Tales of Javier Pt 2

The predawn light was just sprouting in the crevices and corners of the sky. The air was cold, the morning quiet. Javier was still sitting cross-legged deep in slumber. The quiet and his slumber were broken by a low ominous noise. The noise started small and grew into a ferocious growl, followed by a blood-curdling howl. Answered by a chorus of howls.

The Man with the oar opened one eye and cocked his head to the side. Out of the one open eye he saw beach wolves. Standing six feet tall on four legs, they are about 3 times the size of ordinary wolves. They are both great scavengers and tremendous swimmers, able swimmers able to hunt like silver torpedoes through the ocean. There was a half dozen and they had Javier surrounded in a semi-circle; ocean to his front wolves on every other side.

Javier opens the pocket watch, winds it a few times and drops it into his pocket. The air reverberates, a low bass beat seems to come out of the ground, like a timpani drum; BOOM...BOOM...BOOM... the sand seems to vibrate slightly and glow with a faint green hue. The growl and the ghostly, earthly syncopated beat go eerily well together. The man tightens his grip on the oar, the closest wolf lets out a louder growl and lunches into the air. In one swift movement the sailor cranks the oar and spins himself to a standing position. The oar strikes the wolf on its underside flipping, to land on its back with a thump.

Turning, Javier sees two of the wolves standing close to each other. Rushing at them he swings the oar catapulting one wolf into the other, knocking the beasts out on impact. Three left. From behind a wolf attacks, raking its claws across the man's back leaving four bloody scratches, cringing only for a moment then turning Javier catches the wolves throat, raises it up, like nothing more than a sack of potatoes, and pile drives the beach wolf into the sand.

Just two left, the largest; the Alpha of the pack and the second in command; the Beta wolf.

Surviving College Pt 3

Here's one I thought of, get to know your campus before running from point A to point B in the dark. I'll explain: at the beginning of freshman year I was interested in two clubs; fencing and the campus radio station. The problem was both orientation meetings for said clubs were on the same night. Luckily the meetings started a half hour or more apart so I was fairly sure I could go to fencing first, get info/see how things are, then leave early and still make it to the Radio meeting.

Seems like a solid plan, right? And it was. Except I thought I was a little late and decided I'd take what I thought would be a short cut. Also I was lightly jogging. I saw the building I was shooting for directly in front of me when WHUMP! all of the sudden I was on the ground light flashing white in my eyes. I had sent my hands out so I did catch myself a bit, largely I landed on my face and hands. Scraped my palms up pretty bad and a bit of my face too. Other than that I was fine, just mildly shaken. What had happened was the path I was following has a section without lighting, that same section unfortunately has a chain going across it. I got to the meeting with a few minutes to spare in fact, went to the restroom cleaned myself up a bit so it wouldn't look like I had been in a fight directly beforehand and went it.

Also on an unrelated note, I hate waking up in the morning. Its hard, especially when the bed has gotten to its optimum comfiness factor just before you have awoken, thereby making the exit from the bed even more challenging. I think this video illustrates that point pretty well. And The Thermals are pretty great.

The Thermals
I Don't Believe You

Surviving College Pt 2

So you're at college, and maybe you have your first day of classes coming up. Perhaps you have some qualms. I'm here to assuage them(that is a fun word to use!). If you're unsure where your classes are, print out your schedule and walk around campus the day before. I still usually print off a copy of my schedule for the first few days, it still takes me way too long to memorize the order. You might still get lost and show up late, don't worry, it happens. You might get to your first class of the day only to find a sign directing you to a different building entirely, it happened to me once, no big deal.

Did you make it to that class in one piece? Good. Now that you're there first off let's say its a large lecture hall, don't spend 10 minutes looking for a seat next to someone you know, if you see an open seat anywhere go for it. I tend to ask if its already spoken for, but that's just me.

Most classes the first day is actually pretty unexciting as it means syllabus day. The professors pass out their syllabi go over it, possibly get into a bit of notes and usually let you out early. That's the formula anyway.

And maybe you're thinking, oh no, is this class going to be hard? Will the professor be nice? Don't worry probably most of the rest of the class are thinking the same thoughts. Pretty much everyone is on equal footing on the first day. If you miss something the professor says or part of the notes ask a neighbor or raise your hand. Some concepts are going to seem crazy complicated, please ask the professor to explain it again, the good ones can make just about anything understandable.

Surviving College (and maybe life?)

In the past two years of college I believe I have gained some experience and learned some tricks which may help you make it out alive. I'm going to try to split this into a few running segments. Some of these things are going to sound dumb or commonsensical, I do hope it helps though, if nothing else hopefully a little entertainment can be derived.

Where to start..? Don't Panic.

The Weakerthans
Our Retired Explorer



More to come!

Tales of Javier

The man on the beach is known as Javier. He wears his head clean shaven, you can see he is well built from a life of labor of some kind; possibly a sailor. To further this possibility he's carrying an oar over one shoulder. It's late, the moon is gleaming in the rolls of the ocean's waves. He has a strange tattoo on his left shoulder, eerily similar to a small series of zebra stripes.

Javier keeps his measured gait along the shoreline, entirely focused on a goal. He is a stranger to these lands..where did he come from? and how did he get here?

Every now and then jagged pieces of flat wood wash to the sand, spewed out of the jetsam. A shipwreck perhaps? what could have caused it?

The constant gait slows to a stop, Javier bends down and picks something up from the sand, it shines in the moonlight. A silver pocket watch. With a sigh, the man sits down cross legged, putting the oar across his legs and closes his eyes.
"Now..Now I can rest for a bit.", he says to the night.

Thoughts while Kayaking

I really like to kayak because it has a great rhythm to it: right, left, right left right, left-hold, right ad infinitum. I like how the paddle is double bladed, balanced. I like the ease of cutting through the water, like a knife through butter, it feels so natural.

So I squiggled through the water like a doodle from a pencil, eventually ending up in the middle of the lake and looked around, I saw the panoramic view of the trees encircling the lake. Looking around in this fashion made me wonder where does it end and where does it begin? And in this same train of thought - are circles infinite? There's no visible start or stop.

I also thought about how kayaking is nice as no matter how many times you go out on the same body of water, that body of water will still be new and different. The wind changes, waves change, lily pad formations change, the sky is never quite the same either.

And looking at the sky made me think of Bob Ross and how he paints clouds and landscapes. He layers them, just like in nature. If you look at the sky on a good day you can see a multitude of different cloud layers; straight flat ones that span the entirety of the sky practically, then on top fluffy cumulus ones that move on top of the flat back drop behind them. Scenes are enacted as you watch, space battle cruisers approaching the front lines, dinosaur herds migrating to a new place to graze. Whatever your imagination comes up with. Isn't it amazing how these random floating bits of water come together to form familiar or exotic shapes then depart again? This is another type of infinity, yeah? breaking up then coming together on and on and on. A kind of symmetry that seems just right.

"Everywhere you go in life, well there you are" - Buckeroo Banzai

The Knife
Heartbeats

RUN to YOUR grave

When you can't quite find the book you want to read, write your own. Make it one you would love to read. Forget all the fancy analogies and symbology, just tell a great story. Just tell a story. Half the time that's all we need, a good simple story.

Cuz we have to do what we can to get by. Its easy to be cynical, hard to be happy. Or at least thats the way it feels sometimes. There are good times, I swear! and they make it all worth it I think. When Life pulls the rug out from under you, do you jump or end up on the floor? Well if you can jump, I applaud you, sir or madam, you are much more prepared than I. So most times, when you hit the floor...wait til the stars clear from your eyes and get up, bit by bit. Everything will be alright.

And when your friends end up on the floor, broken, pick them back up again.

Here's a song I've been liking lately, not sure about their other music but this song is pretty great anyway.

The Mae Shi
Run To Your Grave

Happy Belated Anniversary

Yesterday, the 9th of August was my blog's second anniversary! I was real busy plus I was under the misapprehension that it was actually on the 13th for some reason. oh well. I've got so much to say but not time to say it now, but soon I will say more. Vacation was fun and later is when I'll talk about that.

Here's Tokyo Police Club, Me and my brother saw them in concert a few weeks ago, they were really great!

Tokyo Police Club
Breakneck Speed