start with a million, now down to 2

listening to: Ivan - The Hungering

thanks to rich and his math, we've decided that statistically there are only 2 girls in the world that are suitable for me. we don't have names or anything, just a numerical amount.

good to know.


AND LET IT BE KNOWN:

my dream is to travel in a band, sharing my music and faith, showing love and compassion, using my gifts to bring praise back to God in thanks for all the blessings i've received in my life.


we'll see if it works out that way or not, but i realized that's what i really really want to do.

night.

"your face endears you to me"

listening to: The Bled - Porcelain Hearts and Hammers for Teeth

the quote in the title is from a fairly short-lived webcomic that i used to read. it was really quite something, witty but with deepness and metaphors. the art style was pretty sweet too. the creators comments on their own work was always fun too, because they way they organized their words and how random they were is funny. i think for a while i started to try writing like them because it amused me so much. A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible is the name. check out the archives.

oh hai taylor, look, here is your name.

so hm... what have i been up to? well, last night Rodd helped me (did it for me) put a new tube in my bike tire so now it's rideable. i think i'll be riding my bike to work wednesday, kinda exciting :)
my twin has rescued me yet again. i don't even know if i can express how much of a massive blessing she's been in my life. i get mail from school saying i need to pay at least part of my tuition by august 6, which i can do, but then paying for the flight to california becomes a lot trickier. the very next day, i hear from Jo, who hasn't had internet/phone for a while and she says she still going to help me get out there. !!!! Everything always works out, because God is good and I rely on Him and He takes care of me. It's beautiful. This is why i don't get worked up and worry about things. rarely, at least.

hm... what else?
i forgot something, maybe it will come to me.
going to warped tour this weekend. sweeeet. here i come rich :)
nick may be getting a new car tomorrow, nice.
playing music at VBS is a lot of fun. kids are cool. they sing loud.
OH I REMEMBERED!!!!
for $100 i'm buying a Marshall 4x12 cab from Noellen, former guitarist for A Hollywood Ending (the band we let stay at our house one night after they played a show up here). now he does solo stuff, which you can find here. him and his girlfriend are going to be coming up here from indiana next month to crash at our house again and hang out and probably go to the beach. yaya!

so um... i'm going to go have lunch and a shower.
i need both.
and i need to shave. just fyi.
:)
peace.

stressed

listening to: Miyavi - Shoukyoto Sakujyo

rarely do i get stressed for long periods of time. i define "long periods of time" here as like... a whole day. if something is bothering me i usually feel better about it within hours. rarely do things really get me down.

today, i am stressed. it's making me crabby and largely unmotivated. what i'd really like to do is go someplace and just chill out for the rest of the night. away from my computer. i don't have anywhere to go though really and i have to be here for a meeting in an hour or so.

i had a talk with my mom today, and that's why i'm stressed.
i don't even know how to explain any of it. i don't feel like trying. i don't want her to feel it's all too far gone but i worry she's leaning that way. and she doesn't seem to have a problem with it.

the reason it's got me worked up has nothing to do with it's effect on me. it's that i feel heartbroken for my father. he wants nothing more than to do anything and everything possible to put things back together, fix it and be a family. be a better dad, husband and man of God. in reverse order there. he just wants to be a family and be allowed to be with all of us. but, the way my mom talks... she doesn't want it. and that kills me because i know how much my dad wants it all to be ok and whole.

my heart breaks when i think about how my dad must have felt about me moving out of the house. i didn't leave on bad terms or anything like that. i kind of just up and left. such a mixture of pride and sadness, seeing his son growing but having to let him leave to grow. he told me that for a while after i left he couldn't sleep well. he kept thinking that i'd be coming home soon, like i was just out for the night and he was going to stay up to see that i got back alright.

i love my family.
i don't want it to change like this.
i am in the middle, and it's not that i want to get out, i just wish there was something i knew i could do to help.

blah.
i feel a little better now.
writing can be helpful.

prayer please. not for me, for the family, my parents.
thanks.

ivan disputes you

listening to: Ivan - The Flies

i am so happy that i got to see Ivan, but so sad that i'll never see them again.

seriously, THAT SHOW WAS COST.
opening band, Reinventing Yesterday was meh. metal. metal by numbers.
Brothers was cool. seemed like cool guys with good music. liked.
La Dispute is so epic! started off the show with a rendition of the Death March song played on melodica. you'd know the death march if you heard it. played when somebody dies. very ominous. very awesome by La Dispute. they played a new song never played for an audience before. it was phenomenal. great 2-stepping parts, i got my dance on. that band is just so great. if/when i'm on stage and have fans, i hope they are as cool as la dispute fans. i guess i'd have to be as cool as la dipsute to get that. i'll have to try.

Ivan was really really good. I had no idea. This was their second to last show before the band ends. Such a good band, so sad to see them breaking up. The performance was incredible. The guitarist was awesome, and the bassist was better at guitar than i am. They traded instruments a few times. They had an old bassist no longer in the band come out and play with them a couple times. so cool. jordan from la dispute jumped on the guitarist's back during a guitar solo and pretended he was riding a motorcycle. so good.

one of the best concerts i've ever been to. absolutely lovely. lots of friends there too. couldn't be better.

on a side note, a strange thing happened today. alex's friend steve was at the concert. it turns out he really likes my music on SteroFame, and he didn't know it was mine. he was shocked to find out that it was me who had made the stuff he had been listening to and liked. i was shocked to run into somebody irl who liked it. crazy. this further proves my theory that there will always be somebody out there who likes your music. and it made me happy.

so anyways. sleepz tiem yo. i am le tired.

in the world/of the world

listening to: Thrice - The Earth Isn't Humming

what i've been thinking about for a long while.

we, dearest of friends, brothers and sisters, are called live in this world. but we're not supposed to be of the world. tracking? live in this world, but don't become like it. be different, stand apart, against if necessary. ever since high school i've been troubled when friends of mine change. not in the "growing up" kind of thing, but changing from decently behaving individuals into.... i dunno, something less. they degenerate. they come down to a different level. it's most evident first in how they talk. the language either affects or is a result of how they think, which goes on to change their actions.

it really, really bothers me to see friends i respect walking a path that is parallel to the road the "world" is on. when they act and talk like everybody else. they go and say deep and beautiful things when they're around a certain crowd, but away from that they fall into the same talk you hear every other place that's "out" in the world.

i've done and continue to do the same thing, and i do not like it. i've swore, made those jokes, and i realized that it was an effort to seem more like those i was with. i wanted to look more imperfect so i would fit in better. i wanted to say "hey, i'm still like you." and how pointless it was! every time i do it i instantly regret it. there's no reason for it. it's not holy. we are mature enough to change this within us. there should be no need to act a certain way among friends and then "straighten up" in other circumstances.
i get disappointed, that's all. i want a friend to look up to and respect, see how they're living and say "yeah, i want to be more like that." but we're all so imperfect. maybe this is a realization that Jesus is the only one whose example is good enough to follow. but i want somebody here that i can watch and learn from. is that wrong?

maybe it's not right for me to want to hold my friends to a higher standard. but then again, maybe that's something they need. do they think there's anything wrong with where they are at? i don't know, because i never ask. i don't talk to them about these things.
i am thankful for the one person i've talked to about some of this, she's been an encouragement whether she knows it or not.

i have a new friend. she has issues with anxiety and gets nervous easily. she hates confrontation. hates it. and though she can hardly stand it and it hurts (especially if they get upset with her about it), she will confront her friends out of love when they are involved in something that is hurting them. she is a better friend than i.

last week i watched somebody else be a better friend to my best friend than i have been. what's the point of friendship if you're just going to let somebody walk their own path whether it could destroy them or not? even if it's not something "major," what is there to gain by ignoring a wrong in some one? aren't we supposed to be a community that builds each other into better people? friends that teach each other, help/instruct/guide each other? "as steel sharpens steel, so one man sharpens another." i don't know if that's the exact quote, but that's the meaning of it. i want to live among people who desire this same thing.

it's hard to start it on my own though. especially since i haven't done it before.
who is with me?
i will hold you to a higher standard, i will point out to you what i think isn't part of The Way, if you will do the same for me. who else wants this? i need to know.

who is with me?

and it was in that park

listening to: Justice - We Are Your Friends

right this minute, i have over $1000 in the bank. yays! praise God, I'll should be able to go to california even if i have to pay for it all myself, which looks likely. and i think there will be enough to fix my car also. this is a very good thing, and quite the relief. but if Jo-Jo is still alive and well and out there in the world somewhere, it'd be cool to talk to her.

last night was cool. small little concert in Hagar Park. Kyle did cool things with his bass and loop pedal, turned out pretty cost. Derek played some nice acoustical pieces. all the while the republican party... party was going on in the background. funny. the kid the the ukulele size guitar was absolutely spastic. his friend with the keyboard seemed a little calmer, but i think they either both took the same thing before coming or they both forgot to take something they were supposed to. but it was still entertaining. and. and and and. what made the whole thing worth going, was that fran was there. and the look on her face when i said hi.
i haven't made eye contact with that girl in...3 years? how long has it been? i think almost exactly 3 years. i've almost been looking forward to the random event of running into her someplace, because i knew i would be cool about it and she would feel incredibly awkward. it was strange for me a bit, seeing her walk over to nick, who was by me. she didn't look any different really, wearing a shirt i used to see her in often. but the way she reacted when i said hi told me i was exactly right about how i thought things would go. it made me laugh. i don't think she's any different from the person she was years ago, but for her sake i hope she's changed.

but oh the lulz. :)

and the books i've been reading are blowing my mind, in such a good way.
Sex God - done. Velvet Elvis - in the works, and so good.
Irresistible Revolution - next. i think it'll change me.

dub it up yo

listening to: Dub Trio - Bay Vs Leonard

Dub Trio concert last night with Alex and Zim and Dave was so good!
I wasn't a big fan of the band until I saw them in action. They are quite impressive and the music is great. fantastic musicians, all of them. so much bass! so good.

trip to flint was pretty good, rode with zim and dave. alex's house is cool, though watch out for theo. at least around food. destructive little guy :)

before the Dub show we ate at a cool little coffee shop. i ordered the Budget Burger. it just sounded too good to pass up. and it was pretty good. nice place, called the Blue Note.

i've been bugged by and i've been thinking of lately the types of lifestyles and actions i and others take. mostly my friends. how they act, behave, choose to be around one group or another. i'm tired but i plan on writing about this maybe tomorrow.

night.


OH. and Thrice has a featured thing on myspace with studio recording videos of songs and its SWEET. http://www.myspace.com/transmissions
listen - watch - be amazed.

love all.

sentiment

listening to: Thrice - As the Crow Flies

today i wore my brother's shirt because my mom accidentally put it in with my clothes.
the shirt smelled like my brother and it made me miss him.
sentiment.

the end.

"here is our hot chocolate"

listening to: La Dispute: Future Wars

i'm writing two blogs at once right now. this and my work one.
the title of this post comes from a song written by Jon Schlosser. awesome.

ok i just went and finished my work blog.
ok, and now i just got done reading my list of friend's blogs that i have.

lost internet sometime around noon on friday.
didn't really bother me that much, and i'm happy about that.
the internets are now back as of sunday and here i am.

the weekend was great. rode out to milford with bill, i was falling asleep a good deal of the way there. sunday we played music at kelley's home church, it was a lot of fun. i messed around/improv'd a decent amount. i'm really glad i'm skilled enough at guitar to be able to make some things up as i go along. yay for guitars!

so i've been thinking of this:
i'm staring into the eyes of compromise, and i'm smiling like a madman.
i can't recall ever having this feeling of interest yet uncaring. must be cautious.
i know i'm looking at a sub-standard ideal, and my smile is strange. it's paradoxal. i want it but i don't really care wether i have it or not and i think it's best that i don't have it. best to let time sweep this away i suppose. won't be long anyway, so is my guess.

mmm. i'm tired. i was going to ride my bike to work tomorrow but apparently i don't know how to get air into the tire properly. i think something is wrong and i'm going to get it checked out. we'll see.

ending with: we were just so young then, what did we know really? just kids.
and i want so bad to be up there on stage, playing my own music. so bad.

but yeah. how about bed? yeah.

mod complete!

listening to: The Devil Wears Prada: Reptar, King of the Ozone

i just finished modding my nerf gun. haha. that's funny. it took a lot of filing down plastic, but it's done and the gun is now cooler. the barrel comes out much farther and i can flip it back in like a cost person would do. yeah.

today was great! went to the beach with rich, john, alex and whitney. had a real good time. laying out, swimming, ice cream. that's the stuff. got back in time for HH, had fun there. Bill fed me some excellent grilled chicken and corn on the cob. awesome. got more ice cream after that heh.

came home and hung with the same beach crew plus justin, a random keith, chad and kory. emo too. good time there.

totally unexpectedly, i had a really good talk with alex. it seems that she is someone who will really ask you questions in order to find out more about you as a person. and she indeed did find out more about me. it was cool. i think i'd like to be more like that, asking people more about themselves. and i don't mean just asking what their favorite color is and stuff like that. so yeah, nice.

but i'm pretty super tired.
so yeah. peace.

this looks fun. and epic.

and i met these people. and danced with them, and ate with them. i feel honored to have done so.


The Floor Is Lava from Casey D on Vimeo.

call it a day

listening to: The Fall of Troy - What Sound Does A Mastodon Make?

work today went well.
after work went well too.

stopped by the mall to buy something and talk to somebody but did neither.

stopped by a bookstore after that and bought 3 books:
Sex God - Rob Bell
Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell
Irresistible Revolution - Shane Claiborne

i've already ready sex god, but i want to own it and i wanted to loan it to somebody, which i did today. Rob Bell is cost, so I wanted to read more of his stuff. I was walking away from the bookshelf when i saw Shane Claiborne's book out of the corner of my eye. i took two more steps, then stopped and went back to it. in my mind, i was afraid of reading this book and learning more about this guy because i was worried that what i learned would change me, or at least make it obvious to me that change should be made, and that change would be uncomfortable. this is precisely the reason i bought it, because i was afraid of it. i'm looking forward to reading that book.... after Velvet Elvis. :)

after the book buying extravaganza, i got my dad's bike from my parent's house and brought it to the bike shop by my house. it should be fixed in a day or two, and then i can start riding a bike to work sometimes. should be good, yeah.

hung at the lowell's for pretty much the rest of the day, left around midnight. came home and talked to giannii via phone for a while. mm hmm.

now i'm thinking of going to sleep at a reasonable hour. what an idea. heh.
and i think i'll be playing my guitar loudly tomorrow, because i can.

yeah. that's cost.

random dream

listening to:

had a really random dream last night. it took me a while after i woke up to realize that it happened. i feel like there was a lot to it but i only remember the end of it accurately. so anyway.

i was sitting on a couch in a basement, girl #1 walks up to me and i am disappointed. she sits down by me and then suddenly becomes girl #2 and i am happy about that. big hugs, we hang out for a short time kinda holding each other, then i sadly say "no, but i can't. that other girl is my girlfriend." then we went upstairs and girl #1 and her parents are there. we're in her house. i'm deeply saddened because i don't want to be dating girl #1, i want to be with girl #2. it's a strange feeling for me because i've never had that feeling. suddenly after some time, i realize that i'm not actually dating girl #1 at all, i'm free to do whatever i want. so i'm overjoyed that #2 and i can be together. then at some point it ends.

the crazy part is that girls 1 and 2 are both girls i've dated before. and i haven't seen #1 in a long time, so my brain age advanced her to what she would probably look like now, much like you see on those crime tv shows where they show you what a criminal or missing person would look like years from their most recent photo.

while in the shower i was trying to think why in the world i would have a dream about #1, and then i realized it. wrestling. i watched a movie about pro wrestling last night. i guess that was enough to make that dream happen. the word "rhino" probably has to do with the reason #2 was in there, because that made me laugh before i went to bed.

but in the end, none of the dream is true because i am with no girl, not 1, 2 or any other number, and i'm ok with that. sometimes i think it'd be nice, but most of the time it's not even a big deal.

ta daaa. there's the dream. now i better leave for work.

mm hmm

listening to: You Look Nice Today podcast

i haven't been blogging every day and i'm really quite alright with that.
what have i been up to?

i bought a Nerf Maverick and i want to mod it. i don't have a screwdriver small enough to take the gun apart though. sad.

work messed up the schedules this week. they changed shifts around and didn't communicated it effectively and some people weren't really happy. i worked about 6 hours more this week than i had planned on as a result, but at least i'll get paid.

um... i don't know what else. i want to play my guitar a lot. ok, so i will.

just got done watching Ready to Rumble with nick, emo and justin. so funny to hang with those guys, glad to have them as my friends and roomates. i was so pumped after the movie was over that here i am writing instead of going to sleep. but i'm getting sleepy.

today i thought of this: "sorry dear, my heart is beating too hard to hold. you wouldn't be able to handle it."

i feel really good. time to sleep.

movies /= life

listening to: The Devil Wears Prada - Don't Dink and Drance

i am not the type of guy that is in the movies.
at least not the movies i know.

i am not the tough guy with the soft side. not the b.a. with a heart people don't see. not the one that looks insensitive but actually has a love for some kind of music that's against that image, maybe old jazz or maybe jack johnson or feist or something like that, something gentle.

i am somewhat the opposite.
i am the nice guy that likes metal. i'm the kind hearted kid that likes to flail around when he dances and gets wrecked in the pit at concerts. the quiet one who likes screaming, although i don't think i'm nearly so quiet as i used to be. i typically do not like the "classics" in music that it seems like everybody likes. i never listen to the beatles, i don't know the old rock or punk groups, classic rock never really appealed to me. meh, oh well. i'd like to thank steve for having me listen to music on the NY drive that i'd probably never listen to on my own. most of it isn't stuff that i'd listen to on my own really, but it's enjoyable with other people.

this is what i was thinking about the other day. i'm not that rebel character, breakin' the rules and not caring, but i love the passion and fire and intensity in harder music. especially the Christian ones like The Devil Wears Prada, Burden of a Day and others.

but i could never claim to not like mellow music. I feel that Portugal The Man is a very unlike me kind of band, but I really really like them. That cd has been in my player 80% of the time i'm in my car over the past month or so.

I also think it's funny how divisive people can get when favorite bands come up. just yesterday i think i had a girl upset at me because i liked The Devil Wears Prada. it was funny. but then again, i think that i probably look down on some people because of bands that they like, which is very wrong of me. there are some bands though that i just have a real dislike for, usually because of the content of their music or the type of people they seem to be.

well anyway, i've got to get my day going.
last night was kinda crazy. holland meijer after midnight, visiting rich, trying to find the beach and failing. so college.

peace.

not this trail

listening to: Boxcar Racer - Cat Like Thief

today, i think it was on the drive home this morning, i realized how much i've changed. maybe not changed exactly, but how i've been affected by... the past. sorry to sound cryptic, haha.
i had wondered what i would be like if anything started again, and now i think i have a pretty good idea.

but. but i am staying reserved. at first for them, but now i think for me. i don't want meaningless, and that might be what this is. we'll see i suppose. it's all so impractical anyway. time will go by.

so i need to finish getting cali trip plans all in order. need to get warped in chicago plans in order. need to.... sleep? yeah maybe.

i've always known i'd be easy to lead on. not that i know if i am being so done to, but i could be. but like i said, we'll see. i worry much more about leading somebody else on. does that make me seem more conceited or concerned about others? heh.

i feel myself growing sometimes, on the inside.. learning new things, relating to others. had a long talk with my dad today, it was good. i absolutely love my family.

i predict that a month from now, things will be quite different in many aspects of my life. when i get back from california. yeah.

yeah.

full of win

listening to: You Look Nice Today

first of all, my "listening to" is a podcasted series that Steve and i listened to on the way back from New York. it's really funny. 3 guys just talking about stuff, and it really really entertains me. i wish i had an mp3 player so i could take their podcasts with me. ah well. but yeah, check them out, fun stuff.

so yes, yesterday, tuesday, was full of win imo. the day officially started at 12:00am. at that point i was at the lowell's. i left there around 2:30am. sheesh. i wonder if their just too nice and don't want to kick me out at a more reasonable hour :) but they're cool. came home, probably did some internetting(made up verb) then went to bed. got up at 11 something, had breakfast (because i bought milk the previous day) and... i dunno, maybe took a shower.

went to brian's place and alex, brian, scott and i jammed for a while after watching some quality older television programming. i <3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">alex left go to play golf, i hung out for a while then headed to work. but i didn't have to work. i just got some gas and stopped inside to get somebody to take my shift on the 20th so i can go play guitar in milford with HH. yeah. i love guitar. leaving work, i headed to bill's place for some grilled food courtesy of mr. kahler himself. thank you bill for your kindness and grill. unintentional rhyme there. i'm just that good.

hung out for a while, left for HH. played djembe this time, and on one or two of the songs i actually felt like i had a pretty good beat going. i'd love to practice with one of those some more, test out what i can do with it without having to worry about looking stupid during a performance in front of people. after his house we went to the pub in honor of the HH veterans that made it out to HH yesterday. they came from all over. ran into a friend from middle school who works at the pub, chatted with her for a bit. cool. got there a little late, sat at the end of a table and didn't get my order taken. i did ask for a water but the guy forgot and it was like 20 minutes before i got one. oh well. got a txt from .... wait a second. did i honestly just type "txt?" i saved less than half a second by not typing the "e" of that word. that's... sad. no more. got a text from Courtney asking if i wanted to meet up at 76 sometime that night. then i learned that 76 was morningstar, so i agreed. i stopped trying to order food because i didn't know when i'd be leaving, but i got fed anyway. First AJ offered me some of his fries, i gladly accepted. then somebody brought down a plate of cheesy and other toppingy nachoes and i ate some of those. then somebody at the other end of the table passed down a plate with steamed carrots and some more french fries. yay!
i'm convinced i recieved this blessing of food because i tithed. this is the way i've seen it work. when i give my money away, i am blessed by things in return, typically food, which i'm ok with. i remember when i had very little money left to get me through the week, and decided to toss all of it into the manna bucket and trust that God would take care of me. and indeed he did. the rest of that week i was blessed with things to eat that i didn't have to pay for. it's awesome to have that comfort, to know you'll be taken care of. love love love it. i don't need to worry.

OH. and during HH i had what i think is a really good idea. so good that i had to ask ashley for a pen so i could write it down. i plan on turning it into a blog post, but i need to do a little research/reading before i can write it all out. yep.

mk, so then left the pub to go downtown. but first i had to pick up kelley to give her a ride back home. did that, then got to morningstar. courtney and her friend (now my friend too) taylor(girl) were there. taylor is funny. a lot of things make her nervous, but she's entertaining about it. we hung out for a bit and then their other friend evan(i think it was evan) showed up and we did some more hanging out. courtney bought me gummy dinosaurs for no apparent reason, and i was delighted. then zim walked out of yesterdog wearing the same la dispute shirt that i have. i ran up and hugged him, i don't think he expected it. :D chatted, then he left.

eventually we were all going to leave, but i was offered the privilege of viewing a film with courtney and taylor back at courtney's house, so i graciously accepted the kind offer. at this point i think it was nearing 1am. whelp, i got home at about 6am. good time.

emo was still awake when i got home. i swear he has the most random sleeping schedule of anybody that i know.

but yeah, yesterday was sweet. and today i'm eating green grapes. love green grapes. :D

kk i've got a lot of day ahead of me. there are things to be done. farewell to all.

hmm

listening to: Russian Cirlces - Death Rides a Horse

first of all, listening to that song this morning was nice. if you'd like to hear it too, go to Songerize and type in the artist and song name, it's on there, i checked.

oh the impracticality of it all!
i certainly do not need a girl to hang out with, but i have a desire. you know, that kind of girl, the one you want to sit close to and be extra nice to inbetween bouts of flirtatious mockery of sorts. yeah, but i don't need it. and who i've been thinking of lately... eh it just doesn't seem practical. it would turn distanced all too soon, and i don't think i want to do that. maybe i'm thinking too far ahead, or just thinking about it too much in general. but whatever. what happens, happens.
maybe this means soon i won't care about any particular chicas in any particular way. it's been a while since that ever happened. i could go for that.

i want to make music. i want to make it with friends. then i want those friends and i to go places and play the music. when i think about things in my life that make me feel really happy, really alive, playing music is near, if not at, the top of my list. so yeah, i need to apply myself to finishing some songs i've started. i really don't think it's that hard to do if i try.

oo boy, here i am staying up too late again. i was at the lowells until a little after 2:30am. the discovery channel is enthralling.

time to go to bed while watching the storm come in.

i love a good thunderstorm.

oh hey

listening to: The Devil Wears Prada - Texas Is South

in case you didn't know, (which you didn't) tunka tunka is part of my internship work. it's my internship, but i do not intend to stop working with giannii and these projects once the "internship period" is up. but yeah, part of my job is to update the site's blog twice a week. and well have more info on games and such as we create that info.

i'm so tired.

word.

and stuff asploded

listening to: Santogold - Creator vs FreQNasty and Switch

i ran into so many people i knew today at the fireworks downtown.

first was jacob. we recited a bunch of the 10 commandments and so received free soda.

then matt. and shortly after, kelsey. left them. walked across a bridge. saw brian baldwin along with liz and heidi. a short distance away, anna called out and waved to me, then i showed anna and brian +2 that they were located quite close together, and it was nice.

then saw joel but he was far away and i haven't talked to him in forever. saw dan too but i don't think he remembers me. then after the fireworks i saw kel and eric and david. i also recognized one or maybe two others but i didn't remember names. good times.

scott and emo and i went down to see the show together. i forgot to bring my camera. woe. the fireworks were a lot of fun though. people didn't join scott and i in singing the star spangled banner.

emo and i had chinese food for dinner. so good. and now i think i'm going to go to bed. for tired am i. i am. goodnight.

ok i'll recap now

listening to: Weezer - Say It Ain't So

ok so now i guess i feel like going over my trip to New York a little bit.

well, in one word:Awesome.

in a lot of words:

started out wednesday with steve and i driving out to his parent's house on the east side. got some subway on the way out there, i love subway. hung out with his mom and dog for a while. i had a glass of wine. wine = fail. tastes bad. it was white wine. i like the sparkling grape juice much much better.

thursday. we got up super early. like, 5:30 maybe? i don't remember exactly. had some breakfast. i tried coffee. coffee = fail. gross. then we drove. steve actually drove the whole way out to New York. i didn't mind, riding was fun. i slept some during the drive but I dunno how much. michigan and ohio seemed to go by fast i think. pennsylvania was the longest trek it seemed. we drove all the way across it. i called up ViciousXan when we were in New Jersey. i told him where we were and he said we were probably 30min to an hour from his house. we almost planned to meet up on the drive back, but it didn't happen.

there was a point when we were in new jersey and it smelled terrible. i don't know why, it was just awful. something in the city. and then we got to new york.

first thing, we found the place where the car would sit for the weekend. it seemed kinda shady, but i was pretty confident everything was legit. and it was. we went and hung out in this really small bar/cafe thing while we waited for steve's friend to get out of work. they had free delicious appetizers. the best one was dates wrapped in bacon. that sounds insane but it tasted fantastic. we then went to Morningside Park to walk around. we walked and then sat down on some steps and took some pictures. aaaand we're pretty sure a drug deal went down like 20ft away from us at this point. some random guy came and sat really close to steve and started talking to him. i got the feeling he was trying to distract us from whatever was going on nearby (ie: drug deal). he was um... creepy. so we left.

met up with steve's friend brett, who is interning in NY for the summer. moved our stuff into his dorm, chilled for a little bit, then went back out. rode some subway, saw some times square. nice. also, got some NY pizza. giant slice of pizza for $3. sweet.

friday. got up at a reasonable time and headed out after breakfast. i don't even remember everywhere we went. nbc studios, nintendo world store (!), more subway rides, and chilling in central park. eventually we headed to the true desination of the trip, Brooklyn for the Vimeo meetup. SO MUCH FUN!

got there at like 7:30 i think. went inside. it was a mid-zized open room with 3 projectors, lights and some music. it was college humor's studio. after a while the dj was all set up and started throwin' down the tunes. Eclectic Method was the name of the dj. just today i found out that they're pretty big time. they travel worldwide, have done stuff for U2 and fatboy slim. awesome. they did video mashups with the music and it was really cool. they even made a mashup of Chocolate Rain and also made a clip from Family Guy into a song. super enterataining. we danced the whole night away, it was fun. i got some crip walking lessons. i feel like i can do it halfway decent. i need to tape myself trying and watch it to see what i look like doing it. but yeah, we were there until after midnight. so good!

left the party, a lot of people were going to a bar. got to the bar, but we were hungry and tired. we grabbed some pizza and then headed back to brett's. took some showers and then crashed. it was great. next day we slept in and then went to meet up with some Vimeo peeps at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to do a video scavenger hunt. the hunt fell through and instead we kinda hung out and then went out to eat. i had pizza that claimed to have been cooked with lava. i'm pretty sure i know what that meant, but it's an impessive claim. i'm thinking cooled lava rocks that they reheated to bake pizza on. parted ways with people after that. we ventured into times square at night, it was intense. so many people, so many lights. we got offered some drugs, and it was funny. somewhere during the trip we saw little italy and chinatown also. but i don't remember when exactly.

sunday we got up early and left. steve and i split the driving this time, but i think he may have driven more than i did that day. listened to some very entertaining podcasts on the way home, made the time go by quick i think. got back to steve's parent's place (we took his brother's car to NY) and had some dinner. chilled for a while before going to bed. woke up in the morning and came back to the west side. i was back at my house around 10.

in conclusion, way worth it to have gone. way way way.
and now, i'll post the videos i got from the trip. i already made a facebook note with the links to all these, but i figure more linkage can't hurt. all the pictures from the trip are on facebook. i just assume that pretty much anybody who reads this is a friend of mine on facebook.

First video: this is steve's video, this is us getting offered drugs. lulz.

Haze from Stephen Niebauer on Vimeo.

second: the trip to NY

Driving to New York (and) Morningside Park from Jarrod Pyper on Vimeo.

third: randoms

Adventures in New York! from Jarrod Pyper on Vimeo.

fourth: the city

Adventures in New York 2! from Jarrod Pyper on Vimeo.

fifth: central park

Adventures in Central Park from Jarrod Pyper on Vimeo.

sixth: the Vimeo party

Vimeo Meetup Party New York '08! from Jarrod Pyper on Vimeo.

seventh: this video is from somebody else, but at the 3:00 mark, he caught me dancing at the party. :D

VLOG: Vimeo Meetup 2008 from CocteauBoy on Vimeo.


so yeah. there you have it. awesome time.

and it got so bad, that...

i just read this.

Genesis 6:6-7
"The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the Lord said, 'I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth -- men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air -- for I am grieved that I have made them.'"

God regretted making man and was going to wipe everything out, all because of how wicked mankind had all become. Noah was a righteous man and luckily God spared him and his family.

but i never realized that. humans had become so bad that God wanted to do away with them.
that hit me hard.
i don't want to be the kind of person God regretted having around on the planet.

I want my creator to be pleased with me.

patience

i'll post about the trip soon enough.

i've been working on transferring video to my computer and editing some together.
there will be videos up.
there are pictures up on facebook currently.

i can't wait to sleep in my own bed.

i'm going to do that right now.