But No One Knows Where Time Goes

I just got out of a meeting with my advisor to decide what classes I'm to take for my last semester here. 4 Classes total. A History Sem, World Lit 2, Math 102 and Political Science. Yay, all said and done, it'll be a good semester. I go down to the computer to fill in details and times and... no political science. Not in the P0 211 range anyway, actually, not in the 200 range. Gar. I need to talk to Prof. Kunaf and see if I can take a 300 instead.
And it's still not even 9:30.
I finally got a helmet for my bike, so I'm back on that until the weather gets really inclimate and/or dangerous. I'm really out of shape again though - Two weeks of being off really took my stanima down, which left me completely out of breathe for my meeting. The muscles in my wrist are regrowing nicely though, there's almost no pain anymore.
Three classes today, Communications (Which I'm beginning to hate with a passion, because my classmates are probably braindead), Economics (which I'm okay with at the moment beginning to hate. A quiz with 40 questions is not a quiz.) and then History (Which I love).
After that, Amos Lee! Need to remember my camera and ticket. Higher Ground has had a lot of good people in this year, and this, along with Carbon Leaf, was a singer whom I'm a huge fan of. Not missing that one. Should be really good.

Yeah, I'm going to be able to concentrate in class today.

Facepalm: Yay for not realizing that I got into school two hours early and getting to class an hour early. Thus, I'm back home actually getting breakfast and my overdue library books.

And, I have Archer Mayor's newest book! The Second Mouse is the title, and the library finally got it in. Can't wait to read it, should be a fast read, hopefully a good one. I really need to go and re-read some of his older (1st Person and better) ones, like the Skeleton's Knee, Ragman's Memory or Tucker Peak. Hm... I'll post up an explaination when I don't have class looming.

Something Really Cool, or, Colour Like No Other

Has anyone ever seen the Sony Bravia commercial with th 250,000 bouncing balls in San Fransisco? Really fun advert, something really different to watch. I saw it a couple times while in the UK, and what caught my eyes and ears recently was the fact that the song Heartbeats, by Jose Gonzalez, is the background song. He's one of my favourite artists, and the song is quite good.

Naturally, this got me thinking about this. What are the logistics and random other headaches that would be brought on by this? That's a lot of bouncing balls. How did they clean up? I found (I'm actually not sure how I came across this) a website that Sony set up for the commercial, with a couple of similar and new ones, with the advert, but also with a couple of short videos on the behind the scenes filming of the commercial.
Granted, keep in mind that this is a 2 + minute advert. On one hand, the fact that they have several 7 minute features devoted to the filming is quite odd, but granted, the advert is pretty different, and as I mentioned, it got me thinking.

Making Of Feature (Quicktime Required, 7 minutes long)

The site also included this:

How we did it
In an age when CGI is commonplace, this makes the commercial all the more extraordinary. Every single frame was shot over two days - with the main sequence involving a 23-man camera crew and only one chance to get it right.
An entire block was closed off and special compressed-air cannons shot the balls into the air, while earth moving equipment poured thousands down the street. Not that you'd know it from the finished product, but these balls can do some damage, so all the cars were props and crew members went so far as to having protective shields and crash helmets.
But when you get it right, you get it right. The goal at the beginning was to deliver a "really simple, visual celebration of colour". We think you'll agree the results speak for themselves.

It's a fun commercial, and one that really stands out. Good marketing. Like the song? The site also posted up a clip of it:

Heartbeats.mp3

It's a great song, and worth getting, either through the CD Veneer or via download .

Cancellation Notice

Don't you just love it when one professor lets you out nearly 20 minutes early for one class, just enough time for you to finish up some last remaining questions for homework for the class at 12, only to run up there and find on the chalkboard that that class has been cancelled for the day, meaning that you have a nice, two hour block of time to run home, relax, read and actually prepare for your next class at 2?

What's even better is that I'm not having any of those classes until next Monday.

What About Everything?

My ears are ringing, I'm still shaking from the excitement, and I'm back from the Carbon Leaf concert over at Higher Ground this evening.

Those guys fucking rock.

I've never seen them better, and man, they had a great setlist and amazing energy. Barry was bouncing all over the stage, along with everyone else, and some of those songs were just amazing. I took Keelia (my younger sister) along, and she also had a great time. One of my professors from Norwich was there with his significant other, and Keelia saw a number of people from her school there.

Set list:

1. Comfort
2. What About Everything?
3. One Prairie Outpost
4. Under The Wire
5. Love Loss Hope Repeat
6. Life Less Ordinary
7. Texas Stars
8. Russian Dance (Tchaikovsky) Intro To...
9. Paloma
10. Royal One
11. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
12. Block Of Wood
13. Let Your Troubles Roll By
14. Learn To Fly
15. Intro To...
16. Desperation Song
17. The War Was In Color
18. The Boxer

Great, great set list. There were a couple of random songs that I'd hoped would be there, such as This Is My Song or Native America, as well as a couple others from Echo Echo, but this was just awesome. Sigh, I should probably sleep now.

Edit/Addition: Want to hear a similar playlist from the same tour and setlist? Archive.org has a concert from Colorado that's quite good and easy to access, here. They don't seem to have as much energy as the VT group last night - the crowd was great, really enjoyed themselves.
I don't think that I've ever heard them better. The past three times that I'd seen them, they were really good, but this time they were really into it. The opening band, Matt Nathanson was good. They were funny, as most of the opening acts seem to be, and they had some good songs, but Carbon Leaf just blew them out of the water.
Note to self: Don't stand under a speaker. My ears were ringing all last night. I bought a shirt, with some of the LLHR artwork on it, which I really like. I actually remembered my camera last night, a first for me, and all my pictures that I took are here. Unfortunently, they don't seem to be in the proper order.
The opening band, Matt Nathanson was good. They were funny, as most of the opening acts seem to be, and they had some good songs, but Carbon Leaf just blew them out of the water. However, Matt reading a trashy romance novel to a racy bass beat was priceless, as was his quote:

"Oh Vermont, you liberal bastion of the north."

Drew quite a bit of laughter from the crowd. I'll have to look into some of his stuff if I get the chance.

Note to self: Don't stand under a speaker. My ears were ringing all last night. I bought a shirt, with some of the LLHR artwork on it, which I really like. I actually remembered my camera last night, a first for me, and all my pictures that I took are here. Unfortunently, they don't seem to be in the proper order.
They had the best rendition of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp that I've heard yet, as well as great versions of Love Loss Hope Repeat, Comfort, Texas Stars, Desperation Song, the War Was In Color and The Boxer. Great opening songs and they went out with a bang with that one.

Man, what an awesome night. Next week is Amos Lee, whom I'm also excited about.

Breathe in the Night

I'm seeing Carbon Leaf tonight! This will mark the 4th time that I'll be going to one of their shows, and my third at the Higher Ground. I'm excited. They're great in person, and Love Loss Hope Repeat has some really good songs on it. I'm taking Keelia, my sister, along with me, and one of my professors from school is also going. Should be a fun time. I saw them this summer, and they sounded fantastic.

I'm actually going to remember to bring my camera this time, so I'll get some pictures. Hopefully.

I'm also getting my cast off today, officially. It'll be nice to finally not have to worry about it and get my hand back.

EDIT: 1606 : It's off! Finally!

Dropping like a rock

Want to see what made Friday night's episode of Galactica so good?

Keep in mind that that's something the size of an Aircraft carrier, if not bigger, and isn't designed for atmospheres. And it's falling. There's more to the episode that's just plain awesome, but that part made everyone in the room just cheer.

Music Meme

Taken from this blog, from May 3rd, '05. Lots of changes since then:

01) Total volume of music files on my computer? Currently: 3904 Songs, 10.7 Days at 14.80 gigs. And it's still going up. Currently, I have 75 songs that I have not yet listened to. Almost 1.9% of all the music that I have that I really haven't listened to. A lot better than a year ago, where it was almost 24%. More statistics:

Albums: 721
Artists: 724
Genres: [Genre, (Song Count)] 37:
Acoustic (2), Alternative (231), Alternative & Punk (72), Bluegrass (32), Blues (4), Classic Rock (100), Classical (62), Country (10), Electronic (64), Folk (230), Hard Rock (30), Hip-Hop / Rap (3), Holiday (32), Humor (127), Jazz (79), Jazz/R&B (25), Latin (2) Light Rock (90), Lo-Fi/Garage (1), Metal (10), Music Video (3), New Age (37), Other (2), Podcast (3), Pop (52), Punk (1), R&B (2), R&B / Soul (3), Rap (1), Reggae (2), Rock (1331), Rock/Pop (10), Soundtrack (1138), Spoken Word (1), Techno (7), and World (27).

02) Last Album Purchased: Supply and Demand, by Amos Lee. Last couple songs that I've downloaded are from Snow Patrol's Eyes Open Album.

03a) Last Song Played: While writing this, Soul Meets Body, Death Cab for Cutie on their album Plans.

03b) Song playing right now is... This is Us, by Mark Knophfer & Emmylou Harris off the album All the Road Running.

04) Five albums I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me...This is going to be difficult:
a) Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat. Carbon Leaf's songs are so perfect for my moods and completely relatable. Comfort, Texas Stars, Love Loss Hope Repeat, Learn to Fly and International Airport are my favourites.
b) Garden State Soundtrack, Various. Still a favourite CD of mine. I love all the songs on it, and have really gotten into a lot of the bands/singers.
c) Time Without Consequence, Alexi Murdoch. Great singer, and he's got some really great songs on this album, such as Orange Sky and Song for You.
d) Simple Things, Zero 7. Love every song on here. Great album, really chilled. End Theme, Destiny, In the Waiting Line (Also on the Garden State OST) and I Can See are my favourites.
e) Veneer, Jose Gonzalez. This album is beautiful. Soft, soothing, with a wonderful acoustic sound to it. Heartbeats is the best, but Crosses, Stay in the Shade, and Love Will Tear Us Apart are fantastic.
Runners up: Some Devil (Dave Matthews), A Girl Called Eddy (A Girl Called Eddy), Sunrise over Sea (John Butler Trio), Pink Moon (Nick Drake), Original Soul (Grace Potter & The Nocturnals) Indian Summer and Echo Echo (Carbon Leaf), Haughty Melodic (Mike Doughty), Eye to the Telescope (KT Tunstall), Eyes Open (Snow Patrol), Burning in the Sun (Blue Merle), Amos Lee and Supply and Demand (Amos Lee), Give Up (The Postal Service) and Rush of Blood to the Head (Coldplay.)

5) 5 People to pass the baton to and why: Anyone really. It's always interesting to see what other people like for music.

Words on the Wind...

Okay, I seem to have lost my post for the second time. Sarah - Bill Bryson is amazing! I think that I read about 200 or so pages during work today, because his writing is light and fast, but hilarious. I'm currently reading I'm A Stranger Here Myself, which is a collection of columns that he wrote for a UK newspaper, on his reactions to American culture, after a move back to the states after twenty years in the UK. He's also got a new book out, but I'll finish the ones that I have from the Library first. And you're right, his books probably shouldn't be read in a public place - I laughed so hard at times that I had to put the book down and do something else. The customers must have thought I was crazy.

I don't usually go about talking a whole lot of politics, but there's been some things on campus recently that have left me puzzled at best. A couple weeks ago, a student published a letter to the editor in the Norwich Guidon, the school's newspaper. The letter was highly critical of George W. Bush, for the war in Iraq, the government's response to Hurricane Katrina and other various things that he's generally criticised for. I personally didn't have a problem with it, although a bit overt. I'd go for a more subtle style, not because of the reaction, but just how I tend to approach things. The school's reaction (and I'm talking about the student body, not the school administration) has ranged from sheer outrage to hostile to pissed off. I go to a school known for it's military component, the Corps of Cadets, and as one might imagine, the school is fairly conservative as a result, as compared to UVM or St. Mikes. My classmates have wondered why the letter was published at all or expressed their anger at someone being anti-Bush, and apparently letters have been written into various places questioning the author's patriotism, maturity and intelligence. I'm pretty disappointed. I would have thought that at least some of the student body was mature enough and intelligent enough to have a reasonable response because of the letter. I'm being cautiously neutral on the issue. I have no love for Bush, and disagree with a number of his policies while in office, but I'm not going to engage in an argument that will mainly constitute Bush is good, and if you don't believe that, you're not a patriot.

???

What's puzzling is that. There's a major difference between blindly following a political party - ANY political party - and objectively critizing a political party. Just because we're at war, (sorta, kinda), it doesn't make any given political leader untouchable, nor does it make anyone who disagrees a traitor to the nation. It's a check. Disagreement brings debate, and alternatives. In an optimal system, those alternatives are good for everyone. At least that's how I see things. Okay, so you disagree with one person's opinions. Just as they disagree with yours. It doesn't necessarily make both of your opinions right or wrong. Or even relevant.

The worst thing is, that the questioning about why the letter was published in the first place, and not just thrown out, was asked in my Communications: Laws and Ethics course. Granted, I'm not taking much stock in my fellow classmate's intelligence there.

My Parents

My parents rock. I don't think that I ever say that, or any form of a dignified thank you to them, but I need to more often. And because I know you read this:

Thank you.

Thank you for everything that you've done over the years, putting up with me, my moods, geekiness, problems, being annoying, and everything, and thank you for all those times that you've helped me, pushing me when I needed it, encouraging me to try new things and thank you for being simply wonderful. I should say it more often.

Whoops

I just pulled my cast off. Entirely by mistake, as I was tearing some of the lining out (It's still wet from earlier today) and kinda pulled and twisted to get it comfortable again and off it came. I just sat there for a second staring at my wrist, and was finally able to move my wrist again. It's back on now, and I'll probably start taking it off when I shower, but damn, it feels weird, and it'll take some getting used to.

Stunned...

Galactica is officially the best show ever. Resistance moving up. Adama's back. Decoy Battlestars. Raptors and vipers. GALACTICA JUMPING INTO NEW CAPRICA'S ATMOSPHERE AND JUMPING OUT. VIPERS IN ATMO. The Pegasus, oh god, the pegasus. The fleet and humanity reunited.

Best. Episode. Ever.

Major squee.

This is a Water Stop

Kinda how I'm feeling today - slow, not really tired, but unmotivated. One class was cancelled, I skipped my next one to catch up on some work and to eat lunch. Class this afternoon was short, and I got my work in.
It's dreary out today, and it's been raining out all day, and I went back out in the field with George like I did last week to help him with some of his river studies. However, it meant that we both got completely soaked taking water samples. My cast is soaked, as are my books and jeans, and it's going to be forever before they're dry.

Well, that sucks.

Universal and Fox have both withdrawn their financial support for the upcoming Halo movie. That means no money for a movie that was already financed at $135 million dollars, heavy on CGI, costuming, and with Peter Jackson as an Executive Producer and a relatively new director. According to the SciFi Wire, the studios were trying to get Microsoft to get a lower profit for the movie, and it didn't work.

This hasn't killed the movie, and while they're still continuing preproduction on it, there's no one to pay the bills until Microsoft finds someone who will and can. Come on Bill Gates, give us a hand here, it's not like you'd notice $200 million missing anywhere in your daily life...

On top of that, NBC has announced that they're going into cost cutting measures by eliminating 700 jobs within the company, as well as cutting back on Scripted Dramas. That means more reality TV, because they're cheaper and apparently people like those better. GOD - Why is the American Public so stupid and easy to please in this area? NBC hauled out some of the finest shows of the season - Studio 60, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and others. I really hope that this'll not hurt the other shows in the future. Especially Galactica.

All the colors fade...

It was about 6:30 or so when it hit me; one of those moments when all the energy just seems to evaporate from you and you want nothing more but to collapse and sleep for twelve hours. Unfortunently, at 6:30, I was in the middle of putting a number of Borders issued classics into overstock, with the store telephone ringing and several customers milling around.

Yeah.

Today was one of those days. I was actually awake for most of my two classes, making some points in American Short Stories, got some paperwork signed by a teacher so the Tactical Club will have a staff advisor and trying to stay awake during the movie Dracula, which after the book was a bit of a letdown. To top it off, I still don't have a bike helmet, which adds on another 5-8 minutes to my commute. Also had my student for geology tutoring not show up, which gave me another mile to walk unnecessarily.

LOST isn't working on the ABC website for some reason, so I've seen the first couple minutes. Supernatural will be on later and I've got Jericho on inbetween homework breaks. On top of that, Facebook isn't working, so I can't message various people about meetings and what have you.

And Eye in the Sky is saying that the first snow is expected in the higher elevations. Finally! I think that this time of the year, as well as early spring, after the leaves have gone, and before everything turns green, when it's grey out, is the more interesting. Something about driving along the highway watching the scenery like that.

Editl: Supernatural - I think it had Summer Glau in it this episode, but I'm not sure.

Cranberries are the Ninja Fruit

Probably one of the best commercials I've seen, a cranberry farmer claiming that Cranberries are the 'Ninja Fruit'. Unfortunently, I can't seem to find it online, but if I do, I'll throw up a link.

The Berlin Mall is definently an odd place. There's a number of interesting people that I've seen, ranging from redneck mall rats to the random guy who walks back and forth - for my entire 6 hour shift in the calander kiosk. There's a number of regulars that I see, and usually at clockwork. The people in Citizen Bank leave at about 5:30, and LenseCrafters closes pretty close to 7. And the people at Walmart are scary, not just some of the employees, but some of the people shopping there.

While on break, we had a truck pull up to take back some returns from our outlet. I helped the driver load some boxes after finishing my sandwhich. He mentioned some of his routes and 12 hour trips that he takes every week. I don't know how drivers do that. After 4-5 hours, I'm starting to go crazy.

I was able to finish Matriarch today and man, right up to the end, some surprises. Spoilers: The Isinj are at civil war, Shan and Ade, although sterilized, somehow became pregnant and which Shan aborted with a grenade (yikes), Ryhat is still annoying although starting to be a reasonable character, the Ben'zari are Nazis and now infected with Cha'naat , Vissiji blew himself to pieces, and Lindsay is a bitch. And transparent, literally. (Sarah, correct me on the names, because I can't remember them for anything.) Makes me really wish that the next book (5/6) will be coming out soon. Also got a huge chunk out of Dracula after I finished Matriarch. We discussed it in class, as being the root for a lot of the modern horror/supernatural stories, and it's really proving to be so. I'm liking it a lot, more so than Frankenstein and Dr. Jeckle / Mr. Hyde.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I won second place in the Lexia Photo Contest, 2006 for my picture 'View from St. Paul's'

(Click to enlarge)

It was a welcome surprise a couple weeks ago, and I only learned (probably two weeks after I got the prize money) what the photo was. I like this picture, but I didn't peg this one as one that would win a photo contest, not that I'm complaining. I liked a couple others more, that's all. Lexia has put a profile online, and I was able to see the other contest winners and submissions. Lots of good photos there.

Okay, and now off to bed.

And the skies opened up

I'm wet, pretty chilly and wondering why the hell the closest telephone that I have easy access to is nearly a half mile away. Worth it though.

Work was slow for the first half. The calanders are boring, although sales will probably be picking up soon with the holidays and things happening soon. Things picked up towards the end of the evening, when my supervisor came out to chat about random things and I got all but thirty pages done in Matriarch. It's a good read, and the series is amazing. Karen's one of the best modern Sci-Fi authors out there.

And, got one of the first random/weird stories out of working in a book store:
Me, to man looking at Sports Illustrated calander: "Sir, can I help you find anything?"
Man "Nope. Just looking at the sluts."
Me "..."

For other random stories, visit here: http://kempa.com/articles/bn/

Now, to catch up on some homework, reading, as well as last night's episode of Heroes, on NBC. Veronica Mars is on later tonight.

Edit: Crap! My usual source for TV show times, Yahoo says that Veronica is on at 11, but it's currently baseball, which isn't listed on there at all. Maybe it'll be pushed back a bit? Arg.

And that's why Sci-Fi is cool.

It's extremely funny when your english class turns into a running battle with the teacher over the plot of Battlestar Galactica. Turns out that my professor is a huge fan of the show (we got on the topic as we read a Ray Bradbury story in American Short Stories today) and guess who's hand was the first up (actually, the only one) when she asked if there were any Science Fiction fans in the room? Yep, me. We ended up discussing the role of science fiction and how it's used in literature, as well as the new Battlestar Galactica, touched on Stargate a bit too.

Then we go to my Gothic Lit class, where we're already talking about Vampires, and I was able to corner my professor into a discussion on Battlestar, Eureka, Supernatural and Dr. Who.

And now off to work for a longass shift. Hopefully I'll finally finish Matriarch and some school reading.

Life through a telescopic lense

I still have my cast on. No, it wasn't taken off, like I'd hoped that it would be, but no, I have another week to go with it on. It's infuriating and I'm about ready to take the damn thing off myself, if I hadn't already been warned by someone that that's probably a bad idea.

Arg.

On top of that, nobody showed up for my geology tutoring session. Now, this is somewhat usual, I sit in the Geology lab for two or so hours, waiting for someone to show up with a question. Hell, any question would do, but nope. Two hours of my time wasted, where I didn't have to leave a meeting early or hell, even miss the latest episode of Heroes. At least I got a bit of my reading for English done, although I need to finish Dracula for Gothic Lit tomorrow. I also got another couple of chapters done in Matriarch (I'm going Sarah...). Brilliant book from Karen Traviss, the forth book after City of Pearl, Crossing the Line and The World Before.

I've been spending some down time working on the blog. New appearance, but Blogger also added a tagging option, so one can create a theme for each post, and if so inclined, someone could search for related entries. Great, but I have another 250 posts to go to finish up... some other time. Any thoughts on the new layout?

Studio 60 rocked. Go watch, if you haven't yet.

There's not a whole lot that I can talk about really. I took my sister out to dinner the other night. It was fun to hang out with her and catch up a little, because I don't see my family members as often as I did. Freaked my mom out, as we got home to find 4-5 increasingly frantic messages from her. We had a good laugh about it later, along with talk of what my asperations are for the future, time management and other random school things.

Overall, aside from the cast still being on my arm, things are going well.

Clarification

Okay, despite my TV viewing habits, work load, job and late nights, AND, despite the fact that I forgot two papers, I am doing fairly well, and for the most part, staying on top of things. I'm still sane, alive and working, and actually having a good semester.

So please, stop worrying.

Panic!

Guess who forgot to write/finish up two english papers? Arg!