Delayed on account of rain (and fire)

Yeah yeah, it's been a while. Let's move past that and on to the more important aspect of this: me.

So it's been raining quite a bit. Springfield spring showers (it is spring still, right?) are frequent and harsh, and usually involve some sweet thunder and lightning. Typical pattern is rain, rain, blazing hot day, blazing hot day with rain at night, repeat ad nauseum. Oh, and it's humid as hell, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone with any knowledge of Springfield. Still, now that swimming is an option for my free time I actually look forward to the heat.

Well, I would if I was still in the house for the summer. To make a long story short, the owner of the house learned that if there is a fire in the pan you are frying things in, do not try to move it to the sink to put it out. It will likely boil onto you, burning you and causing you to drop a large amount of burning oil on the ground. This is how a five by three foot portion of the kitchen came to be burned beyond repair, along with the dishwasher. There is tons of smoke damage and soot in the house, and the process of cleaning, getting quotes, and so on has just started, so we will likely be out of the place for two weeks minimum, I'm thinking more along the lines of a month. I'm staying with the Kopaska family again, as they have graciously opened their home to me.

On a less sad note, I had three days off in a row this week; yesterday, today, and tomorrow. In taking full advantage of these days off I decided to rent Splinter Cell: Conviction since I heard it was short. Having beaten it already I can confirm that it is, but it is still a blast to plow through. When you get in the zone in this game you really can feel like a badass assassin, thanks to the Mark and Execute feature. After meleeing/grabbing someone as a human shield you are given the ability to execute targets that are in range and that you have marked. This is basically a "instant death" button, one-shotting the marked targets automatically. While making the game easier, it is no less satisfying to to this, and the game is much more action based than the previous ones to accommodate. It is simply a different feeling of satisfaction.

I'm still listening to "My Dinosaur Life" by Motion City Soundtrack. A lot. This CD just really hits it for me. That is all, I recommend at least Youtubing "Her Words Destroyed My Planet", "Worker Bee", "Disappear", "Skin and Bones", or "Sunny Day". If they don't get ya into this band I don't know what to tell you. Oh yeah I do, look up "The Future Freaks Me Out".

Until next time, enjoy life folks. Hopefully I'll be more diligent about updating this, though I hope given the excitement in my life as of late you'll be forgiving.

Storms and Stew

A lot has happened since the last post. School ending, friends leaving, work starting... been a busy few weeks. I've gotten all settled into the house I am staying at, with my room more or less situated how I like it (though I wish my book shelf had not broken, as my books are just in organized piles in the corner now). I am definitely digging my new housemates and really look forward to reconnecting with them after a few years of non-interaction. Both are great outgoing guys who are friendly and know quite a few people, so this summer should be anything but boring.

There have been a decent amount of storms this past week. Right now there is thunder sounding over "Worker Bee" by Motion City Soundtrack, and lighting is flashing through the window that sits right behind my laptop. I love falling asleep to this weather; I know it is a cliché to say this, but I can not get enough of this weather. Earlier today when the rain began I was dressed for the day in short and a t-shirt. Unable to restrain myself I simply went out and enjoyed the feeling of falling water soaking into my skin, warm and inviting. I'm sure psychologists would have some explanation for this, but I couldn't care less honestly; all I know is it makes my life better whenever a storm passes. It brings with is a sense of change, of finality and purpose.

I've been trying to renew my cooking skills, gone stagnant over the course of the school year. After several times messing with chicken and spices I tried my hand at chicken stew again, with potatoes, onions, and carrots for flavor. Unfortunately, my gauging of seasoning has apparently gotten worse than I had imagined; a little too much seasoning salt made for an off taste that accumulated with each bite. I saved half of the dish, adding some water in hopes of diluting the saltiness. I can only improve from here, and the summer is young.

Reading Rainbow

"Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are." ~ Mason Cooley

Every day my Methods of Teaching Reading in Content Area teacher puts up a quote on the board before class. Often these are feel good quotes, and I wish I had copied them down more so I would have them (may need to ask her, see if she has a list). Today's quote was the one above, and it really got me thinking though. I'm sure many of us know the power that reading has and the places that it can take us, but I know personally that I have not been on such a journey in some time. For a variety of reasons my recreational reading over the past few years has seen a decline, to the point where now I tend to read short informational bits like Uncle John's Bathroom Readers. They satisfy the part of me that craves knowledge and likes knowing little random facts, but I feel the need for something more substantial. I remember the days when I read voraciously and without real regards to what it was; as long as it interested me it got a chance to go into my brain. Fiction, nonfiction, humor, drama, satire, poem. I have been longing for the time and drive to dive into a good long book recently, and seeing this quote made me that much more eager for summer to arrive. While I expect to be fairly busy, I should be able to make for headway into the growing number of books I own and haven't read. Here's hoping.

Isn't it funny how God can send you something at just the right time to give you a pick-me-up when you're going through a rough patch? I've got a good amount of papers and projects to do in the coming two weeks, along with a test and the usual quizzes, homework, and so on before finals come around. Not only that, but this weekend I was in some kind of a funk, and really had trouble getting through a paper that was due; I just wanted to curl up and sleep all day. I knew on Friday that my parents had sent me a package, but all they would say was that it was a "surprise". I finally got a chance to run and grab it before my first class, and was surprised that it was fairly small, like a 8x5x1.5 inch book. I wasn't disappointed, just surprised and curious as to what would be inside. Popping it open I saw first a book, small and green. Pulling it out I had to stifle a laugh at the title: i am neurotic (and so are you). I often give my mom crap for her neurotic tendencies, and also tend to recognize my own (oh yeah, they're there). This book is apparently a collection of quirky and true stories from people about their phobias, hysteria, and so on. Should be interesting.

Why does this even exist?

A new blog, a new introductory post about why it exists and what to expect. Hopefully this is semi-interesting enough to warrant a skim, at least.

So I've tried a blog twice before, and it went about as well as most things with no discernible feedback; lots of energy at first, and dying quickly and painlessly. Since then a few other things have lead me to feel that I simply cannot maintain something like a blog, which requires a fairly constant schedule of updating to live up to its potential. This part of me hasn't really changed, so starting a blog now seems to be a setup for failure, right?

Well there are two main reasons for doing this. First, friends are starting to, so it makes following their easy. The real reason though, is that I have felt the need to prove to myself that I can do something I've failed at before if I set my mind to it. I figure if I can keep this going and really make it not suck I have accomplished more than I tend to with most of my free-time filling shenanigans.

That's really about it. Oh, and hopefully this will get my writing back to a fairly consistent quality, since my output has been horrible this semester. I can't guarantee that you will find the thoughts in here always interesting, and they will likely be so scatter-shot in topic that plenty will be misses. However, in the end I hope people can enjoy this to some degree, and that I can maintain this thing enough to prove to myself that I can keep a multi-year project going.