Just Because
November 5th, 2008 - No Comments
I love Guster. Look at how cute this stuffed animal is:
See? You like them too.
See? You like them too.My Writings. My Thoughts.
Song song song
October 28th, 2008 - 3 Comments
This summer, my good friend Tyson Call and I spent a good long time writing a song called Blk&Wht. We recorded ourselves, added a dance beat, and ended up with a song we were pretty proud of thanks to the mixing abilities of Tyson Call and his friend Mac.
Ever stayed up until the wee hours of the morning remixing a song? Perhaps not. Thanks to a brand new friend named Mac, I stayed up til 4 AM this week remixing our little song and boy do I need a nap. I now present to my random friends that stumble upon my blog the results of my labors–the acoustic version of Black and White (now with more vowels).
The file can be downloaded using the button below–just go to the site and click download. Let me know what you think. Five bucks if you guess what the lyrics mean.
PS make sure to use headphones or something with bass so you can hear the background instruments.
Hunting and Fishing
October 5th, 2008 - 11 Comments
If you ask any girl, she’ll be happy to tell you how much harder dating is for her team. “How in the world,” she’ll ever-so-swiftly point out, “would you get a girl to go on a date with you if you weren’t allowed to ask them out? Not only that, but you’re not allowed to show too much interest–you’ll scare them off! Guys are baffling. They seem interested one night and then disappear. They’ll put their arm around you one night, then won’t call again for a month.”
Talk to any guy, though, and you’ll hear an equally already-thought-about-in-previous-frustration-style rebuttal–”There is no way that your way can be harder. Sure, you don’t get to pick and choose who asks you out, but at least all you have to worry about is picking out of those who finally show up. For a guy, not only do you have to get a girl interested, plan a good date and move the relationship along at the right speed; all the while, you have to try to guess if the girl you’ve met is interested or if she’s just a flirt!”
I’ve come to a conclusion–dating may look like the same sport for both sides, but it is far from it. Women are fishers, men are hunters.
Women Are Fishers
Some women are good at their sport, others are not. Neither of them, though, has the ability to force a fish to bite. Each of them goes fishing looking for a very specific kind of fish. Every other fish will be thrown back (usually with a hole in their face or something… not a very friendly sport for the fish).
You might have noticed that there are some girls that just kind of ended up with the right bait. They catch everything. All they have to do is go over near a fish and they bite right away. Heck, sometimes their bait even works on frogs and other weird animals that shouldn’t even be looking around the lake anymore. Maybe they have to beat off a confused moose or two. Their trial (granted, I don’t think it counts as much of one) is having to throw back a couple thousand fish before they find one that they want to keep.
Others just never quite got the hang of fishing–they’re too noisy in the boat, or maybe they make it too obvious that there’s a hook in the bait. Some of them aren’t committal enough; they send their line into the water with no hook, never taking a single step to snag even the most interested fish.
For the majority, though, it’s just a long day of fishing. Watch for a good looking fish, throw in your line, and every once in awhile they bite. Most of the time, the fish looked a lot better when it was underwater with all its friends. So, you toss him back and keep fishing. Eventually it works. Til then, though, the boat can get pretty old.
Men Are Hunters
And not just any hunters, either. They’re really, really blind hunters. We spend days carefully following a target that looks good but usually end up confused, swearing we’ll pay more attention before the next time we shoot.
Like fishing, there are men that are good at the sport and there are those that are bad at it. You’ve seen the goofy guys that come out hunting with 16 inch subwoofers. There are a few deaf pigeons that hang out around those guys… for the most part we just let them do their thing. Then there are the guys who are too timid to commit–they shoot BB pellets that do nothing but confuse and annoy the animals. Being good at the sport can be a dangerous skill–some are out just for the kill. They shoot whatever they can get and then leave the poor creature there wondering what happened.
I think that most men, though, are hunting the right way. They’re careful, watching only for the right animal. It’s true, they make mistakes. Every once in awhile they fire too quickly, finding out later that they should have thought things through. Eventually, though, their long hunting trip ends up alright.
Another Bold Heading Just Because
I don’t think either side has it harder. Pretty much, dating is just a dang hard sport for either. Sitting in a boat for a long time can make you crazy, and I don’t think anyone likes wearing those bright orange pants for hunting. Wait…
Anyway, there is one problem with my analogy. In both situations, the targeted animal ends up dead. I’m not a fan of that. I suppose some people end up dating axe murderers, but for the most part I think my analogy falls apart right there.
In conclusion, may we all come out of this with the least possible number of hooks stuck in our eye and accidental gunshot wounds. Hopefully, the hunting trip will only require one standard size cooler, and the friends that we brought along won’t be PeeWee Herman or the Cookie Monster. Hopefully, I will end up some day in a happy little goldfish bowl with a nice view (as seen above).
Too much analogy for me. I’m gonna go eat some macaroni.
Symbolic macaroni?
The nesting macaroni penguin
The Soundtrack to Life
September 11th, 2008 - 3 Comments
It has always amazed me that music can carry such emotional power. The right song at the right time can take your thoughts and absolutely turn them around, solidly placing them on a new track. I sometimes joke that songs like this were taken off the soundtrack to my life–they seem to mold the moment in just the way a soundtrack would. Here are a few that I’ve noticed recently (they’re on the bottom of the post. Try listening to them and see if you catch the soundtrack feeling):
Guster – Either Way: As I drove down I-15 a few days ago and watched the parasailers slowly drifting through the sky, the song reached its climax (about 3:30 in the song. Seriously–listen to it!). For just a few moments, life felt like some sort of heroic but beautiful endeavor. What a feeling. Then about 30 seconds later I was just driving in my explorer to go do my laundry…
Yellowcard – Shadows and Regrets: I just happened to be sitting in my car and thinking about some of the fun times that I’ve had with my awesome group of friends this summer, and this song hit about the 1:50 mark. BAM! Life felt like one of those well-put-together slide shows that makes you feel a little misty and tell random people you love them. Amazing.
Goo Goo Dolls – Iris: My close friends will know that I call this song the theme to my life. I’ve never exactly known why… maybe it’s because I feel like I’ve got a little hidden side of me that I “don’t think that they’d understand.” I’ll just leave this one open to your interpretation for why it resonates so well in my mind.
Rascal Flatts – What Hurts the Most: Never listen to this song right after breaking up with a girl. I did that once several months ago. Actually, I played it on my guitar. In no time at all, I was flat on my back pondering the cruelty of the universe and my own helpless state. Wow. Now I just think it’s a neat song. Go team!
Straylight Run – Existentialism on Prom Night: I don’t care what you’re doing; You could be collecting garbage on the side of the road, but if you are listening to this song at about 1:55 into it, you will feel like the world just got a little bit more colorful, and like the present is a time that you’re going to look back on nostalgically some day. And you probably will. Because you’ll have a memory of how good this song was.
Lord of the Rings Soundtrack – Any of them (seriously): Try to listen to any one of these songs and not get some sort of feeling creeping up in the back of your head that you need to either visit the Shire or pull out your sword. On the one down below (Samwise the Brave), fast forward to the 40 second mark and see if you don’t feel like something dramatic is going to happen. And like you’re a hobbit.
Alright. Little did you know it, but by reading this blog, you have obligated yourself to do me a favor. Think back on a time that a song hit you in a powerful way–not just a time when you liked one, but a time when it hit you like a ton of bricks and felt like it really fit the moment. Leave a comment with your story and the song. Fun times!
Thoughts That Escaped My Head As I Sat On My Bed Thinking About How Little I Like Trix Now That They’re Not Shaped Like Fruit
August 31st, 2008 - 4 Comments
I’m one to randomly blurt out my thoughts and feelings; for some reason, I feel dishonest when I keep them inside. I suppose it’s because I have a lifelong interest in trying to make the self that others meet (my outside) match the self that only I have ever met–the one I converse with inside. Today, like most days, I’ve got 300 thoughts or so clamoring about inside my head. I’ve spent a good part of my Sunday worrying about the coming semester’s credit load, about a brand new major, about the course of relationships, about the Lord’s plan for me and whether I’m on the right path, and about every other unknown that the future holds.
Above all of this, though, is one thought that I’ve always been hesitant to share. Society seems to shy away from any male that would even ponder upon these words, let alone seriously consider them. At the risk of exposing my darkest secret and forever losing my credibility in the consideration of men, here is that thought.
I really want to find the girl I marry. Quite a bit. Yep.
For some reason we are all afraid to say that these days. I’m not sure where the taboo came from that tells us that that thought isn’t meant to be let out. As a matter of fact, I haven’t the least idea. I just wrote a good ten line long paragraph that would be right here, but I ended up deleting the whole thing and just inserting this place holder [explanation does not exist].
The deepest human need is to love and be loved. What thing in life could be better than finding someone that you never tire of being around? Someone who changes something inside of you, allowing you to finally become your best self? Someone who, by some miraculous oversight, thinks life is better just because you exist? In all honesty, I have to admit that the day I first set eyes on that girl is going to be the luckiest day that I live. I suppose that I might only be able to recognize that day in hindsight; in that case, I look forward to being able to look back on that day more than anything.
That being said, if you happen to run into my wife running around, refer her to University Villa #111. Thanks.
