So it's been a long long time. There are a few chapters that I don't really believe are fit for public consumption, and maybe in time someone will see them. Either way, time moves on appearently.

I wanted to post this, becuase it is one of the most random and funny things I've read in a long time. It was written by my best freind in a forum we're a part of. I can't even begin to describe it, but I can say that a prerequisite to finding this funny would be to enjoy the comedy of Dennis Miller and George Carlin. So here it is:

Subject: now i dont wanna get off on a rant here...

Body: but can we get some new shit in here? this place is more stale than a 94 year old hooker's vagina that got sand in it when she was out in the arizona sun when a duststorm rolled in and she spread her legs wide to consume it thinking it was the only thing to finally end her meaningless existence on this judgmental and shallow ass planet full of ignorant fucks who can only speak what others speak and therefore have no mind of their own eventually leading to the de-evolution of the human race because everyone will end up with the same fucking mindset and end up screwing their cousin in some weird incestuous cornucopia circlejerk that even dennis miller wouldn't be able to fathom because his head would explode in a shower of red mist that would be as fine as a glorious spring day shower JUST BEFORE YOU HAVE TO MOW THE FUCKING LAWN and the humidity would be so high that it would feel like you're jacques motherfucking cousteau on the lookout for the mysterious fish that inhabits this campbell's chunky soup of a fucking weather system that we all have to endure.

Signature: supposedly, im a cocky bastard. its amazing what the little people will say to try to bring the elitists down.
-------------------

Hilarious.

I am now a college graduate.

Go-mutha-fuckin'-me.

Reply and I'll tell you something(s) I like about you.

Afterwards, copy and paste this into your own journal.

Given the demand of my describing my trip to Las Vegas over spring break, I’m going to give you that, and more in the coming days/weeks.

So for the past 3 years in college I have spent my spring break being the good boy. I would be doing homework, in the lab working on projects, and other good student things. I never really hit the strip, went to the beach, or did the “college spring break” thing. This is pretty sad considering that Daytona Beach is only worth a damn during the big tourist times.

Either way, I figured that this year would have to be different. A week in the lab would make me think I’m an even bigger loser than I think I am now, and a week alone would let my mind get a little too wonky for my own good. The solution? Par-tay. I was convinced by a few friends in the radio station that we should do something special for our last college spring break. We decided a cruise would be nice, but then opted for Vegas after realizing that the cruise thing has been done. I was hesitant, as I’m not the most social of butterflies, but I figured that if I couldn’t jump into something new, I’d be stuck not moving forever. In other words, fuck it.

With that, it was set. Jesse, Jackie, and I were to spend 5 days and 4 nights in Las Vegas, Nevada over the entire spring break.

The flight on that Monday morning didn’t leave too early, minus the fact that it left out of Jacksonville, which meant leaving 3 hours before the flight…making it early. Our first flight was in a Pringles can to Texas, where we sat for a while in wait for our final flight to Vegas.

Now, on the flight to Vegas, we were all excited and ready to go when this stewardess came back and asked us a question: “Would you three mind switching seats with this family because they don’t want to be next to an exit door.” Now, being the good people that we are, we go ahead and move without gripe. I mean, it’s not like it’s a big deal. Well, turns out that the stewardess was a lying bitch. The family didn’t want to be moved because they were next to an exit door, instead it was because they had to buy tickets that weren’t together. They broke me, Jesse, and Jackie up to all parts of the plane, and only Jesse was even in an exit row. Now, the real thing that pissed us off about this was the fact that they knew we were all sitting together. Is it that hard to ask 3 people who don’t know each other in a row to move? They wouldn’t have a problem because they are already sitting next to someone they don’t know. Why the hell would you move 3 people who obviously are together? Either way, we all decided to be pricks if any airline ever pulled that again.

The flight to Vegas was semi-eventful. I watched Lemminy Snikets or something…it was meh. Also saw the Grand Canyon (see it before) and some salt flats.

Upon arriving in Vegas, the first thing I noticed was the slot machines in the airport terminal. *shakes head* Jesse had to try one, and lost his first or many dollars of the trip there.

Went to the hotel and checked in. The Luxor is glorious. One of the most amazing hotels I’ve ever seen, and easily the most awesome one I’ve ever stayed in. The buffet there is amazing as well. I do in fact love buffets.

We have now lost 3 hours due to a time change, and have spent 7-9 hours on a plane, so what should we do? Should we go to bed and relax, rest up for the rest of the trip? Nah!

We go to the ticket counter and check on Blue Man Group tickets right away. Well, not right away…we grabbed a beer first. We grabbed tickets for later that night, and then set out on the gambling floor. The first night was fun, just getting our bearings on the floor. I mean, we were all tired from the flight, plus none of us got a lot of sleep the night before, PLUS our clocks were 3 hours ahead of the local time. Fuck it.

The Blue Man Group show started at 10:00 pm. That’s 1:00 am our time. It was INSANE. If you ever, ever have a chance to see the Blue Man Group, do yourself a favor and see them. There was more comedy than I thought would be there, and the music is really powerful live. Along with the incredible stage props/show, it all spells a show that is not only great, but indescribable. See it.

After the show ended we were able to get pictures with one of the Blue Men, and they were kissing tickets leaving these blue lip prints on them. It was pretty funny, because they would just start kissing girls all over their faces leaving like 10 big ass blue kiss marks on them. This was always fun because when we were walking around the strip we would see girls with the marks and could just say “We know someone saw the blue man group tonight.” It was very cool.

The next day, we got up surprisingly early and took a little daytime tour of the strip. We did a little gambling in other casinos here and there, losing money on slots and video poker. I lost like $20 over the day and then told myself I wasn’t going to play anything like that anymore because it’s just wasting money.

While wondering around we ended up getting tickets for Zumanity. Zumanity is a Cirque du Soleil which is described as “Funny, arousing, provocative—"ZUMANITY" awakens hidden passions and stuns the senses.”

This was a great show. It was cirque de soleil, mixed with the Suicide girls show, with humor added. I could go into more detail…but I’m not sure if all of you are old enough. *wink*

Oh man, it’s late. I just got back from Alabama, and a civil engineering conference which was fantastic, and another story.

This concludes part one of my trip to Las Vegas. Stay tuned for part 2 and maybe 3, as well as the story of the conference. It’s a busy update time.

Wow.

The way this complicates things further...I probably can't even think of them all.

But, as it stands...I'll leave those problems for my brain, and just let my heart be full of joy about this. Even given everything else, I haven't been this happy (esp. for someone else) in longer than I can remember.

[edit] - To succumb to popular demand, I will go ahead and post the vegas information that I typed up before things fell apart a little later.

Wow, so much to talk about. And while I was prepared to type this incredibly long post about spring break, Las Vegas, school, projects, and everything in between...the air has sort have been taken out of me in the last few days. I would say a few things on the subject.

One.
People, everyone. Please understand that you don't have all the information on things. Before you make judgments about anything or anyone (not just me), keep in mind that you most likely don't know the whole story. I follow that advice as well.

Two.
Half the people I know will think it's one thing. That's not true. Only one person knows what I could call a "near-majority" of things adding to this, and even that person doesn't know the whole story, or the other things that nobody knows about, yet.

Three.
Understand that I hate drama. More than that, I loathe when I am being calm and adult and people just get more and more dramatic about things. Keep in mind that I'm a mature adult, I understand things and I don't lash out, I merely attempt to discuss. If you take an open, honest discussion of the facts about a situation as "drama" then you need to have your head checked. If you attempt to turn it into drama, it's not worth my time.

Four.
Respect and Honesty. The two things for which I base everything on. Deny me either (or both), and THAT can, and will piss me off more than you can possibly imagine.

Five.
No one seems to understand why I have such trouble getting involved with things, taking that first step. Well, it seems that every time I open myself up for a fall...there it is, and here it is. One can only have the rug pulled out so many times before they stop walking.

Six.
My birthday is Saturday. This has got to be the most perfectly wrong way to start this week. Wait, maybe if...nope, this is it.

It's on this vague, ambiguous little post that I leave you. I don't know if I will feel up to posting anytime soon, although I do have a long one about Vegas on my laptop that would just be a cut and paste.

Nah. Opening my mouth has never helped anyone, especially me.

Wow, this has been a while.

I don't even know where to start, as I feel as though my absence has been too long to condense to a post that I have the time to type.

I'm pulling 10-14 hour days on campus almost pretty much monday through friday, and still there on the weekends. It's not so bad, as I feel productive for the first time in a long time. But I have to admit that part of me misses the spare time that I used to hate that I wasted. I also have to admit that I miss blowing of schoolwork or working insanely hard on work to get it out of the way for better things...sigh.

Anywho, senior design (self-erecting emergency shelter), steel bridge project, Riddle Players, ASCE, Radio station dj, radio station business director, consultant on the design of a launch tower, work, writing scripts, classes...how I love it. I think there is something seriously wrong with the amount of torture I seem to enjoy. I can't stop myself, I want to be everywhere and do everything in the world. Maybe I can...

I've discovered a new band in the past few days, The Mars Volta. An alternative, spanish, rock band that DOES sing in english (at least most of the time). They are incredible. "The Widow" is the single that simply stuck in my mind for days. It's been so long since music blew my mind, it's nice to know it still can happen.

Also, the hopes of a new NIN album soon is great as well. Tickets seem to be a little difficult to get, but I'm sure I'll manage something, as my freinds are freakin' awesome! Needless to say, I'm excited about the prospect of seeing NIN live again.

The Killers album wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Everyone told me how amazing it was, and to me it sounds a lot like The Strokes, but a little more rock. But not much more. I like it, don't get me wrong, but it's not the greatness everyone made it out to be.

Senior design is moving along. While my groups design didn't get picked, at least that means the pressure is off me. However, the group that did get picked (who I'm now working for) were as far as they thought they were so we are having to make up ground. The 60% design review is this thursday, so here's to a good presentation. I love to be up there speaking, but I think I'm going to avoid this one, cuz I personally think our professors are gonna lay into us pretty hard.

Low power FM is awesome. I love the fact that I am broadcasting to (potentially) over 100,000 people Monday-Thursday every week. It's a good feeling to be told I had a good show by people who aren't a part of the radio station, and even getting calls from people off campus who aren't even students! Plus I made some cash by getting us a sponser, if only more businesses would fork over some cash...stingy bastards.

I'm still stuck about what to do in two months when I graduate. I need to get my name out there...there are a couple places I've tried, and not gotten anywhere. But it's to be expected when your applying to places that you need to have 10+ yrs of expeirence before you'd get hired. But I was hoping for a entry level position that doesn't get advertised anyways. Ok, it's sending to SpaceHAB, and several places in Orlando, and then a few out West...If I don't get a bite in a month then I'll just accept Zahn and at least stay in Daytona for the summer, maybe hit grad school afterwards.

God, so many ups and downs I have been through, it seems unfair to have a basic cold hearted summary post...but I guess it will have to do for now.

Fleeting...I am about to burst.

Oh boy, it’s been so long between updates. I dislike when I take forever to update because I end up having so much that I either have to make an extra ordinarily long post, or not give the details I’d like to. I’m not totally sure about which I’m going to do right now, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we.

Really want to know what's been going on?

( Place bet for Short post )

When everything that everyone says, does, is doing, mentions, etc. frustrates you to the point of complete enragement and depression...you have to ask yourself if it's the things that are going on that bother you, or if your judgement may be inpaired by something. However, given the state that one must be in for this question to arise, the second option does not seem like a plausable solution, that's the Catch-22.

Fuck life.

Welp, I guess it's about time to update this thing. I've been pretty busy as of late, but it's been a good busy, as opposed to a stressed out busy. Ok, mildly stressed out busy, but what can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment. :)

So classes are moving along. I missed an assignment in my film class today. I didn't see the movie we were supposed to see, then typed up a completely BSed response topic, but surprisingly enough my conscious got the better of me and I figured that I would just take the zero rather than pretend that I saw a movie that I have never seen more than 10 mins of. What the hell was I thinking? But oh well. I have been posting on the discussion board, which lands me some extra credit, and she knows I'm one of the few in there with a brain, so it evens out.

Took a Probability and Statistics test today, aced it. It was much easier than I thought it would be, very surprising. I was the second one in the class finished, about 20 mins. I hope the other tests are that easy, becuase I actually thought I might get a B in that class...now I think I can pull the A without much effort. More time for the FE.

The FE. Oh dear. I haven't studied enough. I was in panic mode for about a week or so there, and now the grips of apathy have gripped me. I need work force through them though, because I can't afford to fail this thing. Please please study Travis. Pass this thing. Be as smart as everyone around here seems to think you are...*sigh*

On to more pleasent subjects. I'm finally going to shoot that music video this weekend, after a failed attempt last weekend. I still need to get a girl to play the part of the girlfriend. But I think I know a few that I can ask, and pray that one of them can kill a few hours to help me out.

For those not in the loop, as many aren't, I'm shooting a music video for a contest online. The song is entitled "Memory" by the band "Sugarcult". Now, I am not a huge fan of the song, but it's definitely better than the other choices, so I had to settle. We don't pick any song, btw, we need to pick from a set of 5. But I've worked it all out, and so hopefully I get the thing shot this weekend and finally DO something. That would be nice.

This leads nicely into the point that I've lived hundreds of lives in my single life. Sounds strange I know. But this contest is a good comparison, because the Grand Prize is $15,000, then first and second place both gets $5,000. Now, I know most, when deciding to enter such a contest can't help but think the "what if I won" thought process. The "What if I lose" thought is just as common. But the difference, I think, is the level at which my mind takes it. I've seriously contemplated into the next year of my life factoring in all the elements of this video. Figuring out how to split the money for each of the prizes, the feeling involved for each, even losing. I don't mean fleeting feelings that I think about, I have gone through the excitement of winning the grand prize, and I was estatic for a little while, living days in my head after I got the news. I've felt like shit becuase I got a letter saying my entry simply wasn't good enough, and lived the days that I spent driving aimlessly around town blasting music to make myself feel better. I've felt the horror of not even getting a letter, and even worse, I've lived a year in my mind with the regret of never actually making the video. I have exhausted every possible way this can turn out already days, weeks, months in advance, and I've lived it, all in an afternoon in my head. I do that with everything I do. I've already knocked out my physical and emotional reaction for every possible grade on that Prob. and Stat. exam from 0-110 (and no, there was no extra credit). No wonder my head is always spinning. Heh.

I want to write more, but all I can think about when I grab a pen or open up Word (even now) I just feel like I should be studying instead. I have some really good ideas I'd like to hammer out, and since Cory said he is dying to smash out a script or two, that little motivation has gotten the wheels turning. I think they can take a back seat for a little while, until after that tremendous weekend that is Oct. 29th-31st. I still can't believe they set it up on Halloween weekend. Those fuckers.

I have been able to read a bit more out of my book. It's turning out to be really, REALLY good. I'm hoping the ending doesn't turn out all goody-goody; because if it doesn't this could end up being the first book in my "Self-Destruction Trilogy" that I've been trying to complete. Yes, about 150 more pages to see if the grand experiment comes to fruition. Here’s hoping.

Wow, getting a little late. Ok, not really, but those little voices in my head has been slowly getting louder and louder since I sat down, telling me to do something else. Go study. Go read. Go write. Go, go, go. At least it’s only a few voices this time. That’s a nice change of pace. And they aren’t as violent as they normally are…

Hah, you’re going to pretend you didn’t think about that last line for a second, but you did.

Wow, this update thing has a whole new look to it.

Alright, well a ton has been going on, and things just keep getting piled on top of things, so I feel as though I need to update, as to not update at some insanely late date and have everyone out of the loop. In contrast, I really don't feel like going over the last 2 intense weeks becuase there really has been a crap load of things going on. So I'll compromise. I'm gonna update, but not elaborate with cuite as much detail as I normally do. I'm sure some of you are thanking god right about now...

Classes seem fine. Nothing too bad yet, as I"m a fucking genius. However, it's well known that when the rounds of tests come barging through I will change that tone pretty quick.

The FE exam is only 28 days away. And I'm getting incredibly nervous about it. Everyone seems to think that it's a given that I'm going to pass, and although I like the confidennce people have in me, I tried the practice test and failed...badly. I'm going to have to cram like a pyscho to pass the thing, and I haven't been able to stay focused for a while, been distracted. Hopefully I can push through.

Steel Bridge is coming along nicely, we are way ahead of where we were last year. I think I might be able to have a Spring Break! Instead of last year were I spent my entire spring break locked away in our lab finishing the bridge. Plus I'm going to plan some more "social" events for the bridge team, something we didn't do at all last year. Hopefully it will help relieve some tension during construction. I'll go over design crap later, when it's finalized.

I haven't gotten to far in my book. Haven't had much time to read recreationally in a while. Which is unfortunate considering how much I enjoyed the weeks of reading I did during the hurricanes. But this is crunch time, and I know that really everything should take a back seat until after the FE exam.

I did it. I got a cell phone. Believe me, no one is more shocked or dissapointed as I am. I've always been anti-cell phone, and dispite my having one, I still am. However, senoir design, steel bridge, radio station, ASCE, and the fact that I'm trying to be a little more social this year before I leave means that depending on only a house phone just isn't going to cut it. It's a huge pain in the ass trying to organize something when you can only talk to people before an event without the ability to get a hold of them to reassure directions or whatever. I've already taken crap for this decision. Most of the jokes/insults just slide off my back...except one really, that one kind of hurt. But it's not like that person gives a rats ass about making me feel like shit anyways; it's more of a goal for them if anything.

And with that, I re-realize how depressed I seem to be tonight. Gonna go to bed.

And in another instance of me proving that I can randomly displace my mind elsewhere, I completely forgot that I had read Fahrenheit 451 between The Hound of the Baskervilles and Old School. I knew something seemed out of place whenI did the reviews, but I couldn't place it. Man, that's pretty bad, totally forgetting that you read a book mere days after you read it. I due hope there are no hardcore Bradbury fans that read this. Ok, on to the review.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
An average book. I went into it with fairly high expectations, so that may have hindered my enjoyment. I had just finished reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, so switching from Doyle to this made Bradbury's writing seem sort of sharp, lacking grace. I understand that is part of the style, and it does work for this type of novel, but it did hinder my enjoyment a bit. Overall I liked the premise of the book, the twists and turns of the chase, it was a good read. I do believe in terms of "dark visions of the future" it's still beat by the king, 1984. I am glad I read this though, as it was a nice read, went fairly quickly, and had some unique veiws on life and censorship.


On that note, I just got back from B&N, picking up a new book. I'd name it, but I can't spell it and don't feel like getting up to get it from my room. But I"m sure You all will get a review soon enough.

Well, I finished "The Hound of the Baskervilles" yesterday morning. Gordon and I visited Barnes and Noble yesterday afternoon, when I purchased "Old School". I started it last night, but having finished a book earlier didn't want to get too far into it, so I only read the first 10-20 pages.

I finished it about 30 minutes ago. Read a lot of the day, about 180 pages, which is very unlike me as normally I get a headache when I read too much. Especially considering I did a fair amount of reading with my contacts in, another normal addition to a headache. I guess fate was smiling upon me. So, now I have to get myself another book, which I don't have the money for...Anywho, on with the review!

Old School, by Tobias Wolff
Impressive for a first novel, although it's partly to be expected from an estabilished short story writer. The story surrounds a boy in prep school, who wishes someday to be a writer. He has some subtle secrets about him, living under certain veils that are in no way malice, but eat at him none the less. A ways into this book I started to see this as a more well read, less angst filled version of Catcher in the Rye, but by the end it was a story that was merely "like" Catcher, rather than a "version" of it. Strangely enough, this book actually had a little more despressing undertone to it, sort of contrast to the fact that I didn't find Catcher all that disturbing (dispite the whole assination rumor). It could be partly the sheer volume of the amount I read weighing in, or the resulting tiredness I feel. I don't know, I guess that's up to others to see if the subtle hopelessness I got by the end was intended or of circumstance. Still, I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading. It has the feel of a classic to it, which is impressive for a new book. I don't think it's going to become one of those "B&N Series" books, but it was well worth my time and money.

Well, I still have not received my laptop back from Best Buy. Actually it’s not back from my dad, because I took it in while I was back home. I was planning to wait until it was returned to me so I could type up my post in Word, but have since been ordered to post.

So, as many know there have been “weather issues” around me. I don’t think it was so bad, in fact, I do believe I enjoy hurricanes. The wind, the rain, the danger. It’s exhilarating. I don’t enjoy the week without power I have to endure afterwards, which always seems to be the case. I really wish I could live in a better apt. complex that is on the same power grid as the police or fire station or hospital, and then have 2-3 hurricanes hit every year! I might actually enjoy living in Florida then.

I’ve been very “liberal arts” productive during the power outages though, which is good because I hardly can find the time normally. This will be more covered in the reviews section of this post.

We have had tons of class canceled, which also implies a lack of meetings for the after school things I’m involved in. This is both good and bad. I do really enjoy free time when I get it (and use it wisely), but too much free time is not good. Especially when our school already has a quite compacted and difficult semester, to cut another two and a half weeks out of the schedule is pretty painful. My Steel Bridge meeting has had to be postponed 2 weeks, which is a real shame because I had planned to already be nearing the final design by now. With the FE exam fast approaching, the heavy make up work we will be doing, Radio Station stuff, Riddle Players stuff, etc. etc. it’s going to be quite the fun semester. I do enjoy being worked so hard. Pile more on; I’m a glutton for punishment, after all.

Speaking of the radio station, I need to get a hold of someone from there quickly. There is a concert I need to sign up for tickets for! Finger Eleven is going to be at the House of Blues in Orlando again in November, and I intend to go. Not only that, but if I get the tickets (free) from the station, I get a press pass and I can go do an interview for my show. If I actually get to, I will be sure to take copies of every album to get signed. Man, I’m so ridiculously excited by that prospect.

The Matrix short film I’ve been working on has hit a road block of sorts. I’ve finished the script, the storyboards (all 92 frames of it) and now am left with only the option to actually make it myself, or hand it off. I posted the script in a fanfilms forum with a link to my website so they can download it and I was looking for feedback. It’s tough to really get a feel for it, esp. if you haven’t read scripts before. But I think it’s good. Besides, no draft is a shooting script.

I stopped by the Avion school paper, and asked about freelance writing. I was curious if I could get something put into the paper. I'm not even sure what I feel like writing yet. The issues I would like to address are many, so I guess I should just start sending a crapload of things in. If anything I'd like to get a philophical article in there, hopefully getting some of the students to start thinking agin. That's probably too much to hope for. It should be fun, it's right next to the new radio station, so it shouldn't be too tough to get stuff in there. Just another brach I'm gonna dig a root into this year. Why the hell not, it's time to overwork myself into submission, or at least a drunken haze. Either way.

I’ve finished two books during the lack of electricity (reviews to follow later), and have started a new one. Entitled “Old School”, it’s by an author I’ve never heard of, about a kid at prep school who wants to become a writer. It has sort of a “Catcher in the Rye” feel to it. I’m only a little ways into it, but it’s interesting. I really don’t like reading fiction book after fiction book, but with coming skull fuck that is this semester, I feel I should get the creativity out now since I will have zero time later. Besides, I love reading science books, but they are always twice as thick as a normal fiction book, and twice has hard to read because of the textbook style writing. I just don’t have the motivation to start something that’s going to take me over a month to read, I like finishing a book now and again. Plus, with all the teeming ideas I have in my head about writings I’d like to get a bit more fiction (better written) stories because the more you read, the better you can write. One novel idea, one story that will be a novel or a screenplay, not sure yet, plus several other short film scripts floating around, added on to the dozen novella length stories I’ve started and never finished. That’s a lot of creative writing for someone who is supposed to have a technical mind. I’m still determined to revive the tradition of the Renaissance man.

My schedule is set up quite nicely so I can attempt (again) to start a good workout routine. I know, I know…we’ve all heard it a billion times. But I have to keep trying, and doing a workout routine for a few weeks every couple months is better than most people anyways. My schedule is so nice that I could even go back and work for Zahn Eng. for a bit every week. They would absolutely love that too. I guess the guy they got to take the hole I left doesn’t enjoy the work they do, so he bitched out and quit leaving them will WAY too much work for just 2 people. Really just one person, since Pete doesn’t do AutoCADD. Paul called me up and said that I could come in and work whenever I wanted, naming my hours as I go. That would be pretty cool, so if I do actually have a few hours to kill and no homework I could make a little extra cash.

Ok, it’s time for reviews!

Books:

The Pleasure of My Company, by Steve Martin
Steve Martin is awesome. Dare I say he is one of the few Renaissance men I strive to be like. I really enjoyed this book, and now plan to pick up “Shopgirl” sometime to read that. I related a bit to much to the main character for comfort, but at least it was a happy ending, so it wasn’t too disturbing a connection. This book’s subtle (and not so subtle) humor was a lot of fun to experience, and it’s dramatic moments are just as good. I’m very glad I read it.

Birth of Tragedy, by Friedrich Nietzsche
This book was rather good. Although not as heavy on the philosophy that I thought it would be, I guess I expected too much from the first book he ever wrote. Nietzsche himself is a great writer (at least in translation), and even though I may have lost track a couple times I understood most of what he was talking about. I really connected with the book on a whole, and it reaffirms my believe that I do see the world in slightly Nihilistic eyes. The book itself was about Tragedy, but looking at it in relation to the greek gods Apollo and Dionysis. At first I was unsure as to whether this would keep my interest, but his supurb writing and insight were able to bring me back.

The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Great stuff. I’ve determined that Doyle is one of my favorite authors. When I read “A Study in Scarlet” I knew I enjoyed his words, but this one was over the top. He writes with enough elegance to keep the story flowing, while not getting so wordy you feel like you need to have a dictionary handy. It’s a real shame that most of the Sherlock Holmes stories are too short to put into a book by themselves, because now I realize I have to buy an anthology (which I hate to do). This book was about a family line that has been haunted by a ghost hound for generations. This hound just (supposedly) killed the last inhabitent and when the new heir arrives, it’s up to Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery. I seriously recommend this book to anyone. Suspenseful, well written, intellegent, and fun.

Movies:

Hero: Very pretty movie. I thought it was really good, if anything because it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. The commercials make it seem like just some other rouge agent martial arts film, and I was pleasently surpised that it really did have a great plot, and a good way of portraying that plot. Good action also, and how can I complain about any more Zang Ziyi is in? I don’t think her performance was all that great (She was much better in Crouching Tiger). All in all, it was very enjoyable, dispite the 2 minutes of grainy footage and sound problems due to seeing it at the ghetto theatre.
3 and 3/4 stars out of 5

Nepolian Dynamite: My mom saw this movie and told me to go see it, then hounded me relentlessly until I did. Apperently the guy to wrote it went to school with my cousin Paxton; so it’s like I created the movie myself. :P I really enjoyed this one, although I can’t really understand why. It was pretty funny, but not drop out of your seat funny. It was fairly well written, but simple. It was acted ok, but didn’t really need top notch performances. I don’t know, it was just a fun little movie that I enjoyed. I can see how some people wouldn’t like it, but I really did think it was a good time. I figure I will grab it on DVD when it comes out.
4 and 1/4 stars out of 5

Garden State: This was a good dramatic movie. I don’t really know what to put about it without simply summarizing it. I put it up there with “Lost in Translation” in terms of artsy dramas, maybe a little under it because this took place in Jersey. I would recommend it to people, since it was a good movie. I’m just not sure how to “review” it. Anyone has an idea, just throw a comment with your review.
4 stars out of 5


God, I can’t wait for classes to start. Classes, meetings, work…things to occupy my brain to hinder the murdous impulses that seem to run through it when it’s left alone for too long without taxing. You know, faculty is back on campus already, I wonder if I was supposed to work yesterday? Oops. I guess I should get up to speed on that. Haha.

So, appearently me and Gordon are some of the LAST people in Daytona to get power. We didn't get electricity back to our home until Weds. evening, sometime between 5 and 7 pm (we were at the movies). Everyone else I know got it back in a few days...hell, I got an email from my dad, who lives in FT. MYERS, and he had his power on before we did. So did Christa, who lives in Cape Coral. Both towns were hit with a cat. 4 hurricane, and WE didn't get power turned back on before them. Fucking FPL, kiss my ass.

So, as you can tell, I'm alive. Annoyed, but alive. I got to sit on Betsy's porch and watch the storm when it hit. It was incredibly relaxing, the wind howling and rain coming down in sheets. Random snaping sounds indicating the defeat of yet another tree. I loved it.

I tried frantically to get to Ft. Myers on Saturday to reach my family and freinds. However, I was met with a road block when I got to Orlando...I-4 was a parking lot from Tampa TO Orlando, over 80 miles of standstill traffic. I tried to work around I-4, but alas I couldn't. After several hours of working my ass off and being blocked at every turn I just went to my freind Matt's place in Orlando. They calmed me down a bit, and we drove around Orlando taking pictures of the destruction.

Anyways, Gordon got back Sun morning around 6 am, so since then we've just been killing time in an apt. with no air conditioning. It would be about 80 degrees in the place...by 9 am. Lovely.

On the plus side, I did get to read some. I finished my book by Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company, which I really enjoyed. Related a bit to much to the main charater for comfort, but I'll get over it.

We hit Barnes and Noble, and I picked up "Birth of Tragedy" by Nietzsche. I'm only a bit into it, but I can tell this will be worth my time. I already like it.

On a side note, since I'm finally hunkering down and writing a script (for that short film) I've been trying to read actual shooting scripts so I can get a feel for how it's done. I printed out the SE7EN script off the DVD and read it, which was really cool. I have on DVD, The Martix, Momento, and all the Back to the Furture movies. I figure I'll go by school and print those out at some point.

I did in fact finish that short film script. I'm reading it and doing minor touch ups now, before I hand it off to a few people for critisism. I think it turned out, ok. It's not great, but I think that's partially becuase I'm just not sure how much detail I should go into. But that will be solved I guess.

( Movie Reviews! )

Ok, I'm going to stop here. Lately I'm feeling rushed when writing these. I have more to say, but I feel like I can't take the time to write it all out. I hope that changes, as I rather enjoy my insanely long posts. I'm just in a slump I guess.

So hurricane Charley is an estimated 8-10 hours to landfall over on the west coast of FL. And I'm pissed.

First of all, I hate Charley with an "ey", spell it with an "ie". Bastards.

Also, I read a story about where it's going to hit, and it will most likely hit between Tampa and Ft. Myers, with an error being that it could either town head on.

Upon reading the last period of the last sentence of that story, I got incredibly pissed and began packing. I turned up the weather channel so I could hear it in my room and started throwing clothes together with full intention to drive to Ft. Myers.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not angry becuase I want to get hit by a hurricane. On the contrary, I want to get down there to be with everyone I care about that is there. I really don't care much at this point about personal saftey, hell, I've been depressed so I guess it's matching timing there. But I am worried about the people I care about, all of them. Daytona, Ft. Myers, Jacksonville, Orlando, hell, I'm even wishing I could follow the fucking storm north, stopping in PA for Gordon and Boston for Matt and NJ for Brian. Although, I don't know...it IS New Jersy. Ok, I would. There is nothing more frustrating than this moment that I cannot mystically transport to all these places and somehow be in several places at once, so I could help everyone I know in any way they need it. It's not so much I'm worried about the hurricane, but rather that I feel it's a personal responcibility to be there for the people I know that might be worried. Or help out in some way, I know it's gonna be fine, but others are freaking out...

I talked to Christa last night on AIM, and she seemed more shaken up and nervous than she was trying to let on. I haven't talked to Tamara since my trip down there, nor with Tracy. Dad and I exchanged a set of emails a few days ago, his saying they were planning on holeing up in our house (them being dad and grandma and a few other famiy members).

Well, obviously I haven't left yet. And logically I figured out I can't go, which is probably the most annoying thing at this point. I had the bag of clothes sitting at the front door and I was chugging some water and a doughnut when they flashed a screen on the weathr channel saying there were was a manatory evacuation for all of Lee county. Which hinders my being there for two resons:

1) I don't know who will stay and who will go. I think Dad would stay, but grandma might be nervous enough to get him to leave. I can venture a guess as to what each one of my freinds would do, but I can't speak for the rest of their famly, who obviously have a powerful say in the matter.

2) I don't think I'd be able to get there. Even driving the speed limit into Ft. Myers, I think some asshole cop would pull me over and say I can't continue. it would look like that scene in independence day, driving one way while the rest are leaving. Though my anger is incredibly high, my brain is not so gone that I would go onto a high speed chase to get home, trying to outrun the cops. I just know better, unfortunatly.

So now, I'm stuck. I'm stuck in Daytona, where the hurricane will most likely go north of. We will get hit a bit, but not nearly as hard as lots of other places. I'm thinking that after the storm passes I will do a check on the people I know, making sure everything worked out.

I couldn't make it to Ft. Myers during, but I swear to god if the phones aren't working within a few days after it hits, I'm scrounging for gas and driving down there to go from house to house of everyone I know. That is, after I walk from house to house in Daytona making sure all of the people I know here are ok.

This was said in an interview with Seth MacFarlane, creator of the animated series "Family Guy":

SM: I don't give a shit about being groundbreaking, all I care about is being hysterically funny. There isn't that much on TV that is laugh-out-loud funny - our goal is to make people laugh out loud as many times as possible in any given half-hour period.

----------

And with that, Seth is now added to my list of heros. Right up there with Jason Lee, Nicola Tesla and a select few others.

Look at that, it IS possible for me to have a short post...

**Disclaimer: Large post ahead, though I'm sure you're all used to it by now.
**Disclaimer: Also, I am both physically and mentally exhausted at this point, and therefore will most likely make all sorts of grammar and other writing mistakes. I am hereby blaming all of those faults within this coming post on you, the reader. Damn you.

So I really haven’t done much this summer so far. Generally the biggest thing that happened was the break-up, but I see that more as falling behind that progressing forward. Other than that, killed a class, work full time doing something I pray to god I don’t have to do when I graduate, etc. I’ve had my moments of fun (see post about suicide girls’ show) but other than that, the wonders of a deep depression set in and I was far from up for doing something.

Now, when I had started working, I told Pete that I would indeed need a week, off to go back home to Ft. Myers and visit my Dad and friends and whatnot. This was understood. However, the time kept ticking and I never seemed to let him know when I was going to be taking off. This was partly because I didn’t really want to do much other than chill at home (note: depression mentioned above). It all worked out for the best though as the time for my Dad’s birthday crept closer, and I realized that not only was it his birthday, but one of my best friend’s, Christa, was turning 21 a mere 2 days before! Also, Tamara had headed back to town and just got a duplex with her brother and his girlfriend. Plus, Tracy and her boyfriend Eric just got back from an amazing adventure (attempted move) to Maine. Needless to say, this vacation was turning from something I was dreading into something I was really, really looking forward to.

So here we go; my little over a week long vacation.

Cue Fri:
Left to go visit Matt in Orlando, as he was supposed to take off work so we could hang out while I was passing through. Of course, he couldn’t get off work, and thus my visit was a little lackluster. I checked my email and to my surprise there was one from Jennie in Jacksonville saying that on my time off I should come up to visit. Well, there was NO way I was driving home to Ft. Myers that early (a week or more in Ft. Myers and I tend to lose it) so I figured “what the fuck” and headed up.

Well, Jennie in her “Travis always complains about not doing stuff with friends so I will try to plan a bazillion things to do while he visits” made me go up to Gainesville and par-tay (as it were) with some other college student peoples. It was ok, I learned how to play beer pong, and that birthday parties for dogs are incredibly lame unless you’re already wasted. I wasn’t. Any who, overall the night was fun. I realize now that although I would have liked a school a little bigger than Riddle, a big state school wouldn’t have worked for me. “College life” as it stands is a nice place to visit for me, but I sure wouldn’t want to live there. So I slept on the floor using a bean bag chair as a pillow, and woke up ready for tubing!

Tubing down a river doesn’t sound to exciting (well, maybe for some people) and I would agree that just floating down the river wouldn’t have been so entertaining if it weren’t for the stop at target for sunscreen and sandals, where it was decided to buy a $7.00 blow-up kiddy pool in an attempt to use that instead of inner tubes. I have to say that I truthfully didn’t think it would work, but it did! So the entire floating down the river, with four of us in the pool, we heard never ending rumblings of “Is that a pool?” and the like. It was quite amusing. Didn’t get back to Jacksonville till way later than we planed, because nobody in the world knew where we were going or how to actually drive their vehicles to get there. More people wanted to go bar hopping Sat. night, but me being the anti-social introvert I am decided against going. It was time for some sleep.

Sunday was pretty uneventful, which was a nice change of pace. Time to chill out. Learned to make salsa in a food processor, because the time I tried it in a blender…um, didn’t work out well. That night I was dragged out to some bar to drink, which I promptly realized after a quarter mile walk that I had forgotten my wallet. I’m far from able to get by without being carded, so I had to trek my happy ass back to the condo. Getting back I had a few beers with everyone and some biker chick named Collette. Not like “had a beer with”, she was pretty old and fat, and very loud, but wow, that chick was amusing. She was a biker chick, and a bounty hunter. She didn’t drink, but was more than happy to buy a pair of beers for everyone in her immediate vicinity which included me and all the people I was there with. What an awesome lady. After that we hit another bar, which by that time I did not really want to do stuff. My mood dropped like a rock, as it tends to randomly do. But trying to not be a buzz kill I sucked it up and went. I was starving as were others, and Tim was able to wander off and find a hamburger stand. Pricey, but I had no choice at that point. After downing a burger we headed back and I finally got some of the sleep I wanted.

Monday, I learned to SURF! Who’d a thunk it? Travis surfing like a pro. In fact, some surfers mistook me for a pro and started asking me for advice. Ok, so that’s a complete lie, but I did stand up on several mediocre (oh shit, spelled that right the first time!) waves, which I think that is pretty damn good. I love surfing now. Much like everything I try for the first time I really want to keep it up, but I know it won’t happen. It was tremdous fun though. Very tiring and I did feel sore later in the day (although it was coupled with the long drive) but if I could go again, I would. I mentioned the drive a second ago, which is the drive I took from Jacksonville to Daytona, because I realized that I had indeed forgotten my Dad’s birthday present (horrible son, I know) but since it was on the way, it worked out. Plus if I had finished the drive to Ft. Myers on Friday I would have been screwed. Yet another instance of things just working out perfectly this past week.

I get back to Daytona expecting to show Gordon the huge bruise on my leg (I think I’ve determined it was from tubing, but not positive) and tell him how incredibly cool I am because I surfed, but he was gone! He had left for home early; in fact he left a few hours before I got home. Shakespearian timing at it’s best. I didn’t do anything because I was beat, and I had called Matt and we agreed to hang out on Tuesday on my final run to Ft. Myers. Of course, he couldn’t get off work…again. So we ended up just chilling at his house for about 4 hours playing Counter-Strike and Far Cry, then he left for work and I left for my adventures in Ft. Myers. But, the good news was that Sunday, the day I was coming back through Orlando he had off already, so we knew he would have off. So with that we agreed that I would leave uber-early from Ft. Myers and since it only took about an hour from his place to Daytona we could actually get a full day of elitism and dick jokes. Glorious. More on that later.

Upon arriving in Ft. Myers, I called my Dad. He was still at work, around 7 pm. Surprise suprise. Either way, we agreed that he would pick up some Arby's on the way home, so it's all good. After getting off the phone with him, I went ahead and called all he people I was supposed to hang out with while in town. Oh wow did I feel social. There is such a self-esteem booster in talking to people who give the impression that they in fact want to talk to me. I mean, I know I have friends here who enjoy my company and all; at least I tend to think they do, but I always seem to get the impression of "bother" when I talk to any of them or try to go do things with them. But then again my friends in Ft. Myers would probably start to get that way if I saw them more than once every six months...

Anyways, I was dead tired after being a bubbling ball of charm and happiness. Got dinner and then chilled out and talked politics with my Dad for the rest of the night. It's amusing that no matter how tired I am, I can talk politics. My opinions and arguments get worse and worse, but in general it's pretty easy. Probably has something to do with politics being bullshit. Yeah, probably.

Wednesday comes around and it's time to hang out with Tamara! I got to sleep in because she worked till 3 pm, then came to pick me up. It was a damn long drive for her, but after all the driving I had done in the past couple days she offered. She's such a great girl, ever thinking of others. Our original plan was to rent a movie or something and get plastered back at her place with her roomies (brother and girlfriend). But about half way to her house we decided that we were both still pretty tired, and that booze would only make us more tired; so to counter, we traded the booze idea for junk food! Instead of downing jager and beer, we had sour cream and onion chips and skittles. It was just as good in my book. We watched the AniMatrix and tried to watch Fellowship of the Ring, but it was late and she had to drive me home. We watched a couple sitcoms instead. Still, just as good, all in all a great night.

Next night rolls around and it's time to chill with Christa! It's Christa's 21st birthday, and for a pastors daughter, I was rather surprised at the enthusiasm that she (and her family) had about getting trashed. But hey, it's ok by me. We took a drive to her work (Joe's Crab Shack) and got some two for one drinks. Christ had her first Margarita, and I tried what was called a "Tye-Dye". Basically three alcoholic slushies layered on top of each other. It was double size (see: two for one) so it took me forever to finish the bastard. It was about closing time, so we figure we were trying to avoid going out with her co-workers (she doens't like most of them) so we hit up ABC and headed home to watch movies and get drunk. She bought some Wine Coolers, because she is 5'2" and 100 lb, and those would fuck her up. I had myself a bottle of jager, and we stopped to get some red bull. Got home and we ended up playing Clue FX, which is a fun game. I downed a few jager bombs, totalling around 7-8 shots. I was happy. Not drunk, it's frightening how much liquor a small guy like me can ingest and not be drunk. We tried to watch the Broune Identity because I haven't seen it yet...but we couldn't finish it, we both were falling asleep so I just went home.

Friday was my day with Tracy and Eric! It's been even longer since I've seen those two, and they just got back from trying to move to Maine. After seeing a picture of Maine on Good Morning America, they decided to move there (yeah, they're like that); they saved and packed and went. However, after the car broke down 2 times on the way, and ending up in a completely shitty apt where a rapist lived there before them, and a convicted murdered lived below them...they ran home. They even left furniture. They said the weather was nice, but Maine sucks. We hung out for a bit at their place, and then dragged me to a family thing at Tracy's parent's place. Eric swore that if I didn't go he wouldn't, because then he'd have to deal with her family. It was ok, I got free food out of it! Afterwards Tracy, her sister Treesa, Treesa's boyfriend, Eric and I went to a comedian downtown. It was fun, and they had Amber bock on tap! They told me to give them directions to Daytona, so they could come visit. That would be awesome, even though Daytona sucks, if we were entertained in Ft. Myers, we could be entertained in Daytona.

Ok, Dad's birthday! I got him a "Deep Purple" cd, and I bought breakfast and we went to see "I, Robot" (brief movie reviews later) and then did a family dinner at night. Seems short, but there's not much to it, just hanging with the family...

Sunday! I finally got to hang out with Matt. He's too much like me, it's frightening. So I get there, and I'm informed we are going to go see "The Village" in like 30 mins. I hadn't eaten yet, so I was a prick and made them not go to that showing and we went to chilies first. Had myself some more Amber bock on tap, and it's like I can't get away from two for ones, so I had to almost chug the second one. I didn't finish it, because I still don't like beer that much. After the movie (again, mini reviews to come) we went to some pool hall and played some pool (we this whole time being Matt, me, and his girlfriend Alicia) then met up with two other people (Brandon and his girlfriend) and went to Olive Garden. I've only been single a total of my freshman year in college dating back to my sophomore year in high school...so needless to say it was a tad strange to be the 5th wheel to everyone. Not like super uncomfortable, but every once and a while I felt sort of, out of the loop. I guess that's something I have to get used to...After dinner, it was damn late, so I needed to head out to get back to Daytona. I got in around midnight, so I got a good 5 hours of sleep before work today.

All in all, best trip ever. Got to see, well shit, pretty much all my best friends in Florida in the course of a week. Everything worked out in timing, and I learned new things, and I made funny jokes, and I couldn't stop laughing at Olive Garden, and I couldn't have been happier. I seriously haven't had such a good week in forever. Maybe the few days at the conference for the bridge, but it didn't last this long, or be this good. My friends rock, I can't say that enough. It makes me incredibly happy to hang out with them, and talk with them, and help them out with things they are having trouble with. That's all I want from freinds, a chance to prove how much I care. They deserve anything I can give.

Ok, on to the movie reviews!

I, Robot: Actually I thought this movie was pretty good. I think that they should have done the advertising different, and not shown so much of the latter half of the movie, leaving more mystery rather than just saying "Hey this is a big action film!" Gordon agreed. Other than that, a really solid movie, enjoyable. No Independence Day, but a fun summer movie.
3 and 1/2 stars out of 5

The Village: Ok...this is mainly gonna sound like a bad review, but bear with me. I figured out the "twist" 10 mins into the movie. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating. Within 10 mins, I had a running theory, by the 30 min mark I was pretty confident, and by the half way point I would have bet my college degree. I think the twist was sort of lame, but that's partly because I called it so easily. I personally think the movie could have been better if he had just not tried to surprise everyone. But that isn't taking away from M.Night's amazing directing ability. There were two scenes in particular that were amazing, simply amazing. One is the porch scene with the fog, and the other...I can't say cuz it's pretty intense. But needless to say that the use of silence has found a master, took my breath away (along with the gasps from the rest of the audience). I would love to give this a better rating as it really was a well done movie, but I can't get past the fact that I called it so easily. But the scenes and skill involved in making this movie were enough to hold it up above many others.
3 and 1/2 stars out of 5

The AniMatrix inspired me. I've seen it before, but for some reason an animated short just popped in my head, and of course I just jotted down the script. Well, I don't have a legit script just yet, I have a storyboard outline, and setting descriptions. Very detailed setting descriptions, since it's animated the setting can be whatever I want! Mwuhahahah! But I'm thinking of putting them all together into a true story board format, I may attempt to draw some rough sketches, but I suck at drawing. I'm trying to figure out how I can find someone to animate it for me before I lose all hope about making it. If I could find someone who was willing to do it, and interested in it, there is a definite chance this could be made. God, please send me an animator with a huge love of the Matrix...please!

Ok, well believe it or not, I did have more to write. And this is a less descriptive version of what I wanted to write. But it's getting late, and that storyboard idea is calling me (as I'm obviously in the mood to write). On top of that, I've gotten all caught up in the West Wing marathon on Bravo, what a great show.

I formally apologize to all the people that have me listed as a friend, for I know I've just made large amounts of scrolling necessary to read your other friend’s posts. Thanks for putting up with my horrid long-windedness. Is long-windedness a word? Hmm, something to ponder.

This post has been moved…elsewhere.

All comments have been deleted…

I have backed up the corrected version that genesis did, maybe I’ll post it as a new comment later or something.

Huge thanks go out to all the people who took the time necessary out of their lives to read this, and esp. to those who cared enough to mention it to me (even people who just bitched about my spacebar not working). I truly didn’t expect to get anything other than “you must be crazy if you think I’m going to read that!” to which I was pleasantly surprised.

And no, don’t worry; there won’t be another post like that, ever.

( Full listing of qoutes used, with origin... )