(no subject)
Before we begin, I must say that Trivium is a GREAT fucking band and you should all check them out. Unless you have something against awesome music. Also, these bands are not as bad as I previously thought: American Head Charge (RIP Bryan Ottoson) and Soilwork ("Stabbing the Drama" rules). And speaking of awesome music, Bryan (my surrogate brother!), Pat, and I are going to OZZFEST!! All of you should come too, so you can experience the goodness. Think about it: for $60 (loge seats), you can see MUDVAYNE, SLIPKNOT, Rob Zombie, In Flames, Soilwork, and TRIVIUM. And some really old bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. And speaking of Rob Zombie...where have I heard that song that's like "scum of the earth..come on! *guitar riff*"? Because I swear I've heard it before somewhere, but I can't recall where.
Anyway, Tito said it's time for another update. So let's start with some pictures:
Here are the rest of the pictures from the concert...finally got my lousy film developed:
Me, Bryan, David, Helen..gotta love that horrible picture quality
Bryan, Greg, and me...why am I leaning into just about every damn group picture I take?
Ryan and me again....he's so adorable! (and short)
Ryan and Bryan...who wishes everyday that his name was Ryan...haha
Bryan, Chad, and me...Bryan and I were looking at the other camera =(
Me and Matt...even though he's sporting the drunken bum look, he's still cute
After the concert, I still had like twenty pictures left...so I started looking for random things to take pictures of. Most of them turned out REALLY bad; here are some of the better ones:
Busta Rhymes came to our school for our Spring Splash. The picture kinda sucks because Jamo and I weren't even gonna go, but we decided to catch the last few minutes so I could use up some of the rest of the film on my camera. So we got there super late (sorry, Jamaal) and we stood like 100 feet away.
I still think Busta's gotten kinda fat...Jamaal said he just has really big ab muscles. Whatever, man.
And no, that arrow wasn't really there; I drew it in because otherwise you'd think I was taking a picture of the backs of those guys' heads.
And the next week, Shang (one of my favorite comedians) and a couple of his friends did a Poetry reading thing at Lothian...of course Jamaal and I had to get some pictures with him afterward. So here's Shang and Jamo!
In what Jamaal called a "classic pose"...I think I'm too white and/or young to understand.
So yeah, I decided I was fed up with buying disposable after disposable anytime I wanted to take pictures (I don't trust myself enough to borrow someone else's expensive digicam), so I bought myself a nice little camera for my birthday:
Panasonic SV-AS10
Here's a side-by-side comparison with my old Nokia:
Thinner is better. Unless you're Lindsay Lohan.
And here's my baby in her little USB cradle:
Have you ever seen a camera so small? It's only 2 megapixels, but you know what? That's good enough for sharing over the internet AND printing out in sizes as large as 4"x6". I'm not trying to make billboards outta my pictures, so that's enough for me. PLUS! It records video and sound (voice memos) in addition to pictures. AND! It plays mp3s. Yah, screw iPods...I got my own little mp3 player right here.
As if my camera wasn't enough to brighten my day (or week...or month), my birthday actually kicked ass this year. I didn't have to make my own cake or celebrate by myself or anything! Wow!
I went home last weekend, and my mom took me, Tito, Jamo, and Noel out to dinner (my stepdad is a bitch; my mom always has to pay for everything). We were going to go to Olive Garden, but the wait was horrendous, so we went next door to TGI Friday's instead. Everybody except Noel and I got big slabs of meat (I got salad because I just plain like salad, and Noel...well, he got a salad because he needs to lose weight.) And since everybody kept encouraging me to order some kind of drink to celebrate my 21st, I got a strawberry daiquiri (since I love the nonalcoholic ones).
Big mistake. It tasted like strawberry medicine...I had to share with Jamaal, Tito and my mom because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish that sludge by myself. But that was the only low point of the meal; everything else was great (note to self: Cobb salad kicks ass).
And then just yesterday, Bryan (surrogate brother) arranged a BIG birthday bash at a local sushi restaurant, Fugu's. He'd been planning for weeks and I'd been driving him crazy trying to find out what we were doing, where we were going, etc. Hey, if you tell me it's a secret, that just makes it that much more enticing.
So he actually got almost half the hall to go; my brother is so awesome that he got all those kids to overcome their irrational fear of me to celebrate my birthday and have some great sushi YAY! Jamo and I both got teriyaki dinners and some other types of sushi on the side (note to self: do NOT order Tiger Eye rolls at Fugu's ever again. $7.00 for two pieces of calamari just isn't worth it). Some people ordered really cool-looking rolls of sushi, and we made sure to document that on film. Too bad I didn't have my camera yet, I would've gone shutter-happy. Not that I could have taken too many pictures with the 8MB memory card they include with the camera.
But I digress. After dinner, I decided to give alcohol another try. Actually, Jamaal kind of persuaded me to. The waitress recommended something called a Midori Sour, and...despite the name, it was actually pretty good.
So we all left Fugu's, drove back to the dorms, and I started settling down to let my food digest when there was a knock on my door. I thought it was Julie, since she said she and Ling were going to meet me back at the dorms after dinner. But it was Bryan! With a whooooole bunch of kids from the hall! He got them all to sing "Happy Birthday" to me and presented me with a HUGE chocolate cake. Unfortunately, I had to share with them all...nah, just kidding. Hell, I had trouble just finishing MY slice, what with all the sushi I had at dinner. =)
Julie, Ling, and Caleb showed up a little later. After much deliberation, we decided to go out for some drinks.
I know, I know. But it's not like I'm an alcoholic or anything.
Went to Rite-Aid and bought a six-pack of orange-flavored Smirnoff Twisted V. Pretty good stuff...I finished off one bottle all by myself. What? It's only 5% alkie. I also had a sip of ale (nasty, nasty stuff) and a liiiittle bit of Midori straight (I bought some at Rite-Aid since it was on sale). Which reminds me! Julie, I need to pay you back for all that. Remind me next time you're in the neighborhood, alrighty?
So yeah, we all split up after that...Jamaal, Julie, Caleb, and Ling went home, Bryan went back to his room, and I cleaned everything up and then crashed. Set my alarm for 10:00, woke up at 1:00...I didn't feel too bad, but jeez...I almost always hear my alarm now. I must've been dead. I guess I'm what you'd call a lightweight.
Okay, one last exciting thing that happened since my last update: Jamaal's taking Entomology, right...and he got an assignment to take care of a caterpillar (a Gulf Fritillary) until it became a butterfly.
We kinda had a little disagreement about what he should name it. I suggested Gurrg, but he was very much against it. He insisted on calling the poor thing Caterpie. Now you tell me, do YOU think his caterpillar looked more like a "Gurrg" or a "Caterpie"? (From left to right: Caterpie, a gulf fritillary, Gurrg):
I rest my case.
But anycrap, I'm kinda straying off topic. What I was getting at was that Jamaal brought Gurrg over after he'd metamorphosed (?) into a butterfly. What's that? You want pictures? Okay!:
He was surprisingly tame; he let us take a picture of him, perched on my finger
And on Jamaal's nose, too
And then he perched on my chair and kept opening and closing his wings, and we tried to get a picture of the inside of his wings. This was the best we could do.
And then he pooped on my chair and Jamaal put him back in his little makeshift cage (a Tupperware container). He ended up having to let him go later that night (neither of us knew how to collect nectar to feed him).
So that was the last couple of weeks in a nutshell. A big nutshell. I'm pretty sure I covered everything. But, I am tired...so I might've forgotten something. If I did, I'll come back and update later. Yeah.
Oh yeah...Demi: I was so happy when I saw you online....but then you signed off. I can't give you my number because I get charged an arm and several legs if I accept a long distance call on my cell, and my room phone doesn't work anymore. Well, it does...but only for about eight seconds before it starts making nasty noises and disconnects. Sooo...I hope you see this, and I hope you get back online soon. I really miss talking to you..and Ben...and even Floyd.
He endt. =)
Anyway, Tito said it's time for another update. So let's start with some pictures:
Here are the rest of the pictures from the concert...finally got my lousy film developed:
Me, Bryan, David, Helen..gotta love that horrible picture quality
Bryan, Greg, and me...why am I leaning into just about every damn group picture I take?
Ryan and me again....he's so adorable! (and short)
Ryan and Bryan...who wishes everyday that his name was Ryan...haha
Bryan, Chad, and me...Bryan and I were looking at the other camera =(
Me and Matt...even though he's sporting the drunken bum look, he's still cute
After the concert, I still had like twenty pictures left...so I started looking for random things to take pictures of. Most of them turned out REALLY bad; here are some of the better ones:
Busta Rhymes came to our school for our Spring Splash. The picture kinda sucks because Jamo and I weren't even gonna go, but we decided to catch the last few minutes so I could use up some of the rest of the film on my camera. So we got there super late (sorry, Jamaal) and we stood like 100 feet away.
I still think Busta's gotten kinda fat...Jamaal said he just has really big ab muscles. Whatever, man.
And no, that arrow wasn't really there; I drew it in because otherwise you'd think I was taking a picture of the backs of those guys' heads.
And the next week, Shang (one of my favorite comedians) and a couple of his friends did a Poetry reading thing at Lothian...of course Jamaal and I had to get some pictures with him afterward. So here's Shang and Jamo!
In what Jamaal called a "classic pose"...I think I'm too white and/or young to understand.
So yeah, I decided I was fed up with buying disposable after disposable anytime I wanted to take pictures (I don't trust myself enough to borrow someone else's expensive digicam), so I bought myself a nice little camera for my birthday:
Panasonic SV-AS10
Here's a side-by-side comparison with my old Nokia:
Thinner is better. Unless you're Lindsay Lohan.
And here's my baby in her little USB cradle:
Have you ever seen a camera so small? It's only 2 megapixels, but you know what? That's good enough for sharing over the internet AND printing out in sizes as large as 4"x6". I'm not trying to make billboards outta my pictures, so that's enough for me. PLUS! It records video and sound (voice memos) in addition to pictures. AND! It plays mp3s. Yah, screw iPods...I got my own little mp3 player right here.
As if my camera wasn't enough to brighten my day (or week...or month), my birthday actually kicked ass this year. I didn't have to make my own cake or celebrate by myself or anything! Wow!
I went home last weekend, and my mom took me, Tito, Jamo, and Noel out to dinner (my stepdad is a bitch; my mom always has to pay for everything). We were going to go to Olive Garden, but the wait was horrendous, so we went next door to TGI Friday's instead. Everybody except Noel and I got big slabs of meat (I got salad because I just plain like salad, and Noel...well, he got a salad because he needs to lose weight.) And since everybody kept encouraging me to order some kind of drink to celebrate my 21st, I got a strawberry daiquiri (since I love the nonalcoholic ones).
Big mistake. It tasted like strawberry medicine...I had to share with Jamaal, Tito and my mom because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish that sludge by myself. But that was the only low point of the meal; everything else was great (note to self: Cobb salad kicks ass).
And then just yesterday, Bryan (surrogate brother) arranged a BIG birthday bash at a local sushi restaurant, Fugu's. He'd been planning for weeks and I'd been driving him crazy trying to find out what we were doing, where we were going, etc. Hey, if you tell me it's a secret, that just makes it that much more enticing.
So he actually got almost half the hall to go; my brother is so awesome that he got all those kids to overcome their irrational fear of me to celebrate my birthday and have some great sushi YAY! Jamo and I both got teriyaki dinners and some other types of sushi on the side (note to self: do NOT order Tiger Eye rolls at Fugu's ever again. $7.00 for two pieces of calamari just isn't worth it). Some people ordered really cool-looking rolls of sushi, and we made sure to document that on film. Too bad I didn't have my camera yet, I would've gone shutter-happy. Not that I could have taken too many pictures with the 8MB memory card they include with the camera.
But I digress. After dinner, I decided to give alcohol another try. Actually, Jamaal kind of persuaded me to. The waitress recommended something called a Midori Sour, and...despite the name, it was actually pretty good.
So we all left Fugu's, drove back to the dorms, and I started settling down to let my food digest when there was a knock on my door. I thought it was Julie, since she said she and Ling were going to meet me back at the dorms after dinner. But it was Bryan! With a whooooole bunch of kids from the hall! He got them all to sing "Happy Birthday" to me and presented me with a HUGE chocolate cake. Unfortunately, I had to share with them all...nah, just kidding. Hell, I had trouble just finishing MY slice, what with all the sushi I had at dinner. =)
Julie, Ling, and Caleb showed up a little later. After much deliberation, we decided to go out for some drinks.
I know, I know. But it's not like I'm an alcoholic or anything.
Went to Rite-Aid and bought a six-pack of orange-flavored Smirnoff Twisted V. Pretty good stuff...I finished off one bottle all by myself. What? It's only 5% alkie. I also had a sip of ale (nasty, nasty stuff) and a liiiittle bit of Midori straight (I bought some at Rite-Aid since it was on sale). Which reminds me! Julie, I need to pay you back for all that. Remind me next time you're in the neighborhood, alrighty?
So yeah, we all split up after that...Jamaal, Julie, Caleb, and Ling went home, Bryan went back to his room, and I cleaned everything up and then crashed. Set my alarm for 10:00, woke up at 1:00...I didn't feel too bad, but jeez...I almost always hear my alarm now. I must've been dead. I guess I'm what you'd call a lightweight.
Okay, one last exciting thing that happened since my last update: Jamaal's taking Entomology, right...and he got an assignment to take care of a caterpillar (a Gulf Fritillary) until it became a butterfly.
We kinda had a little disagreement about what he should name it. I suggested Gurrg, but he was very much against it. He insisted on calling the poor thing Caterpie. Now you tell me, do YOU think his caterpillar looked more like a "Gurrg" or a "Caterpie"? (From left to right: Caterpie, a gulf fritillary, Gurrg):
I rest my case.
But anycrap, I'm kinda straying off topic. What I was getting at was that Jamaal brought Gurrg over after he'd metamorphosed (?) into a butterfly. What's that? You want pictures? Okay!:
He was surprisingly tame; he let us take a picture of him, perched on my finger
And on Jamaal's nose, too
And then he perched on my chair and kept opening and closing his wings, and we tried to get a picture of the inside of his wings. This was the best we could do.
And then he pooped on my chair and Jamaal put him back in his little makeshift cage (a Tupperware container). He ended up having to let him go later that night (neither of us knew how to collect nectar to feed him).
So that was the last couple of weeks in a nutshell. A big nutshell. I'm pretty sure I covered everything. But, I am tired...so I might've forgotten something. If I did, I'll come back and update later. Yeah.
Oh yeah...Demi: I was so happy when I saw you online....but then you signed off. I can't give you my number because I get charged an arm and several legs if I accept a long distance call on my cell, and my room phone doesn't work anymore. Well, it does...but only for about eight seconds before it starts making nasty noises and disconnects. Sooo...I hope you see this, and I hope you get back online soon. I really miss talking to you..and Ben...and even Floyd.
He endt. =)