Nobody’s going to see this post for a few days, but that’s only because I haven’t finished setting up the domain redirect for the site’s new location.

It’s true - my blog now lives indefinitely on Marty’s server; my hosting account expired and I kind of wasn’t really using enough bandwidth to justify an entire account just for this measly little thing that doesn’t get read anyway.  Stuff happens.  There’s not much to say this time around…  I think that we’ll be hosting another movie night sometime soon pending peer approval - which is probably the easiest thing in the world to achieve.

Me

“Think a bunch of us should get together and watch a movie at my place on Friday?”

Random Friend

“What, are you making some kind of joke or something?”

Me 

“No, I’m serious.  Movie night.  Friday.  Be there.”

Random Friend 

“Why do you even ask?  You know I’ll be there and be ready before you even will be.” 

Me

(Sigh) 

And so it goes.   Expectations of amazingly fun times are overshadowed by the inevitably fun but slightly predictable.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that

Crap, just looked at the clock, gotta go to work!

/nk

I’ve kind of noticed that my “substantive writing modulator” in the creative center of my mind has been a bit burned out lately.  Not to say that there aren’t interesting things going on around me at any given point in time, only that to convey them effectively and meaningfully through this particular medium takes more of an effort than it would seem to require.

If I simply wrote about what went on in my life, day in day out, while it would be marginally interesting it wouldn’t be anything that you would want to come back to.  (pause a minute while I stretch my aching wrist and grab another mug of coffee)  I think this is why I’ve turned to slightly more non-conventional means of delivery, e.g. Flickr.  I take a decent amount of pictures and like to share them, get other peoples’ comments.  Isn’t this what we are all looking for in any type of blog, though?  Validation through the opinions of others?  Don’t tell me it’s not at least partially true, otherwise every blog would be private and readable by the author alone.  That’s all well and good by itself, but as a reader of a great many weblogs myself I’ve got to say that a lot of the posts I see would be nothing without the comments they inspire or demand call for.

I’m also getting the hang of this “new paragraph” thing.  Sure, it’s been part of the writing convention forever, and it’s proper and all that, but it sure makes your post look longer.  Looking back over some of my first posts here, they were either really short two sentence blurbs or, while long and meaningful, never had any sort of organization of thought.

There are a lot of things I need to get sorted out with my life, everything from follow-up from the move to unresolved homework assignments to relationships with friends.  I’m thankful to be where I am, and wouldn’t change (much) of it for anything.  I’m driving to Fresno tomorrow with some of my best buds, and plan on having the most amazing time at a rare concert opportunity.  More to follow on that.  In the meantime, since I’ve got (more or less) my own place now, I can invite people over to hang out, watch a movie, coffee, games, etc.  Consider this a vaguely defined open invite: come on over and hang out sometime!  As long as schedules work out (which is the single biggest challenge here), company is a great thing.

Justin, let’s practice with our six-strings so that we can proficiently trounce that test coming up.  And for fun, of course.  (I’ve got some Fab Four songs to tackle)

Blessings,

-Neil

P.S. - I’m working on a way so that readers can subscribe to my site via e-mail so that they don’t have to check back for new posts if they don’t use an RSS reader.  More to come.

With the recent flurry of quotations from my friends in the “blogosphere” of popular culture, lyrics and words of rhyme,  let me post the lyrics of a song that I was listening to at top volume this morning as I made the drive to work.  braveSaintSaturn has some of the most whiz-bang, beautiful, meaningful lyrics I’ve ever heard; and if that doesn’t mean anything to you, you totally owe it to yourself to look them up and give a listen or three.  In regards to this particular bit of lyrical flair, the meaning stands out to me as a bit of a bittersweet reminder that sometimes we artificially places limits on ourselves to such a shortcoming of our potential capacity, simply because of how we perceive ourselves or we think others will perceive us.  My friends have been remarkably inspirational to me as of late, and I just wanted to say thanks.

Resistor

by braveSaintSaturn

Under twenty thousand tons of brick and stone,
She carries all the weight of her own world,
But somewhere deep inside,
Beneath the cartilage and bone,
Beats the battered heart of one little girl alone.
She is sweet, like sugar,
But she is bitter like the broken sugar pot.
Dad says that she could be anything she wants to be,
She only sees what she is not.

Chorus
Disbeliever, underachiever,
Disconcerted with the way things look from here,
Disinclined and disinterested,
Nothing in your world seems clear.
Disbeliever, underachiever,
Don’t you shed another tear,
Little Sister, broken heart resistor,
It’s not like that over here.

With the Blanket of Security,
And the mighty force of her own will,
Treading water in her pink pajamas,
She is treading water still.
Hopelessly hopeless,
and she is swimming,
further into the sea.
Thinking she’s substandard,
While all the while,
She is beautiful to me.

She is strong and silent,
She is blunt and shrewd,
She thinks that nobody loves her,
If she only knew,
How much we all have missed her,
We are praying for you, my little sister.

Last night we had lifegroup/Bible Study and since there weren’t a lot of people that came we took a more relaxed approach, and I got so much out of it.  Isaiah 58 completely blew me away, it was so incredibly powerful and direct.  Our discussion was more on the resoluteness of words when actually backed up by action and some of the examples that we personally noticed.  Of course there was the obligatory “Good Samaritan” passage, but when put into context as such it was so personal, so eye-opening.  Thanks…

/nk

Went to see Across the Universe yesterday. Musically, it was very rich; plot-wise not so much. But hey, it was a film about the music of the Beatles, not a history lesson. I can’t really recall whether they even mentioned the Beatles by name, I don’t believe they did. It would seem that they (those who created the movie) just picked out a select few songs that they wanted to incorporate, and wove a weak story around them in order to take up 2 hours and 11 minutes of movie length. All in all though, it was worth seeing. Truth be told, I could have closed my eyes for the entire film and enjoyed it just as much; since the music was what captivated me more than anything. It was fun to go with a bunch of new friends and some well-established friends as well, humor made the day

After that went to grab some pizza at Mountain Mike’s since the Thai place was closed, but sadly I was feeling rather crappy and so didn’t eat anything.

Drove home and took Justin back to get his stuff and then booked it over to my place to book it in an entirely different sense - that of massive homework load at breakneck speed. Got quite a bit accomplished! Still, I have a chem quiz in about half an hour that will echo back to me the result of study neglect.

When a big portion of that was all said and done, Dobber and I played guitar until 2 in the morning, and then I hit the sack ’cause I knew I would have to be up and at ‘em dark n’ early for my VB class at 10. This was made to be a whole lot less toilsome due to the fact that I have now replaced my broken coffeemaker and all is well with the world

For the rest of you that saw the film, what did you think? Did it make you laugh, cry, feel nostalgic? I thought there was a fair bit of humor involved, and couldn’t help but be reminded of a certain scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life where they sang a certain song.

Here goes another week.

[tags] Beatles, Across the Universe, music, film, homework, Monty Python, pizza, guitar [/tags]

Today Dobber and I went with Aaron to a shooting range in Modesto, and put some paper dudes out of their misery. I’m sure they would have thanked us. Also went to some mexican restaurant and saw a HUGE rainbow outside, and snapped a few photos with my phone. I don’t use it much for pictures, but I’ll try to do it a little more when I think of it. On the way up there, we had to go around a jackknifed big rig on highway 99 just north of Monte Vista. Have a look!

jackknife

rainbow

dobber

dead paper dude

aaron

HK USP .45 = good times!

Just faced the abominable Managerial Accounting exam monster, slew him, jogged from home to the other side of CSUS and back, and I’m about to shower it up.

Can’t say that my life got any less tumultuous, but it sure felt good to be through with that

/nk

My cell phone doesn’t work anymore. crap. It might be awhile before I get a new one.

I have a brutal exam tomorrow in what seems like a foreign subject to me.

I’m having strange dreams.

And I live in a new house.

Do I seem stressed?

I’m trying to make things work, yet ultimately the ebb and flow of my life is not up to me.

Need to relax, realize that I am not totally in control. And be O.K. with it.

/nk

[tags] life, stress, phone, exam, test [/tags]

So I had concentrated on the fact that I was going to write this big, long and elaborate post.  Now that might happen, but what’s more important is that I divulge the fact that within the next week and a half, I am gonna have two brand-new roommates, and live in a completely different town than my family.  This is decently big news, considering I have never moved houses before and not only will it bring me closer to school and convenience but also more independence, and I like that.  There are drawbacks, but I certainly believe that that benefits far outweigh them in the long run.  Pictures, eventually.  When I get all moved in and things look good.  I’ll know things are truly settled once I get the coffeemaker in there.  Nevermind the fridge, washer and dryer.

I’ve also got a definitive Managerial Accounting test coming up on Monday, that’s majorly important since that class is super tough for someone like me.  This fact alone means that in the time I could be using to get all moved in, I will instead be studying stuff that I pretty much half-understand.

Meanwhile, Elvira from who knows where wants to be my friend on MySpace.  Along with Cynthia, Melody, Janet, Britney, et cetera.  I hate spam, and MySpace is full of it.  Deny, deny, deny.

Since we hiked to Half Dome last weekend, I got around to putting up my pictures on Flickr and today I get a message saying that I not only had a new Flickr contact, but that my photo had been chosen “Photo of the Day” on YosemiteBlog.com.  How freakin’ cool is that!  Sure didn’t see that one coming.  Funny, because that was one of the sites I checked out before we made our trek.   Thanks Loyd, and keep up the blogging and picture hunting.

I’d like to make a road trip sometime this semester… farther than Fresno, which is where I’ll be going on the 23rd to see Shane and Shane once again.

Finally, good news - Demonoid is back up.  Sorry, Canadians- you’re getting blocked.  Thank the CRIA for that.

Enjoy your Wednesday, people.  It’s coming up in five minutes.

[tags] Yosemite, hiking, Half Dome, MySpace, spam, Canada, Demonoid, CRIA, Wednesday, Fresno, Shane & Shane, Flickr, moving, school, accounting, test, photos, photography [/tags]

It’s certainly been an eventful week. Everything from guitar playing to chemistry tests to trekking to the top of Half Dome and back, my schedule has been chock-full of incredible things (excluding a certain test). Even though this made for one of the most stressful weeks in recent memory, I wouldn’t change it for anything. To have the opportunity to spend it with the most incredible friends is more than I could have hoped for and I continue to be amazed at the magnanimity of these individuals. I look forward to spending more time with you guys and even though I ache with every physical fiber of my being, I have no reason to be anything but thankful for it.

My Flickr has been updated with the very latest; my blog has been written and my profile(s) updated. Time for bed. Check Justin’s Xanga page for more links.

Here we go again, tomorrow’s Monday.

[tags] Yosemite, Half Dome, hiking, outdoors, Flickr, blog, profile, Facebook, friends, school, test, chemistry [/tags]

What a weekend!  Stay tuned, Flickr photos to come.