Well... Despite my best intentions, it turns out I'm not all that good with keeping this up to date. Nor am I good with actually finishing what I started. It's not like I'm entirely busy, but at the same time, it's not like I have anything better to do either besides school and Shakespeare. *le sigh* Well, once finals are over, I'm sure things will get back on track. Kind of doubt it though.
On the plus side, I sent an e-mail today saying I was interested in being the new bass player for This Cold Life. We'll see how it goes.
Take care,
Baseball
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Album progress
(Based off of 15 out of 36 tracks that need to be recorded. "X" denotes completion, black cells denote tracks that are not there.)It's coming along.
Friday, December 2, 2011
From 14 to 21: Chapter 8, The Horizon
21! I’ve finally made it! Legal everywhere, one step closer to assuming more responsibility, and setting up for my future! However, before we get to all of that fun stuff, there’s one more thing I have to say.
The year 2011 has been without a shadow of a doubt the best year of my life. I made new friends, survived semesters, and became more comfortable in my own skin socially. I sometimes think that had it not been for the Shakespeare group, none of it would have happened. I’ve got a lot more ambitions and a lot more determination for what I want to do with my life. All I need to do is survive my next two semesters and I’m set. After December 31, 2012 (oh wait, we’ll be dead by then, right?), I don’t know yet. It’s all a haze for the time being. I’d love to find a nice job and settle down after school, but life works in mysterious ways. Rather than try and set out a definite plan, I’d rather just go where the currents carry me because it’s more interesting and fun that way.
And hopefully, I’ll have the ones I love along with me for the ride.
Cheers,
Baseball
The year 2011 has been without a shadow of a doubt the best year of my life. I made new friends, survived semesters, and became more comfortable in my own skin socially. I sometimes think that had it not been for the Shakespeare group, none of it would have happened. I’ve got a lot more ambitions and a lot more determination for what I want to do with my life. All I need to do is survive my next two semesters and I’m set. After December 31, 2012 (oh wait, we’ll be dead by then, right?), I don’t know yet. It’s all a haze for the time being. I’d love to find a nice job and settle down after school, but life works in mysterious ways. Rather than try and set out a definite plan, I’d rather just go where the currents carry me because it’s more interesting and fun that way.
And hopefully, I’ll have the ones I love along with me for the ride.
Cheers,
Baseball
Thursday, December 1, 2011
From 14 to 21: Chapter 7, The Best
My 20th was essentially a repeat of my 19th. Wake up, go to school, get through classes like a boss, respond to everyone on Facebook, head out to Montana’s with my family and best friends, chill. Mike couldn’t make it, which sucked. But at least Tanner, Ryan, and Blake joined in! It was a great day, and nothing really went wrong. So with 2010 soundly crushed under my foot, I hoped and prayed 2011 would be better. It not only was better, but it defied my expectations and changed my life for the better. Rather than summarize it, I’ll go through a month-by-month breakdown.
January
The New Year started, and I was making the smooth transition into the new semester. Derrick and I started bonding over Tosh.0 around this time, and we began our Tosh Tuesday tradition. As for Drew and Oliver, things went on as planned. Arrive, get beat up, hang out, leave. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it was looking to be a promising year.
February
The stress of school was setting in, but I never lost my cool. Okay, not true. February 9th was the only truly bad day I had all year, because it was Brandon’s birthday. Nothing went right that day, so I went home early in the afternoon and relaxed.
March
This was a great month… Kinda. I was looking hard for a job, since I was planning to live in the Hat for the summer. Alas, nothing came up, no matter how hard I tried, so I instead concentrated on my studies. This month also featured a poetry reading, which is where fate seemed to guide me in the right direction.
April
And then came April, the month that changed my life forever. Through the poetry reading, I had been contacted by Leigh Lavigne to join her Shakespeare group during their production of Much Ado About Nothing. After receiving loads of encouragement from those around me, I accepted the role of Don Pedro. I bonded quickly with castmates such as fellow poet Denton, awkward Mormon Nathan, and master creeper Dallas, but the person I was most fascinated by at the time was Hannah. The minute she showed up, freaked out as Ophelia in Hamlet, and then played Moonlight Sonata on piano, she became one of my favorite people in the Hat. Around this time, I moved in with my classmate Brent and his wife Marie, as they had a guest room in their apartment, which they agreed to rent out to me for the summer.
May
This month consisted of Shakespeare and job hunting. I had no luck with the latter, but I was having the time of my life with the former. My castmates and I were on top of the world, and we had grown in strength now that we had Tristan on our side as Beatrice. However, the lack of self-supplied financial income was taking its toll on me, so onward I pressed with life in the Hat. On the plus side, I got to sing onstage with Marshall Lawrence, one of my favorite musicians, so I was content.
June
Finally, I had gotten my third job interview – this time, at Earl’s. The interview consisted of me walking in, meeting the head chef, and then being told I was hired. All in a minute. However, no shifts were available for the month of June, so I instead put all of my efforts into Shakespeare. Around this time, I also began bonding with fellow Thespian Matt, who was playing the titular character of Hamlet. It was at a cast party at his place that I began warming up to the idea of social drinking. At the very end of the month, we gave our performances and bowed gracefully to an appreciative audience. I felt accomplished and proud of what we had done as a group, and felt so blessed to be with such amazing people.
July
Earl’s had brought me on part-time at the start of the month, and it was there that I began getting re-accustomed to the work life. My pattern consisted of showing up, washing dishes, listening to my music, coming back, washing my clothes, and going to sleep. Eventually, I wound up getting off early on Fridays and Saturdays, so I was happy with that. When I had gotten word that our Shakespeare group was doing Romeo & Juliet next year, I set out to see if the part of Romeo was in my future. Granted, I was a theater rookie, but I was determined. I studied lines, lost weight, and examined the character inside and out. It was time to shine.
August
The work pattern continued, and Brent and Marie moved into their new house that they won back in May. Nothing of relative importance really happened this month, as August usually is the transition month from summer to school. It was time to head back into New Res, and say hello to Unit #91.
September
What should have been my last year at school turned into an extra semester, as I dropped the networking class, which I will be taking in fall 2012. Nonetheless, I began my tradition of joining Matt and Hannah every Tuesday and Thursday at the Crave, the bar in the college. We’ve had many Core moments since then. In addition to school, auditions were coming up. The night before the first round of auditions, Matt’s friend Carson invited us to partake in a fight scene for The Outsiders. I was ecstatic until I found out I’d be paired with the guy who played rugby for a living. While Matt got to be flung halfway across the room by Carson, I wound up taking more than enough back bumps to drive the air out of me and then some. My knees were destroyed at the end, and I couldn’t move them for five days after. It didn’t deter me from showing up and reciting Romeo’s death monologue word for word. The next night, I did Patton’s opening monologue from the George C. Scott movie. It was my first audition, and I thought I did pretty damn good for a rookie if I do say so myself. It would’ve been better if my knees didn’t feel like they were going to explode the whole time…
October
I was kicking ass and taking names with my classes, getting high 90’s in web and database and scraping by with mid-sixties in systems analysis. It was business as usual, in addition to the theater side of my life. Finally, I had received news that while I would not be getting the part of Romeo (the role would go to Carson), I would be the prince (once royalty, always royalty) as well as Lysander in Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was disappointed at first, but I realized that a play is a play, and getting any role is a great feeling if you know you proved something to the directors. I got over it then, and vowed to help out as much as I could to make next year’s production an awesome one.
November
This month held much of the same as October: crushing my assignments, hanging out with Matt and Hannah, and working on Maidin Amárach. Maidin Amárach, you say? Back in May 2010, I started the project which would have served as a tribute to Ronnie James Dio, who died that month. In October, I realized my tastes and direction regarding the music was changing, so I would be releasing the album I wrote over the course of the year under Maidin Amárach, effectively ending Madcraze. Anywho, I closed out the month with a trip to West Ed, and a return to the water park of awesome awesomeness.
And this is it. In less than ten hours, I reach the final stage of this series. I’ve dug into my past and recollected my progress to get to this point in time. It’s so awesome to see how much I’ve changed over the years for the better, and I really have God, my family, and my friends to thank for making it all happen. Tomorrow’s post will be about future thoughts and my current state of mind regarding my age.
To be continued,
Baseball
January
The New Year started, and I was making the smooth transition into the new semester. Derrick and I started bonding over Tosh.0 around this time, and we began our Tosh Tuesday tradition. As for Drew and Oliver, things went on as planned. Arrive, get beat up, hang out, leave. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it was looking to be a promising year.
February
The stress of school was setting in, but I never lost my cool. Okay, not true. February 9th was the only truly bad day I had all year, because it was Brandon’s birthday. Nothing went right that day, so I went home early in the afternoon and relaxed.
March
This was a great month… Kinda. I was looking hard for a job, since I was planning to live in the Hat for the summer. Alas, nothing came up, no matter how hard I tried, so I instead concentrated on my studies. This month also featured a poetry reading, which is where fate seemed to guide me in the right direction.
April
And then came April, the month that changed my life forever. Through the poetry reading, I had been contacted by Leigh Lavigne to join her Shakespeare group during their production of Much Ado About Nothing. After receiving loads of encouragement from those around me, I accepted the role of Don Pedro. I bonded quickly with castmates such as fellow poet Denton, awkward Mormon Nathan, and master creeper Dallas, but the person I was most fascinated by at the time was Hannah. The minute she showed up, freaked out as Ophelia in Hamlet, and then played Moonlight Sonata on piano, she became one of my favorite people in the Hat. Around this time, I moved in with my classmate Brent and his wife Marie, as they had a guest room in their apartment, which they agreed to rent out to me for the summer.
May
This month consisted of Shakespeare and job hunting. I had no luck with the latter, but I was having the time of my life with the former. My castmates and I were on top of the world, and we had grown in strength now that we had Tristan on our side as Beatrice. However, the lack of self-supplied financial income was taking its toll on me, so onward I pressed with life in the Hat. On the plus side, I got to sing onstage with Marshall Lawrence, one of my favorite musicians, so I was content.
June
Finally, I had gotten my third job interview – this time, at Earl’s. The interview consisted of me walking in, meeting the head chef, and then being told I was hired. All in a minute. However, no shifts were available for the month of June, so I instead put all of my efforts into Shakespeare. Around this time, I also began bonding with fellow Thespian Matt, who was playing the titular character of Hamlet. It was at a cast party at his place that I began warming up to the idea of social drinking. At the very end of the month, we gave our performances and bowed gracefully to an appreciative audience. I felt accomplished and proud of what we had done as a group, and felt so blessed to be with such amazing people.
July
Earl’s had brought me on part-time at the start of the month, and it was there that I began getting re-accustomed to the work life. My pattern consisted of showing up, washing dishes, listening to my music, coming back, washing my clothes, and going to sleep. Eventually, I wound up getting off early on Fridays and Saturdays, so I was happy with that. When I had gotten word that our Shakespeare group was doing Romeo & Juliet next year, I set out to see if the part of Romeo was in my future. Granted, I was a theater rookie, but I was determined. I studied lines, lost weight, and examined the character inside and out. It was time to shine.
August
The work pattern continued, and Brent and Marie moved into their new house that they won back in May. Nothing of relative importance really happened this month, as August usually is the transition month from summer to school. It was time to head back into New Res, and say hello to Unit #91.
September
What should have been my last year at school turned into an extra semester, as I dropped the networking class, which I will be taking in fall 2012. Nonetheless, I began my tradition of joining Matt and Hannah every Tuesday and Thursday at the Crave, the bar in the college. We’ve had many Core moments since then. In addition to school, auditions were coming up. The night before the first round of auditions, Matt’s friend Carson invited us to partake in a fight scene for The Outsiders. I was ecstatic until I found out I’d be paired with the guy who played rugby for a living. While Matt got to be flung halfway across the room by Carson, I wound up taking more than enough back bumps to drive the air out of me and then some. My knees were destroyed at the end, and I couldn’t move them for five days after. It didn’t deter me from showing up and reciting Romeo’s death monologue word for word. The next night, I did Patton’s opening monologue from the George C. Scott movie. It was my first audition, and I thought I did pretty damn good for a rookie if I do say so myself. It would’ve been better if my knees didn’t feel like they were going to explode the whole time…
October
I was kicking ass and taking names with my classes, getting high 90’s in web and database and scraping by with mid-sixties in systems analysis. It was business as usual, in addition to the theater side of my life. Finally, I had received news that while I would not be getting the part of Romeo (the role would go to Carson), I would be the prince (once royalty, always royalty) as well as Lysander in Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was disappointed at first, but I realized that a play is a play, and getting any role is a great feeling if you know you proved something to the directors. I got over it then, and vowed to help out as much as I could to make next year’s production an awesome one.
November
This month held much of the same as October: crushing my assignments, hanging out with Matt and Hannah, and working on Maidin Amárach. Maidin Amárach, you say? Back in May 2010, I started the project which would have served as a tribute to Ronnie James Dio, who died that month. In October, I realized my tastes and direction regarding the music was changing, so I would be releasing the album I wrote over the course of the year under Maidin Amárach, effectively ending Madcraze. Anywho, I closed out the month with a trip to West Ed, and a return to the water park of awesome awesomeness.
And this is it. In less than ten hours, I reach the final stage of this series. I’ve dug into my past and recollected my progress to get to this point in time. It’s so awesome to see how much I’ve changed over the years for the better, and I really have God, my family, and my friends to thank for making it all happen. Tomorrow’s post will be about future thoughts and my current state of mind regarding my age.
To be continued,
Baseball
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
From 14 to 21: Chapter 6, The Pessimism
This one’s a little personal.
As always with how these posts start off, my 19th birthday had come and gone. Tanner and Ryan surprised me with a visit that night, and lots of great times were had. So, 2009 had come to an end and I was hoping that 2010 would offer more of the same: new opportunities, exciting challenges, and a chance to enjoy life.
Well, it didn’t work out as planned.
The year kicked off with Brandi and I having a huge argument about god knows what. Eventually, we got over it and got back to normal, but it was only the beginning. She had just dropped out of college and moved back to Brooks, and not being able to see her was driving me nuts. It didn’t help that almost every conversation wound up being an argument about the littlest thing. Finally, I had enough and decided to end the relationship, because I knew that we had reached a dead end. After we broke up, I noticed I started to make positive progress in programming, which up to that point was destroying me. I passed though, so that’s all that mattered.
Things didn’t get much better in April. My uncle Johnny was killed in an accident, and I struggled to feel more remorseful because he lived so far away. I figured that my job as maintenance assistant at Dinosaur Park would help take a load off of my mind. Around the end of May, I decided to take up straight edge. During that time, everyone I knew, family or friends, made it abundantly clear that they thought it was fucking stupid and that my newfound lifestyle choice (despite being a good choice) would not fit in with Patricia’s redneck way of life. I broke edge in August, when I smoked a joint with Tanner. I regret the decision every now and then, but once you break edge, there’s no going back unfortunately.
This brings us to July. Within a week, I was asked to resign from my job because of “concerns over equipment use”, which I think was a friendlier way of saying “you’re fucking lazy and you can’t even be bothered to do real work”. I remained optimistic as much as I could until the night of July 15th. Where were you when you found out that Brandon Magnuson had died? I was sitting in bed, browsing through Facebook, when suddenly posts about his death began popping up on my feed. I knew Brandon for about a year at that point. He was a laidback, down-to-earth guy with wicked tastes in music. We mostly interacted at the Well whenever I was down from college, and the guy was an absolute thrill to be around. So naturally, I was crushed when I found out he died at such a young age. I still browse through his music list on Sputnik every now and then to get some new music, and it’s worked (Max Richter’s “The Blue Notebooks” and Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s “Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven”, for example).
That was it. At that point, I didn’t give a fuck anymore. I just wanted to go back to the Hat and get away from all of the people, all of the events, all of the constant disappointments that I had been experiencing over the course of the year. My mom noticed my state of depression, and took me with her to Phoenix to meet my new baby cousins, Zach and Chloe. While it was so awesome to be with my aunt, uncle, and their new bundles of joy, it didn’t really do much to cure my depression. By the time I had to move out for my second year of college, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. Finally, I could do something worth my time and not be continually disappointed. It was the first step to effectively leaving my past life behind in the rearview mirror, although I still love going home every weekend or so.
The semester started, and second year programming began catching up to me. I didn’t match my classmates on an intellectual level, so I did my best to figure it out on my own. Meanwhile, I began acquainting myself with my first year colleagues whom I shared classes with. While there were a few I don’t care for in hindsight, almost all of them were great people to be around. I hung out with Chris and Karl, the first time I had ever socialized with anyone in my program outside of class other than maybe Brent. My spare time was occupied with music, indy wrestling, and getting the shit beat out of me by my roommate Drew. Okay, he didn’t beat me up ALL the time, per se. He said it was for training purposes. However, we successfully got my other roommate Oliver out of his shell, so it worked. As for Derrick, I got along with him just as well as the others so I had no complaints.
Now rather than stop this post at my 20th birthday, I’m going to tell you how the rest of 2010 went. Ready? Here goes. I failed my programming final, barely passed the math final, and completely owned the database class. We went to Phoenix for Christmas, and almost got stranded in Salt Lake for New Year’s. But I made it back in time and celebrated my new year with Ryan, Aimee, Mike Harvie (who got promoted to best friend status during the year), Steve, Ashley (my wife :3), Darren, and Alysha. And as 2011 showed its face to the world, I was finally done with 2010 and all of its deception, lies, drama, and bleakness. I was ready for 2011 to be the year its predecessor should have been.
To be continued,
Baseball
As always with how these posts start off, my 19th birthday had come and gone. Tanner and Ryan surprised me with a visit that night, and lots of great times were had. So, 2009 had come to an end and I was hoping that 2010 would offer more of the same: new opportunities, exciting challenges, and a chance to enjoy life.
Well, it didn’t work out as planned.
The year kicked off with Brandi and I having a huge argument about god knows what. Eventually, we got over it and got back to normal, but it was only the beginning. She had just dropped out of college and moved back to Brooks, and not being able to see her was driving me nuts. It didn’t help that almost every conversation wound up being an argument about the littlest thing. Finally, I had enough and decided to end the relationship, because I knew that we had reached a dead end. After we broke up, I noticed I started to make positive progress in programming, which up to that point was destroying me. I passed though, so that’s all that mattered.
Things didn’t get much better in April. My uncle Johnny was killed in an accident, and I struggled to feel more remorseful because he lived so far away. I figured that my job as maintenance assistant at Dinosaur Park would help take a load off of my mind. Around the end of May, I decided to take up straight edge. During that time, everyone I knew, family or friends, made it abundantly clear that they thought it was fucking stupid and that my newfound lifestyle choice (despite being a good choice) would not fit in with Patricia’s redneck way of life. I broke edge in August, when I smoked a joint with Tanner. I regret the decision every now and then, but once you break edge, there’s no going back unfortunately.
This brings us to July. Within a week, I was asked to resign from my job because of “concerns over equipment use”, which I think was a friendlier way of saying “you’re fucking lazy and you can’t even be bothered to do real work”. I remained optimistic as much as I could until the night of July 15th. Where were you when you found out that Brandon Magnuson had died? I was sitting in bed, browsing through Facebook, when suddenly posts about his death began popping up on my feed. I knew Brandon for about a year at that point. He was a laidback, down-to-earth guy with wicked tastes in music. We mostly interacted at the Well whenever I was down from college, and the guy was an absolute thrill to be around. So naturally, I was crushed when I found out he died at such a young age. I still browse through his music list on Sputnik every now and then to get some new music, and it’s worked (Max Richter’s “The Blue Notebooks” and Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s “Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven”, for example).
That was it. At that point, I didn’t give a fuck anymore. I just wanted to go back to the Hat and get away from all of the people, all of the events, all of the constant disappointments that I had been experiencing over the course of the year. My mom noticed my state of depression, and took me with her to Phoenix to meet my new baby cousins, Zach and Chloe. While it was so awesome to be with my aunt, uncle, and their new bundles of joy, it didn’t really do much to cure my depression. By the time I had to move out for my second year of college, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. Finally, I could do something worth my time and not be continually disappointed. It was the first step to effectively leaving my past life behind in the rearview mirror, although I still love going home every weekend or so.
The semester started, and second year programming began catching up to me. I didn’t match my classmates on an intellectual level, so I did my best to figure it out on my own. Meanwhile, I began acquainting myself with my first year colleagues whom I shared classes with. While there were a few I don’t care for in hindsight, almost all of them were great people to be around. I hung out with Chris and Karl, the first time I had ever socialized with anyone in my program outside of class other than maybe Brent. My spare time was occupied with music, indy wrestling, and getting the shit beat out of me by my roommate Drew. Okay, he didn’t beat me up ALL the time, per se. He said it was for training purposes. However, we successfully got my other roommate Oliver out of his shell, so it worked. As for Derrick, I got along with him just as well as the others so I had no complaints.
Now rather than stop this post at my 20th birthday, I’m going to tell you how the rest of 2010 went. Ready? Here goes. I failed my programming final, barely passed the math final, and completely owned the database class. We went to Phoenix for Christmas, and almost got stranded in Salt Lake for New Year’s. But I made it back in time and celebrated my new year with Ryan, Aimee, Mike Harvie (who got promoted to best friend status during the year), Steve, Ashley (my wife :3), Darren, and Alysha. And as 2011 showed its face to the world, I was finally done with 2010 and all of its deception, lies, drama, and bleakness. I was ready for 2011 to be the year its predecessor should have been.
To be continued,
Baseball
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
From 14 to 21: Chapter 5, The Rebirth
To some people, there is not a single feeling more liberating than turning 18. It’s the dawning of a new day, the start of a new chapter, a chance to be reborn. Only a chosen few choose to piss away their opportunity, but after celebrating it at the Patricia Hotel, going to see Metallica three days later, then finally quitting my job the week after, I grabbed the wagon and started to drag it. Finally, I was starting to feel more in control of my own destiny. I was ready to make 2009 my year. I found out soon enough that it was split into three phases, each one with an easier transition than the last.
Phase I: The Brooks Campus
Before I had to make the big move to the Hat in the fall, I had to begin my upgrading. I took Master Student and Math 10 Applied. It was a great facility, and I enjoyed the company of my instructors and my classmates. There isn’t really much else to say about this time, other than that every Friday was spent at the Well and I became friends with people such as Aimee and Chrissy.
Phase II: Dinosaur Park
In February, I applied for concession worker at Dinosaur Provincial Park. Lo and behold, I got the job on May 1st, and I was ready to work for my wages. After kicking the phase off by escorting my friend Marie to her grad, I began work. After a smooth start, things got a little disappointing. I only got part-time hours instead of full-time hours (mainly because I couldn’t cook yet), my coworker Erin and I didn’t see eye to eye, and it had flooded in mid-July while I was gone for Cypress Hills (my last trip there), leading to a swarm of mosquitoes invading the campground. Nonetheless, I persevered, got my bank account all nice and shiny for my first year at college, and bowed out with grace.
Phase III: Medicine Hat
I moved into the college res, and I had finally made it. Medicine Hat College was here at last. It was there that I had begun my studies for information technology, and it was there that I met my second girlfriend Brandi. We had flirted with each other hardcore over September, and it eventually translated into a full-blown relationship by the end of the month. We would spend almost every Monday night watching WWE Raw with breadsticks in tow, and our friends Meghan, Andrew, and Katy at our side. Regarding my studies, I struggled to keep up, but I didn’t do too horrible. Okay, it was actually my worst semester, grade-wise. I had obtained my only D (you’re only allowed one D or you fail) in the A+ course, which was disheartening, but I scraped through Math 20 Applied, programming, and professional communications.
And with that, my 18th year had come to a close. I had the girl of my dreams, a future seemingly set in stone, and a roof over my head (even if my roommate Travis was a slob). But as 19 approached, I had no idea what sort of year I was in for…
To be continued,
Baseball
P.S. I lost my virginity when I was 18. Yup.
Phase I: The Brooks Campus
Before I had to make the big move to the Hat in the fall, I had to begin my upgrading. I took Master Student and Math 10 Applied. It was a great facility, and I enjoyed the company of my instructors and my classmates. There isn’t really much else to say about this time, other than that every Friday was spent at the Well and I became friends with people such as Aimee and Chrissy.
Phase II: Dinosaur Park
In February, I applied for concession worker at Dinosaur Provincial Park. Lo and behold, I got the job on May 1st, and I was ready to work for my wages. After kicking the phase off by escorting my friend Marie to her grad, I began work. After a smooth start, things got a little disappointing. I only got part-time hours instead of full-time hours (mainly because I couldn’t cook yet), my coworker Erin and I didn’t see eye to eye, and it had flooded in mid-July while I was gone for Cypress Hills (my last trip there), leading to a swarm of mosquitoes invading the campground. Nonetheless, I persevered, got my bank account all nice and shiny for my first year at college, and bowed out with grace.
Phase III: Medicine Hat
I moved into the college res, and I had finally made it. Medicine Hat College was here at last. It was there that I had begun my studies for information technology, and it was there that I met my second girlfriend Brandi. We had flirted with each other hardcore over September, and it eventually translated into a full-blown relationship by the end of the month. We would spend almost every Monday night watching WWE Raw with breadsticks in tow, and our friends Meghan, Andrew, and Katy at our side. Regarding my studies, I struggled to keep up, but I didn’t do too horrible. Okay, it was actually my worst semester, grade-wise. I had obtained my only D (you’re only allowed one D or you fail) in the A+ course, which was disheartening, but I scraped through Math 20 Applied, programming, and professional communications.
And with that, my 18th year had come to a close. I had the girl of my dreams, a future seemingly set in stone, and a roof over my head (even if my roommate Travis was a slob). But as 19 approached, I had no idea what sort of year I was in for…
To be continued,
Baseball
P.S. I lost my virginity when I was 18. Yup.
Monday, November 28, 2011
From 14 to 21: Chapter 4, The Reality
17 rolled around, and my first day of my 17th year in existence consisted of myself, Tanner, Blake, and Ryan playing Guitar Hero III all day until our eyes bled followed by dinner. School was winding down, and I had seven months left to enjoy it. So what was so different about 2008?
At first, I carried on with business as usual. I added more bands to my repertoire (As I Lay Dying, Children of Bodom, Skindred, Death, Kamelot, Underoath, Sevendust, Strapping Young Lad, and In Flames to name a few) and hung out with all of my friends. We finally got moved into the new house, and were much more appreciative of it than our old house. Seven Wheel became The Head Transfer Process became Madcraze. I graduated with my friend Ashley as my escort (someone said I was a hero to nerds everywhere). Life was good. And then it ended. Nothing to do during the summer but argue with my mom and go to Cypress Hills. I love my mom, but we were gnarly personalities back then. It wasn't until she got on antidepressants that things went back to normal.
So normally, when kids graduate from high school, they go straight to college or work. I chose work, and wound up with store standard at Wal-Mart. To emphasize my hatred for the Brooks Wal-Mart, let me turn it over to AM from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
"HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE."
Thanks, AM.
So anyway, yeah. I hated it. My manager Paul was a dick, the customers sucked, the pay was decent, and some (not all) of my co-workers were shit. So I turned to music, and it got me through the bad times. Finally, I had enough and decided MHC was in my future. Studying music in Red Deer was out of the question, it was time to study IT. All of which will be explained next time...
To be continued,
Baseball
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)