12 posts tagged “brief”

No, the above title wasn't referring to anybody's fifteen minutes of fame--although that would probably be appropriate for this particular post--but rather, it was referring to the fifteen minutes that are left before I have to run to class.

Sorry for the brevity here, and you can insert your own joke about being witty, but I just don't have time like I used to.

Someone one told me a very simple statement recently that really changed how I look at things. I was talking to her about my general lifestyle and what I do for fun. I mentioned that my hobbies are primarily writing, composing music, and filming, although I do some acting on the side. She then looked at me and said "Those are your hobbies? James, most people do those things for a career." And you know what? She's right. I do way too many things that aren't just hobbies; they're careers. Whatever happened to the days when I found Dungeons and Dragons, or video games, or riding bikes fun? They've disappeared, and instead, I've tried to make a hobby out of at least three things that will inevitably consume my life. So I might cut down on that, and stick with casual writing, filming, and acting. Yeah, I know that doesn't sound like much of a change, but I'm pretty sure you'll notice some changes in my writing around here. This isn't going to be my "project" site anymore, because I don't want my life to be one giant project. That might work for another friend who shall remain nameless but really needs to learn about David Ives or shut up, but it doesn't work for me.

So I'm going to make a more casual outline of what I have planned for the upcoming 20 days:

• At least two short stories
• At least three links to published articles
• Nothing on my current movie other than vague updates
• Star-Nosed Moles on a Sailboat (it's taking forever to get and chop up; for that I greatly apologize)
• At least one ramblog (I already have it outlined, but I'm too lazy to type it up at the moment)

That's it. I'm not being entirely unambitious, but basically you should expect a lot more casual writing from me, as opposed to the vigorous work that I had struggled to put up with any sort of consistency.

Take this post for example. It's a nice, quick overview of what I'm working on, and if I wasn't so damn crunched for time, I'd probably take a few minutes out of my day to talk about my life, check in with myself, and check in with you beautiful people. Unfortunately, I now have four minutes left to write, so I am going to wrap this neat little package up.

The final statement: I now have an official job. It's with the writing site Suite101.com, and it's a freelance writing job that I happen to like very much. I plan on writing at least one article a week, and my first article got published yesterday evening. I'm working on coding a widget for it (with the help of a friend who doesn't know he's helping me yet), but I'll post the link to my newest article at the end of this post.

And with that, I'm shit out of time. So until we next cross paths, stay classy.

My Newest Article
My Suite101 Profile

I'll blog soon, I promise. I'm just busy enough surviving over here.

Star-Nosed Moles is ready to be put on the internet, but I can't split it into two parts right now, so the best I can do is give you a link and a password.

The link: http://www.divshare.com/download/3610411-fe9
The password: omgwtfbbq

Watch it! Love it! Download it! I'll have the full version cut and up here within the week if I can get around my four midterm papers and two jobs!

Yeah, that's right. I have a new job. I'll blog about it...soon...ish.

-blake

P.S. -Sorry about March, too.

Sorry that I've been once again out of commission, but it's that whole "rampant depression" thing I keep bitching about but never bother to get checked out. I apologize profusely if it seems like I'm beating a dead horse at this point, but when I want to write/blog, I write/blog.

I know that it's no excuse for not putting anything up here in a whole entire week, but that's the best one I've got. Take it or leave it.

However, fear not, because I also have a lot of work to do, some of which will end up here. I've got a short story about sex (yay alliteration/risque topics!) for my writing workshop that will end up here, and I have to apply for a Peer Counseling job next year. That application probably won't be up here (shucks, I know), but I do want to write about many more things. I'll try to put 2-3 real posts up by this weekend, but no promises, as usual.

I love you guys, I really really do.

-blake

I spent the winter on the verge of a total breakdown while living in Norway,
I felt the darkness of the black metal bands.
But being such a fawn of a man, I didn't burn down any old churches,
Just slept way too much.
Just slept.

I spent the winter with my nose buried in a book
While trying to restructure my character,
'Cause it had become vile to its creator.
And through many dreadful nights, I lie praying to a saint that nobody has heard of
And waiting for some high times to come again.
"A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger", by Of Montreal

Nah, not really. But the title got your eye, eh?

Anyway, you might know Glaceau (there's an accent over the E) because they make Vitamin Water. Yes, Vitamin Water: the intoxicating, almost-calorie-free beverage that everybody loves. Or at least...loveD.

Yes, I have uncovered their secrets! Glaceau is either a company full of liars and bastards, of one full of wizards and magicians...God, I hope it's the latter. I was first intrigued when eating Chinese food with my Vitamin Water earlier tonight. My particular VW was pink (like my hair), and it contained the following ingredients:

If you can't read, it says Vitamin A and Lutein. So naturally, I was curious as to what they did. I asked my friend who had an iPhone (the same iPhone that took this very picture!) to look them up. Vitamin A does some pretty cool shit, but then we read the Wikipedia entry for Lutein. Observe...

Lutein (LOO-teen) (from Latin lutea meaning "yellow") is one of over 600 known naturally occurring carotenoids. Found in green leafy vegetables such as spinach and kale, lutein is employed by organisms as an antioxidant and for blue light absorption. Lutein is covalently bound to one or more fatty acids present in some fruits and flowers, notably marigolds (Tagetes). Saponification of lutein esters yields lutein in approximately a 2:1 weight-to-weight conversion. Leutein is also found in egg yolks, animal fats and the corpus luteum.^[1]

Lutein is a lipophilic molecule, and is generally insoluble in water. [Bold added for emphasis]

How do they do it?!?! Magic? Or lies?

Probably the magic of science. I dunno. I just found it funny and intriguing. Hopefully there's no foul play afoot, as I happen to like Vitamin Water.

-blake

I'm probably going to be very scattered here, but I feel that I should at least put something up here. I've been very unproductive this past month. I've decided to semi-permanently step away from the piano for now. I do this for a few reasons. First off, I'm no good at classical piano, so why keep trying to fix something that fights you every step of the way? I just don't see a reason to, so I'm not going to. Second off, I can't write real lyrics. I'm pretty bad at being lyrical in general, and even if I'm not, I don't have the creative spark needed to make anything semi-postable right now. I'm trying as hard as I can not to put my Vox in a coma until everything passes (we've been over the "everything" many times right now, it's too hackneyed to keep repeating it), but if it comes to that, so be it. I don't want this to turn into "yet another emo blog", so if I have to not post at all in order to not post depressing stuff, so be it. Sorry, but that's just the way I feel.

Also, I see that Vox has updated its look. I like it a lot more than the older look, but for convenience purposes as opposed to aesthetics. Honestly, I think it looks like crap. The whole space-age clean is older than the internet, and Vox isn't Apple, so they can't get away with putting shadows on everything. That being said, it runs quite well, and I no longer have to scratch my head to do X, Y, and/or Z task at the same time. Which is a plus, I guess.

Okay, that's honestly all I have for right now. I don't know why, but I just cannot bring myself to write. But in all seriousness, keep urging me to write. A few people (you know who you are) have been badgering me to do so for the last two weeks, and it's good to know that people care.

Or at the very least, you people read. And that's more important in my book.

-blake.

P.S. I like writing haikus.

Poetry is art...
Very complicated art
That I cannot make.

Sorry for not updating again (worry not, this blog won't have the same fate as my Tumblr), but that paper did it's number on me and left me bleeding to die. However, I do have a few new updates for you all to look forward to.

First off, I'd like to point you to the Twitter on the bottom left of my profile. This (replacing my Tumblr) is a nice little tool that will let you know how and what I'm doing at all times...not even in the slightest bit creepy! So if you want to know if/when I'm updating, take a look-see there. Right now, it's accurate, so let's see how long I can keep it up! I dunno, I'm going to try it and see how I like it. Everybody's doing it ^_-

Second off, I'd like to let you know that it's DECEMBER!!! And for those of you new to my writing, December means lists. Lots and lots and lots of lists...it's going to be beautiful. Stay tuned for that.

I'd write more, but alas, I have a French quiz in half an hour that I need to study for. Look to the Twitter for updates, and we'll hopefully get more stuff going by the end of the week!

-blake

I'm stopping everything for a bit to get this paper done. No blogs, etc. until I have everything under control again. I haven't exactly been spiraling OUT of said control, but I have a 10-page portfolio to turn in by December 4th in order to get into a Creative Writing workshop for...oh, you know...my major...

I'm expanding and revising the 3-page Untitled I had, titling it, and then turning it in by December 4th. I'll post that when I'm done, and if I have any free time this weekend (doubtful, as I have 2 other papers to work on that are due Monday. Grr), I'll blog more. I still have the rest of my weekend to go through, and a concert to post on as soon as it's archived.

Until very, very soon (keep your fingers crossed with me!),

-blake.

So I want to talk about my weekend as well as some other projects that I plan on putting out sometime soon, but I don't exactly have time to. Yeah, I'm putting this off for socialization instead of real work, but hell...everyone needs a break sometimes. I'm not sure whether or not this will be taken down when something new comes up. I think it'll stay. Who knows, these five sentences might make me famous someday soon =P

Gimme a few more hours...

-blake.

Wow, a 5-day gap...I'm really starting to lose my consistency here. I need to step it up a little bit, put some more posts in here, et cetera. I'm really sleepy though, like...to the point I can't see straight anymore. I'm just going to say what I plan on doing, and then turn the fuck in. I'll probably, like, just end up passing out. Jesus...

So among other things, I am:

• Still working on Johnathon Murray's fictitious discourse, and having fun with it as usual. I'll get much more work on it when I'm home, though.
• Still writing songs. I didn't get to go to Blum this weekend, but I'll try for next. The School of Velocity by Czerny also came in today, so I'll be mastering that as well, which will probably slow down the whole song-mastering process. Sorry.
• Still awesome.
• Starting to write my Christmas list. Yeah, I'm still a little kid at heart.
• Starting to be a member of a new group blog. Rory's site "OmegasEye" is back up, and it's now...you guessed it, a group blog! I'm to be writing about music once a week or so, and I'll post everything I write there on here as well. At the very least, it'll keep you people busy while I fail to update...
• Starting to slowly decompose.
• Still hungry.
• Still a vegetarian, although I made my first mistake last night. I admit that I wasn't entirely sober, but it's still a mistake I could have made whilest sober. I ate a handful of my friend's Lucky Charms without realizing that marshmallows had gelatin in them. Fuck, says I. I sat on the couch for about 10 minutes in an astonished/drunken stupor, unbelieving of what I'd done...but I'm over it now.
• Starting to be finished with my English Lit II paper on Paradise Lost...it took me all afternoon, and it's six pages, so I'm pretty psyched for that. I can almost guarantee it's crap, but...meh. I wants sleep.
• Still doing comedy. We did One-Minute Madness last week, and that went a lot better than last week. My performance is not on the intarwubs yet, but just wait. In due time, you will all receive some more of my hilarity.
• Starting again to listen to my entire iTunes music library. In album order. Today alone, I've made it to Amputechture, and I'm probably going to go to sleep as the album ends.
• Starting to DJ. Yeah, it's fun. That's all I have to say for that one.
• Starting my radio show next semester (hopefully)!!! More on that as I get more information, of course. And finally,
• Starting my top 10 lists. Between you and me, December is going to be FULL of them!

<3.

-blake.

Is here. It's only one song, a cover, and I did it Saturday night, so sorry for not posting before today.

If you want to know the details, here they are:

I have 2 covers figured out, and I'm working on 2 more. The covers are "Black Cadillacs" by Modest Mouse, "Future 86" by Bomb the Music Industry!; the ones to come are "Baby Britain" by Elliot Smith and "Leavin'" by Mad Caddies.

I have one song written, one written in my head, and one ready to write. Hopefully, when I'm feeling better, I'll have more stuff up. It'll probably record more by this weekend, but circumstances were shitty. The take here was:

A one-take, which is when I do it from beginning to end without stopping, vocals and piano all at once. I shouldn't have; I should have taken time to record separate tracks, but I didn't, so feh.

Done at 1:30 in the morning after 4 hours of intense practice, so it wasn't at my best.

Done while hung over. Yeah, sorry.

But anyway, without further ado, here is my rendition of "Future 86" by Bomb the Music Industry!. I'm going to redo it, make the beginning faster, and basically own the song next time around. It'll be great.So until this weekend when I have more, enjoy.

-blake.

"So tell me something awesome
That can last my whole life sentence in the van
'Cause I'm on the S.S. Bullshit Dreams to nowhere
And I'll probably never see your face again."

"Future 86", by Bomb the Music Industry!