Monday, November 29

5h0071n6 my ph007

Sometimes I wonder why I put up with it. (I'm always wondering how.) Just when I thought things would get better, the situation swells to enormously painful proportions. I turned in 4 of my 5 college applications today. I was quite pleased until I realized that I needed to make 2 additional copies of the comon app ($3.60) and had formatted all 3 of my essays incorrectly. So now I'm poor(er), owe Byrne two bucks (never a pleasant thought), and have to reprint my essays with (luckily) minor adjustments. Meh, could be worse, right?

It is. My film project has snuck up on me. Apparently the final thing is due on Thursday, and I still have 1 movie and 4.5 journals to complete. And then Mr. Kesterman reminded our class today that our psychology projects are due next week! I've done little to no work on that as of today at 3:40 PM so I am in about 3 feet of trouble. And to top things off, on Thursday, which, I am just now realizing, is the same day my Engrish project is due, I will be going on a field trip to watch some pre-med slice open a living, breathing human being! Minus the living, breathing part. We're going to see firsthand the wonders of the human GI tract. If that's not beautiful I don't know what is. This is bound to smell (forgive my disrespect to the poor person we're cutting open) like shit. Shit and whatever it is they use to keep the cadaver fresh.

Well, I came to school hoping for a good day. It was supposed to start out well. I'd edit my Kesterman footage and it would be the second story on today's broadcast. I should not have been so naive. The working camera (the other was in a sledding accident at Fo Po over the break) arrived at school 15 minutes to show time, and the editing process did not go as smoothly as I'd hoped. I ran upstairs with the editor and the camera just as the broadcast was about to (or supposed to) begin. The broadcast went well enough but the anchors weren't given enough prep time for my story so it's been pushed off to next broadcast.

Well, I suppose I'll survive this week. I just need to watch a movie, do some journals, buy (and read) The Intuitionist. It won't be too bad. Ah, shit. Exams are in 13 days. Oh and I have a calc test tomorrow! I'd better get to studying for that.

l473r.

Sunday, November 28

1 4r3 r37urn3d!!1!

I have returned from Cary, land of 1000 Water Towers (they seriously have at least 3 times the average city's number of water towers) and have much to report. The photos will be in hopefully in a week or so. I still have some exposures left that I need to get rid of so I'll be toting my camera around with me until those are gone.

A few minutes ago, an unnamed woman whom I have dubbed Madam X. Plative called my cell phone for the 5th time in the last 1, maybe two weeks. It's getting really annoying because every time I pick up the phone she asks, "Is this Dee?" and I reply, "No. Wrong number." Now when I see her number I just pick up, say "Wrong number" and hang up. I don't know who to complain to about this. She doesn't understand that despite her multiple attempts to contact Dee at the same number which was wrong the first through fifth times, she will not be able to contact Dee by trying just one more time. That is one of the symptoms of idiocy: performing the same task over and over expecting a different result. It's like having sex with a tree in the hope that some day it will give birth to an Ent. I can't block her number and as I said, don't know who to contact to complain. I don't want to bitch her out, but I think that may be the only option left to me. I'll bitch nicely.

My birthday, it turns out, went much better than expected. I have amassed over the past couple of weeks, more than $125 in cash and gift certificates, a large portion of which for Barnes and Noble. This is quite exciting because there were a number of books I wanted to read, but didn't have the time or money to buy until now. Well, I have the money, but the time is still lacking. Not for long though. My college apps are due tomorrow so I'll have a LOT of time freed up after that. College apps due Jan 1 are due tomorrow, but they don't specify when I should turn in Jan 7 apps. Hmm.. I'll just assume it's a week later. I'll pay the late fee if I have to because at this point I don't care. I just have one movie left for my film project and Christmas fast approaches. I have contracted Senioritis (literally: inflamation of the senior gland).

I had some trouble with the Kesterman story tonight. I should probably accept respnosibility for that, but that would require that I be responsible so I'll blame Byrne. I was trying to upload the text part of the story into the school's server and his instructions were so confounding and unclear that he made them nearly impossible for any human to follow (literal translation: I'm not as computer-savvy as I thought and can't read the words, "mailbox" or "name"). I eventually got it uploaded but made Byrne take a screenshot of the actual message because I couldn't find it for some reason. He was kind enough to do so and now the story is all set for tomorrow's broadcast, assuming that is, that I can get to school early enough tomorrow to edit the footage for showtime.

l473r.

Monday, November 22

0[[4m'5 r4z0r

Funny thing happened to me the other day. I found out that A) the communists have an expansive archive detailing the name(s) and birthdate(s) of each and every human being on the planet and B) my alter-ego is a real human being. The other day, I received a package, two in fact, from Gillette. This is where the communists come in. I have thought long and hard on how gillette came to find out my name, address, and birthdate and the simplest explanation I've come up with is that the Communists started archiving such information a while back and teamed up with Gillette so they could be sure to get skin, hair, and blood samples from 18 year old males. DNA will be extracted from these samples until they have enough to create a massive army of our evil twins.

On a more exciting note, as I mentioned earlier I received TWO such razor packages. The truth is, I didn't. I only got one. My alter-ego, however, got another one which is a good enough reason as any for me to believe that he is officially a real human being. Only people get mail. I mean, what would you do if someone who doesn't exist gets mail? If they died, sure you'd send it back. But if they never existed in the first place and the U.S. Postal service is obliged to get all mail to its destination no matter what, what do they do when an alternate peronality gets mail? Well this mail was delivered to my house which leads me to believe that I do in fact have multiple personality syndrome and that it was he who signed me up for the Communist-Gillette Birthday Listing when I was sleeping.

Last night, I was up til about 1, working on my journals for my American Literature film project which is quite possibly my favorite Engrish related activity of all time. Sure I was up late and was killing time photoshopping pictures when I could have been working, but I eventually got them done. As I was doing my journal for the Godfather, I came to realize that that movie is truly amazing. I liked the movie when I saw it, but for some reason, I didn't realize just how great that movie was until last night. I feel like writing an essay on it, but unfortunately, I don't have the time and I can't use spoiler text because the gray background on this blog is just light enough to not work with the lightest gray text available.

Anyways, I'm so glad I had to do this film project because without the impetus of having my GPA lowered, I would not have found the time to watch that movie until at least June of next year. The same is true of all the movies I've seen. I didn't even know Tootsie existed until a few weeks ago, but it's one of the funniest and most intelligent movies I've ever seen.

I received my first journalistic assignment today. I'm apparently now a reporter/interviewer for the Broatcast Club. I didn't ask for the story, but I'm going to be interviewing Mr. Kesterman, the AP Psych teacher about the numerous psychology projects that have been raising eyebrows around the school over the last couple of weeks. It will be complete with ACTUAL FOOTAGE from a staged mugging! How cool is that? I may be able to host it on the interweb if I can save footage to my iPod when I'm done editing it.

Which reminds me, I need to find a new web host because Angelfire sucks nothing else. The next time you want to say, "Damn, yo, this sucks," you will have to say, "Damn, this sucks like ANGELFIRE!" and your friends will be like, "WHOA! That's pretty serious!" So if anyone knows of a free web host that is free, is not Angelfire, and is free, please tell me because I need to host stuff and be able to link to that stuff. You wouldn't think that would be too hard but apparently Angelfire likes to rape the interweb and my time.

And finally, today in Psychology class, we were discussing learning and how (or if) violence in music, movies, video games etc. effect the aggressive behaviors of the listeners, viewers, players etc. There are good arguments on either side, but I personally am convinced that they aren't the cause of violent behavior. I think it has more to do with (predominant or exclusive) violent tendencies in the person. Violent movies and video games themselves don't push kids over the edge. If they did, every person with a PS2 (who according the the PS2-GTA Theorem, must also own at least one copy of any of the Grand Theft Auto titles) would be going around and....gangbanging? I really don't know what goes on in GTA, but gangbanging is fun to say and highly probable from what I've seen and heard of the game. The reason I bring this discussion up is because today a new video game, "JFK Reloaded" debuted for download (relive the classic assassination for just $9.99! Click here to download!) and the Kennedy family, in all its wealth, is not going to do anything about it. Sounds fishy, but they probably want to let the dead dog lie. Hm...poor word choice. Well anyways, go home, beware my alter ego (I never know what he's up to any more), relive the memories of Kennedy's big day (today is the 41st anniversary), and bring your free razors to school and brandish it in your teacher's face.

l473r.

1n54n17y

Would you be mad if you had finshed your college admissions essay a year ago and then discovered this year that it's some 600+ words too long and that you have 5 other essays to write for college in addition to it? Neither would I. No, I have more important things to think about like the film project which desperately needs finishing over Thanksgiving, and a psych project I haven't touched in weeks and an article to the school paper I was going to but no longer can write due to time constraints. To top things off, I'm going on VACATION for Thanksgiving! Woo and yay! Words can't describe just how GLAD I am that my parents decided to take the family on vacation during what will be the busiest holiday I have ever lived through.

All of this of course begs the question, "Why are you sitting in front of your computer blogging and not doing all your work?" We'll I've been doing work all this weekend and I somehow have even more than when I started so I needed a break. Is that okay with you? IS IT? Yeah I thought so.

I'm seriously going crazy. Like off the wall. I was typing my journal for my film project and the next thing I know, I'm waking up on my couch. I need to not go on this vacation. I don't have the time. Which is why I must stop BLOGGING, goddammit!

need help please kidnap at my house weds night will be waiting

Wednesday, November 17

0p3n up 50m3 5p4m!

All the porno bloggers start updating at about this time. I was just blog surfing and I had never before today encountered so much as one pornoblog. I just ran into TWO. In an unrelated story, I came across CB while blogsurfing today!

This picture is funny because the baby somehow managed to look at the camera while the old woman is staring off into Neverland.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/a2N_yuNGstUrRE/GRNDM_DS.bmp

This one wants your soul!

What do you get when you cross Pixar with Dr. Suess? Cartoons.

New 73h b04rd! Kickin' ass!


Sunday, November 14

pr0l4p53d WH47?!!11/?

I am really glad I have 73h bl06 as an outlet for my anxiety and rage towards all college- and high school-related work, because there's a lot of both anxiety and work. This weekend for instance I had planned on watching Citizen Kane for my movie project, finishing two of my applications, starting another, and completing a quality Engrish essay. I have yet to so much as rent the movie, the two applications are far from complete, the third is still only saved as a pdf on my computer and the Engrish essay is wasting away on my desktop and its quality has declined with each line. I did watch The Incredibles on my birthday though and that was well worth it. We had planned on watching it at 7:30, but of course its high level of awesometude caused it to be sold out, so we went to The Bread Co for a while and then came back for the 9:15 show. The theater is currently under massive reconstruction and right now it looks like crap but hopefully it'll look better when they cover the concrete and asbestos with some combination carpeting and wallpaper.

Yesterday, I woke up at 11:30ish which was really nice because I think I got close to 12 hours of sleep when the entire week before I had gotten 5ish hours per night. I worked on my Engrish essay on Gatsby and Ragtime (two really good books which you should read; Ragtime in particular is very good and even has a musical version which I hope to see at some point). Then I was lured by Lily the Good (who henceforth shall be known as Noah) to our high school soccer game. Apparently it was some very important game for our team, so they were probably very disappointed when they lost. I drove Noah, Franz, and Fleaboy to the game from Noah's house. I had expected more people to come but apparently St. Joe's Mission Week was taking up everyone else's time so we were the only ones who could make it. Anyways, the game itself I thought would be really cold, but luckily there were so many drunken, cheering high schoolers massed together that we created enough body heat to warm the bleachers. As I said earlier, my school's team lost. Sadness filled my heart. For about 5 seconds. I'm so full of team spirit. Oh yeah and the people there do NOT know how to drive. They're all so agressive and drunk; luckily my car came out unscathed.

Oh yeah and Friday, my birthday, none of the senior teachers showed up for some reason. This only happened for me in theology; my teacher left for periods 4, 5, and 6 but was there for Toots'/COTU's first period class. COTU was really happy about that, of course. But Linhares' absence was completely arbitrary as far as I know. But I dunno, maybe his lip split open again. BackLived and Byrne only had 2 classes that day so clearly there was something going on with all the teachers. CLEARLY. But it was nice because I didn't do anything and I consider that my birthday present from the school. Of course now I have a butt-load of work to do in the next 9 hours, but that's all fine 'n dandy. But now I must be off to do that work. Until I blog again...

l473r.

Tuesday, November 9

Margaret, Ariel and other trivial pursuits

What. A. Day. First of all, I should mention that it is Block "Head" Week meaning that Tuesday and Wednesday are block schedules. 90ish minute classes from hell. Today really wasn't that bad. Calculus flew by and Engrish wasn't terrible although I'm still not sure if I like or understand "The Great Gatsby" which is too bad because I have to write an essay in a few days. Then during anatomy our teacher "acquired" a cow leg (raw) from one of my fellow students who ironically enough does not live in Illinois. I'm still not sure what a Chesterfieldian was doing with severed cow limbs, but I won't ask questions, because he obviously has weapons of mass destruction in his parlor. Anyways, my teacher with the assistance of the lovely Mr. Kuensting used a hack saw to open up the knee cavity. The smell was beyond foul, and I'm pretty sure there's enough bone dust in my lungs to make a small zen garden in my kitchen sink. It's always an adventure in that class.

After anatomy I spent/wasted a free period in the computer lab watching flash toons and making fun of Bill. Someone had hooked up Halo 2 to the TV in the lab. I honestly don't understand that game's appeal or for that matter the appeal of any first person shooter. The only differences between any two shooters are 1) guns 2) characters 3) graphics and 4) guns. I am not at all a fan of the genre (mainly because I'm just crap-ass terrible at FPSs), but are graphical upgrades really important for shooters? I mean do you have time to stare in awe at spectacular computer generated landscapes when you have a gattling/laser/plasma/water/poo rifle aimed at your character's skull? And how many different colored, multi-functional weapons do you need to be happy with a game?

I'm getting side-tracked; back to the important stuff. After school I spent a few hours in the broadcast room talking with the Byrne, Brandon, and Jared about the case they're trying in their politics class. Mr. O came in at some point and formed their entire case for the defendent so chances are they'll do well. After a few hours of accomplishing little more than a 1 minute video of us studying for WorldQuest to the tune of "Let's Get Retarded," the five of us went to SLU for the trivia contest. We were pretty much the only team that wasn't taking it seriously. At all. We spent the free dinner (authenticky tasting pizza! without napkins!) thinking of a team name. "The Home of the Cretins", "The Well Hungarians", and "The Falafel Factor: Stalking Points Memo" were all suggested and eventually used on the answer sheets. Last year, our team (without me; I was 73h n00b this year) changed our team name from SLUH, to St. Louis U. High to U High on the answer sheets and as a result, a new rule was enforced this year. All participants had to write out the full name of their high school (they gave us as an example) to end confusion and prevent accusations of cretinaity.

Anyways, we did rather poorly on the trivia itself but we entertained the judges, runners, opponents and of course ourselves by writing the alternate team names and unusual comments next to our school name. I was made the official "scribe" of the team and just to piss off the judges I dotted all the "i's" (including the capitals!) with cute little hearts on one of the answer sheets. Brandon wrote "The Well Hungarians" on another and I wasn't able to erase it before the runner snatched it up so yeah our school looks very classy right now. We may have lost (we estimate that we came in 5thish with a score of 45 out of 70), but it was so much fun and well worth the trip.

We drank about $10 worth of soda together so I doubt any of us will be getting much sleep tonight. I'm gonna go waste time plotting my revenge against Fleaboy.

l473r.

Monday, November 8

Oculi Craporum

For about 6 months now, I have been entirely incapable of seeing anything farther than three inches from my face with my left eye. I've tried complaining about it. I've tried monocling the rebellious eye (ask Hollyce for a very bad picture of monocled me). Nothing worked so as a last resort, I went to the ophthalmologist and found out that my eyes suck. Mostly the left one and not that badly. I have a "mild" presrcription, but I can't attest to it's mildocity. All I can say is that there's a series of illegible numbers and dashes on the prescription for each eye. I'll probably end up with a month's supply of Cialis unless the pharmacist is trained in deciphering doctorial hierogliphs. My mom dropped me off at the hospital whose two floors of lobbies looked and smelled more like hotel lobbies than a hospital's. I found the vision center ("We've got BOTH eyes on you.") whose walls were lined with glasses, mirrors, eye models (What a great profession that must be. "Okay look at the camera. Good. Now let's get a shot of you looking at the camera and smiling.") Anyways, I went to the doctor and he performed quite a few tests some of which I would have questioned the authenticity and necessity of if it had been worth the effort. The end result of course was the aforementioned prescription which makes me glad that John Nash is indeed still alive contrary to what I told Byrne ealier this year.

I also made the grand mistake of agreeing to participate in WorldQuest tomorrow. I really don't think I'll do well on any of the topics except maybe current events. I plan on pouring over an atlas tonight to prepare for the geography section. Can't hurt the flag department either. Meh, I get a free dinner and a possible trip to D.C. in April; it'll be worth the time and probable humiliation. This is my first year doing this, but last year, the other members of my team missed the grand prize by one point so hopefully I'll be able to pick up the slack of the kid who was kicked off last year's team.

I finished watching The Manchurian Candidate yesterday. I had started it a few days previous but I lost the DVD remote which I still can't find so I took a break. (Movie watching can be such hard work. But seriously, I needed that remote. I had to be able to pause so I could take notes and watch the movie "intelligently".) The movie itself was very good. Angela Lansbury should have played more bitchy mothers in her movie career; she's very good at being sinister. Murder, She Wrote gave her the "good detective girl" image. Not cool. =P

I'm off to do homework. I have to make time to study for WQ tomorrow. Wish me luck.

l473r