Nonsense, Drivel, and Balderdash

I must say, yesterday I was very stressed. I was tired from working, my boss was stressed; my bus home got stuck in traffic and I was distracted and missed my stop (which forced me to walk back for 20 minutes). The perfect cure for this is, of course, the movies. More aptly, going to see a no brainer action flick. Usually I will never go see an action movie at the theatre, but I felt like special effects and surround sound. Also, it is much cheaper to go watch a movie in Spain. So I got home and told David that I wanted to see a movie. We jumped in the car and headed off to the local mall. I told him that I didn't want something heady and I just wanted to relax. I told him that I felt like watching "The Day After Tomorrow." He was skeptical, and personally, I didn't blame him. Roland Emmerich isn't particularly famous for his quality films. Independence Day and Godzilla can prove that. However, Independence Day WAS entertaining when I saw it in the movie theatre ...

I cannot believe I have been here a week. In some senses it feels as if I never left; in others I feel like I dont belong here anymore. Either way, it is good to be back. It has been raining like crazy all week, ruining some of the royal wedding plans... The prince was married on Saturday. It was a very big deal, and all of madrid was primping for the event. A lot of useless protocol and stuff. It was still pretty cool though, downtown, where I work (I work 3 blocks from the royal palace) all the streets were shut down and 1500 security people were around securing the area for the prince. Twenty helicopters circled the city, and 200 snipers were on rooftops. It was INSANE. I was tempted to pay some unsuspecting tourist to walk up to the palace with a suspicious package and a turban. Instead I just served beer. Boring. I am trying to find David a job..... I think that subconsciously he doesnt wish to work, because he doesnt make a giant effort to seek for one; not that I blame him thoug...

Today was my first day of full work. I am currently working at a Bar in downtown madrid, between "el botín" and the plaza mayor. It is technically a Belgian bar, which basically means it still has mostly spanish "tapas" but only Belgian beer, go figure. But it has a LOT of beers; 50 different kinds to be exact. In the US I have never seen a bar with over 10 brands, in fact I have seen very few bars in spain with that many brands, but it is a bit more common. It is hard to keep track of all the different kinds. The bar is visited by several belgians or dutch patrons every day, and they DO know which kind they want. However, their accent and pronounciation is sometimes hard to pick up. In many ways it is easier when they know what they want. The worst is when they ask me for a recommendation, because obviously I have barely tasted any of them, and have a hard time remembering which is which anyways. Anyway, it will take me a while to taste them all, but I am willing t...

While I was on a plane bound for sunny spain, (Wow, that rhymes, I think I should be a poet) I came to some conclusions about flight travel. Some of you may think that the whole travel/airplane thing is fun. Well it is... but only for about two hours (or till you are done with the first in-flight movie). You start out excited about traveling, but that sentiment quickly changes into angst. Fortunately I was flying on a Boeing 777, which is by far the nicest aircraft to fly the skies. I had my own television with a plethora of movie choices. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is great on the way back from Spain, because you are supposed to stay awake to counteract the jet lag once you arrive. However, when you are flying east, it is far better to sleep on the flight. Unfortunately, I am in a sticky situation when the movies are before me... Yes, yes. I know. Just take a sleeping pill and slumber away. It sounds great in theory, but in practice it works very differently. First, you ...

It is my last night in Evans Hall. It has treated me well. It has been a good year all in all. Many of my close friends sort of raise an eyebrow at me when I say that, knowing all that I have gone through during the past semesters. And yet, though I have my complaints and questions, life is not bad. I just read a post that Charles, one of my best friends, put in his blog. He described the things he missed about Spain and didnt understand in his life. I resonate with you my friend. Many times I wonder why I am here, when I love another place so much more. Fortunately I have made good friends here. But still, it makes you wonder... I wish I lived closer to you man. I really do. It stinks to live so far from those that you really care about. On top of it all, one of my best friends from Gordon (if not my best) is transferring next semester so she will be gone. Weird... why are so many of my good friends far away. Oh well, I must continue to develop friendships around here to complement (n...

Well, finals are almost over. I still have to present my mediocre media production project, but other than that... I am done. My tests were pretty bad I think. French was darn hard, and English was just ridiculous. The english one had the dumbest questions I think I have ever seen. I studied decently for it, I re-read all the plays that were going to be on the exam, but it was no use. You would think that if you read all sorts of pieces of drama, that on the test you would be tested to see if you understood the themes, symbols, etc. No, not with this guy. A question on the test was "Where did Billy get slapped?" a) the head b) the neck c) the back d) the stomach The problem is, that billy is a secondary character that appears in the story for 2 pages and is gone. The fact that he is slapped is incidental. When I get questions like this wrong, it does not prove that I have not read the material. It proves that I don't remember stupid details. Whatever... I don't even c...

Yesterday I made an impulse buy. I picked up a new CD. I am always anxious to find new Christian artists that original and good. Some of you might remember a couple of years back there was a group called "Burlap to Cashmere." I always thought that they were talented, but I never really liked their music. When I heard that their frontman Steven Delopoulos was getting out a CD, I was intrigued. I listened to a couple of his tracks and liked them a lot. So I bought it. I remember thinking that many of the Burlap songs were lyrically simplistic, so I was pleased to find that this CD was made with a much finer lyrical craft than Steve's previous work with the old band. However, the music and lyrics are still approachable (more so than the pronunciation of his last name). It is a very acoustic CD. In fact I don't know that there is as much as one electric guitar on the album. Folky and Jazzy all at once. Musically I find him to be reminiscent of David Gray and Cat Stevens. ...

Tonight I went to the Idiom release party. The Idiom is the school's literary journal, which contains pieces written by students. I did not submit anything of my own, but I was on the staff that put it together. It was exciting to see the poetry that I critiqued and liked, bound between two covers. Later on at the release party, people read some poems. I sat on a blue couch, and listened to them. Some were quite good, while others were not. It made me realize what a fine line lies between pretentiousness and quality. I love words. I love obscure words, but I love precise words even more. It is great when they overlap, but I have realized that using flowery speech usually just sounds dumb. Strange how intellectual words can make you sound like an idiot. I don't know if it is because I am just paying more attention, or if it is because I am delving deeper into the English language; but I have recently started to listen to what people say when they speak. I don't just hear wha...

It has indeed been a long time since I have written here. The last week has been crazy. I have been working like crazy, enslaved to my work. I spent at least 16 hours doing a paper last week, and just as many working on a media project. The paper turned out OK, but the media project is merely mediocre. I have to do a 5-10 minute movie for media production class, and so I went with a documentary (because I love them). Unfortunately, it was a dumb choice. I am doing it on Yegue, a blind student from Chad that lives on my floor, but it isn't that great. The filming was really bad, because I wasn't shooting with editing in mind, and so now I am stuck with bad footage. Also, it is hard to work with Yegue because he is blind and there is only so much you can do with him. He also is very strict as to what he wants me to capture in my mini-documentary. Well, I think I should have just done a scripted short with a plot. It would have been much easier. When we show these in class, mine w...

Well the snow has melted, and all around me spring is waiting expectantly for its chance to burst fully into bloom. All around me the silence of winter has turned into an excited rustle of frogs and crickets, like that of an audience waiting for a show to start. The wind whooshes around my ears and I feel the hint of warm riding on its apparent chill. All around me nature whispers as if to say "join us Ryan. Join us in our journey to renewal." I am engulfed my its plea as my feet sink in to the muddy earth, the earth's juices seeping up between the fresh blades of grass. The trees are emotive, for their leaves are once more coming in to being. Their dry remains of winter are being jostled by the breeze and pushed away by the buds who come to claim their inheritance. The branches stretch toward the sky after being held hostage by the snow for so many months. Their bare frames that were once rachitic and gray against the white winter landscape, now look like thin brushstrok...

Every now and then I get one of those personal surveys and whatsnot, I like to do them from time to time, I dont know why. Maybe you will enjoy it, feel free to fill it out and at it to your blogg if you wish. three things i don't understand 01. God 02. Love 03. Art three things that scare me 01. being trapped in a situation I cannot get out of 02. Not being able to help a friend in need 03. Bugs that crunch three things i'm wearing right now 01. blue jeans 02. a green t-shirt 03. A bandana three things on my desk 01. My computer 02. a stack of CDs 03. my watch three things i want to do before i die 01. Live in a undeveloped (and untarnished) country 02. Do a long journey by foot. 03. Have a son three good things about my personality 01. I can listen 02. I have good ideas 03. I am funny three bad things about my personality 01. I usually don't care. 02. I don't get my ideas into action 03. I am not funny three parts of my genetic heritage 01. homo sapiens 02. homo sapie...

Sorry for not updating for a couple of days.... It is that time of year. This is the time of year when I get ansy. You are too far away from the end to have excited expectation, but too close to ignore it. You also feel like it is too late to make a clean fresh effort, but not yet late enough to go into the last sprint of effort. So you go through the motions, putting just enough effort to get by, without aspiring for excellence. However, I have not been in low spirits. In fact I have been quite content lately. Now, I don't know if contentment is a good thing, but it is a nice change. Also been feeling a bit hopeful, I don't know about what or why, but I am definitely not been feeling as down. I think it is because I am going to Spain this summer. I really need to get away for a bit. I really feel the need to have some leisure time. I have seen people get burnt out for not heeding their insticts telling them to pull out for a bit. As I have mentioned before, I will be taking at...

Today, I was fortunate enough to be able to go see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I had been wanting to go since it came out in February, but had not had a chance. It is hard to keep with the new movies without a car, and especially hard without friends that like to see the kind of movies I enjoy. Fortunately, this movie has appeal to those who are not Art film/Independent film lovers like myself; so today I was able to get to the cinema and watch this intensely original movie. If you want the short version of my review it is this: Go see this movie. It is one of the best movies I have a seen in a long time (and I see many many many movies). In fact, at this point in my life it has easily moved up into my top 20 favorite movies of all time. The movie stars two actors which I have never really considered to be all that great doing an extraodinary job. Kate Winslet did a good job being a sort of crazy, impulsive free spirit; but in my mind, it was Jim Carrey who really shined in ...

Slapnose pointed this out to me: If you go to George W Bush's website you will see what a great man he is. Go to this "compassion" photo album. There you will see it, George hanging out with a whole bunch of black people, what a great guy... oh wait. That is just messed up. For George, Compassion="hanging out with black people". This may or may not be what he really thinks, but somebody needs to fire his webmaster... click here

I have a couple of intersting links for you all to check out: On the more serious side of things, my friend Kenny has posted an article written by a friend of his living in Palestine. It was written right after the assasination of one of the leaders of the Arab resistance. It is very interesting and should give you a more balanced view. Check it out despite the crappy web design (sorry kenny, the etch-a-sketch is cool but that is it). Next is the websites of Canon Dale Owen, the most incoherent "priest" you will ever listen to. First chech out his latest sermon , on his "church" website. Yes, what you are reading IS a sermon... about how great stalin was... whatever. It is entertaining. Then check out his blog (the april 3rd post is especially funny... though its not supposed to be). The man is off his rocker. The crazy thing is that some people actually revere him as a wise man... whatever. Check out this sample of his hippy mind: Today I heard a young man say...

Over the past week, this conversation has come up several times, so I decided to put my thoughts down here. Because I know that many of you have thought of this as well. I have decided to equalize the way I look at Art. We can all recognize that there is Low and High art. Sometimes we shun low art, because it is: "commercial," "not original," "not intellectual," etc. I have decided that it is OK to shun that art, but ONLY if you are going to do it consistently across the board. For a while, I hated Pop music. I found it too low brow, and commercial. However, this year I have had to rethink my music values. If I never watched action movies, or dumb comedies; or if I only read thick intellectual tomes; or if I shunned most musicals; then perhaps I would be in my proper right to hate all Pop. However, I realized that many times I enjoy "low art" in many other mediums. It is hypocritical to say that all Pop is bad just because it is unsophisticated, ...

It has rained all day. There are flood warnings. I have been listening to a lot of Paul Simon. Man, the guy is good. I never bothered to listen to any of his stuff, because I was bitter about Simon and Garfunkel breaking up. I think seeing them in concert helped me forget about all that. I realized that Paul really was the life behind the duo. Even though I fell completely in love with Art's smooth voice, it was the quality of Paul's songwriting that lived on. In the concert, Arts voice was older and not as melodious, where as Paul's songs were just as good. Anyway, I picked up some of his stuff, and love it. I have finally started editing my Media Production project. I spent 4 hours in the media lab working on it... I only finished the introduction scene... it is going to take a lot of work. I do enjoy it though, just me, alone in front of the computer, fooling around with film. Fun stuff... tedious.. but fun.

Here is a picture of me with some friends on friday hittin' up the hookah. Now all you people who didnt know what one looks like can enjoy some new knowlege. The metal part at the top is actually a wind blocker thingy. There is a vase like glass thing at the bottom (outside of the picture). Yes, you are all scandalized that I am smoking. Well, I dont care. A pox on all of you.

Last night I realized that I am not a mean, lean, sports machine (well... except for the lean part). Intermural soccer just started and I, being the fun loving RA that I am, signed up for one of the Evans soccer teams (evans in the name of my dorm). I have never been good at sports, but I enjoy many of them. I like playing when it is not too seriously competitive and people are playing for fun. Oh boy, I need to remember to... not do that again.... or do it more often. But I cant just do it for a day and never do it again until 5 months later. I was wasted by the end of the game. This morning I am actually sore. This time last year I was actually in pretty good shape. Alas... Ever since I hurt my back last year, I had dropped sports and gyms and things of that sort. I have just started trying to do more excercise without hurting my back. I really need to get that thing looked at. Maybe this summer I'll get X-Rays or somthing. All I know, is that I am pathetically out of shape right...

Today, I got up around 10, and tidied my room up a bit. Then I played around on the computer. Then I did my taxes. This morning has definitely been one of those "I need to be alone" times. After that I went over to Lane (the cafeteria) and got a couple of hot dogs with fries for a late lunch. Then I came back to my room for a mid Saturday movie (funny, in Spain that is THE time to watch movies... They always put them on at that time). I borrowed a ridiculous, corny, yet entertainingly light movie entitled "the league of extraordinary gentlemen." Yes extremely corny, and makes a mockery of any fun 19th century book known to man... Including poor Dorian gray and Capitan nemo... Whatever, it was still nice for a light afternoon flick. Following the movie I went to yet another Recital, given by Robin, and she also did very well. After the recital, I was standing around, and Renee was there. She said that she felt like doing something spontaneous... Like driving to Maine...