A few things…

Well its time to resurrect this blog.

Bam. Its been two months since I last wrote a word on this thing. A lot has happened and a lot has not.

For the better part of the last two months I’ve been working at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA for iD Tech Camps. ID Tech runs its camps all over the U.S. at different colleges and universities like Stanford University, UCLA, Columbia, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Brown University, etc… These camps are technology camps which means we aren’t counselors so much as we are instructors. At most locations we teach game design, web design, Flash, programming, robotics, digital video editing and bunch more. I taught digital video editing and 3D game design.

Working with kids is a trip. That is the most succinct way I can put it. Working with kids making movies and video games is absolutely ridiculous. Kids are nuts, they have imaginations that run wild, they can’t sit still, they love getting into trouble, they love to talk and overall they pretty much just amaze me. Its funny how you can sometimes catch glimpses of how they will grow up to be.  I usually have to control about 8-12 of them a week in my classes and at the dorms. Octomom doesn’t really have anything on me.

These kids usually come from interesting backgrounds. The camps start at about $1200 bucks a week, so most of the kids are pretty well off. At the end of each week we have a “Family Showcase” where we show all the kids have done and meet parents. This year I had some kids with interesting parents in my classes, I’ve meet the Editor-in-Chief of Time Magazine, Woody Allen’s film editor, and a bunch of pro golfers. It is much more interesting work than Kohls. Sadly summer is over which means my job is over. So I’m back on the job hunt, refreshed and ready to roll.

My adventure for the summer was working for iD Tech at Columbia University in downtown Manhattan, NYC. I lived in the Bronx at a different college and commuted every morning to Manhattan via public transportation. Living smack in the middle of the Bronx and having all my nights off that week to run loose in NYC certainly gave me a few stories… but that will have to wait until the next blog post. So tune in.

Thats all for today I guess. I might throw a few other summer stories on here once I get back in the groove of blogging.

P.S. THE FIRST NFL PRESEASON WEEKEND STARTS TOMORROW!!! Check out the schedule and get pumped!!! STEELER NATION!!! One last sentence with three exclamation marks!!!

Jack Handy

Jack Handy is ridiculous. He is absurd. And at the same time, I think, so hysterically funny.

Check out his article on digg (and dig it if you can): http://digg.com/comedy/Deep_Thoughts_Jack_Handy_s_message_to_the_President_Obama

That is all.

Music and Sight

I do not enjoy anything as much as I enjoy the combination of music and sight. It amazes me how the combination of these things far surpass merely the sum of their parts. It is something magical that surpasses any drug, any thrill, or any experience I know. I think music is a gift from God. When I think of heaven, I think of a place where music will never cease and my eyes will never close. Music can convey emotion like no other thing I have found, and more so it can convey such a complex array of emotions or feelings simultaneously like nothing else. Combine music with some form of visual stimuli and you have something indescribable.

People hound me all the time about how I rant about the quality of sound, the quality of a visual, or the quality of a taste. For me life is about experiences; I want to have as many of them as possible and I want them to be as memorable as possible. The more a serene a sight is, the more clear a sound is, the more distinguished a taste is, the more memorable it is to me. This is the reason I rant, this is the reason I seek out quality.

Film is nothing to me without music. Music can stand alone, but never fully reaches its potential without a visual.

I am going to list two songs for you in the “Film of the Week” section of my page, I want you to stick them on your ipod and when you are in the most scenic place you know, pop them on. I’ve been enjoying the beach and sun all week here in Emerald Isle, NC – but of all the fun I had, I did not enjoy anything as much as listening to these songs and simply watching the waves roll in and the people play in surf.

I have in recent years really started to enjoy opera. I can’t understand what anyone is saying, but I understand what they are feeling. In the same way while in college my ears were opened to classical music. I learned from both of these genres that music is truly a universal language and that it is indeed the most beautiful language in existence.

Well it is dinner time and my family is hollering my name. I guess thats all for today. Goodbye.

When I think of a good title I’ll stick it here

Well it has been awhile since I’ve given an update on this blog and what I’m up to. Here we go.

I am now currently employed part time by Kohls, it is indeed one of those “get me by” jobs. I am trying to keep a little income flow while I look for a real job. It is somewhat depressing that I graduated, now have my degree and am working for Kohls… but I just have to be patient. I no longer feel in a rush to find a job and end up getting into something I don’t like. I am going to take the time and make sure I get a job I really want. Recently I have had some progress in that area – I finally got an interview for a federal job working for the Architect of the Capital – I’d be working in the capital building and regularly interacting with congressmen as part of my job if I get it. I’ve got Enterprise (rent a car) interested in me for their management trainee program, which I wouldn’t be that excited about except that position is listed 5th on Business Weeks “Top 100 places to launch a career” list. And I am also seriously considering working for Aramark as an outsides sales rep – I have family that works for them who could help me secure a position with that company. The salesman life is one of big bucks, but a ton of hours. I’m still sorting through many other but those are my top prospects at this point – I’ll let you know if something happens.

I am however, in about three weeks quitting my job at Kohls to work for IdTech Camps for six or more weeks and teach kids web design, programing and videography and rage on them in video games. IdTech is a sweet freaking job – they are going to throw me $625 a week for playing video games and having fun with kids. Thats a good deal. Hopefully I will have a career job lined up before my job with IdTech ends.

Right now I don’t really give a crap about work because all next week I’m going to be on vacation chilling in Emerald Isle in a big sweet beach front house drinking Corona and bashing waves. So life is good at the moment.

Well thats all I feel like writing for now so… peace.

(I will update soon)

I’m almost 23… crap!

My birthday is coming up soon. Crap. Every birthday when I turn whatever I turn, I remember thinking how old this next age is that I have taken on and how young the age I was called just the day before really was. It’s really kind of stupid because it’s all just in my head. Being 23 is not that bad, I’ll still be in my early 20′s – in the big picture I still have a lot of time on my side and a lot of life left to live. It is going by fast though, scary fast. But I am loving to death every God given second of it and plan to continue to do so.

Reflecting on some of my past birthdays, there are 3 that stick out.

• I turn 10, and I get a trampoline. Sweet. Games are made up involving people running around the trampoline pegging  those who are jumping on it in the face with random objects and athletic equipment who are trying to dodge these attacks, once a person gets knocked off or somehow else incapacitated by an object, the one who K.O.’d them gets to bounce. Later, I bounce up and down while listening to 90′s music on my sony discman. Can life get better?

• Yes it can. I turn 18, and on that day fulfill a lifetime goal – skydiving. The first day I legally could, I did and holy crap was it worth the wait. You are 12,000 feet up in the air, the plane door opens – you’ve got adrenaline pumping through you like you didn’t know was possible – you walk to the edge of door, look down, look out, grab a hold of your pack and push off. One of the best feelings I’ve ever felt. You are falling straight down at about 124 mph, but it feels like your flying. It seems like forever,  and then whooooamp, you shoot deploys and now you get to have even more fun steering a parachute to ground below.

• I turn 19 and I am in college living the dream. Oddly enough that night I was awoken late by group of women and went around chasing clues with Mr. Matt Henderson and Mr. Mike White (Maurice) on foot, in cars, on scooters and bikes, all in horridly freezing weather till the sun rose at 6:00am.

My number one birthday request to my parents has been skydiving since that day, my 18th birthday. I’ve tried again this year and it’s a big fail. Once I get a career job I know exactly what I will be doing to celebrate, hopefully I can get some Testosterhome people to do it with me.

Well, I have more to write but it is late and I have to get up early and be a judge at the NC Speech and Debate tournament in Wake Forest. It should be fun, plus it’s catered and all free to judges.

Look for a new post soon with poll results and a new movie to watch. In the meantime download the current film and participate in the poll if you haven’t already. Peace.

Sheer Determination

It’s been awhile. I can’t say that I haven’t had time to keep up this blog, rather my life is so mundane right now that I have a shortage of interesting material. I am past the point where not having people in my face 24/7 as I did in college is something nice. Although, I have truly enjoyed the last few months; time with my family, living in a nice house, peace and quite, recreational reading, plenty of personal space, home cooking, and no fear of my stuff getting destroyed in a random party invasion of my room — these are all things I did not have at JMU. I am someone who enjoys being extroverted and introverted — I can fully appreciate both, but the time has come where I am indeed tired of staring at a computer screen all day looking for work and filling out endless amounts of paperwork. Yet, I have to keep going. From what I gather, many of my friends are not happy they jumped on the jobs they have now. I am somewhat conflicted on the issue, letting a tangible job go is hard as I know good jobs are scarce in this economy, yet I don’t want to end up in something I hate. I feel that patience and perseverance are key, known by a few men from my college house as sheer determination. Sheer determination usually ended up a being a good tactic. This is the tactic I will adopt for my job search.

Enough depressing job search talk, now it’s movie time! This ones called “Gran Torino”, starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. I loved this movie for many reasons, but I could like it solely for the fact that even as an old man, Clint Eastwood is a complete badass, and I mean that in the best sense of the word. The story is very compelling and dramatic with some subtle humor mixed in. It’s basically about an old racist koran war veteran with new neighbors that happen to be asian. I’d rather you watch it than I explain the whole thing. So boof, it’s over there to the right for you to download.

In other news, I recently started using a site called Mint.com. The site is a free web-based personal financial management service allows users to track bank, credit card, investment, and loan transactions and balances through a single user interface. Its very fast and easy to set up, amazingly useful and has helped me get my finances organized and well-managed. I wish I would have used this in college. Check it out.

Lastly, lets look at last post’s poll.

Being deaf is the most popular, followed by other, then having no legs, then blind, and no one would rather have no arms. Interesting. We can conclude from this data that not having any arms would suck the most.

Lets take a look at the “other” results. First response was “have a bent dong… HA you already have that” (this no doubt was written by Mr. JC Cantrell who is obsessed with my “dong”) , next was “Proficient in 10 musical instruments” (I’m guessing this is by Henderson because, well, its just stupid) ”have no arms or legs and be torsoeboy!” (Thank you Chris), “Have no tongue”  (no idea) and last, a sexist remark “a woman” (again, no idea). I don’t make them up folks, I just report them.

Well, thats it for this post. Remember to watch the film and fill out this post’s survey. ——>

Peace.

Its been a week…

Well, I completely failed at maintaining this blog and every other social networking tool that I said I was going to keep up with. The reason: it was freaking beautiful outside this past week. Screw everything else, I disc golfed like a maniac this week and it was sick! Man, oh man. I looooove good weather. Speaking of good weather. I think I might be starting to regret not taking the job I got offered down in Naples, Florida. It wasn’t my dream job; inside sales, phone calling my butt off, won’t pay for relocation expenses. But still, decent pay, sick corporate office, chill people my age, challenging, and it was in one of the nicest places I could want to live. Beautiful beaches, always sunny and breezy, you can sail to the bahamas in about 6 hours… need I say more?

I am usually a “here and now” type of guy, but I’ve been looking back a lot more this week. I think it started when I was listening to some Infected Mushroom and was remember the Testoterhome Raves and how mind blowingly amazing they were. And for that matter, how ridiculously fun, exciting, dynamic and awesome college was. Listening to my friends who are now working the 9-5 lifestyle, I am pretty sure that was and will remain the best time of my life.  I’m not trying to stay stuck in the past, I am just reflecting on how blessed I was and if I happen to die tomorrow, it has been a good life and I’d die a very happy man. Well, thats enough of that… have to keep looking forward, I am truly optimistic about the future, I just wish it would get here faster — of course as soon as it passes me by, I know I’ll wish I could still look forward to it, but such is life.

So, I’m starting something new for this blog. I am going to post a full length film for ya’ll to watch each week or so. I am going to post it on the side bar over there ———> if you would like to download it and watch it. Can’t promise you’ll like it, but I can promise it’ll be a good film. If you don’t like it, you have no taste. I am just kidding, well, only half kidding really.  Anyway, this week I’m posting a film called “Boy A”. It’s an English film about this kid who having been institutionalized for most of his life, is finally released from prison at the age of 24. He and another boy murdered a child when they were children. The film follows his attempts to readjust to the world outside of confinement and restart a life which never really got going. It is a very interesting, somewhat depressing, but overall compelling story. It made me think how life really is a one-shot deal, one event, good or bad, can change and redefine you life forever. You’ll need VLC player (I’ll link that as well) to watch it.

In other news, I found a sick local brewery that gives free tours and even more importantly, free beer on Saturdays. What a great Saturday activity; brew education and brew consumption all in one. Speaking of beer, I have rediscovered my love for PBR and I have decided it taste like Harrisonburg. You can interpret that as you wish.

Well, I like to say well a lot in my blog writing. And it’s about time for me to stop writing. But, before I sign off, lets review this past weeks blog poll. This was last weeks poll was disappointing since I usually receive more results and better answers. The question was… “What is the one film I must see before I die?” The answers I received were: “fight club”, “a film of my life”, “other”, “action film” and “I lost the Game”. Of these responses, only one of them was an actual film I think, and I’ve already seen it. I think asking people to type something was too much work, I am going to go back to just clicking on bubbles instead. But I will leave the “other” choice and you can write whatever you want and I will report it/blog on it.

Thats it folks. Don’t for get to vote in this weeks poll and check out the posted film!!! ———————————>