping and popping because its fun to play and it sounds funky, unlike the droning sound that bassists usually play in rock songs.
Bleh two rants in a row. I'll continue with the posts about my life in the next few posts
Sunday, September 28, 2008
A Helpful Innovation?
On this lazy Sunday afternoon, I found myself, like many other people, watching football on TV. But this post isn't about a certain football game or team or play. Its about a certain commercial that I saw while watching one of the games today. I forget which car company it was for, but the general idea of the commercial was a car sitting in the center of a large and dark room. On the walls of this room, were countless numbers of clocks all ticking away towards 12. And once these clocks hit 12, they all rang out at the same time. Except, right before you hear the noise of the clocks, the camera zooms inside of the car and all you hear is silence. And thats basically the whole commercial. Guess its supposed to market the innovation of how its supposed to be super quiet inside of the car. Tell me this, how is that supposed to be beneficial? I mean, seriously, the only reason you would want the inside of your car to be completely silent is if you're super narcissistic and you just want to drive in your own little world. I mean, you need to be able to hear other cars when you're out on the road. You need to be able to hear those honks and especially you need to hear sirens. I almost never see an ambulance or fire truck before I hear it, so I like being able to hear everything. I just think its one of the stupidest ideas ever to try and make the inside of a car to be soundproof, because one of the things they always tell you in driving school is to always be aware of your senses, and always listen up for things. Its as if the car company wants you to crash lol. . .
Sorry for the random rant. I just felt like I needed to post something haha. . .
Sorry for the random rant. I just felt like I needed to post something haha. . .
Monday, September 22, 2008
New Living Spaces
Ahh sorry for the lack of updates recently guys. You see, I've been pretty busy these past few days because schools starting up really soon and I had to move into the dorms. This is my second year living in the dorms, so the transition this time went a lot smoother than last year. Last year I ended up forgetting a lot of my things, but this year the only thing I forgot to bring was my wireless mouse. My roommates this year are pretty cool also.
For the past few days, I've just been hanging out and meeting new people, typical dorm stuff. I'll probably update this again when I have even more interesting stuff to talk about.
For the past few days, I've just been hanging out and meeting new people, typical dorm stuff. I'll probably update this again when I have even more interesting stuff to talk about.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
A Period of Change, or Why I am Voting for Obama
Its that time again and 4 years have come and gone like clockwork. Its once again time to elect a new leader to our country and for the first time ever, I'll be old enough to have my say in who I want to lead this country. This presidential election marks a period of change in America, because no matter which side wins, history will be made. Barack Obama will be the first African-American president or Sarah Palin will be the first female vice president. As much as I can see that if either side wins, its a victory against ethnic and gender based oppression, I cannot find myself being at peace of mind if either side wins.
As you could probably tell from the previous paragraph, I'm young, and hence, I'm supposed to be stupid about politics and not really care. And to be honest, thats pretty correct. Truth is, as much as you hear stories about young people being involved in politics these days, most of us don't really care at all about the core themes that float around a presidential election. We just vote either by parental influence or by how the presidential nominee is portrayed by the media. This presidential election is going to be decided by the votes of people that don't care at all about how our country is run. Scared much America?
This presidential election is also going to be decided by the youth of our country, because of who is running on the Democratic ticket. Whenever I see Barack Obama portrayed in the media, I see him smiling, waving to his supporters, and when I hear him talk, he sounds a bit shaky at first but you get the point hes trying to put across. He gives off that warm, fatherly figure type of glow. Whereas, John McCain is always shown by the media to be serious and hard, while giving off the image of that tough father that doesn't take any shit from anyone. While the latter probably symbolizes traditional American ideals more than the former, don't you think with current feelings about the U.S. in international affairs, we could use someone a bit more, so to speak, friendlier? Obama symbolizes change, while McCain symbolizes just 4 more years of someone slightly better than Bush.
This presidential election isn't just a battle between the two presidential nominees, its also between the two vice presidential nominees. When Obama choose Joe Biden to be his running mate, I think it was something that everyone expected. I think everyone was sort of relieved that Obama picked someone like Biden, because people just literally went "Ok good he has a typical old white male as his running mate. He'll stop Obama if he gets too crazy." Its exactly the kind of vice president that Obama needs so that he doesn't completely alienate middle-class America.
While I see Obama's pick as helping him to win the presidency and benefit the country, I see McCains choice as being one of the most random things ever. When I heard that McCain had choosen a female running mate, my first thought was, "Oh hes just trying to snatch up all of the women voters that otherwise would be voting for Obama. Then, when I saw how Sarah Palin looked like, my next though was (albeit childish), "Wow looks like McCain wants a little vice pres booty". Yes, immature and inappropriate, but ive talked with friends and I'm not the only one that had that thought. Now for more serious discussion, when I heard Palin's credentials, I laughed at them. I've not been much for "political experience", but when you're from Alaska, a state most people stereotype as being a blizzard with friendly eskimos, one can only question how much she really knows about politics. Though all this new evidence has came out about how she really isn't that bad, she still is just that lady from Alaska when it all comes down to it, because like ive said earlier, youth doesn't care about core ideas, we just care about image. And boy has Palin's image been taking a beating. The events I can think of that have shaped Palin's image is the whole "Troopergate" scandal, her daughter being pregnant out of wedlock, and her not knowing about the Bush Doctrine. I do admit though, that two of those three aren't really her fault. I heard people saying about her daughters pregnancy that, "If she can't even manage her family then how can she run the country?" Well her 17 year old daughter got pregnant out of wedlock. Big deal right? In todays society thats not uncommon at all, and I think the only ones that would be truly mad at this are the guys living about 50 years in the past. I mean, come on, times change, get with the program. Everyone isn't as pure as they were in the past. Also, I don't think that people should be getting on her for not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is. I wonder what the results of a poll would be with the question asking "Do you know what the Bush Doctrine is?" Its not something they teach you about in history class like the Monroe or the Roosevelt Doctines, so it's no surprise that nobody knows what it is. Still though, regardless of Palins credentials or her personal life, I don't see her helping out the country. I don't think she really represents a positive change in our country, but if she is elected she will shake things up a bit in the capitol so that can't be all too bad.
Well I hope you guys understand my point of view of this election. I know that most bloggers are all very knowledgeable about politics and they have solid opinions and theories about politics, but this is just a piece of mind from the average person voting in this upcoming election.
P.S. - Points to anyone that got the Rocky and Bullwinkle reference in the title. One of the best cartoons ever.
As you could probably tell from the previous paragraph, I'm young, and hence, I'm supposed to be stupid about politics and not really care. And to be honest, thats pretty correct. Truth is, as much as you hear stories about young people being involved in politics these days, most of us don't really care at all about the core themes that float around a presidential election. We just vote either by parental influence or by how the presidential nominee is portrayed by the media. This presidential election is going to be decided by the votes of people that don't care at all about how our country is run. Scared much America?
This presidential election is also going to be decided by the youth of our country, because of who is running on the Democratic ticket. Whenever I see Barack Obama portrayed in the media, I see him smiling, waving to his supporters, and when I hear him talk, he sounds a bit shaky at first but you get the point hes trying to put across. He gives off that warm, fatherly figure type of glow. Whereas, John McCain is always shown by the media to be serious and hard, while giving off the image of that tough father that doesn't take any shit from anyone. While the latter probably symbolizes traditional American ideals more than the former, don't you think with current feelings about the U.S. in international affairs, we could use someone a bit more, so to speak, friendlier? Obama symbolizes change, while McCain symbolizes just 4 more years of someone slightly better than Bush.
This presidential election isn't just a battle between the two presidential nominees, its also between the two vice presidential nominees. When Obama choose Joe Biden to be his running mate, I think it was something that everyone expected. I think everyone was sort of relieved that Obama picked someone like Biden, because people just literally went "Ok good he has a typical old white male as his running mate. He'll stop Obama if he gets too crazy." Its exactly the kind of vice president that Obama needs so that he doesn't completely alienate middle-class America.
While I see Obama's pick as helping him to win the presidency and benefit the country, I see McCains choice as being one of the most random things ever. When I heard that McCain had choosen a female running mate, my first thought was, "Oh hes just trying to snatch up all of the women voters that otherwise would be voting for Obama. Then, when I saw how Sarah Palin looked like, my next though was (albeit childish), "Wow looks like McCain wants a little vice pres booty". Yes, immature and inappropriate, but ive talked with friends and I'm not the only one that had that thought. Now for more serious discussion, when I heard Palin's credentials, I laughed at them. I've not been much for "political experience", but when you're from Alaska, a state most people stereotype as being a blizzard with friendly eskimos, one can only question how much she really knows about politics. Though all this new evidence has came out about how she really isn't that bad, she still is just that lady from Alaska when it all comes down to it, because like ive said earlier, youth doesn't care about core ideas, we just care about image. And boy has Palin's image been taking a beating. The events I can think of that have shaped Palin's image is the whole "Troopergate" scandal, her daughter being pregnant out of wedlock, and her not knowing about the Bush Doctrine. I do admit though, that two of those three aren't really her fault. I heard people saying about her daughters pregnancy that, "If she can't even manage her family then how can she run the country?" Well her 17 year old daughter got pregnant out of wedlock. Big deal right? In todays society thats not uncommon at all, and I think the only ones that would be truly mad at this are the guys living about 50 years in the past. I mean, come on, times change, get with the program. Everyone isn't as pure as they were in the past. Also, I don't think that people should be getting on her for not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is. I wonder what the results of a poll would be with the question asking "Do you know what the Bush Doctrine is?" Its not something they teach you about in history class like the Monroe or the Roosevelt Doctines, so it's no surprise that nobody knows what it is. Still though, regardless of Palins credentials or her personal life, I don't see her helping out the country. I don't think she really represents a positive change in our country, but if she is elected she will shake things up a bit in the capitol so that can't be all too bad.
Well I hope you guys understand my point of view of this election. I know that most bloggers are all very knowledgeable about politics and they have solid opinions and theories about politics, but this is just a piece of mind from the average person voting in this upcoming election.
P.S. - Points to anyone that got the Rocky and Bullwinkle reference in the title. One of the best cartoons ever.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Shop till I drop
Didn't do much today other than do some college shopping with my mom. I've always found it to be quite the hassle to shop with her because shes really picky, whereas i'm one of those guys that just goes in the store, grabs whatevers needed, and gets out of there. Tell me why my mom has to spend 10 minutes deciding on which lotion to buy for me? My mom told me all the specifics of each brand and she made me smell each one to give it a test. Its lotion, all I want from it is for it to moisturize my skin. As long as it can do that, I don't really care what kind of lotion I get. I believe I ended up getting some kind of aloe vera skin healing lotion, which I find to be useless because its not like my skin needs healing in the first place.
It got even worse when I wanted to buy a set of dishes. Last year at the dorms, my mom only gave me one plate, one cup, and one bowl. She expected me to do my dishes after every single meal. Yeah, riiiight. I ended up using plastic cups as cereal bowls cause having to wash one bowl just for one meal is a pain in the ass. Well at the store, there were many sets of dishes to choose from, but being the king of shopper I am, I saw a set of dishes for 9 dollars. I immediately grabbed them cause its a pretty cheap price for a set of 8 plates. 4 cups, and 4 bowls right? But my mom kept on looking at the other sets of dishes that were about 20-30 dollars more in price because the cups and bowls were bigger than the set I got. I told her I didn't want to pay that much more for something bigger, if I could just refill my cup. We spent about 20 minutes arguing in Target about it before she finally gave in and I ended up getting the 9 dollar set of dishes. I mean, they were smaller and kinda ugly, but theyre for my dorm right? I don't need anything special.
Btw rest in peace Richard Wright. You were one of the greatest keyboardists and listening to all the Pink Floyd albums while growing up really shaped my musical talents today. SO thank you for that and condolences to your family.
It got even worse when I wanted to buy a set of dishes. Last year at the dorms, my mom only gave me one plate, one cup, and one bowl. She expected me to do my dishes after every single meal. Yeah, riiiight. I ended up using plastic cups as cereal bowls cause having to wash one bowl just for one meal is a pain in the ass. Well at the store, there were many sets of dishes to choose from, but being the king of shopper I am, I saw a set of dishes for 9 dollars. I immediately grabbed them cause its a pretty cheap price for a set of 8 plates. 4 cups, and 4 bowls right? But my mom kept on looking at the other sets of dishes that were about 20-30 dollars more in price because the cups and bowls were bigger than the set I got. I told her I didn't want to pay that much more for something bigger, if I could just refill my cup. We spent about 20 minutes arguing in Target about it before she finally gave in and I ended up getting the 9 dollar set of dishes. I mean, they were smaller and kinda ugly, but theyre for my dorm right? I don't need anything special.
Btw rest in peace Richard Wright. You were one of the greatest keyboardists and listening to all the Pink Floyd albums while growing up really shaped my musical talents today. SO thank you for that and condolences to your family.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
One Step Forward (or should I say pedal?)
Today was the first time that me and my group of friends from high school hung out this whole summer. We went bike riding through Hercules and it was enjoyable because it was the first time I had ridden a bike in a year or two. It really is true how they say you can never forget how to ride a bike; the first few moments are awkward but next thing you know you're riding like a little kid again. Well we rode down the hill to a small shopping center and parked our bikes between a coffee shop and a sandwich shop. Half of us got some fraps, while the other half got sandwiches to eat. And yet more of us went to get some fast food to eat. Eventually we all settled down to eat at some tables near where we put our bikes.
While we were sitting down eating and hanging out for a bit outside of the coffee place, two middle aged men were sitting reading the newspaper at a table near ours. There was alot of insects flying around where we were eating because there was some standing water where we were. These two men started attacking these insects with rolled up newspapers, their fists (one guy punched a wasp that had landed on the wall. hardcore stuff), and even a metal bar. Me and my friend just watched in awe at the spectacle, and we tried to hide our smiles as we continued to watch our free show.
Eventually we finished and we rode our bikes to a nearby park. We found a somewhat shady spot on an island on the side of the lake that was adjacent to the park. One of the things we immediately noticed was the abundance of small fish that were in the lake. I found a hook tied to a fishing line that was probably previously used by some kid hoping to catch a fish and was casually discarded. I tossed this out into the lake to test my own luck, but of course to no avail (probably since the hook was as big as the fishes themself). I did notice that the fish would nibble on the hook when it was in the water and they would even follow the hook when I gently reeled in my line. Me and my friends thought this was neat, so my friend tossed a bit of her leftover sandwich into the water. We all watched with bright eyes as the fish quickly gathered and mobbed the piece of bread. Looking at them was like watching a group of tadpole sized pirana's in a feeding frenzy. Imagine falling in water and having thousands of tadpoles nibbling at you as you struggle to keep afloat. We took a few pictures here and then we took a short detour to a hardware store and to a supermarket, but finally we rode our bikes back to my friends house where we began our ride.
My friend has two house because her family originally planned to give one to relatives but they never did so now they have two houses. Me and my friends sometimes use her other house to hang out in. When we got back there, we were pretty tired from biking all over the place so we decided to play a game of cranium to wind down a bit. I ended up being on my friend Christine's team and we actually did pretty good because we ended up winning the whole thing. I'm really happy me and her are doing good again. We dated for about 5 months, so after we broke up there was the usual awkwardness, but now its like it was before we dated; just friends able to enjoy ones company. Then after that we played a bit of a jeopardy type game about our groups history. Some crazy stuff ensued afterwards but thats stuff I won't need to write down to remember lol. . .
Well we packed up our stuff and we headed over to our other friends house. We watched this really good scary movie there, called The Orphanage, directed by Guillermo del Toro. It was a very well done film because of the storyline and how everything tied in together at the end. Some of the events leaves you confused till the very end of the film and when it all ties together, it makes the film not seem scary at all.
One of the things about today that was interesting was my diet. I literally ate a very small piece of steak, a mocha frap, 2 tacos, a red bull, and countless marshmallows. Its amazing how you can just put the shittiest food items into your body and still have enough energy to stay out till late night. Ever notice how when you're having fun, you never feel pain or hunger? A smile really is the answer to everything.
While we were sitting down eating and hanging out for a bit outside of the coffee place, two middle aged men were sitting reading the newspaper at a table near ours. There was alot of insects flying around where we were eating because there was some standing water where we were. These two men started attacking these insects with rolled up newspapers, their fists (one guy punched a wasp that had landed on the wall. hardcore stuff), and even a metal bar. Me and my friend just watched in awe at the spectacle, and we tried to hide our smiles as we continued to watch our free show.
Eventually we finished and we rode our bikes to a nearby park. We found a somewhat shady spot on an island on the side of the lake that was adjacent to the park. One of the things we immediately noticed was the abundance of small fish that were in the lake. I found a hook tied to a fishing line that was probably previously used by some kid hoping to catch a fish and was casually discarded. I tossed this out into the lake to test my own luck, but of course to no avail (probably since the hook was as big as the fishes themself). I did notice that the fish would nibble on the hook when it was in the water and they would even follow the hook when I gently reeled in my line. Me and my friends thought this was neat, so my friend tossed a bit of her leftover sandwich into the water. We all watched with bright eyes as the fish quickly gathered and mobbed the piece of bread. Looking at them was like watching a group of tadpole sized pirana's in a feeding frenzy. Imagine falling in water and having thousands of tadpoles nibbling at you as you struggle to keep afloat. We took a few pictures here and then we took a short detour to a hardware store and to a supermarket, but finally we rode our bikes back to my friends house where we began our ride.
My friend has two house because her family originally planned to give one to relatives but they never did so now they have two houses. Me and my friends sometimes use her other house to hang out in. When we got back there, we were pretty tired from biking all over the place so we decided to play a game of cranium to wind down a bit. I ended up being on my friend Christine's team and we actually did pretty good because we ended up winning the whole thing. I'm really happy me and her are doing good again. We dated for about 5 months, so after we broke up there was the usual awkwardness, but now its like it was before we dated; just friends able to enjoy ones company. Then after that we played a bit of a jeopardy type game about our groups history. Some crazy stuff ensued afterwards but thats stuff I won't need to write down to remember lol. . .
Well we packed up our stuff and we headed over to our other friends house. We watched this really good scary movie there, called The Orphanage, directed by Guillermo del Toro. It was a very well done film because of the storyline and how everything tied in together at the end. Some of the events leaves you confused till the very end of the film and when it all ties together, it makes the film not seem scary at all.
One of the things about today that was interesting was my diet. I literally ate a very small piece of steak, a mocha frap, 2 tacos, a red bull, and countless marshmallows. Its amazing how you can just put the shittiest food items into your body and still have enough energy to stay out till late night. Ever notice how when you're having fun, you never feel pain or hunger? A smile really is the answer to everything.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
First Day
Well this is going to be the first time I'm actually going to be using one of these blogging sites. I did have a xanga site before, but those were during my angsty teenage years and about 80% of the posts there consisted of "yeah this sucks" and "why wont anyone talk to me". A special thanks to all my high school friends that never told me how emo I was back in the day. A month or two ago, my friend told me I should re-read all of my old xanga posts, and I found it to be quite interesting, yet depressing at the same time. I wish I had documented my high school days with more detail, because looking back on all those old posts barely evoked any memories of howI used to be. So today I'm starting this blog just as a way to keep track of time, to act as a sort of time capsule for my life. My main goal for this blog is to look back on it in 10 years and know exactly how I felt that day.
Well my other goals for this blog are to just provide my thoughts on several aspects of todays society and also to just randomly say stuff, but hopefully not as incoherently as I did in the past.
Usually in these first posts, people give little intros about themselves, but i've decided not to do this, because I think it'll be funner for you to piece me together as you read my posts. Have fun putting this puzzle together.
Well my other goals for this blog are to just provide my thoughts on several aspects of todays society and also to just randomly say stuff, but hopefully not as incoherently as I did in the past.
Usually in these first posts, people give little intros about themselves, but i've decided not to do this, because I think it'll be funner for you to piece me together as you read my posts. Have fun putting this puzzle together.
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