later, a post about where ive been the past two weeks. also with pictures
did i mention i got my ipod? hooray! my first digital music player! ive only desperately needed one for... 4 years now? i have a fairly large collection of music, so it became irrational to burn cds for my car. also, unwieldy. actually, lets go into details of my portable music exploits. every since ive had a car, ive had a cd player. my brother bought one for the first car i drove, and when i destroyed that, my new car had a factory installed player. this was quite up to date as far as 2003, but was fading fast. while cds were still selling like hotcakes, digital music was taking over and i had a lot of music on my computer that would not be reasonable to put on cds. also, when i got my college laptop, i was burning about 1 cd per day. they would often be burnt up by the sun while lying in my car because i had no room in my cd case. so i stopped burning cds, and made them only when an album was critical, or when i was super tired of all my other cds. ive basically been listening to the same stuff since the beginning of college. slowly changing over a few years. maybe thats why when i look in my cases now, im unenthusiastic about all of my music. also, i took lots of long drives, and im a little worn out on the stuff. ive been making mixed cds for the past year to generate some more spontaneity in my listening habits, but it has finally run dry. i feel like ive been overplaying singles that i immediately liked. so i finally broke down and bought the ipod. and i feel like its already providing refreshment.
hmm. it wont let me upload my pictures today. i dont know what the deal is.
kids did well. lots of time drops, lots of hanging out and taking naps because warm ups got moved to "before natural light" and the tons of swimmers pushed things late.
only thing that bugged me: what the hell do the people in north carolina do for entertainment? near our hotel, there was NOTHING. only empty residences and empty apartment complexes and billions of dollars worth of industrial and corporate research parks. the pool was next to a mall, but we could not find other malls, other places of interest, normal stores/ shopping centers... it was CREEPY. plus, everything we could find closed at like 7pm. seriously. even fast food closed early. we ended up eating at a hooters, which was... actually quite normal, except that all the clientele checked out at 9 including a bachelor party. how lame is that. again, creepy. thats all ive got to say. maybe next time we'll head into raleigh or some place with lights?
i dont really have any real pictures to share, so i think im going to document the growth of my hair. i just got it cut today, it was pretty much the only thing that occurred. plus, even though i plan to blog everyday, we all really know that means like, once a week. so itll be noticeably different each post. we could probably do away with timestamping my posts and just judge it by growth and cuts.
im super excited! im leaving for north carolina tomorrow, and this starts my constant travel plan which continues until july! ill be gone thurs – sunday, home for 2 days, leave for california wed – wed, back for 3 days, leave for a swimming roadtrip to lynchburg sat – tues. then i have a break where nothing happens for a weekend, and then we go into long course championships which means a meet every weekend for 3 weekends in a row. unfortunately it also means ill be missing todds bachelor party. such is life of a swim coach.
so i bought an ipod. 80gb, black, classic ipod. it should have arrived on tuesday, but it didnt make it into virginia until last night. and i was unfortunately not available to sign for it today. i left a release waiver on the front door, but i didnt know the screen door was locked. who does that? anyways, hopefully itll come tomorrow morning, otherwise i wont be able to play with it until i get back from nc. it sure would have been handy to have for this trip where im driving... but at least ill have it for the flight to ca. california! im excited! even though i have to sleep in a tent :( im still amped just to get out there and spend some time on the left coast!
ive decided to become an active blogger again. i kept putting off blogging because i didnt have pictures, but now i just dont care. so you get lots more text posts. part of the inspiration for this new enthusiasm for blogging is rilo kiley. i just saw them tonight at the norva, and the show basically jump started all of my creative thoughts. there was so much energy at the show it was amazing. i thought it was going to be a much smaller crowd, especially since tickets were pretty expensive ($30). but there were a ton of people there, from little bitty high school kiddies to old couples. if you havent seen them live, go. its quite a fun experience; but then again im a huge fan (see my last.fm). lets see if i can remember the set list: (edit: definitely not all in the order they played... pretty sure about encore though)
encore:close call
moneymaker
capturing moods
dreamworld
breaking up
a man/ me/ then jim
its a hit
portions for foxes
absence of god
with arms outstretched
i never
a better son / daughter
does he love you?
they started off with blacklight stuff, fell back for capturing moods (which was announced by blake as it seemed jenny forgot what was up) and then went back and forth among the blacklight and more adventurous. there was a lot of dancing and singing coming from the crowd, everyone on stage seemed to enjoying themselves as well. blake really rocked out on his solos, lots of enthusiasm, a little bit of improvisation, but mostly just changed up the rhythm or double strummed. regardless, it was really fun to watch and different in approach to certain songs. it was also great to hear how jenny took the old stuff; kept the little nuances in her voice, but also made stronger inflections and sang out.15
ripchord ->
spectacular views ->
hail to whatever you found in the sunlight that surrounds you+
PS. they had an awesome shirt with a piano crushing some guys head. also, theyre back to printing possum shirts and hoodies, shirts in gold (on their website) and black on grey hoodies (at shows)
because i tagged and geotagged my national zoo pictures on flickr, i was searched by some website to be included in their picture/map smashup. you can see the picture on their site, with credit to me by looking at their national zoo page. interesting tourist site; good idea, just needs a lot more fleshing out. and a more usable interface.
well, im done with all my school crap for a while, until my one summer school class begins. and even then it meets once a week. but ... i guess im not totally done, i still have a little bit of 340 high street stuff to do, which reminds me, you havent seen it yet! im working on putting up on the portfolio, in which case this will be update with pictures as well. patience.
ive been putting off some really basic crap, like going to the dentist and visiting the optometrist, but i plan on getting that stuff accomplished this week, or at least setting up appointments. i dont know why i hate doing things like that, but its just part of who i am. i absolutely hate talking to receptionists. in any case, i postpone most of my personal upkeep things until its absolutely too late. i think my gums are receding a scary amount, im all out of extra contacts, and i need a haircut pretty badly.
but im in shape. swimming fly is a pretty good test to see where im at physically. last week i was able to easily do a 100 fly at a moderate pace. i ran two miles yesterday. so ive got swimming technique back (mostly) and ive definitely got cardio. thats like the least of my worries. its usually a bigger struggle to press my heart and lungs than it is to wear out my muscles and head.
so, if you havent heard about hulu, you should head on over there to watch EXO squad. its like, my favorite cartoon of the 90s. why isnt there a dvd out yet?
ugh. im practically done with school for the semester. its been a tough one. over the past three days ive been working really hard on exam stuff, but i think its going to pay off. i know for a fact ive got an A in history112, i turned in my final, she looked at it, handed it back, and said "ok. youre good to go." my previous test scores and essays have all been pretty top notch, so i guess she just saved herself some time; but i feel like i was cheated because i spent two hours writing six pages worth of essay just to have her glance over the paper and give me an A. i wrote nearly 8 pages yesterday for history111, which was hellish; and just a little bit of short answer for marketing which was easy. but im done with big writing projects. and thats good because i think its giving me a neck pain from hunching over paper. my final project for communication design2 was pretty lame. i didnt put forth a whole lot of effort into the details, but i dont really care. ive been working on the magazine stuff all year and its really my full focus.
so one multiple choice exam left, tomorrow, and then im freeeeeeeee! afterwards ill be sure to race home and play mario kart all day. maybe with a few breaks to read comics, because i need to catch up like mad. ive been going through back issues of walking dead for a while, and its pretty awesome. as opposed to american virgin, which sort of just ended very abruptly in one issue. i really liked reading av, but the way it closed was so... distracted? that i found it a little offputting. enough to actually change my opinion of the entire series.
i love my wii. im borrowing a bunch of games from joe which are really cool, warioware, big brain academy, and mario party. i picked up house of the dead 2&3 which i have always loved, and it remains a good port. also, it hurts my wrist from keeping my hand tilted for hours on end. i didnt pick up the wii zapper because it looks bulky and dumb.
graphic design is going well i suppose. the visual arts center chose my design and layout for the student art magazine they put out each year. i also entered an identity system in the student art show and won a prize. so maybe i have a chance to pick up that internship in new york?
now that swimming has calmed down, i feel less inclined to swim myself. instead ive started running and picked up a free weights routine. its all new for me, which is exciting. i kind of like running. i think its a good alternative to swimming because everyone runs, and no one except mark can keep up with me in swimming. so socially its better, which makes it much easier to call people up and work out. but unfortunately that also means that im not going to ever get back up to speed in the water. hmm.
the spoon show with the walkmen and white rabbits was pretty awesome. it was really well organized and the walkmen had a good set. spoon played for near two hours, it was... really long. as much as i enjoy spoon, that was a lot of time standing on my feet. you know what i wish they played though?
so last week i walked into a target to pick up some random things and saw a wii just sitting around, so i bought it. its pretty awesome. i picked up smash bros with it, and im loving that. i just wish my friends were more nerdy so they would join in my electronic excitement. they werent even interested in the fact that i have all the playable characters.
so if you havent heard about muxtape, go ahead and check mine out! its a really neat, simplistic site that takes mixtape sharing to a bigger level. make your own and leave me the address!
during march, i spent most of my time away from my house. the first two weekends, i was out of town doing swim stuff. senior champs at uva, and age group champs at gmu (manassas). that was pretty good, except for the whole respiratory distress thing going on –spending four days on a pool deck really kills your lungs. it makes you all snotty and congested and generally a mess. they just dont account for prolonged exposure when they do ventilation. fortunately it was super nice outside during age groups so they kept the doors open which was a huge help. anyways, during senior champs, i managed to do ok. 23.00 in the 50 free, 51.00 in the 100 free. nice, even times. not as fast as i should be, or could be, but you know; its alright for the amount of practice i do. id like to say that im happy with those times, but im really not.
as far as accommodations went, the motel we had in charlottesville was pretty crappy; but the hotel in manassas was really nice. like, totally makes up for charlottesville and having to work that weekend nice. and when i got back home, i went to house-sit for jay who went to junior nationals in florida. i crashed at his place for two weeks basically. it was long enough for me to take my computer over there. but im pretty partial to my computer.
now im back in my house, and its kind of ... annoying. not that i actually spend lots of time here, but still. i guess ill just have to pass the time playing wii :)
