Category: Life

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So I learned today that there are exactly two reasons to play the theremin.

The first is that theremin’s are pretty sweet. It’s an instrument that you play by manipulating the oscillating electric fields surrounding the two antennae simply by moving your hands around it. In this way you can vary not only the volume, but also the pitch, using a physical principle called heterodyning.

The instrument was created in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution, and Lenin thought that they were so awesome that he had several hundred made, and Leon Theremin was made something of a national hero, as successful innovators/scientists commonly were Leninist Soviet Russia.

Theremins can be found in the music of some of my favorite artists such as Radiohead and Neutral Milk Hotel.

The second reason is Carolina Eyck:

Which I do not think requires an explanation, except that the thing she’s leaning on is a theremin.

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So it starts.

I mark my return to blogging with the news that Truman’s campus has been struck with the spring iteration of its bi-annual plague. META NOTE: My ‘character’ for the purpose of this roleplay my first semester was bitten on the final day, and had Ian take his life before he turned. My second time through, I was turned early into the first day, and so that ‘character’ never really developed. This time through, having survived day one, I figure I should define ‘who I am’ for this game.

I came up here to Kirksville, this desolate wasteland, searching for my brother. He came up here searching for employment, hoping to take some courses… to live a fairly simple life. When I first heard about the outbreak, I was worried about him. When the outbreak reached my door, I was worried for myself. The feeling subsided soon enough though. It’s not worth it to expend the energy it takes worrying for your life… not when you could use it to run.

And run I did. Far from our home town as it became populated by those monsters. Wanting it to all be over, I headed to where I’d heard rumor tell it all started. Pure reactionary instinct has kept me alive up to this point. The body’s own refusal to surrender itself has driven my actions. Now I’m here. I’ll search for my brother, but I do not expect to find him.

Right now I’m sleeping in a stranger’s house. There are roaming packs of humans out there, scared and afraid of what their future may hold in store. Some of them seem like good people. At this point, however, I’m willing to lower my standards to be accepting of even those who aren’t good… at least they’re still people.

Today was quiet.
Tomorrow won’t be.

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Man, so new semester, new classes. I was talking with some people, and I think the general consensus was that by the second half of your third year in college, the sheen of “new classes” has kinda worn off. This time around, the lineup is as follows:

Physics:
Advanced Lab (3)
Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics (3)
Junior Seminar (1)

Political Science:
Public Policy (3)
International Relations (3)
Comparative Politics (3)

All of which are challenging in their own… special ways. When you factor in Senate, SPS, ODK, applying for internships, the radio show, technology committee, and general house-duties, man. I’ve never had a busier first-week-of-school, EVER.

There was also the additional tragedy that struck my room the other day…

Today we morn the passing of one Steve T. Bonsai-Tree. Steve passed from this world sometime between January 8th and January 17th at his current home at 804 E. Line Street in Kirksville, Missouri. Steve was a simple tree. He never needed much more than a little sun and water. He first came to live with me as a result of Christmas, 2003. He lived a relatively peaceful life, though occasionally marred by leaf-purging-illness, he always fought back to good health with a zest for life. In 2006, he made the journey with me to Kirksville for the first time. It is a path we would trace many times together. These trips were always hard on Steve, but he knew it had to be done, and Steve T. Bonsai-Tree is a Tree who does his duty. This past trip, a lethal combination of the cold as well as dry air of his hardest Kirksville winter to date finally caused his circulatory system to shut down, preventing water-delivery to his leaves. Steve leaves behind in his immediate family Frog and Snake, who took up residence with Steve in his pot sometime in 2004. His remaining extended family consists of the last living member of the Bamboo Triplets, as well as Chaki, C. Cactus. Flowers, grief-cards, and other related items can be sent to Steve’s home at 804 E. Line Street. Steve’s will called for a Viking Funeral, to be held at a date to be determined in coming weeks. -Tom Hogan, Caretaker Jan. 17, 2009

So yeah. At the time it was just kind of a thing, but after writing that little clip above, I got really sad. Steve and me have seen some times together. I never did any fancy bonsai trimming for him, which maybe now I should have… but he never really grew that much. He was just a tree; I was just a dude who watered him… but we had a bond, and he will be missed.

Will I get another tree? Someday… but I really am going to miss Steve.
In a very Lion-King-esque, circle of life kindof thing, there was a second development yesterday. A stray cat was living under our porch for the past day or so, and we didn’t know what to do with him. He was obviously a kitten, and really hungry (Ian claims he saw him eat a rock!). About an hour and a single house-vote later, we have a cat.

We went out and bought pet stuff, discussed potential monetary commitments that having a cat might entail, and decided that we would help the little guy and adopt him! At least… we think it’s a him. Below are pictures.

Jesus Christ.
Now I’m a guys that posts cat pictures to his blog.

…I guess everyone saw it coming but me:

His name is Cal. More on him later, I suppose. I’m still bracing for the moment when I recall, in quick succession due to an onslaught of problems arising, all the reasons we had NOT gotten a cat up until this point. But he’s a good little dude, so we’ll see!

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Heeeey people!
Bet you thought I’d fallen back into a blogging coma?! No such luck.
Still here, still blogging, and getting off to a good start in 2009!

I ended up coming back to campus a little early for a meeting that was Thursday morning. Which meant I had to leave the house at 4:30 AM, the day of. I got there on time and everything, thanks to a huge amount of help from my mom and sister, so all went well.

As soon as that was over, I set to crafting Tom’s Room: Mark II.
At the end of last semester, I’d had this idea to reorganize some of my room, moving stuff around and so on. I also thought it would be neat to rebuild the futon (banned to the closet by an executive decision of Ian and Rob) and use it as a couch. Or try at least. It’s a crappy futon, but Lizz said they’re better if you put memory foam on, so I might try that.

Anyways, I did all the moving, futon-building, and cleaning, I finally got it close to something I liked. Below are pictures!

So we’ll see how that works out. As I told Rob, you can never know how you feel about a given configuration until you field-test it, and right now, I’m noticing a sloping in the floor that I hadn’t before… but what’re you gonna do.

In addition to a new room, I also got a new phone! Our contracts were up, so they were not as expensive as they would normally be, which is always a plus. It was a weird moment, the phone-swap. You look down at a little lump of plastic and metal that’s been by your side more-or-less for the past two years, and you have to look into its little screen and explain why you can’t be together anymore. That’s hard to do.

See you little buddy! And then, you turn around to a new lump of little plastic and metal, and realize that it’s going to be by your side for the next two years. Some of the most important moments of my life that haven’t even happened yet, I can almost guarantee that that phone will bear witness to… and that’s a weird thought to think.

Anyways, enough phone philosophy. I mostly wanted to drop a little blip about redoing my room, and how boring Kirksville is. It will be good once there are people to see, but right now it’s just me and Lizz and a bunch of 30 Rocks we’ve both already seen.

Could be worse though.
And it beats frickin’ working.

[Oh! I almost forgot! My and Ian's Top Albums of 2008 are both up. You can access them from the new music omnibus page! It's not quote done yet, but it's functional.]

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Another Christmas, come and gone. Every year, it sneaks up on me quicker and quicker. Remember as a kid, the month of December was far and away the longest? Every day an agony, keeping you from your presents seemingly out of spite?

As a kid, I guess it never bothered me much, but in more recent years I’ve had a little residual guilt about being so excited about presents. You know, figuring that maybe I’m some sort of materialistic jerk who only cares about having things for himself? I worry a lot about these things, and not about what people will think, so much as what I am, in some strange objective sense of comparison.

I help to assuage such a guilty conscience by putting a lot of thought into giving other people A) Things they actually want, or B) Something that’ll at least make them laugh. If you can make them laugh of smile, it means you know them well enough to be a little clever, and if you know them well enough for that, maybe… just maybe, they doing think you’re some sort of Materialistic Jerk who only cares about having things for himself.

That’s how me and my neuroses get through the holidays.

Not It’s time for the gift list! I do this ever year less for you and more for me, becuase it would be depressing if I couldn’t tell you exactly what I got for Christmas in, say, The Year 2005. Please note the single overlap gift between 2005 and 2008: the Chili’s Gift Card. If that doesn’t say something interesting about me, I don’t know what will.

New Keyboard-
The thing is so, so beautiful. Plus it lights up, and who doesn’t love visual stimuli.
I even took a picture.

External Hard Drive-
500GB of extra space to store my overabundance of saved webcomics, pornography, and lol-cats.
(I wonder if sometimes I should joke less about pornography. Like maybe people will start to think I’m some type of pervert. Then I remember that most people, in spite of what they say, are at least a tad perverted. It’s a symptom of the human condition. Recalling that, I worry less. For the record, I feel I’m a pretty normal-caliber pervert.)

LEGO Star Wars Tank-
The thing has a Zero-Point turning radius. I’d say the only thing it’s missing is 25″ spinners… but everyone knows you can’t put a spinner some something that’s powered by repulsor-lifts. Sheesh. P.S.: IT’S A TANK!.

Books-

,
• Cross-X; concerns the story of a debate team that fought the odds in the crappy KCMO school system.

• The Power of Myth; Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell get their chat on, discuss life, Star Wars, religion, and other weighty subjects.
• Looking for Alaska; John Green writes another book about Me. Or at least a character that is essentially Me.

DVDs-

• The Dark Knight; not much else to say!

• House, Season 4; I’m liking this the second time through a LOT more than I did when it was on TV.
• 30 Rock, Season 1; asked for this on a whim, and was not disappointed. Ethan and I worry they will cancel this poor, delightful program.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000; featuring Pod People, my all-time favorite!

Clothing-

• Communist Party T-Shirt; featuring Lenin, Marx, et. al.

• Striped (Horiz.) Sweater; because I don’t look fat enough! It really is warm though.

Misc-

• Risk; just need friends with which to play this now. Hrm.

• Chili’s Gift Card; Thanks Aunt Barb!
• Brick of Socks; Thanks Mom Santa!
• Fleet Foxes; the only CD I got, which is weird I guess. It’s fantastic though.

If I forgot something, oh well. Jeez I get to much junk. Thing is, I’m going to put it all to good use, so it’s hard to feel too awful.

The next day, after Christmas, I had to go to work. At 7 AM, a time I’ve not seen in many, many weeks (Even at NURO, I was usually asleep by then!), I drove down to the ol’ Foxhill Tower Cleaners. On my way there, I listened to today’s song. Not becuase I was thinking about Ben Folds, or abortions, or anything, but becuase he uses the line, “It’s 6 AM, day after Christmas…” And I thought it was kinda cool that I got up at 6 AM, on the day after Christmas. Plus, Brick makes for great mopey-morning music.

Going back to Tower, particularly my alma matter branch, Foxhill, is always weird. That place is like a time machine. As soon as I walk in, it’s the winter of 2004. The place is freezing, becuase we have no central heat. Business is slow, like always. I brought a battery of distractions that work only for a little while before I realize how uncomfortable every chair in the store is. I eventually settle for taking a nap on the floor. There are worse places to work, I think, unable to sleep, but laying on the floor nonetheless.

All-in-all, it’s good to be back.

Blog before the new year? Probably not a normal one, but I will have the Musical Year in Review done by 2009.