Italia

[Left: This guy is (was) pretty much my new idol....]

Well, we're off to Italy in the morning tomorrow. We'll come back on Sunday, and then the days really start to wane down. 6 hour car ride. This met cow-like groans from Zach and I. Julian's been cool, he skied for the first time today, and it was actually some of the worst conditions we've been in. Not saying much considering at least 90% of our skiing experiences here have been cloudy. My dad and I were actually sort of gettin' sick to our stomachs. Not... actually sick, but just... not... well. 

Thank goodness they use Euros in Italy... I'm hoping to get a hat or something. I know pretty much zilch Italian, but hey, maybe I can use some Spanish or even French! And if I really want to go down the route of the pathetic, hopeless tourist, I can probably get my way around with English, since pretty much everyone will probably know it, even with their slightly annoying accents. But that's Europe for ya.

Pictures, of course. Might not get such a great blog post for a while though, since we get back the day before school, and I'll be tired and have to do last minute homework and all that. I've been wanting to write about certain things though, which I will probably be able to do one of these days. 

Oh! Another thing I forgot to mention this one time. It actually happened a while ago (like a week maybe when we were skiing with Simon's dad Steve and it was terribly cloudy), but I feel like mentioning it. It won't quite have the affect (effect?) I was hoping for, though, because of a rushed, just-get-it-out-there tone. I guess. But anyway. So, we were going up this lift and of course it's all cloudy and you can't see really anything and it's terrible. But then we come up to the end of the lift where you have to get off and stuff, and turns out that lift is pretty hard to get out of. My dad jumps off first, but somehow I'm still attached. My ski poles hanging on to his coat or something. So all of a sudden, I'm just rising up- I'm still on the lift, it's still going. So somehow I hurl myself over the edge of the chair and fall, probably at least 5 feet. I hit the snowy ground with a whoof, and that familiar feeling of having the wind knocked out of you and this distinct pain sort of in your diaphragm, like a stale lump in your stomach. Similar to the kind you'd get while wrestling in the living room, or really anywhere. So anyway it was sort of exciting. I survived, the pain wore off, and I guess now I have a story to tell.

Last-minute trip things... so I have to make this quick. I guess there isn't really anything left to say... I'll leave that bunk of thoughts for that other post... "see" you "guys" on Sunday I guess.

R.I.P. Elliott Smith. 'Nuff said.

Lucky...

[Above: pictures from our snowshoeing trip in the Jura.]
It seems that as soon as you think you just rid of all, or at least the immediate suck in your life, something goes around and punches you in the face. Or really it could be the arm. This isn't new; life is long, (and yeah short whatever) and yeah we all know how it sucks sometimes. Often. But it always finds its way to affect you; even though in a way you make it affect yourself. Because it does.

Life was so much easier when I was on the same continent as probably the rest of my life.

"Ugh! Why can't we just have not been here for 8 months?" I grumble at dinner, forming my new anxiety about the next step in my education. My dad doesn't answer. Yeah, I didn't want to go there either. I've already argued too much about this trip, really.

But seriously.

Rennie: are you filling out your course selection sheets for pioneer and stuff?

me: er

Rennie: or something of the sort?

me: er

....no

Rennie: ok.

me: the only thing I did was the community application

crap I'm like dead

Rennie: no, you're not.

you should try e-mailing ms mackenzie or a counselor at pioneer.

me: yeah I'll do that

Disadvantages and inconveniences suck. Which I guess is really part of the whole definition and point of those words.

I'm almost done with 1984 by George Orwell and it's slightly disturbing. It's good; literally a must-read for us as a human species and existing beings, but sometimes books and stuff can really set a nerve in me. If I was living in Oceania with Big Brother and all that, I'd probably just scream all over "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER! NO! THIS IS ALL WRONG! YOU GUYS SUCK! THIS IS WRONG! THEY'RE BAD! THEY'RE EVIL! NO! WE'RE ALL FRIGGIN' HUMANS! ON ONE EARTH! DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES!" And go on and on like that. Right in public. But I wouldn't actually last long like that, because they would immediately find me. But then right after I'm sort of finished, I'd just commit suicide. I know what you're thinking- "how is it that I somehow found myself reading such a morbid person's blog?!?!?" and all. No but seriously. I couldn't live with myself with the alternative. Of course, that's all assuming I wasn't brainwashed.

This video also got me thinking.

So, I'm worried/concerned about my education right now. Yeah. I wonder if you guys ever have been. I mean, my main thing is that like... after all those "stay in school", "you'll get a good job", and stuff and all that and stuff, I feel like I suddenly like.. died. On the school front. My friends are all fit in of course with the system, literally on the road to success. Me? I get a wonderful, new cultural experience that barely anyone else could have for a year, while my friends learn algebra.

Sometimes I get so mad.

Nah, I guess this isn't really new stuff. But I had to get it out. And then of course later, maybe soon, the perspective will lather itself down over everything and maybe it'll be fine? Sigh. Yeah. And Zach's friend is coming over tomorrow, so that'll be awesome. He's pretty cool. Missing school for it and stuff.

Celery.

Melanger Les Couleurs (and, not to mention, the emotions)

[Picture: vine-field we passed on a walk one time. I thought it was like a field of question marks.]

Awesome French group (my mom and) I found out about today: Kaolin. They also have a wikipedia article and stuff. And iTunes. I guess I haven't really been... fully "enriched" in the whole French culture thing.. I mean, school is a lot, but it's only one aspect kind of. I haven't actually had that many crepes and don't even go to French cafes or restaurants all that much. And now recently it's been the "it'll all go in a blink of an eye so do what you want before it ends" -season, so maybe I should start... French-izing. Or something. I have no idea how we're getting all this stuff back home... might take a few trips. But yeah.

Valentine's Day. See, when I first was reminded of this, I just sort of wanted to crack up. Just because.

Italy towards the end of the week. Next week, that is. And Zach's friend is coming soon. So that'll be cool I guess. Turns out my parents both know some Italian... which of course led to my continued speculation, criticism and observations of other languages.

So... yeah. Not much happening. I want to be putting up more pictures on this blog I guess. And stuff and stuff. Poetry attempts. I've taken up sleep-depriving myself again. Being the insolete little teenager I can be.

I predict after the break it'll sort of just be a snap of the fingers. A rustle of the grass. A whizzing blur. A blink of an eye. Just like that. Or at least, I hope. To a certain extent.

Sigh.

To Which he Kindly Replied

Well. It snowed today. Then it got melty. I saw Dan Levin twice during the week, which was really awesome. He got us talking about our school and stuff and stuff. It's gonna be weird going back. I guess.

Naked Baby Photos never gets old, apparently. I still need to try hard to get my thoughts sorted out at this rather pitch black hour.

Oh gosh; procrastination. I guess I'll just jump right in to whatever I was saying, which was actually just talking about the fact that I was jumping into whatever I was saying, but then again maybe in fact I had something to say, even though I kinda expected to just forget and ramble, just doing this for... for... I wanna say prosperity, because sometimes I like to use words that just pop up in that there place up there, but maybe that's not the right word.

{After about half an hour of doing other things}

So I guess what I'm trying to say here is...

I'm going home in a little more than 4 months, and maybe I'm rather excited and wanting to just throw this whole thing (as in France) in the dumpster like it was cardboard box, but only after opening the packaging it was in and playing in it a little bit. I want to be done done done. I keep seeing the end. I'm seein' it. I saw it on July 3rd, 2008. But it's actually real. It doesn't have to be a fantasy.

I feel like I'm one of those bands now that suddenly is obsessed with a theme, like... political songs or something... obsessed with having it just be done.

The theme of the 6th grade yearbook was to not count the days, but make the days count. I'll try both.

This break, again, kinda screwing up my perspective for the umpteenth time. That spells crud. It's called hard work. Ready? Disolving tongues. Missing the first half hour. Just staring. It helps to sit down, watch the show. Refreshing that's not a liquid. We've finally gotten to a higher state of neglect, here. Friends?!?! High-fiving because you have le pouvoir. Just so happens I'm pressing that orange button soon.

Dan's strategy: lyrics from a book

Without Lessons

{No title yet}

Put on some Mraz, he fascinates
but how can you procrastinate your fate?
pick up the pen start scribbling
or the forget starts nibbling
let it go, it passes
like birds in the winter- masses
even if they don't care
dare to share
it's just you
no background music
trying not to lose it
quoting lyrics, using the fretboard
up and down with that chord
head-thrashing while they're cashing
in what they worked hard to get
over and over again- tours and hits
is this what it's all about?
what about real? what about fake?
amplify what you make
we get problems- so we write about 'em
after they come and go, some dumb
but I go with the fear, let it loose
I got ideas- do you?

::To be revised and etc.

I love being a musician. An artist. For some reason bringing in the "art" part of it makes it more... well, just that it's sort of a higher degree... better. More... just more. But I mean really, we're all artists, there are just those of us who recognize it. That amplify it. Literally and figuratively.

Today I jam'd with my dad again at CERN, and we recorded some of it. I played some drums, a tad of piano and some trumpet. It was actually rather awesome.

Tomorrow we shall wake up around 8-ish and drive for a while to this winter/skiing chalet place where we'll ski with Simon and stuff. Should be fun I guess. I guess I don't really have lots of plans for the break, except playing music, reading, HW, taking pictures, trying to wake up early and maybe hanging out with friends... yeah.

I guess with all this thinking about the end, one hardly notices the middle. And if you just pay attention to the middle, the end just jumps right up. But being in the middle and thinking about the end... and yet the middle too... everything seems weird. But nah nah. Maybe I'm in that weird place where you're suddenly used to being there, and then about to be surprised to actually go back.

I like wizard rock. I really dig that classic 1960's/'70's rock. I was reading some of John Lennon's part of the Beatles Anthology book, and it was rather interesting. It's amazing how... someone can just be so... blown up from the media, and sort of having been made a certain way from it, that we never really... they're not... . Celebrities are sort of treated like a different species in our culture. And yet in my saying that it's still stereotyping.

I want this guitar.

Comtemplating

Here I sit, with only 152 days or so to go (this fact scared me- 150 is only 20, plus 17, plus 56, plus 47, plus 3 plus 7. Which is small.) in this suddenly whitened-over town (it snowed today), which for some reason must suffer the consequences of waiting way past their bedtimes to watch beefy Americans with tight pants ram into each other, while some annoying guy probably named Steve laughs about sandwiches with a few other guys, one of which is probably named Hank, and ridiculously-"clothed" women giving us all fake smiles with their heavily manicured faces, as if to say football has a feminine side, which of course it does, what with the mothers slaving over American dinners while the father shoves peanuts into his cheering mouth, which is also stinking of beer. And don't forget the breaks- or really, from their reputation, they are more like just other parts of the game- we get to hear some guy or lady tell us about the sleek new shiny silver volvo/mercedes/ford car we just must buy because of it's such low MPG. And don't forget Bud Light. Heavens no, us Americans will never tire of those generic, trying-t0-appeal-but-really-making-it-look-ridiculous ads for that brown-colored liquid that people don't normally drink until 21.

As in, it's 10 o'clock and only 2 hours till the "kickoff" of Super Bowl {insert appropriate number of Roman Numerals}. I'm of course rooting for the Steelers, but not sure I can last till then. I could go to sleep for like 2 hours then come back.

You know, I guess I didn't really think of American TV as a chore, but now after being deprived of it for several months, I'm starting to realize how stupid we all are. I mean seriously folks. There is an off button. Just leave it be once in a while. We're not all couch potatoes, but considering how much our society stresses that.. aspect and amount of stuff is in/on there, it is quite sickening. I was just a viewer of The Simpsons and sports; mostly hockey, baseball and football. My lack of heavy-duty TV-watching might have had something to do with the fact that my family doesn't fit into the stereotype of having a few digits' worth of channels. Nay, we were the "static-static-channel 2-channel 4-channel 4 again-a few teens-static-some random thing- and then the canadian channel-. Yeah. So it was always a nice, almost intimidating treat to go over to a friend's house and watch, say, Spongebob or a High-Definition Tigers game.

But this isn't to say TV doesn't have it's moments. I don't think anyone even doubted that, but just whatever. I mean, how can we all forget those legendary commercials? Some still make me crack up violently when I think of them; The Jewelry Factory in Livonia!; "Butter, Milk, Eggs..." (Ha ha, I seriously started to grin there)... and the list goes on.

So anyway. I just thought I'd share that all with you.

My addiction with music/CD's continues to power my wallet. Or more, power the usage of my wallet. More, the objects inside the wallet. I spent about... 50 dollar's worth of CD's.. again. I think I'm pretty set on my musician's side; I also jammed today, which lead me to think that I might not actually be such a sucky drummer. I've also learned how to play most/all of two Oasis songs; Wonderwall and Shock of the Lightning. Both seriously great songs, and not too hard to play either. I also have two of my own songs going, which do need lyrics though.

Ah, I could just imagine how awesome this would be with Erez and Oren. Or really, any of my friends. We would just be acting all crazy, eating food, maybe jamming... killing brain cells, losing sleep, waiting for something so hyped-up for it's sickening, making memories. But isn't that what America is all about?

Like I would know.

I'm not sure when, but sometime in my life, my body decided it couldn't live without croissants and that it just wouldn't eat "real food" containing things such as artifical flavors/colors/etc. I'm not sure when, but sometime in my life, I actually starting not hating French. Or France. Sometime, not sure when it happened, I turned into an optimist and suddenly found out about all these awesome modern artists. Sometime, I felt more inspiration for guitar than trumpet. Sometime, long ago, I was a pessimist that worried even though I got good grades and had good friends and lived 3 minutes from the school and loved trumpet and was ignorant of the world and didn't feel proud to be an American really, but didn't know anything else and didn't know how to conjugate Spanish or French verbs.

It was actually around 215 days ago.

Go Steelers
lyrics
I'm having a nice life.