Damn!

As you may recall, the family has two cars that have been designated to be shared between my brother and I. One is a blue '95 Jeep Cherokee, which we call Blue, and the other is a red '98 Grand Cherokee, which we call Red. Blue's the one I've been driving pretty much since I've been driving, and I love that car about as much as you can love inanimate objects. Of course, my brother quite enjoys the car too. So we switch off, the other getting Red, which drives like a tank, doesn't have an iPod hookup, and as I recently discovered...cannot play burned CDs.

Now here's the thing - I suck. As I result of the suck, very little of the music that resides on my computer I actually have in any sort of solid form. So I figured with me driving Red, I'll just burn a crapload of it to CD, problem solved. Not so.

So that's fun. As it stands, I'll be mooching off my brother and dad, though I'll have to hit Everyday Music 'cause I really can't last two weeks without Joni, Meat Loaf, The Guess Who, KISS, The Who, or...shit, looking at it now, there's a ton I'll be missing. Damn.

Update

Man, it's been a busy week. X3 was decidedly not awful, and in fact quite good in many places if you ignore the fact that the only character that wasn't someone else entirely was Hank McCoy, and maybe Magneto. But definitely worth a watch.

I'm now in charge of three (THREE!) departments at Nordstrom as far as their stocking goes, which is definitely awesome. I saw Playfest '06 twice, enjoying it even more the second time. We had a very successful Dude Night (Halo from midnight to 7 AM, though we were all very much pushing it by the end) last night, some newbies but mostly three-timers. And there was a trip to The Roxy in there somewhere (as is there always).

If there's one thing college has forced me to do, it's to use every moment. College is fun, but at this point, everytime you get into a groove, you're pulled from it and go either back home or back to school. Keeps it interesting, and you end up with a lot more friends, but it can be quite jarring. So to those of you taking off to the great beyond in a few months, use this summer. It might be your last with some people. Get in touch with someone you always wanted to get to know better. Hang out with them. Even if it crashes, you'll be gone in a few months and will never see them again if you don't want to. If you're sitting at home bored, there's a good chance someone else is as well. To everyone, that's why I'm making such a point of letting you know that no matter when or where, just call me up. Life's too short.

Never Underestimate the Boondock

Nor its hold on Portland.



That picture is not nearly as impressive as I'd hoped, but we're on the end of a curve that had jutted out from the theater, and way down there in the distance is the entrance. This as of approximately 7:30 PM, and the line only got longer. Two theaters sold out for a movie that never saw theatrical release until now (albeit in crappy DVD projection). It was one of those nights of true theatrical unity...only the fans, the proud turned out, and a different sort of energy could be felt in the air.

Yesterday I accidentally missed work as well, and today ended up doing a job wrong, but it's all okay in the end because they love me there. I think they're okay, but I'll continue to use them until I tire of our affair.

I'll be laying back and taking it easy for today, continuing to pray that my laundry was only really wet and my dryer is not in fact broken, as I currently have no underwear. The rest of the week will be yet another sleepless blitz, a feat that would have been helped had I known that I was scheduled to have Thursday off. Oh well. If life was meant to be easy, I probably wouldn't be working in the first place. And we'd have moving walkways throughout the city.

Joining the rest of the world

I finally got a digital camera, apparently solely to take photos like these...





Anyway, I'm gonna set up a Yahoo photos account so you can all share in the...something.

Man, it's been a week. So little sleep, so much work, even more fun. Today and tomorrow I thankfully have off, so I can make some attempt at recovery.

This is where 9/11 movies stray towards exploitation.

Actual Post!

Been awhile since I actually bothered to have anything to say, but ah...yeah.

Good start.

I was at the dentist this morning, which is probably my least favorite place to be of any place. But I was walking into the dentist, and I'll try to get a picture of this when I get a digital camera (I got one for my birthday, but it's not completely to my satisfaction, so I'll try to rectify that soon), but along this bank of establishments there's my dentist, Alameda Dental, and just to the left of it...Family Dentistry. Checked the names on the doors, no overlap. So I sense some sort of building Dentist War that'll take place at some point.

But I was thinking about this on my way to the dentist, and I think it's something I think about every time I go to the dentist, and that's what is it exactly that drives someone to dentistry? Like of all the medical professions, why the teeth? You're not really saving lives there, just telling people to floss more. Everyone hates the dentist. I really don't understand. Oh well.

The Roxy should definitely be the new hangout. Especially since they were out of large t-shirts last night, and I'll have to be back shortly. And they serve RC. And are open 24 hours. And have wireless internet. But going there last night just reminded me of why I love Portland so much. Especially in the summertime...we really have the best scenario with college, where we only come back to Portland at Christmas and over summer, when the city really is at its finest.

Is Kevin Smith recording a commentary you can listen to on your iPod while watching Clerks II in theaters? God, I hope so.

August 29th

It's only the greatest freaking sitcom that isn't Seinfeld to ever hit the airwaves. Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD right now ($20 apiece at Amazon!), get 'em before the third comes out. Or watch at my house. There are few better ways to spend your time or money.



















Arrested Development. Season 3 DVD. August 29th.

The Mark of Summer Has Come

That's right. The Sandal Tan is beginning to take definite shape.

Owe My Soul to the Company Store

So work's really not that bad. Well, waking up at 4:30 takes its toll, and it's like 9:30 right now and I could just about go to sleep, but I'm way to stubborn to do something like that. Anyway, the guys I work with are totally chill, the managers compliment you all the time, and the salespeople are a constant source of amusement (for a variety of reasons).

But that's really all I've been up to since the last post. Some adventures here and there, nothing out of the ordinary. Waiting for everyone else to come home.

Ong Bak: Thai Warrior. It's a sweet movie. No CGI or stunt doubles...just people beating the shit out of each other. If that sorta thing interests you, you won't find it done any better than it is here. The plot's kinda silly, but it kicks too much ass to care.

Well, time to run...dad's home after a regular week away, so should hang out with him. After The Sopranos...he's watching the current season, but I'm trying to follow it on DVD and am merely halfway through season 4 (I really gotta get back on that). Argh.

Job

Yeah, so The Man finally got to me, and I now have employment for the summer. I wonder if they'll be surprised to know it's only for the summer. Oh well. I start on Thursday, which means my summer break lasted only slightly more than a week, counting the day I had back in Boston, so that's ah....that's good. I'll probably just quit early and take the last three weeks of summer to do nothing.

Anyway, I will be working in Nordstrom stock at the Washington Square location. No idea how much time I'll actually spend in the store though, so don't try to come by and say hi just yet. But what are my hours? SIX AM UNTIL 2:30 PM, Tuesday-Saturday. Yeah baby. Eight hours a day plus a half-hour for lunch. And on Saturday. Whoo. Don't worry, I'll still be there for all summer shenanigans happening after 2:30, and God knows I don't mind losing a little sleep here and there. I'm not gonna go all John Burke on you guys; it's still my vacation dammit.

I set out earlier today (after 12 hours of sleep...this working thing is gonna take a major adjustment) to do as Lindsey Bluth does and spend a bunch of money just because I will be working in the future. First I grabbed a book Ken recommended over at the fascinating M:I III discussion called Everything Bad is Good for You. I was going to hit the library, until I remembered my card there had at least $35 in late charges, and I still had a book from Junior year. So no more free reading in Portland. Then I whisked away to Best Buy to pick up The New World and Munich on DVD. No Munich, but yes on The New World.

I'm tired. I need to take advantage of what precious little freedom I have left.

EDIT: Hope none of you took my suggestion to watch the Snakes on a Plane clip on Ellen. I'm bored, so I did, and all it was was a behind-the-scenes of snakes crawling around the floor of the set of an airplane. It sucked.

Hi!

How are you? Good? Good. How was your morning? Wake up okay? Did your mom call you at 8:30 to tell you that your only real lead in terms of employment was doing group interviews out of nowhere in an hour and a half? No? You lucky bastard.

It went pretty well I think. I'm still sick, and running on less than six hours of sleep wasn't really working for me. But I told theater stories, because after all, I've never had a real job in my life. Yes. I suck.

Rachel sent me a dartboard for my birthday. Rachel...thanks again for the dartboard. Here's my reaction talking to Mary Pitman online after I grabbed the two boxes the UPS guy left at my door.

Lobstr Johnson: well, only one of the boxes was something i sent from college
Lobstr Johnson: the other is this big flat thing from indiana
Lobstr Johnson: it's a dartboard...
Lobstr Johnson: someone sent me a dartboard
Mary: ....
Mary: wait but why?
Lobstr Johnson: rachel finn
Lobstr Johnson: rachel bought me a dartboard
Lobstr Johnson: i have no idea why rachel would ever buy me a dartboard
Lobstr Johnson: this is the weirdest gift i've ever gotten in my entire life

It's been a strange sort of day. But again Rachel, if only because the phrase makes me laugh...thanks for the dartboard. I actually really do like darts. As anyone who attended the male end of either the Junior or Senior year after-Prom party knows...the darts don't always hit the board. They're not always aimed at the board, but at small insects on the ground that annoy me. But I do like darts.

It's time to go watch hours of Arrested Development and wonder how precisely today went so horribly askew.

What Better Way to Start Summer?

I'm exhausted, sick, and almost broke. College!

This week was more or less a blitz of trying to spend as much time as possible with everyone at Emerson, which quite often entailed staying up far later than any sane man would. So from Sunday night to Thursday night I never got more than five hours of sleep, and on Wednesday night I didn't sleep at all. And on the second flight, from Denver to Portland, I got a intense pain in my ear from the cabin pressure on our descent, so my left ear was screwed up for the rest of the day. Even a 14-hour snooze-fest Thursday night didn't fix me up quite right (though the ear thing pretty much went away), so I'm still sick.

But Coffee House was a blast last night, best way to catch up with everyone, and it's really gonna be a fun summer (never mind when the rest of the class of '05 gets their asses back in town!) All of the acts (except maybe those death metal guys) were quite stellar, and there was the obligatory singing of the school song when a couple guys went a little outside of the expected morals of a Catholic, college-preperatory school.

Missing all you Emerson folk already, though...hope your summers are starting off well.

Class of '05...you guys get back into town, gimme a call or IM or send smoke signals or somehow contact me, I can't wait to see ya'll. For now I'm just taking it easy, getting better, and finding myself a damn job 'cause holy Hell I need money.

STAR WARS FANS CLICK THIS LINK RIGHT NOW

I don't care that they released the Special Editions two years ago and this screams of money-grubbing from Lucasfilm. I don't care that they'll only be available for three months. I don't care how much they'll cost me. All I care is it has arrived...the day Lucasfilm announced they'll release the Holy Trilogy on DVD.

And I thought we'd have to wait for Lucas to die.

PROOF THERE IS A GOD

So I'm throwing some tape around this massive box of stuff I have to store for the summer. Wander out in the hall to double-check how late the guys from the Packaging Store (who directly handle the storage needs of Emerson students by showing up to the main building)...9-4. Check the watch...4:10. Shit. So I figure I'll take a cab down to the UPS store. I'm on the street, waiting for a cab to drive by, when out of nowhere...

THE SHUTTLE.

The Shuttle is this big old bus that carts Emerson students from one side of campus to the other when they're too lazy to make the fifteen-minute walk (I avoid this thing at all costs...you often end up waiting far longer than the walk would otherwise take, and I like walking). However, since school is officially over and closed (I'm here an extra day because I couldn't get a flight out today), I figured so would The Shuttle. Apparently not so.

So we get to the other side of campus, where a UPS store is conveniently placed across the street. Then I realize I have the problem of getting a 65-pound box off a bus with a very narrow stairway, when out of nowhere...

ADAM.

My buddy Adam doesn't live on campus. In fact, it's about a half-hour, forty minute walk from his apartment to campus. So what the hell is he doing there? He had just dropped off applications a few blocks over and was picking up his T pass from...whoever you get T passes from on campus.

Frickin' miracle I tell ya.

Look Up in the Sky

Any doubts I had have been completely blown away. June 30th can't come soon enough.

The Sleep

Here's a little conclusion I've come to regarding The Sleep. You can limit The Sleep and still function, but you must have some motivating force to allow you function on any level above basic motor skills. For instance. I went to bed at 4 last night. This was stupid, 'cause I had to wake up at 8:15. I got outta bed, showered, dressed, it's all good, smooth sailing. But by the time I got to the dining hall, I couldn't remember my walk there. And the pancakes tasted very, very strange. And no...I'm not on drugs. But see, normally, back in high school, all of this was normal and well and good around show time. 'Cause the show was the motivating force. Now? I dunno, I guess once I'm done with class I can...go play Halo.

So I'm completely exhausted today, and I'm studying for my Listening to Music final. Well, not completely exhausted. I'm not nearly as gone as I will be Thursday, believe you me.

Word to the wise...never try to correct cab drivers on their direction. They don't take kindly.

So much stuff to pack...

Maggie! I found both the origami Hawaiin shirts, and they now hang upon my computer. They're pretty sweet up there. Make more.

Nancy sent me chocolate for my birthday, the single most hilarious gift I've received.

But hey, yeah, in this cleaning and packing I've found so much stuff. Like my shirt with the sunset and the car on it (you know what I'm talking about...it's all orange and black), and the origami Hawaiin shirts, and...my History of Media Arts syllabus...and NOT my Raging Bull DVD. So angry about that one. Only movie I lost all year.

Anyway, enough rambling. Back in Portland midday Thursday, and will be there for Coffee House set-up and show Friday (I've got Crowd Pleasers III all ready to unleash...gonna be epic).