Hearts vs. Minds

We are now entering the second week of the war. Casualties abound on both sides of the conflict. Just last night, in a frantic outbreak of nocturnal hunger, four peanut M & M's were lost, pilfered from the enemy's vulnerable supply depot. We've taken some hits, as well, though. Just yesterday, we were forced to concede five volume bars in order to appease the enemy, on a Friday night, too! The enemy is clever, and it is learning. It realizes that a strangle-hold on the video game volume is certainly the quickest way to extinguish us. However, we will be resolute, we will fight. Viva la resistance! We shall never press that fucking mute button. The line in the sand has been drawn. The chess pieces shuffle. Pawns fall. But the remote will never be discovered. We have found an impregnable fortress for it to be ensconced in. The enemy, given his fashionable ways, would never dig through three pairs of dirty sweat pants to exhume our symbol of freedom. There it shall stay, smelly and safe.

Winter is here, and like an extra back pack, it's really getting me down. The cold and shitty classes are tag-teaming me right now, going through my brain with flame throwers, cauterizing any dopamine recepters they find as they go. This year started out like a freaking vacation. I got to loaf, eat, and sleep almost as much as I wanted. Now, my professors are remembering that they have jobs (i.e., students to flunk) and are really coming down hard. I swear my logic professor wants his grad student dead. Grad students are, after all, the ones we chase, pitch forks in hand, when things take a turn for the worse.

Complicating matters is my transfer process. I have honors options to do for State in order to get the Honors College off my ass, but if I transfer to Michigan next year, honors credits will count for jack shit. So, what do I do? Complete the honors options just to be safe? Save myself the misery? Maybe it's just laziness, but I'm starting to like the latter more. Fuck these honors options. They're a stupid condition for a stupid program at a stupid school. My parents think that I can transfer for 09's spring semester if I just make an earnest plea. They said they'd even go to Ann Arbor on my behalf. Nice, eh? Well, naturally, I said, "Sure," so we'll see how that goes. I'm guessing no where. I mean, come on, it takes months to find out if you got into Michigan. Do I really expect that a visit from my dad will speed things up, especially when I didn't even apply for Spring? No, but I think it's helping them feel like they're helping, which is good, I guess. I assure them that they've done more than enough- and, truly, they have- but if they really want to do this for me, who am I to stop them?

Tuesday (or was it Wednesday?) Shaw Hall put on a casino night. Holmes did the same thing last year, only it was seven times suckier just because it was in Holmes Hall. I got there like ten minutes after it started. The panorama of gamblers was fantastic. First, I only spotted one guy with a cowboy hat. Shame. Next, I noticed that the Yakuzas controlled all the black jack tables. I'd never seen so many Asians in my life. Poker was always my game, anyways. So I sat down at the Hold 'Em table. After losing most of my chips to the Asian racket at our table, I pushed in most of my chips in one final, desperate manuever. That's when I knocked out the only girl at our table. Yeah, fuck me. The rest of the night was pretty boring. I spent most of it feeding this dude with a Fu Manchu mustache my chips and incinerating the roof of my mouth with warheads (Yeah, I know! Takes you back!) and pineapple. Eh, it was still better than the dorm.

Last night, I played Gears of War 2 for like a solid three hours. I hooked up with four of my friends and did Horde Mode, which is FUCKING AWESOME. Basically, your party just has to survive wave after wave of locust soldiers, the bad guys. So fun. Every wave felt like Thermopylae. It was also scary as hell. Like I've said before, it incorporates some elements from survival horror to keep you immersed in the game and with great success: watching your friend get hacked to bits by insectoid minions really gets your blood flowing and your trigger finger sore. And don't think I don't know how nerdy I sound. I'm always conscious of it. It gives my writing an ironic effect sometimes.

OH, at the casino night, I saw something kind of funny. There was this really big guy holding his chip cup and his brownie-laden plate in one hand and his cell phone in the other. Not wanting to set down his phone, he turned his brownie hand upwards to snag a bite, but forgetting about his chips, spilt them all over the ground. It had to be one of the fattest moments I've ever seen. Haha, I'm so glad Europe wasn't there to see it. But I've done shit like that, too. I'm not making fun of the guy. I'm laughing with him.

Fucking Christmas lights are everywhere. It's not Christmas I hate, it's the season. I could go on a Grinch tangent about it. All the freaking movies and songs we have to hear like they're part of some process, part of the rounds we have to make in order to have one awesome day. In my family, I know, we can't get to December 25 without listening to the Mannheim Steamroller album at least three times, seeing "It's a Wonderful Life," "A Christmas Carol," "A Christmas Story," and "Christmas Vacation"-a little more ribald than the others- at least once, rolling through the same palatial subdivisions to see the same professionally-done light jobs, and going to the exact same tree lot to get the exact same tree. Don't get me wrong, tradition is good. It's just that, come Christmas time, a season too long by about a month and a half, there's just too much of it. We sort of go on autopilot, going through the motions, performing the rituals, as if in order to appease some wrathful Christmas diety. I'm going to write a novel in which Thanksgiving supersedes Christmas. In it, we'll start writing songs about turkeys, wrapping pie slice after pie slice as gifts- gifts are the best part of Christmas, anyways, and should be retained- and once and for all redefine "the most wonderful time of the year." Let's give a new holiday with new traditions a shot at the title. Wait, wouldn't this just make me hate Thanksgiving time as much as I hate Christmas time? .... Haha, probably.

I'm listening to Sarah Chang right now. I think she might be the most technically proficient violinist I've ever heard. While Nigel Kennedy and my all-time favorite Itzhak Perlman are no slouches either, I think Chang is non pareil when it comes to the technical side of violin mastery. I know I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. I quit violin after four painstaking months, but I don't think it takes a lifetime concerto afficionado to hear what I hear. Itzhak is still my favorite, though. He's the best musician of them all, insofar as he understands, interprets, and presents the music the best by playing with originality, passion, and style. It's kind of like how people sort of scoff at the legendary shredders- Batio, Buckethead, Malmsteen- for being too overblown, talented, but not as musical as some.

I saw the Terminal last night. I stayed up until three to finish it. Neat concept. I thought it was awesome. Tom Hanks rules.

All right, as promised - more like "as warned," haha- I'm putting a damn survey in here. Fuck off, I've never done one.

1. Opening Credits: Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Strauss)
2. Waking Up Scene: Wake Up (Coheed and Cambria)
3. Car Driving Scene: Atom (British Sea Power) or Death to Los Campesinos! (Los Campesinos!)
4. High School Flashback Scene: Reunion (Stars)
5. Nostalgic Scene: The Wind (Cat Stevens) or Cinema Paradiso (Ennio Morricone)
6. Bitter, Angry Scene: Guerilla Radio (Rage Against the Machine)
7. Break-Up Scene: Hands Down (Dashboard Confessional)
8. Regret Scene: The moment I said it (Imogen Heap)
9. Nightclub/Bar Scene: Take me to the Riot (Stars)
10. Fight/Action Scene: Duel of the Fates (John Williams)
11. Lawn Mowing Scene: Thrash Unreal (Against Me!)
12. Sad, Breakdown Scene: 2:55 Song for Someone (The Frames) and 3:40 Red Hands (The Dear Hunter)
13. Death Scene: The Final Cut (Coheed and Cambria)
14. Funeral Scene: Schindler's List (John Williams)
15. Mellow/ Pot-Smoking Scene: Lost Message (Air)
16. Dreaming about Someone Scene: Pitter Patter Goes my Heart (Broken Social Scene)
17. Sex Scene:Let's Get it On (Marvin Gaye)
18. Contemplation Scene: Clair De Lune (Debussy)
19. Chase Scene: Smack my Bitch Up (The Prodigy)
20. Happy Love Scene: Digital Love (Daft Punk)
21. Happy Friend Scene: I Walk Beside You (Dream Theater)
22. Closing Credits Scene: Mood for a Day (Yes) or Step-Mom Closing Credits Theme (John Williams) or Cavatina

This one, too. What the hell?

1. Where were you 3 hours ago?
Getting back from Breakfast. It's Saturday, dude!
2. Who are you in love with?
Since yesterday, Zooey Deschanel. Also, Catherine Zeta Jones, as seen in Zorro and Chicago.
3. Have you ever eaten a crayon?
No! Good God, has anyone? Surely not a whole one?
4. Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?
My roommate's mouisturizer, lol. Ten feet away is where it'll stay.
5. When is the last time you went to the mall?
Last week when my brother visited.
6. Are you wearing socks right now?
Inexplicably, no! I'm wearing sandals?!
7. Do you have a car worth over $2,000?
No.
8. When was the last time you drove out of town?
When my bus entered Okemos.
9. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days?
Yep, saw Role Models.
10. Are you hot?
Haha, no.
11. What was the last thing you had to drink?
Big glass of coffee and another of skim milk. After I'm done with this, guess what I'm doing.
12. What are you wearing right now?
Sweat pants, sandals, Red Wings T-shirt, headphones.
13. Do you wash your car or let the car wash do it?
No car to speak of.
14. Last food that you ate?
Tuna steak, tater tots, baked oatmeal, carrots and broccoli mix, biscuit.
15. Where were you last week at this time?
Out and about with my brother.
16. Have you bought any clothing items in the last week?
Nope.
17. When is the last time you ran?
Haha, that would be Thursday at 8:25 in the morning. I was running late for Logic.
18. What's the last sporting event you watched?
Wings vs. Edmonton. We destroyed them.
19. What is your favorite animal?
Siberian Tiger. I'm re-igniting the Cold War if they go extinct.
20. Your dream vacation?
Greece, Brazil, Japan, or Kenya.
21. Last person's house you were in?
My own, about two months ago.
22. Worst injury you've ever had?
Tough, seeing how there are so few (knock on wood.) Probably when I came down with nerve damage in my left leg and had to go to physical therapy.
23. Have you been in love?
No.
24. Do you miss anyone right now?
Yes, my family and a couple of my friends.
25. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?
Haha. Aloofness ;) I definitely play it cool.