Holiday Hullabaloo

Taking time to enrich emotions
Well. It's been a week since my last time haunting these blogging halls. The echo of my footsteps along this metaphorical corridor reminds me of the solitude a baboon finds when bathing in the warm springs of a cold mountainous region.
Ahhhh.

Party like it's 1989
In the past week, holidays celebrations ensued ... and there was much rejoicing. During the week, it was my friend Megan's birthday and I went with my friend John to Cross Creek Tavern to celebrate. Good times. Then on Good Friday, I woke up at 4 a.m., took Sam to the airport and went to Oberlin. Then I brought Eddie down to school that night, arriving at 4 a.m ... helluva 24-hour day. Good times. We shot some footage for "The Fuzz" and Eddie celebrated Easter with me, Patrick, etc. Eddie and I had a pretty sweet time at the Easter Vigil. It was a 4-hour-long service and we were pretty delirious about an hour of the way into it. I thought that the lector was telling a joke about chariots, with the punch line being "The Word of the Lord," and I was momentarily offended by this blasphemy until I realized that it was just the third reading. We also realized how thirsty we were as the musicians sang about deer searching for running streams. Good times. Then on Easter, Eddie and feasted like nobody's business. We hit two
parties (Eddie also hit a restaurant beforehand) and we ate hella food.

The Burgh
Last night Eddie and I went to Pittsburgh to visit our friend Peter. We ate bean burritos and brownies. Mmmm. It was really good to see Peter and it was fun hangin with his roommates and pals. Eddie and I also went to Best Buy where Eddie got the new Mars Volta and the new Queens of the Stone Age CDs. Very exciting.

Well that's all for now. More to come. Same bat time ... blah.
P.S. Happy Birthday Vincent Van Gogh and special thanks to Google for daily educating our idiot culture. Put that in your blog and smoke it.

A Quick One

More lame Sports blogging.
Today I am pissed. After the great things he has done for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cavs' coach Paul Silas was fired. This leaves me absolutely befuddled. How could the Cavs just dropped this man, so full of love and emotion, who has done so much for this team, just like that? I should be writing my paper that is due in one hour, but I am so charged with emotion that I have to let this out. Today ... I am pissed.

McDonalds Saved Me For the First Time in My Life
The one saving grace from this crappy day has been going to eat Sausage Biscuits with Jim.

World Water Day
Today has been declared as World Water day for the 12th year in a row to promote water conservation. To celebrate, I will not be showering today. If you happen to see me, pardon my odor ... I'm trying to save the world here, okay?!

The Weekend Update

About this blog
I'm feeling tired. I'm feeling very tired. Jim woke me up this morning at 5:45 this morning to ask if I could take his girlfriend to the hospital. I was going to fix that last sentence I just wrote from saying, "this morning" twice, but I thought it would be more honest to explain how I feel right now if I left it. Jim and I stayed up with Robert until 2:00 last night, so I did not welcome this welcome this awakening in full form. To cut a long story short (like the Spandau Ballet song), I probably won't write much today, because it is exhausting.

Retreating to Middle Ohio
I went on retreat with Foot of the Cross this weekend. After a weekend in a sweet cabin in Loudonville, OH, complete with "bull riding," and 5th-grade-style pillow beatings. We finished the retreat on Sunday by going to my roommate Sean's hometown, visiting along the way: (Gorby's fave) Buffulo Wild Wings, The World's Largest Basket, and of course, White Castle. By the way, that link I found for "White Castle" ... I'm 98% sure it was drawn by this girl I knew from Oberlin. It was my favorite picture on the google image search, and I only realized after I had linked it that I knew the artist. Weird.

14% Man of the Year
Last night I participated with 6 of my peers in a Franciscan University competition called "Man of the Year." After a snowsuit competition and talent display, it came elimination time and I was the first "voted off the island" if you will. Probably because I was so nervous when I played the "Hail Mary/Magnificat" song in front of the audience on accordian, I was shaking like Michael J. Fox on speed.

On a trgically amzing note:
Last night the Cavs lost in Toronto to the Raptors ... but LeBron James scored 56 points. Fifty ... six ... points. He is the youngest player in NBA history to break 50. How is it that he does this and the Cavs still manage to lose? Only in Cleveland ...
LBJ said, "I played well, probably the best game of my life," Like anyone could know that, LeBron.

I've caught the disease that Francesca had and this time it wasn't from eating a mono sandwich.

Blog Cliff's Notes
Well, I had a post all lined up and sure enough, when I clicked "Publish Post" the whole thing vanished like a devout protestant caught up in the Rapture. Anyway, no sense in re-writing, so here's the summary of things you should know:
1. My post was very schizophrenic, so I linked a great Wesley Willis article.
2. I talked about my pavlovian association on St. Patrick's Day for my mom's Shamrock Cookies.
3. Both my basketball team and the Cavs lost.

A Wild Evening

Fat noises
As I was walking up to Gorby's rehersal this morning, I was thinking about what I was going to write on my blog while I was munching on a breakfast of half a bag of Canadian Doritos that I found in the trunk of my car. As I was making my way up the hill, I noticed that I started making "fat noises." Maybe my nose was stuffed up but I was walking, eating, and breathing heavily thru my mouth, like this: "Hrrugh, Hfah, Hruh, Hruh, Snugh." I kind of grossed myself out.

Buzzer-beater
I am not good at basketball. Actually I suck at sports in general. But this semester I've been playing on a team with Patrick and some other chums. We only won one game in "regular season" but we somehow made it in the playoffs anyway. Our first playoff game was last night and we dominated the other team. However, my big moment came in the last few seconds. I was put in for the last 5 minutes because we basically had the game in the bag, and we were inbounding the ball with 8 seconds left on the clock. Now, I had never scored a single basket in our games, in fact I played street ball over the summer, and never made a shot thru the whole summer. But today I felt lucky. Tyler stood out of bounds looking for someone to passed to. Suddenly I was free. I clapped for the ball. Tyler threw it to me. The clock ticked down as I dribbled the ball up. I stopped at the three-point line set up my shot and released. The buzzer went off ... and the shot went in. A victory for dorks and losers everywhere.

Drinking alone
Over spring break, my roommate Sean went over to Austria to visit his (now) fiance. I talked to him about his trip and he told me some great stories, particularly about meeting the sister and daughter of St. Gianna Berreta Molla while he was in Magenta, Italy. Dang. He also brought me back some Chio Tortilla Chips and a Kaiser Beer, a homebrew from the area he was in and a beer I enjoy very much. I was so excited to be drinking Kaiser again that I drank it alone in my room, while eating my tortilla chips.

Operation Totem Pole
The big story of the night, however, began last night at 11:30 p.m. My friends Robert and Sam were planning a mission and decided to let me in on it. The objective of "Operation Totem Pole" was this: go in right before closing, hide, and spend the night in Franciscan University's John Paul II Library. Sam and I pushed two desks together and crouched behind them in a corner of the second floor while Robert hid on top of a bookshelf. We stayed like that for 45 minutes. Sam and I prayed a decade of the rosary while we stayed the crammed like sardines, our muscles spasming from time to time. Finally Robert came to get us and said, "I think we're golden." We very cautiously crept out of our spots and did a final checkof the place to make sure we were safe. We were laughing and began making a video of the event. Robert brought Martinelli's Sparkiling Cider and popcorn to commemorate the occasion. We messed around some more and Sam went to bed at about 1:45 while Robert and I stayed up a little longer. At 2:00 a.m. we began listening to Francesca's birlliant Girl Scout Cookies story online, when suddenly we heard a noise downstairs. We froze, and sure enough a Jefferon Security guard soon appeared behind us. He said, "What's going on, boys?" We replied, "Just hangin out." After this he took a more stern tone, told us we couldn't be here and that we had to leave. He collected our I.D.s told us that Student Life would deal with us and escorted us out. As it was a partially successful mission, Robert and Sam decided they would get celebratory bowl cuts. It was a wild evening.

Jocking Gorby's Style

Papa's got a brand new Blog
So here I am. Copying off Gorby. The man is such a genius and I realized that the title-within-a-title format he uses is brilliant. It's organized, clear, and funky. So I'm going to parrot the master of all blogs.

Feeling like a bluegill in loan-shark infested waters
I've recently found out that I have five loans (funny that I should find out about loans I took out) totalling somewhere around $40,000. Two of them are federal loans and three are private. One of the private loans (for $3,500) has an interest rate of 9.2%! That means (for all you non-economics/math people) that each month that loan will grow roughly $315 larger. Yikes. I talked to this guy on the phone for a half hour trying to make sense of how these things work (consolidation, interest, etc.) and I think I'm more confused than I was before I talked to him.

Goin out with a bang
Despite my recent depression as a result of "financial awareness," I am thinking of taking out yet another loan. I know, I know. I should quit while I'm ... behind ... but this summer I plan to make the most of the end of my freedom. I plan on going to World Youth Day in Germany (after making week-long stops in Rome and Medjugorje) with the Murdoch family and even though I don't have the money, I want to make this happen. I talked to Richard's sister Jessica for over an hour the other night, and it got me really pumped for the trip. She's going on a tour with her Drum Core group and they're actually coming to Oberlin August 2! Yeah. After that, we would then head up to Toronto on August 5 to meet up with the rest of the family and leave for Europe. Richard might come too, which would be the best thing ever. Any ideas on fundraisers so I don't have to take out another loan? Anyone?

Meg's Miniature Munchies (alliteration ... like Gorby ... yet another rip-off)
Last night I met up with my friend Meg who recently got back from Belize. She read me some of her journal entries (entrys?) from the trip. They were really funny, particularly one in which she discovered that by splitting a peanut and putting a raisin between the two halves she could make miniature hamburgers. Hahaha. Brilliant. I also sold her two Lisa Loeb CDs which reminds me!: I'm planning on selling everything I own for half price of what I originally bought it for so if anyone is interested in buying some stuff, let me know. I first am going to filter everything thru my brother Eddie to see what he wants, but then everythings open market. I will probably advertise all my things here (or on friendster) after Eddie's picked thru it.

Anyway, life trudges on.

A Dull Tale of Whimsical Fancy

Mmm ... Culver's. Well, my strange obsession has been satisfied ... for now. After a two hour drive to Powell, OH (just outside Columbus) Patrick, John, and I arrived at that Frozen Custard Neverneverland (editor's note: I believe in my previous post I had said that Culver's was a frozen YOGURT place. Oh how wrong that is. The difference between frozen yogurt and frozen custard is vast). We stood in awe at the menu of delectible fried foods and creamy, icy treats. I ordered a triple waffle cone of the flavor of the day (strawberry cheescake). Mmmmmmmmm. I mentioned to one of the workers that we had driven two hours just for Culver's sake, and she thought it was so funny that she told the other workers, who then told the owner of that franchise who then came out and shook our hands. It was pretty funny.
We then drove around and decided to go see a movie at around 5:00. After killing sometime at a Borders, we hit Culver's up again, then went to see "Finding Neverland." Pretty disappointing. I had heard it was a good movie, but it seemed somewhat bland to me ... sort of substanceless. I didn't really care for the characters. However, I must admit, I did get a little moisture in my eye at the part where little Peter says, "It's magical." Not as many tears as when I saw Cuaron's "A Little Princess," which I was full out crying at when I saw it but ... um ... yeah.
After that, we went to see a play put on by a community theater group called the Emerald City players. The play was Woody Allen's "Play it Again, Sam." It was pretty much awful, but it was one of the funniest experiences I've had. The "theater" was a converted office building that smeeled like a dentist's office and the crowd consisted primarily of us and a bunch of old people. The funniest part of the situation I think was reading the bios in the program. Here are some examples: "Lauren loves Napoleon Dynamite, macaroni and cheese, diet A&W and being the center of attention." "This has been a great group to work with - no prima donnas here - as long as you don't mind Elaine and Wally kissings and cuddling all the time," "When she is not acting, Elaine enjoys pampering Wally and their two cats: Symphony B Minor and Cello Concerto 5." "He has also recently done some readings at his local library." and finally, "Thanks to Emma and Buddha for keeping my lap warm and chasng my yarn." TA DAAAA! As Patrick put it, "This is like High School for old people." I could go on about how annoying the guy who played the Woddy Allen character was, but I think this post is getting much too long. I'm feeling somewhat uninspired. Like I'm just going thru the blogging motions. End of line.

Spring is broken.

Hey pals,
Well it's official. I'm on spring break for real. Yesterday, my brother Eddie, my friends Patrick and John, and myself embarked on a TOL (that's "trip of a liftime" for those outside of the Hurley family of Pacifica). Yes it really happened. We went to niagara falls. In the middle of winter. It was. cold.
We arrived at about 5:00 p.m. yesterday, got a room at the Days Inn, saw the falls, ate dinner at a really strange and memorable place called Beef Baron, got some froo-froo beers, went swimming and went to sleep watching Conan O'Brien ... whom I would say that I loved and cherished if I didn't struggle with homophobia, social hangups, and overzealousfanaphobia ... but, whom I do love. and. cherish.
We got back to Oberlin today around 4:00 p.m. and the rest is history ... present history. It was sweet.
Tomorrow holds equally great things. We are either going to drive 2 hours to Powell, OH or 3 1/2 hours to Okemos, MI. The point? Both cities hold a dairy fortress that we plan to sally forth upon. These fortresses, being part of a nation-wide (but mostly Minnesota) chain, shall provide the same custardy goodness no matter which we choose. Our job, when we wake up, is merely to decide which fortress we shall storm. This chain, the Mecca of all frozen yogurt, the Butterburger capital of the world, is ... the one ... the only ... Culver's of North America! Ah yesss, sssoon ... my preciousss.

For Cesca's Sake!

Well friends, I don't have a lot to say, so I will take this time to address a question that Francesca had:
What is "the Fuzz?"
Well. I am currently in an "Advanced Video Editing" class. My friend Patrick and I decided to colaborate on our final project which will namely be ... "the Fuzz." Here's the quick summary:
"Undercover cops with mustaches bustin ass to uncover a video bootlegging ring run by a gang called the Outlaws of Ravenhurst."
It's a short shot on mini-DV using a Panasonic DVX-100a and should run about 15 minutes long.
In case you haven't read it already, things are not going altogether smoothly and the project sometimes gives me indigestion when I think about it. Pretty much the only thing we have shot is the opening and a scene involving my friend, the Black Diamond. But I have storyborded some of the stuff we haven't shot yet. To see half of a storyboard of one scene, click the link on the title of this post ("For Cesca's Sake!").
Anyway, big things ahead for spring break: tomorrow I get to go see the Cleveland Cavaliers. Hell yeah. Zeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

The Coz

So, after and extremely unproductive week of "shooting," Eddie and I drove down to Athens, Ohio to see possibly the funniest man alive...


Yes. Bill. Cosby. The Jell-o Spokesman, himself. "Jell-o puddin'!" He was incredible. All of his material was new (most of it about being over 50) except he ended by performing his "dentist" skit. It was awesome.
Spring break has just started and I'm at home along with two compadres. Patrick and I had a really great car ride today, talking about ... you know ... girls and stuff. We're debating whether or not to hit Niagra this week. Any other suggestions for spontaneous spring break activities? Anyone?
Let me level with you, folks. I have been feeling weird lately ... to say the least (by the way, Dr. Lewis taught me to put spaces on either side of the ellipses ... ). And by weird, I don't mean health, I mean emotion ... weird. I think I really needed this break from school. Thank God that I'll soon be in a barrel, tearing down the old falls and away from the mundanity (?!) of my daily life. By the way, here's a great quote: "To live without Faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for Truth, that is not living but existing." -Pier Giorgio Frassati. I don't know what patrimony is ... but the rest is pretty neat! ... I'm an idiot.
I stayed up till 4 last night watching episode after episode of Law & Order with my friend Meg and I still don't know if I like the show or not! Meg is in Belize this week and I am looking forward to getting a letter she promised to write me. Ahh the simple things. By the way, for all you folks with my address, I love receiving letters. Not emails ... letters. Well, emails are okay too ... but letters! Ahh.
Enough.
Goodnight Jennifer Lopez, wherever you are ... know that I've had enough.
P.S. Happy Birthday, Mama.

Snow Patrol

Ah snow. Why do I both love you and hate you at the same time. Monday night we were like little penguins drunk on Little Penguin, sliding around thru the slush, slamming into each other like we were playing some mad game of puckless hockey. We "snowmads" wandered around the wintery in search of rival ice-tribes looking for a fight in which we could pelt them with primal constructions of ice, dirt, and slush. We found them soon enough. It was glorious...(click the link on the "Snow Patrol" title to see the crew).
...at the same time it was terrible. Cold. Wet. Tiring. And the weather had slowed down production of "The Fuzz" to a frigid pace, much like how water molecules are slowed to a halt when exposed to extreme levels of cold. Much of the shooting we planned to do had to be cancelled.
Sometimes I feel like Terry Gilliam in the documentary "Lost in LaMancha." It just seems like EVERYTHING in a production that can go wrong DOES go wrong and there is nothing you can do about it.
"All in all, it all works out. I'm just a little freaked out." -David Byrne
Stay frosty.
P.S. Big ups to Francesca for advertising my lame blog. Thanks pal, much appreciated.