Sacred Harp!

I have renewed my obsession with Shape Note singing—it must be in my roots. If you want to hear some music that is incomparably passionate, manically enthusiastic, totally unrefined, raucous, poorly recorded, repetitive, and unabashedly white (No complaints now, I gave you fair warning!) while still managing to praise God, go here and click to hear some of the mp3s. If you want to reproduce this type of music yourself, go here. If you're interested in the history, visit this site. Shape note singing is an Appalachian tradition- the notes on the page are different shapes to help people learn to read music. It's generally out of tune (like bluegrass, which is from the same area), because the people singing it aren't trained musicians, and the intervals tend toward open fifths—a very medieval feature. Anyway, if that description doesn't sound interesting you probably won't like it. It sure is very enthusiastic, though.

Ready for another dream?

I dreamed that someone made us all (at UCU) some kind of orange drink for lunch and we were all drinking them through straws, trying to see how fast we could drink them, and at the same time trying to discover/climb some kind of mountain that was either in Greece or Essex (I was having trouble reading the map that for some reason was displayed in my head) and had some kind of shrine on/near it that was supposed to give us experience points. Meanwhile, Josh (Holly's brother) came over to see about delivering or filming some kind of claymation for which we were going to possibly use Ringo Starr as a voice actor. When Josh noticed that we had straws he wanted to have a battle with them (by rolling them up and popping them, then hitting each other). I wasn't too excited about that. Then I noticed that I had a TON of mail. And for some reason Coldplay was playing through the whole thing.

Let me know when you've had enough...

Dream Trend

Let's all jump on this bandwagon!

Last night I dreamed that I was asleep, and my sister came in the room and woke me up, and asked what I dreamed. I smiled because I had had a really awesome dream, and I knew that when I woke up I'd be able to put it in my blog and it would be way more awesome than everyone else's dreams. I had her type up my dream for me so I could copy it and paste it later into my blog. She laughed the whole time because my dream was so funny. Then she left and I realized that it was still pretty early, so I went back to sleep.

That's all I can remember about my dream. I had another one, too, and it was something about monocles (I blame that on my discovery of this jewel yesterday). I don't remember what, though.

Man that dream in my dream was funny, though.

Pretty basic, really

In case anyone ever has trouble with their 1980 Celica, try hooking these two things together. It worked wonders for ours.

In other news, read this story and the ones surrounding it.

I totally had a birthday.

Yesterday. All I can say is that all you people who missed out on eel pie missed out. Turns out Heather is The Master Eel Chef.

<--eel pie

There hasn't been anything of note lately

...UNTIL NOW!

Noteworthy enough to resort to capital letters, even! I got a phone number! Not a phone, or a cell phone, just a number. And I can answer it on my computer. It's an Olympia, WA number for some reason... I don't get that, but I'm not complaining. So if anyone's bored, here it is (against my better judgement): 1-360-516-1972. Don't no weirdos call, and don't call after 11 or so at night (my roomie likes his sleep), but you can even leave me voicemail if I don't answer. It's busy a lot, I can't call out, and sometimes the program crashes randomly, but I love it.

Also, if anyone has a service called FWD (free world dialup), my number on that is 519789

(edit: 30 seconds later)

This blog is a reflection of my soul: boring and stagnant. Don't expect any more than that or you'll be disappointed. Of course, you will be anyway... You should probably get used to it.

SPORTS FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004

The last week has been utter turmoil for me. As the election day draws close, bringing with it the threat of the responsibility that every American must bear or be subject to chronic haranguing ("You HAVE to care! It's your RIGHT!"), I have been exhausting the search capabilities of the Internet, trying to find just that one political quiz that will clarify the whole mess and reach through the ethers to miraculously inscribe upon my (hypothetical) bumper the name of the only candidate whom I may sanely support in the presidential race.

After an entire week of this relentless pursuit of elucidation, I was about to give up, beaten down by the seeming utter lack of suitable candidates for the presidency. I had been through all the parties; Republicans, Democrats, Turtles, Emperors all hopefully presented to me their unique ideologies, and all were turned away--found unsuitable for this reason or that. I argued for hour upon hour with the acolytes of each school and remained stolidly skeptical as to their understanding of the systems they endorsed.

It wasn't until the last, hollow claims of the "Barking Spider Resurgence Party" echoed away to silence in my mind that I heard the sweet voice that was to utterly convince me. "What in this country does everyone agree on?" It asked. "What does everybody love?"

Of course! How can anyone not like sports? What could be more un-American than rooting against Team Spirit? Who in their mind cannot but "pull for the Home Team"?

That is why I ask you now to join with me in voting for Sports in the upcoming election. With Sports at our nation's head, we cannot fail in any endeavor. Sports must win in all situations.

Go Sports!

No Truer Words

I came across a pearl of a poem in the ethers of the Internet today, and I had to share it with you all.

Watch these delicate sausages
Recall the moment their sweet juice rained hot on your tongue
I ache bitterly for this gift of meat
-Anonymous

I'm good for $25 mil...

Apparently word of my financial tightfistedness has finally spread. The ex-wife of President Mobutu just emailed me today, asking permission to transfer $25 million to my bank account so I could watch it for her for 5 years. She said they need to get it out of Africa where it will be safe. She said it was important, and she seemed so nice that as a token of my gratitude I invited her to join gmail.

I think we can all learn a lesson from this.

Seattle was still here

School's looking ok so far. Old English should be a hūt. I have an average of one class per day, though that will soon change when I add another Icelandic class to the schedule. I'm starting to worry hugely about grad school. I'm hoping to apply to Glasgow- but will they have me?!

Stay tuned!

My new baby

This is it. More to follow.



**Due to requests I have resized the image**

It is a lap steel guitar, by the way.

The Ultimate Sport (The Most Dangerous Game?)
I have invented Moose knife hunting. No license required in season. Who is with me?

I am getting tired of seeing nothing new

Every day I check to see if Joel has perhaps updated his blog. Who am I trying to kid?
I'm bored of looking at that sickening picture, so I find that I am forced to take the initiative once again and update for him.
Hm, I guess I see why he hasn't been writing lately; he hasn't really done a lot except for serving my needs. We went to Spokane yesterday, and a couple of weeks ago, he bought a lap steel guitar. I think that he had a quarter of a pear this morning and 2 slices of bacon. Oh, uh, he went to the local thrift store today where he purchased a really old speaker-deal with a pick-up-thingy that you hook up to your telephone so that "everyone in the room can listen". He kept shoving it in my face while i was reading. I used to do things to him like that all the time, oh wait, i still do.

Oh, and by the way, i think that Joel's campaign for me was very effective. The emperor of the U.S. even posted a comment in my blog! Thanks brother, you're such a nice kid!

Rallying the Troops

Hey guys,

How about helping a little sister in need? I know you all love reading my blog and leaving comments all the time, but I can't have all the attention. I'm writing this because it's serious. Could you all just read this blog and leave a comment or two? Just so she knows she's appreciated? I mean I don't blame all you guys for reading my blog all the time, too, but honestly, Shelley's pretty cool. And kind of funny. Sometimes. Check out the picture of her "swimming"-- I mean, that's adorable!

Thanks gang!

Your pal,

Joel

P.S. Can you beat that "hacking" she did on my blog with the password I gave her? She's a pistol!

SABOTAGE!

HA-HAh, Itotally just hacked into Joel's account! Um, so, what have I done today? Well, I got up at 5:30 and went to work where I packaged blueberries; yes, I finally got a job. I even got paid today--a whopping $35 for this week. My boss, Stan, overpayed me last week. Um, then I came home, and Joel was on the computer. Well, that's about it for me!
Oh, and I stole all of Joel's Chuck E. Cheese's tokens. HAHA

There's a long line of cars...

So I'm still composing my magnum opus to sum up my entire summer, but here's something to pass the time, those of you who are lonely. And bored. And amused by idiocy.

We're trying to come up with a line of automobiles to complete the offering of the company that makes the Food in Uzbekistan.

So far we have the following:

Food - Sedan (The Food SS is also available: Travel with the comfort of your
        very own ex-SS officer trapped in a cage under your seat!)
Tantrum - Sports Coupe
Transgressor - Sporty Sedan
Empanada - Pickup
Watusi - Wagon
Tendril - Amphicar? Motorcycle?
Cephalopod - Hybrid?
Nocturne - Convertible
Borgia - Deluxe Sedan
Piety - Economy Sedan

We still need a van name, and we're not stuck on the functions of the Tendril or the Cephalopod, though we're rather fond of the names.

Any feedback or further suggestions would be welcome.

---

Edit: We remembered today what the name of the SUV was! The Ragnarok.

I'm using up a whole post

...Just to say that, thanks to my friend Kenton, two more friends, Ethan and Eric now have blogs.

Maybe now Eric will actually have to put something in his...

And Ethan-- You get one free link from me.

Anybody know how many more posts I'm allowed for the month?

More to follow.

In light of recent comments...

I have decided to post.

¡Qué Monstruosidad!

Well, it's turned out nice again, hasn't it?

I just bought a genuine monstrosity from an estate sale. Kenton says so. I don't have time to say a lot - got to write my paper, but here are some genuine pictures of this genuine monstrosity which I acquired for a sum total of $5. As an added bonus - you can see our new rug!





Until next time!

Veni, vidi, volo in domum redire.
Well we had a big thing today- 18 mice all over our house, as a prank. We've caught or killed most of them and now we're trying to collect some without killing them because people want them as pets. My sister is taking two - she's naming them Cerberus and Geryon (after the giant who lowers Dante into the 8th circle of the Inferno). That reminded me of a t-shirt I liked when I saw it: Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditiones habes. It would fit her.

Anyway, we're thinking of releasing velociraptors in the girls' house (those who pranked us) as revenge. That or trouts. Pterodactyls would be too good for them.

We also went to the beach today. That was fun, unfortunately. K well that's enough for now.