Tuesday, June 21, 2005
I Can't Cope!
And neither can the rest of Pittsburgh
I was quite bummed to hear that Myron Cope is retiring. Anyone from Pittsburgh knows who Myron Cope is, and those who are not from Pittsburgh don't care, so I won't take the time to explain. All I'll say is this. I have fond memories from childhood... riding in the car, my dad behind the wheel, with Myron Cope "yoi"ing away on the radio, and my mother... all like, "BRUCE! Will you PLEASE turn him off? I cannot STAND that man! He has the most IRRITATING VOICE!" And my dad would be like, "It's almost over." Thirty minutes later, the Copanut would still be "Hmmm ha"ing my mother all the way to the funny farm. Ahhhh good times.
Anyway, we'll miss you Myron. (Fun trivia: Myron Cope lives on the same street as my grandmother.)
I'm a little scared. I have to send 2 short stories off to school by the end of June so they can pick ones to work on for the residency. I'm really scared... my short stories are all kinda freaky 'cause that's the way short stories should be in my opinion. I feel so naked - shipping my weird freaky words off to the unknown. I'll have to choose carefully which ones to send. Yikes.
I like grape juice.
The end.
I was quite bummed to hear that Myron Cope is retiring. Anyone from Pittsburgh knows who Myron Cope is, and those who are not from Pittsburgh don't care, so I won't take the time to explain. All I'll say is this. I have fond memories from childhood... riding in the car, my dad behind the wheel, with Myron Cope "yoi"ing away on the radio, and my mother... all like, "BRUCE! Will you PLEASE turn him off? I cannot STAND that man! He has the most IRRITATING VOICE!" And my dad would be like, "It's almost over." Thirty minutes later, the Copanut would still be "Hmmm ha"ing my mother all the way to the funny farm. Ahhhh good times.
Anyway, we'll miss you Myron. (Fun trivia: Myron Cope lives on the same street as my grandmother.)
I'm a little scared. I have to send 2 short stories off to school by the end of June so they can pick ones to work on for the residency. I'm really scared... my short stories are all kinda freaky 'cause that's the way short stories should be in my opinion. I feel so naked - shipping my weird freaky words off to the unknown. I'll have to choose carefully which ones to send. Yikes.
I like grape juice.
The end.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
It's Been Fine
I don't know how the road was...
For some reason I've been in a very happy and thankful state of mind lately. I've had several moments over the past few days in which I've paused in the middle of something, and thought to myself, "this is so great... this is what makes death such a bummer." It sounds so cheesy, but there's so much on this planet to get into. There are so many things that make people laugh, or think good thoughts, or just generally make people smile. Earth is a great place to be.
Last night I went to Mad Mex with Jason and John... we did a lot of good band talking, which is always fun and productive, and we also shared stories and laughed a lot. Is there anything finer than laughing with friends? I think not.
All these good experiences I've had have given me a thought. It seems like such a simple thought that everyone should have had very very early in life, but for some reason it's triggered something in my brain that's got me thinking differently. I've decided to make a couple life changes. I'm going to start really thinking about the things that make me happy. I'm going to focus on the really great things that fulfill me. On the same token, I'm going to try to eliminate the things in my life that cause negativaty. It's time that I stop surrounding myself with the unneccesary drama that I can control. I don't need to spend time in the places that make me unhappy, with the people that make me unhappy, doing the things that make me unhappy. I need to clean out my mental shelves. Take out the stuff that just isn't doing much for me, and replace it with the things that really make me feel good. I think that's a lot of what this grad school thing is about. Will I ever amount to anything as a writer? I don't know. But I do know that writing makes me happy. And so does being a student. I think that going to school will be great. I can't wait to get started doing these things. The things that make me happy. I'm also looking for places to play (oboe) around here. Because that's another thing I love. I just don't want all the crap that comes with being a music teacher.
Anyway, in short, it's time to stop trying to "fix" the things I can't change, and instead just let them go. And it's time to hold on closer to the things I enjoy, and surround myself with those things as much as I can. Like I said, it's such a no-brainer, but I think it might be harder to do than one would think. I dunno.
Groundhog Day is on. That's a pretty decent movie. I haven't seen it in a long time.
We're all okay.
For some reason I've been in a very happy and thankful state of mind lately. I've had several moments over the past few days in which I've paused in the middle of something, and thought to myself, "this is so great... this is what makes death such a bummer." It sounds so cheesy, but there's so much on this planet to get into. There are so many things that make people laugh, or think good thoughts, or just generally make people smile. Earth is a great place to be.
Last night I went to Mad Mex with Jason and John... we did a lot of good band talking, which is always fun and productive, and we also shared stories and laughed a lot. Is there anything finer than laughing with friends? I think not.
All these good experiences I've had have given me a thought. It seems like such a simple thought that everyone should have had very very early in life, but for some reason it's triggered something in my brain that's got me thinking differently. I've decided to make a couple life changes. I'm going to start really thinking about the things that make me happy. I'm going to focus on the really great things that fulfill me. On the same token, I'm going to try to eliminate the things in my life that cause negativaty. It's time that I stop surrounding myself with the unneccesary drama that I can control. I don't need to spend time in the places that make me unhappy, with the people that make me unhappy, doing the things that make me unhappy. I need to clean out my mental shelves. Take out the stuff that just isn't doing much for me, and replace it with the things that really make me feel good. I think that's a lot of what this grad school thing is about. Will I ever amount to anything as a writer? I don't know. But I do know that writing makes me happy. And so does being a student. I think that going to school will be great. I can't wait to get started doing these things. The things that make me happy. I'm also looking for places to play (oboe) around here. Because that's another thing I love. I just don't want all the crap that comes with being a music teacher.
Anyway, in short, it's time to stop trying to "fix" the things I can't change, and instead just let them go. And it's time to hold on closer to the things I enjoy, and surround myself with those things as much as I can. Like I said, it's such a no-brainer, but I think it might be harder to do than one would think. I dunno.
Groundhog Day is on. That's a pretty decent movie. I haven't seen it in a long time.
We're all okay.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Back to the World
And via some spankin' new machinery
Well hello there!! It's been quite a while. I could make a whole long list of lame excuses, but I'll stick to my biggest two. 1. I was in Cincinnati last weekend having an awesome time with Josh, only to come back to Pittsburgh on Sunday night to see DMB in concert (I look forward to this all year) which lasted til pretty late, which gave me minimal sleep, only to be topped off by yet another open mic extravaganza on Monday night, which also kept me up late, leaving me to be ridiculously exhausted for the remainder of the week until now. (I've managed to take some naps.) 2. I've received my brand new Dell laptop in the mail, and quite honestly, I've been far too busy playing with screen savers, wallpaper, colors, fonts, and all that fun pretty stuff that comes with the purchase of a new computer, to get back to my normal computing routines (ie blogging.) Special thanks to Mat and Isaac for giving me the information I needed to make an educated computer purchase. As techno-phobic as I am, I was so afraid I'd buy the wrong thing and end up with some piece of junk... but so far, in the few days I've had this bad boy, it seems to be quite handy and super fun. So yay. Mat and Isaac must have advised me well.
So anyway... hmm... what to talk about.
For one thing, I finally saw Garden State after everyone in the universe told me that I absolutely must see it or else my body would just dissintegrate on the spot one day from lack of deep meaningful movie experiences. I was all set to hate this movie because I had heard so much about it, so when I sat down to watch it, I watched with a skeptic's eye. But you know what? It was pretty damn good. It was a lot different than I had expected. It had moments of comedy in it. It wasn't trying too hard to be deep and meaningful, which I greatly appreciated. The philosophy in it is relatively understated, and I didn't get that impression from those who told me about the movie.
I Heart Huckabees, on the other hand, was an awful movie. (I watched that one as well.) I had heard that this movie was good, so I got it on Netflix, and lemmie tell ya... I was watching this movie, and the whole time I was waiting for this amazing Fight Club-esque ending in which the whole mystery of things is revealed and you discover that one or more of the characters is a figment of another's imagination, or that the whole movie was a dream, or that there's some kind of huge enlightenment reached, or it proves that we're all just aliens or something. But this whole bizarre move just led to... the end of a whole bizarre movie. And the whole time, the writers of this movie were basically trying to show off to the audience how smart they were by using big words and talking about philosophy as much as they possibly could, until the viewer really just didn't give a shit anymore about the characters or about philosophy, we just wanted to GET TO THE FREAKIN' POINT. And then... there was no point. It was all pretty retarded.
Also, who else thinks Natalie Portman is really super pretty? I do.
I don't really know what else to say. It feels good to be back on a blank blog screen. I've noticed that my friends have sort of given up on their blogs... and that makes me sad. I plan to carry the torch, dammit! I will continue to blog until my fingers are bloody stumps! Yep.
That is all.
Well hello there!! It's been quite a while. I could make a whole long list of lame excuses, but I'll stick to my biggest two. 1. I was in Cincinnati last weekend having an awesome time with Josh, only to come back to Pittsburgh on Sunday night to see DMB in concert (I look forward to this all year) which lasted til pretty late, which gave me minimal sleep, only to be topped off by yet another open mic extravaganza on Monday night, which also kept me up late, leaving me to be ridiculously exhausted for the remainder of the week until now. (I've managed to take some naps.) 2. I've received my brand new Dell laptop in the mail, and quite honestly, I've been far too busy playing with screen savers, wallpaper, colors, fonts, and all that fun pretty stuff that comes with the purchase of a new computer, to get back to my normal computing routines (ie blogging.) Special thanks to Mat and Isaac for giving me the information I needed to make an educated computer purchase. As techno-phobic as I am, I was so afraid I'd buy the wrong thing and end up with some piece of junk... but so far, in the few days I've had this bad boy, it seems to be quite handy and super fun. So yay. Mat and Isaac must have advised me well.
So anyway... hmm... what to talk about.
For one thing, I finally saw Garden State after everyone in the universe told me that I absolutely must see it or else my body would just dissintegrate on the spot one day from lack of deep meaningful movie experiences. I was all set to hate this movie because I had heard so much about it, so when I sat down to watch it, I watched with a skeptic's eye. But you know what? It was pretty damn good. It was a lot different than I had expected. It had moments of comedy in it. It wasn't trying too hard to be deep and meaningful, which I greatly appreciated. The philosophy in it is relatively understated, and I didn't get that impression from those who told me about the movie.
I Heart Huckabees, on the other hand, was an awful movie. (I watched that one as well.) I had heard that this movie was good, so I got it on Netflix, and lemmie tell ya... I was watching this movie, and the whole time I was waiting for this amazing Fight Club-esque ending in which the whole mystery of things is revealed and you discover that one or more of the characters is a figment of another's imagination, or that the whole movie was a dream, or that there's some kind of huge enlightenment reached, or it proves that we're all just aliens or something. But this whole bizarre move just led to... the end of a whole bizarre movie. And the whole time, the writers of this movie were basically trying to show off to the audience how smart they were by using big words and talking about philosophy as much as they possibly could, until the viewer really just didn't give a shit anymore about the characters or about philosophy, we just wanted to GET TO THE FREAKIN' POINT. And then... there was no point. It was all pretty retarded.
Also, who else thinks Natalie Portman is really super pretty? I do.
I don't really know what else to say. It feels good to be back on a blank blog screen. I've noticed that my friends have sort of given up on their blogs... and that makes me sad. I plan to carry the torch, dammit! I will continue to blog until my fingers are bloody stumps! Yep.
That is all.
