A Late-Night Update

"There is nothing on this earth more prized than true friendship."
-- Saint Thomas Aquinas
(Thanks to David’s brother John Kartzinel for posting the quotation)

I was completely ready to be shut down, going to bed, and planning to post tomorrow, but at 2:20 am, ready to sleep and returning from the bathroom, I was interrupted by a ringing cell phone.

My cell phone, which was recharging, happened unfortunately to be under the stack of the new issues of the Cardinal & Cream I brought back to my room, and I didn’t get to it in time to answer. Being after 2 am, I was a little bit worried about what might be going on, so I bring up the number that just called me and called back.

I was greeted with a reference to this homestarrunner.com cartoon. Apparently, Kyle was wondering why my light was still on.

The conversation that followed was only half-sensical, but highly entertaining, ending in the agreement that we both really needed to get some sleep.

This is why I love my friends. You can actually do stuff like that.

My cold thing keeps getting better. I don’t like this slow recovery that I’ve had with college colds, but it’s nothing serious. I ran out of Advil Cold & Sinus and bought some Sudafed Multi-Symptom, which seems to be working wonders.

Still no word on a summer internship, though I sent an e-mail to the magazine in Atlanta. I’m also going to be looking at some other possibilities closer to home in case that doesn’t work out. Hopefully, I won’t have to end up putting in applications at Burger King, though I suppose if it comes to that, I’ll have to do what I have to do.

I presented Nic with a detailed shot list for “Chick Flick 101,” so we should start work on that any time now.

Commedia dell’arte is about to hit the full run-throughs for rehearsal, and we’re still having too much fun with it. Julie Palmer and I even made up a design for Compagnia dei Gelosi T-shirts. We finally figured out who Andy Morris sounds like: between the lowered old-man voice and the spaghetti-Italian dialect, he sounds like Watto from the Star Wars prequels, and it’s almost creepy how much the voices actually resemble each other.

Speaking of Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith hits theaters in less than a month now… and even though it actually premieres during finals week, I already have two people offering rides to the midnight opening.

Thursday night, the Student Activities Council held a “The-Price-Is-Right”-like event (called “Right Is the Price”), and my name was called to “Come on down!” I made it up on stage, and played the mountain-climber game for a $50 Best Buy gift card, winning a giant kite, the Back to the Future Trilogy DVD set, and the Law & Order board game in the process. (Did you know there was a Law & Order board game?) Oh, and I also spun a dollar on the showcase showdown wheel, so I won a dollar, too. Woohoo, and yay for SAC!

Nic, acting as my section editor, has limited me to writing two articles for the next newspaper, because, apparently, I’m going to be in charge of laying out a page for the next issue. He then proceeded to assign me two articles. So I guess I have a full plate. This is going to be fun.

My faculty advisor has looked over my schedule for next semester and given his approval… and though he can’t officially enter it into the computer until Friday, he’s got my schedule so he can make sure it works out, and I’ll come by Friday morning to make sure everything’s set.

Well, I think that’s about it for the time being. I’m going to get some sleep now.

Even More Random Quotes of the Day

"When we argue, it's very Gilmore-Girls-esque."
--Kyle Kurlick, on himself and Kimberly Castleman

"I don't drink, but if you're going to get me on an airplane, you're going to need to get me drunk first."
"It's safer than driving a car... but when it comes, the dying's worse."
--Philip Storm and Josh McCoy

Random Quotes of the Day

"Tax evasion could be a really good job for a little while."
--Julie Laugherty

"The Sound of Music is sexy."
--Julie Laugherty

I think Julie was tired today. She was certainly quotable. ;-)

Heroes of the Moment

Okay, so this afternoon, I was working in the Coburn dishroom, and it was just me and Taylor, the high-school student who works weekends.

Last night, we had a big catered event that we had to come back to clean up, and the silverware was washed, but Ms. Lynn, our boss, said that today, we had to make sure that it all got sorted out and run through the dishwasher again.

It was a fairly big job, but it also should be fairly easy. Ms. Lynn had said that she was leaving a note for Taylor to start on it as soon as he got there - I wasn't on the schedule until 12:30 - so he should have it maybe halfway done by the time I got there.

I went in to get lunch before my shift started, and the whole half-hour I was there, Taylor was at one of the tables eating. Now, I know one of the perks of the job is the free meal, but I always try to get there a little early or go to the Lex afterward, otherwise, I'd be on the clock doing effectively nothing for quite a while. I went and put on my work shirt and came back to find that NOTHING had been done to the catering stuff, and the lunch stuff was starting to back up on the line.

I started in on the lunch line while Taylor finally got started on the catering stuff, and then he disappeared for a while. Then he'd show up again, and then he'd disappear for a while. I manned the line for a while, occasionally running to the other end of the dishwasher to unload what had to be run through as some stacks of dishes piled up... then I started alternating between loading and unloading in small chunks, right about the time that the kitchen pans started coming in. Still no sign of Taylor, though I suppose he was making slow progress with the silverware SOMEWHERE.

Just then, Richard came in, still on the clock so he could open the Lex (since Paul and Purity had never been there to open before), and asked me to "boss him around" so we could finish up.

God bless Richard Hart.

Not only did he jump right in and catch the stuff coming off the machine, he also figured out just what to do with it, and while I mopped the kitchen, Richard got the serving floor (still no sign of Taylor until we emptied our mop buckets, and he at least squeegeed the dishroom).

So Richard Hart is the man, making my "Heroes of the Moment" list. Because it's more of a list-of-the-day thing, it's a short list, and he's the only one up there with Rachel Hoyt, who had the brilliant idea to bring a stereo to the catering clean-up last night and a good mix of music to play on it.

Once again, my friends prove to be the coolest people in the world.

Mom called today. I love hearing from home; I love it here, and there's not a whole lot that I actually have all that much time to miss, but I do miss my family.

I'm feeling just a little bit sick... I've got one of those nasty coughs that comes from down in the chest, though - and Mom reminded me to make sure while I was on the phone - I don't have the tell-tale lung rattle of pnuemonia. I'm hoping it's just the flu or something, since I don't feel too bad and I can get over the flu quickly (colds I can live with without even really feeling sick), but since I got off the phone with Mom, I suddenly remembered that one of my friends is in the process of recovering from a nasty bout of bronchitis, so I'm trying not to worry, but hoping he wasn't contagious when I saw him this week.

Mom: If I'm feeling worse after the weekend, I promise I'll go see the nurse.

I'm not too concerned about the fact that I have a friend with mono. The symptoms don't match up, for one, and there's also the fact that there's no logical way I could have contracted it from her, knowing how mono is spread. I don't tend to make a habit of sharing cups.

Apparently, my sister fractured her ankle this week, right before going with our neighbor to his prom. Hopefully, she'll come home feeling all right.

Mimi: You'll have to let me know how you are, since you hadn't told me about your ankle! Text me, after "Desperate Housewives" tomorrow if not sooner. ;-)

When Xanga Links Go Bad

Never again will I complain about this web animation, as I did in the last post.

This one, maybe.

THAT's why you have to love classics like Mr. Nice.

Thanks to Katie Mathis for posting that hippo thing...

Oh, and welcome to Blogger.com, Nic Pfost and Renee Roberson (though Renee won't actually get a blogspot site)!!

I love hanging out with Julies

Currently Watching The X-Files - The Complete Second Season Episode 2x24: Our Town see related

Yesterday, I was one Julie's favorite boy and another Julie's hero.

I felt so loved!!

I was helping Julie Laugherty with some work she was doing for Baptist Press, proofreading and stuff like that, and I offered to keep helping when she got more done... and apparently that made me her favorite boy.

This is my second stand with the temporary distinction, awarded only on the understanding that Brandon Emerson is the favorite boy of all time (hey, I'm in good company).

Shortly thereafter, I made some silly little joke that started getting a sarcastic laugh, which turned to an honest-to-goodness crackup on the part of Julie Palmer, who apparently needed a good laugh, and I was then designated "Hero of the Day."

I was then hugged by two Julies at once (and I'm not sure, but Patrick's Xanga may still include a bit on why Julie gives the best hugs).

If you have the opportunity to hang out with Julies, take it.

This week is a relatively quiet week sandwiched in between busy weeks, a week of nice weather sandwiched between rainstorms, and periods of lots of Coburn work sandwiched in between long stretches of not-Coburn work (that is, I'm working all weekend after working Sunday last week, with only Wednesday in between).

In other news...

Classes continue going well; I'm going to be sad to see this semester go, though I'm looking forward to getting past the general core classes.

The downside of class: In Written Comp, it must be "Literature Tyler Hates Week." We started Monday with a reading of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and ended today with a discussion of Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" (or Oedipus Tyrannos or Oedipus the King or whichever language they've decided to use for the title at the moment). At least the discussion isn't unbearable... I've enjoyed Professor Rogers the REST of the semester.

I've got a tentative schedule for next year, though the new registration programs won't show class openings over the Internet, so plans are a little more subject to change. If my schedule as I have it works out for next semester, however, that'll be three in a row with no 8 am classes -- hooray!!

I've left messages with the lady from the magazine in Atlanta whose internship was referred to me by Kristen Nicole Sayres, to whom I am still grateful; hopefully, I'll hear back soon (possibly over the weekend, or the beginning of the week).

Rehersals for Commedia dell'Arte are insanely fun -- it's horrible what happens when the actors get to write the script themselves, and the amount that is played with just as improv is enough to ensure we get a different play every night. It's going to be GREAT. Coming soon: Live "commercials" in which we go around in character at random points on campus.

Still no word on a shooting schedule for my student film ("Chick Flick 101: An Exercise in Self-Mockery"), though Kyle Kurlick is taking some photos for prop posters, and Nic Pfost and I have discussed visual style.

Kyle has a Darth Vader voice-changer helmet. He uses it in conjunction with one of those dinky little glowstick lightsabers, so it's kind of weird, but the look of the mask is pretty cool. He was using it to make prank calls the other night.

The breakup of my roommates looms imminent; not only is Jon graduating, but (seemingly out of nowhere, but then maybe that's because we just are never in the room) after two years of noble independence and Onion-hood, Brett up and joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon, so he'll be moving in with some of those guys next year. So it's down to Derek, who I can't really see staying anyway (though the guys I could see him moving in with already have a full room they wouldn't give up), and me. Kyle, however, has mentioned that he and his roommates are trying to get a kitchen unit in Ebersold next semester, and that they'd still have an open room... so, possibilities, maybe?

With the exception of stress, exhaustion, and one unfortunate case of mononucleosis, all my friends seem to be doing really well (and Evelyn may be sick, but she's not letting it get her down).

Speaking of Evelyn, it seems she's given my last name to a character in her fantasy-novel-series-in-development... apparently, she just likes associating with people who have cool last names (Storm or Gunn, for example). Of course, she can crack jokes and humorous comments about that, since her last name is pronounced "Witty."

It looks like I'll have three articles in next week's paper, back up from the one in the last. I love working on the paper, even if it keeps me up.

I was attacked on Tuesday night when Amber Roberts cried "When vegetables go bad!" Suddenly, I was hit with a bag of green beans. The wonderful people at Ziploc do a good job; you can hit someone squarely in the arm from four or five feet away with a bag of green beans without having it open all over the place. Ah, the fun of a mess-free food fight...

I've been watching quite a bit of History Channel in my downtime. Last weekend, they did a long special on the papacy (oddly enough, followed by specials on an Aztec city, the Incan El Dorado legend, and a history of Area 51). Some news commentators are getting on my nerves even more, now, since I started looking up some papal history as inspired by the History Channel special. When discussing the worldwide Roman Catholic church, some commentators keep saying that it's time for a non-European pope, appealing to the facts that there are thousands of Catholics in Latin America and Asia, and that there's never been an African pope. There's only one problem: There have been TWO African popes! Of course, they were from the ancient Roman province of Africa (modern Tunisia), so the commentators still have a point about sub-Saharan Catholics, but we journalists are supposed to be perfectly clear.

Speaking of commentators on the papacy, I'm not sure whether the media need more conservative values or if the general public just needs more common sense. I'm going to scream if I hear one more person say the Vatican's stance on birth control is contributing to the AIDS crisis. (Now, to be perfectly clear, I'm not trying to belittle the AIDS epidemic, which is horribly tragic, or to specifically endorse the Catholic view of birth control; my point is coming.) This is almost like saying "They're spreading AIDS because the Vatican won't let them use protection!!" Those complaining of that just aren't thinking; last time I checked, the Vatican was still frowning on casual sex, too.

On that note, I think I've become addicted to "Desperate Housewives," the first show of this season that I've actually been able to see more than once (I almost never see prime-time TV anymore, though I usually can on Sundays). At least I'm in good company there, too, with my mom and sister, as well as with Dr. Fant, chair of Union's English deparment.

The rain from the last few weeks has started getting to be not-so-nasty... it's gone from cold and driving to a gentle lukewarm downpour, the kind you can actually be outside in without going insane. It's the kind of rain that makes you want to go outside and just stand in it, imagining that clip of Tim Robbins that's in commercials every time a TV network shows "The Shawshank Redemption." It reminds me a little bit of my first trip to Russia, when we did our drama in the square in front of the ballet house in the rain. Ah, great times.

Last night, after a day of great weather, no wasps, and a strange smell from the other side of the apartment, I slept with my window partly open for the first time. It was actually really nice waking up this morning. I beat my alarm by ten minutes and just stayed in bed.

I have the song from this web animation stuck in my head. It's not pretty.

Random Quote of the Day

"Yeah, it's mine, and you can't have my freaking gosh."
--Julie Laugherty, on her use of the phrase "Oh my freakin' gosh"

More Random Musings

Currently Listening to the Soundtrack from Waking Ned Devine By Shaun Davey see related

I hate putting up posts to toot my own horn, but I'm still reeling from a high compliment last night. I thought I'd stick it up here and share, since it also paid some compliments to my friends.

Apparently, Dr. Chute thinks the Cardinal & Cream will have one of its greatest years when my class is in charge.

Woohoo for this year's freshmen! Dr. Chute pointed out my stuff, Kyle Kurlick's, and Cynthia Medina's, as well as hoping we could get my roommate Derek to contribute SOMETHING at some point; he went on to mention that the freshman class has brought in other talented writers.

So here's to 2007-08, C&C freshmen! Woohoo!!

I don't know if it's just having been thinking about Europe lately or if it's something else, but last night I had a dream that I was back in Russia. Well, it wasn't really about that (my dreams typically ramble on with even less sense than my conscious trains of thought), but it included me being in a restaurant down the street from the Kazan cathedral.

And, much as I fell in love with Bangkok, I'm starting to itch for Petersburg again. No offense to Asia, but I'm pretty sure I'm called to the other side of the landmass.

Production night went really well last night. I was actually out at a reasonable hour with things in good shape (assuming we didn't do more reformatting... I'll hope). I had some article-bumping, so this issue only had one of my articles in it, but it has my assistant editor byline, so I'm happy. We also got applications for next year's edit board. Apparently, it's good if one applies for at least two positions, so I put my name in for A&E editor (since Nic's going for a higher office next year) and copy editor. Tonight, I have work and then Commedia dell'Arte rehearsal, plus a little Writing for Mass Media homework to finish. Things aren't too busy (they're just... crowded into a few hours), so life is good.

Plus, as a random quote of the day:
"Only he is free to express his views who is not afraid to write stupid things."
--Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Off to World Civ now. :-)

Proof Positive, Part 2

I wasn't sure exactly what to call this little update.

I had it down to either More Proof that my Friends are the Coolest People in the World or Further Proof that God has Always Known Exactly What He's Doing.

Now, I have lots of really good friends here at Union, the type that I could trust with any number of things and generally count upon to have fun with in any setting. I love them all, and they're really great.

There's also a special class of them that I've really come to value, especially since coming back from Spring Break. And, much as this may disappoint the roommate who's always laughing at me for having a bunch of friends who are girls (really and truly, if you called me a "pimp" in front of any of them, they'd laugh out loud at you), I'm thinking specifically of the Jonathan-and-David-type friendship. There are three guys, specifically, in this year's freshman class, who are feel-good-about-loaning-each-other-stuff, student-film-story-swapping, singing-out-loud-to-stave-off-the-quiet-at-work great friends.

I love Union not only for giving me so many great friends in the first place, but for giving me such high-quality friends.

Now, here's the interesting thing. One of the guys I would consider among these great friends, David Kartzinel, was talking to me after church today - we ended up going to the same church almost at random (Ben Bailey invited me the night before, and David caught a ride with a friend of his I only formally met today after his ride to another church didn't show up) - and I mentioned what I had put in my last blog post, about thinking I should be a European correspondent.

His response: "Stop it. You're scaring me."

Here's the thing. David's been interested in the ministry for a long time, and in the idea of leading a church. I had mentioned before that I would have to make a habit of coming to his church, and he liked that idea. But, as it turns out, about the same time the job of those reporters in Rome started appealing to me, David began feeling a call to mission work and had the idea of leading a church in Europe.

Not only that, he met a man today at church who works in Great Britain for a missions organization, working with European churches.

Finding affirmation in a friend's calling... isn't God's plan amazing?

On a Few Different Things at Once

Currently Watching Finding Neverland (Widescreen Edition) By Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie see related

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine
Et lux perpetua luceat, Deus.
De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine,
Domine, exaudi vocem meam.
Lux aeterna luceat eis, Deus.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
Et lux perpetua luceat Deus.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto
Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper
Et in saecula saecularum,
Amen.

Oddly enough, that Latin - which I have found comes from an oratio delivered at a traditional Funeral Mass and inspired Verdi's War Requiem - first came to my attention through the soundtrack to the movie Waking Ned Devine, in which it can be heard in the background of the funeral scene. Thinking it particularly appropriate, I've listened to it several times today.

May eternal light shine upon him, Lord.
Grant him eternal rest, Lord
And let the everlasting light shine, God.
From the depths I have cried to you, Lord,
Listen to my voice.
May eternal light shine upon him, God.
Grant him eternal rest, Lord,
And let the everlasting light shine.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
Who was with you in the beginning, and now, and always,
World without end,
Amen.

(Translation mine, using the Anglican "World Without End" for "In Saecula Saecularum")

For those of you who haven't been watching the news, Pope John Paul II died this afternoon in Vatican City. I found myself oddly glued to the news the entire time - in fact, last night, I didn't go to bed until the Vatican press office reopened for morning.

I myself am not Catholic - one of the primary objections to Catholicism being the idea of the supremacy of the Pope - but I think that, in his office as pontiff, God was able to use John Paul II in great ways. For his efforts to work with all believers and his strong stance for objective morality, as well as his great efforts to reach out all over the world, he will always have my respect. Let us hope that many will follow his example, particularly his successor; and, therefore, let's be in prayer for the College of Cardinals.

In Pace Requierat

To me, also, this is interesting because we now find ourselves standing on a historical paradigm shift. John Paul II has been presiding in office since before I was born - the third-longest in history, beind Pius IX and St. Peter himself - and for the next three weeks or so, the world is, for lack of a better word, pope-less for the first time in several very influential decades. How many other world figures still in power today were in power 23 - almost 24 - years ago? This is a major event, enough to keep the interest of a history buff like glue, as well as being all the more reason to pray for the College of Cardinals as they elect a new pontiff.

On a lighter note...

There is something else that has come out of my being glued to the television, as well. In flipping back and forth between Fox News and CNN, I may have come closer to deciding "what I want to be when I grow up." For years now, I've just wanted to be a writer; no particular career ambitions beyond newswriting. Having watched hours and hours of journalists telling of the times they met with His Holiness or traveled around following his plane or saw this or that effect he had on society, I realized how amazing it would be to be over there, seeing that - not necessarily related to the papacy, of course, but as for career aspirations, at least for now, I'm shooting for "European correspondent" for some major U.S. print medium.

Can you imagine living in a great cultural center, surrounded by centuries of history, paid to do what you love by telling what goes on there, and then, when something major happens, being taken across Europe to the story itself?

Speaking of writers, I watched one of the greatest movies I've ever seen the other day, one about an author who, according to this online encyclopedia, began his career as a journalist.

When Mom and Mimi told me I should have seen it with them on Thanksgiving, they were right. They were incredibly right.

"Finding Neverland" is, as I said, one of the greatest movies I've ever seen. For one thing, with the turn-of-the-last-century sets and costumes, the British landscape, and that big cute dog, it is simply beautiful to watch. Beyond that, the story is great. I really admire the character of J.M. Barrie as a writer here, as well... while I know they took some liberties with the story (in history, for example, there was a fifth Llewelyn-Davies boy, and Barrie first met them while their father was still alive), it is easily proven that they remained faithful to Peter Pan, and I admire the fact that he wrote that story not specifically for the money, or to make a point, but simply for the sake of the story.

That's the great thing about the "Neverland" of the movie; it exists just so the writer can tell the story. I love the scene with Dustin Hoffman as they take down the set of the first play in the movie, in which they discuss how it is bad that the critics have changed the nature of art; "they made it important."

On a still lighter note...

Through one of my friend's Xangas (alas, I forget which friend now), I found a link to a quiz site actually interesting enough to share, both on "Relationship types" and on the sense of humor.

The sense of humor...

You are a SGO--Sunny Gross Offbeat. This makes you a Wild One.

You have a laid-back approach to life, and your humor reflects that. What you think is funny is so broad and appealing that you can chuckle at almost anything. You're never offensive -- until you want to be.

It takes someone a while to get to know you and appreciate your point-of-view, but when you make friends they tend to be for life. You're the type of person who doesn't lose touch with friends after you get married. Rare. Rarely rare rare.

Of the 17524 people who have taken this quiz, 6% are this type.

Your Active humor score of 7/10 means you are ju-u-ust right. You're probably pretty popular -- a walking social lubricant. You know how to take someone from on edge to relaxed, and from relaxed to larfing. You're kind of like an episode of Arrested Development. That show is good. Anyway. Rave on, funny one.



Hmmmm. I guess that's pretty accurate. As for relationships...

You are a RSIG--Reserved Sentimental Intellectual Giver. This makes you a People-Pleaser.

Oh, RSIG! You are the most complicated and dynamic of any type. You are brilliant, tender, romantic and a joy to be with. You're the favorite of many of your friends. It's just not a party until you get there. You are bursting with feeling and sentiment and insight but you very rarely express it -- it's not how you want to present yourself to the world. Although you are always studying your non-romantic relationships -- you turn a blind eye to romantic relationships.

You're highly adaptable, and you conform to your circumstances. You would probably be content with almost anyone, and almost anyone would be blissfully happy to have you. But just because you're content doesn't mean you're happy. Don't settle!

You cry at movies. A lot.

Of the 215535 people who have taken this quiz, 5.6 % are this type.



I wouldn't say I cry at movies a lot. I'm still under the dictates of a decade-old bet saying that if I ever cry at a movie, I owe my sister $100.

No wonder you wanted me to see "Finding Neverland," Mimi. I feel like I should send you a few bucks just because I came so close.

After walking to Best Buy this afternoon, I now own the widescreen edition.

Oh, yes, I promised SarahMcM that I would post this link to her blog to help support DrC in her hopes to participate in the 3-Day walk for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

And please be praying for one of my friends... I don't know exactly what's going on with him - and what I have heard, I probably shouldn't share - but it seems he could very much use some prayer right now. Thanks.