Tim's Going Away Party

I just got back from Tim's going away party in Raleigh. It was real nice dinner at a fancy little pizza place. 20+ of his friends showed up and we sat and talked and ate pizza for a few hours. All in all it was a nice going away party and it was good to see Tim again before he leaves. I took a few pictures but for some reason I didn't get one with me and him so here's one with him and two of his friends.

-Allen-

Kayaking

I finally went kayaking today after many months of no kayaking. There is a little lake not far from me that's pretty nice so that's where I go if I just wanna relax. Since its been warming up alnot lately there were a ton of snapping turtles resting on broken trees, so it was a pretty cool little trip. The only downside to it all is the fact that my arms are sun burnt pretty bad, but I'll get over it. I would attach some pictures of the turtles, but I couldn't get a good picture with my phone, so at some point this week I'll bring my camera and get some nice pictures. For now I'll just put in a picture of my glorious kayak.

-Allen-

Script

So I've decided to start a script so I have something to do when I get home. Right now I'm just brainstorming and throwing out random ideas to what I can write about so I figured I'd see if you guys had some input on which idea you like or completely new ideas for that matter. Here's what I have so far.

1. My life – self explanatory.
2. Gum – follow a piece of gum that gets stuck on random peoples shoes. Each person has their own interesting story.
3. Phones – one man’s/woman’s inability to live without a cell phone for a day.
4. Boy meets girl – the classic tale of two people meeting and falling in love.

I'm aiming for something comedic but that also has the ability to have some serious and "moving" moments. I think my main tool for making the moment serious and moving will be music, so theres another thing I have to think about. Any input would be appreciated.

-Allen-

The Interwebs

I finally buckled and got some internet going. I went to Radio Shack and bought an Acer Aspire One. Its a little mini computer basically. It's a pretty low end computer and pretty much just made for internet. It runs off of 3G and so far its pretty good. It gets connection pretty much everywhere my phone does, so close to everywhere. The computer itself costs around $200, but they were having a sale or something, so I got it for $79.99. Expect alot more updates from here on out. Take care!

-Allen-

Modest Mouse

For those who don't know, Modest Mouse is my favorite band of all time. They are an Indie Rock band from Seattle. In my opinion they are the greatest band to ever grace this earth and on Tuesday March 10th I saw them live at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, NC. It was the first time I'd seen them and I had been wanting to see them since my Junior year of High School. I realize that this story isn't too appealing to most people reading it, but lately I have realized that I am obsessed with this band, or maybe just obsessed with Isaac Brock, the lead singer and founder of the band. He is, and I have no problem saying this, a genius. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not obsessed in the same way as Mark David Chapman was obsessed with John Lennon, so don't worry. Consider the last few lines a side bar, basically I'm saying that since I'm obsessed with the band I feel like a have to write this. Anyways, back to the story. I left work early to drive the 3 hours to Myrtle which went nice and smooth and I got to the show with about 30 minutes to spare. I walked in giddy as a school girl and drooled all over the band merchandise. I bought a sweet t-shirt and a little booklet with pictures of the band and little quotes in it all together costing me $20. I was sick that week so I got a bottle of water and made my way to the floor. I stayed in the back so my sick little self wouldn't have to deal with all the pushing and shoving at the front. There were two opening bands, one who's name I can't remember and the other was Mimicking Birds. Mimicking Birds were really good. The lead singer sounded great and the drummer was phenomenal. They got off and there was a 10 minute break before MM got on. In those 10 minutes the stage crew brought out several more guitars, a banjo, a cornet, a violin, a cello, a keyboard, and a few more I cant remember. There are 6 members of the band, two of which are on the drums. Which brings me to another point. The drummers of the band look almost identical and they play in a synchronised way which adds such an amazing feel to their show. Finally they announced the band and they came onstage while spotlights swept over the crowd. I was screaming and cheering so loud I thought my throat was going to bleed. They opened with an amazing song, Spitting Venom, which starts off slow and builds up into something comparable to the ending of the movie Snatch. At this point I was in Nirvana and the fact that I knew every word to every song made the show so much better. They finished and got off the stage and the crowd immediately started cheering for an encore. About 5 minutes later Isaac came out and started playing a song. He was joined by the rest of the band as the song progressed, which it did in an upward fashion. The way Isaac plays his guitar reminds me of a bear tearing apart a small animal. He wails on it and looks completely awesome. The last song they played was Fly Trapped in a Jar which was played like this. For the last line in the song Isaac lifts the guitar to his face and sings the lines into the guitar strings and the vibration made it sound really awesome. They finished off their set and I was left in a shocked and sweaty state. It was such an amazing show and I'm pretty upset at the fact that I had to work the day after which meant I didn't have time to stick around for autographs. The drive back was good though. It went very fast and I was in such a good mood. So there you have it, one of the greatest days of my life and definitively the best concert I've ever been too.

So Pleased With Ourselves

I understand that the title of this entry might have a subtly morose undertone to it, but i swear I'm a reasonably happy person, but today I witnessed something that completely and utterly blew me away. A fellow co-worker of mine attempted to write the word obnoxious. I don't exactly remember the sentence he was writing, but the point still stands. What I witnessed was something I never thought could be turned into something tangible, but lo and behold, there it was right in front of me in the form of a 22 year old man spelling the word obnoxious, "obnictious". The previously un-tangible thing I was speaking of is of course the undeniable decline of the American youth. Granted, I'm a 22 year old guy myself, but the "problem" is popping up more and more, this just happened to be a recent example. The fact that he wrote the word wrong isn't the only problem, it was the fact that he swore up and down that he in fact did spell it right. Then when proven wrong he said, "Well that's just a weird way of spelling it. That's like the only English word with an X in it." I think I know what went wrong too. Text messaging and online messengers (MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AOL). I'm not saying any of these things are bad, hell I use that stuff more than most. It's just the fact that kids are slowly starting to ignore what they learn in school and instead remember the way they say things online. It's starting to get ridiculous and I think we should start shock therapy on 3 year olds.