I've recently rediscovered McSweeneys and it's still as wonderful as it ever was. A tidbit:

NEW YEAR'S
RESOLUTIONS.
BY TEDDY WAYNE AND GREG WAYNE

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Get into jazz

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HAAAAAAAAA! Link.

On another note, I'm moved back in with the parents. Ohgodohgodohgod. No job in sight yet...it's going to be a month or two at least...if I'm lucky. Lord knows I'm applying to enough jobs.

I've made a decision. January 2010, I'm doing the Disney marathon. Training starts unofficially tomorrow, officially next Sunday. I'm saying this because public declaration leads to accountability leads to motivation. I'm going to need all of the motivation I can get because it's quite a long road (literally! HAH!) ahead of me. Hopefully, periodic updates will follow this. Tomorrow will be an easy run; I'm shooting for three miles. I haven't been on my normal running schedule these past few weeks because of school ending, the holidays, and moving, but with the new year comes new motivation, so tomorrow and the rest of the week is about warming up to my training schedule. Next week I'm doing 14 miles total...completely doable.

I know I can do this marathon if I stick to the training. I have to stay motivated. It's easy to get bogged down and lose focus, I just have to NOT get bogged down and lose focus. If I work hard, I will achieve my goal (thank you Ayn Rand!), it's as easy as that.

Can you tell I'm trying to talk myself into it? :)

I've been lazy about posting, I know. But here it is. The obligatory "I've graduated" post. No more formal education. Apparently, I've learned all I need to know about finance to earn a degree. I feel like it should have been harder, although while I was in school it seems dreadfully difficult. The question is...what am I supposed to do now?! Well, I'm currently job hunting and at the end of January I get to move back in with my parents until I find a self-supporting job. Thrilling. So. That's the plan. I'm working at the Service Desk until the end of December just because after that I really AM unemployed. Monies is important.

I keep saying, "Back in college, I..." I can't stop. Because it's PAST TENSE.

The worst part of all this isn't being thrown into the real world and it isn't having no money; it's losing all of my college friends. Some are moving to Nebraska, others just to Panama City, but still, we're all scattering. These are the people who have been my other family for four years. It's just sad. And yeah, the magical Internet will keep us in touch with each other as much as we want, but it's not the same. C'est la vie.

As an aside, I'm talking to a friend from France and he's spending Christmas in Italy. Sigh. I suppose Crestview with the family isn't so terrible but...Italy sure does look nice.

Is that all? I guess so!

So I know it's been about a month since I've posted and I've been seriously busy with school/job interviews, but every now and then you just have to appreciate the little things. This might be the best thing to appear on YouTube ever. It's worth watching all five minutes...I couldn't stop laughing :)

It's before 7am in the morning and I'm posting. I should be getting ready for school but Thursday's are the hardest days.

Obama won! I just hope he can follow through will all his talk and actually make some change for the better. We'll see. I'm upset that Florida passed it's gay marriage ban, although I suppose it was inevitable. It was a bit of a surprise that California passed theirs. And very sad. Blogs all over the internet have more poignant thoughts than I can come up with, so I'll let them do it.

Big interview next week. Eep.

Graduation in five weeks. WHAT?!

I hope I'm ready to be a real person. I think I am.

Oh Discovery Channel...

My oh my, the semester has started indeed. My classes are literally keeping me busy from dawn til dusk. Okay, only on Tuesdays and Thursdays really, but I definitely don't have much down time. I'm not really complaining though. I like being busy. It makes me appreciate my relaxation time more. Classes are ...fully engaging. Two of them are mostly a waste of my life but it must be done. Policy, of course, is consuming my life. It's very comprehensive and I know it's good for me but...it's just so hard. I'm also taking Professional Selling Methods which I'm really enjoying. My professor is a lot of fun and he doesn't use a textbook to teach, he uses classic literature. We just finished On the Road by Jack Kerouac (which I enjoyed, thank you very much) and now we're on to Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut. I like Vonnegut, but I feel like he's almost too easy to read. Next is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, which I'm excited to read but a little scared. I've always been too chicken to try Rand before. I'm sure I'll come out on top :)

And on that note let me proudly announce that my Kindle has been ordered! In 5-10 days I'll be reading away this magically little device. I can't tell you how excited I am! Okay, I guess that's all. I should be doing some homework.

With all the reading I've been doing I've accumulated quite a lot of fun quotes that I like. So for lack of something better to do with them all I'll put them down here!

From Tropic of Cancer:

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

In Europe one gets used to doing nothing. You sit on your ass and whine all day. You get contaminated. You rot.

I've lived out my melancholy youth. I don't give a fuck anymore what's behind me, or what's ahead of me. I'm healthy. Incurably healthy. No sorrows, no regrets. No past, no future. The present is enough for me. Day by day. Today! Le bel aujourd'hui!

Art consists in going the full length. If you start with the drums you have to end with dynamite, or TNT.

Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy.

For weeks and months, for years, in fact, all my left I had been looking forward to something happening, some extrinsic event that would alter my life, and now suddenly, inspired by the absolute hopelessness of everything, I felt relieved, felt as though a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders.

The thing is, never to be too anxious. Everything comes in due time.

Alone, with a tremendous empty longing and dread. The whole room for my thoughts. Nothing but myself and what I think, what I fear. Could think the most fantastic thoughts, could dance, spit, grimace, curse, wail - nobody would ever know, nobody would ever hear.

We [Americans] see things with different eyes. We can't make ourselves over, however much we admire the French. We're Americans and we've got to remain Americans. Sure, I hate those puritanical buggers back home - I hate 'em with all my guys. But I'm one of them myself. I don't belong here. I'm sick of it.


It's funny how much that last quote rang true during my last few weeks in France.

From Foundation:

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

From Stranger in a Strange Land:

Secrecy begets tyranny.

Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.

Weird how two different books have a freakishly similar quote. Anyway, that's my quotes entry.

I don't often do YouTube but The Jaundiced Tumblr had this video up and it's too bizarre/awesome to miss.

April posted this and I couldn't resist. It makes me feel superior :)

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.
There were rules for this, but I changed them. These are my new rules.
1) Bold the ones you've read.
2) Underline the ones you actually liked.
3) Strike out the ones you started but found too fucking boring to finish.
4) If you only read it b/c it was required reading in class, italicize.

( Read more )
Looking over this list makes me realize how poor my education was...only two of these books was required reading for me in school. Sad indeed. Also, Bridget Jones's Diary? REALLY? This makes me want to go back and reread some of these (like Watership Down and Dune) but it also makes me want to read more classics. So much to do, so little time...

Well I'm back from France. I'm all moved into my apartment in Pensacola (finally) and everything is more or less settled. I have no money and that distresses me. I start work on Thursday though, so that's good. Annnnd that's all for now.

Well, I'm in Germany now. I think I'll mostly be posting from my travel blog here from here on in. I also recommend checking out my flickr site occassionally. I'll be in Ameins, France (where I'll be studying for five months) next Friday. Until then it's randomness in Germany. We're going to Hooters tonight (WOOT!) and we haven't quite figured out what's on tap for this weekend. Anyway, read my other blog for more frequent updates, although I'll try to make it over here sometimes too :)

Here's my random happy moment for the day: Cute little old guy walked by the desk in a very bright Christmas sweatshirt and a jingle bell. It seemed odd that a person like him would wear it because he always looks so serious. It gives me the impression that he's actually a very sweet, warm person. I love it when little things make me smile.

I am a decorative, crafty genius. Yes, it's true. Alright, so maybe it's not THAT big of a deal, but it makes me insanely happy. I did a little craft project this morning in hopes of getting something up on our too white walls in the apartment. It turned out very well :)



All for about $35! The idea isn't completely original, but I did have to come up with some creative solutions about materials. Anyway, that's my new dining room wall and I'm quite proud of it.

So, this is about a week late, but my travel journal can be found here for anyone who's interested. That'll probably be where I update until I get back home in June. That is all!

I'm about an hour away from leaving for the airport.  This time tomorrow, I'll be exhausted in Germany!  I'm switching from nervous, to excited, to apathetic.  Well, not so much apathetic anymore, but for a few weeks half the time I didn't even know if I had the energy to go.  But I do.  I definitely do.  I had horrible dreams last night about forgetting things and not making it to the airport in time...let's hope these are not bad omens.  Alright, wish me a bon voyage everyone!

Look what I did!



There's a free tool called the Rasterbator which does all the hard work for you. Dooey already has something like it in her room, but I'm still very amused with it all.

Skipped french lab today. Oh well. I feel like I have a thousand and one things to do but for the life of me I can't remember what they all are. One thing I know is that I'm dead broke. With all the time off of work and the whole not-getting-paid-crap-anyway thing, I have $6 in the ol' banking account. Most of my money has gone to Christmas shopping which I am bringing to a close thank goodness. Still working on my sister's present, still need to figure out what the roommates are getting. I do have a few weeks left. Anyway, my point is, I might have to actually eat ramen for the first time this semester. Bleh. But the semester is almost over! Only about a week left of classes, then finals, then I'm out of here! I shouldn't be aching for the end of this semester as it was really easy and next semester promises to be more difficult.

Ah! Finance soon..peace out!

Back from the G-ville! The game was good, I can't believe Florida won.

I also caught a showing of Alice which was trippy to say the least. Also, I learned how to deal with getting my car towed since...well...my car got towed. So much for eating anytime in the next two weeks.

It was fun to see Gainesville and really experience what a true college campus is. Granted, I was only there for a bit, but I felt I got a slight flavor at least. The great part is that in the end, I'm glad I go to UWF. It would be nice to have an actual college scene with things to do on the weekend that aren't lame, dumpy, or half-hearted, but I don't think I would enjoy going to a big university. I'm glad I picked UWF and it looks like I'll stick it out to the bitter end. I'm too mellow to go to a real live school :) Who cares if we don't have a football team or a huge campus with beautiful buildings...I like our pine trees just fine. The whole experience made me appreciate UWF and even Pensacola a little more.

This is going to be a documenting post about books and stuff...nothing fun, look away!

I finished reading The Blind Assasian by Margaret Atwood yesterday. It was awesome (good vocab choice, eh?). Let me tell you, it's been quite some time since I've read such a good book. I was about to put it down after the first 100 pages, but I pushed through and finished 3/4 of it in a few days. It's three stories in one, and at first nothing really connects or makes sense, but toward the end you start guessing what everything really means and it's all resolved. Well, most of it. I'm not really sure if I liked the narrator though...she was a little selfish for my tastes, and in the "present day" she's a crabby old lady. Nonetheless, EXCELLENT read. Go pick it up.

I saw Marie Antoinette last night, and it was pretty much what I expected it to be considering Sofia Coppola. It was good overall, but there was minimal dialouge - most everything was communicated through deep looks or facial expressions, and I'm not sure if that's bad. There were many short scenes that had nothing to do with anything and didn't move the plot line along in any way. I liked the soundtrack very much...there was a good mix of 80's type and music of the period. The modern music (example: I Want Candy) made the movie...more fun? I don't know, but it worked. However, the ended was abrupt and BAD - it seemed like Coppola ran out of money and time and just kind of stopped. Whatever, not too disappointing I guess.

So the new book is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I've only just started it (pg 35) and it's not bad but it's not living up to all the rave reviews yet. Then again, I still have over 700 pages to go, so I'm prepared to give it a chance :) I almost bought it at B&N yesterday, but I resisted and what do you know, the library has it! Yay! But being at B&N made me realize I have so many freaking books I want to read it's crazy. If I ever become insanely rich, I plan to take some time and read hundreds of books. Mmm, if only.

This week is Banned Book Week! Read some previous illegal, challeneged material! ( The Most 100 Challegened Books 1990-2000 )

Read one of them you haven't read before! Yaaay books :)

Speaking of books, I've been through three books in the past few weeks, and I didn't finish any of them. Arthur Rex had a style I couldn't get used to, City of Darkness, City of Light I just wasn't interested in, and Chilly Scence of Winter was making me depressed as hell. So now I plan to start The Blind Assasian by Margret Atwood. It should be good :)

It's the weekend! YAAAY!