Upside-Down Dreams

I recently (three/four nights ago) decided to sleep backwards in my bed, with my head where my feet usually go, and my feet residing in my head's usual location.

For some reason, it's made for some pretty interesting dreams.

I ran around a bunch of old houses that I've been in throughout my life in one, with random people from my life in it, too. It was vivid enough to include my apartment, me facing the exact way I really was, and the people in my apartment, too.
Oh, and I had a big-screen, HDTV in my room, that happened to be in the same layout of my parents' house.
That morning was odd.

The next night, I dreamed [something I suddenly can't remember. Pity.]

Last night I dreamed that my missionary friends were all back. We all ran around an office building, playing pranks on people, laughing, and having fun.

I miss those guys.

I've been irradiated....

....by the sun!

I'm fairly sunburned--but only on the right side of my face and neck, mind you.

If sunburns weren't such a commonplace occurrence, I could say that a microwave exploded, and I turned my head to the left while high-energy, fast-moving, nuclear particles blasted the right side of my face.

Doesn't the bare truth make every natural happening sound so.....deadly?

It's like calling sunlight "Cancer Beams", or cigarettes Death Sticks. (They're still Death Sticks, though. And sunlight is fun, enjoyable, and happy. Death Sticks are nothing of the sort.

It's quite painful. I shan't be shaving my face until the sheer-searing pain dwindles un poquito.

Farewell, for now. You have glimpsed a hint of caffeinated blogging. Just a *hint*.

Stalker?

I'm being constantly stalked here by someone in Gunnison who's using a Mac.
 ---I'm not even updating anything lately, my friend!---

I'm on to you.... Fess up!

Cheers.

It's all just dandy

I sit here, again in the library, checking my email, Facebook, and Sepiated Spirals (which I may reformat, soon....maybe.)

The first day of classes was today. First, Japanese is going to be very different, especially as a tutor. My show-up days are optional--I can choose which ones I want to come to--but seeing as I immensely want a good refresher course, I'll be showing up every day. I'll most likely be doing just as much work (if not more to really learn it to teach it) than the fresh, new....erm....freshmen.

A Cappella Choir is very different, too. The usual crew is gone, and all new faces have popped in. They're new to me, at least. Ya know, years pass and students come back and all that.... We're hitting it hard sooner this semester to learn Brahms Requiem. Dr. Meredeth says it's high-intensity music in German, nonetheless, but it doesn't surprise me because I know that back in the day I played some Requiem in one band or another. I should remember what it sounds like, but I don't. Meh.

Pre-calculus has a grand total of 10 people in it. Maybe 11. I don't know; apparently I can't count. Ironic, isn't it? What's great is that we already have something due: a little 5 (maybe 6; again, counting) question worksheet about real numbers. I appreciate how we're starting simple, but my roommates are in lower-end maths, and they have homework on the same stuff. Oh well. I had a chance to teach EJ a bit, and learn it better myself.

On the roommate note, things are looking up. A good ol' friend of mine said I need to give them a chance. I halfheartedly agreed, but I guess my subconscious wanted to be reasonable and made it happen. So beyond the blaring profanity and slightly inappropriateness of a couple of the guys, I have a little sanctuary in my room where I can escape. EJ is a return-missionary, so that bit adds to it. I am fortunate, and I'm glad I won't be a nobody to them. I'm still germophobic about the shower, buuuut..... Oh well. It's livable.

Mission prep restored a feeling in me that I haven't felt for quite a while. It was comforting. Home-y. Definitely a, "This is where I should be. Right here, right now, this is it," feeling. Brother Scott is amazing at teaching. I hate to downgrade any other mission prep teachers I've experienced, even if for only a couple lessons total, but Brother Scott is immensely better for me. His style is in-your-face, heartfelt, and presented as, "Do it not only because I said you should, but because this is what you want, need, and should do."

I won't consider this work--that seems too negative in today's light. It's a positive, inspiring word that eludes me.

Imagine that word left you inspired, even though it's not really here.

School again (again)

Here I sit, in the Snow College library, wondering what the heck I'm going to do. Classes start tomorrow, yet they don't offer any release yet.

I'm living in Pinetree I, now. Those are those old, shared apartments that were probably built around 1980. It shows--the cupboards are that strange, sticky, brown wood that my grandparents have in their kitchen and bathroom. The toaster, when ignited, heats up the underside of said cupboards and makes it all smell of Old Trailer.

I'm currently slightly [is an understatement] germophobic at the bathroom and rest of the floors, but I'm usually germophobic anyway. The problem here, though, is that I'm rooming with football/rugby players. I think. The good news is the carpet and tile are both new, and relatively clean, for the most part.

The bad news is, I don't think it'll last. My shared bathroom, for one, doesn't look like it was cleaned very well to begin with. The rug in there has something that looks like old pizza cheese stuck to it. Needless to say, I didn't find out. The shower/tub itself is what I'm hoping is just stained from many years of use and is still clean regardless. I don't want to think about it.

My sanctuary is my room. I was lucky and have an RM roommate with all these nice, spiritual pictures and things around, and the carpet gives it a fresh, new-house smell. It ends with the fact that walls are not sound-proof, especially to heavy R&B bass barely 2 feet away. I passed it off as being the downstairs neighbors playing some pretty mean bass guitar, but it was much closer. If that happens every morning, I don't think I can take it.

I don't think I can take it anyway. I don't fit in. I wanted to come back for a good, social environment with like-minded potential and return missionaries to get my own butt out there. I don't believe I'll be doing anything in the vicinity of the guys there, and I'm okay with it. I don't feel a desire to make friends with them beyond, "Hey, you're my roommate. Don't sit on me, and I'll give you wi-fi."

I are afeared for how this will end up. I feel somewhat miserable already. Save me?

Polarized

This one is for all you photographers.

You know those glasses you get when movie theaters charge you $3 extra for movies in the third-dimension?
Google -- It's your turn, Google. Work your magic...

 Yes. These. Thanks, Google.

These radially-polarized glasses have very interesting properties. You can read about how they work on Google somewhere. (I tried to find a good site to link, but there are too many of varying informative values. Too bad for you.)

One thing in particular, though, is how a single lens, when looked through it properly, limits reflected light.

After rigging up my camera with one of these lenses, I took these two pictures of my hardwood floor:

Left is the non-filtered shot, and the right is filtered. The color is better, and the reflection is virtually gone.

Supposedly, overcast days (like today...) don't allow the full effects of these types of filters to show through, but what you see is still very dramatic anyway, eh?

So go see a good movie, snag some glasses, and make a filter if you're bored.

I Think, as a proper noun.

It HAAAS been some time since I've graced my blog with a new post. (Suddenly I think it needs another overhaul, too...hmm. Eventually.)

Today I had a thought. It made me think. (Ironically, that's a no-brainer, right?)

Consider this: We humans have some pretty well-working systems.

My first thought was of roads. Richfield's main street has two lanes per north- and southbound traffic-s-s, as well as a turning lane right down the middle. How simple is that system that *rarely* do accidents occur, and tons of metal, plastic, and designer leather interiors pass within feet of one another without problem?

Then I saw a garbage can sitting on the side of the road. That system is just as intriguing. I don't know how, exactly, but is is.

Phones, mobile and wired, are another. Electricity is another. Networking is another. Government is another.

Granted, many people complain about it all. Their phones are too slow, the stoplight has "something against them" and changes at all the wrong times, judicial systems are lacking, [government, government, politics, goverment, etc.].

And ya know what? I agree. It all sucks. None of it is perfect. But it's there. We have cell phones. The sewers take care of things that we have too many euphemisms for to avoid talking about them. Even poverty-ridden countries have systems, albeit different from others, that work.

That's what I thought today. It isn't exactly a "think of what we're so lucky to have" thought, either. My mind is sadly phased-out of that.... That's for another blog entry, if ever.
I just like to think.

Herro

Blogging hasn't exactly been my cup of tea lately, so fear not, my fellows. I'll be back in eventually, what with lots of family time coming up this month and next. Gon' be good.

Until later, take it easy.

Right down to it

It seems like all I have are dreams to go by these days. I've been sitting around. A lot. First I lost motivation to really do anything, then I lost motivation to look for a job, then I lost motivation to get re-motivated. I think I need a muse.

Anyway, my dreams can potentially hold the light. In fact, my most recent dream -- not two hours ago -- held quite an amazing light. I was in Utah Valley again, on a Sunday morning. Early, early, early. Before sunrise. The house I was in was a combination of my aunt's and another person's, and it had a lot of windows; it had no choice but to be transparent, for the light outside.

The sunrise was glowing. It wasn't just an idle...bleh. It was a blast. Boom. Popped with dark red and dark orange, with flares and flanges of orange and yellow on the edges of towering clouds. It illuminated the entire east sky, not just a tiny, tiny part that most sunrises do with the hint of a tiny globe somewhere behind it. No; imagine that the sun was 1000 times its size, and it was deciding to peek over the mountains on the valley.

Then it went dark again. It faded out. But I willed it back (remember my post about lucid dreaming?) in all its fiery intensity.

I automatically thought of a John Mayer song called 3x5.

A friend of mine was still sleeping below, in the not-basement-but-it-was. My mind skipped ground floor somewhere between the top floor where I was and the basement where my friend was.

I started to look for my camera, but that's when I realized that it's impossible to have cameras in your dreams. It's probably like a fail-safe for our minds, so we can't ever remember a dream exactly. It's too bad. I woke up because my camera really is lost in this real world.

And anyway, You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes.

Have I ever mentioned that John Mayer is an amazing song writer? He has songs for everything, practically. It's relate-able music and lyrics. At high school graduation, he has songs for the nostalgia (No Such Thing), when you're driving on the freeway and don't want to go home yet, Why Georgia sums it up well. For my dreams that I don't want, Dreaming With a Broken Heart sympathizes. Change: Stop This Train.
It goes on and on.

Go listen to every John Mayer song and relate a bit. I have.

Terraria and a night of dreams

I play games. That's not a new thing to most of you, is it? Sorry if it disappoints you that I sit for hours staring at a screen. It doesn't disappoint me so much when it's a really good game.

Terraria is one of those games.



It had me up until the wee hours of 5:45am two nights ago, just playing it. It's like Minecraft, like a 2D Super Nintendo RPG, and like.....(I don't know, I ran out of things to compare it to.).
So that's that. Asleep on my couch at 6:00am.

Then I was awake three hours later because my dad and Preston were talking about the power being out.
Apart from being reeeeeally tired and kind of not caring, I was awake now, couldn't go back to sleep, but now my Terraria was down for the count.
I guess a sub station blew up or something that cut power from Manti all the way down to Wayne County. Projected uptime: 2:00.

So I sat around a lot. I ate some cold food. I played games on electronic devices that were quickly running out of battery power.
I guess now's the time to touch on the fact that my family is different-er, I've noticed. We didn't have a jolly old time together. We did our own things. Each had a phone out, or mini Tetris game, or other something, and when I (albeit sarcastically) asked if anyone wanted to play a card game it was a stark "nah."  Hmm. Oh well.

I went to Annabella, where they had power, and played Terraria with my uncle and others until around midnight. My phone was terminally ill, having no power to charge it, so an entire day of careless gaming, no cell phone, etc., was really nice. Then I drove home still on 3 hours of sleep.

The dreams I had were interesting. During one, I knew I was dreaming, but I was so out-of-it that I couldn't wake up. I kept thinking, "Okay, when I close my eyes and open them, I'll be awake, and this will be the real world."  It 'worked' once (in the dream..), but then I blinked, and went back.
But, ah, lucid dreaming. It's fun, and very elusive. It's just too bad that this was one lucid dream that I wanted to get out of, so I didn't think to change it and make it epic.

Later I dreamt (That's a word! British English says so.) of a Walmart that looked like a study hall, friends from Snow (Hah, one kid always calls me JL, but he called me Justin in this one.), a clear cell phone which was SOOOO cool, and a visit from a thought that I've pushed to the back of my mind. That thought kept the plot rolling...Shoot.
I guess what my mind is trying to tell me is like what the Beatles said: "I get by with a little help from my friends."

Then I woke up to my cell phone ringing the Final Fantasy 6 boss battle theme. I guess it was a good morning.

Now for more Terraria.

Phenomena Series - 2

This is another addition to strange/cool/interesting worldly phenomena that I run into and discover.

Phenomenon #3 (I hope it's three; I can't remember the last from Series 1):
When you get a big drink of water, if you fill up a big cup with hot water first--about halfway--then quickly fill it up with cold water, it provides an interesting temperature sensation... When you drink it immediately after adding the cold, you drink warm water first, then as it goes down, it turns colder.

On that note...
Phenomenon #4 (again, don't judge my counting prowess):
Take three bowls of water: one filled with cold water, one filled with hot water, and another with warm--in the middle. Put one hand in the cold bowl and one in the hot for a li'l bit. Then put both into the warm water.
The cold-water hand "seeks out" the warmth, and the hot-water hand feels the cold.

Call it a left- and right-handed perspective.
(Ooooo, that line gives me chills.)

Waiting - my Haiku

Make an impression:
I await what Life will give.
It has four days left.

(I've never written a haiku before. It's....exhilarating.)

I am a moron. But I blame...

Last night was a funny night. I was talking to a friend, and near-death experience talk popped into the conversation. It's ironic that I couldn't think of any at the time. It figures that fifteen minutes later would give me a nice conversation starter.

I spent most of the day in Provo/Orem/some in transit to Lehi. Ate extremely spicy Del Taco. Had a kid beat me at ping pong. Had cake batter ice cream. Watched Pirates 3. Found a geocache. Then I started for home around 10:50.

I am a moron. But I blame the fact that there are multiple visible "arrow" stoplights that beckon traffic their way. I happened to be looking at the wrong one. There were cars waiting to my left to cross over from the freeway exit, and when "my light" turned green, I started out. But....what the heck were THEY doing? This stupid Utah traffic--of course they would make me try to cross through.

Of course not, you moron.

So I stopped in the middle of the wide intersection, still baffled at what the heck they were all doing, but noticed that the same corresponding lane on the other side had a green light, too, and cars were now coming toward me.
Now what was I thinking? Something like, "Hmm, I need to get back to my stop-here-at-red-light line. Or die. Or something." So I threw it into reverse, somehow dodging one lane of cars entirely (I didn't bother to try looking out for them. Figures.) and pulled back into my place, all fine and dandy. Minus the adrenaline and weight of potential near-accident crushing me.

I'm glad I didn't die, that the oncoming cars weren't cruising extra-fast, and that the time of night offered significantly less traffic. Joy.

Did I have nightmares? No. Not about this.

Sharp

My blog is ever-sadly neglected, and Facebook posts get overrated and forgotten in the mix of others' narcissistic tendencies. So, for my readers--few be your numbers--I present to you this would-be Facebook status.

Justin Leon Stoker

As I cut into a brick of cheese the knife grazed past my finger and I thought, "Ahh! Sharp!" Then I realized what I was saying and rephrased: "No! It's mild!"

All for you guys. Thanks.
Enjoy the rain, marvel in the thunder.

Phenomena Series - 1

I had this idea for a li'l theme of sorts to set random posts. These are just things I think of during the day--the first of these are while driving.

I thought of this when a friend of mine blogged about a pretty awesome occurrence in that fraction of time that all of an intersection's stoplights are red. Go take a look. It's somewhere amongst her many posts.

Anyway, I want to give it a shot.

Phenomenon #1:
When a crowded, speeding, handful of cars on a freeway sees a single police car that has pulled over a hapless victim, the throng slows down. Then speeds up a little ways down the road when they forget about what they saw.
"Poor guy. I'm glad it wasn't me," they all think.
The poor guy thought the same thing once.

Phenomenon #2:
This is more of an observed physics phenomenon. The cars on a freeway don't move, if you look at it a certain way. Just a tiny increment of speed -- single miles-pers-hours-es -- are what creates and closes gaps. It's not that one car is going 64 mph and another cruising at a cheery 60. In a sense, one car is going 0, the other is going 4.

The only thing that lets you, yourself, know that you are moving is the whizzing by of the opposite lane's traffic, and of the orange construction cones (this is Utah County I've been driving in...). On that note, physics makes it seem like those cars are flying by at 120 mph. Impressive.

It's basically a cool perspective to take on whilst on a freeway. Too bad accidents don't happen at those negligible speeds. They kind of start moving when they crash into each other.


I had a Phenomenon #3, but I can't remember it. Tiredness overcomes me sometimes. This is a sometime.
I'll remember and continue the series.

Thanks for reading.

Where am I headed?

Last time I wrote anything here it was about what my summer plans were going to be.
Well, one (and definitely the plan I had in mind from the beginning) is now in effect.

I'm writing right now from my aunt's computer up in the big hubub city that's...... (Ah, screw it, it's kinda too late and pointless to not name names and stuff when I have a link to my Facebook page here).

I'm in Springville now, looking for a job and staying in my aunt and uncle's spare bedroom. (Hah...Narnia flashback with that'n. Sadly, there is no large, grand wardrobe in it. :[  )
So far I've applied at a Gamestop, an orchard, and.....that's pretty much it.

I did get really lucky, though (if it works out), when I ran into a lady friend (meaning older woman--a mom) whose husband had connections to a tire store in Provo that was in need of working help. I still need to give that guy a call and check that place out. I'll be doing that today, and finding more summer orchard stuff :P


So, bar none, I live here now, and I don't know what to do...
I don't know what kinds of thing to do, what kinds of places there ARE ("...apart from everything...") so I'm hopefully not gonna be bored out of my mind. That's suppposin' a job doesn't occupy a lot of my time, anyway.
I need a good friend system. Frankly, I can't always hang with one person all the time, because she's got a job, lots of friends, and all that other jazz. (...heh. Hi, you, reading this after requesting more blogging ;)  )
(Of course, there's nothing wrong with hanging out!! Believe me when I say I want to -- but you know what I'm sayin', hehe. Fer your sake...).

So, friends (except those of you who used to live up here and are now back in Richfield....grrr, haha), let's do something. Drag me along to one of your outings so I can make some friends and have this place feel more like home. Pleeeease...? :)

Eh....if you don't have my number, FB message me or something and I'll give it to ye. ....Yeah, all you 10 people who read this, anyway.....hah......

Take it easy!
--Stoker

Summertime, and the livin' is easy.

This summer is different from the rest.
Last summer, I had a couch to sleep on. I still have a couch, but I can't take it this time around.

Also, my parents have taken over the free room with a weight set and treadmill, and they use it often, so if I wanted my own space in there, I'd have to share. Sorry, no.

So now I have options.


Sleep on an air mattress -- This is also something I couldn't handle. It's plastic. And air. A foot off the ground. It has no real support, and I hurt when I wake up. Plus it has no real air flow. After spending a week sleeping on it during spring break, there was a sweaty wet spot under the blankets I was laying on. That can't be a good thing.


Stay at my grandma's house -- It's a 6 bedroom house, and only three are occupied. They have beds. Beds. I actually think this is my best, temporary option. I could help my grandpa out with things around the yard, and mingle with my uncle and stuff. I could handle that. It's in a small town to the south, less than 10 minutes away, so it's not terribly out of the way.


Move north -- This is a big goal, but it relies on a lot of things to work well. My main deal this summer is to get a job and pay off that credit card I used for school. If I can find a decent job, that's just about a month of work.
But: I'm also signed up for the BLM camp crew this summer. That would be a huge chunk of  money in just two weeks that could pay off the credit card and give me a good $1000 cushion on top. A fire is unreliable, though. There's the problem with that. Also, I think they have a time limit from when they call you to when you're supposed to be completely ready to go. I'm not sure if it's an hour or if it's 4 hours. The longer, the better, of course. If it's long, I can still be north and be able to get back down here for that. I'll know after I go to one of the orientation meetings next week. I'm hoping...

As for places I would live, my aunt is one option. They live 15 minutes south of the main city in the area, and have a bedroom that I've stayed in a couple times before. I could snag a job, pay 'em a lodging fee, and, most importantly to me right now....

.....be closer to the friends I made at college. My main friends down here aren't here this summer. No offense to the ones that are, but you're all girls. Hah. I need some man friends to do manly things. I would just sit around here aallllll the time, and not do anything. In the city there are things to do, people to see and visit, and more jobs.

North is full of more opportunities. Down here...not so much. It's a great place, but I think I'm done with it.

Time will tell. Give it a week and a half.

Horn party

I just came from the end-of-the-year horn party, and basically.....I'm gonna miss all those peeps.

We sat and talked (still for a decent amount of time, even though I was late -- I lost track of time playing my games), ate food , and then watched Jurassic Park. Considering it was with a bunch of band people (and since it contained music that 7 of the 12 people there had played in a concert), the music was especially note-worthy (Haaaaah. Pun).

John Williams composed it, of course, and if you didn't know, he's a horn player.
Need I say more? It only figures that he wrote the most epic horn parts out there today. It's pure auditory candy.

What's better, though, is that two girls there hadn't seen it before. I couldn't help but laugh at the effect the scary parts had on everybody, especially on those who didn't know it was coming, BUT--to make it better, our very own Mr Snow decided to scream at the jumpy parts and make the whole room freak out! It was amazing. :)

I'll reiterate: I will miss them.
They're all excellent horn players and musicians. Most of them I couldn't even begin to rival in their skill. They dedicate much more time into playing than I do, and it shows. Each one of them made me bump up my skill; I had to grow into my position when it came to horn choir and symphonic band alike. I got better, with the entirety of the thanks to them.

Suddenly I wish we had taken a picture of us all together. Even then, though, forgetting would be impossible, rendering a photo useless, and all the pictures I need are of the memory-video variety.

Thanks, you guys.

A good song.

Some music isn't music. It just isn't good, in both senses of the word. It's bad music, and the stuff in it is bad.

A good song has emotion. It makes you happy. It makes you sad. It makes you wonder. It makes you feel.

A good song does not utterly bash on women, as most peoples' ideas of a "good song" very frequently does.
Rap, Hip Hop, or whatever you want to call it, is not good music.

A good song does not instill straight-out lust or describe acts that are linked to it in sultry ways.

Why do people listen to it, let alone enjoy listening to it?

It disappoints me immensely.


This is just one of many good songs.

Demographics

I had a thought this morning, but I want to see if it's true.

I want to see the gender demographic of my blog's visitors.

***Keep in mind that I posted a link of this on Facebook, so if you only came because you saw that, and haven't visited often before, answer accordingly.

So mark whatcha are:

Thanks, monkeys :)

Flash, bang.

I like lightning.

It has power. Bolts can raise the temperature of the air around it 50,000°F, dealing a mass expansion and massive boom -- thunder.

Thunderstorms are in my top list of natural phenomena.



Cumulonimbus clouds are what "make" thunderstorms. At least in the summertime, they do. See that tower of cloud? That's got crazy currents in it. What happens when water gets flung upward into the atmosphere? It turns to ice, dummy. The ice doesn't stand a chance against the currents, though, so they still get tossed around.


And the ice bumps into other ice, and the charges change. Positive goes up, and negative goes down. The separation makes the particles seek each other out.


Think of one ice particle as a wool sock, and another as a shag carpet. Everyone knows that you can zap your mom when you slide your feet on the carpet. Your body is like the cumulonimbus as a whole, and when your finger (the bottom of the cloud) gets close to your mom's arm (the ground) the charges release in a spark (or a devastating blast of electrical energy only 30 microseconds long).


There's always a little "click" sound when you get close enough to yer mum's arm. I suppose you could say that's the spark heating up the air and making it expand? I dunno. In any case, a full-fledged bolt of lightning heats it up more, faster, and in huge quantities. 

Then.... Boom.   (It's a link. Click on it.)

Not much is more fascinating and terrifying (at the same) than a crackling explosion of thunder. 

I live for it.

Humbug

Rawr at unneeded stress. Why am I so lazy?

Flutter by

Ya know what I just realized? Well, lemme tell ya....

Remember back in middle school when you saw your crush walking toward you, and you got "butterflies"?
Yeah, that feeling. It's a crazy feeling, right? Happy, almost.
And scared. Terrified:

"Has she noticed me? Is she even going to? Ah, who cares? I like her, and--Oh, man. Eye contact. And was that a smile? What if she talks to me? I'll blabber like an idiot. Who cares? Yeah, I know. I do. Man, I'm so nervous..."

A typical scenario, right? Right.
Does anyone still feel that, or are we all desensitized at this age?
I realized I don't so much anymore.
Maybe I'm immune -- like it's there, but I don't notice. On that note, it's the same as getting nervous for a performance. That, I've noticed, I have been able to learn to ignore to the point of not noticing it.

In any case: Pity. It was fun.

The 1st Amendment to SS

I figured that last post wasn't really appropriate for a public showcase. It was for more personal reasons that I wrote it. So it's archived away and saved as a draft. Thanks for reading it, anyway. :)

Tuesday night is the second-to-last big thing I have to do this semester. Once that concert is over, I'm completely out of classes to attend until the Acapella Choir sings at graduation. (At least I think my classes are over...hopefully they will be.)

Ooof. What will I do? I might go home.....longboard a bunch.....sit on the computer..... Yeh, it'll be a strange start to a strange summer.
I'll need stuff to do.  : /

No biggie. Kinda.

Gibberish!

Sorry about that strange post with all the >?()#&>?  ?>%>#%%)&W#%#?>Hi mom!?*((&??><<<$#%#^?$>^ stuff. I tried to send something from my phone at around 4:00 last night, and apparently Blogger doesn't like how cell phones encrypt the messages. I'll re-post it later, maybe. I hope I didn't scare you all away.

**Edit:  I won't repost it.

Straaange things were happenin' last night...

It was a night of cool stuff, and lucky stuff, and pretty okay stuff. Oh, and fun stuff.

The Jazz II concert was a success. We played some good music.
[[I'll edit this with a link or two to the songs we played.]]
That concert got owned (but....it did its share of owning in a couple of ways, too).
About midway through the very first song, I realized my chops were going out. It's a killer song, to begin with, but I wasn't going to push it very hard. Lots of octave-lower stuffs.

Beyond the Sea was my favorite, by far. I had the flugelhorn duet with the lead alto. Flugelhorns are the coziest high-brass instruments out there. It's like.....hmm.
Imagine a trumpet and a French horn having children, but with the trumpet contributing most of the dominant traits. It's a trumpet, mostly, but the tone is deep and dark like a horn. S'the best.

(...this is a flugelhorn, in case you didn't know...)

Apart from one solo that I wasn't really ready for ("Chicken Scratch"), it was a lot of fun. 

It's decidedly so:  there's no shame in playing an octave lower if you're bound to mess up the high notes.

Later that night, I StumbledUpon a website that had a list of games "that make you think about life". Some of the games are ingenious. The creators really put a lot of thought into them, and they have crazy-deep meaning. This is the website. I personally like "The Company of Myself", both for the gameplay, and for the seriously emotional plot line. It tugs at something in a mind, it does... Enjoy them, eh?

Next up, events pretty much fueled each other... First, two local girls were throwing things at mine and my roommate's windows. We sneaked outside to try to scare them off, but they were gone by the time we detoured around the block. I went back to Stumbling, then heard more things hit the window, so I rushed out of my room to go scare 'em. They were coming up the stairs to my apartment (go figure) so I popped down over the rail and rawr'd at them. Scared 'em good!
They/we started playing Guitar Hero and stopped sometime around 2:30/3:00 AM. Meanwhile, one girl had opened the front window in order to cool down the room a bit.

Once they left, I moseyed back to my room and sat, plugging in my phone and whatnot. Then I heard sounds coming from the living room, like someone was messing with the blinds. I grabbed my sword from the ground (of course) and turned on the hall light. When I got to the living room, there was just a cool breeze coming in from the screen-less window and frantic footsteps running downstairs.

Yeah--we were almost burglarized at about 4:00 AM last night. Not sleeping pays off, apparently.
I figured I ought to report it to the police that some hoodlum is climbin' in yo windows, so the next half hour was talking to an officer over the phone, relaying info, blah blah.  I didn't sleep until about 5:00; the adrenaline was gone by then.

In hindsight, I almost wish I hadn't turned on a light and the dude had come inside. It would have been pretty funny to see his reaction to me holding a 3-foot katana, yelling at him (and surely waking up my roommates) while he frantically tried to either get out the window or the locked door.  I suppose if he was armed, there could've been a li'l tussle, so I'm fortunate to have scared him off.

Still......I wanted to go all samurai on his butt.

D'awww.....

A blogger friend of mine recently posted something about a draft post that she didn't post, which instead she posted posteriorly (Try fitting THAT redundancy over your posterior...). I was curious about my saved drafts and found one that I like.


It's a random, happy moment, and one that makes me 'xcited for the unknown future...


As written: 

"Daughter name: Emma
Potential middle name: Vivian"

Some day, I will have a daughter, and maybe her name will be something along those lines.


Some day.


--Stoker

A board

There's a longboard in my room right now. Four nights ago I rode one for the first time, and was hooked. (It's like what they say about smoking and drugs and stuff--only once. This is a good thing, though.) A friend of mine (I have decided to not disclose names on here anymore; blogs are Google-able) let me borrow one of her two, and I am indeedly addicted. 


The speed and smoothness is a thrill. 


Aaaaand I'm too tired to really get passionate about it. Meh. 


So anyway, I longboard now.


--Justin

Phoenix

I discovered a new band today, and I think I can surely like them.

Josh was blasting music when I got home from class, and one song sounded a lot like The Killers mixed with Empire of the Sun. A few songs I'm hearing now have a White Stripes and Gorillaz sound to them, too. And Daft Punk.

It pleases my ears. A lot.

I just hope they don't swear 'n' stuff. That could ruin a good song a bit.

-->  Phoenix  <--

Stalking the stalkers!

Not to creep you guys out or anything, but.....


.....I stalk you as much as you stalk Sepiated Spirals.

Blame the stat counter, and IP addresses, and my ability to reason out when you look at my blog from said stat counters and IP addresses.

Yeah, I'm a creeper sometimes.

Forgive me, eh?

--Justin

Freewrite, mk. I

It's due time I just......wrote.


It's 1:24 AM at the start of things, here. Lately, this is far from late. (Hah. Pun?) Last night, even, I was up until 4:30. It's strange, too--I make it a habit to wake up around noon every morning, and this morning was no different. Usually if I stay up late (2ish) then wake up earlier than 10, it hurts immensely having only....
.....hi, math.....
....8 hours of sleep (I honestly had to take 20 seconds or more to reason that amount out). 


But that's not right...
Amend that wake-up-at-10 to "the early hour of 9". 
There. 7 hours of sleep sounds more painful. To me, anyway.


Anyway (transitive redundancy?), compared to my 10 hour, 2 AM - Noon sleep schedule, I am really not that tired today. My body decides 8 might be okay like the doctors always say it needs? Typical.
This sleep schedule will soon perish.


Allergies shall, too. Itchy eyes, runny nose, incessant sneezing... They're the bane of my current out-doors-y life.  Y'know, it's funny that those symptoms are much akin to the way having a cold was portrayed in movies and stories and things from yonder childhood. Maybe I should have some soup, then. That always helps the suffering characters. Hmm.


Now I'm beginning to wonder when I'll clean up my room. Doubtfully, "soon". There's no need. Yet. I suppose I'll need clean clothes in a few days.... Yeh, there's my resolve for some roomy organization. 
--I'm glad I could put that to words for all you readers. 


Do I have readers? I hope so. I heard once that Facebook is for either people who want attention, or people with self-esteem issues. Classic narcissists vs. internal haters. With this....I dunno. I have a reason for blogging every now and then. I want people to see, sometimes, and other times it's an info dump.


This is a bit of both. I want to know if this is read, and by whom, in all sorts of egocentric ways, but I'll go about it all crafty-like with an amazing...

Official-looking Poll -- complete with varied font type, for your ocular enjoyment!

I read this blog.... (mark all that apply)

Festival of Colors?

I'M GRADUally LOSIng EXCitement about going to the Festival of Colors. 

Yeah. It was a great, awesome, fun idea to begin with, but if I want to go in terms of a social experience, I'm not feeling it anymore. Not with the variety of people going. Maybe I'll fly solo, or find other people to go with. I can't say I'll enjoy it 100% as things are now.

Rawr.

I delete for spelling, and other ramblings.

Every now and then I see Facebook posts that display lack of sympathy for those grammaticians who strive for grammatical and spelling perfection. On such occasions, every now and then I delete that post from disgracing my news feed and my Facebook enjoyment alike.
When such "friends" of mine tarnish my feed more than, say, three times, they will promptly be hidden from my sight until I remember to check up on my blocks and consider whitelisting them again.

Now, about the shows "Survivor" and "Amazing Race" (among others--those two have definitely done it, and often):  Old players are coming back. That's slightly unfair, in my ranting opinion. Sure, some didn't win the $1,000,000, but some who did are BACK!? The audience likes 'em, but....give it a rest.

Boston Rob, for example, was on Survivor, got the girl and "won", then he and his wife went to Amazing Race. They already had their moments of fame, so that was lame to begin with. That wasn't the end of it, though. Rob is back on this current season of Survivor, along with more people from previous seasons.
Also, the current season of Amazing Race is called "Unfinished Business", with teams from past seasons, as well.
Give the new guys a chance, producers!

Survivor is getting away from its roots, too. There are too many twists, catches, and hidden immunity idols lately. It's cool, but the old stuff -- straight-up Survivor -- has its place.


Anyway...
In Japan, when that petroleum plant blew up, it looked a lot like a mushroom cloud, aka, a nuclear explosion.
Couple that with the overall destruction, and with the nuclear reactor meltdown and the cesium radiation released, I can't help but associate this to the Hiroshima bombing in my mind. It's just a thought I had a few days ago.
I'm still thinking out for those 日本人. がんばってね.

I now have a kite with a Japanese flag painted on it (the Justice League wasn't cutting it anymore), which is for those who are injured and killed. I want to make 1000 paper cranes, too.

Sendai Japan earthquake, 2011

I just wanna throw this down today before I forget.


I signed up for preliminary earthquake notifications through USGS about a year ago. Every earthquake around a 6.0M, even miles underground, gets its own notification text. The theory is this: a cell phone's signal will travel faster than an earthquake wave, so you'll at least have a bit of a warning when a big quake hits.

Occasionally a Japanese fault sends out a minor quake deep in the ocean, but in the last few days there were more Japan quakes than usual -- a good five ranging from Mw 6.0 to M 7.2 before the big quake.

I should have paid more attention to the magnitude of the next, and of the update text that bumped it up to M 8.8. For the rest of the night I got text after text.
          "(Mb 6.4) NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN"
          "(Mb 7.1) OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN"
          "(Mb 6.1) NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN"
                       On and on....

Through it all I was thinking, "Man, Japan is gonna explode or something!" so it surprised me when my mom came into my room around 5:00 am and read a text to me that my dad had sent.
          "an 8.9 earthquake just hit Tokyo mass destruction, [t]sunami also hit..."

Ya know what's funny? I wanted to wake up early this morning. I tried to go back to sleep when my mom closed the door, but I was practically in shock. I don't know why it hit me so hard. It was probably from the fact I had received over 20 texts about earthquakes in the same "...EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN..." region.

Along with that, I felt like I was in the middle of it all. I felt (though I was in a just-woke-up stupor) that with all the texts I got I could have done something with warning. I wanted everyone in Japan to have gotten the same texts, so they would have known about what was coming. It was devastating and I felt it. I wanted to be there to help.

From 5:30 to near-10:00 I watched unreal news broadcasts, in the back of my mind always hoping it was just a dream spawned from the "mild" seismic activity the night texts signified. I wanted to wake up, but still haven't. Can't I just go help?

It was better to hear that it was the 6th or so preliminary message that was from the actual M8.9 quake, meaning that the rest were underwater/subterranean aftershocks. The few texts before could have given notification, but not enough to save the potential 1000+ deaths and injuries. It really was a tragic accident.
For one, people did make it out safely with barely only 5-10 minutes' tsunami warning. It's good Japan was more ready for it than not.

The thing is, how unified to the rest of the world--especially Japan and the US regions in the tsunami warning--do you feel today? Don't you feel for the people affected in watching this amazing coverage? It's a lot like Haiti, Katrina and New Orleans, the Gulf oil spill, the 2004 Sumatra tsunami, and 9/11, among other natural and civil disasters. The world is taking a look at huge, freak destruction and offering aid. Apart from pure devastation, what's different so suddenly? Why the sudden urge to replace competition with selfless giving?


And the real question: why can't the countries that are helping always have that mentality? The truth is, the world will forget. In barely a month, most Americans will probably go on with their lives and trudge back to the mundane "normalcy". That shouldn't happen. It will.

I hope the best for Japan's recovery.

Assassination

I saw a post on Facebook for a game of Assassination SUU is doing. Who wants to spearhead a Badger version with me...? It could be a BLAST, my friends!

Here are the rules, as copied from the SUU version:


Assassination is a giant water fight in which you are assigned a person to "kill." You kill them by getting them wet. The game is constantly going on, so watch your back! Here is a basic rundown of how to play:
1. Everyone is assigned a person to get wet (kill).
2. You can only kill the person you are assigned.
3. You can only be killed by the person assigned to kill you.
4. Once you kill your assigned person, you then receive their assignment.
5. The last person left, wins the game, and the PRIZE!!


Rules:
1. You cannot kill people: at their work, in their classes, at practices/games - for the SUU athletes only. Anywhere else is game.
2. Sunday is a safe day (you can't kill or be killed on Sunday).
3. The library is a safe zone at all times.
4. Water only!!
5. Water can come in any form, other than bodily fluids.
6. You cannot reveal your assignment to those playing.
7. In order to kill someone, they have to have a watermark at least the size of a quarter, but there is no limit to how wet you can get them.
8. If you are being attacked, you may get your killer wet, and this gives you a 30 minute safe period during which your killer cannot soak you. (In the case of simultaneous soaking, tie goes to the killer.)
9. After being killed you must report your death to me, by text or Facebook or something, so I can monitor the game.
10. No water guns can be used on campus. Also, as a warning, the chief of police said that often these can be mistaken for real guns, and bystanders who don't know what is going on call the cops (if you use a water gun make sure it is bright colors and not easily mistaken for a real gun). Just so ya know.
11. DON'T BE STUPID!!! (Example: Don't break laws)


DISCLAIMER: We are not responsible for your actions. Anything that is broken, stolen, damaged, or otherwise harmed is not our responsibility. Also any legal charges brought upon participants due to their own poor choices is not our responsibility.







In such a small school as Snow, this could be a LOT of fun. Marks (targets) will be easier to find, especially since you're bound do know someone who knows your mark, and the Ephraim's size offers few hiding places...


Comment if you're up for it! We may be able to get the student council involved, too, to make this a HUGE, official Snow thing.

Yclept: Return

Tonight is the night of the big Valentine's or Sweethearts or whatever it is dance thing at the Institute in commemoration of Valentine's Day next Monday. It's one of those few girls' choice dances -- and probably the only one here at Snow -- where the men get to take a break from the formal dance scene for once. (Emboldened foreshadowing? Perhaps.)

Meanwhile, I just came from an INSANE basketball game... CSI (College of Southern Idaho) wiped the floor in the girls' game, but the guys put up one of the top games I've seen, ever.

It was down to the last few minutes and they were barely ahead of us by 2 to 5 points throughout 'em. In the last minute the li'l dude who I don't know the name of dropped the clock down to 10 seconds just standing there, FREAKING us out! Ev'rbody was yelling, "GO! GO! Shoot! Do something!" As always, a foul went flying and we were down by one, 61-62, in the last 0.5 seconds, with two foul shots to try to win it. It is really needed to say that we won it? Hah, 'cuz we did. (What a resolution, eh? I was never the best at the decrescendo after a big buildup.)

 Anyway, that preceded the dance for the most part, so on the way out folks were talking 'bout it much.
I didn't plan on going. It's girls' choice, anyway, so when I wasn't asked, I wasn't going.
Simple as that. No sad feelings, no dreading a boring night all alone while everyone is out dancing. I'm fine with it. Until [you, ambiguous] came along and kept asking me if I was going, and even offering a girl's hand in date-ship for the night. I had no plans to go. 


I'm not okay with how everyone thinks that not going is a bad thing. I heard one too many, "Oh, sad,"s and "Why not!?"s that, yeah, I do feel kind of bad about not going now. Do people think that those who aren't asked to dances sit around and mope? No way! Why would it fix anything? It's just like any other day with things to do, games to play, and not-dances to think about. Then [you], again, presented it to my previously-overwhelmed subconscious that it was a bad thing. Think, my friends. Think.
That's all.


Blah, what a note to blog to after nearly a month and a half. It won't all be like this, but lately I need some let-out. Rhett is in Peru doing Good, so those let's-play-pool-because-life's-not-so-great-today moments don't happen with anyone. I guess it's what I need.

I need mental reformation.