A curious lack of trust.

I was called a liar by one of my students today and I am not really sure what to think of it. I was quite puzzled by it considering my evidence to the contrary but the student seemed insistent that I was not telling the truth. I have not had anything like this happen as far as I can remember and it was definitely a very strange feeling. Even now, I still do not really know what to think of it. One thing I can identify is that it makes me feel somewhat sad for the student's apparent cynicism/mistrust of me. It seems indicative of some sort of personal issue that must relate to other people as in that student's life as well.

In other news, I am up WAY past my bedtime and I really need to get to bed soon. The addictive part of my brain has been scheming over magic cards again. How silly. Oh, well... It is nice to be done with it for now at least. Ha.

One-day lag.

I did not quite finish the paper that was due today but our teacher is letting us turn it in on Thursday so that is quite a relief. I am almost done with the paper as it is so I'll just finish it off tomorrow and be done with it. Oh, the powers of procrastination!

It is nice to be learning all kinds of stuff every day. It is especially pleasing to be learning about many of the grammatical problems and bad habits I have been needing to correct for years. Hopefully my writing skills will improve noticeably. Writing well is quite a handy skill.

I finally get to do some band practice again tomorrow. The recent schedules have limited our practice time lately so I am kind of missing it. Plus, I think we are going to do a little recording as well.  That is always a fun experience... well... almost always.  Ha.

Rocking the long shift.

Today I was quite lucky that most of my drives at work were the easiest one to teach.  Anytime the shift goes for 10 consecutive hours every little bonus that makes the drives easier is definitely appreciated.  I am quite looking forward to the paycheck that will follow this particular pay period.

I really enjoyed exploring the spiritual side of Memorial Day as well.  It is not something I recall having done before and it really gave me a better insight and appreciation for the day in general.  I am so often lost in my grasp of the meaningful things in life.

Now... I need to go to sleep.  I need to write a paper tomorrow.  I also need to bring something for the potluck.  Fun!

New beginnings... again.

But new beginnings are always good, I say.  And not that there is any particularly immense change in direction... it is more of a reclamation of purpose.  I have to thank my friends for this critical reminder.

This week will be a bit of a tough one.  Mostly because I have quite a few more hours I will be working than is normal but my bank account will definitely thank me when it is all said and done.  School, band, and friends will certainly tie up the rest of my few meager hours and if I am not smart about my sleeping schedule I will probably be hating life something fierce.

Sleep is the key!  Thus, I have a decent amount of interest in hitting the sack as soon as possible.  I think I might even be typing faster and more efficiently than I normally type just for that purpose.  Pillow motivation.

Falling asleep sitting in the chair.

I was so delirious last night that I forgot to do my online entries... but I remembered now, so it is not too much later than I prefer.

Hiking is awesome.  It is a good workout for the body.  It is a great environment for the peace of mind.  It is a beautiful landscape for the memories.  It is a great social gathering for the friendship.  I am quite glad I got to enjoy a good dose of hiking yesterday.

Anyway... I am running late this morning, so I should be done with this and on my way.  Gotta be more awake for the next entry for sure!

Running through the hoops full speed.

Tiny Lesson of the Day: Sometimes you just gotta do it even though you might not be fully prepared. The illusion of time will bite you in the face if you are not careful. And who likes getting bitten in the face?  Not me.

The beginning of this fine weekend has been a fine beginning indeed.  Lots of fun in every important and useful way.  Probably more than I should have gotten.  I got to do it all with good people even.  That is not always the case but it certainly was today.  I guess that makes it feel like something pretty swell in all regards.

Tomorrow will be the first hike of the season.  It is a pretty awesome one at that and, if the weather behaves somewhat properly, tomorrow should be right inline with that precedent.  Oh, beautiful nature!

Which I am told is actually a good thing.  Though, I am not exactly sure why this kind of feature would make me more attractive... but you will not see me complaining either.  I am what I am.

Classes are starting to get into full swing at school and the fun just keeps getting pumped up along with it... as if there is a fun balloon which measures the the fun level... well, in my head there is.  They don't call me "Air head Aaron" for nothing.

The day was pretty menial beyond all that.  I guess today's entry will follow suit.

The whirlwind of my life.

I get a sneaking suspicion that the times when life feels noticeably calmer is really when I am lingering in the eye of a never ending storm... it never actually stops.  Lately, the poor choices I have made in my commitments and scheduling have spun me out into the overbearing winds and I have not been very diligent in finding the already proven course back to the calm... which ultimately lays the blame for all of this squarely on my own shoulders.  Though, I guess I would have it no other way.

Now, having wreaked havoc on my psyche through all manner of self-abusive habits(lack of sleep being the most evidently detrimental), I come to terms with the idea that I need to go to bed as soon as possible.  I need to recollect myself.  I have a long day of work ahead of me.

Fumbling idiocy.

As is totally evident by the lateness of this entry.  I decided I wanted to get the important homework done tonight instead of procrastinating it until tomorrow or the day after... except I am still not finished with doing it.  I am such a slacker.  It is really quite frustrating sometimes.

So... yet again, I will keep this entry unfortunately short due to my self-perceived lack of time.  Homework calls me, however quietly, and I should probably get back to it.  Ugh.

Age and responsibility.

I think that as people get older they become increasingly aware of the effects of time.  The body starts to behave less fantastically, the cruelty of the world becomes more and more apparent, and the choice to conform or rebel becomes more and more forced upon us.  People who conform do not always purposely choose it just as well as the people who rebel are not always aware of their rebelliousness.  It is an interesting sort of progression in either case.

I think there is a lot of thinking that can go into this topic but I have taken too long to really get into it now... whoops.

Visiting the distant lands.

Today I had the fine opportunity to travel with some friends to a couple generally unfamiliar places for church.  I had high hopes of meeting some cool girls, as is something I should definitely be seeking far more than I have been, and even though I do not feel like I made any specific inroads with any of the ones that I met, I did find a greater measure of personal optimism that the ever elusive girl actually is somewhere semi-nearby to be found.  That alone is the greatest achievement of the day in my opinion.  Optimism and hope are the beginning of every good experience.

And, though I am certainly falling short in many of the girl-enticing qualities I could definitely be working to improve, I think I can even let a bit of the stress go.  I do try to keep a pretty low-key attitude about things in general but even slight pressure, when exerted consistently and for long enough, can have profound and/or undesirable effects.  It is nice to give it a break whenever possible.

So, this is a new week and something I am quite excited to undertake.  I do not really have a very good idea about what will be happening per se but I think the optimism about life is spilling into other areas as well and I'll take whatever I can get.  I certainly need to do that more often.

Super game day.

It has been quite a while since I have done anything like this.  I worked for roughly eight hours and played games for something similar.  Pure insanity, really.  And now I am far too crashed out to really produce a substantial commentary on the whole thing.  Maybe some other time when I'm not so exhausted.

Uncle John Carter.

I am not inclined to wax very long on this movie(for lack of time and somewhat for lack of necessity) but I still feel it was quite an entertaining movie.  Good enough that I would happily watch it repeatedly... though, that is not necessarily saying very much.

First, the good: The story was fairly unpredictable and the setup was somewhat unique.  I enjoyed the oddity of the hero's position within the context he found himself in.  The acting was never lacking.  The action was reasonably solid.  There were a couple or so semi-surprising moments.

Then, the bad: The pace was a little off here and there.  Mr. Carter had a somewhat fast change of heart considering his basically minimal interaction with the girl.  Basically, we did not really get to see their relationship develop very much considering the level of commitment they end at.

All around I have to say it was pretty much as good as I was hoping it would be... and then some.  The characters and humor were a bit higher-quality than I was expecting.  It sets itself up for a fine sequel, though, considering the box office take I am thinking it probably will not get a chance to run a second leg.

Rating this one I think I will post:
4 out of 5 hyper-speed dogs.

A fun time, indeed!

Grinding through the homework.

This is just one of those things that need to happen in order to get through school.  And I know that, even though it is not always fun stuff, it is definitely something that improves me as a person in many ways.  Learning to do things you do not necessarily enjoy is a way to improve one's self-mastery... even more so if you are learning to do and enjoy them.  I really need to work harder at this.

Outside of that I am still enjoying the gradual crescendo of exciting elements I expect from this term.  Things just keep looking up and further up and it certainly feels like I can begin to find an excellent part of myself through this process.

Tomorrow will be the beginning of yet another project to absorb my time.  I look forward to all the new challenges it will bring.

Slowly finding a pace.

I think I have made a little progress in the challenge of motivation.  It has yet to produce much useful fruit but I certainly expect it to have a substantive yield fairly soon.  It is a homework thing mixed with a financial thing.  Soon it will be a cleaning thing too.

Beyond that, I was quite interested to hear the TED talk by Simon Sinek about inspirational leadership.  His focus on the why, how, and what of buyology was quite fascinating.  Here is a link to the talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

I do not plan to go very far into my own analysis of his ideas but I am quite in agreement about a very high percentage of what he is pitching.  I think of it as yet another tool toward understanding myself in the world.

Learning to drop the ball again.

This seems to happen at the beginning of every term.  I start out having a very difficult time getting the motivation to do my homework.  As time goes on I kind of start to get my things in gear.  Then, as the last couple or so weeks are coming to a close I am riding along in high-pressure stress mode for no good reason to think of.  It is a fairly annoying habit I seem to have.

Anyway, I need to change it up this time.  I need to get ahead of the ball... sort of like Indiana Jones.  And stay ahead... also like Indiana Jones.  My life would be so much better if I did.

So, I guess this is my plan.  Do not procrastinate so much!  Plan ahead to avoid it.  Reward myself for following through with the plan.  Repeat.

Bowling all the pins down.

Which is, I guess, the point of the game.  Luckily it comes with the secondary(and I would really prefer to say primary) benefit of fun times and social interaction.  You get to roll away a little extra life stress, even.  It's a highly splendid activity all around!

I have gotten to play several cool, semi-uncommon sports over the last week or so(between disc golf, bowling, golf, and I dare say band gig) and I think the variety of experiences have made for a delightfully spicy life.  And I don't mean hot pepper kind of spicy... though, I would quite enjoy that kind of spicy life too.

The weather has been crazy awesome too!  I was even inspired to get some snaps with the camera on a couple occasions.  We also started refreshing one of the funner old songs in band practice.  Life has certainly been something of an awesome anomaly lately.  Life is generally on the awesome side of things... I just mean it has been noticeably beyond the normal level of awesome lately.

Time to crash the dreamville of my mind!

Lifting the summer shadow.

The warmth of life is proliferating thoroughly.  And even though I tend to wilt in the hotter weather moments I am quite enjoying the spread we have received over the past several days.  It is delightful and amazing.

I am also quite enthusiastic about life in general and that is always a good thing.  The lack of a better half does not feel any better but the tiny glimmer of hope has not by any means faded any further.

So, on with another fine week.  I know things will be quite tough but I know I should come out the other side of it a little tougher and perhaps a bit more faithful.  More shaping and polish for my rough and tumble interior.

Disc golf is gobs of fun.

Before tonight I had not disc golfed since about 1999 or so... and even though I had only done it once way back then I remembered it being pretty fun.  Well tonight lived up to the memory of my prior exploits in full form.  Although I'm sure the ridiculously splendid weather had something to do with it's magnificence.

Firstly, it is free.  Literally.  At least, the fees to play are non-existent.  Buying a disc or two is a cost to whatever degree but even that is pretty minimal.

Secondly, it is a very athletic endeavor.  Deceptively so, I am inclined to admit.  Consistency is always a challenge in any sport and this one is certainly no exception.  I look forward to stretching out my skills as I attempt to improve myself at this sport in the future.

Anyway... I know I won't get to take it to the yard again anytime super soon but I know it is waiting for my return... patiently... or maybe it's actually just the other way around.

Rockin' the cafe house!

This day was quite the excellent experience.  It was one filled with music and mirth.  I have a tremendous sense of anticipation for the potential future the band has in store.  It will really find a groove when we finally get the drummer in place, too.

It is always a learning experience when I get to perform in any setting.  Today I learned that my hands feel and act very different in a performance setting.  They get sweaty and the strings actually feel different because of it.  I also need to practice standing up so that I can get used to the way the bass looks as I play it.  I found myself sort of losing the strings I needed from time to time.  And there were certainly more unexpected challenges that I won't go into at the moment.

It is vitally important that I devote more time to practice now.  My responsibility to the band(though more especially to the music itself) is now greater than it was before tonight.  We have created a standard for ourselves.  It should only go up from here.

Excited for the chance to perform.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I am quite enthusiastic about our gig tomorrow night.  Not only will it be our first gig, it will be the first time that I even get to play with everybody all at once.  How fun is that?  And I think we should have a pretty good crop of support along for the ride as well.  Good times expected for sure!

Having now attended all of my classes for this term I can say I am quite excited for them as well.  The core of my program is video stuff so finally getting to take an actual video centered class is quite exciting indeed!  Having a lot of experience with the tools should help me out a decent amount but the learning with the programs should be immensely beneficial.  I'm sure this term will definitely seem WAY too short by the time the last couple or so weeks are rolling around.

I normally like a three paragraph minimum in my blog writing efforts so I think this third paragraph partially fulfills that personal desire as well as I would like.  There's something about the balance of going beyond a second paragraph that suites me nicely... even if the third paragraph seems like it might just be trivial filler.

Plugging in another basically bland day.

Only by the quantity of its contents, however, since the first of my main activities was a pretty sweet band practice in preparation for the upcoming gig in a couple days.  We are starting to get things buckled down pretty well.  It should be a fairly exciting event.

And though I certainly have had many interesting thoughts throughout the day I did very little to lock them down so I could cull the interesting stuff out of them for my writing here.  I did do some sharing of a  few of those ideas that I think could be a somewhat useful foothold for future exploration of said ideas.  They mostly had to do with the potential exploitation of online media interactivity mixed with audience participation during live sets.  I know there's a lot of potential there.

So, I guess that'll be that for today.  I feel like things are on a roll so I think it best that I actually try to get to bed soon in an attempt to encourage the momentum onward.  Yabba dabba.

FWOTD... Please hand me that incunabulum.

FWOTD(Funny Word of the Day)... Please hand me that incunabulum(a book printed before 1501).

This category is for all those odd humorous additions to the english language that deserve a little recognition.  Incunabulum happens to be the word that inspired this category even though I often come across words of this type and have generally thought it would be fun to give them a place to belong.  A place that they might gain a little focus and purpose, even if only briefly, and spark a laugh or two in the process.  Since the extent of the reach will be limited to the perusal of those meager few who actually read my writings it will certainly be lacking in its overall effect but I am totally fine with that.  I am not one often given to exoteric(<--there's a fun one worth looking up) musings anyway.

I don't have any particular additions to this category at the moment so this will likely suffice my purposes tonight.  The mere description of the somewhat long, unfamiliar acronym seemed to be the main need to be addressed here.  I tend to be somewhat of a battologist in my writings anyway.

Battologist: Someone who repeats the same thing needlessly or excessively.
(okay... so I did have an addition for tonight... couldn't help myself.)

D.O.Heck

I occasionally need to rant about some things in a negative way.  I will keep it short tonight.

The D.O.L. is a very annoying place to deal with.

That is all.

The first strike of allergy season.

I was hoping it had somehow skipped by this year because of the weird weather and all that.  It came about quite suddenly and with the same old level of sinus chaos as I seem to remember it being over the last few years.  I really hope I grow out of this one.

The spring break has been nice though.  I basically have a day and a half left of what was a semi-productive two plus weeks.  I do look forward to getting back to it, though, since the regiment is generally quite good for me.

I also had a good reminder that I need to be going on dates and stuff.  I'm not sure I've even gone on any dates this year(and if I have, and I've forgotten, that's equally sad.)  The last two consecutive rejections took quite a bit of the wind out of my sails I guess.  I'm not even sure where to start.  I think I need to learn how to not be so picky about girls.  I seriously feel cursed.

Luckily, I also feel blessed(is this a thematically possible statement?)  I really have a lot of good things going for me and so much to look forward to.  I am blessed far beyond what I could possibly deserve.

The day away from home.

It can be work, golf, or some other form of generally useful distraction... it is all an opportunity to do something useful.  It is all an opportunity for me to become something useful.

Unfortunately, I am far too tired to express any empowering exposition at this time.  The lids fall heavily closed upon the view of my understanding and ability to share it.

I love golf, by the way.  Ya, that's pretty much it for today.

Like a Hulk in a china shop.

I think there are many reasons to be satisfied with the new Avengers movie.  One of them is the mere fact that I now have a new category label since I think writing my own review on things seems like a fun, exploratory sort of thing to do once in a while.  This category shall be called Review From the Top.

Anyway, this is my review of the movie called: Avengers(it will have to be incapably short tonight.)

This movie has had a lot of high expectations riding on it for several good years of already good movie making as it's direct predecessors.  Each of them created the setting for what promised to be a thrilling, potentially complex story of multi-heroic proportions... a promise which was, to my mind, fulfilled in total and then some(with the minor sneak of my favorite villain of all time at the end of the credits!)  I often shy away from the title of fanboy in general but this one has me amped up pretty good.

The good: This movie did a good job of balancing the tremendous disparity of the power levels of all the major players.  From Black Widow(a speck of dust on the super-powered being radar... albeit a very attractive speck of dust?)... to Thor and the Hulk(crushing the radar in their sleep) they all had a valid role to fill which created an actual team dynamic(whenever the team actually functioned as such.)  I can only imagine the challenge this would be to write and Mr. Joss Whedon handled it ever so adeptly.

Every character was humanized quite well, showing their bickering, faulted natures from the get go.  This lead to a very believable personal-divide-that-needed-crossing sort of element that could have put me in the shoes of any one of the heroes in question given my own personal foibles.  My sympathies were drawn out to many of the struggling moments they faced.

The action was pretty much as delightful and exciting as I hoped, my favorite parts being the Hulk and his nearly perfectly executed thrash-about style of existing.  I was one of the smaller number of folks who really enjoyed the first Hulk movie but the intensity of his ferocity was closer to the way I had always hoped to see him than ever before.  All the other action was right up there with it.

Lots of good comedy all the way through.  Stuff that pushed(or smashed) my laugh button with Thor's hammer several times.

The bad: I can't afford, neither do I have the time, to see it as much as I'd like.  I'm sure, once the slightly euphoric feeling still lacing my bones finally fades away a bit, that I can find a few more critical comments to offer about the movie as a whole... but I guess it'll just be stuck in the recesses of my joy-saturated mind for the moment.

Overall rating: 4.5/5 - Not perfection, but pretty stinkin' close.

Music is exciting!

Especially when you get the privilege of playing with such delightfully cool and talented folks as I currently have the privilege of playing with.  We have our first show coming up next week and I think, even though we are currently short the drummer ingredient, it should be a highly fun experience!  I think we will even be broadly entertaining to all sorts of folks, so that's kinda cool too.

I really need to be very thorough in my practicing habits this coming week.  I would like to bring something powerful to the table and I know I am capable of doing so.  It will be even more exciting once the drummer finally joins up with everything.  Especially since he is a savage good drummer!

Back to the late night grind.

Though, I guess it's good to get some things done when one is inspired to do them.  I would generally prefer it happen in the morning.

Thus, I am now quite tired and think that the sleeping option of the day seems best.  I don't really like keeping these entries so short but I think I would just be stabbing at the dark even more so than I normally do when I try to force something out in these situations.

At least today was a productively pleasant day.  Score one for the good side!

Changing who we are... carefully crafting character.

Certainly, the benefit of actively seeking a goal is found in the seeking more than the finding... this is not news to many.  The true aim of a goal is what we become in our efforts to achieve it.  The purpose of life is found in the compilation of our goals endeavors to become.

At the end of this life there will be little to no regard for our earthly accomplishments.  They are merely the ends to the greater means of sculpting one's character, the one truly valuable aspect of us all.  Our character is defined by our trials as we attempt to navigate their challenges, each in our own personal ways.

Accepting whatever help and direction we will allow from others is an important part of defining our character.  This life is a collaborative effort because we are all a part of the entire human family.  It is called a family for a reason.

I sometimes wonder why much of what I write about is so seemingly obvious sometimes.  I realize much of it is very simple and probably sounds repetitive to some.  Part of why I do it has to do with the natural benefits of testimony and expression.  It is easy to scholastically learn a fact by reading, hearing about, or seeing it... it is another thing entirely when a person truly synthesizes the information internally in a way that they are able to express it themselves having experienced it in a personal way.  I hope that much of what I write is truly born as a mixture of the scholastic and experiential elements are drawn out of me in words.

I am quite exhausted this evening.  I guess my day was a bit more rough and tumble than I expected.  Something to be thankful for there.  Not everybody has it so good.

Musical discovery.

If ever you feel like your life needs a little something more... and you have the immense courage to absorb something far removed from the reality of a normal human experience... then taking a moment to discover the fascination of either Sun Ra or the Residents might be your kind of journey.  I must offer warning, however, as their incredulous oddity, yet powerful reality, can be something of a system shock.  Nothing profane or vile.  Simply fascinating insanity.

I would like to say I have more to offer this fine day's entry of life.  I would like to say things are a little bit different for me.  I will say that I am not that I am when I will or want to be... just for the heck of it.