First day of Summer

It's here! Finally, three weeks after school is out, I truly get my Summer break. My class is done and I have no real obligations. I'm sitting in a coffee shop with nowhere that I need to be. Throughout the week, I'll be doing some yard work stuff (yippee-skippy), and I've got an eye appointment, with a few errands to run, but now I can hang out, write about the things going on inside my head and begin working more on writing a iRiffs script. I'll be updating the blog more consistently, but I have no idea how much stuff will be awesome for you to check out. Whatevs.

Reading and the Wii

My brother is moving to Guam. It's crazy to think that in a bit over a month he'll be on the other side of the planet. In the meantime, though, he's been trying to find cheap/free places to store his stuff. Most went to his in-laws' place. But to me, he gave all his movies, music, his TV, video games, and consoles. I've completely rearranged my basement and life in the aftermath. The Wii and I haven't had a lot of encounters, though I've found it pleasant on all occasions. But now that I have it, and on a better TV than ever before, I'm lost with Mario.

On the more intellectual side, I've been reading more this Summer (finally). I'm currently in the middle of The Road (that reads funny). It's awesome. I'm near a hundred pages in and I don't really want to stop reading.

Here's the conundrum: I love Mario and I love The Road. So what's a guy to do? I'm torn. It's like I'm in a crappy chick-flick and I can't decide between the fun, exciting person with no future, or the deep, meaningful relationship that doesn't bore me, necessarily, but sometimes does put me to sleep (my biggest complaint about my life--maybe to be explored another time).

I guess for now I will cheat on both and indulge as much as I can without one knowing how much I love the other...this is getting weird. I better stop now.

Summer Movie Sadness

I realized this week that movies suck this summer. Star Trek was groovy, Up thrilled my soul. But now, I don't know if there's anything else I'm excited to see until 9. I totally sucks. Maybe last year spoiled me. With Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Get Smart, Wall-E, Kung Fu Panda, Tropic Thunder, and Hellboy II, I had something to look forward to. It's not even that they all delivered as I had hoped, but I at least looked forward to them. This summer is giving me nothing. I'm trying to be excited about Transformers, but I wasn't a fan of the first one, so I don't think I'll care all that much about this one.

I know I'm not the only one feeling this, but is it being too whiny? Must I suck it up and move on with my life--try a new medium for entertainment? Even then, it won't be the same. Movies have a special even t feeling to them that other media lack (unless you're a fan of particular young adult novel series, but even the big ones there are now concluded).

On the plus side, maybe it will save me some money.

Tech-Savy

So, for being Summer, I'm amazed at how busy I am. It's probably because last Summer was centered entirely on World of Warcraft, but I honestly feel quite busy so far. I've been taking a class through the university that focuses on ways to utilize technology in a writing class. It is awesome. When I think of any of the classes I've had that are supposed to enhance my teaching and classroom activities, I kind of want to throw up--they've just all been so horrid. This, however, is just plain fun. We've been dinking around with podcasting, iMovie, Comic Life, Wordle, wikis, nings, blogs, Twitter. The list goes on. It's made me realized what a nerd I truly am. Not just a Star Wars, video game kind of nerd, but a Dexter's Lab kind of nerd. I'm seriously just loving everything we've gone over.

This is the last week of the class, so I'm hoping that things calm down a bit more for me. I did my final presentation yesterday, so already, I feel like I have more time (hence my return to the blogging). Unfortunately, I have to take another class in about two weeks. And after this tech class, I fear that the next will be disappointing.

Summer Times not Lazy Time

So I've been looking forward to Summer (as every teacher does), but I never figured I'd be as busy as I am. I'm in the middle of a summer class which takes up my morning (more on that later) and I've been working on a bunch of stuff with my house in the afternoons. It's been a good schedule, but it's driving me a bit crazy that I'm not actually getting the time for what I was planning to do, namely writing and reading. Luckily, I was able to drag my carcass out of bed and get to Bagels and Joe to do some writing for about an hour and a half before my class. It felt good. Hopefully I can keep that up and maybe even get up earlier and find a place that opens earlier to go and spend my time at.

Otherwise, I went down to the University last night for Jazz in June. I recommend. It was just nice to go, grab an awesome cheeseburger, and chill with people with a band doing their thing up front. I think I'll be going to the other concerts throughout the month.

Anyhow, it's class time, so I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Three More Days

As of this morning, I have three more days of this school year. Just thinking about it has made my head explode twice (very messy).

Finals are my favorite time of year because it makes a lot of students care for the first time all year. And this year, as an added bonus, I'm making all but one class diagram sentences, which thrills me more than anyone could imagine.

With these last days, I'm starting to get all excited for the summer and my summer happenings. Starting next week, I'll be taking a class that gets me some graduate hours. It's gonna be sweet, yet bizarre to be back in a classroom as a student. Otherwise, I swear by my right earlobe that I will read. Every summer I aim to read like a fiend, and every summer starts well before it crashed in a flurry of unread pages.

And writing. With the class happening throughout June, it throws off my writing hopes a bit. I like to write in the morning, right when the coffee shops open up and stay for at least two hours. Unfortunately, most coffee shops around here don't open until 7:oo. So I'd only get an hour in before I've get to get to class. Lame. Hopefully I'll still get something good done by getting together with my friend for a writing group.

Camping and Up

Went camping this weekend for the first time in I don't know how many years. It was a pretty good time despite having half of the crew sick. What I did notice, for me, is that I love the night time when camping, and have little to no love for the day time. At night, with the fire, smoke, and cool evening air, life is awesome. During the day, however, the fire loses its magic, the smoke is a hassle, and the air is far from cool. I didn't want to do anything except lay there and wait for the next breeze (which didn't come by too often). Still, it was a good time and it made my weekend seem extra long.

On Sunday, I went and saw Up. Go see it. I remember when Shrek came out and my mom was so thrilled that they had put in so many "adult" jokes into a kid's movie. Up does that even more and take the material outside of the comedic. The first 20 minutes were outright sad and we see Carl's whole life leading up to his being required to move to a retirement home (reminded me of About Schmidt). But the rest of the movie is quite funny, exciting, and touching. Of the summer Blockbusters (of which I've only seen Wolverine and Star Trek), Up should be at the top of your list.