You're Greener Than Me

I'm in North Carolina now. I've been working at Carolinas' Music and Arts for three weeks now? It's pretty great, I will say. It's exhausting, and I've had a few lonely spats, but overall, it's great.

I got my first tick this morning. I took care of it though. They're weird little guys, aren't they? I taped him up. I'll see if I can get a picture before he gets thrown out.

Campers are bothering me about women. Apparently they believe I need lessons in "breaking the ice." They think they're helping me get a date for the banquet at the end of camp. And here I was thinking I didn't need one. Who knew?

It's going to be a long summer yet. After camp is the Souther Territory's Territorial Music Institute. Then two weeks vacation in Ontario. Then I might stay an extra week until The Canada and Bermuda Territory's National Music Camp. That'd be cool, but it'd mean flying directly into St. John's.

That'd be difficult, but I could deal.

Oh, also. I'm green. I was supposed to be an Ogre last night for a game. Yeah, the face paint is stubborn in some places. That won't be happening again anytime soon.

En Route

I'm here in Halifax airport now. It's exciting.

I love to be on the go. More specifically, I love to be around people who are on the go. I'm a people watcher, and Airports are the perfect place to set up camp.

There's also just something so great about airports. There are screens, moving sidewalks ... modern design ... it feels like you're stepping into a Science Fiction movie (Two exceptions: Deer Lake airport before the renovations, and Port Au Prince airport!). I love Toronto International ...

So my plane boards in an hour. Maybe I'll go get a drink at Starbucks, phone home, and play my Game Boy Color.

Yep. Stepped straight into the future.

A side note: This also marks the first trip I've made with my laptop. So far it's been a bit of a pain, but I've got a 3 hour stopover in Toronto ... and another long one in Montreal coming back ...

I love this! =D

Joshology

I saw this on Jessica's Facebook, so I decided to steal it to kill some time before picking up my brother from school.

MOUTHOLOGY

Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. Russian

Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. Louis Gee's Pizza (I think that counts)

Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A. Aroma's

Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. Whatever. It depends on the service. I have left very meager tips before.

Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick off of?
A. Chicken. Heck, I do it already.

Q. What are your pizza toppings of choice?
A. I like the works, but at Louis Gee's I always just get the Bacon and Pepperoni.

Q. What do you like to put on your toast?
A. Butter. Sometimes I do the jam thing.

Q. What is your favorite kind of gum?
A. Juicy Fruit

TECHNOLOGY

Q. Number of contacts in your cell phone?
A. I Don't have a Cell Phone.

Q. Number of contacts in your email address book?
A. 30-40

Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. Transformers. It's a black background with the Autocon Symbol, and the date for the movie.

Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. 5 (only 2 for watching TV)

BIOLOGY

Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
A. Right

Q. What’s your best feature?
A. I'd be great to hide behind if somebody needed to ...

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. Yes.

Q. Which of your five senses do you think is keenest?
A. Hearing probably.

Q. When was the last time you had a cavity?
A. None yet, but I think one is inevitable.

Q. What is the heaviest item you lifted last?
A. Bringing yard sale stuff to the Church.

Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. No. Hopefully I will be sometime in the future though.

BULLSHITOLOGY

Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. Sure. It'd also be cool to see if you could avoid it or not. It'd be an experiment in predestination.

Q. Is love for real?
A. Yep.

Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
A. This is something I think about a lot. Recently it's been Romulus Shepard King.

Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
A. It seems that a combination of Army-Green and White looks good, but I'm not exactly an expert on these things.

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. Probably.

Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. I don't think so.

Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised. But if you look through history, there are a lot of things that could have happened differently, which would end in my not being born. But I don't think that counts.

DAREOLOGY

Q. Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000?
A. Sure.

Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. Why not?

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000
A. Uuh, that would take some thinking.

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. Sure. =(

Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
A. Probably not.

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
A. Agh, I hate Hot Sauce. I'd probably give it a shot.

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. Probably not. The real punishment is psychological anyways.

Q. Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000?
A. Perhaps. $25 000 is about 2 years of MUN ...

DUMBOLOGY

Q: What is in your left pocket?
A: Car/House keys and my iPod shuffle.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A: It's okay. It's a special kind of movie.

Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A: Both. Hardwood mostly on main level, carpet everywhere else.

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A: Stand. There's no place to sit.

Q: Could you live with roommates?
A: Sure. Even if they were bad roommates, I think I could deal.

Q: How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
A: Nada.

Q: Where were you born?
A: The oldest City in North America: St. John's, Newfoundland.

Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A: Don't recall. I've been noticing that there are a lot more driving around these days though.

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: That's the question isn't it? I'd like to be maybe a teacher or a pastor or something, but really I'll just take what comes.

LASTOLOGY

Q: Friend you talked to?
A: Renée on MSN

Q: Last person you called?
A: Dad. I was in a panic because I couldn't find my passport.

Q: Person you hugged?
A: Mom. Aside from that hugs are far and few between.

FAVORITOLOGY

Q: Number?
A: 13

Q: Color?
A: Orange

Q: Season?
A: Fall

CURRENTOLOGY

Q: Missing someone?
A: Missing a lot of people. The MUN crowd mostly.

Q: Mood?
A: Meh. A bit excited and happy about going on Thursday, but otherwise just "whatever"

Q: Listening to?
A: Nothing (Just turned off Prozzäk =P)

Q: Watching?
A. Nothing.

Q: Worrying about?
A: A family situation. (Vague enough? =P)

RANDOMOLOGY

Q: First place you went this morning?
A: Home (slept at Dad's)

Q: What can you not wait to do?
A: Hang out with people in North Carolina.

Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A: Pirates of The Caribbean probably.

Q: Do you smile often?
A: I try to.

Q: Are you a friendly person?
A: I think I am a lot of the time.

Q: Now that the surveys done what are you going to do?
A: Turn on my music, pick up my brother from school, eat a little bit more, and then go to Wal*Mart to exchange some too-small shirts.

Let others know a little more about yourself! Repost this as your name followed by “ology

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft just won about ten thousand cool points from me. Check it.

When I saw this, my immediate thought was how I could make the required ten thousand dollars before the release in November. But they probably won't even be available in good old Newfieland by then anyways.

Still ... neatness, don't you think so? These are the days that make me realize that the future is here.

They say that in 3-5 years they'll be a viable option for the home. I so wish Apple was the first one to get this stuff out ... but what can you do?

On a related note: I've decided that if the fabled Mac Tablet ever sees release, I'll sell my soul to secure one.

Why Does It Happen This Way?

Okay. So I just finished watching (finally) the Season finale of Jericho, a new CBS program that dealt with the aftermath of a Nuclear attack on America. It wasn't the most terrific show in the world ... the acting left something to be desired, and the stories were cliche in some places. But the premise was pretty neat, and it's flaws were bearable.

In the last few episodes Jericho had just begun to go to war with a neighboring town called New Bern. Favorite line of the series: "I am about to go to war with New Bern, Kansas, the home of the nearest Costco. Today is already about as wierd as I can handle, I'm not asking any more questions." From Johnston Green.

I was sort of getting into the war fever. The characters on either side had met before, some were friends. A telling line was when a certain character (don't remember who) said something along the lines of "Six months ago, there was a bitter Football rivalry between our High Schools. Now we're going to shoot at each-other."

So it was a bitter necessity to be fighting like that. The tension you could get into. You sort of grimmance when either one of them is staring down the barrel of the gun. The season ends before the war really gets into full swing, right after throwing a wrench into the works that should change everything. I get excited for the next season ...

Then I find out it's been canceled. Well, crap.

Like I said, it wasn't the most amazing show out there, so I can see why it would be canceled instead of perhaps another show. But I would have guessed it had been doing decent ... 10 million American viewers each week. Is that not enough? I don't really know about these things, so perhaps it isn't.

Anyways, I hope they find some way to tie up that terrible bloody cliffhanger that they left me to chew on. A movie would be great, but unlikely. I'll take a book, if it's written well. Heck, continue the series in novels. That'd be a series I could get into.

I've gotten into Major League Soccer ... a North American soccer league. There is only one Canadian team, and they only joined this year ... Toronto FC plays the Colorado Rapids tonight at 5:00. Toronto hasn't been doing to stellar (2 wins, 5 losses, 1 tie). Hopefully tonight will go Toronto's way.

I'm Back

My last night in Haiti was probably one of the most awesome ... literally awe-filled ... nights in recent memory. It began with having a pile of candy to hand out on Mom's behalf. I knew there were a few people on the roof, so I went up. I offered, and I left.

After my candy-running errand was over, I went up to the roof again, knowing that people would still be there. Most of the Integrate team eventually made it up to the roof, laying down and looking up through a cloudless patch of sky. The stars weren't out in full-force there either. I remember marveling at how so many stars get filtered out by the tiniest light. But it was Haiti. I lay back with the rest of the crowd, and just enjoyed the cool night air, and the black star-dotted sky.

Eventually I was alone on the roof. Strange how solitude can be so comforting. That's something I think I've been missing since St. John's. As strange as it sounds. In September my solitude was my hell. But by the end of my second term, solitude was something I enjoyed to an extent. I could have taken less of it, but I stopped wishing for none of it.

In Haiti, I didn't have my iPod. I didn't bring it for fear using it, more than loosing it. On that roof I started to hum to myself. I couldn't remember any songs other than the Chorouses Awesome God, and Let it Rain. I had never liked the latter before the trip, but one day when some heavy rain was pounding down, one of the guys jokingly sang a line. I couldn't get it out of my mind the whole time afterwards.

Let it rain, let it rain.
Open the floodgates of Heaven.

I must have hummed and sang that chorus to myself more than a hundred times on the roof.

Then fireworks started.

At first I didn't know what was happening, and was scared for it. I was in a different part of the world, sitting on a roof, on a quiet night in a troubled city. I was staring off into the distance, when the clouds flashed Red. Red again. More red.

I wouldn't have been so frightened if they had started with the blue quicker. I turned around and saw clouds being even more intensely colored. I decided the commotion was over there. I figured by that time that it was fireworks or pyrotechnics or something. It was around midnight, and Friday was the Haitian Flag Day. I watched for a while longer, and fireworks began to explode over the treetops. There were a few hills between the celebration area and where I was, and only the top halves of the firework blooms were visible, but they were still fun to watch.

In retrospect, I sort of wish we could have been there celebrating with the people in Port Au Prince. If anyone deserves to celebrate their national identity, it's the Haitians. It's the second independent nation from the new world, right behind the U.S. And the U.S. didn't go from Oppression to Hardship-filled Freedom.

I eventually went down from the roof, and journaled for the last time in Haiti. As an aside, I haven't even picked up the journal again yet, despite my vow to journal my whole summer. The power had gone out in the guest house, and the night-guy brought a candle up to lend some light to the darkened hallway. I talked with him briefly, but the conversation didn't really move beyond "The generator is broken." and "Thats bad." He was telling me that it wouldn't be possible for it to be repaired until well into the next day.

After some advice for us to open the shutters from my window before going to sleep, the man went downstairs, and I sat down by the candle. It was the only light I could find, so I just journaled there. When Melissa went to bed, she offered me her light, but I declined. The candle was nice. It was like the washing-clothes-by-hand thing. It was great fun and something I wanted to do. If I had known I would have to do that from then on, it would have lost it's appeal, but for then it was something different. Living a different reality.

Tonight I had a sort of bridge-across-time experience. I walked to and from Scott's in the cool air. I was listening to my music. When I got home I went out back and sat down on a bench. I looked up at the stars. I looked across at my city. I could see more lights tonight than I did in Port Au Prince, which is 50 times the size of Corner Brook. I'll blame that on rolling hills being in the way in Haiti, but I know there are other factors.

I wish I could get that feeling on-demand. It's time to make good on the promise I made myself. But that doesn't need to be addressed here.

Tonight was just a good night. Nights like this lend me the resolve I need.

A year from now, I will be in a better place.

A Conflict

I've never really minded too much when my lungs asserted themselves. Honestly, it's probably because they've been fixing my mistakes all along the way. Well, as far as breathing goes.

You see, the only times that my lungs have forcibly taken control of themselves is after I've done something stupid, such as trying to hold my breath for a minute. Or like that time I tried to run to school after watching 300. Half way through my lungs just screamed "STOP, YOU FOOL!" My lungs then spent five minutes breathing heavily, trying to suck in more oxygen. "Sorry" my brain said. "It was Testosterone's idea, not mine. He said we should be more manly. Men run. So I decided we should run."

My lungs were too busy working to fix the mistake to discuss the matter. And like good body parts do, they rendered control of my mobility over to my legs and brain shortly after the oxygen deficit had been corrected. Perhaps my brain had caught the look in the lungs' eyes. "Foolish boys." Not wanting to disappoint, the brain made sure to take care of the lungs for a while after that, making sure they never had to work too hard. I guess it was sort of like the brain trying to make up for the trouble it had caused.

The lungs probably would have done a better job running my body than my brain has done. But the lungs only really took over when the situation was so far out of hand. The lungs are great like that. The brain could learn a thing or two about sensibility and sensitivity.

The stomach in recent days has been a different case, however. Between mouth, brain and stomach, there has been a pretty drawn out war of attrition.

Upon my body's arrival back from Haiti, a bug had been setting in. Stomach was kicking up a fuss, like a good internal organ should, I suppose. But mouth was also making demands. After two weeks away from McDonalds, Louis-Gee's Pizza, and other such Canadian goodies, it had been declared that "There will be no negotiations with Stomach on this matter." Brain initially sided with mouth on this, despite the close alliance between Stomach and Bowels, and the possible havoc that unholy union could wreak.

The decision was made: "Mouth, eat what you will, and share that pleasure with Brain. Stomach will sort out it's own affairs. Once Stomach decides to get it's act together and join in on the enjoyment, Stomach will bring Bowels back into the fold as well."

Well Stomach and Bowels have shown themselves to have some lasting power. While Stomach has been actively rocking the boat almost every moment of every day, Bowels have been acting similarly, asserting it's will over the rest of the body by putting in urgent calls every hour or so. Brain was heard to remark that it was good luck that Bladder hadn't been drawn into this whole conflict.

The whole conflict has sort of gone into a whole feedback loop as well. With Bowels being as contrary as he is, Nose (close friend to mouth) has gotten involved, further agitating Stomach.

Therefore Brain has made a change in policy, hoping to find a lasting peace. Mouth will have to curb it's appetite for as long as Stomach is on the outs. Stomach will give this plan a few days to try it out. If Stomach manages to get his act together quickly, he will help reign in Bowels. Until then, Bowels will likely be indirectly affecting Stomach through Nose.

Lungs have stayed silent during the whole ordeal so far, despite some assumed agitation that Bowels were causing (Nose and Lungs are also quite close diplomatically). On the whole, Lungs seem to be enjoying the fact that Brain, and Testosterone are not collaborating.

Lungs could only wish Brain was similarly occupied more often.