the new site is up now at:

WWW.ANDREWLORENZLONG.COM

 

by the way, as I said, last week I used word to edit this...well now the file is completely messed up, thats why all this is right aligned and not centered....ugh...check out the new site already

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 9^th 2003

One more week, although this week is sort of like finals week as well because I have an art project due Monday and a Marketing final Wednesday. 

We’ll never have trillian  pro again since there is not crack version that contains the AOL patch.  So, we are stuck with the original version, which isn’t so bad. 

Dreamweaver has stopped working and I can’t get it to reinstall (the demo) properly yet so that it doesn’t think my time has expired.  So, I’m trying to edit this in MS Word.  Never done it before, so I’m not sure how it will turn out.

My skin is cold, transfusion with somebody morose and
old, drop into fruitless dying
It was tempting and bared, the whoring angel rising
Now burning prayers, my silent time of losing

March 2nd 2003

Started a new exercise routine this week. Its very taxing on my body since my days are so long, but it has to be done if I want to keep from turning into the marshmallow man.

Mom called yesterday and said that IF we go to california, we might go to anaheim instead. So, I might just show up on your doorstep in a few months Mr. "I'm gonna get a Z next year."

Trillian stopped working today. the bastards at AOL set it up so it shuts itself off when it tries to connect to your AOL account. So, now we are back running on basic AOL IM, and god does that suck!

Played racquetball for the first time in about six months on Saturday with El Rufusito.

Only two weeks left and it can't go by fast enough!

Tears of the feeble, hands of the slaves. Skin of the mothers, mouths of the babes
Building the towers, belongs to the sky. When the whole thing comes crashing down
Don't ask me why

Under the shelf, the shelf of the sky. Two eyes, two suns, too heavenly blinds
Swallowing rivers, belongs to the sea. When the whole thing washes away
Don't run to me

February 23rd 2003

It snowed 18 or so inches by monday morning, so OSU cancelled classes for the first time in years (the exact amount seems to be different depending on who you ask).

On friday night, I received an email from the art office. It seems one of the classes that I need to graduate, and had signed up to take next quarter - is cancelled. It won't be offered again until autumn quarter. Good thing I wasn't planning to graduate in the summer....

Saturday, mom and dad came up and we all went to the spaghetti warehouse. I got the veal, which I was much happier with. Still...the food isn't really much better than what you might find at the Mountaineer. After that we went show shopping. I haven't got any new shoes since last century, so I think mom is going to buy me a new pair for my birthday (next month). I couldn't find anything good. I must be getting old because all the new shoe designs (even good old adidas) look like crap to me.

Rowed on the machine for the first time in probably 4 or 5 months today....god am I ever out of shape.... I'll be working less and going to class less (thanks to that cancellation) next quarter, so I'm hoping to catch up on a lot of stuff then, including my health. However, now that I have a great plan for next quarter and I'm looking forward to it, slugging out the remaining weeks in this quarter seems like hell.

As we were digging the car out of the snow monday, I broke the blade on our ice scraper/brush. so, mom, please put one of the "extras" in your car so we can get it on the 7th (or whenever you get up here again).

We thought about seeing that 4 hour gods and generals this weekend, but every single review I've read indicates that the movie is simply terrible.

No Hope = No Fear

I won't wait for the next life. The time is now, the time is right
Follow my heart, I'll get through. If you're not now, you never were

So lose yourself to find yourself. Don't need to act like nobody else
Sometimes it feels as if the road is blocked. I'll find a way, I'll move those rocks

Freedom!

February 16th 2003

Happy valentines day everyone. When I came home after a long day at work on friday, Celeste had prepared quite a delicious meal for us. I could tell she had worked on it all day. If anyone wants a picture, email me.

The website is actually almost complete, but I'm going to stave off the launch for a few more weeks, or perhaps until april. The reason is that I'm doing some art this quarter that I'll want to include on the site, so I can't decide yet whether to wait for that or just launch the site and add the new stuff later. I'm also redesigning a site for celeste which will be launched off of my site (if I'm gonna pay for 100MB or so...I might as well use it!).

Only four more weeks left in this quarter and it feels like forever. There is no way I'm overloading myself like this next quarter.

I'm being told that I jumped the gun on that SF trip. Mom called Monday and told me that it wasn't a sure thing, so I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed.

I fabricated and gessoed five big canvases yesterday, that stapling tears the crap outta your hands...maybe I should get an electric staple gun (does that exist?). Got a lot done yesterday, but still much more to do today.

Gone under two times. I've been struck dumb by a voice that speaks from deep beneath the cold black water. It's twice as clear as heaven, and twice as loud as reason. It's deep and rich like silt on a riverbed and just as undisturbing. The current's mouth below me opens up around me. Suggests and beckons all while swallowing. It surrounds and drowns and sweeps me away. But I'm so comfortable... Too comfortable.

February 9th 2003

The taillights came on Monday, and they finally arrived unblemished. Now we have to figure out where to get them installed.

The next generation website is nearing completion, pretty soon I'll have to decide on what server I'm going to use...

B just got promoted, so congrats to B, still don't know if he is going to get the coveted navigator position, but pretty soon he could be one of the top 2 or 3 guys in command down there.

This week was the 5th week, so we are halfway through the quarter now. My thesis project thing isn't going so well, I keep adding more and more paint and starting over...its a disaster.

Got a call from mom today, apparently she is going to treat me to a trip to San Fran this summer (she has a conference there). So, that means you better get ready to make that drive up the coast buddy boy (yeah you, Mr. tez).

Still no word from the professional admissions dep.

Strange things are afoot, at the circle of k

 

February 2nd 2003

UPS upped the shipping date on those taillights to last friday, so they should be here monday...hope they are not broken again....

Dreamweaver trial expired....but I figured out how to get a new trial...don't know how long I can do that before they figure out that the same computer has downloaded the free trial 50 times.

Yesterday was the second anniversary of the day that celeste and I first started dating. I took her to the Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. The place impressed me on several levels, but then failed on one final thing. The place itself is great, its actually built up in a huge old warehouse, we were actually seated inside of a real hollowed out old trolley car, so the atmosphere is great. Quickly the waiter comes out with your complementary sour dough bread, which is equal to the cheesecake factory or cap city, but the warehouse actually provides a large cup of their special butter. I don't know if its garlic or what, but it tastes a lot better than the other restaurants free bread butter. We ordered appetizers, cheese sticks. They were the same sticks you'd get at any other restaurant. The meals that we ordered came with either soup, or salad. They bring out your salad/soup as soon as you are done with your free bread, so that was very convenient. I got the Italian soup, which is basically a more bland chicken noodle soup with little sausage balls. Still good though for a soup, and it was in a regular size bowl. So, everything is looking good so far, the waiter even brought us another loaf of bread and butter to eat while waiting on our main meals. The main meals were the disappointment. First of all, for some reason I just expected a larger portion of spaghetti for six bucks a pop... Also, I suppose its my fault for not specifying, but the default spaghetti is that regular big noodles that we all ate in high school. By now I'm used to getting angel hair whenever I order anything, but I suppose I should have asked. The sauce itself was adequate, but tasted like high school cafeteria meat sauce. So, Da Vinci's in Williamstown is still the best spaghetti I've had at a restaurant. Celeste ordered the Clam sauce spaghetti. She said it was good, but she was sure that the "clams" were actually just scallops in disguise, and since she grew up next to the ocean, I'll trust her judgment on that one. For desert we ordered the 12 layer chocolate cake, which was actually pretty big, and pretty good. All in all, I'd say I would go there again, but probably in a group next time. The lack of sophistication in their entrees makes the warehouse a decent but not good place for a romantic dinner.

Before we went to the warehouse, we went to walmart. Last year I bought celeste a watch for her birthday and a week ago it stopped working. The employee told me that they couldn't fix the watch and we could either replace it or just take the money. They didn't have the same watch, but a very similar one, so we traded it in. However, before purchasing it, it needed to be adjusted. It took us an hour to adjust the little moving pin. The culprit turned out to be a faulty design in the watch itself. There was a small raised part that prevented us from snapping the pin into the holes. So, eventually we took a flathead screwdriver and a hammer and pounded the raised part down, then the pin snapped in like magic.

I doubt I'm going to work much on the website this weekend, too much academia to catch up on. I took the first two business midterms last week and got Bs in both of them. I really need to get all As this quarter to raise my GPA back to the 3.7 mark. It fell from there to 3.68 last quarter.

I have received no word on my grad school application or my scholarship application, and celeste has yet to hear from the nursing department.

In other news, celeste started working for the disability services department last week. It seems like a boring job, but its money.

 

January 25th 2003

If you want to see what I've been doing with the digital camera, email me your yahoo ID because I put the stuff in a private folder in my yahoo briefcase.

Tail light update: They are shipping the next pair on February 17th... The delay is due to the fact that they are going to have someone check the lights to see if they are broken or not before shipping this time. Although....jeez...how slow doe the people walk there (or how BIG can that warehouse be?)?

I'm a psycho, so I've started redesigning the website again. This time I'm going for a totally minimalist approach. I'm also going to commit to a no-nonsense host. I've seen some cheap hosts already, but if anyone has any cheap ones to tell me about, send me an email.

As I stated about a month ago, when I switched my hard drive over the "new" motherboard I had to reinstall XP and it destroyed all my less than legal software registration. I recovered a few programs already, but it looks like dreamweaver won't be coming back (or at least any time soon). I downloaded the free trial of MX, but that runs out on Thursday, so I don't know how I'll update this page in the future.....we'll see....

Out of college, money spent
See no future, pay no rent
All the money's gone, nowhere to go
Any jobber got the sack
Monday morning, turning back
Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go
But oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go
Oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go
Nowhere to go

January 14th 2003

I'm now taking 20 credit hours and working 25 hours a week, that doesn't leave a whole lotta free time. I'm trying to find a job that pays better so I can work less and at least make the same amount, but nobody is hiring for anything except telemarketing right now.

Well, here is an update on the digital camera fiasco... I called the company a bunch of times, always hanging up after being on hold for over 20 minutes. So, Wednesday, I just stayed on hold, put the phone on speakerphone and went about my day. After about 45 minutes, some fool picked up the phone. I told him what happened (where is my camera!?!) and he told me "uh...our tracking number machine is down and your package was shipped last thursday." Less than an hour later I got an email from them with a tracking number and a NEW ORDER number. When I checked the tracking number at fedex.com it was just as I suspected, they had only given my package to fedex AFTER I CALLED, not last thursday. Apparently they were just going to sit on my money and hope I would never call and complain. So, they sent it second day delivery instead of the regular ground shipping. Both the camera and the new tail-lights came on Friday. The camera is great, incredible clarity and detail blah blah blah. A christmas gift from mom/dad, so, thanks guys! The same can't be said about the tail-lights however as they arrived BROKEN AGAIN! We called crutchfield and they are sending new ones to us AGAIN, but this time checking at the warehouse to see if they are broken prior to shipping out. The thing that gets me is, they are shipping these big pieces of glass....but no "fragile" stamping anywhere on the box...

The lights costed less than $100 because I got the other $100 from celeste's insurance company (hail damage), but this is a long time to just sit and wait for something to show for the money, not to mention it was supposed to be a CHRISTMAS PRESENT...remember that christmas thing...about three weeks ago...good thing I didn't try to order them and suprise her...

I'm turning in my application for the OSU Masters program tomorrow and Celeste turned in her OSU Nursing school application Friday, so wish us both luck. OSU is notorious for making quick decisions and then waiting 6 months to tell anybody about it though, so it may be a while before we find anything out.

Happiness is to give back
Love one another, have respect
Give more to receive less
Give life, soul and fire

Using people like they are tools
Treating them like they're just fools
Always quiet but I know what you do
God knows and you will too...

Give more to receive more
Give life, soul and fire

January 7th 2003

The quarter started yesterday and I waltzed into the art office to finally find the answers to my burning questions. YES, I did get my thesis project approved. YES, I can graduate with distinction if I complete the project. YES, I did get funding, $800 in fact. However, they said I probably wouldn't see any of the money until spring quarter because they use it to pay tuition, and my tuition has already been received for this quarter. I also found out that I only have to keep up a 3.3 GPA to do the thesis project. Although, I obviously can't graduate Summa Whatever with a 3.3, so I'm hoping to raise my faltering GPA back up to a 3.7 (it took a .02 hit after fall quarter).

In other news, for christmas I ordered celeste some of those clear "euro" altezza tail lights because one of the tail lights was broken in the hail storm two months ago. They came today from UPS and they were BOTH BROKEN. We were very disappointed, but I called crutchfield up and they are sending out replacements today. Now we have to find a UPS pick-up point though to send the others back... On the same day that I ordered the lights, I ordered the digital camera. Now, I didn't order it from crutchfield I ordered it from www.buydig.com, which had numerous accreditations attesting its validity (including the BBB seal). Buydig took the money (quite a chunk of change...) from my bank account on the 2nd, but I still have yet to receive even the tracking number on my package... Now whenever I call any of the numbers on the site I get hung up on automatically. I filed a complaint with the BBB this morning, so we'll see what happens. It also makes me worry, if those lights can come broken...what about the delicate lens in the camera....

Well, now I've got homework to do before going to class for 4 hours and then work for another 6.

Bow Bells say goodbye to the last train
Over the river they all go again
Out into leafy nowhere
Hope someone's waiting out there
For them

 

January 1st 2003

Jesus, ok its 2003 now. I couldn't update this site for a month because all of a sudden my computer decided to commit suicide. I finally got it up and running, with some of Jon's old parts yesterday. When it started back up...it didn't start...I had to totally re-install windows. That tore up my whole system. All my settings were destroyed, IE favorites lost, all my un-legal software doesn't work... I'm updating this site now by using macromedia's free 30-day trial version of dreamweaver MX.

Christmas came and went. I'm working all the time, don't think I'll do that next christmas as it SUCKS SO MUCH! I got lots of good stuff for christmas. Dvds, digital camera, hand knitted afghan, tv for my studio/art room...etc.

I have a lot of new artwork from last quarter to put on the site, but it might take awhile due to the fact that #1 I have to get slides done #2 I have to go to mom and dad's to scan the slides #3 I have to make the new boxes in photoshop #4 photoshop hasn't worked since I restarted windows #5 I have to build the new jpegs into the existing website #6 it takes time to load all those jpegs onto the geocities crappy servers

Can't wait until friday to watch the buckeyes stick it to miami....that'll be good.

December 6th 2002

Well...As you heard, I went the geocities route. then I quickly found out that geocities has a teeny tiny bandwidth limit, so my site gets shut down a lot due to the fact that its all graphics. I'm seriously considering "professional" hosting now. Its only 5-10 bucks a month, and I won't have to worry about any of this silly crap every again.

The tenth week of the quarter wrapped up today. Seems like the quarter went fast, but thats probably because this was the first quarter in college that I actually had a job. Everything is done with except for.....ACCOUNTING...ugh...I hate that class. Everyone is telling me its the worst of all the required business minor courses, so I guess its good that I got it over with first.

Got some good news the other day. This isn't official till I get the letter from the art office, but my advisor told me that my honors thesis project was approved AND funding was approved as well. He said I got something like 800 dollars, which is great. Now I don't have to hold back and I can buy all the brushes I really need, more than basic color paints, etc. Of course, nothing is official until I get that letter, so we'll see....

Next weekend, B, Dave, and Grote are coming up here to watch the Lord of the Rings in a good theater and also to visit of course. Dad, I want you to come here and watch the movie with us. You missed the last one, so I'm going to FORCE you to watch it this time.

Eine halbe Tasse Staubzucker Ein Viertel Teelöffel Salz Eine Messerspitze türkisches Haschisch Ein halbes Pfund Butter Ein Teelöffel Vanillenzucker Ein halbes Pfund Mehl Einhundertfünfzig Gramm gemahlene Nüsse Ein wenig extra Staubzucker ... und keine Eier In eine Schüssel geben Butter einrühren Gemahlene Nüsse zugeben und Den Teig verkneten Augenballgroße Stücke vom Teig formen Im Staubzucker wälzen und Sagt die Zauberwörter Simsalbimbamba Saladu Saladim Auf ein gefettetes Backblech legen und Bei zweihundert Grad für fünfzehn Minuten backen und KEINE EIER Bei zweihundert Grad für fünfzehn Minuten backen und Keine Eier ..

November 25th 2002

The site/s are finally up! At long last.... Its not without disappointment though. I called SBC to see when we would get our upgrade disk, and they told me I could just do it online. So, I did. Turns out, the 60MB of webspace I was promised was bogus. I get 600MB, but its in their "briefcase" and the "briefcase can't be used for a server. So, I was forced to go the geocities route... You'll see....

http://boundbytruth.cjb.net

November 24th, 2002

Sunday night I became sick. The illness got worse the next day. I called off work on Monday and suffered through Tuesday. When I showed up on Wednesday they sent me home. On Thursday I went to the crappy student health center (and skipped work that day and friday). They gave me two prescriptions and shoved me out the door without ever giving me a diagnosis. I'm feeling better now, but still not that great.

Didn't end up going to the wedding because I was still too sick on Saturday.

The quarter is winding down (only 8 days of classes before finals) and I'm not ready. I wanted to mail out two of my grad school recommendation forms last saturday, but they are still here. First I couldn't find the address for grad studies (arts), and now we are out of stamps.

"To me, it's like playing street football. Football is the same, no matter what street you play on, what kind of surface."

November 17th, 2002

Did a third mock-up of the intro page over the weekend based on sketches I made in class a week before. I couldn't figure out how to get the layout right, so this time I'm going to try a more circular approach. Hopefully that SBC upgrade disk will come pretty soon so y'all can see what I'm talking about.

B clued me in to a crazy site last Sunday....www.homestarrunner.com

Caught the alien saga documentary on AMC wednesday night. Then the next morning I took an accounting midterm and this obviously ill girl sat right next to me. She was coughing and sneezing all over the place, but I had already started the exam so I couldn't move, now I feel like I'm coming down with something...

Bought the star wars DVD friday.

Last Sunday there was a terrible hailstorm with hail the size of golf balls. There are dents all over the car, and the left tail light has a hole and a crack running all the way through it. We are trying to get around to get an estimate, but nowhere is open late on the weekdays. We wanted to do it Saturday, but we couldn't make it around to more than one (to get different prices) before they closed. They all close around noon, and they are all far from our apartment (and each other). The first one we went to didn't exist anymore even though it was in the phone book, and then the other ones closed before we could get there.

Jeff will be over for dinner tonight and we'll discuss how we are getting to the wedding next weekend. We will probably just give him a ride, and we will probably just make a brief stop in Athens at your house, B. It is unclear what day or hour we will leave though.

"I couldn't see the ball. It got up in the lights and I said, 'I can't see it,'''

Nobember 9th, 2002

Buckeyes stopped the spoilermakers, and the aggies crashed the okies' party. Now the Bucks are sure to have the #2 spot IN EARNEST, and all we have to do is beat Illinois and Michigan to trounse Miami and get the National Championship (Miami stumbled against WVU earlier this season...WVU!!).

Mom and dad came up today to watch the game. After the game we tried to go to the cheesecake factory for dinner, but they said there was going to be a 2-hour wait, so we went to chipotle. I must say, chipotle was a little crappier than expected, La Bamba is much better. Saw one of the new Z's outside of PF Changs, look a lot better in person than on TV.

We got a new fridge last tuesday, the last one was about 30 years old and really really sucked. The old one was jam packed, then when we moved it all into the new one, it looked BARE, thats how big the size difference was...

Mom brought a little clipping from the newspaper. Its not a suprise to me, and I'm sure it won't be for y'all (B-stylin' there). Anyway, instead of scanning the article, I'll just type it out:

"Man charged in shooting incident on Wednesday

Authorities charged a Marietta Route 2 man on Wednesday with several counts relating to a drug induced incident at his home. Joshua R. Busch, 21, was charged with possession of drugs, drug abuse, weapons under disability and using a weapon while under the influence of drugs. Chief Deputy Larry Mincks said Busch started hallucinating about 3 p.m. while under the influence of cocaine, and thought he was being attacked. Mincks said Busch was subdued by his brother and another man after he fired a sniper rifle once inside his residence and twice at his brother's car. No one was injured as a result of the incident. Mincks said a toxicology report indicated there were several different types of drugs in Busch's system. Busch is being held in the Washington County jail in lieu of $23,500 bond."

November 3rd, 2002

Went to my supervisor Josh's halloween party friday, he scared the crap out of me because with a long black wig and coat (and hat) he looked like Brian. He was supposed to be silent Bob, but in a dark room he was the spitting image of a 1998 Brian Palmer.

already the sixth week of the quarter, but it feels like it should be over already.

Missed the exciting part of the game. If that ever happens again, you guys are going to listen to me and come here, there's no reason you should have to change your plans. The purdue game starts at noon this weekend, so when are you coming? Aaron and Candy (they came with Clare that one time to your house) are coming that morning and staying the night, but don't let that affect our/your plans (and thats an order!).

nothing else for now..time to get to work...

Eating snow flakes with plastic forks, And a paper plate of course, you think of everything
Short love with a long divorce, And a couple of kids of course
They don't mean anything, Live in trailers with no class
goddamn I hope I can pass high school means nothing
Taking heartache with hard work, Goddamn I am such a jerk, I can't do anything
And I shout that you're all fakes, And you should have seen the look on your face
And I guess that's what it takes, When comparing your bellyaches
And it's been a long time, Which agrees with this watch of mine
And I guess that I miss you, and I'm sorry if I dissed you

October 27th 2002

Well, I ran around on my bike in the rain all morning on Friday, but my proposal got turned in. they say I'll be notified (although they are not sure how) in early december.

Since I finished up so much crap on friday, I decided to take a little time out and work on something I'd been meaning to get to for a long time. I know some people that look at my website aren't in college and don't have high speed connections. So, I wanted to design a faster loading version of the site when V4 goes online. I did most of the photoshop work on Friday (scrapping an earlier simpler design I made a month ago) and then did the dreamweaver work on Saturday while watching the game (in-between biting my nails of course!).

While talking to my dad today he reminded me about my mom's birthday (october 21st). I was so caught up in everything last week I completely forgot to call. So, sorry mom.

While stretching a canvas yesterday my stapler broke. This was the second one in a year to break down. So, I bought a bigger one ....

well, gotta do laundry and finish stretching that canvas, over and out

"It's funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can't afford the music. I'm not condoning downloading music for free. I don't think that's really fair, but I understand it. If you brought CD prices back down to $8.98, you would solve a lot of the industry's problems. "

-Tom Petty

 

 

October 24th, 2002

I think this has been the most stressful week of my life, and it isn't over yet. All week I've been meeting with my advisor rehashing my proposal for the thesis project. Its due tomorrow, but it probably won't be done (even though I think I'll be making the fifth revision since tuesday tonight). It cost me a whopping $80 to get slides done for this and my idea probably won't even get approved...

I may put a new update up on Saturday because this one is so short. The thesis proposal is due tomorrow as well as a large painting that I haven't finished yet. I'm out of time...

over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition leaving opportunities behind.
Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come.

October 17th, 2002

About six months ago I "sold" a piece of my digital work to a guy who had seen it on the internet and wanted to use it on his site. He was in the process of developing a site for artists and designers. I just found out today that he used the piece instead on another site. The site isn't finished, but there is a flash intro, and then a page where you can sign up for their mailing list. The page will serve two purposes when done. It will be the page for a book that will be published soon called "Ultimate Jujitsu" and it will serve as a meeting place for Jujitsu students/masters/enthusiasts. They will also have an online (I'm assuming they'll sell Jujitsu materials and the book). I have been assured that once revenue begins trickling in, it will trickly down to me. I'm just glad my work will be on such a visible platform. The website can be accessed here. The flash animation was not done by me, but the static image you see on the eventual page is all mine, the only changes are the obvious quotes and text fields and such, and instead of "shinowara.com" it used to say "Orange." Other than that, everything you see is totally mine.

I met with my advisor yesterday and he is pushing me to do an honors thesis project. Its a good idea, so I'm going to try it. The only problem is, the application is due next friday and there is a lot to do on it (including making slides and writing a 5 page paper). Also, I spoke to the Art History office today and they told me that if I take one more grad level art history course I'll be able to put "Art History Minor" on my diploma.

I picked up a grad school application as well, but its not due till january, so I'm forgetting about it for now to focus on the problems at hand.

 

In the next world war
In a jackknifed juggernaut
I am born again

In the neon sign
Scrolling up and down
I am born again

In an interstellar burst
I am back to save the universe

In a deep deep sleep of the innocent
I am born again

In a fast german car
I'm amazed that I survived
An airbag saved my life

In an interstellar burst
I am back to save the universe

 

October 14th, 2002

Today was the first day that I really tried to plan out how to use the hours between work and bedtime, and I think I was much more productive today (although I didn't accomplish all my goals). I am seriously overweight now. I need to lose at least 30 pounds, I'm trying to throw in some dumbell (I bought a 35 pound one a few weeks ago) lifting between studying...

A certain Airman (or soon to be anyway) informed me that he is trying to snatch up a competitive position that just opened up. He wanted to be a pilot until he found out that the Force frowns on color-blind (think red-green here people) flyboys. So, our B might be the next great Navigator (think Goose from top gun). I wish him luck and I'll keep the rest of you up to date as soon as I find out anything.

The blistering cold wind we longed for all summer finally arrived this morning. I'll have to savor every teeth clattering second of waiting for the bus early in the morning, after all, it will be over "soon."

Mom, (and dad) I asked Mike (my boss) about those tickets today. He said he still had to talk to his family and see if anyone had claimed them yet. He said he would probably know by Thursday. I'm thinking the Minnesota game is going to be an easier catch than the other M, but we'll see.

The day is coming when the prophecy will come true, Dolly Trauma's full length disc is being furiously mixed down by (I assume) Josh and Jeff. Both of them graduated this past summer and so recording resumed and is now finished. Read their info on their site here. Also, here is part of the email Jeff sent me this week.

".....the album is damn near finished. hold on...it's
coming. ;) i graduated this summer, as did josh and ted so we are good to
go. just keep an eye on the site for updates..."

Saw the new Nirvana video "You know you're right" on M2 today. Good thing we switched to americast instead of that BS Time Warner cable that doesn't even HAVE M2...

Anyway, I thought the song was ok, but the vocals had hints of touching up from crappy demos (think "free as a bird" vocals). I wonder why they didn't release D7 (so what if its a cover?!), or Marigold, or any of the other songs Original Gangster Napster users purloined. Apparently the self titled album will only have one new song (the aforementioned one), and a list that seems to say "greatest hits." MTV lists the tracks as:

01 . You Know You're Right
02 . About A Girl
03 . Been A Son
04 . Silver (a typo by a Ricky Martin fanboy working for MTV I'm sure)
05 . Smells Like Teen Spirit
06 . Come As You Are
07 . Lithium
08 . In Bloom
09 . Heart-Shaped Box
10 . Pennyroyal Tea
11 . Rape Me
12 . Dumb
13 . All Apologies
14 . Man Who Sold The World, The

I think this is a tragic waste....there is so much unreleased Nirvana material. Are we to believe that the years long legal battle between Love and Grohl/Novaselic was over this one song. Let me remind you that this song is not the cream of the crop as far as their as yet unreleased material goes. I would imagine they will release this to see how much interest there is (although EVERYONE IN THE WORLD ALREADY HAS THE ORIGINAL RELEASES OF THESE SONGS), then if they sell a solid 15 mill they will open the floodgates and release a raging sea of unheard material.....at least I hope they will do that...

Why are there no good movies coming out any more? I can list the movies I've seen this year on one hand, and I could still lope off a few in a woodshop accident before starting count. Hollywood is just sending us a long string of crap with a few pearls eaten by accident that couldn't be bludgeoned by the system before reaching us. Lets see...Star Wars-ground breaking effects made it worth it....Black Hawk Down-the best (and most realistic) war movie since Saving Pvt. Ryan...and Minority Report-special effects were just the icing on the superb suspense thriller cake (that proved that Cruise CAN act...sometimes). I didn't mention LOTR because I saw that last year. In fact, LOTR (the 2 towers) is the only movie I'm looking forward to until the Matrix 2 comes out next SUMMER.

Well, I've gone below the feet, so I must end my tirade short of its entirety. --OH one last thing, I heard a horribly mangled version of Ring of Fire used in an applebees radio commercial the other day...just hidious...an 11 measure verse and then misplaced chorus. I'd vote for extending the copyright law for another 20 years if it would prevent disasters like that.

you'll be given love, you'll be taken care of
you'll be given love, you have to trust it

maybe not from the sources you've poured yours into

maybe not from the directions you are staring at

twist your head around, it's all around you
all is full of love, all around you

all is full of love, you just ain't receiving
all is full of love, your phone is off the hook
all is full of love, your doors are all shut
all is full of love

October 7th, 2002

My primitive patch (glue-gun and masking tape...stop laughing B, Aaron, dad...everybody!) job didn't do the trick for my bike tire problem (see previous post below). So, we went to wal-mart last night (sunday) and I bought a new tube and a new tire. The tube said it was 26 inches (which is what I needed) but it looked far bigger than the tire. I put it all on and inflated it anyway, I noticed then that there was a bulge in one part. On one part I hadn't properly placed the tire over the tube (with the tube all the way inside). When I tried (in vain) for an hour to fix the problem I accidentally punctured the tube. So, I gave up and took it to the bike repair shop after work (and after we ate dinner at Mark Pi's). The tire and tube at walmart cost me almost 14 bucks, the "repair" fee and the tube was less than ten bucks at the shop. So, we'll see if I make it on time for my accounting quiz tomorrow.

Mr. Montes let me know today that he will be graduating with a degree in behavioral science next christmas...B will be graduating in the spring and was making me feel like a lazy loser till I heard from tbyte.. Speaking of Byron, for those of you not in the know, Byron is going to be working for the Air Force after graduation and hopes to be stationed in the Intelligence Department (department? sector?) in Italy.

Speaking of T-byte, I've been asked to provide a detailed description of the TOOL concert I attended in august. I was going to reply, but then I figured there were other people (you know who you are) who wanted to see TOOL on that tour but didn't get to. So, for you unfortunate lads, here goes:

We (Aaron Glover accompanied my on this endeavor) arrived in Cleveland only a few minutes before traffic hit a dead stop on the road leading into the heart of the city. We found a parking spot for five bucks a few blocks from the complex. Neither of us had attended an event at the field or the arena and it was interesting to notice that one could see down into jacobs field from the entrance to the Gund. I had brought two apples to eat as having skipped dinner I was sure to be hungry later. Upon entering I was stripped of my apples, I guess they thought I'd want to eat a $5 cup of beer instead (?).

As usual the opening band despite having talented members, sucked profusely. Mike Patton babbled unintelligible syllables and screamed like a little girl over and over before Tomahawk finally left the stage. I'm getting tired of TOOL letting every single one of their friends open for them EXCEPT THE MELVINS (yes I know the melvins did open for them occasionally last year). Danny joined them on-stage for a song, but it didn't improve the garbage that came from the rest of them.

After waiting the standard 30-45 minutes after the opening band, the lights went down. Two large projection screens showed the "circle of eyes" image from the Lateralus cd. They were shot from two projectors and that would go out of sync every few seconds to convey the illusion of motion. A strange sound started somewhere far off and kept growing. It was that throaty monk-like growl we've heard before at TOOL shows. After maybe five minutes of this, TOOL took the stage and ran smack into the extended (opening) version of Sober. That would be the only song from the first two albums they would play the whole night. The setlist was virtually identical to last years tour, except for the omission of Opiate and the inclusion of the extended "Danny Carey Show" version of Triad.

Maynards box was now outfitted with a spinner so we could see his crooked dancing from all sides. The video was virtually the same as last year with a few changes, but everything still had the same art footage/computer animation vibe. Getting to see a high resolution version of the video for Parabola was nice though. Also, during Parabola two giant recreations of the grape(?) clusters that pestered Tricky in the video floated behind the stage. During the whole show behind the stage were different GIANT tapestries that looked different in different lights. At one point six different tapestries were unfurled hanging from the lighting apparatus above. Each of them depicted a different stage of Alex Gray's "anatomy" picture. Also fixed to the lighting were glowing wires that were made to look like lighting, and they would zap on and off in correlation with the zaps and zings in -Ions.

During the whole show a speaker was apparently blown, but the sound techs did the best they could and had it sounding decent by the time my favorite live song Reflection was played. Adam had problems with his guitar or amp during the first few songs and could be seen getting very irate with the sound guy to the left of the stage (we were sitting close enough to see the bands faces). Maynard stripped down to his bikini as usual. Adam just kind of swayed back and forth. Justin was jumping around and flailing his hair, and Danny, well...Danny deserves a week off after every single show...

The thing I really wish you two (you know who you are) could have seen was the extended version of Triad. It was basically just one big amazing drum solo...unbelievable...But, you guys shouldn't feel too bad because all and all, I'd say the show we went to last time around was a little better.

I could write a lot more, but I have an accounting quiz at 8:30 tomorrow that I haven't studied for yet...

I scramble to reach higher ground, some order and sanity, or something to comfort me. So I take what is mine, and hold what is mine, suffocate what is mine, and bury what's mine. Soon the water will come and claim what is mine. I must leave it behind, and climb to a new place now. This ground is not the rock I thought it to be. Thought I was high, and free. I thought I was there divine destiny. I was wrong. This changes everything. The water is rising up on me. Thought the sun would come deliver me, but the truth has come to punish me instead. The ground is breaking down right under me. Cleanse and purge me in the water.

 

 

 

October 5th, 2002

Ok folks, here is the deal- Finally had time to call SBC/Ameritech/Yahoo...whatever. I found out that the moron that I was talking to when I signed up for DSL signed us up for the wrong thing. They should have signed us up for the new "Yahoo DSL", but instead they signed us up for the old "Ameritech DSL." What that means is...in order to get the Yahoo we had two choices...

Choice #1 package the modem up and send it back to ameritech, then disconnect service, then order the new service (that we thought we were getting in the first place), then wait till we get that new modem/service delivered. All in all, under that choice we could be without internet for a month or so.

Choice #2 stay with what we have now and wait because Ameritech is switching all the old accounts over to the Yahoo DSL before January.

So, we chose choice number 2 because we don't want to be without internet again. What that means is that for now...we only have 2 MB for a webpage. So, when our upgrade disc arrives (sometime in the next three months) the site will become operational, but for now it'll just have to be this page, which I will update every week just like I did for the last site.

Been awhile since the last update on the old page, a lot has happened.

Moving really sucked, it took us four or five days to completely move, many many 18 hour days hauling heavy stuff up and down stairs. That was a month ago. Also a month ago I started work at the book depository. UTS offered me a computer center job last week, but only for 3 hours a week so I had to turn it down. Right now, the depository will let me work up to 30 hours a week if I want (right now I'm doing about 20 a week).

My eye infection came back AGAIN so I went to my old allergy doctor (which was ironically always in Columbus). He gave me Patenal...It might have done the trick...I dunno.

The betta fish that mom got Celeste for christmas died (I think of some sort of infection), so we put the crayfish in the tank and then bought a blue cichlid and two catfish for the smaller (8 gallon) tank which now resides in the bedroom.

Mom bought me a new mountain bike (the last one was hit by the bus (?) in front of townshend hall), I rode it to class on Thursday only to come out and find the back tire completely flat from a very suspicious puncture wound. I found a sporting goods store in Cleveland that will sell tires for six bucks a piece, so I made a primitive patch job that I hope will hold until we go up there for halloween.

Two weeks ago, we went to mom and dad's and dad gave Celeste a handgun "class" ending in target practice. Celeste hit a bullseye on her last shot (15th bullet).

This quarter is already beating the crap out of me, up at 7 every day for four hours of class and then work till 5:30....spose it could be work though, could be in ROTC and gettin' up at 6 like some people I know.

I finally raised my GPA up to the 3.7 mark after summer quarter, I also found out that if I just take two more grad level art history classes, I can tack on an art history minor to my diploma (to go with the BFA with honors -Magna Cum Laude- and the business minor).

I've been trying to go to bed at 10pm now, and its almost 2am now...so I'm feeling dead. A lot more has happened in the month I've been offline, but I'm too tired to write any more....

goodbye...

Trembling at the thought of feeling.

Wide awake and keeping distance.

I am frightened to.

Wide awake and keeping distance from my soul.

I am scared like you.