I'm BACK in the BURG

Well, Christmas day has passed, and I am finally able to blog. Sorry for the delay, but before I was able to even connect to the internet I had to remove the LOADS of spyware, viruses and trojans from our home computer and THEN totally reinstall Windows XP to fix all of the corrupted registrys. Euch. I'm not even finished with the restoration process, but at least we can all check our e-mail again.

Anyway, Christmas was very good. I got DVD's (Godspell, Dr. Strangelove, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Volunteers, and Spaceballs) I also got a SWEET fireware harddrive from LaCie with 160GB of storage, as well as a DVD-R Burner (actually, it supports burning DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW) Also, I got a special cornflakes bowl and a tiny racecar, and the audiobook of Stephen King's "On Writing". I'm sure I've left something out, but whatever.

So I decided that I would update my blog really briefly while I waited for Dooley to come over. We are going to crash Hodgen's house and then head over to Regal Cinemas to the 10:05pm showing of "Ocean's Twelve". If you read this and feel up to it, you should meet us there.

What else is new--Oh, I fixed both of my mom's VCRs, which weren't displaying picture. It turns out the the video heads just needed to be swabbed down with a q-tip dipped in isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol). I felt so smart.

My 1987 Toyota Pickup needed to be inspected and needed an oil change, so I got the oul change done at Wal-Mart and dropped it of at Richards Auto Service on Waterman Drive near Food Lion. The truck needs a new fuel pump and a window regulator.... we are still waiting on the prices.

GOT TO GO!

I'M DONE!

I've finished my first semester of College!

YEAH!

Can You Tell Me What This Is?

Okay, so I tried to go to sleep at about 12:30am, but I couldn't. So I decided to at least TRY and get up and do something productive, like pack or study for my exam. Fat chance. I am too excited and nervous about going home tommorow to do much at all.

So anyway, I popped in "The Man Who Knew Too Little" starring Bill Murray, and in one scene I noticed this:

Look at the door! What is that white paper doing there? I thought about it for a while, as it was an obvious error, whatever it was, because it was not on the door in the previous shot, which was taken from the other side.

Now this is what going to a film school does to you!

I believe that the white paper is on the door for lighting purposes. Earlier in the scene, Bill Murray's character puts a croqet mallet through the door and sticks his face into the hole spoofing "The Shining" and says "Here's Johnny". The paper allows the lighting people to reflect light off of the white paper and up onto Bill's face so that he can be properly seen. Brilliant! However, whoever was in charge of that stuff should have been paying closer attention.

Well, that was my ASTONISHING revelation for you tonight. Have a wonderul evening, and hopefully I'll be able to sleep and do well on my History of Media Arts Final tommorow (correction, today) at noon. (TEN HOURS AND COUNTING!)

Oh Boy! What a Day! Christmas is Coming!

Okay guys, I haven't updated in a while, but I have SOOOO much to tell you about, so this may be a rather long post. Here goes.

First off, I have added my College Textbooks to my Christmas List, among other sundries, including 35mm camera film.

Secondly, I will be back in the 'burg in under 48 hours! I am so excited. The only thing is I now have to study for my Media Arts final, which I am not keen on doing, and then I have to pack up, which I don't want to do.

Anyway, I got up this morning and went down to find out if Joe wanted to go for a walk with me around Boston. He agreed, and after getting ready we decided to go South on Tremont Street, toward the South End, because niether of us had ever really been down there before. So we were walking around in jeans and Fleece jackets in 30 degree farenheit weather for about an hour. It was quite an experience, as we discovered some hobo encampments and an "Emergency Tunnel Egress": That little red brick thing is the stairwell for the emergency egress system. Joe and I decided to go over and check it out. I tried the door, and it opened easily and smoothly. I immediatly shut it, and asked Joe if he thought we should continue. We thought about it, and decided to to go for it. We ducked inside, and quietly looked down the stairs. We wanted to make sure we didn't burst in on some innocent homeless man trying to keep warm. The stairwell went down at least 5 stories, but we did not go down, as we noticed that the door had a magnetic alarm with a conduited wire coming out of it. We got out of there, just in case that alarm had sounded somewere and the police were coming. It was quite an adventure.

Anyway, when we were less than 2 minutes from the Little Building (our dorm) I looked ahead of me about 100 feet.

And I immediatly spun me and my friend around and started walking the other way. I sat down and discretely pointed. There was a black man who had is butt completely out of his pants! He was staggering around, and appeared (whether intentionally or not, I don't know) to be exposing himself. I was laughing, but this was also scary, so I called the police and notified them that there was a man exposing himself in public, and may have been either drunk of stoned. I don't know if they ever found him, but boy it was funny to see him staggering around. I hope he is okay, though.

Well, after coming back to the dorm, I watched "Airplane" for the first time ever. I must say I enjoyed it. It's my kinda humor. I don't know what else to say about it, except that my favorite part is when the inflatable autopilot starts to deflate and the stewardess has to "manually inflate him" by blowing into a tube that just so happens to be in the crotch of the doll. Oh man, I was busting a gut.

Then I took a break, got a chicken salad sandwich and some ice cream for dinner, then watched "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" again. After a second watching, I am still a little confused. I think I am just going to have to read his biography to understand some of the things that are going on.

I then got a lot of Christmas spirit by getting a bunch of Christmas classics on my computer, and then I wrote my self-evaluation for my final project in Digital Culture.

Around 1am I decided to go down and find out if Joe wanted to go with me to get a drink, and he did. When we got back to the room, we were just talking, and I put my feet on a stool, but the stool slipped out from under my feet and crashed to the floor. I picked it up, and thought nothing of it.

So I then asked Joe if he'd turn off the lights so I could better see out of the window. He did. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Joe, being Joe, didn't open the door, he looked through the peep hole, and either couldn't see who it was or didn't want to open the door, so he didn't. After the person knocked again the guy started saying "hello? Open the door". I yelled at Joe to open the door and he finally did.

It was an RA from the 6th floor (we were on the 7th) and he was immediately suspicious. The questions came in rapid succession:
"Why are the lights off?"
"Because I wanted to see out of the window"
Why did it take you so long to answer the door?"
"Because my friend Joe was being a Douchebag and was trying to see who it was rather than just opening the door."
"What was all that noise?"
"I knocked over a stool."
"Are you hiding something?"
"Uh, no."
"You mind if I look in the fridge?"
"Well if it was my house I would have a problem with it because you don't have that right, but since I have nothing to hide, go ahead"
"I don't care if you drink I just want to..." He trailed off.
"Do you really think I am drunk right now? I am on the Wellness Floor for crying out loud!"

I think he finally got the point. Anyway, we started talking, and he actually was a really cool guy, we ended up talking together for about an hour and a half. So that was really cool, I made a new friend.

Well, my roommate, Fredo, is leaving at 6am, so he has decided to stay up all night so he can try to sleep on the plane back to California. That's also why I am still up, I just figured, "Hey, he's up, why not me?"

Having stayed up to write this INCREDIBLY LENGTHY post, I think it's time I did go to sleep. After all, I have to leave for church at 1:30pm tommorow. That's only in eight hours! Good night all!

Back to Normal?

I do believe that I am formally back to normal. Don't know what was going on earlier this week but I think I am out of it.

This week is CRAWLING by. It was 4 days ago that I was on a film shoot. It feels like weeks ago. I'm listening to James Taylor's "(I've Got to) Stop Thinkin' 'Bout That", and it is one rockin' jam.

I presented my group project today, all about Joe Collesano. He was in our group, and we decided to make a playful web community making fun of him. Please feel free to check it out. Joe - The Website "For the Joe in everyone's lives" [sic] Let me know what you think, either on the forum, or a comment here.

I've also updated my Christmas Wishlist which is back in web-page format, as my brother informed me that I could make a HTML web site in a txt file, then change the extension to html and it would work. Cool, huh?

My roommate is watching BET again. I swear if it's not on ESPN in this room it's on BET. It can get annoying, lets have a little variety.

My christmas tree looks very cool:

It makes me so happy when I look at it. It reminds me of joy and light.

Sorry that got a little sentimental. But I can't wait to be with my family for Christmas.

I'm being really disjointed today, but at least I am giving you line breaks to seperate the random thoughts.

I need to update my resume so that I can get a temp job over Christmas break. I think there is an Adecco branch around the 'burg somewhere.

Anyway, seeing as how it is only 5 days before I return, I need to pack, decide what I am bringing home and what not. It's going to be superful. Er, superfun.

That's it for now. Boy, that was a wierd post.

Off Day

I got nothing accomplished today. I was off, and I hate it.

Argh. I. Feel. Like. Ugh.

I don't know why, but I am in kind of a funk. I don't feel good, not necissarily physically, but mentally. I just feel some way. Perhaps its homesickness, perhaps its something else. I don't know, but I don't like it at all.

This is a really random observation but I don't use my pinkies when typing at all. I wonder why that is? I mean, I never learned how to type "properly" so I just invented my own methods for typing and for the most part it seems to suit me fine.

Wierd.

Anyway, I have to skip class today (my first one since starting school!) so that I can sit office at the Evvy's. Yeah! It's the most boring thing ever.

Film Shoot was a Success! Financial Woes

Okay, before I tell you about the film shoot yesterday, I wanted to note that I have updated my Christmas List with a very important number. Assuming that I don't spend any money during chirstmas (HA! Fat Chance!) I will need $1062.04 to pay next semesters tuition bill. I think I may end up trying to get some temp work after all.

This starts me worrying. I know worrying accomplishes nothing, but tell my mind that! It's the one doing the worrying! But seriously, I am depending a lot on my Grandma to help me with the gaps in the financial aid. However, I know I shouldn't depend on her to pick up my slack.

This raises the question on financial aid. In about 17 days I will have to start filling out another FAFSA (argh) to hopefully receive the same or more financial aid. However, this year my mom's income went up, (even though her child support dropped about the smae amount that she is now making) and I also just read an article that said 1.4 million people will probably lose their pell grant funding (IE, 800 dollars a year, right there) if I am one of those people.

Now, my school gives me FAR more aid than the Federal Government gives me (Emerson gives me about $15,800 a year in "Emerson Grants" (That's about 2/3rds of my tuition) but still, the Federal loans are important... I mean, they add quite a bit. Of course, the Federal Loan Maximums are supposed to go up as well, so I might end up in about the same situation.

But yeah, I just wish I didn't have to worry about money. I mean, when I start enrolling in Film I and Film II, I'll have to add at least 300-400 dollars into film costs, then you add processing, which is really expensive. It's just kinda scary.

Okay, moving on to the Film Shoot for "Lunchbreak" yesterday:

The shoot was fantastic, even though I wasn't involved in the technical or creative parts of it, it was really fun to be on set and help things run smoothly. It reminded me of why I am here in the first place, to make movies.

So when we got to the location on Harvard Ave, I was a little suprised, as I had never seen it before, because it was so small. But everything worked out fine, despite many problems.

One of the problems that we had was that one of our actors decided that he couldn't make it, and we had to re-write the script! Also, we had some troubles with outside noises getting on tape, but that wasn't that big of a deal. We actually didn't start filming until about Noon, (about 1.5 hours behind schedule) but we still managed to be out of there about one hour early (10pm)it was sweet.

All of the food things went well, and I really think that was becuase I prayed the night before that there would be enough food for everyone to be filled. It worked, and I am very thankful for that help. Modern miracles do happen.

I'm going to get ready to go to church. Later!

Film Shoot Tommorow...

Well, in 11 hours I will be on set, on my first real film shoot ever.

I am nervous.

The main reason for this is that it is going to be a long day, and I don't quite know what to expect. I've done pretty well, but I wonder if I did my best. I think I did, but I'm sure I could've worked harder.

But does that mean I should feel bad, if I still got the job done?

I don't know. But anyway, I've been doing pretty well. My last Concept Development class was today, and I totally am going to miss that class, it was wicked fun.

So yeah, I've updated my Christmas List again... you should check it out: Here

A New Direction!

I've been thinking about things a lot. As most of you know, I am a very introspective person, and I am always thinking about what I am doing, where I am going, and why I am doing it.

So I began to think about why I am not feeling very fulfilled and happy here at Emerson College. I mean, I am involved in ECTV, EIV, EVVY Awards, Women In Motion, GME, LiveUpdate, Speechless, and of course regular academics. And I do enjoy doing those things... but I still feel unfulfilled, like I'm not doing enough. Why? Because I am not.

Sure that list looks like a lot of paper, but EIV, EVVY'S, ECTV and Women in Motion merely represent meetings, or in the case of ECTV, two meetings a week, plus my channel changing job which is as annoying as it is mind-numbing. Women in Motion has a two day shoot coming up this weekend, which will represent the first film shoot I've ever been on.--we'll see how that goes, I'm sure it'll be fun.

Then GME and LiveUpdate is usually just me sitting in a the master control room watching the program in case something goes wrong. They don't call it "babysitting master control" for nothing.

Speechless is fun, but all I usually do is set up the set, direct the guests into the studio and get a photograph of them. Not particularly rewarding.

But I think I figured out what is wrong.

I began thinking back to my Junior year in High School when Thad and I were working on our Documentary and our Raymond Carver "Short Cuts" adaptation. What made that so much fun, and why did I enjoy it so much?

Well, I realized that it was because I was being creative. That's what I am missing right now in my life. I have always had creative outlets until I came college! I used be be in almost complete creative control of my video projects, AND I was doing drama. I have done niether since being here.

Why?

Well, I think the reason is that I got so caught up in the 'organizational' route, meaning I joined all these groups to advance and build up recognition instead of doing my own creative work!

I think what I need to do is write a short film and work on getting it made. I know that "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything", and in this vein, I have decided that I will get an EVVY award before I leave here. And I think I need to make it myself. I need to be in control. It will be totally sweet.

Knowing I have made this decision is not easy, because now I am going to have to do a lot more studying, a lot more working and a lot more rule bending to get access to equiptment.... I actually want to shoot on film, and you really can't get equiptment unless it's through a class or an organization. So we'll see.

I don't anticipate this will cause any major changes right, now, but It's something that I will do eventually, and I know it will make me realize once more why I am here and why I love movie-making in the first place.

Talk to you all later!

No Updates for almost three days? Not Cool!

Guys, I am so sorry! I wasn't even thinking about updating I have been so busy with my finals and other projects.

Fortunately, I get paid to sit in front of a computer in Master Control for a half an hour "babysitting" the live programs. (GME)

But anyway, my producing is going well, I still need to try and get drinks and coffee as well as plates and napkins. I just want to make sure that our cast and crew has plenty of food. I think we'll be okay in the long run, though.

I've come to the realization that my classes are almost over. I don't know how I feel about it, because I like two of my classes a lot, and I don't want to stop them... because I'll bet that I will have more writing-intensive stuff next semester.
Here's the running list:
School Days Left: 8
Days Until I return to Virginia: 13
Days Until Christmas: 18

Sweet! I'm so excited.

Sigh, what else is new? Hmmmm. I really don't know what to say right now. I've got a quiz in Media Arts today which I have yet to study for, and I have to keep working on my digital Culture Website Final, which is due next Wednesday (Meaning the 15th).

I'm sorry my Ramblings have deteriorated into, well, ramblings today, I'm just not feelin' it right now.

Weird and Busy Days, and More of the Same Ahead

Today was very busy and productive. And yet I still feel overwhelmed at the amount I have left to do.

So what am I doing? Procrastinating by blogging--typical.

Anyway, I woke up at about noon, having gone to bed around 2am (10 hours earlier.) I was really suprised to find that I had slept that late. For most of my life I have found it very difficult to sleep past 10 or 11am. But I guess I am turning into a college student, sure enough.

Moving right into the day, I played Half-Life: Opposing force for about an hour, at which point I beat the game (For the first time ever) and then showered and went to Lunch/Brunch, whatever. I ate.

Then I started working on producing the Women in Motion shoot--AKA contacting businesses that we had scoped out as potential donors. Needless to say, I talked to the Director, Tara, who told me that my Producer Gina "... is the worst fu*king producer ever" I was really annoyed, because I felt that was very unproffessional to say to a subordinate of Gina. Oh well.

Anyway, Tara basically made me feel like I was "doing a good job" but that I needed to get even more work done in the food department, because she had be worried that we wouldn't have enough to feed the whole cast. So I made the commitment to print off eight copies of the letter asking for donations and then bring them around to restaurants around the location where we will be shooting. (Harvard Avenue, Green Line)

Fortunatly, it wasn't that hard, once again my own paralyzing hatred of this sort of thing made the hardest part of it just walking in the darn door and asking for the manager/owner.

C'est La Vie.

I'm not superstitious by most accounts, but I keep thinking about how interesting it was that I ended up riding the exact same T-Train back to Emerson as I had taken out to Harvard Avenue! I even sat in the same seat. I knew it was the same train because the bits of trash were exactly the same, including a crushed muffin and some newspapers stuffed into a gap. Weird. The only thing I can't figure out is whether or not it is good or bad. I mean, on the one hand, it symbolizes being back where I started, right? But on the other hand, it represents tremendous luck.

Or maybe it was just a cowinkydink.

Review Of Life &Death of Peter Sellers

I found a really nice review of The Life and Death of Peter Sellers in The Boston Phoenix. It basically makes all the points I would have made about the film... very good, I'd recommend reading it. (Obviously, because I put it on my blog.) More later tonight.

My Christmas List in RTF format

My Christmas List as a Document

I will be placing this link in the sidebar as well, and I will try and note when it has been updated.

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

Yeah, so I went and saw the Life and Death of Peter Sellers today.

I liked it,

But....

I was a little confused by the artistic choices made in the movie. As a film major, I know that unless you are a pretentious hack (which is possible) you have some reason for everything you do in a movie. (Aside from 'because I thought it would be cool')

For example, they repeatedly violated the "180 Degree Rule" (Click here for a really good explanation of the rule) and they did this weird type of narration, which I think if I tryed to explain it would make it far worse for you. Suffice it to say, it was a great movie, but I think the people who will enjoy it the most are the ones who know all of his movies and his life story already. Mostly because his life is so strange that you almost believe you are watching some hyped up ollywood crap.

I'd say hands down the best scene was when Geoffery Rush is playing Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove while sitting at a luncheon with his mother. It is amazing, because the makeup and the acting are sooo good, that my eyes thought that it was Peter Sellers.

Ryan H. would probably have loved it even more than me.

Anyway, I got really mad today because I went to do laundry, and when I poured the detergent into the cap I noticed something odd. You know how detergent has a fairly thick viscosity? Well, it was very thin and runny--AKA someone was stealing my laundry detergent and topping it back off with WATER.

So I've devised a plan to teach the thieves a lesson. I'm going to put bleach in my detergent and leave it as a trap for the next time it gets used. Then their whole load of laundry will be ruined, and they can't say anything about it without admitting to using my laundry detergent! HAHAHA! Reminder to my readers: Don't get me pissed off. I'm a nice guy with a lot of patience... but I'm vindictive as hell.

Sorry, I just had to get that off of my chest. Have a good night!

Super Hotttt!

Of course since I am writing early in the morning on a Thursday, I am watching from the Master Control Room at ECTV.

The main reason I felt inspired to write this post was to say how cool it is when things work beautifully.

What happened was the show begins at exactly 9am on Channel 56 & 3. The channel airs bulletin boards before that, with a live feed from the college radio station, WERS. The great this was right at 8:59:53 or so (about 7 seconds before nine,) the WERS people ended their news report with "This is WERS, Boston" and BAM the show took over. So it looked and sounded really sharp.

Well, it's impressive to me. They are doing a really good job today on GME. I haven't seen a show so crisp!

I don't have a Visual Arts class today, so I am probably going to go back to my dorm and relax or do homework.

TONIGHT I GET TO SEE THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS. I am excited.

Oh, yesterday was pretty successful, we got a lot of promising stuff from restaurants and businesses. So fortunately we got a lot done in spite of the weather.

Well, have a great day all!

Profound

I don't know why, but I found this post on my friends blog really profound.

In today’s educational systems, nobody’s taught to seek the absolute truth anymore. No, that’s passé. Now it’s all about interpretations. Suddenly, everything’s a matter of perspective. They stole this from Nietzsche, a little less than a century after he first conceived it. Perspecitivism, he called it.
And they stole it.
But not before they ignored him and called him a blasphemous lunatic and a heretic and blamed him (and wrongfully) for providing the manure that Nazism grew out of.
It’s hard to defend yourself when you’re six feet under.

I’ve felt it since as far back as I can remember. Nietzsche gave me a name for it. Perspectivism. He claimed it was impossible to reach objectivity. Our very essence precludes objectivity. We consist of nothing but a bunch of biases – psychological, biological, etc. – all conflicting and mashed together. Rationality. Space & Time. The manner in which we perceive and make sense of reality, the way we experience existence prohibits us from ever seeing the objective truth. The best we can do is take in as many perspectives as possible.

I am a run-on sentence.

Last evening, in my Freshman Symposium class, we had a guest. She designated each of the four corners of the room as a different level of agreement. Strongly Agree. Agree. Disagree. Strongly Disagree. She would read a statement, and then we were to walk over to the corner of the room that corresponded with our level of agreement. A four-way boxing match.
If I’d had the balls for it, I would have stood in the center of the room and spun around until I collapsed in a pool of my own vomit.
It’d be a pretty good approximation of my level of agreement.

It’d be a pretty good approximation of how I’ve been feeling lately.

A fragment.

There’s just too much possibility everywhere. Whatever perspective I’m coming from at any instance constructs my world. Perspectives are like colored lenses. Each different color casts the world in a different shade. It’s impossible to take off the lenses. There is no such thing as seeing with your naked eye in this metaphor. Objectivity is an impossibility for us humans. So, instead, I come up with my own interpretation of Nietzsche’s perspectivism.

I try to put on all the different colored lenses at once. We get the closest to objectivity by taking in as many perspectives as possible. First red, then cyan. First blue, then yellow. You art students out there know that Red and Cyan are polar opposites. So are yellow and blue. Opposing viewpoints.

Red and Cyan are pro-life and pro-choice. Yellow and blue are conservatism and liberalism. Insert two sides of a debate of your choosing for green and magenta. These new lens combinations, they cast the world in a nauseating grey.
I’m spinning in the center of the room.

I am a comma splice.

Just when you start to think that I’ve stretched this metaphor too far, I decide to really make Nietzsche proud.
I make an effort to gather every colored lens available.
A trip to the bookstore.
I fuse all of the lenses I can get my hands on together.
Research and analysis.
I put on my new lenses. The fruit of my labor. Innumerable lenses combined.

Black.

My new lenses cast the world in a shade of….fuck it, I can’t see a thing.

Is it still considered a lens when it’s opaque?

I’m at a loss. I have a choice. I can take on a primary colors, a one-sided perspectives. Or, I could spin in the center of a nauseatingly grey universe. And then, there’s always the opaque blackness.

Choosing between these options is like trying to choosing between getting labotomy, being paralyzed or having your eyes drown in lye.

Whoa. I have to go lie down.

Argh, you're not making it any easier!

I shake my fist in the air. It's raining.

Normally, I couldn't care less whether the weather was cold, or whether the weather was hot, or whether the weather was fair, or whether the weather was not. I'd weather whatever the weather, whether I liked it or not.

Or so the tongue twister goes...

Here's the thing. I have to go out today at noon and pound the pavement to local food places, trying to get them to donate free foodstuffs to our film so that our crew and cast won't starve.

And it's raining.

Argh! I can't believe it. It was so nice yesterday, and now I am less than 18 minutes away from going out into the rain to do something that I absolutely hate doing anyway! It's friggin' ridiculous.

Anyway, I'm definately back into the swing of things here, and for the most part I think that I am keeping on top of most everything that's been going on around me. Yeah, but I honestly can't wait for Christmas, I can't wait to fly down to VA and chill out with my family and friends. It's gonna be so sweet.

So last night I left the window open all night, slept without any covers on in nothing but my boxer-briefs, and I still woke up in the middle of the night being opressed by heat. Tonight I was cold enough that I had to use a blanket and the room was actually quite cold.

My life can be so trivial and retarded, and yet, at the time so serious. Later, I'm off into the cold.

Hmmmm... Homesick Already

I realize now that I am back at the dorms again how homesick I really am.

After spending just a few short days with old friends and my sister, Sarah, I feel so out of place here. Hopefully it will only take a few days before I have re-integrated into the college lifestyle... of course, then it's only 22 days (three weeks) before I am back in Virginia for a whole MONTH. How will that be? I don't know, but I do know that I will love the visit. It just unnerves me that I am not excited to be back at school... I shouldn't worry, because I like what I am doing. I guess everyone would rather be at home with friends than working hard at school with people who you haven't gotten really close to yet.

So anyway, I was going to sleep in until about 9:30am, and then just shower and go to class, but when my roommate got up this morning and went to class, I woke up, and I couldn't get to sleep. It totally sucked. So I got up and started working on my blog, checking my e-mail, and doing other things to keep me busy.

Today I will be "hitting the ground running" going to class at 10-12, Change the Channel, Desk sit from 12-2pm, work on my Digital Culture Assignment until 4pm, (change the channel) at 4pm go to my digital culture class until 6pm. I change the channel again at 6pm, then I have a little time for dinner until my Women in Motion meeting at 8pm.

Whoopee.

Anyway, it took a helloova (thanks, John) long time to set up my room again, since I had to totally destroy my desk, and I have to do it again very soon. But I love Christmas, and I have yet to do ANY shopping... uh oh.

Need to Verify A Rumor or Urban Legend?

I stumbled across Snopes.com while looking to verify whether or not it was true that James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" was written about his girlfriend getting into a plane crash and dying. It wasn't.

The Day After...

MMMM, Thanksgiving food is SOOO good. I can't believe it. I really didn't even eat that much of the actual meal, because Maxx's mom had so many appetizers out that I was munching on. Anyway, needless to say, the meal was great and Maxx had a TON of folks over at his house. Interestingly enough, Maxx's mom pobably had more friends than family over. It was really funny because one of the guests was names Gino, and he used to sing with "The Platters" It was really funny, because everyone kept mentioning it, and when he sang it was good, but he was singing unnessicerily load with a karaoke machine.

Anyways, I had a great time with Maxx, and at about 9pm he brought me over to Tanners house. We stayed up until about 2am talking and catching up. It was a whole lot of fun. Today we got up around 1pm (Tanner actually didn't get up until about 2pm.) I ate a bunch of cut up veggies that Tanner had in his fridge, checked my mail, and started sorting through some of the stuff in my closet to get the things that I needed to bring with me back to Boston. (Software, computer parts, DVD's, Suitcase)

Then Tanner got up, showered, and then we both walked around his livingroom BLASTING James Taylor, Rent, and Eve8, singing in the wonderfully acoustic space. It was great. I realized that I really was working myself really hard while at school, and was not able to really be myself, because I don't have any family or close friends at school (at least not yet). Hopefully I won't get too sad when I have to go back to the grindstone.

I called school "the grindstone". That's not nessiceraly a good thing, because I am supposed to like what I am going to school for... But I don't feel like analyzing my thoughts right now, I just wanted to let you know what was up.

Anyway, Tanner and I played some Mario Kart for Nintendo Gamecube, then we called my old frien, Lee. What a guy. Anyway, he came over, we played more games, and then we went over to Pizza Hut on Minot Ave, to participate in an age old tradition--sharing a big New Yorker Pizza. Well, there are a couple of things wrong with this picture, number one; Tanner is disgusting and consumes an entire 16inch pizza ON HIS OWN. So only Lee and I actually share, and number two; Pizza Hut no longer sells The Big New Yorker. Instead they have a new 16inch pizza called "the Full House" or something like that. It's not bad, tasting very similar to the Big New Yorker, but still, it's sad to lose an old favorite.

I bought the whole pizza to celebrate because Lee told me he will have his diploma by next September. I am very glad to hear it. I don't care if he goes to college or not... college isn't for everyone. But I was very upset when I heard Lee hadn't graduated. But he is not going to give up, and I am very pleased with that.

So we enjoyed our Pizza, sharing stories, laughing and talking like always. It was great. And I realized that I was home. Please don't take offense Virginia people, you are my home too. I have two homes, and I love each one.

So anyway, on a side note, I was given permission by Dori, Tanner's Stepmom, to drive the enormous Dodge Quad Cab truck with a Hemi V8 engine.... Whoa. Hot.

I can definately see why people want enourmous SUV's after driving that beastly thing. But still, when I think about the intitial price tag, coupled with the gas bill, I don't have the desire any more.

Well, I think that's a substantial post for today. Have a great night. I'm going to go to JC Penny's tommorow and get some things for school.

Thanksgiving: What am I Thankful For?

In celebration of Thanksgiving, here is a list of things both big and small that I am thankful for, in no particular order--

Stuffing
The Gospel
James Taylor
Music is general
Computers
My Grandma
My Mom
My Siblings, Sarah, David and Katie
My Father
Having friends who care about you enough to invite them into your home, whenever you need it, no questions asked.
Forgiveness
Happiness
Sadness
Emerson College
MBTA Subway System
Tanner
Maxx
John N.
Internet
Carrots and Dip
All the vegetables and fruits that are so wonderful
Acela Train
Thanksgiving
Hugs
Dreams
Sleep
Canteloupe
DVD's
Christmas, and all it truely represents
Prayer
Love
Laughter
My watch
All the programs and clubs I am in atr Emerson
Lewiston and Auburn
Cars
Wooden desks
Legs and Arms
My Weblog

Just an abreviated list--chances are if you are reading this I am thankful for you too! Have a happy happy thanksgiving all!

Wow, it WAS a busy day

Whew! I sure am tired. I did QUITE a lot of things, and I am proud of it. My taping at 6pm actually went until ten, instead of at 8, which is when I swear I was told it would end. But all in all it was good because I was doing something that I like, even though it was at a lower level of professionalism than I would have liked.

Oh well.

Anyway, an anonymous commenter called me a "tease" because I didn't let you all know which James Taylor CD's that I bought. Well, I bought James Taylor's Greatest Hits Volumes One and Two. About two hours of soulful singing by the master.

Also, I was asked about how I got a ticket to the The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (Click here to see a trailer!) Well, a while back, someone had left a copy of Rolling Stone Magazine in the Common Room, and as I was flipping through it there was an ad telling you to go online and sign up for advance screening tickets, and they would give them to random people. Basically a giveaway. I believe the film has not been released in the US yet, but it will air on HBO in late December. From what I saw of the trailer, it seems like it will be a fascinating movie.

Anyway, I really need to get started on my art paper which is due by noon tommorow.

Frosted Flakes in a Dixie Cup

My room mate has almost a full gallon of milk in his fridge which he has to finish up before wednesdsay or throw out. So he said I could use his milk for cereal in the morning. I've had my cereal for a while, but I kept forgetting to pickup some milk, so it's been a while since I've had any. Needless to say, it's really hard to pour cereal into a Dixie pastic cup, and harder to eat out of properly. I spilled quite a bit of cereal.

Anyway, I have a full schedule today. I have a class from 10am to 11:45, lunch, then at 1:30pm I am helping with the load-on of a show that will be going up tonight in the "Caberet" (a preforming space here on campus) until about 3:30 or so. Then at 4-5:45pm I have another class, and at 6 I have a special shoot in Studio B for the "R Rated Kid's Show" which a guy on my floor is producing. That should wrap up around 8pm, at which time I have another meeting at the student union at 8pm--Women in Motion. That usually isn't done until 9:30 or so. So as you can see...busy, busy busy!

Wish me luck.

Hey There, Sexy Knickers, I Don't Half Fancy You!

This post is a little shout-out to my old friend Wendy, who used to jokingly say that to me whenever I saw her. (For those of you who don't know (probably all of you) the line is from a British television show called "Are You Being Served".

Very funny.

Sunday, Nov. 21st. A Day

Well, today was rather uneventful as far as days go, that's why I haven't written more. However, per request and because it allows me to procrastinate, I am updating.

You may notice a new "Daily Read" on the right. It's called "Overcompensating" Very funny, I would recommend visiting and reading the guys daily blog, complete with comic!

I woke up at about 11:30am, and then I chilled in my room for about 1/2 an hour, then ate lunch at the dining hall. (Slice of tomato and basil pizza and slamami and cheese sandwich on wheat.) Upon going back upstairs, I took a shower, chatted online with some friends online, and then I went to church with Dean.

Church was really really good today. Part of this was because I went to our ward Thanksgiving Dinner last night, and met several people. (Jason, Julia, Holly, Amy, Steph, Denver, Brittany) Who were added to me slowly but surely growing list of people whose names I know. The other part was because I felt interested in the lessons, a lot of things hitting my right were I live, and I got to have a meeting and get to teach our hometeachee. But most of all, I got to meet with the bishop. He did a tithing settlement with me (full tithe payer) but we talked about my problems and struggles, and I am filled with joy because I think he really cares and is going to actively help me make it.

The lord moves in mysterious ways, and I wondered why the Lord would help me get to a school that was so not supportive of religious types, so far away from everyone I know, but maybe it was so I could be in this ward with this Bishop. I feel like the healing can begin now. I had my first deep, long cry since I've been at college because of it.

If that didn't make any sense to you, I'm sorry, but unless you are LDS, you're probably not going to get that part.

Anyway, so I'm back at the dorms, updating you all, listening to James Taylor and procrastinating my work. I think I am going to wrap it up now. More tommorow.

Flabbergasted Eagle!

I thought my friend Thad would like this.

Wow! What an Exciting Day!

Today proved to be both exciting and wasted.

I went to my class at 10am, par ususal, which was pretty normal, and as always it was a whole lot of fun. To make a long story short, at one point I was laughing with this guy Theo so hard that the teacher had to seperate us. I honestly can't remember the last time that happened.

Anyway, Nate, the Master Control honcho, has asked me to be master control for EIVl LiveUpdate every friday. Yeah. Later during the day I found out that I am officially being promoted to assistant programmer, which basically means I do the same things I always do, but now I have to attend another meeting. Yay!

So today when I went to do LiveUpdate, someone had scheduled the tapes wrong, so that EIV REC tape was not in the record deck (Deck Five) and instead, a movie, called "American Dream" was in it. American Dream was supposed to be in deck 4, but Back bay cinema was in deck four, which was supposed to be in deck three. Deck three had something else in it, etc, etc. Basically I had to reprogram the VTR programing and move some tapes around, but I am VERY happy that I checked and noticed it, becuase everthing went off without a hitch because of my checking. Another point for me. (In this case, I think points are deserved.)

So after LiveUpdate I went over to the Dibona TV studios to chill out before the taping of Speechless. I took the pictures of the guests like always, and the show went up a few minutes ahead of schedule. About 5 minutes into the program, a noise fills the room. "BEEEooooP ... BEEEooooP, BEEEoooP ... BEEEoooP"

The host, Adam, is flustered and cracks "The cookies are done!" Everyone looks around. The director, Trevor screams "What is that?" I walk over to what I feel is the likely source. As I move closer the sound gets louder, and I touch the offending fixture. Its vibrations confirm the sound.

It's the fire alarm.

A lot of swearing begins to take place, but the director orders quiet in the studio and continues to role tape, getting the antics of the studio on a blooper reel for the Emerson channel, when a voice comes over the intercom. It says something to the effect of "There is an indication of an emergency in this building. Please only evacute if you hear another alarm after this message. We are verifying the situtation."

Odd, but it was a prerecorded voice. Obviously with sky rises, they don't want every floor pouring into the stairways--they need to evacute the floors that are in the most potential danger.

So anyway, we don't get the second alarm. Tom (The studio guy) tells us that we don't have to leave. The building attached to this one was evacuated, and they are looking into the matter. Well the guy in charge said we could stay, so we decided to start the taping from the top. Everything went smoothly.

Until about 10-12 minutes into the shooting. Tom comes over the intercom and tells us that we have to leave. So we abandoned another take and walk down the stairs from the eighth floor.

Turns out there was a bad gas leak somewere in 120 Boylston Street (The building connected to the studios) and the whole block of Boylston street was evacuated. Everything was fine in the end, however.

Anyway, I didn't wait around, since the Producer, Aaron, told us we weren't going to finish the taping today (obviously) so I headed over to the west side of campus to help with the auditions for the Women in Motion film. My job ended up being waiting in the lobby, signing people in and then leading them to the audition.

BOOOORING.

But here's why this is sooooo cool: I met another Ezra!

He introduced myself to him, and he did a double take. His name was Ezra Stevens, and he was black! So I showed him downstairs, explaining to him how exciting this was for me, never having met another Ezra in the flesh before. So when I introduced him to Tara, the director, she said "Hey Ezra..." AND WE BOTH SAID YES AT THE SAME TIME! That has never happened to me before, and I couldn't believe it! Its such a bizarre and new experience for me.

So anyway, as you can see, today was quite a day, and I am ending it by telling you that I just watched ELF with Will Farrell. Good movie, but not a classic.

Mailing Address

If you'd like to send me a letter or a package, heres how to do it!

Ezra Horne
C/O Emerson College
P.O. Box 9145 RM T-1218
Boston, MA 02117-9145

Or, if you want to send a NON USPS package

Ezra Horne
C/O Emerson College
120 Boylston Street RM T-1218
Boston, MA 02116

I hope to get lots of letters!

What More Do You Want?

Geez, I never realized that I had any "AVID" readers. But I guess that's goo information to know. But I am sorry that I haven't updated in a while, as I have been pretty busy, and with my until very very recently lack of computer, I had learned to start slacking off. Which is unacceptable, you are absolutely right.

Anyway, today was a good day, and yet also a bad day. I woke up at 8:05am to the ringing of my cellphone, which I use as an alarm. (I used to use my stereo, but I worry that with how late I stay up these days that I would sleep right through it.) So anyway, being Thursday, it was GME master control day. I went down to the studio, loaded all the tapes and DVD's, checked the NetEm/Leightronics Programming and let the studio know that I was recieving their feed.

That being done, I settled down to check my e-mail until the deck was to start recording. Then I looked over and the deck didn't start recording.

Uh-oh.

So I hit record manually, nothing. I started to panic, but then I checked the deck, and for some reason, whoever usually puts the GME record tape in the deck HADN'T DONE IT. So I had to find the tape, put it in and hit record. By the time the tape was recording, thirty seconds of preroll had already gone by.

But the immediate crisis was over. So I just reprogramed the Leightronics to correct the tape for the re-air so it would still air properly. However, I forgot to adjust the take delay, so when the time came for the show to play over the channel, it didn't and so I had to take it manually.

Yeah, so my drama and excitement as Master Control continues.

Anyway, after that I had Intro. To Visual Arts, which was cool, but as always a little flaky. Then I had lunch with my pals and we went to take out History of Media Arts test. We had all of our 1hr and 45min class to complete the 50 question test.

I was out of there in 25 minutes, the second person done only because I went through and double checked my answers.

Then I proceeded over to ECTV, where I began editing a package for "Ladies Room" a female talk show, which was about one of the hosts getting a makeover at Sephora, a department store.

Needless to say due to multiple and insane complications and interuptions, and redos for the hosts, I just wrapped it up around 8pm.

Then I had dinner, which included NACHOS WITH HOMEMADE, FRESH TOMATO SALSA. It was awesome. Now I'm here updating my blog before my Evvy's meeting at 10:00pm.

Oh! When it rains it pours, because I never get mail, but today I recieved SIX peices of mail today! A package containing my two James Taylor CD's that I bought off of Ebay for about 8 bucks, 2 DVD's which I got from Blockbuster.com on a free trial of their version of "Netfix", my monthly check from Dad, a letter from my friend Laura, AND my invitation to the ADVANCE SCREENING of "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers"--which I can't wait to see!

Anyway, I'd say in all it's been an awesome day, just long. But that's okay.

Okay, regular posts from now on!

I'm Friggin' Awesome

I know that you all already knew that, but I thought a friendly reminder was in order.

So yesterday my mom drove my truck down from Maine to Virginia, and on her way she stopped and we hung out for about 5 hours. It was really good to see my mom again. I miss my family, and my friends, and my old, stable life in Virginia. It was really nice to have lunch with my mom and just sit across the table from one another holding hands. Just to have some one who really loves you, in that honest, motherly way to sit and spend some time with her son. I loved it, and it made my whole week. I wish she hadn't left.

But fortunately I will be coming to Virginia on about the 20th of December and staying until about the 18th of January. So I can't wait to see all of my family and friends.

Another cool part about mom visiting is that she brought me cookies, bread, and a monitor for my computer AND I got to drive my truck, something which I hadn't done in since September 5th. Over 2 months.

Well, I really need to start on my homework, ASAP. God Bless.

Sweet Caroline!

Yeah.

So today I had a terrible neck ache, I think I've been sleeping on my neck funny or something. But oh well. I'll be seeing my mom on Saturday, maybe we can massage each others shoulders!

I got all of my computer parts in the mail today! They are soooo cool. I've put them together and it all seems to work just great! Now all I need is my moniter and to install the operating system. Totally sweet.

I guess I'll keep it short for tonight, but I hope your fine dreams and good wishes come true!

Sitting In Master Control, Watching Good Morning, Emerson and Making Observations

Well, I'm sitting here in Master Control doing my job once again making sure the signal feed doesn't get lost somewere.

While programming the tapes and DVD's for this morning, I noticed that 9 out of 14 movies have the word "America(n)" in them:

The Quiet American, Wet Hot American Summer, American Psycho, American Beauty, The Ugly American, Angels In America Part I: Millenium, Angels In America Part II, Peristroika, An American In Paris, and American Dream.

I just think thats really really bizarre. But oh well.

Then I was watching the News portion of Good Morning Emerson, and I couldn't help laugh because some "Liberal vegitarian who hated guns" shot himself at Ground Zero in New York City. Um, Yeah. You hate guns. So you kill yourself with one. Over the president? Okay. Things have gotten bad, yes, but having another potential activist dead does no one but the mortician good.

So I guess that's it for this morning, I'll go on drinking my disgusting Dr. Pepper from 7-11.

Red Sox Nation: World Series Win! PHOTOS!

Red Sox Celebration (Riot) Pictures Here!

Lake Shore Hotel: ABANDONED!

New Pictures posted here!

Hello Hello! I'm at a Place Called Vertigo!

Yeah, special thanks to U2 for that catchy post title (Please don't sue me.)

Anyway, I had a meeting with Women In Motion, as we are gearing up to shoot our short film, "Lunch Break" (Working title). I'm assistant producer, so I'm going to be keeping very busy making sure all of this stuff gets off the ground and the shoot goes as smoothly as possible.

It has gotten really cold and windy all of a sudden, and I finally pulled out my long wool peacoat that I bought way back in Septemeber. I really like it, but I am almost worried that it won't be warm enough. But we'll see.

Interesting side note: As you may recall, I recieved some negative and harrasing anonymous posts in the past, and I criticized the poster for not leaving their name when they insult me. A friend of mine said that posters have the right to be anonymous and not leave their name. But I stumbled upon this while reading Joe's blog.

I just feel thats kinda funny. But I don't care, because no one is perfect. Depending on the circumstances we change are minds, don't we? Because whatever we feel is right IS right in our own minds.

Well anyway, I love all my friends and readers, and I miss everyone so much. I can't wait until Christmas Break when I return to Virginia and see everyone. Have a great day!

Beautiful Day

So today I got up, checked my e-mail and took a leisurely walk through the Boston Common and the Public Gardens, enjoying the goreous fall breeze and colorful leaves. There were lots of geese running around the Gardens, and I took some photos, sat on a bench, and just enjoyed it, since I know that winter will be hear very very soon, and by then it may be too late to enjoy.

Then I went to an Emerson Independent Video (EIV) "Flypack" workshop. Basically, a flypack is a TV studio in a box. (Actually 3-5 large boxes, but hey, you get the idea.) It was a lot of fun, but very complicated. You really have to understand the flow of the video signal through the studio to set it up properly. But we'll see.

After the workshop, it was only about 3:20pm, so I decided to explore Boston a little bit. I walked over this really neat footbridge that went over some busy road, and went along the Charles River, staring at Cambridge and MIT and the sailboats accross the water, viewing the "halfshell" concert space that is in the park there. As I walked along, once again I felt really pleasant and happy. I just wished that I hadn't been alone. But I walked down the river until I got to another footbridge back over the road near the Massachusetts General Hospital. So I hopped on the Red Line there, and rode in to Park Street, where I transfered to the green line to go up to the Haymarket.

I already explained about the haymarket, but it remains true--its like you are suddenly in a third world--vendors hock merchandise in the open air as people move slowly through the narrow isles. Anyway, my original intention in going to the market was that I heard that they had Mangos 2 for a dollar. And they did, even one place selling THREE for a dollar, but I suddenly didn't feel like mangos. So I bought a fresh pinapple for $2.50. They were also closing up the stand, so they started selling these bunches of flowers for $1.00 each, so I got about 20 carnations for a buck. I love this city.

Then I went to the bank to cash my next paycheck, which was $110.25 after taxes, and then I returned to the dorms. I was hungary, so I went to dinner with Dan and Jeff from my digital culture class.

At dinner, I had an uncontrollable urge to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So I made TWO white bread peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches which I ate with two eight-ounce glasses of skim milk, and on top of that I had a piece of pepperoni pizza and a glass of Sierra Mist.

Needless to say, I couldn't believe it, but MAN were those PB&J's good!

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the sweetest game ever. After dinner, I went to J Pizzle's room and watched him play GTA: San Andreas for about an hour or so, killing cops and rival gang members, stealing cars and money. It was awesome.

So here I am now in the ECTV station writing on the weblog that I have been recently neglecting. I came the the station because their was black on the channel and I had to finish it. So now I'm going to wrap this up and head to the basment to chill with my friend who is on the radio right now.

Later!

374,523 Votes For Michael Badnarik

Well, obviously he didn't win, but I was a little dissapointed with the low 374,523 votes. I was hoping for at least a million. In Virginia 11,591 people cast their vote for Badnarik. It's kinda cool to think that I am the "1" on the end of "11,591"

Just a brief and obligatory comment about the election: Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better. Don't get me wrong, I think John Kerry is a douchebag, but I'm not happy with Bush either. At least you can't blame the third parties for making Kerry lose--he lost by a margin wider than ALL the third party votes combined.

We have a lot of "fair-weather patriots" in this country. In the last two days I've heard so many people talking about "getting their passports ready" or "moving to Canada". Good riddence, get the hell out. I'm not saying you have to agree with Bush, but you had better stick around during the hard times. If you believe in America, you need to fight for America no matter WHO is in office.

Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better. If it takes more Bush to get people to realize he's a terrible leader, then that's what it takes. You can't coerce people into thinking "the right way". They must come to that realization on their own. Just like you can't force freedom.

Anyway, that's enough about that. I knew I was going to be dissapointed no matter who won. I didn't want the most Socialist senator in history in office, and I didn't want the most ridiculously NOT finacially conservative man to stay in office. It'd be down hill for me either way.

Right now I am sitting at the computer it Master Control at ECTV, watching Good Morning Emerson. It's my job, after all.

I'm still kinda tired because on election night I went to Emerson Independent Video to help with "Decision '04", a live program that they do the morning after. So I was up and awake at EIV from midnight to six in the morning. It was such a bizarre thing, because I didn't end up doing much, and at 3am I walked from Beacon Hill (near Kerry's House) all the way to this Pastery shop in the North End called "Bova's". It's open 24 hours, and they had some of the tastiest lookin' stuff ever. It was amazing. The pastry I got looked amazing and beautiful, but I didn't like the flavor. Oh well. It was just so weird to be somewere in the middle of the night/early morning. And you have to understand, the streets in the North end are sooo narrow and it feels like a gangster movie. Amazing.

So anyway, cheer up you old bugga's! Always look on the bright side of life!

I've Been workin' on my website, all the live-long day

What's goin' down my homies? I'm in the lab again this afternoon putting the finishing touches on my website project for my digital culture class at four.

Hopefully I'll then be able to rest a little bit.

Anyway, I'm gladly keeping myself entertained. I watched an episode of Mr. Rogers Neigborhood today and I was happy.

More later!

Sunday, Sadness, and Suckage

"You didn't go to stake conference this weekend."

"I was busy!"

"But if Michael Badnarik had been in town you would have made time to see him."

"Yeah, But--"

You could have gone, but you didn't because you have your priorities backwards you sorry, pathetic son-of--"

"Please! I'm trying! It gets so stressful, and I don't know anybody anyway."

"You are disgusting. I don't understand you at all."

"Niether do I"

I'm sorry, but I feel like that. I know its probably not that big of a deal, but I feel like a failure. I'm not going to institute, because there aren't any times when I don't have class, and I've skipped church to do work twice already. It's not okay. Plus I'm not reading my scriptures or praying at all. That's why I don't feel like I deserve any help most of the time. Sigh.

Yeah, so moving on, I am in the labs again working on my website project, but it seems to be coming along pretty well now, so I decided to do an update. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures in the previous post. It was really neat to be there.

So I feel sad because a lot of people seem to have already made some close friends to do stuff with, and I still find myself alone a lot. I can't wait for break, college is really stressful. Especially with all the extracurriculars I am doing.

Anyway, life just seems to be going pretty slow and low right now. I just don't feel fulfilled right now, and I am praying its not because this isn't the right thing for me to be doing, because I really think I want to be in the entertainment industry, and I've already put so much into it.... Argh

I'm going to get back to work now, wish me luck or give me a call and we'll chat for a little bit on my phone. (For those of you with my number)

Victory Parade!

Click on the Photo for more pictures of the action!

Ezra Horne's Christmas Wish List!

Here is my 2004 christmas wishlist! I will also create a link on the sidebar for this list, which should be updated fairly regularly. I need to get some more specifics on the electronics stuff, so I can give you all a better idea of what I want and need, but other than that, get it all for me! ;)

The Red Sox Win the World Series, and I was in the Shenanigans

Well, I'm alive, but I just had to experience the feeling of being in a huge crowd of people, so I decided to go down to Fenway and 'get in on the action'. I took some pictures with my film camera, and a few with my camera phone, but I've yet to get the film developed, and the cameraphone pictures suck.

So when I got on the T at about 12:55am, they told me that they were no longer running trains into Kenmore, the stop at Fenway park. So I decided to get off there, and boy, there sure was enough going on. I couldn't believe it. Traffic was stopped as people flooded the streets, chanting, jumping, giving high-fives and more ludicrisness. I saw someone passing out bottles of beer, people pissing against fences, and people lighting newspaper on fire. One of the pictures I have show the sidewalk COVERED in shredded newspaper, and there are about 7 newspaper stands all toppled over with people standing on them.

Perhaps the most interesting chant of the night was "Please don't shoot me, *clap* *clap* *clapclapclap* Please don't shoot me *clap* *clap* *clapclapclap*" I joined in, because I felt it was so true. People were pointing out in a way how rediculous the idea that by shooting into a crowd you can control anybody. What a great night.

At one point I was trying to get a photo over the top of a police car and I was barked at by an officer dressed in riot gear to "get on the sidewalk". So I did.

Over all, it was an incredible experience. I of course had to walk home, but I stopped at the Prudential Center and went to Krispy Kreme and got a pumpkin spice donut and a classic glazed. (I actually ended up with TWO glazed becuase the guy forgot to out the glazed donut in my bag, and so when he went to get me one, he threw in an extra without me even saying anything! No wonder that place is successful, they understand customer service: FREE DONUTS!)

So this morning I got up to do my broadcast operations job for GME, and I was thinking to myself "why do they need me to be here? It's all automated, nothing will go wrong"

So I got my answer.

As the show ended and the tape rewound for immediate re-air, it started playing immediately! (For a little background, the tape has a minute of preroll with colorbars and tone and a slate, the tape actually begins rolling before the feed is taken to the air. It's called a take delay) Someone had forgotten to program the 68 second take delay for GME! So I had to think fast and remember my training which was to take the FS1 feed (the fiber optic feed) and put GME back on the Emerson Channel, then I had to re-adjust the tape position in a matter of seconds to make sure that it went up the moment it was on the air.

In retrospect, I shouldn't have touched the VTR, I should have taken FS1, waited until their out and then taken VTR5 manually, it would have been smother, but it was the first time I had dealt with the situation, and so I was a little frantic.

Then I had to go to Visual Arts class and take my essay test. Lets just say that is sucked, and it reminded me A LOT of AP English because we had to write 2 compare/contrast essays in one hour and forty-five minutes on two pairs of artworks. But I actually think that She-Fe's knowledge helped me stay calm, so I guess I have to thank her again.

So I guess that's all for right now. I have to get on the ball with this web essay project for digital culture, but you know me, with my laziness, I won't be working until sunday. ;) Goodday all!

Kids on the Beat!

I'm watching this hilarious fake TV program called "Kids Show" and its actually super not for kids. They have this one part of the show where this little girl interviews people coming out of a public restroom, and the theme music is goes like this "Kids on the Beat, Kids on the Beat! Beat Kids! BEAT KIDS!"

Beat Kids? Oh my gosh!

This COULD be it!

I'm sort of scared, because this could be the first time the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series in 86 years, and I don't have any doubt that they will do it.

And the city will burn.

Look at what happened here in Boston when we won the ACLS! It will be sooo much worse. And I have a Visual Arts essay test tomorrow, along with the first third of a paper on an artwork. That's why I am down in the computer lab right now working. There are surprisingly quite a few people here.

Please forgive me for sounding sacrilegious, but I hope they lose the game tonight.

This is for two reasons. I really want the Sox to win, but I kinda want them to win in game seven, so they are in Boston on HALLOWEEN. Also, it's more exciting when they don't have such an impressive lead.

But considering they already have one run, I think it's going to happen tonight.

The Yankee's fans here are really bitter, and I can't say I blame them. It must be super annoying to have people be so obnoxious about their team. Yankee fans are a lot more subdued. I don't know if that's because they use tranquilizers or what.

Hey! Now that's an idea! To control drunken riots, the Boston police could require all alchohol to have a small amount of sleep-inducing drugs! So buy the end of the game, everyone would feel so tired, they'd fall asleep right at the bar!

Okay, maybe mixing drugs into peoples' drinks isn't the hottest idea, but neither is rioting. People have the right to celebrate, they don't have the right to destroy property. But it's bound to happen again, and since there is nothing we can do about it short of removing more civil liberties, I'm going to live with it, and I'm going to like it.

I wrote this the other day, and I think it nicely sums up my feelings:

"Freedom is freedom. You can't choose to only have the freedoms that are positive, or to get rid of the freedoms that are negative. You are either free, or you are a slave.

I will not be a slave. And if it means giving up my security, so be it. I'm free--nothing short of total liberty is acceptable"

Well, wish me luck getting my work done, and of course, GO SOX!

Michael Badnarik's Stump Speech on NPR

Listen to this!

I'm in the Computer Lab, and I'm TRYING not to screech with laughter!

Oh my gosh! I just saw this video at Ebaum's World and was laughing soooo hard! Watch the kid in the last seat on the right! (This is a video file, so dial-up users are not recommended.)

Sorry Its Been A While

I'm sorry that I haven't posted since friday, but I have been very very busy trying to get my act together, and the fact that my computer is totally suckin' doesn't help me one bit, since I have to update at a lab.

My last class let out about 35 minutes ago, and I've checked all my blogs, my facebook, and my e-mail. So I decided to let you know what I should be doing instead of blithering on at this pointless website!

1. Write out all the content for my 20 page website that is due monday for my Digital Culture Midterm. This includes finding pictures, research, and webdesign. (None of which I can do in my room)

2. Go to the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) and write the first third of my paper for Visual Arts class, which is due Thursday or Monday, I'm not sure.

3. Read/skim chapters 4-11 in my "Living With Art" Textbook, and study the formal elements of art for our compare/contrast test on thursday.

4. Get some sleep at some point.

Other than that, I'm pretty good. I got a hair cut the other day, and it was the fastest haircut I'd ever received. I gave her a nice tip because I was feeling generous. The haircut cost 14 dollars plus tip. I couldn't believe it.

Yesterday I went to Cold Stone Creamery for the first time (not counting the free-bies I got at the "sneak preview" of the Harrisonburg location) and had a "Gotta Have It" size with half Cake Batter and half Pumpkin, with whipped topping on top. It was SOOOO good I almost wet my pants.

But after I was finished eating, I realized that I felt disgusting, fat, and sick. It's a good thing too, because I won't go there very often. I went with some friends and they tipped the people and those whores didn't sing! I couldn't believe it!

What else happened. OH! This morning I bled profusely. I got out of the shower and went to my room, put on my underwear and I noticed a smear of blood on my leg! I looked for the origin and found that the whole underside of my left forearm was smeared with blood, which was pouring out of a pin sized whole near my elbow.

I quickly grabbed a paper towel and started to clean up the blood, but it wouldn't clot! I put the paper towel over the spot, and the towel became rather blood soaked. Mind you, none of this hurt, but it was really starting to freak me out. So I grabbed a new paper towel, and since I had no ace bandage, I duct taped the paper towel tightly over my arm to stop the bloodflow.

Now that the crisis was temporarily solved, I looked around and noticed that their was blood on my towel from when I dried off, and there were two large drops of blood on my desk, and as I walked back towards the bathroom I found at least two more drops of blood on the ground (I cleaned them up as best I could).

I'm fine now. The duct tape tourneqet (sp?) worked fine, but now I have to wash my towels, too.

What else... Oh! The reason I didn't go to the health center was becuase I had to be in the broadcast studio by 8:45am to moniter GME when it came up. They aired the second package I have edited for them, on the "Head of the Charles Reggatta" which was here this weekend. So, yea! I'm an editor!

Then I went to visual arts class for review before our mid-term. But guess what? Our teacher decided not to show up, and cancelled the review! I couldn't believe it! I imagined him at home sipping a coffee thinking "oh man! I'm so funny! I made those morons get up for no reason!" It was greatly funny to me.

But anyway, I am going to try and eat better, I have decided never to get pizza unless it is absolutely nessicery (like, I have to go, NOW) and I have started to think more about the assemblige of items on my plate and being more balanced. I put on some weight this summer sitting at a desk all the time and eating Denny's, and I want to be "thin and gorgeous" by the time spring rolls around. I'm proud of myself because I now mix this orange/mango flavored water (it's sugar free, calorie free, etc) with Sierra Mist or Mt. Dew, providing a very great flavor-taste at half the calories! When I first got here, I used to get two 8 ounce cups of soda with each meal. Now I am effectively only having 4ounces, since I'm mixing! But I still need to cut out consption outside of class. IE my room.

Well, I think this post helped to fill you guys in a little bit--oh!

Yeah, so one other thing. I was worried about doing my home teaching for church because we have five women to teach, and I'm very busy. So you know what the Lord went and did? He said, "Ezra, you not only can do that, but you can be assistant home teaching coordinator!" So yeah. Now I've got even more responsibility. But I guess I must be able to do it. It's really not that much more work, but it also means since I'm going to be calling everyone up asking for their home teaching, I have to be an example and get mine done.

Thy will be done, I suppose. ;)

I Never Thought Having Classes Cancelled Would Be A Sad Thing

Yeah, so apparently the news is being broadcast around the country. One of Emerson's students, Victoria Snelgrove '06 died when police shot "less-lethal" weapons into the crowd, and she was hit in the eye.

Classes are cancelled today, and counselling is being provided. I did not know her, but I fell bad enjoying my cancelled classes because I know of the great price at which it came.

I think the police have gotten too much power, and were terrified, and made a mistake firing into the crowd. But her death was definately a freak accident. Those bullets shouldn't have killed anyone.

Please say a prayer for her family and friends to be comforted.

And remember, use your head. When you are in a mob, never allow yourself to be caught up in the excitement so much that you lose sight of your own personal safety. I thank God that I chose not to go down there. I know friends who got tear-gassed. You are responsible for your safety, and as soon as you see anything that makes you uncomfortable. Leave. I know you have a right to assemble, but when some in the group are not being peaceful and begin destroying other peoples property, you need to get out of the way and let the police bring them to justice.

That is all.

The Morning After

Suprisingly, everything seems pretty normal and ho-hum. Although you get a general sense of happiness, desipite the fact that everyone is exhausted out of their minds from being up until Lord knows when.

Everyone here at Emerson appeared to be fairly responsible in their celebration. Of course you probably saw the footage of morons setting off fireworks in Kenmore Square by Fenway Park, but that was the exception rather than the rule. Over all, people were excited and euphoric about this awesome and miraculous come-back.

Suprisingly few people were absent from morning classes, a good indicator of general responsibility and awareness.

But anyway, I finished editing the Boston Irish Film Festival package for GME last night, and it aired this morning. Apparently the producer liked it or didn't have time to change it, because it was exactly as I had edited it. I also got about 2/3rds the way through a piece on third party candidates for ECTV's 'Speechless', which will be taped tommorow.

So I'm editing, and I'm actually voulenteering to edit more next week. I like editing, and I'm so happy to be 'back in the saddle' proverbially speaking. I may even go out and become a cameraman for 'The Ladies Room' on ECTV. It's all coming together, I just have to watch myself and make sure I don't get overwhelmed.

Homework due within the next 12 days includes a twenty page website on what we've been learning in our digital culture class (I've yet to choose a specific concentration) and a rough draft of my Visual Arts essay.

So I'm keeping busy. I hope you all are too, so sleep well, eat right, and God bless.

RED SOX WIN!

Reality IS the Best Place For Material

You know, reality IS the best place to find stuff about which to write.

So I went to a meeting of "Young Republicans For America" tonight. I know what you're thinking--Ezra's a Libertarian! Well, that's exactly on why I was there. On their flyer they said "Young Republicans for America is not about petty politics, it's about America. Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Republican, Green, Libertarian, or Independant, we welcome all points of view."

They basically directly asked me to come by including my party on the flyer. So I went tonight, and because of the Red Sox/Yankees game, only 2 people outside of the four original members came. So the co-founder Christian is wearing a blue shirt with the top button open, the collar up, and a black jacket and slacks. Then, over the top of his shoulders (His arms NOT inside the sleeves) is a black trenchcoat. He says that he is from Brazil, but has lived in numerous other places around the world.

He starts to talk to us and he says "a lot of people ask me why someone who is not eligble to vote in America is so interested in politics." As he does this, one of the other memebers is playing some sort of light violin/classical music on his laptop. Christian continues on, saying "When I came to this country [the music swells] I thought I was coming to the land of the free and the home of the brave. And I came to Emerson College expecting to find intelligent and open-minded people. But I was wrong." And then TURNS HIS BACK TO US AND LEANS ON THE WINDOWSILL, LOOKING OUT OVER THE CITY! "I found that if you expressed your political opinions and they were not in line with the masses, you are ridiculed."

OH MY GOSH. I am sorry, but there is nothing funnier to me than a guy with a trenchcoat draped over his shoulder, giving a speech about american politics with classical music in the background, and gazing out over the city. I cracked up so bad! I couldn't help it. You HAVE to have seen it, because it was so unreal.

Anyway, their organization sounds pretty good because they plan on raising people's respect and awareness of other parties and ideologies. (For those of you who don't know, I live on an Ultra-Liberal Campus, where half the guys are gay, and the ratio of Republicans to Democrats is 1 to 100.)

Yeah.

So anyway, what else has happened today. OH! This morning I got a call at about 8:55 from Nate at Master Control for ECTV. I am supposed to be IN Master Control at 8:45 on tuesdays and thursdays so that I can put in the Good Morning Emerson record tape. Well, because I was late, that meant the by the time I got the tape in, it was already about 2 minutes into the program. That is like a cardinal SIN on television.

Fortunately, everyone seemed pretty cool about it, even though I beat myself up the rest of the day for it.

But fortunatly I have a chance to redeem myself by editing a "package" (a pre-recorded video segment of a show) for GME. Hopefully it will be stellar and I will gain fame and respect! (More respect than fame, I just want my colleauges to know my skillz.)

I've also found myself coming down with Red Sox fever. I tried my hardest to remain ambivilant, but when your whole floor SCREAMS everytime the Sox get a run, you can't ignore it. Besides, I'm a big fan of the underdog, and I want to see this city EXPLODE when/if they win the series. That would be the first series win since 1918! There would be insanity.

So I guess that's all for now, but certainly not all forever.

My feelings exactly!

Believe it or not, I don’t know if I’m going to vote this year. It’s true. Election Day is November 2nd and I still have no idea what I’m going to do. You would think someone such as myself, who happens to write a column on politics, would have it all figured out by now. But if you thought that, you would be wrong. I’m an undecided voter in a battleground state; I’m everything the candidates like, except for the fact that I don’t like the candidates. With the big day coming up strong now, I’m thinking I might stay home.

I tend to find this election annoying. For starters, I’m sick of all the media-types and celebrities trying to guilt me into going to the polls. Part of me wants to skip the election this year just to spite them. It’s getting to be ridiculous already. Every time I turn on the TV, I’m bombarded with messages about how voting is my civic duty. Jason Alexander, Tony Hawk—all of them seem to be saying the same exact thing: It doesn’t matter who I vote for, as long as I vote. I don’t understand this. If it doesn’t matter who I vote for, then why am I voting to begin with? What is this, a practice run for when it starts to count a few years down the road? Voting for the sake of voting seems like a pretty lousy reason to vote, if you ask me. If I’m going to vote, I’d at least like to vote for someone I believe in. Like Jesus.

I’m also sick and tired of brand name get-out-the-vote campaigns. MTV, for instance, tells me to “Choose or Lose.” Well, what will I be losing, exactly? My marbles? My lunch money? Do I get to choose what I lose? It makes a difference, you know. A little clarity would go a long way towards helping me decide here. I could probably live without my marbles, but definitely not my lunch money. I’d also prefer not to lose my friends and family members in a military draft—FYI.

...read the whole article here...

FREE G-MAIL ACCOUNTS

I want to get rid of my six free Gmail accounts, so leave me your e-mail in a comment if you would like one.

111th Post!, Terrible occurrence, and other normal components to Ezra Horne's blithe and pointless life

Wow, what a long post title! I love it! Anyway, this marks the 111th post on Ezra's Ramblings. Not an incredible achievement, but it is three consecutive ones in a row. I think that's pretty special. So to commemorate this 111th post, I'm going to write "Blogger" one-hundred eleven times.

Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger Blogger

I'm sorry I'm a terrible, terrible retard. It's just an excuse to get my word count up. So I hope you didn't actually waste time counting them out, because there certainly ARE one-hundred eleven 'blogger's right there.

Moving right along to the 'Terrible Occurrence'. I was asked by Nate at ECTV to program the broadcast computer to air a women's soccer game that had been taped earlier that day. They would run it over to me and I would go up the 7th floor, program the computer, then go down to the seventh floor and put the tape into the VTR. (Video Tape Recorder, for all I can tell, the exact same thing as a VCR). Sounds simple right?

Wrong.

They game ran over, so they were late getting it done, and so the guy who was bringing me the tape, Fred, didn't leave until about 7:30pm (This program is scheduled to air at 8pm. It took 20 minutes for him to arrive on the T. It was now about 7:50pm.

So we meet in the Ansin building (home of ECTV) and he hands me the tape. Here's the bad news. I'm not on the 'authorized list' to enter the building after hours. So I have to talk/argue with the guy for three minutes explaining WHY I need to get into the building right now. He finally relents and unlocks the elevator for me.

So I get to the 7th floor, swipe my access card and go inside. I log the information into the broadcast computer but something doesn't seem right with the totals. To keep this story brief, I will just say that it took almost 4-5 minutes to figure out what was wrong. Then I was going to go downstairs to the third floor to put the tape in. And I couldn't find the key in the desk. I found it pretty quickly and I hopped into the elevator. As I stepped of the elevator, something happened.

The burglar alarm went off.

To my credit, I remained very calm and said to myself, "Self: You have a job to do, and you haven't done anything wrong. Just get it done." So I marched to the broadcast operations suite, and put the tape into the deck. Now they had told me that it wasn't "quite" re-wound all the way. So I pressed rewind.

And nothing happened.

Mind you, the alarm is still wailing, and I have like a MINUTE left. And then I remembered something for ninth grade when I was trained on how to linear edit at Great Falls Television. The faceplate controls on these VTR decks will not work unless they are switched into LOCAL. The decks are all switched to 'REMOTE' so that the computer can remotely control them to air programming! So I toggled the switch and rewound the tape. (Alarm continues to wail) Everything thing looks good, and I go down to the third floor.

Then of course, a campus police officer showed up. Now, fortunately, I know these guys because I see them three times a day getting the key for my channel changing job. So I had to tell this whole story to them, and he had to file a report. Oh brother. Fortunately, I wasn't in trouble, and they said not to worry about it, that I just need to get my boss, Amy, to give me authorization to access that floor in the future. (Well, she was supposed to do that, but didn't).

So with a fast beating heart, I walked back to my dorm, went up to the third floor, and turned on the TV to the Emerson Channel. And I saw BLACK. Not good. Not good at all.

I called Nate, told him the story as I marched back to ECTV, thinking with dread at the idea that I may have to trigger the alarm again to fix the problem. Fortunately Nate told me that I could force the program (since I had remembered to switch the REMOTE/LOCAL switch back to REMOTE) from the 7th floor broadcast computer. AND FORTUNATELY there was a DIFFERENT guard there, who had NO IDEA about what had just occurred, so I got the 7th floor with no problems, and aired the programs successfully, albeit 20 minutes late.

I know that this was a long story, but it was a very very weird experience. I am proud of myself in a way for my courage in the face of such ridiculous circumstances.

A lot of other things happened yesterday, too. I did a bit of walking, because I walked down to Shaw's and back twice, once to go grocery shopping with Kendra, one of our RA's, and two, I was walking back from one of the buildings and I passed Ang, Rachel, and Kayleigh, who were going to get cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. So I walked with them. But I didn't get cheesecake, instead I went to the Starbucks where Layne (she lives on my floor) works, and bought a 'venti' size Pumpkin Creme Based Frappachino (No coffee). I felt like a sellout ho, but I loved it.

So, yeah, my life is weird.

I'm Here at ECTV, using their "Sunflower" Mac

My laptop is totally suckin', so I used my exclusive ability to enter the ECTV station and use their computers. So I'm using one of their computers, which happens to be a 'sunflower' iMac. (You know, the one with the attached screen and the combo drive in the half-sphere base)

So I'm listening to the audio blogs of Michael Badnarik, and it's really great to hear how hard this man has been fighting for freedom. I actually got the opportunity to explain to my ENTIRE Concept Development class about Michael Badnarik and David Cobb being arrested and the CPD/ASU case! It was sweet, and I think I may have lit a fire of liberty or two. Yesterday I talked to an 'independant' whose beliefs seemed to parrallel the Libertarian platform, so I directed him to www.badnarik.org. I hope he ended up visiting. Over all, I've been trying set the hearts of the people I meet on fire with liberty, and it seems to be working. It's no wonder the republicrats don't want to debate Michael--people LOVE his ideas.

Anyway, I was thinking of taking the commuter rail down to Wellesley College to see Anna, but her grandparents are up for the weekend and she is showing them around. So that didn't work out.

Speaking of which, Jake Sasseville will be coming to Emerson College on the 23rd, so I'm excited to see that kid, another familiar face.

I apologize for not posting regularly the past few days, but since my computer is messed up, I can't do them on my computer, and I ususally write my blogs after midnight, when the labs are closed. So that's what's been up. Yesterday I helped shoot 'Speechless' again, but once again I hardly did anything. I some times wonder how I am going to deal with being a filmmaker, if I am so easily bored and distracted. It's something that I definately have to learn, because you have to stay where you are assigned and do your job, even if you see some one needs help, or you're not busy, because the people that do those things have to know exactly what's happening and who is doing what. It's hard.

So as I was saying, life is pretty cool--they had fresh melon slices in the dining hall today, because it is open house, so I gorged myself on watermelon, which was SOOOO good.

I miss my friends. A lot of people know me here, but I can't seem to find some one who likes to do stuff with me, like wander around the city on saturdays, or randomly do things with no point. I just miss that a lot. I like college, but it's hard, because it's exhausting and sometimes lonely.

What a Day

Today was pretty cool. I woke up around 10am, got up lesiurely, eat some cereal, showered, and then hoped the 'E' train to The Boston Museum of Fine Arts to get the name and artist of the painting which I am going to do my art paper on.

Upon returning home, I went upstairs, chilled out on the computer (I do this way too much for my comfort.) and then ate lunch, then studied for my Media Arts exam tommorow until about 2:30pm.

I then remembered that I needed to turn in this week's timecard to ECTV. So I headed on down to the studio to do that, and while I was there I bumped into Nate, who was supposed to train me in Broadcast operations over the weekend, but didn't. So he showed me how to do it, and I will be doing it tommorow. Oh BOY!

So anyway, that's going to be pretty fun, since I have to get up at 8am to do it. (I know, I'm such a whiner)

But after he trained me, I scrurried over to Digital Culture Class, which was unusually boring. I had to duck out fifteen minutes early so that I could change and get ready to go to dinner at Jackie Liebergott's apartment. She is the president of Emerson College, and she got about 15-20 kids to come to her apartment at THE RITZ-CARLTON TOWERS to have dinner. It was a nice dinner, but typical catered fair--you know, bizzare salad with weird dressing; (This salad had mixed greens, feta cheese and suger coated pecans! It was the wierdest 'flavortaste', and it certainly didn't send me to the moon) chicken, rice and asparagus. Yeah, exciting. But it was good, and really nice to be able to talke with the president. She's hilarious because she's about 4'11' and has the funniest voice you will ever hear.

But after dinner we went and had dessert at the Little Building Dorms, (they had cheesecake, WHOOPEE!) with a Q&A session. It was good to express concerns and congratulations. All in all a priceless experience. And afterwards I got to take some leftovers, (4 pepsi's, 4 bottles of water, and a mini cheesecake) So that's always cool.

Then I went BACK to ECTV for an 8pm editing workshop. It wasn't so much training for HOW to edit, but training for ECTV's particular needs, IE how much leader, how much trailer, etc etc. All basic, but important stuff.

Then I chilled out at ECTV for a while, got some pretzels, went to the ECTV general meeting, which lasted (thankfully) only 10 minutes.

So here I am. I guess I did a lot of ECTV stuff today. I PROCLAIM THIS ECTV DAY! (Actually, I'll be doing a lot of ECTV stuff tommorow morning, so maybe I'm just really involved.)

Thanks for listening to me ramble! CALL TODAY FOR FABULOUS PRIZES!

I'm Sorry to My Friends, But If I Hold a Differing Opinion, You're Probably Not Going to Like It.

I just want to apologize in advance for all the backlash I am sure to get for calling Kerry supporters "shortsighted fools"; Bush supporters "stupid sheep"; and calling Socialists and Communists just plain "stupid".

But I want to point out that this doesn't mean I respect the sheep, the fools or the stupid people any less. I just ademently dissagree with them, and I'm sorry that I sometimes use stronger words... but at least I don't scream "cut his mic" like Bill O'Rielly or something.

Please forgive me for being preoccupied with politics. I'm sure after Kerry wins the election on Novemeber 2nd I'll calm down significantly and get back to writing about normal everyday life.

Goodnight everyone.

Communism and Socialism Suck--Here's Why

A transcript from a class on the United States Constitution by Michael Badnarik:

Communism: Is a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common.

It’s is not yours!

That’s why Communism is bad, that’s why we’re against Socialism. Not because they’ve got a red flag, or because they march funny, it’s because they’re taking all your property away. And when they take all your property away, they take away all of your rights! …

Winston Churchill said, “If you are twenty years old and you are not a Socialist, you have no heart. If you are forty years old and you are still a Socialist, you have no brain.”

Now what’s Churchill trying to tell us? Well, if you’re twenty years old and you’re listening to the advertising for Socialism. What does Socialism say? “We’re all going to have health care, we’re all going to have education, that we’re going to just live together, everybody’s just going to share everything, and we’re all going to sing ‘Kumbaya.’ Socialism is wonderful! How many people want to vote for wonderful socialism?

Well when your twenty, yeah, you’re idealistic “We just want everybody to love each other.” Isn’t that great?

Where’s all that healthcare coming from? Where’s all that free education coming from? Well, from the government. Where does [sic] they get the money from? Oh! I finally figured it out—forty years later. That’s not very much fun. So when you’re young and stupid, Socialism sounds like a great idea. When you finally grow up (hopefully not to late) Socialism sucks!

…somebody asked Karl Marx, “What would you need if you were going to start a Communist government from scratch?” … The Communist Manifesto is the answer. It’s not very long, basically just a term paper.

Read it. Why? Because a want you to be a Communist? No. I want you to know how they are attacking you. You have to understand the enemy.

The ten planks of The Communist Manifesto: Plank number one: abolition of private property. No property, no rights.

If I stand up on a soap box and I say, “I’m going to start a government where I’m going to take all your rights away.” How many people are going to volunteer? Nobody with half a brain!

So now Karl Marx stands on a box and says, “I’m going to start a new government and we’re going to take everybody’s property away.” They’re signing up like flies! … Basically the problem is they don’t understand that property and rights are related. If they take your property, you have no rights. And once you understand it, then you understand why Communism is evil. It’s not just a personal opinion, it’s evil: we’re taking your rights away.

Now, the other nine planks to The Communist Manifesto are basically just methods for doing the first thing. How are we going to take your property/rights away?

Well, number two is a heavy progressive income tax. A progressive income tax means that the more money you make, the higher the percentage. Do we have a progressive income tax in the United States? Yes! Can you say “I-R-S?” They don’t put the percentages, they change it and they convert it. If you make between 5,000 and 10,000 this is how much you pay. Between ten and fifteen this is how much you pay, and they give you the number. Well get your calculator and figure it out: the more money you make, the higher the percentage. What do you think [is] the highest percentage the IRS has ever collected? Right now I believe the top percentage is about 33%.What do you think the maximum was that the IRS has collected in history? Ninety-eight percent!

Between 1941 and 1942 during World War II, there were some people who were taxed 98%! That’s almost all! How come we didn’t have another American revolution? To hell with the Germans! I’m going to get my gun and start fighting here! You’re going to take ninety-eight percent of my stuff? You’re going to have to take it! If you think you are big enough to take it, come right on ahead! But I’m not going to give it up! That’s ridiculous.

[Plank Three:] abolition of all rights of inheritance. If your parents die, the government is going to take half. Why? What did they do to get half? They just want to make sure that they don’t leave you a million dollars so that you can get more and more money. It’s a lot easier to become a multi-millionaire if mom and dad leave you one [million] to start with! We don’t want that to happen!

[Plank Four:] confiscation of all property of immigrants and rebels. You ever fly internationally? You have to fill our a card, if you’re carrying more than 10,000 dollars they’ll take it! You want to leave the United States and go live someplace else? Goodbye! Leave all your money here! I have friends who want to move to New Zealand. They are trying to figure out a way to put their money in an offshore account so they can keep their money.

[Plank Five:] a central bank. We’re going to talk about the Federal Reserve.

We can go right on down the line. Ten out of ten items in The Communist Manifesto are here in the United States right now. Did you know that you live in a Communist country? Are you glad that you live in a Communist country?

What are you going to do about it? We’ve got to draw the line somewhere.