October 2004 Archives
In under an hour, a group of Wesley students and I are going here for our Fall Retreat. I will welcome the trip to Smith Mountain Lake, that's for sure. It's been another long and harrowing week. We'll be gone only until Saturday night, though, so there will be plenty of time for figuring out what to do on the Hour That Doesn't Count, with Halloween right on its tail! Let the holiday season begin!
...Well, I wouldn't quite go as far as to call them the kings or masters of comebacks, considering this is the first time I can remember it actually happening, but the Hokies have sure reinforced my belief in what they can do tonight in their game against Georgia Tech. Tom has some good insights into the game and shares most of my analysis and feelings about it from the perspective of a Hokie fan. But really, my initial reaction (besides WOOHOO) was "holy crap!" How often does a team like the Hokies come back to score 25 points in the fourth quarter? This leaves us with a much more solid bowl bid chance, and coming on the tail of the Red Sox dream win, I'm feeling way pumped. I'm going to ride this momentum into the weekend and approach the upcoming Wesley Fall Retreat with the same enthusiasm.
... In other news, I had the strangest dream last night. I知 sleeping in this higher room above the Wesley Auditorium, but I realize I致e left all the stage and house lights on. So I climb down and go through to turn off all the lights. When I get on the stage to get to the light panel, I surprise a fat teenager guy who has been living in a side room that only exists in my dream at night, apparently for days. I immediately realize that he壇 been sneaking in through a door that we had kept forgetting to lock for weeks (which is partly true). Before I say much, he looks surprised and runs into this fictional side room and locks the door. I turn around to go and get help, but he pops back out and tries to jump kick me. Then he starts punching at me, but I manage to dodge them all. I throw some ineffective punches, and then start running around frantically to try to get to all the light switches, so that I can throw the place into complete darkness and use my knowledge of the place痴 layout to beat him. I managed to get to the light switches while avoiding some punches, and I remember it getting dark, but the dream ended around then. So really, it appears that I need to get some better darn locks on the rooms in my dreams. Maybe this one would help.
The weekend (and the Hour That Doesn't Count) approaches!
... Humans have all lived through history as it is made - that's how we get recorded history, after all - but it's still pretty darn cool when you witness history being made right before your eyes. And by golly, I just did tonight, when the Red Sox finally lifted the so-called Curse of the Bambino and took home a World Series championship, after ousting the Cardinals in four straight games. This postseason has made me much more of a baseball fan, and while I don't know the ins and outs of every player or anything on that level, it's always great to watch a team work hard and win something they truly do care about. It's also great to watch them trample an Evil Empire on the road to victory, too. It just makes you feel good to watch a deserving team come home with a title that has eluded them since 1918: World Series Champions. Boo-yah, my friends, history has been made, and now the list of sports curses, if there is one, will have to be rewritten.
... I also meant to talk a bit about Saturday night before it became too untimely. Gina and I went to Roanoke for a night on the town, just the two of us. Unfortunately for us, we went after Wesley's Clean-Up Day wrapped up, which put us in the 'Noke at about 7 P.M. For those of you who haven't been to the Star City, they pretty much lock up everything at nine. So, after a dinner at TGI Friday's where Gina found a hair in her salad and ended up eating for free, we headed over to the mall. Our luck didn't improve much from then on out, since we were among the last to arrive and leave at the mall and at Target. With everything else shut down, we decided to catch a late movie...
... And the one we picked, I Heart Huckabee's, just didn't improve our luck at all. I happen to like weird movies, as referenced by my discussions of Eternal Sunshine... or Adaptation, but this one seemed to be too weird for its own good. Maybe it was all the philosophy being spouted that detracted from whatever plot there was. I'm not sure. I could follow what was going on, and there were some really good moments, but as a whole I wasn't too impressed. My official rating is: eh. I wouldn't actively go out to see it or rent it again. Gina and I were mainly embarrassed at some of the stuff that went on in the film.
So there you have it! The week is drawing to a close. Can you dig it?
Forgive me my absence for yesterday; I don't normally post on weekends, and I had a lot on my mind last night, so it feels like quite a while since I've written for Ramble On. In fact, it's only been those three days, but it's all in the eye of the beholder, I guess. I actually have a heckuva lot to write about, so I'll just go in chronological order through the weekend.
Friday night, a small, fearless band of Wesleyites (including me, Gina, Jason, Libby, Megan, Brittlea, Jonathan, and Matthew) headed out to the Floyd Country Store for their Friday Night Jamboree. Every time I hear that word, I have to resist the temptation to say it with the middle syllable emphasized -- you know, all Jam-BO-ree like. An equally intrepied group of Wesley students travelled there two and a half years ago, and they brought back some photographic evidence of their time at the store. Armed with these images in my head, I was ready for a good time and some great bluegrass music.
I got both, as it turns out. The Floyd Jamboree is the real deal when it comes to homegrown bluegrass. Bands will come in from all corners of the U.S., literally as far away as California, just to play up on that tiny little stage. At least, that's what I gathered as I watched six or seven guys come in the screen door, wade through the crowd with their instruments held high above their heads, and then gently thank the audience as they set up around their microphones. A few quick jokes and some tunings later, and they easily launched into a fast number. They mixed in a few gospel tunes and slow dances and two-steps, and everyone had a fabulous time.
It took me a while to warm up to dancing, though, because I'm really no good at it. However, after even Matthew and Jason made it out onto the dance floor, how could I refuse? Gina and I did a few slow dances, but our crowning acheivement was the square dance that came around 10:30 that night. I'd had a couple of square dancing lessons way back when, but she hadn't, and I'd forgotten most of the moves. It made for an interesting sight, but we weren't the only ones out there without the crucial knowledge of how to promenade your partner or put your hands in. We made it through the dance passably well, and the only incident was Gina and one of the older men in the crowd bumping their heads together during a "swing your partner."
It was interesting to see how some of the small-town folk reacted to us college students coming in for a peek into their lives. I know they've sent youngsters off to college before, so it's not like we're a foreign quantity - but still, we must have been pretty big sore thumbs that night. For our part, I didn't feel that out of place, having grown up in a small mountain town, but I think this was the first experience of its kind for a number of people in our group. I only hope they came out of the night with good impressions of small-town life.
Most of the regulars were friendly, anyway, and all the frequent dancers were more than happy to teach us a few steps. Some were even more thrilled to treat Brittlea and the other girls to some slow dances, like this one particularly unique, skinny 65-year old man dressed in black leather and a cowboy hat. I suppose the Jamboree attracts all kinds, after all.
Friday night was a definite highlight for me. As for this week so far, there haven't been too many things to report. The Wesley Fall Retreat is coming up this weekend, however, and I'm pumped about that. Cheers for now!
I was walking back from taking my last quiz of the week this afternoon, and I saw that, somehow, one of the tops of the numerous lampposts that populate campus had been completely knocked off. It was in front of the University Club, and the lamppost, now hatless, looked fragile and skinny.
I stopped to examine the broken globe a little closer. A shard was missing from it; shattered on impact, I guessed. I kicked it lightly with my shoe, confirming my suspicion that it was just plastic, which makes sense, considering the possiblity of lawsuits from drunken college kids that cause the globes to fall on their heads.
The kleptomaniac in me wanted to stuff it under my shirt, or perhaps on my head, and take it the remaining block home with me. But, I figured I probably wouldn't get away with that, and I don't even have any lamps that it could fit over. My mind wandered to the possible culprits, and the only two possibilities that stuck with me were a.) drunk college kids who were looking to file a lawsuit for a broken head, and b.) outrageous drunken war squirrels who are sick and tired of lampposts bashing in on their territory. I think you know which one I truly believe, and I think you know which one the media would try to use to cover up the truth.
So look out, boys and girls, on your next trip through campus. It's war out there - and the squirrels are finally mad.
And on that note, have a wonderful weekend. Holy crap, am I glad I survived my way through Friday!
First of all: Go Sox. Holy crap, I think I just witnessed some history!
Second of all: Lots of interviews and tests this week.
Third of all: We all could use some dinosaurs to spice up our day, don't you think? Especially ones that hold the same poses all the time.
I've never really been a huge baseball fan. I mean, I've come to appreciate it more and more over the last few years, but I don't really watch it that often during the regular season. I don't think it's boring or anything, I just usually don't devote the time to follow entire seasons or to pick a favorite team. Most of what I know about the game has rubbed off on me from my friends that are more knowledgable about the sport.
That being said, I've been paying much closer attention to this year's playoffs, to the point of almost being riveted to the TV. I mean, how can you not respect the Red Sox for making history, becoming the first team to come from behind and tie up a 3-0 series? Man oh man, call it jumping on the bandwagon if you want, but this is pretty intense stuff. I know I'll be watching, or at least watching the websites that tell you how the game's progressing ... 'cause this week is also mega test and interview week, which is going to take up most of my time.
Wish me luck!
Hello friends! This is my first post back after the end of my stint as a d103.com guest blogger. I just want to give a quick thanks to Daryl for letting me be part of the group. I had a lot of fun!
What's new in the world of Bret, you ask? Well, I have come to the conclusion that everything I've heard about job hunting is, in fact, true. I'm only in the preliminary interview stage, so I know I'm going to be put through the presses even more than I already am in the coming months, but for right now, it's murder on the emotions. Each callback sends a flood of positive vibes, causing me to jump up and down and go "Boo-yah! I rock!" all over my room. Each rejection letter trashes my hopes and dreams, causing me to question every answer I've ever given for each of the interviews. They probably invented the word harrowing to go right along with "interviewing." Don't see the connection? Neither do I, but I bet if you peeked deep enough, you'd find something.
As for this past weekend, it was great to watch the Hokies destroy the Killer Whales (okay, the Rattlers) of FAMU on Saturday. It was clear that FAMU had never played football before and had no clue what they were doing. It was a good change of pace from the heartstoppers that have been the last three football games, though. The only real entertainment, however, was cheering on the third string personnel for the Hokies and trying to figure out who they were. Gina and her mother cooked a delicious meal on Friday night, and it goes without saying that it was scrumptious. Gerritt and Ben were in town for the weekend, as well, and we got to play some good ol-fashioned fake poker at Gina's apartment on Saturday, complete with fresh cookies and brownies. That's livin'!
So, the real world doesn't suck so much after all, but this whole interviewing thing is going to get the best of me before it's all over. That being said, I'm off to an info session for yet another potential employer. Over and out.
(This was crossposted to D103.com, but I felt the need to include it here, as well.)
This evening, I, a few other members of the church I attend here in Blacksburg, and a few fellow Tech students had a rare treat. We were visited by the retired Bishop George Irvine, who lived in South Africa during the height of apartheid. He guided the churches under him through the downfall of the nationalist government there and the eventual election of Nelson Mandela as president. Let me tell you, folks, this guy is the real deal. He's lived through a real, pivotal moment of history, and he taught me several things about forgiveness and the capacity humans have for both good and evil. All in just about an hour.
I had read about apartheid before, but I was far too young while it was still being practiced to ever really think about what it meant. I didn't realize, for instance, that it was instated as a "protection" against Communism. I didn't understand the race registration and relocation laws that were passed, forcing millions of blacks to move out of their homes, which were levelled in the night, minutes after the security police piled in entire families and hauled them away. I couldn't fathom the hatred, fear, and racism that a government could operate under. Bishop Irvine led his own quiet opposition as a leader of the church, serving over the black churches as well as the white, not submitting to corruption by the government, and refusing to treat any person as anything but equal. He bent the rules as best he could, often coming at direct odds with the police forces. One quote I'll never forget from tonight was, "The thing about evil I've noticed is that it doesn't have a sense of humor. So I would play around with [the security policemen], telling them I was praying for them and the 'difficult' job they had to do."
I was in early middle school when the newly-instated government of South Africa held its first democratic election in 1994. I was far too young to understand the magnitude of this event, signifying the end of such a frightening system. Bishop Irvine was there, and when Nelson Mandela was freed from prison a few years prior, Mr. Mandela had called all the bishops to a meeting. There, Mandela told them two things that he had been thinking about while incarcerated on Robin Island. The first I cannot quote directly (I wish I'd taken notes), but the second I will also never forget: "Never meet an enemy that you don't want to turn into a friend." This was coming from a man who had been tortured daily by the security police, after all his freedoms had been taken away. This same man ended up ruling the new government and ended up fighting for amnesty to some of the same prison wardens and officers that had mistreated him. I have to ask myself if I could ever have that capacity for forgiveness.
Yes, my friends, I heard the real deal tonight, and I'm glad for it. I only hope I don't lose sight of his lessons.
Today has been very rainy and overcast. On days like this, it's easy to forget that the weather isn't always this way. I try to keep a pleasant memory in mind when I'm off running around on days like this...
The chilly fall breeze of Friday afternoon wafted through my hair as I walked through the gathering leaves on either side of me. This far into October, the scattered piles of maroon and orange would only rise in number and height, adding final splashes of vibrance before winter took hold. I looked back on the week I'd just completed -- and I thought that, taken all for all, it was one of the better weeks of the year. It had been a little like trying to find a tune on my guitar for days and days and finally having the melody flow to me as easy as water. Things just coming together, meshing as if it had all been planned out anyway.
All around me, fellow students trickled by in their hooded sweatshirts and loaded backpacks, looking ahead to the end of their next class or the moment when they could finally shed their books and live for another weekend. Squirrels, feeling braver now that colder weather was imminent, darted in between Adidas and New Balance footfalls, clutching their latest treasure with wide, alert eyes.
This was it. This was fall, and it had walked right in and put its feet up as if it had never left.
Towering overhead, Burruss began singing the Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun," and I couldn't keep myself from smiling and breaking into a whistle. My notes melted into the air, and I could feel the bounce returning to my step.
My room, and the surrounding basement of Wesley, has been invaded by these critters:
A cave cricket is what I instinctively called the first one I saw, after hearing vague stories of the frightening pests, and a quick Google search proved that I was right.
From personal experience, it seems you can't kill them by normal means. They jump too fast and too high to actually get them with normal bug spray, unless you just want to fill your entire room with the stuff, and that's not something I'd really recommend. They appear in the strangest places, such as your curtains as you're about to move them, scaring the crap out of an otherwise calm person. This is clearly part of their overall plan to run me out of my room so they can watch my DVDs. The only way I was even able to capture this one on camera was that one of its legs was mysteriously missing, thereby eliminating his jumping advantage. His injury originally unsettled me, as I thought of some other pest looming around down here that could rip a leg off a cave cricket ... but I eventually came to realize and hope that this guy was just a grizzled war veteran.
I named him Stan, then I picked him up with a tissue and put him in the garbage can upstairs.
Darn cave crickets.
My homepage has been online, in some form or another, since 1999. Regrettably, I don't remember the exact date I posted my first few pages back on the old address. Today, however, marks the first anniversary of my first-ever post to Ramble On, so I can definitely celebrate that. A year ago today, I wasn't using Movable Type, and I was really looking for some way to keep the site looking fresh. Gerritt, Josh, Tom, Daryl, and Amy's blogs served as the model for mine, so I also thank them for doing what they do and for giving me the inspiration. This blog has served as an outlet for ideas, a record of events, and a source of productivity and accomplishment for this year, and I hope to continue it for a long time to come. Though I haven't always posted every day, I always try to post when I have something to say, and that philosophy has kept me motivated.
So, in honor of a year's worth of posts and pictures, here are some links to my favorite entries and photographs (props to Gerritt.net for the idea):
- Cool Stuff: But Who's Counting? (November 12, 2003) - I certainly posted this in an energetic mood, when lots of cool stuff was indeed happening to me. Starring Mr. Electricity in his debut role.
- Something Tells Me I'm Into Something ... Fishy (December 19, 2003) - This was a pretty funny story in real life, and I was trying to capture the humor in the write-up. Ah, the fish! I've had so many good times with them.
- Xin Nian Hao / There's A Monkey On My Back (January 22, 2004) - A quick entry highlighting the beginning of the Year of the Monkey. And I know you like monkeys!
- The Power of Words (February 25, 2004) - This pretty much sums up how I feel about writing, plus it drops a few links like a good blogger should.
- Postcards From The Irreverent (March 18, 2004) - An exercise in creative nonfiction.
- Of Chocolate, Tents, And Steel (July 16-20, 2004) - My writeup of the huge road trip to Hershey this past summer.
- A Georgia sunset.
- Fall leaves.
- Crusaders.
- Snowbridge.
- Lookin' good.
- Grand Central.
- Gulls.
- Sun king.
- Capitol.
- Library dusk.
- Guster.
- Blinded by the light.
- Come to the garden.
- Singing for the Lord.
- Football and streamers.
I hope you enjoyed this little retrospective!
There are two recent news stories involving William Shatner that I want to talk about. The first involves the release of Has Been, the soon-to-be Album of the Century. There's not many ways I could really describe this body of work, even though I tried before. It just defies explanation. But I know what I like, and I love this.
So hey, Shatner's won an Emmy, he's got a new legal drama and a collaborative album masterpiece. Things are going well for him, I'd say. I even almost forgot some of the rumors of him being really mean to his underlings.
And then, I read this story about Shatner invading the small Iowa town of Riverside under the guise of filming a new independent movie. Turns out, it was a hoax. He was actually filming the residents of the town for a new reality series on Spike TV. Another reality show? Duping the residents of this small, sleepy town? I dunno, that seems pretty... Shatneresque to me. Apparently, the producers of the show did donate some money to the town, and no serious harm was done, but you've got to feel bad for the Riverside residents. I don't watch reality TV as a rule, and I certainly won't be making an exception in this case.
So today's opinion of Shatner is about halfway between thumbs up and thumbs down, but I think the guest stars on Has Been, including the Ben Folds connection, are going to persuade me to go ahead and buy the album anyway.
Tune in tomorrow for a very special post!
It's become a little bit difficult for me to get any creative writing done, with all these engineering classes and tests getting in the way. My goal right now is to average a page per day in my writing journal, and if I achieve anywhere near those results, I should be in good standing as far as my journal grade goes. That, however, doesn't have any bearing on the two real, honest-to-goodness stories I have to complete by the end of the semester. I've been stopping and starting on a few fragments of ideas, but I think it's just going to take some experimentation with finding a combination of plot and character that I care enough about to finish.
It's a good thing, then, that the rest of my engineering classes, job interviews, and Wesley activities are going somewhat smoothly, eh?
I'll leave you tonight with a peek into my writer's journal, with a couple of character ideas that hit me through some observations over the last few weeks.
(It occurs to me that blogging about creative writing class is a lot more interesting than blogging about Statistical Quality Control and how we began learning about the Sequential Probability Ratio Test for the variables case today. Some things just look better on the screen, I suppose!)
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The High School Thinker - He notices things and wonders if anyone else does. He catches the little details in life, reads desk graffiti with a relish not usually seen by kids his age, and wonders why people don't look at each other in the eye anymore. He's not exactly isolated at his school, though - the other students mainly see him as a mystery, an unknown quanitity, and thus he doesn't really fall into any of the usual high school category groups.
The "Rotten Egg" - Someone who, through fate or whatever chance, is always the last person to leave a place or event. Or they at least have that feeling of being the last person out. They've eventually come to grips with having the same kind of feelings as a captain being the last to go down with a ship, except their lives are usually not so negative or depressing. I'm thinking there痴 potential to be funny with this idea here, once the character realizes this and starts using it to his advantage.
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So there you have it, a secret exciting bonus peek into some stuff I've been writing.
I have heard the call of many of Project BS' visitors who are looking for new photo galleries from me. I've fallen far behind on updating the galleries, as you can see when you visit the photo page. I'm always trying to keep my fans happy, so I've borrowed a page from Tom. I'm setting up a Webshots gallery as a temporary measure to post photos from this year (until I run out of space there - then we'll decide what to do). As time permits, I'll continue working on my own Project BS galleries and get caught up through this summer. I'm also experimenting with other image hosting sites, to see if any of those would work better once I run out of my own webspace. I know Webshots has its flaws, but it's going to work fine as a stopgap measure.
So, check out the football picture galleries at the Project BS Webshots Community All-Block Party Shindig. There will be more soon. And above all, have a great weekend!