ARCHIVE 06.2002-08.2002

2002.08.21

So I'm sitting here in my office, with nothing really to do except sit around here in my office. Wow. So anyway, here I am, sitting here. In my office.

Yeah, orientation's interesting. I've met some people in the department; my future classmates and all that. There are basically seven or eight of us that'll end up hanging out together a lot, mostly because we're all in the same classes and all have the same things going on, and all have offices right near one another. Which is good, because we get along really well and already have thins kind of "bond" in that we all had to sit through a long boring speech at the opening luncheon together. It's adversity like that that makes hard and fast comrades out of people, I suppose. But we all get along really well and are really loud around each other. I guess that's a universal thing with theatre people, though. I don't know.

So what else is going on in my life, you may ask? Any special ladies out there or anything? To which I would answer no. There are some people I've met to whom I'm attracted that I wouldn't be averse to starting a relationship with if things should progress in that direction, and some I'm positively interested in. But I'm not going to press anything; I'll pursue friendships with the women to whom I'm attracted, and not make a secret of my attraction, but the next step has to progress from the stage of friendship to romantic relationship... one can't skip that first step, as much as one wants to. And there has been intense temptation to skip that first step recently, believe you me.

So I'm still trying to find a church and/or Christian community around here... the church that had changed their schedule over the summer without updating their webpage is having a thing next Tuesday night and I'm going to definitely check that out... I have someone I'm meeting with that night to talk about doing some dramatic ministry for them, and I'm going to see about joining their band too. But I don't know... we'll see.

2002.08.18

Orientation for grad school starts tomorrow, and I for one am quite ready to get myself orientated and meet some new people for a change. Last night I just sat around my apartment, not knowing anyone around here to hang out with and not knowing where all the other people who don't know anyone go to hang out with one another. This morning I tried to go to church, but was dismayed to find the church group not meeting where their website said they meet, meaning they might have moved without updating the site or that they don't do church in the summer (it's a student-oriented ministry.) Either way, it was a big mountainful of suck, because I wanted to meet some people.

In other news... well, there is no other news. My life is boring right now. But I'll have a lot to talk about tomorrow, hopefully, as I'll be meeting new people and sitting through the "Preventing Sexual Harassment" and "Multicultural Diversity" seminars, which I fear will be geared towards TA's promoting that in the classroom, something that does me no good since I'm not teaching. Besides, I'm not in the habit of harassing people sexually, unless asking a beautiful young lady if she'd like to get a malted with me at the Dairy Queen counts (not that I have yet, but I hope to), and if that does count then I need to move somewhere where courtship rituals aren't so hampered. And I'm not in the habit of being non-diverse - well, I personally am rather non-diverse, as one person can't be all that diverse (diversity, by definition, requires more than one person) but I like multiculturally diverse environments and enjoy living in them, so long as I don't have to deal with Luxembourgers. Lousy Luxembourgers, ruining it for the rest of us, with their... well, there isn't much there, but I'm sure there's something I disapprove of.

On the bright side, as I was driving down Main St. in Bowling Green the other day, I saw the most wonderful sight my eyes have beheld in so many months... a large sign on the front of one of the buildings saying "Skyline Chili... coming soon." A tear came to my eye (really!) as I thought, Soon! When's soon, and can it be sooner? I'm going to have a Skyline not a half mile from my apartment! God truly does provide.

2002.08.14

Day Two (or Three, depending on when you're counting from) in Bowling Green.... still not much to speak of in terms of things going on. I went home and ate with my parents, and then went to see my brother's band play at a youth group kickoff. They were okay... it was obvious that Dan was the best player in the group, but they were down a guitarist so they were kind of off their rhythm. They had some good covers, though, and the original stuff sounded good despite their need for a sound guy to do their mixing. And my parents took me out to dinner, and provided me with some pots in which to cook things, so it was a profitable venture. I also got my TV... but without an antenna, it appears that there are no channels here in BG, so I can't commence the dulling of my brain just yet.

No real artistic inspiration today, kind of a blah day really. Cloudy, a bit muggy, made me feel a bit rainy and gloomy inside, but not an artistic rainy and gloomy. It was more of an "everything's mediocre" rainy and gloomy, and that's no fun. It was one of those days that would have been completely saved by a sudden downpour of rain, really good wet rain to make all the ducks happy, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. And here I am talking about the weather in my blog. That's how you know I have a boring life. The fact that I'm calling it a blog like all the 1337 |<1dd13z and teeny-boppers do, marks me as... well, as something. I don't think of myself as a 1337 |<1dd13 or a teeny-bopper, but as a rational, artistic adult who happens to keep a little journal online about the artistic observations he makes each day.

2002.08.13

So here I am in Bowling Green, alone and bored on a Tuesday night. Not much to do here for the single guy who doesn't know anyone in town. Things should pick up next week, when the whole school thing starts and I get to meet some people, but for right now I have no connections here at all, and my TV isn't even here, taking away even the option of dulling my mind. So I'm stuck updating this weblog.

The move went great... not a hitch, in fact, unless you count the smoke that started billowing from the dash of my U-Haul truck as I pulled it out of their parking lot. Even that worked out for the better, thoguh, as I borrowed a friend's van AND eliminated the transportation problem all in one. The U-Haul would have been too roomy anyway.

Other than that, there really isn't much else going on... living on my own is kind of boring. But I have a lot more space now. And my own fridge, all to myself. Wowee. I'm such a lucky guy. But things will pick up next week... I'll have all sorts of people to talk about here.

One more thing... we have a mailman here. Not just an impersonal truck that drives by, but an actual, honest-to-goodness, tube-sock-wearing mailman who walks around the neighborhood and delivers the mail! His name is Corey, and he's a nice guy. If it wasn't for the cable guy trying to tell me where all the chicks go to get laid yesterday as he hooked up my Internet (unsolicited information, believe you me) I could easily fall into the whole "small-town nice-people charm" thing. Except for the minor detail that I'm a cynical bastard. And school hasn't started yet, so 30,000 drunken unudergrads are still yet to come. As I said, more in the next few days as the miscreants filter in. Hehehe.

2002.08.12

Actual conversation today, almost word-for-word, with the guy they sent to install my cable Internet...

Cable Guy: "So where you from?"
Me: "Brighton."
CG: "Brighton? You ever heard of Put-In Bay?"
Me: "Driven past it a few times... never been there."
CG: "Well, if you're a partier, you should go to Put-In Bay... always these huge parties there every night. Chicks just go there, just to give it up. It's awesome."

Well... helluva start in BG, eh?

2002.08.09

Another day, another dollar, I suppose, except that my current income is zero so I should just be saying another day. Well. All my worldly possessions - save my computers and mattress - are now sitting in my living room, waiting to be put on the U-Haul truck and whisked away to the magical place known as Bowling Green. My room is but a shell now - it seems so large once I remove the myriad of things I had in there. Fortunately, my new place is small too, so it should be cozy and all the things I have should fit in there without too much room to spare, so I should be able to live there without the agoraphobia kicking in.

Went to Schuler's today, not once but twice. Wow. Two times. Read some more of McCullough's John Adams, and I'm starting to see some similarities between me and the fellow. I guess that's one of the best reasons to read biographies of historical figures, to learn how great and/or infamous people did their great and/or infamous deeds and how we can follow and/or avoid their paths. All I know is that I'm going to have to find a suitable bookstore in BG to while away the afternoon hours until I get into school (at which point I'm going to be whiling away the afternoon hours - and all the other hours - in my considerable studies.) In addition to taking all my theatre courses, I'm also thinking about talking to a language professor at BG about maybe getting some tutoring in a foreign language, as that knowledge will be valuable to me in the future. At the least, I mean to learn one from a book. I've also been meaning to brush up on my math, to give my poor underused left brain a little exercise. I also have to find out what the whole health club arrangement is up there at BG, so I don't go growing all horizontal-like - not that there's all that much risk of that, since I'm not going to have the money to afford a horizontal-growth's worth in food.

2002.08.08

A beautiful day. Nice, cool, sunny... which explains why I spent most of it indoors. I did sit at Schuler's today for a bit, and ran into my friend Rachel Zylstra. She was giving Schuler's a few copies of her new CD to put on the shelves. An hour or so later, I was sitting in an unusual haunt for me (one of the comfy chairs by the music section rather than my usual table by the window) reading David McCullough's outstanding biography of John Adams when I saw the guy actually put the CD's on the shelf for sale. She had a little plastic tab with her name on it and everything. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal, except that I really believe in Rachel and think she's going places, and I might have been inadvertently and randomly sitting there while a big first step was taken. Interesting.

Which makes me wonder what other big moments we might be missing every day. Every single day is a turning point in someone's life somewhere... every day, people die, people are born, people are diagnosed with terrible diseases, and people are told that they are cured of terrible diseases. Every day, someone meets their future spouse. Every night is someone's first date. How many of these moments do we witness; how many times might I be sitting at Schuler's drinking coffee while the guy next to me could be writing the next Catcher in the Rye, or the next On the Road? I wish there was a way of knowing when the significant moments happened in other people's lives; I wish a heavenly light or something would shine on their heads as the thing happened that changed them forever. Often, it's just a look, a chance word, a freak of traffic or of nature or of the weather that brings people together, that tears people apart. Coincidence nudges us all, sending us spinning and reeling in unheard-of directions often without our knowing. How many of these moments am I inadvertently a part of? Just food for thought, I guess.

2002.08.07

From an IM chat recently...

Me: So you just want some poor sap to like you so that you can turn him down and he can live out the rest of his days in unrequited love?
Schtein: YES! that'd rock!
Me: Wow. Women really are evil.
Schtein: no, only i am

I don't know whether to be ironic or wistful or deadpan or what with this one.

2002.08.05

For all those of you hoping that I'd be updating this log more often, well, then you're out of luck, I suppose. I guess the fact that I haven't updated this in a month and I still have virtually nothing to say is a testament to exactly how little is happening in my life this summer. Of course, considering all the crap that went down last summer, I think an uneventful summer is a good thing in many ways. At least nothing bad happened.

Okay, went to Bermuda, went to Cedar Point, hung out a lot at home, went to Schuler's (local bookstore) every afternoon to drink bottomless coffee and read books I don't own. That's really about all that's been happening in my life in the "real" world. Seriously. I'm that boring.

Well, okay, I'm packing. To move. Next Monday. I suppose some may think that's an event of some worthiness, moving away from the home I've known for four years and the guys who are closer than family. I, too, think it's significant, but as I haven't moved yet, it hasn't happened. I'm going to shut up now.

In my mind, though, it's been a virtual flea circus of excitement, but without the itchiness. I've been thinking about a lot while doing so little. I guess that's how these things work.

Many of the books I've been reading recently at Schuler's are biographies of great people, and I was struck by the fact that so many great people in the past have been persons of letters. They frequently corresponded by mail, and through those letters historians have been able to reconstruct much of their lives. This makes me think about a lot of things - such as the fact that we, as a Western society, are no longer a society of letters. It used to be that when one was separated from one's significant other, they would write back and forth - letters - and send them through post. Then came the telephone, but long-distance costs made calling one's sig daily an expensive proposal, so they still wrote letters. But now, with email, the art of the letter - a summation of one's thoughts and feelings, organized and recorded, to be sent by a not-very-quick mode of transit - has been lost. In its place is the email - usually very unscripted, undeveloped, not exactly the most well-thought-out thing, because, hey, if you make a mistake you can always send a quick one-liner to make up for it.

I wonder if we, as a society, have lost something integral with the advent of the Information Age. Children now are taught to type almost as soon as they can write, and learn to compose their essays and writing pieces on computers. We live in an age where if communication is not instantaneous, then it has no worth, where if a good friend takes more than a few days to reply to your email then you wonder where he or she has gone.

Just something I was ruminating on. Ignore it at your own peril.

2002.06.27

I haven't updated this in a while. I tried once, but my computer went haywire before I could save the file. Such things happen, I suppose.

Not much happening in my life. Still very much unemployed, a condition which I fear will last throughout the summer, up to the point when I leave for BG. Still very much single, a condition I expect to last the same amount of time, if not longer. Still very much bored and very much trying to get things done in my life, like writing and getting in shape. The trouble is that (a) it's hot and (b) I'm lazy.

I've been thinking of writing a treatise on the evolution and properties of the postmodern church. Using Centrepointe and its "inspiration churches" as models, I'm going to discuss what makes the postmodern church different from more traditional churches and how postmodern churching can reach a unique portion of the world that can't be reached any other way.

Good news... it looks like living at Bowling Green next year is going to be slightly less expensive than I thought it would be. I was planning on about $400 a month in rent; having paged through a few documents about renting in the area, it looks like I'm going to be able to get a studio apartment for more like arount $300. Considering my aforementioned unemployment, this is very good news. That means that there's a good chance I'll be able to live on my stipend.

I really need to do more writing. I never seem to think I have ideas, and then I sit down and start writing and it just flows. I think my problem is more a lack of motivation than lack of inspiration. I just have to get a whole bunch of crap on "paper" (or whatever you call MS Word) and sift through it later for the diamonds (or in the case of my writing, cubic zirconium) in the rough.

In other news, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declared yesterday that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because of the words "Under God." I'm going to go out on a limb here and attract FBI attention (please note that I'm not a terrorist) in saying that I agree with the court. While I may be a follower of Christ and a firm believer in God, I don't think it's right to push my religion on someone else, because (a) it's their right to believe whatever they want to believe and (b) it won't help my ministry or witness any if someone feels as if God is being shoved down their throat. More bees to honey than to vinegar, and all that rot. Politically, I believe that the only religion of the State should be the rights of its people.

That's really about all for today. I hope to write more commonly in there, now that I'm slightly more motivated.

2002.06.06

mistersite.net is now up. w00t. I have to figure out how to build my own comment engine, or just outsource some kind of message board service so that people can comment on these things, because that's one thing deadjournal has that this doesn't. But that's a thing for tomorrow (more, more appropriately, next week.)

I'm listening to Debussy's "Claire de Lune" right now, and I think that it's one of my favorite pieces of music of all time... it's so relaxing, and yet not in that simple "1-6-4-5 chord progression" way. It's just a very peaceful song... I love it.

I've been thinking of writing a psychological piece about a person who believes he is damned - who believes in the doctrine of double predestination (though not in so many words) and who believes, who knows, that he is one of the degenerate, and how this affects how he conducts his life.

I've also been thinking of writing the sitcom for Becky, "My Three Gay Friends." Damon and I were talking about that today... that's a sitcom ripe for the taking. Or maybe a play, a la Neal Simon. Hmmmm.

"Seasons may change, winter to spring... but I love you, until the end of time..." (Playing on my mp3 box right now)

2002.06.05

I'm still unemployed. I need a job. Bad.

In other news, it looks like mistersite.net is a go - soon. I'm not moving off of Geocities, just setting up a spoof DNS so that I can tell people "go to mistersite.net" rather than "go to a really long web address that i'm going to write down because it's too long to say and I don't like being too verbose about things, especially things like web sites." The site isn't up juuuuust yet, but since I paid the people $30, it darn well better be up soon.

Propping for Jewish got better today, as I secured from Israels the privelege of loaning from them a couch, two chairs, and a carpet. That means it's down to a kitchen table, chairs, a sofa table, and two end tables that I have to find by... Sunday. w00t.

But I'm FINALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!!! I just got the final assignment for Directing in today. So that's one less thing to worry about.

2002.06.01

welcome to mister site, version 1.0. this is basically going to be my weblog... deadjournal is frustrating because they don't give me enough control or power over my own fate, so i'm making my own weblog where i can post all my creative materials for all the world to see. as if any of them care. darn world.

anywho, the site itself is pretty darn self-explanatory. just click on one of the links to the left and away you'll go, whisked on a magical journey of adventure and wonderment. or something like that. anyway, do what you have to do. get to it, now. go on. seriously, go. stop reading this. there is no more here for you to read. (except the copyright notice below.) this is the last i'm writing here. i'll stop writing, starting now. wait, now. no, now.