can’t wait for the home computer

the past couple of days my family and i have been up around litchfield, since my parents thought it would be a wonderful idea to spend the weekend here. i’ve been using my dad’s laptop to get onto the internet since i no longer have one of my own, and i must say that i really am not used to it. with the IBM that leo gave me, the mouse buttons were above the pad, not below it. and the ‘home’ and ‘end’ buttons? still can’t find them on this thing. it also makes noise. lots and lots of noise. but enough of complaining about computers.

today is memorial day. it’s strange to think that this is the second year in a row (that i’ve been counting, at least) where i have neither had to be in or watch new canaan’s parade. it’s quite nice not having to get asked why, at 16, i finally was able to make it to first class when a 13-year-old from one of the other troops had with 3 years less to do it than i did. it’s quite nice.

litchfield is having a celebration of sorts instead of a parade, apparantly. this is because one of the small roads in the middle of town is blocked off from traffic, and there are cops directing it in other places around there. it’s weird to see so many people around here in one place, but i guess it’s not as quiet as i thought. whatever.

i guess this is all for now. i might edit this later on tonight.

when you’re very tired, i would suggest not going on the internet late at night

last night and today seem like an eternity to me, especially since i couldn’t sleep at all last night, and i had to drive my dad’s trains (which come in a not-that-distant second in the ‘things dad cares about most’, coming of course, behind my mother) from our house up to litchfield. this was, oh how do i put it, an interesting experience, seeing how people on the merritt simply do not know how to drive, and cannot seem to grasp the idea of reading speed limit signs that have numbers higher than 35 on them. like the guy i was stuck behind for most of it. he was literally, and i’m not joking here, going 35 miles an hour. ON THE FUCKING HIGHWAY. does this man really not know how to drive? maybe he just needs to get something like a mini cooper or something where the seat can be vertically raised so that one can actually see over the steering wheel.

actually, i would suggest everyone to get a mini cooper, because then not only would you be able to get more people on the highway with less clutter, plus they would actually be able to see not only the road before them, but maybe the speed limit signs that have the number 55 on them, and then go at least that fast. it would greatly help if you would do so.

of course naturally, once i finished the trip, i had no idea as to where i would put the oh-so-beloved trains that my dad has (as a sidenote, most of his trains, actually i think all of them, are older than i am, and i’m 2 years shy of being able to go down to the local pub and not get thrown out), so i decided that it would be a marvelous idea to put them in the garage here and leave them there until my dad realises that they’re still in there and finds a place to put them. sounds like a good idea to me.

ok, it is late, and i am tired. good night, y’all. seeya in the morning.

sometimes being in the middle of nowhere isn’t such a bad thing

i regularly read a blog called dooce (http://www.dooce.com), and apparantly, she is a bigger fan of IKEA than i am. i love going to the one near where i am, even though it’s all the way up in New Haven, which is conveniently right out of range when it comes to having that all-of-a-sudden urge to go and impulsively buy some $5 alarm clock that i’ll end up losing. i guess having spent the past 9 months of my life in the middle of nowhere without a car wasn’t such a bad thing, and now that i’m home (and access to a car), it’s just a bit harder to resist the IKEA cravings that i get. especially with the really-ugly-yet-somehow-enormously-beautiful building that my mother loves to hate across the parking lot.

i guess having an enormous truck that eats gas like it’s still $1-a-gallon helps in the sense that i have to use my money for gas, instead of whatever new items they have there that i DESPERATELY want to spend it on. but, oh well. i guess when that other building gets torn down my mother will have greater enthusiasm about going there.

i’m creating privacy issues by blogging? when did that start happening?

i went out to lunch earlier with my sister, and about halfway through, i told her that i was running this site. she said that i shouldn’t be doing so, since there very well could be a stalker who reads this and is planning on stopping by. please, if anyone intends on stalking a blogger, i would suggest stalking one that posts about interesting, personal, and/or humorous things that happen to them. of course, naturally i, however, have yet to post anything of the sort. especially since i’ve mostly been bitching and moaning about school. until now, at least.

i also got a letter in the mail today with my license in it. i am very excited, since i am now finally able to do things that i like to do. like ride the vespa.

ok, this is all.

redesign

lately i’ve been trying to figure out a new name for this, since i’m neither in, or going back to, the middle of hicksville, florida. instead, i’ve decided to take someone else’s idea for a patrol name and use it for this.

i first heard of spontaneously combusting onions during the planning stages for the national scout jamboree back in 2005. a kid in my patrol had suggested it, since it was the name of one that his home troop had used. however, the scoutmaster wanted everyone to pick a name that could be easily identifiable by an already existing patrol patch, so we couldn’t be onions that would suddenly burst into flames as you tried to cut them up. after searching through scoutings many already existing patches, we foun one with a picture of a viking on it that was stitched on with red thread, and became the spontaneously combusting normans. this is because we all knew that extremely flammable scandanavian looters who row in wooden boats and come from the 10th century are incredibly practical, and unbelievably awesome.

i’m debating whether or not to change the entire layout of the page in addition to the name, and i’m kinda fond of this design, so i think i’ll keep it for a little while longer.

cut the head off the snake, and the body dies (or so one would hope)

today, we lost a very holy man. Jerry Falwell’s heart problems did him in. in his lifetime, he founded the Moral Majority, while whisking the religious right up into the political foray and created a 7,700-strong university, while also trying to help reverse America’s moral fall-out. he led, he preached, and he led millions of Americans to find faith within themselves, and spoke the word of God to the masses. the list of his accomplishes goes on.

however, even the holiest of men have a dark side.

in addition to what he’s done for fundamentalism in America, he found the time to speak out against various groups. for example, shortly after the Sept. 11th attacks, he said (and i quote:), “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen’.”

his stance on homosexuality is the main reason why I can’t bring myself to feel all that bad about his death. yes, it’s hard for anyone to lose a family member, but since I’m not related to him, I feel no remorse in his passing. from my standpoint, any person who has the nerve to say that “AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals” is not someone who can be considered mature, let alone respectable. it’s not like there aren’t actually rea; gay people living openly in this country or anything, you know? because God Forbid there be anyone who doesn’t live to his standards or anything.

with all due respect to his family, hopefully the snake will finally die after this beheading.

6 months in, the 40th post is made

technically, i’ve been running this site for 6 months. woowoo. however, since i totally forgot (and therefore neglected) about this site for about a month and a half (see: the 2 january posts and the 0 february posts), i’ve only been posting here for 5. but whatever, it’s been 6 months, and this is the 40th post. this means that a celebration is in dire need.

today’s also the day when the may fair is up at saint marks. its fun because you run into so many people that you completely forget that you know, and then all of a sudden, there they are either calling your name out to tell you hello, or you’re calling their name out to do likewise. there seems to be less things there to do, however. all the rides seem to be designed for kids who still have yet to get their licenses, and all the stuff they have for sale are designed for either people who have a hard time letting go of old electronics or people who like really cheap furniture. if you’re one of those people, make sure to go to the may fair.

because of the lack of anything current there, i ended up leaving with nothing but a book about Reagan. awesome. i then decided to walk into town to get my mom something for tomorrow, since it is mothers day and all, and then walked home. it seems as if everyone is home from college now, so there doesn’t really seem to be any reason for me to go into town anymore, since i don’t want to see most of the people i graduated with, and i wouldn’t be surprised if they felt the same way.

this is all, i shall talk to y’all later.

when Kenneth Branagh can erase an entire year

and so, since i’m still in the too-lazy-to-really-do-anything-productive-mode, i decided to rent Kenneth Branagh’s version of Hamlet, which, not only is 4 hours long, but also comes along in not one, but two VHS cassettes. yupp, VHS. i’ve gone old school, big flippin deal. once boston legal is over, i’m getting control of the tv again. woowoo.

this is all.

on being home

it’s strange being home after college, because, well, i really don’t know how to put it. instead of procrastonating by sitting outside hendo smoking my lungs out (occasionally with one or two other people), i find myself walking into town and doing the same thing. only this time i’m not procrastonating.

i have yet to run into anyone that i graduated with, and quite honestly, i could care less if i ever saw them again, because that’s just how much i don’t like the culture here in new canaan. which kind of makes me sad that stoller thinks that i’m unkillable. don’t worry, stoller, i shall die one day. just not as soon as most people around here would hope.

and so, since school is out and i really have nothing else to complain/moan and groan/bitch about, i shall now leave you all be.

end of the year (a non-retrospect)

and so, freshman year is pretty much over. i have a math final later on today at 10AM, which is the class that i have somehow been able to fail. again. i’m surprised that i failed it again, seeing how it’s basically the same thing i learned last year in janowski’s class, only this time with a teacher from hell, followed by the online testing program from a lower level of hell. i’ve been up for two straight nights, this being my third. now, having learned from experience as to how my body reacts to this little sleep, i have a feeling that i’m going to zonk out at some point during the final. trust me, it happened last class, and i’m pretty damn sure it’ll happen again.

in between rediculously impossible mathlabs, various sore body parts, hanging out with Carly, and massive amounts of laundry, i’ve somehow found the time and energy to continue packing. i now have five and a half boxes (two of which are flat rate, not the standard size) full of the stuff from my desk and various other parts of my room, and the sad part is that i’m not even done cleaning off my desk. earlier today while a friend of mine was over, i discovered something that i honestly hadn’t even remembered was in my room: a jar of peanut butter. honest to god, on the bottom shelf of my desk in the back was a near-full container of Skippy that my parents had sent me back in september/october staring me square in the eye. the scary part was that it can’t even be considered old yet, and wouldn’t be until mid-august. that definately came as a wakeup call, especially since i’ve been a peanut butter fan ever since i could remember. i ended up giving it to a friend of mine who has yet to decide as to forward it to another one of her friends, or to throw it out. my suggestion is, unless you’re planning to go through an entire jar of it in 3.5 months, throw it out. it’s not worth it.

i’ve also found numerous other things in my room that i’ve totally forgotten about, such as the care package that St. A’s sends out to all of the college freshmen at the church. now, for the record, i’m not Catholic, and i’ve never been a member of a church of that denomination. however, i did take part in their emmaus retreat early in my senior year of high school, so i’m assuming that they added me to their list of freshmen this year from that. it’s always nice to know that a group (or at least it’s leader) considers you a part of something, even if you don’t hold the same religious views.

overall, this year has been interesting. and while most of what has happened has already passed my mind in order to accurately put it on here, but i shall do my best the next time i post. this is my last post while at saint leo, as i’m returning my computer to OIT tomorrow (or later today, whichever way you look at it).