AgainstTheGrain98's Xanga

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:39:35 GMT

I am officially in love with this song. I think maybe this is actually the first time I've heard the original version of "American Pie," believe it or not. I think the song I remember is a remake. How weird is that?

a long, long time ago, I can still remember
how that music used to make me smile
and I knew if I had my chance, that I could make those people dance
and maybe they'd be happy for a while
but february made me shiver, with every paper I'd deliver
bad news on the doorstep--I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride
but something touched me deep inside
the day the music died...

so bye, bye miss american pie
drove my chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
and them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
singin' "this'll be the day that I die,
"this'll be the day that I die..."

If you want to see something really weird, go to http://www.understandingamericanpie.com. It's pretty amazing.
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 08:29:30 GMT

I feel like crap. I wonder if this cold is ever going to go away completely.

Okay, has anyone seen THIS music video? "A Million Ways" by OK Go? Go to their website: http://www.okgo.net. Then click on "video" and scroll down until you get to the video labeled "A Million Ways." Enjoy!
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Monday, September 25, 2006

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:25:23 GMT

We got to actually use the darkroom today! Yaaay! Okay, so we were only making test proofs and "proper" proofs of our first assignment (depth of feild--original, yes?), but still. Darkroom. Happy happy happy.

In about an hour and a half, though, I have to go to work. Crap. That's valuable time I could use to work on that take-home philosophy test that's due next week. (It's a miracle I remembered it before the actual due date. Can't say the same for that last Rouse journal, though. That, I remembered the day after it was due. Too late... I really should be using my planner more effectively.)

just when you think you're in control
just when you think you've got a hold
just when you get on a roll
aw, here it goes, here it goes,
here it goes again
aw, here it goes again!
I shoulda known, shoulda known,
shoulda known again
but here it goes again!

Yeah, I'm a bit dumb about procrastination. I should know better by now, but...yeah, I'm a bit dumb.
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Sunday, September 24, 2006

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 11:20:23 GMT

Rennfest was very fun. We saw the Rogues (awesome, as usual), Hack & Slash (hilarious, as usual), and Johnny Fox (a sword-swallower of whom I'd never heard before, but he was very good). Also: it was adventure weekend, so there were lots of pirates around. And one of them was the spitting image of Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow. It was amazing. He had the costume down, but he also LOOKED like him. Same tan skin, same goatee, same hair, same eyeliner, same everything. It was incredible. He even had Scarlett as an escort. Amazingness. After we got home, Mom took a picture of us in costume, but it came out blurry so I'm not going to post it. Greg and Mer both looked amazing though (Mer wore her usual awesome Rennfest gear: green skirt, white blouse, burgundy bodice and black muffin cap; Greg wore an awesome makeshift pirate costume: the boots with buckles he'd bought previously the last time we were there, leather pants, a frilly white shirt and a kick-ass pirate hat with red and white plumes; I wore Mer's spare costume, which was simply a black skirt and a green peasant blouse off-the-shoulders, but I bought one of those flower wreaths for my hair to complete what Mer called "the Earth Mother look").

Oh, and if anyone hasn't seen the music video of OK Go's "Here It Goes Again," go to YouTube.com and type in "ok go here it goes again" and prepare to be amazed. This is the lowest-budget, most original, and most incredibly fantastic music video I have ever seen. Seriously. Must-watch.
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Saturday, September 23, 2006

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 06:38:24 GMT

RENNFEST! Yaaay! And I get to see Meredith, which hasn't happened in forever. Yay.

I'm currently downloading American Hi-Fi's debut album. It was only $6.99 and I adore their song "The Geeks Get the Girls" so I thought, "What the hell." Looks promising.

And THIS album I'm still not done hearing yet, but it's very good so far. Yay, BNL!
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Friday, September 22, 2006

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 07:01:27 GMT

So today is ridiculously busy. I have to take my pictures before work. Then I have work at 9:30. I'm leaving at 12:30 for a doctor's appointment that starts at 1:00, and from there I have to get straight to the photo lab to develop my film. Crazy. (When am I going to have time to eat??)

AAAH! The album I ordered on Amazon.com finally arrived! "Songs for Silent Movies" by Something Corporate. It was ridiculously expensive for just seven tracks and four videos, but man, it's good to have a legal copy of "Konstantine" with no glitches in it.

Aaaand I'm still sick. *bleh*
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Thursday, September 21, 2006

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 19:15:07 GMT

So my older camera--the X370n--had issues getting started. I couldn't figure out how to make the meter work. Then I changed the batteries and all was well. So yeah, that's good.

Rennfest on Saturday with Greg and Mer! Exciting!!
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 19:58:54 GMT

I forgot my meds this morning. So I feel really, really horrible right now. I actually had to call in sick to work (for the first time ever) because I just didn't think I could possibly hold it together for two hours of shelving books.

So yeah. I need herbal tea and sleep.
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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:48:25 GMT

So, yesterday was incredibly frustrating. My beautiful Maxxum 5 died on me. I was using it, like normal, and suddenly I tried to turn it back on, and it wouldn't turn on. Pressed buttons, flipped switches, nothing worked. So I took it back to my dad and he opened the battery compartment, and the batteries were too hot to hold. It was so random. I hadn't dropped the camera or left it in the sun or anything. I'd been using the self-timer, but is that supposed to cause a short-out if you use it too much? Doesn't seem logical. So I bought new batteries and took them and my camera to my photography teacher. She told me to try putting in the new batteries, so I did, but it still didn't turn on. And when I took them out right after that, they, too, were hot. Freaky. I called the camera guy she recommended, but he said he can't do anything about a Maxxum, because Minolta (the company that made it) got sold to Sony, or something. Anyway, Sony owns Minolta now, and Sony needs to get itself together or something, and it doesn't have any parts out for film cameras yet. So basically, I'd be screwed if I didn't have my X370n. It's my first camera that I never got rid of, thank goodness. It has a small scratch on the lens, near the top, but that's okay. What really pisses me off about this whole thing is that I can't get my film out of the Maxxum. Oh well. There weren't any life-changing shots on there or anything, as far as I know.

So yeah. Frustrating day. But today was okay, except that I got temporarily stranded at HCC because I forgot my wallet (money and I.D. inside) so I couldn't take the bus home. Mom had to come get me. It was okay, though, because she wasn't doing anything major at the time. So yeah.

Greg should be here soon. I think maybe we'll go to the library and check out some movies.
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Monday, September 18, 2006

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:30:00 GMT

So yeah. That was fun and not fun, in a way. I was sick the whole time (it got really nasty Saturday night--stuffy nose, coughing, etc.--but it's getting better), so that was part of the not-fun bit.

The rafting was awesome. I fell out of the raft near the beginning when we got stuck on some rocks, and I hit my head (thank goodness for helmets!), and then Scooter, our guide, pulled me back in by the shoulders of my handy dandy life jacket. No real problem. So this was near the beginning, and we were all terrified. By the end of it, though, we were like, "Oh. Rapids. No problem." My falling out of the raft wasn't NEARLY as spectacular as when Lauren rode the bull. After we'd passed Dimple Rock, the most dangerous rapid of all (I'll explain later), Scooter stood up and said, "Okay, who wants to ride the bull?" and Lauren went, "ME!! ...Okay, what am I doing?" So Scooter went to the front of the raft and clipped what looked like a very thick lanyard to a metal loop on the nose of the raft. He told Lauren that you're supposed to sit on the nose of the raft, with the rope thing looped around your hand, and ride the rapids. You do this until (a) you fall backwards, into the raft, or (b) you fall forwards, OUT of the raft. The trick is to try to do the former and not the latter. Lauren rode the bull twice. The first time, she got a good ten seconds of riding in before she fell backwards. The second time, we were on rapids known as Pharaoh's Tomb (because of the pyramid shaped rock at the entrance to the rapids). And later, on the video, she looked awesome, with one hand in the loop of the lanyard and her other arm in the air, riding like there was no tomorrow. Until she fell forward. OUT of the raft. But it was all good. By that point we were kind of facing backwards. I saw the whole thing in slow motion, with Scooter yelling, "PADDLE FORWARD! PADDLE FORWARD!!" and "GRAB HER!" Lauren bobbed around and swam over to us as best she could, and Scooter lifted her back into the raft like it was nothing. Very cool. By that time, we were at the very end of the tour, and we just paddled on over to shore and that was that.

Oh yeah, and all the rapids and rocks and stuff had really funny names, seemingly assigned at random. For example, Schoolhouse Rock (groan), the Doldrums (a one-and-a-half mile stretch of "slow water" with nothing exciting), Stairstep (three drop-offs in a row), Pharaoh's Tomb (already explained that one), and Pidley ("It's about as scary as it sounds," Scooter told us. He was right). And also Dimple Rock. I'm not sure why they call it Dimple Rock, but it's the one where lots of people have died. Scooter told us this before we went though it, but afterward he told us WHY. It's because Dimple Rock is actually a boulder balanced on top of five smaller rocks (I totally didn't notice this, because I was busy following Scooter's instructions and trying not to die), and you can get sucked underneath the big rock and drown. Yikes. And did I mention that we watched a video...no. Okay. We watched a video before the whole rafting thing that said something like, "Welcome to Laurel Highlands Rafting," blah blah blah, etc. And then, "In forty years, there have been sixteen deaths here at Laurel Highlands." Christ! SIXTEEN! That scared me. The guy on the tape went on to say that about two million people have rafted the river in forty years, and the deaths were mostly due to people who had medical conditions or didn't follow instructions or didn't have a guide, stuff like that. So yeah. But still. Freaky. But we all lived, so that's good.

Yeah. Fun times. But I didn't get ANY homework done, and now I have photography class in about an hour. *sigh*
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