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spud

:: 2012 17 December :: 3.15pm

day 2
i think it's interesting that they chose november as the month to do this thing. not that there's a better or worse month to do it. but there are a lot of things happening in the month of november. thanksgiving, of course, which i suppose is somewhat helpful. any month with a holiday would probably be good, so long as you're getting time off of work or school ... whatever you may have going. but there's a lot of stuff going on. i didn't participate in halloween at all this year, and i'm still overwhelmed. some halloween parties are still happening this weekend. two holidays in one month, what?! that shit is crazy. more importantly, it's a presidential election year. sure, there's an election every year in november, but being a nationwide vote, it always draws a lot more attention and time. makes me curious why they chose november.

i suppose i should get my take on the election situation squared away. i have always hated news media. always. not that i think they are an unimportant thing, or that we shouldn't have them. but... i just innately dislike them. it pains me to say it as a film kid (i initially declared my major as broadcasting, but changed to film halfway through my freshman year based on the course offerings in those respective programs at my school), but i despise what they have become. not all news is bad. it's good to know what is going on in the world. that has long since (apparently) ceased to be the focus of your typical news station. fox, i'm talking to you. i hate to single out fox, because they have such direct political connections, which is what most people typically infer from such statements. i'm not anti-republican/conservative/whatever. i'm against broadcasting things that aren't news as if they are news. nbc, you are guilty of the same crime, although i find your broadcasts slightly more palatable because they tend to align more with my personal views. but i'm still not going to watch. you are all assholes. asses that disagree with each other, have an undeserved amount of popularity amongst the masses, and abuse that celebrity to your own ends. i hate it, so fuck you. as much as i might be socially pressured to be ‘in the know,' i have found that i am far happier as a human being when my finger is furthest from the pulse. this is occasionally to my detriment, yes, but at least i don't have to stomach all the other bullshit that everyone else gobbles up. i can live my life blissfully free from the ravages of supposed intelligence. the expectations are lower. i don't feel that knowledge of current happenings, the latest dish, what have you, should be indicative of your intellectual capacity. plenty of smart people watch that shit. plenty of stupid people do too. some watch for the drama (‘omg, mitt romney kissed a baby today, while obama was playing golf!'). some watch for the shit disguised as real news (‘obama has been fighting a bipartisan congress for the entirety of his presidency, and has still made astounding progress; whereas, romney is a male chauvinist pig'). they don't care what you think, if you like them, or what the truth is. they are television companies. the only fucking thing they care about is THAT YOU ARE WATCHING. that's it. no more, no less. companies selling products and services buy air time, to sell those products and services. the larger a number of people that see those advertisements, the more money the company is willing to pay for that air time. that's it.

it makes sense, from a business standpoint. the studio. the cameras. the lights. the crew. the host. the sound booth (with microphones, cables, compressors, mixing boards, headphones, sound dampening, amplifiers, PRE-amplifiers, sound processors, computer hardware, software, analog to digital converters, the list goes on. i'm a sound guy, but no audio-visual equipment worth its salt is cheap. we're talking quality, largely based on hollywood paychecks. there's plenty more pricey stuff that i lumped into ‘cameras'. bonus points if you know what the hell grip and electric means). naturally, none of this equipment or talent is going to come free, and you have to pay for that shit somehow. that involves management. and i imply in that upper management. maybe that's why i don't like the news. it has been left in the hands of businessmen and salesmen, who frankly don't give a fuck, so long as they have a healthy bottom line. any, and i mean ANY salesman would gladly sell you his firstborn, if that's what seals the deal. there's a worse part. he will say that his first attempt at offspring has all of these awesome selling points. he will never unhand the child he sold. no, hell no. he will give you the the down syndrome infant that the nurses accidentally dropped a few times. it's all about the money he wants you to give him.

firstborns aside, it is that willingness that is telling; unsettling. they are willing to do whatever it takes, for the money. it is all about money. and i resent that immensely. i is sooper bad at business. i could never be a salesman. why should that mean that i don't deserve to be able to survive comfortably?

it is unimaginably bad to be living in a country that is being run by businessmen. i mean, if the ‘news' show advocating them costs such astronomical amounts of money, how much must a campaign that pays for that advocacy cost? any politician in this nation is far better off than i am. because they are much better at doing business. now, for the most part, i can see how business sense could be an admirable quality in a political entity, but is a country nothing but a business? no. it is a culture. the american culture is admittedly young and unfortunately simple. buuuut the pharaohs are gone. the caesars are gone. and they were even shittier people than what our country allows (apparently slavery is GOOD for business....). maybe it's the human condition that we are inescapably impelled toward our own self destruction. still, i have to hope that we can escape. i mean, i won't be able to escape this cultural conditioning, but destruction is bad. i am sorry for my ignorance, i resent that as well, but it's hard to find black friends in a backcountry area (read: not detroit) of michigan. i have put forth a valiant effort, while trying not to seem too interested.

seriously, though. i hate that. most white people have the default reaction of being apologetic. fuck you. slavery is not my fault. your ethnicity is not my fault. nor is mine. if you're upset about ANY skin color, whether it be yours or others', then you should take it up with whatever imperceptible being you believe is in charge of that sort of thing. genetic features of any kind, physiological, psychological, or otherwise, are derivatives of the chromosomes that created that individual. you may have symptomatic propensities that neither you, nor anybody else, can do anything about. why should that be a basis of judgement? as much as people shit on being judgemental, we all are. we can't help it. everyone has their own line in the sand. but seriously, that line came from somewhere. the only thing i am hoping for, is that the line isn't exclusively biological. people can learn from one another, regardless of genetic makeup, and that affects how THEIR BRAINS WORK. i would much rather be judged by how my brain works than how my face looks. so should everyone else. unless they don't want to. y'all's entitled to be idiots. i just won't tolerate you as friends. sorry. honestly, by now, you are probably well on your way to thinking i'm an idiot. i am glad. that means you're ready to grow as a person in a global society. the germans sometimes call this kulturelle unterschiede. embrace cultural differences. try learning what people are before you try to tell them what they should be, for a change. Schadenfreude macht viel spass, aber kulturelle unterschiede sind am besserung.
so, i took three semesters of german. i guess that's out there now. my first car was a 1978/9 volkswagen rabbit. that eventually led to me entering the michigan volkswagen enthusiasts. they're good people, it's cool. for the record, i'm awful at german, although i enjoy it immensely. that should be really, the fundamental point of my argument. i have german heritage. i have spent a small portion of my life studying the culture. yet, i am not a german. i cannot, nor will ever be a german. i don't want to be a german. it just wouldn't feel right. that would be like cheating, or something.

i'm a lot of other things aside from german. so are many other americans with german heritage. but does that heritage also give to them certain tendencies, quirks? how can i be a german descendant exclusively when i also have native blood. far as i know, it's chippewa. and i have this inexplicably weird attraction to women with long, straight, dark, shiny hair. in your face, freud (yet another german. maybe that's why they have weird porn? or should we just blame hitler?) my mom had curly hair, of a shade that i am fairly certain she wasn't even sure of anymore by the time i was born. oedipal complex, my ass.

not that he was entirely wrong. viewing my past relationships objectively, i can see far too many similarities to the behavioral patterns of my mother. if you aren't able to put yourself in my shoes, you might not be able to understand how truly creepifying it is to realize you like chicks that are similar to your mom. i can give you a minute to try and acclimate yourself. seriously, take your time. i don't mind. it's worth a minute to fully comprehend the next step of this developmental process.

so, you've dated some. got laid a couple times. whatever. you can bury that shit as long as you want, but as soon as you've progressed to the long-term type of romantic relationship, you can either realize that she's more like mama than you care to admit, or you can refuse to admit it. delude yourself all you want to, the rest of us are unconvinced. you're doing yourself a favor in acknowledging this.

sort of.

once this realization is made, everything is still totally cool, until the next time you go home and your mom touches you. then it all turns to fuck.

"aww, i missed mom's backrubs. man i really forgot the way she.... uh oh. um, knows how to rub me the right way. that feels wrong now. mom, don't stop. but seriously, stop. it feels TOO good."

and then you go back to the girlfriend, and mom takes a hiatus. AND IT'S EVEN WEIRDER. for months, there's nothing you can do except guiltily indulge yourself in the new physical contact you have acquisitioned. there's always that lingering guilt borne of the constant effort it takes to dispel tu madre from the old chrome dome. but you do it anyway, because you're a dog. whatever it takes. time to shop around for one that's a little less matronly.

good luck.

*

she walked into the room. despite her lack of desire to be there, there she was. yet again another example of how she was unable to say no to basically anyone.

i could be anywhere right now, she thought. i could be at home, relaxing in front of the televison. playing cards with other friends. wasting time on the internet. and yet, here i am, taking a seat at the bar waiting for ella to show up. ella was always late.

it had gotten to the point that she would tell ella to meet her at a place thirty minutes before she actually intended to show up.

i knew ella's syndrome, and planned accordingly. that much, at least, i could accept and happily accommodate. i figure that way i can earn myself some karma. she can't justifiably bitch the one time i hit a bunch of traffic or whatever. so i tolerate her perpetual tardiness.

i might as well order a drink and wait for her eventual arrival, i suppose. can't get too drunk, though. i am sick and tired of those douchebags looking for an easy lay. i often wonder why so many women go to bars looking for men. i mean, i can understand why men go to bars looking for women. there isn't much thought involved on that end of the transaction. but a woman willing to walk into a den of sausages that enjoy booze and pussy, with a subconscious desire for a partner suitable for producing offspring with? i fail to see the potential in that endeavour. if i walk into a bar, i'm not looking for a husband, i'm looking for a drink. thankfully, the guys in the bar are cromagnons just looking to get laid, and are more than happy to shell out drinks accordingly. given the nature of this transaction, however, i intended to pick up my own tab this particular evening.

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spud

:: 2012 1 December :: 12.20pm
:: Music: queen - love of my life

DAY 1
hello, and happy tomorrow, which is actually today now! i'm chris. and basically, i'm going to write whatever i feel like writing. i'm going to try and keep it organized by topic as best i can, but it's probably going to wind up being quite the clusterfuck anyway.

some topics i plan on covering are:
- SCOOTER
- MYSELF
- SMOKING
- ALCOHOL
- WORDS
- MUSIC
- AUTOMOBILES

i work at a hotel, so that might come up as well.

i suppose i should introduce a little bit about myself. you know, all those questions that new people ask you, or old people at family reunions ask you, as the case may be. i went to cedar springs high school, and graduated in 2005. cedar springs is a small town about 17 miles north of grand rapids, michigan. lots of farms. you know, horses and cornfields and shit. sometimes literal, actual shit. it's an art form, being able to tell what types of animal manure they're using to fertilize the fields, which happens in the spring and fall. horse is by far the most pleasant smelling, if poop can smell pleasant. cows are worse than horses, but still not too bad. pigs are pretty rank (they're actually surprisingly cleanly and intelligent animals, but your poop is only going to smell as good as your diet allows, so pig slop is not going to do you any favors). and chickens are downright foul (fowl? see what i did there?). seriously, though, it's bad. chickens suck, even if they and their unborn offspring are delicious. chickens are mean, smelly, loud, disgusting animals. and sometimes, when they get old, they get cankles and start eating their eggs. senile cannibals with smelly poop and unattractive legs = bad. man, fuck chickens.

for advanced techniques, you can start trying to determine the derivation of blended manure. picking out the complex bouquet of horse and cow with a subtle hint of pig on the tail end is a feat nigh on impossible. my uncle is really good at it. then again, he grew up in an even smaller town. hell, they used to raise chickens at home. so i guess over time you could really hone your skills. especially when there's nothing better to do. which is like, all the time.

i haven't been back to cedar much since high school. there really isn't anything there to go back for. i mean, i liked it while i was there. i knew i would never be starting a home there. i knew i would be leaving and going to college. it was not a question. as the eldest grandchild on my fathers side, and being a rather dutiful student, it was an expectation. so i wound up going to GVSU, which is about 17 miles west of grand rapids, michigan (okay, so i just looked it up, and it's only like 12 miles, but humor me, alright?). I had a good time there. met some really cool people. even participated in some really cool projects. and then, in 2009, graduation time came. so i graduated, with my useless B.A. in sound design for film and video. spent a week in europe with a friend. dicked around all summer. you know, things a college graduate would want to do.

there were two primary ways in which i was fucked at this point. first was, i didn't know how to be a big person, work nine to five, all that jazz. the only thing i knew how to do, because i'd spent the last 16 years of my life doing it, was go to school. so i was already at a bit of a loss for what the next inevitable phase was supposed to be in my life. i mean, yeah, get a job, but what job? how? which brings in the other half of me being fucked. in 2009 the world economy saw its biggest recession since the crash of ‘29. and, perfectly, michigan was leading the way with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. fan-fucking-tastic. i'm still struggling with it today, but at least i have a full-time job for now, that doesn't pay what it should, but it's something. and after three years of having nothing but odd side jobs under the table here and there, along with nothing but unemployedness besides, hell - i'll take it.

which brings me to here. i had heard about NaNoWriMo while i was at grand valley, but never participated. i had a friend remind me about it, saying she was going to do it this year, and i should too. so, i am!

scooter is a friend of mine. we are approaching our one year friendshiversary. he is ... interesting, and even though it has only been a year, he hangs out with me like it's his job, so we've been making up for lost time at an alarming rate. which is why he's a perfect topic for this, because not only do we have a lot of fodder for discussion, it's all pretty crazy stuff. like i said, interesting.

i guess you could say we are drug buddies, if you want to be a dick about it.

scooter is what i would call an idiot savant. he can do pretty much anything if you just take a minute and show him how. he plays guitar and can learn a new song in a couple of hours. he'd never played hockey before, but it took me all of 15 minutes to teach him a proper wrist shot. his mind and body are very in tune with one another. he can make a limb go numb with nothing but his brain and a little concentration. he will cry out in pain popping a zit so small that, if i had one of similar caliber, i wouldn't even know it was there. hand-eye coordination and muscle memory are second nature to him. he can focus his eyes to better than perfect vision, and sees things to which i am typically oblivious.

he is extremely affected with attention deficit disorder. yet his brain is so mystical that he can keep up with it and still focus on all of those things at the same time, and retain them indefinitely. i often have trouble keeping up with him, even touched by ADD as i am (with an unsuspectingly marvelous brain, such as it is), and am continually frustrated when he and i both hold me to his standard. the outcome is invariably disappointing. but occasionally i can keep up, which is always refreshing.

i like it, though. i like the challenge. it's fascinating to me just to watch his mind in action. i see glimmers of my own in there at times, and am even more interested to find the unique perspectives and ways of thinking that i had never even considered. but there are plenty of differences as well. i'm blind as a fucking bat. even with my glasses, which i have had since second grade, i can't see shit half the time. i am much better at keeping my trap shut and just listening to the conversation ebb and flow, while he will prattle on incessantly. it's convenient for me for the most part, since we can spend time together, and i don't have to provide much stimulus to the conversation. he pretty much carries it on his own. it's frustrating at times when i'm trying to focus on something, because it takes a lot of concentration on my part, and i can only focus on one thing at a time. as a young child, i would get so thoroughly ensconced in the task at hand, that i would get extremely angry when i was interrupted. i don't get pissed about it as much anymore, and have learned to cope as best i can. sometimes you have to drop what you're doing and come back to it later, because something much more pressing demands your attention. but that doesn't make it any less fucking annoying to me. and he does it constantly, because his brain can keep up with everything, and what the hell is wrong with you, you fucking troglodyte. this is the 21st century. learn to fucking multitask, you piece of shit. at least that's what the voices tell me. but i've tried. i just can't seem to get the hang of it. i'm not optimistic for future success. the trick is going to be finding out how to tell the world to go suck a bag of dicks for a minute while i finish what i'm working on. then i can give them my undivided attention at a future point, yet to be determined. but the world isn't cooperating with me on that front, for the most part. oh well. if one of us is inevitably going to be disappointed, i'll voluntarily take on that mantle. malcontent people pleaser.

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spud

:: 2012 1 December :: 12.57am
:: Mood: chill
:: Music: javon jackson - compared to what

national novel writing month is over!

i did not make much of a showing, myself. less than 10,000 words. but thank you for the support that i'm sure would have availed itself given a more vociferous crowd.

it's okay, though. i accomplished a few other necessary things in the month of november, and this is 7k+ more words than i had in october. so, that's something. i plan to continue working on the project, and expanding what's there so far. hell, by next november i might be ready to actually write a novel. in the meantime, i'm glad to work with what i have. and keep learning how to write. if nothing else, i have learned that i'm not a writer yet. and fiction is really going to be the best way to garner some heavy duty chunks of words.

sorry to phil - and the rest of the world - that dr. sex and the sexy mayor of muscleville do not make any appearances in this material. but i appreciate the fodder they will provide me later. then it will actually be a novel. with like, characters and shit.

in the meantime, let me take you back to where i was 30 days ago:

------------------------------------------------

*WARNING!!! CONTAINS AN OVERABUNDANT PROLIFERATION OF SWEARS!*

THE. beginning.

of a supposed book that i'm writing. a chronic novel. of unknown proportions. i'm at the International House Of Pancakes, and i'm really fucking tired. so, i'm gonna go to bed, and write this shit tomorrow.

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spud

:: 2012 26 November :: 3.01pm

i want ALL of the books.

...

and an infinite amount of time with which to read them and sleep, alternately.

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spud

:: 2012 24 November :: 4.19pm

forever aloneRead more..

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spinder

:: 2012 9 November :: 2.27am

I hate Ayn Rand
/Annoyed ranting/

I have to avoid pointing out on facebook that the concept of going Galt doesn't work if your profession is a register jockey.

Congratulations, you removed yourself from society. We sure will miss you. How the hell will we ever find someone to work the register at 7-11?! By gods the gears of industry are falling down about us as we speak.

/Annoyed ranting/

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phil-himself

:: 2012 8 November :: 1.31pm

I'm gonna corner the unicorn grease market, tell you what

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spinder

:: 2012 7 November :: 2.25am

Ergo,
(a week ago)
1. Hurricane sandy was sent by god, because of the homo-gays.

(just now)
2. Obama only won because of hurricane sandy.


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phil-himself

:: 2012 4 November :: 12.42pm

Big challenges right now, but fire strengthens steel.

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skife

:: 2012 3 November :: 9.24am

done with sprint, got a call yesterday saying i start at the tool n die place monday at 9am

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spud

:: 2012 30 October :: 7.02pm

Final update
2 days until nano! at which point, i will probably not know what to do with myself. be super busy? write a lot? guess we'll find out.

wrote another thing for work. they seriously keep asking me to write them. i guess it's a good thing. i mean, i enjoy writing, and i'm getting paid to do it. regardless, i had a lot of fun with this one.

theater room guide

i shall end with some lyrics (because i so rarely post them):

here's the truest thing i've ever known
the heart is just a muscle with a rhythm all its own
it doesn't stop when you decide not to move on
the heart knows nothing of your love or of your loss
so life just keeps on ticking by
compelled by instinct to survive
and love's the only thing worth being alive for

- how to rest, the crern werves

well, at least it explains my lack of will to live. i mean, i don't want to die. but i don't have much love to live for.

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spinder

:: 2012 29 October :: 8.15pm

159v 154q or 590v 690q
If I wanted to get into a good program in the humanities my GRE score would be awesome.

On the other hand a 690 is like the bare minimum for anything I actually want to do in the sciences. Although for biology they might focus on the high verbal scores to offset the lower quant. scores.

They say a GRE score is not important if you have lots of other crap to balance it out. But then, my GPA is average (3.1) and I can only think of 1 person to even ask for a letter.

That being said, I've never really considered getting a degree in the humanities. I imagine I could get into anything that doesn't have a strict connection to undergrad crap.

I'm supposed to be a mad scientist, that was my dam calling.
I suppose I can just be an alcoholic.

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spud

:: 2012 27 October :: 1.39pm
:: Mood: working

NaNoWriMo
so, cats and kittens, i will be updating this both less and more than normal in the coming month. i probably won't have a bunch of fun webcomics for you. i definitely won't have any stupid tangents about my personal life (i've been pretty uninteresting of late - okay, my entire life - anyway). what i will have, instead, are excerpts from the 'novel' i will be writing.



i don't know what characters will be in it. i don't know what it will be about. i don't know where it takes place. i don't know if i will be using omniscient third-person narration or not. i do know that i'm gonna try like hell to at least finish it. it will not be pretty. it will not be good. it will be a rough first draft to refine in the following months.

wish me luck. i sure as hell will need it.

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spinder

:: 2012 21 October :: 6.33pm

For being a college town this place seems very desolate most of the time.
In the past summer break always started to get very very old near the end. So much that I generally ended up waiting for school to start.

Summer break ended like 7 weeks ago, and I'm still stuck waiting to leave this god forsaken place and find purpose in life.

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spud

:: 2012 21 October :: 6.35pm

jesus rollerblading christ

you have no idea how many times i've wanted this button. hold on to your privates, ladies and gentlemen!

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