Well, last night we celebrated Ryan’s birthday (I think I mentioned that) but before-hand I hung out with Mr. MW - we had an awesome time at archery; I never knew he was into that sort of activity. Unfortunately, I missed the target completely once and nearly lost the arrow. We were searching for some time until I learned something … see, I brought out the arrow into the field and saying, half jokingly, “see these things attract one another” but it’s true - it really works! So, I guess that’s a pretty useless piece of trivia.
But anyways, MW was kind enough to loan me some music out of his incredibly good but eclectic collection. I look forward to experiencing all of this music in the near future - you will definitely hear about it from me. I hear Maroon 5 is especially good. So, we were off to uptown with the group and we hung out at Pandora’s something - some coffee shop. They were the most condescending group of people with nose rings I have ever met. I must admit, we don’t make fun of them for wearing rings - I don’t know why they insisted on giving us crap for being “average white people.” Anyways, Ryan smoked his birthday cigar, we hung out, and it was back to Tommy’s house for the cake from Cafe Latte. We had a great conversation in Peter’s car about Jamaica and volunteering with Danielle. And then it was off to bed.
But that wasn’t it! The computer came today and I have spent the past who-knows-how-many hours hosting people over to see it (Matt, John, Marty) and getting it to work. The sneaker-net file transfer is left … after that it’s register Office XP Student, register Norton, connect to the internet, get WSFTP, get Winamp, get Paint Shop Pro 8, get Textpad, and I think there’s more but who knows. Off to move files and DDR at Mr. Matt’s. (He and Shayla have hott computers :)
This is the history of my package(s) moving around the country. They’ll be here mega soon; thankfully because I’ve told everyone an their sister’s brother that this thing is coming today.
You know, I forgot to mention how fun the car trip to the Mall of America was with Matthew, Steve, Peter, Katherine, Tommy, and Ryan. It was one of the best road trips I have taken yet. That’s rather sad, considering the length of the trip was very short; but either way Peter did say it reminded him of the trips he took with his family … in a good way.
Moving on, Steve had a wonderful Idea for tonight which involved us trucking down to the Irish Fest and watching Flogging Molly for free. So, we all piled in and went on down to Harriet Island. During moshing, some guy tried to pick-pocket Steve. A note about Steve - he has been an absolute magnet for the opposite sex lately. Go Steve! Honestly, the stories I heard about him sitting at Kowalskis and just repeatedly getting checked out were not exagerated - the kid’s an animal! Also, receieved a very kind invite from Whitten to hit paintball (the ‘t’ in that word is optional) and I realized Jimmy is leaving on the 18th. I need to remember to give him a kind goodbye; he’s been really cool to me and I think he a great guy. Anyways, six of us packed into a 2 door coupe and came back to Applebee’s. It was a fantabulous time. I even ate a little food. Now, I’m off to eat more of that in the form of Honey Bunches of Oats. These things are (to mix cereal ads) grreat.
Anyways, my poor computer is still stranded in Des Moines; it should be here by Monday. I look forward to that day. I must admit here, I just wrote a very bad blog; nobody can relate to it except about 7 people and nobody is really interested. Good blog entries contain something people can relate to their own lives. I’ll work on that. To cereal and to bed!
How many times have you felt that spark between you and someone else? You see them, they see you, the two of you undeniably connect.
Then the best part comes.
You think to yourself, “Wow, we could grow this spark from an isolated flash to a tiny flame on a dry leaf to a towering bonfire of passionate love.” Suddenly, you snap back to the moment you left only a minute ago; you are just sitting there looking at someone you call a friend. Girls have been known to do this but guys do as well. Men have imaginations, too. They will extrapolate far into the future, perhaps not as readily as the typical female (forgive my misguided observation of humans, it may be completely wrong, but I’m just a guy saying what I’m thinking), but nevertheless they will feel that little spark and look ahead to the bonfire.
This idea just popped into my head about five minutes ago and I realize that we all have felt it. We all, to a certain extent, crave it. The excitement of feeling the growing warmth of a steady fire, that undeniable feeling of someone needing you. “More powerful than morphine, and soothing as the rain, that frog in South America, has the anecdote for pain.” That’s a Paul Simon song. I don’t think it’s the frog that has the anecdote; I think it’s our own relationships.
Why do I bring this all up? Because this is my journal, and I write what I am thinking. Was there a reason I wrote this? That will remain a mystery.
Saturday in the Park:
Saturday in the park
I think it was the Fourth of July
…
Funny days in the park
Every day’s the Fourth of July
People reaching, people touching
A real celebration
Waiting for us all
If we want it, really want it
Can you dig it (Yes, I can)
And I’ve been waiting such a long time
For the day
Chicago was a cool band. The purpose of this paragraph was just to document the strangest random song that ever popped into my head (the one above). This means, time to sleep. Good night, all!
Now, it probably won’t appear as such when I update (because this clock is off by one hour), but this is the last hour of the 8th of August. Never in my strangest dreams would I have thought this day would be the way it has been. I had looked forward for a long time to a final anniversary before the beginning of college. That is, obviously, not what happened. My night out with friends was a great time, however, and I sincerely believe that we all enjoyed our time at the Mall, Caribou, and Ryan’s.
Continuing the tradition of me recording what I do during summer days and then clamming up whenever I get busy, I will share what I did today (see, because it’s a summer day). I helped clean the garage, which involed intense wood reorganization. This was followed closely by a trip to Cafe Latte on Grand Avenue. They have excellent deserts with a most bodacious atmosphere and food quality. While bodacious is not the most descriptive adjective, I am assuming you can infer the words “clean, friendly, high quality” from that vague vernacular. After Cafe Latte, I returned home to mow the lawn. It’s funny how meditative mowing can be. I mean, I thought about everything while I was mowing; from the movie the previous night, to nights years in the past, to old memories of watering the lawn, to yesterday, to singing, to thinking ahead to this evening. I think lawn mowing is necessary because it causes us to slow down our thoughts; we can’t multi-task while we are mowing. We are forced to let our minds wander into vast halls of introspective thinking and this is where everyone’s rejuvenation and creativity stem from. The meditative process of mowing causes us to reexamine and reinvent ourselves because we come to understand the well-spring of ourselves that exists within ourselves. I am not being sarcastic here; mowing really could give way to a philosophy of being.
Moving on, I caught up on a bunch of e-mail, I think my account is finally working normally. I still owe Mags an e-mail, though. That will get done tomorrow. Whilst checking my email (you knew I was going somewhere with this!) I found that the UPS shipping numbers for Bertha III (aka a Gateway 700X with wonerful [like that, ‘wonerful’?] specs) checked in at North Sioux City, Iowa at 4:00pm on the 8/7/03. By my calculations (better known as dead-reckoning), the package(s) should arrive tomorrow. My excitement is extreme in the most materialistic typical American sense. Yay for new computers. However, my excitement also stems from the realization that I talked to my sister not long ago and actually laughed; I really laughed out-loud and with feeling. Joy is returning and with it returns the appreciation of the beauty of life. Finally, with that appreciation comes hope. The root of all is hope; everything we do is a hope, a dream, a reach towards an ideal of some sort. I wish all hope.
I almost forgot to mention Summit Avenue. We all looked for my roomate’s house but managed to completely miss it. We had excellent talks about life and college and got out and walked around the James J. Hill House. We then walked around to the Cathedral. It was a perfect temperature, no bugs, and an absolutely gorgeous night. I will add that to my assembly of what I have come to call a ‘perfect date’. This date may be expanded to a ‘perfect week of dates’ but for now retains the humble title of a ‘perfect date.’ I will share this theoretical date in depth tomorrow. It has a zero percent chance of failing (otherwise, it wouldn’t be perfect). Either way, I don’t know when I’ll ever get to use it but I think I have discovered the perfect date.
We returned from the cities to an already started party of Shayla, Matt, and John hard at DDR work. I love DDR; it makes me smile. Our group joined up and we all had a magnificent and relaxed time just sitting around and talking and playing. Dashboard Confessional on Letterman was pretty dang good as well. I think their approaching album (release in the US this coming Tuesday) will be pretty amazing.
To end: today I heard very good news. Due to the public nature of this publication, I will withhold exactly what that news was and remember it in my own heart where age will not tarnish it the way static text in black and white could.
You know, you think you come up with something original for a website name. And considering the services offered, I am pretty confident nobody else runs a blog/online resource journal named tumbledry.org. Regardless of that fact, I am rather disappointed to say a game called “Tumble Dry” was invented already. Read the full story here. An excerpt reveals some true stupidity:
Schoolboys with idle time on their hands invented a game of tumble dry in a laundromat on the Welsh seaside town of Tenby.
They paid 20 pence each to see who could spin the longest inside the dryers. The dare was a gamble against slim odds, as the gas-powered dryers become dangerously hot within minutes. Carbon monoxide can also be a hazard.
Sad thing was, after reading the article, I began to speculate about how one would protect oneself from the bruises, high heat, and general risks associated with being physically tumbled dry in a commerical machine. My resourcefulness is a curse when coupled with impulses for trying a new thrill.
It’s like Steve said when we were mountain biking the first time, “Man Alex, it’s like you have no fear at all. Just over those logs without hesitating.” To which I replied, “The fear is there, it’s just hidden sometimes.” We all have fears, some hide them and deal with them better than others. But risk-taking and impulsive behavoir definitely reward with plenty of adrenaline and a feeling of breaking free from the everyday bindings of habit that keep us all from living truly free of fear.
It’s like in that movie from last night, “Write that down.” We all have something to learn from Van Wilder.
I have so many song lyrics that could describe right now. Problem is, you wouldn’t hear the music that goes with them, that supports them, that gives them the poetic shape that words to music have. It’s like this song I wrote, you read it and it sounds like bad poetry, but you put it to music and it sounds like … bad song writing. No, just kidding, I like that song a lot and you definitely notice an intangible asset that music supplies to poetic phrases. That’s what I have been picking out in every song I have listened to. I think the way we experience music is filtered through our current feelings, our current thoughts, our recent actions. Music filters and channels life. That’s why hi-fi is important; who wants their life filtered through crap equipment? No, I’m kidding, the beauty is the equipment doesn’t matter too much; but it can lessen the distraction of music reproduction and help us skip to the soul-refinement we all seek (in one way or another) through listening to music.
In direct contrast, when I am in the jazz comp mood, I am not filtering as much of my life through what I am hearing. I am listening to chord changes, looking for 2/5/1’s, meter, dynamics, melodic interpretation, and improvisation. Am I still filtering my life? I think so, but I’m filtering in a different way by gaining music experience. It is an abstract idea, but it works in a nebulous sort of way. That brings me to my point. I noticed rock songs/power chord driving are of the form of 4 sets of 8 of the same note. It has been, of course, done before, but I was at LifeTime singing to myself and I discovered that instead of 8/8/8/8, 7/9/7/9 adds a really cool offbeat but returns in four four time to the root of the music. That’s a hot trick! I highly recommend it if you are in a rock band looking to spice up your musical ideas. Every little bit helps. Perhaps I’ll return to this post and brush up the terminology by adding what those notes in a rock progression would actually be, or perhaps I’ll leave it.
I’m in a really good mood so details like that aren’t important now. Other details are. For example, the detail that the lawn isn’t mowed yet. Off to tackle detailing!
You know, at last I’ve learned true kindness from people. It has been absolutely wonderful to see people who were acquaintances step up and show genuine compassion, caring, and kindness to me - it has truly been the greatest surprise that I have experienced in a long time. I mean literally everyone I have met in these past couple of years that I have talked to recently has shown me their kind, genuine, thoughtful, helpful side and the realization of those qualities in other people has helped me become more optimistic about humans in general. People really do care, they really do want to help, and when you are a genuine person towards everyone else, they will respond in kind with time.
In addition to peer group support and guidance, my family has been incredible. My sister, my mother, my father, all deserve great thanks for what they have done for me. It is just so wonderful to know that these people will love me through thick and thin, ups and downs, ins and outs, and that the mutual caring between us will never degrade to something less than it was in the past. Talking with them in the morning, late at night, on the phone, over email, during chores, and during rest has shown me what family is and what love is. I could never repay them and the beauty is, I’m not obliged to; I only have to be to them what they have been to me and show them the same kindness. That’s not repaying, that’s true family. I know God is there in my home.
I’m going mountain biking today, I’ve decided not to injure anything or come back with any broken bones. It will be a healthy outing, I’ve already broke my bone for the summer. It will be a great time, plus it’s free.
Finally, the backend of the site is up and running with only a few tweaks remaining. Right now, I am working on coding the picture gallery reader and one more major CSS tweak remains for the quotes list, etc. Thus, we are about 96% open here at tumbledry.org - once we’re up and running I will add links, quotes, inspirations, and pictures because I know how long that code took to write and I therefore I will make the most of it. Have a good day, everyone; tell it to ‘em straight.