The Olympics is just a big ego-booster for people who obsess over sports. Not that it's a bad thing. As long as I get to see Ryan Lochte in a speedo, I'm good. Oh yes, I am gooooood.

So there's synchronized swimming and diving. And I was thinking of other sports and things that would be cool if they were synchronized. Like, synchronized balance beam or other gymnastic areas. Or maybe synchronized trampoline. Or synchronized running. That'd be pretty awesome if two guys ran together in sync with each other's like leg turnovers. Awesome. Let's see... what else would be cool synchronized?? uhh.... maybe... nah... Synchronized archery. You'd have to be really good at that. Or someone might end up with an arrow in their ass. Maybe like, synchronized skydiving with tricks. I guess that kind of goes back with the original synchronized diving genre. Synchronized golf would not be good because then there would be two boring overly rich guys playing oversized putt-putt.

Blegh, I put waaaaay too much thought into this.Or maybe not enough... hmm....

Man, I used to update these things like every day with the tiniest details. I mean, I fucking wrote things like... liek.... um, "he had a shirt with blue striped\s, but they didn't really match his pants which had purple plaid on them.." I mean, that paints a picture in your mind, right? You can picture this guy walking down some hallway with this ridiculous and very unfashionable outfit on. But not anymore. No more details ever. It's just like, "this guy walked by me." MAYBE that much. That's on a day when I feel like I should let people know what's really going down. But now. Now I don't even update about my life. I used to think, "Man, I should really write my life down so I can look back on these years and be like, "Whoa... I totally remember that guy with the pants and the shirt"". Sorry for the quote within a quote there... I didn't even really know how to punctuate that thing. I mean, it looks like I held down the apostrophe button for a tad too long. Anyway, I digress. I never really have anything to update. I would update about my day at school, cross country practice and how much I hated, but how much I liked my coach and teammates so I stayed on the team, the occasional concert, boys. But now, nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zippo. Goose egg. More synonyms for zero. I guess I grew out of that phase. I'm going into college and now I'll be writing papers, sometimes going to class, going on road trips to Disneyland or Six Flags, partying. When am I going to have the time to keep up with a LiveJournal or any other blog for that matter? Can we just stop for a second... I hate that word... "blog". How did that become and acceptable word? "Hmm, we need a name for an online journal that people think that other people read and care about. What should we name it?.... Oh! I know! BLOG! Yes, that makes perfect sense." How did we get brainwashed into accepting that into our everyday vernacular. It's just silly the words we come up with. And how if you write or say one word too much, it looks or sounds wrong. Like I wrote "blue" too much and it totally looked wrong for liek 3 days. I was like "That is NOT how "blue" is spelled. No way. Impossible." But it was right. It's very weird also how there are SILENT LETTERS. Like, that's weird. There are like silent consanents as well as vowels. Heck there is a silent K in "knight". That's odd. A silent K? Really? Alright. If you say so. This might be the strangest entry I've ever made on anything. There's probably some spelling errors in this because the SpellCheck kind of stopped working after it told me I spelled "didn't" wrong, but it's totally right. You can never trust these machines, I tell ya that.

PEACE BROTHER.

P.S. Go see PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. Iz gooood.

So, my brother and I were very bored this summer and we decided to start writing music reviews. It originally started out as movie reviews because we were watching Schindler's List and we thought it'd be cool. But so far, we've only written reviews for like 3 CDs haha. It's a pretty slow process since we both have work and we have to listen to the CD all the way through and take notes on the CD for our reviews.

We even have a website [a FreeWebs site haha] that we are trying keep going. It's pretty good since we have no idea how to make a website. Taking webpage design in high school was a waste of time. It was pretty much a second study hall for me. But I wish we had learned something because I want to know how to make a website! grr.

We've reviewed bands like Coldplay, the Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Kings Of Leon, Pink Floyd, and MGMT. But we need to start reviewing CDs of bands that we don't LOVE. I could review a Rolling Stones album because I'm realy not a very big fan of theirs. But I just don't want to sit through their stuff haha. How lame is that?

I can't wait to take my music classes in college for my Music Business certificate!

I've been listening to a lot of music lately; going to Bonnaroo and other concerts and listening to my iPod non-stop. Music is just amazing. It blows my mind that people have learned to manipulate these instruments to create beautiful melodies and rhythms. The sheer fact that one second there is silence, and the next there is a song being played is crazy. The instruments come together to create the melodies, rhythms, beats, etc. and it is just insane.

It basically comes down to one word: vibrations. That's all music is. Vibrations. Pluck a guitar string. It vibrates and it plays different pitches, depending on where you place you hand on the fretboard. A guitar is just wood with strings on it, yet they can produce the most heartwrenching sounds that can reduce a person to tears. Wind instruments like the flute or trumpet cause sound vibrations that travel to your ear. With percussion instruments, the drum heads and cymbals vibrate to give off their different sounds. It's just awesome to me that vibrations are music.

Putting together instruments to create songs always blows me away. I had to compose a rendition of The Beatles song Because for three flute parts and a guitar part. It was very tedious work to get all the flute parts to harmonize (another thing in music that is astounding) and to add a guitar part that worked well. All these orchestra composers writing symphonies are extremely talented people. The different movements within each musical section meshes perfectly. And even the modern-day bands have amazing abilities. One of my favorite bands, Dave Matthews Band, are still rocking the violin and flute/saxophone into their songs. And it fits perfectly. They know what works and what doesn't. It's amazing.

I absolutely adore going to concerts. It brings a tear to my eye when I see other people so into the music. Dancing around, bouncing to the beat, singing the lyrics at the tops of their lungs. All these people have different stories and different backgrounds, yet they can all come together at these shows and unite under the beat of the music. Music is international and everyone can enjoy it. That's one of the main reasons that music is such a big part of my life. It can unite people.

But, I want to know another thing. I want to know why some people like one genre of music over another. What draws a person to acoustic music and not heavy metal? Or vice versa? Is it a person's temperment that directs that? If they are an aggressive person, is Metallica perpetually playing in their head? Maybe John Mayer is always running through the calm, quiet person's mind. But I know both exceptions to this theory, but there are always some people who don't fit the mold.

Or maybe it's what you are brought up listening to. My dad played Supertramp and Aerosmith for my brother and me when we were little. I distinctly remember hearing Supertramp at many times in my childhood. My first cassette was of Nine Lives by Aerosmith from my dad. Now my main tastes are for the 60's and 70's rock & roll.

Yet, there are no set rules or formulas to this musical mystery. I, for one, cannot stand country music. It's too twangy and always about cowboy boots or something ridiculous. Yet, I can listen to bluegrass music fine. Bluegrass and country are very closely related on the musical spectrum. I think that with bluegrass, there is an insane amount of musicianship and I appreciate it more. Bela Fleck plays the banjo and he is incredible. I love that.

I like to think that I have a wide variety of musical tastes. From Bob Marley to Radiohead. Yet, some days it depends on my mood. When I try to find new music nowadays, I look for bands that have influences from other bands that I already like. Everything stems from a similar genre for me.

But then again, I have my guilty pleasures. And they certainly deviate from the 60's and 70's rock and roll. I have a soft spot for Kanye West's music. But it's mainly for his lyrics. I like his lyrics and he just so happens to be a rap artist. I like some techno/elctronica groups. For example, MGMT. Experimental bands are high on my list like The Flaming Lips.

So, everybody who read this, don't take music for granted. It's an amazing thing.

So it's really nice to be flirted with hahaha. It boosts the ole self-esteem up pretty high to be quite honest. At the Starcadia lock-in tonight, I was helping some friends pick out what to get for their tickets and the 2 guys up there started making fun of me! So I called them on it and it's all downhill from there haha. One of them wasn't too cute... he had half a thumb. I'm not even lying!! But the other guy was pretty cute. :) HAHA. I love being a complete loser. And I looked like CRAP tonight. I rode the go-karts and my hair was all messy and gross, I had a wooly hat on, and I was in a sweatshirt. But still I guess I radiated self-confidence and I was able to pull off full flirt mode.

It kinda reminds me of a boy I REALLLLLLLY liked in 10th grade. He was a senior. I was still in my awkward years. I mean, AWKWARD years. I had acne, braces, unkempt hair, the works. Yet, he still wanted to hang out with me and he texted me and IM'd me all the time. I guess because I kinda know who I am and I just act like myself. He laughed genuinely at all my jokes. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I think I'm a pretty funny person. I've got good timing with my jokes and all that. And if a guy tries to make me look dumb, I reverse it on them haha. Sometimes it works, and other times it backfires completely. Like tonight. I was asking what I could get for like 10 tickets and the cute guy said "Lots of candy!" and I was hyper enough so I said, "Ugh.. I don't need candy..." To which he replies, "Well, we have hummus!" I have no idea what that is, and I told him this. "It was a joke, we really don't have that.." "Ha... great joke!" "It would have been had you known what hummus was!" haha. I guess you have to be there.

What I'm saying is... it's nice to be noticed. :)

I honestly can't stop crying. He was so young! He had his whole life ahead of him!! And his daughter! This is killing me.

:(

 

For some reason, I've been thinking a lot about nicknames and how they can mean different things. I guess because I'm called a constant stream of nicknames, mostly in varying forms of my last name. But there are differing connotations for nicknames, I think. You can be called a nickname and you are being accepted as a friend. Another use of a nickname is to demean someone and hurt their feelings. Or a nickname can mean that there is no chance for a relationship with a guy/girl. The last one is a little different from the other two noticeably.

But first, being accepted. It always feels good to be accepted by a group of people. Nicknames can make a friendship more inclusive. Or it can mean they don't remember your name, but let's go with inclusive. For example, my friends call me "Tank" or "Tankdawg" or "Tankie" depending on the person. Having a nice nickname just feels good. Feeling accepted is a big part of life. Nobody wants to float through life nicknameless and unaccepted. That's just not natural. It's not natural for people to be alone. Otherwise there wouldn't be like 6 billion of us on the earth.

Having a bad, mean nickname is a different story though. Now, I'm sure everyone has been called names by an older sibling or bullies at school. Does not feel good at all. Maybe it's butthead, moron, retard, wide-load [for the heavier ones out there], but regardless of what name it is, it hurts. It can tear you down inside and out. You'll dwell on the negative thing portrayed in the nickname and it can truly hurt. I know. For years on end, my brother continuously called me Ugly and it used to not bother me. Up until middle school I never let it bother me, but then the awkward years hit me. And I believed him every time he said that. I never went out with friends or anywhere. I hated going to school because I thought that everyone was making fun of me like my brother was. But I eventually got over that hump in my life and now I couldn't care less what my brother says about me because I know he's just trying to be an ass... and succeeding. So, I guess what I'm saying is, try not to listen to everything people say too closely? I don't know.

But when a nickname comes from someone you like, that's a killer. Because you know there will NEVER be a relationship in the future. When you get a nickname from a guy/girl you like, it's game over. It's like you are shut into the FRIENDS ONLY vault in their mind. That place sucks, by the way. There's nothing worse than hearing that nickname come out of his/her mouth because you know it's friends from here on to the end of time. You start to hate that nickname haha. I know I did. I just wanted to scream. It's happened on a few occasions and it's just annoying. You wish you could turn back time and have them NOT say it. But I don't know. All I know is it sucks to like a person and they don't like you back. But that's common knowledge I suppose.

This post is kinda lame and cheesy, but I just have been thinking about that a lot. Because I frequently hear all three types of nicknames on a daily basis. And I wish it was only two of them.

So, as of Friday night, Meredith, Mrs. Weems, and I started The Bovie Club. We went to see The Kite Runner [more detail about the movie later] and we had all loved the book. When we were in the car leaving, we decided that we should do that more often. We are going to read books and then watch the movies! Yes, it is nerdy, but really awesome. The next one is The Other Boleyn Girl. They've both read it, so Meredith is letting me borrow the book so I can catch up. We are going to do that with Atonement as well. But again, we still need to read it.

Then, tonight, after Monica, Meredith, Mary Grace, and I saw Sweeney Todd [even better the 2nd time!!], I told Meredith I wanted to go to Barnes & Noble. And lo and behold, Mrs. Weems is there grading mid-terms! HA! So we talked with her and it has been decided that we are going to meet in the summer to watch movies that the other people in the group haven't seen. For instance, we're going to show Mrs. Weems Sin City, Meredith will be shown The Shawshank Redemption, and I will be shown Walk The Line. It's going to be GREAT!! Oh yeah, I bought Scar Tissue [Anthony Keidis biography] and Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. :)

Anyway, about The Kite Runner. It was only us three in the theater at the 10:15 showing. It was awesome though because we could talk as much and as loud as we wanted to. And we did haha. But the movie was amazing. Granted, it did cut out some good parts from the book, but they had to cut it for time. And we wished it had been rated R instead of PG-13 so they could have shown more, but nevertheless it was awesome. There was one point in the film where all three of us were SOBBING. Like uncontrollably. It was a good bonding moment haha. Especially when you are hanging out with your English teacher. It's not new for Meredith because they hang out all the time, but I was a n00b lol. We even went over to Weems' house and watch part of a movie beforehand with her and her good-looking husband, Brant haha.

I was kind of worried tonight, mixing two groups of friends. Meredith is a good friend, but she is in a different group of friends as Mona and MG. Monica and MG are at my lunch table and have been my friends for a while and are usually who I hang out with more. So I was the bridge between them. It's always awkward mixing groups of friends. I don't think I could mix up my youth group friends with my school friends. And even with my school friends. I have my Cross Country buddies, my band buddies, my all-around buddies, my Mock Trial buddies, my theater buddies. Some of those overlap, but for the most part, they are separate. It's just crazy I guess.

I let my cousin borrow my Superbad DVD and my 40 Year Old Virgin DVD. I told her to mail them back when she was done with them lol. Those are my babies!! haha.

A nice bowl of Ramen is calling my name... laterz.

I have a blogspot as well as an LJ so I think I'll copy and paste those into here. I mean, I don't really write about every little happening that happens during the day, so this and the blogspot aren't updated daily. And copying and pasting is just fine with me! :) Here's what I wrote last night...

So I've decided to change my major... again haha. This time I know for sure I do NOT want to do law. It's too much reading and critical thinking for my liking. I plan on going into business now and follow that up with music courses. I want to be a music producer. And I need to talk to some people who have done that. My mom has a co-worker whose son just got done with a 6 week internship in London for SONY and he said he would be glad to talk to me about that field. He's only like 20 which is crazy. I asked my parents if I could do this camp at UGA this July called Fusion where you are in a group of about 14 other students and you have a musical group project for like 4 days and, all the while, you get to tour the venues in Athens and meet with different people. I hope the dates don't conflict with my summer plans.

Meredith, Kaitlin, and I were planning on going to Bonnaroo this summer, but I'm afraid I won't have the time or the funds. I'm going on my church mission trip, England, Myrtle Beach, and Athens. I wish there was more time, but there isn't. But I'm inviting Monica to go with me to London. I originally invited Carrie, but I don't know if she'll be able to go. And it might turn out that none of my friends can go! But I hope that's not the case.

I've been back at school for about 3 days now and I already want another break. AP Calculus is just crazy and all my other classes are unusually boring now. In AP Lit, I get really depressed because we're analyzing poems about death and talking about death. It's just a real downer. In band, we're sight-reading a bunch of awful marches. The chemistry room is always about 634 degrees. The only glimmer of good in my day is my 4th period study hall, but in 2 weeks, that's gone and I have to take Christ & Culture. Kill me. Ugh.

I really hate how conservative my school is. I have some friends who are liberal like me, but we are a severe minority. I'm tired of people being close-minded about things and only believing things that their parents tell them to believe. People need to get a backbone and think for themselves. College is going to be a major shift going from a tiny, close-knit school to one of the biggest in Georgia. By the way, I got my UGA ID today. So I have a UGA e-mail account now! Woo! haha. Anyway, I really am excited about all the diversity that's going to be there. Since there is absolutely NO diversity at my private, Christian school.

I saw Sweeney Todd and LOOOVED it. Johnny Depp is a surprisingly good singer! The soundtrack is awesome and I can't stop listening to it. I had Sweeney Todd songs stuck in my head all day yesterday at the 6-hour defensive driving course. [3 months and 5 days until my license is returned to me!!] I'm seeing Juno with Mary Grace on Friday. She's already seen it, but she wants to see it again. I need to see me some Michael Cera, baby! lol. Oh, I also saw Walk Hard and it really wasn't that funny. John C. Reilly has a good voice though and some of the songs were good. Paul Rudd was funny in it as John Lennon and Jack White was good as Elvis.

Man, I watch too many movies...

Because GJ is seriously about to shut down... I made a new LJ. :)

I wish it wasn't shutting down.. I have a TON of posts over there from like the last 3 years. :(