I Am Gonna Make It Through This Year If It Kills Me

So I tried to look up images of Florida in the fall and this was as close as I could get. Last late fall/winter on my drive to FGCU, the Six Mile Cypress slough changed colors to a very autumn appearance. I thought this was cool until about February when it eventually looked like an irradiated wasteland of dead trees.

Anyway, I started school last Monday. Classes are hit and miss. The professors are either awesome or extremely old and dull. The people are cool or extremely quiet and bedecked in a Hollister billboard. I miss summer vacation. Now I have all of this schoolwork to do, and most of my friends have gone back to their own schools. It's depressing to think about, so I try not to. Instead, my brain has kind of switched into fall mode.

Every kid gets excited about the holiday season, which I consider to be Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. My birthday always kicked off this season, which featured cooler weather, holiday commercials, and just an unusual switch over from the regular to the festive. As I got older, these things became less interesting, but I still get excited about them, probably more than other people. It's around now when I get stoked for the change. It makes me feel inexplicably happy, which is always a nice thing to have. So when I look at my schedule for the fall, I just think, "well, you do have the season to look forward to."

Oh, and the title of this entry comes from a song from a band I just discovered called The Mountain Goats. I am not extremely desperate to make it through the year like that. Well, maybe a little.

Shameless

So I'm posting a THIRD time today! Final one, too, unless I get inspired.

Anyway, Ashley Murphy and I have created a blog all about the world of video games. Reviews, news, opinions, trailers, pretty much anything awesome about video games will be here. We just started it, so it's still in its formative stages, but we hope that it will get big and cool enough to get us passes to E3 and Comic-Con. So come visit us, spread the word, and enjoy!

http://oldsavebonus.blogspot.com/

Stake Through the Heart of Love

So is it bad that the best love song I've ever heard is sung by a Dracula puppet?

Time Capsules

So my mom and I spent the final half of July organizing our garage sales. This meant that we had to go through bin after bin, closet after closet, drawer after drawer, etc. finding things that we hadn't seen in at least a year to sell. For my mom, this meant selling a lot of clothes, decorations, furniture, whatever. For me, I had to sell DVDs, games, books, clothes, but, most of all, toys. In a previous post, I talked about having been an only child meant finding something to occupy my time. Most of these distractions were toys. I must have had 10, 11, 12 BIG bins of toys kept away in our shed. I had never wanted to give these up, hoping to someday give them to my son (I'm having a son, dammit. If I have a daughter I will get rid of her*). But unforeseen financial difficulties (stupid Great Recession) made that hope impractical. We were sitting on a gold mine, and I would have to give up the toys. As I began going through bins, I surprised myself with my lack unwillingness to part with my toys. And this is coming from the guy who shed a tear during Toy Story 3 and was put into a two-day depression after seeing it. A lot of the toys were made from cheap plastic, so they had an unpleasant consistency. Some were put into a pool, bathtub, or sink to play with, so they also had a weird smell. Almost all of them just felt gross because they were kept in a poorly ventilated shed for five + years.

I found many action figures scattered around, mostly Star Wars related. As I sorted through them, I started to feel nostalgic for more innocent days. I'd constantly recreate the duel between Luke and Vader from Empire Strikes Back, or Han Solo blasting away stormtroopers on the Death Star. Those memories would shrink away quickly when throwing a figure into the 50 cent pile, or the $1.00 pile if it was high quality.

The Lego bins were the worst. As I type this, I wish I could say that they were the worst because of all the memories associated with each piece. But no, it was because there were so many damned pieces! And reaching your hand deep into a pile of sharp plastic bits hurts! Sure, as I went through them, I found some vehicles or buildings still together, and would think back to building them, or great adventures I made up that to a child were greater than any epic tale. But, these thoughts were fleeting, and soon I had two bins of assorted Lego bricks. In my house is another pile of Lego minifigures and unopened sets that I'm selling online. As it turns out, there's a good market for these toys. Hell, I just sold a minifigure vampire for almost $20!

Reflecting on this, I realize that all of those feelings of nostalgia were secondary to the here and now. That I'm almost 20, and I have the future to look forward to. Adulthood entertainment and responsibilities are my focus now. The world is a big place, and now I can create my own adventures, without the need for action figures or Legos.

But despite all of this, I still have some Legos stashed away. Don't tell anybody. It's important to still have some childhood enjoyment.

*I kid of course. If I have a daughter I will care for her just as much as a son. Probably.

Man-Child

So this whole thing is why I can't be an adult.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html

Summer

So I have a love/hate relationship with July. On the one hand, July has Independence Day, THE summer holiday. It's sunny, hot, and filled with the images of beaches, barbecues, and fun. On the other hand, by the middle of the month, the back to school ads and commercials roll out. The images of kids jumping into the pool are replaced by pretend smiles on kids in new clothes standing by lockers, looking as excited as if they just won a puppy in a candy-eating contest. You know what I say to that?

Bullshit. Bull-oney. Horse apples. Horse hockey. Oh crap.

These ads love to remind us that our time of fun and relaxation is going to end sooner rather than later. We'll be back to the books in a blink of an eye, with memories of getting sunburned at the beach or riding roller coasters just a thing of the past. This irritation I have stems back to childhood. I never liked school, much like EVERY OTHER KID IN THE WORLD. It takes up our time. We meet lots of friends, but we also have all of that work to do. And having 3 months of break suddenly end is like a blast of cold water to the face. It sucks.

I thought this annoyance would end when I got to college. Nope. Don't get me wrong, college is awesome, and lots of the people you meet are rad. But still, having to go back to having a schedule and responsibilities like that blows. So when I see people say how excited they are to go back, I totally get that. I kind of feel that way too, but I just wish I had more time to bask in the freedom from responsibility that we call summer break.

Oops

So I apparently didn't update this little old blog throughout June. My bad. It's funny how busy you get when you're not doing anything at all. Also, there was the tail end of summer classes to grapple with, so you'll have to forgive me for that one. Anyway, this last month has been kind of surreal. Life has been throwing a lot of punches my way lately, but I don't know if it's because I've become more cynical or just developed a shield against constant awfulness, but it hasn't gotten me down as much as it should have. I've been what I could pretty much describe as content, which is an emotion that doesn't often come my way. Except when I think of Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Petty and spoiled as it sounds, I feel annoyed and jealous whenever I hear about someone going. I guess it's because I remember feeling so excited when I first heard one morning that they were building it at my favorite theme park. Up until it opened, it seemed that going the day it opened was a given, despite my family's financial difficulties. It seemed like a rude awakening when I found myself at home while the stars of the HP series were at the opening, which I had naively assumed I too would be at. It sounds so stupid writing this. But since when are emotions rational? Whenever I hear that someone is going, and how excited they are, and I'm stuck at home, it feels like I've been robbed. That it's just one addition to the troubles my family has gone through. How petty.

I've had the house to myself these past few days, and it's been very pleasant. Do I like it when my dad comes by to visit? Sure. But I really like having the opportunity to just take care of myself and not have to worry about anyone else. It's quiet here. But not that awkward, creepy silence you sometimes find in an empty house. It's a calming one, with the sound of a breeze or birds coming from the outside. I like this feeling. I wish I felt this way all the time.