Phase Two

Hi.

Well, this is awkward. I haven’t done this in a while.

You, too? Good. I’ll be honest, I’m kind of nervous.

Anywho, that’s enough with the dating metaphor. *deep breath* Well, a lot has happened since I last posted. I got beat in the face by a semester that blindsided me. The museum moved because it wasn’t doing well. I’ve been getting into Eastern cultures and philosophies (and I want to learn how to play a shamisen). Fun stuff. Basically, I’m still just taking life on one step at a time.

That semester I mentioned? Yeah, it was last semester. By advisor told me to take “Sedimentology and Stratigraphy,” the study of sediment and strata (which are layers of rock). Anywho, I trusted my advisor. Apparently, this was a bad idea. Who knew? He signed me up for it and it was a four-thousands level class. I hadn’t even finished my two-thousands level courses yet. (Still haven’t.) I loved the course, but it slapped me across the face a couple of times. Passed, but with a D. Ouch. The instructor was an old cynic who earned points in my book with his sense of humor (dry and condescending against society) and teaching (made people think on the conceptual level as opposed to “HEY, LET’S REGURGITATE SOME INFO, HERE). Cool guy. Stapor was his name. Unfortunately, he’s retiring, so if I take it again, he won’t be teaching it. (I’ll probably take it again to really learn the material well.)

Museum left. No one was really going to it. He needed volunteers less and less, which worked out with last semester. And I wasn’t getting paid. I wasn’t there for the money, but it forced me to come back home during the summer, which I’m sure didn’t help. Luckily, it’s near where I hope to go for my graduate degree. So maybe I’ll see Jerry and the museum again. If anyone who reads this passes through Kingsport, TN, stop by. Hell, he’s got a T-Rex. And he’s going to get a woolly rhino.

I love studying other cultures, and the East has always been a particularly interesting set of cultures. I guess it’s because it’s so different from our way of thought. When I think of a stereotypical office worker in America, I think of an overweight balding male. If I think about one from Japan, I think of a medium-to-light built Asian with a full head of hair. I know that might not be reality, but to an extent, it’s probably true. I’ve read that the Japanese tend to have work out breaks during their work day. At least when it comes to their major companies. Anywho, I’m sorta on a tangent. I’ve been studying everything from the chakras to shamisen. I’ll do another post about my studies specifically.

Thanks, Hawg, for getting me back into this.

That is all.

Jerry told me that he’s pushing for June 1st to be a soft opening for the museum. I’m going to bring some family and friends along. Can’t wait.

But more importantly, that means the grand opening won’t be too far after that. Maybe even later that week. It’s hard to believe. (Partly because we were going to open December the first. And now look at the date.) The hard work everybody’s done is finally paying off. (Especially for/because of Jerry himself.)

I’m going to post some pics later. But right now, it’s late. I’m tired.

A group of guys created Mega64. Basically a bunch of nerds dressing up like video game characters and confusing the crap out of ordinary citizens. On their MGS4 video, things just got jacked up. Guess who they run into (intentionally)?

HIDEO KOJIMA AND CLIFFY B. (If you don’t know who those are, you can basically ignore the whole post and not lose a wink of sleep.)

They’ve become that famous.

http://mega64.com/2009/03/30/metal-gear-solid-4/

I wondered how long it’d be until I got spammed. I’ve gotten several on my “Join In” post. I’m not entirely sure why, but it really doesn’t matter. I deleted the comments. *shrugs* I’m not even sure if the others aren’t spam as well.

Anywho, I believe the museum now has a specific opening day now. June 6th. I didn’t hear that from Jerry, so I’m not sure if that’s right. But yeah, if that’s true, I can’t wait for it.

So today, I was sitting in my car, riding around with Haley, my girlfriend. I had just picked her up. We were talking and having a good time.

When…

A red 60′s covertible Mustang drove by. I looked at Haley, who was in my passenger’s seat, and said, “Sorry.”

I promptly started following the Mustang until it was unreasonable to continue.

Sorry that it’s taken me so long to post about this. Things got busy the day after the concert.

The first two bands tried hard, but just weren’t that good. It wasn’t all their fault, either. For some reason, the techies made the instruments be overbearing compared to the microphones for the vocals. Also, there just weren’t that many people there. Which can be discouraging.

However, The Features, the headliner, didn’t let that bother them. Actually, you’d think the place was jam-packed if all that you had seen was their performance.

And they made sure that they were heard. Save one time, they never had a problem with vocals. In fact, I was really surprised how talented the main vocalist was. I’d heard their previous album, Exhibit A, and I knew that he could be. But nowadays, that can easily replicated in the studio. Armed with some type of Gibson CES, this vocalist gave what seemed pretty much all of the voice he had. Along with the pianist, the bass guitar player, and the drummer, he gave a performance that, in all honesty, shocked people. I talked with a few people afterward and got comments like, “Man, I’d never heard of those guys before, but that was a kick ass concert.”

The playlist was evenly mixed, some from Exhibit A, some from their new album, Some Kind of Salvation. (Which are the only LPs they’ve put out so far.) I had Exhibit A before the concert. I ended up buying Some Kind of Salvation and a limited print 7 inch of theirs.

There were only a few people who knew of them beforehand. And you could pick them out. They were rockin’ out hard. They enjoyed that night. (So did the people who had never heard of them, but they were a little less obvious.)

I was ridin’ the post-concert high the next day. (Which was good. I had a test I needed to tackle.)

The same thing we do every night, Pinky….

But seriously. Tomorrow night The Features are going to play here. FOR FREE. Free food. Free music. Maybe meet some new people. This is gonna be kickin’. I’ll post how it is afterwards.

http://www.myspace.com/thefeatures

Also, the in-class fencing tournament starts tomorrow. I’m hoping that I’ll do well. (Same for the igneous rock test that’s sure to be next week.)

I heard River might post soon.

April Fools Day.

Hey. I want to post a couple of links up and I want anyone who reads this to just look at them. At least do that. There is a lot of injustice out there. I live in the U.S. Statistically, I’m one of the richest people in the world. Just because I was born here. Not by choice. Not by working hard. I have wealth because I was born here.

http://www.amnesty.org/

This summer, I’m going to get a job. Also, my birthday’s coming up this summer, as well. To stir things up, I’m going to give a good percentage of all of the money I get to Amnesty International. Also, I know a professor at the university I go to who used to donate and do things for this organization. I’m going to try to get a small group going (I hope) to either donate or in some way help Amnesty, hopefully with the professor’s help.

Whether you’re in high school, or past grad school, you can help too. High schools, colleges, even the office. All of these are good ways to get a group of people together to support a cause. This isn’t a guilt trip. This isn’t me begging. I just want to extend my hand to show you that there is a way to help others who need it.

Music: “All Along the Watchtower” by Bob Dylan