My College Life Pt. 1

You guessed it. Yesterday marked the first day of my exciting college career as I packed my life into my dad's Jeep and made the two hour trip up to my favorite state university. And contrary to what the image above might suggest, I've actually found my college experience so far to be fairly enjoyable. My room turned out to be a bit larger than I thought it would be, by roommate Hank is neither a psychopath or a recluse, but instead is a really smart and fun guy, and I've yet to suffer alcohol poisoning. But Andrew, you might say, isn't it a bit early to be making these conclusions? Yes, I suppose, none of the things above may remain true for very long, but for the time being they are and I'm enjoying it.

My IMAX Experience

As my summer winds down, a startling fact has made itself evident: my employment at the aquarium is close to over. In two weeks I will pack my life into a variety of brightly colored bags and embark upon the next step of my collegiate experience. While this job has provided its share of stress, it has also helped me to figure out some things about myself. Some examples include:

1) Dealing with people is easier when you don't have to deal with like 10 billion of them.
2) Chaperones are utterly incompetent. It's just their nature.
3) When dealing with money, its best to feel absolutely paranoid and insecure at all times, to save yourself the trouble at the end of the day.

However, I think amongst all of the things I learned, one stands above all the rest:

Call of Duty 4 is a hella fun on IMAX.

That's right folks, yours truly got the chance to battle it out in an epic showdown with four of his compatriots after work one quiet Wednesday a week ago. This experience was without a doubt, the most awe-inspiring thing I have seen since the Grand Canyon (and even that seemed to lack something in the masculinity department). The person who got all of this started was our fun loving projectionist Dave who, between sky diving trips, managed to convince the aquarium administration to let him hook up an Xbox 360 to the smaller projector in the IMAX theater. When I say smaller, I mean in the sense that it does not fill up the entire screen. Rest assured however, that when I calculated the square footage of the screen we were playing on, I found it to be comfortably larger than, say, any of the Baltic states.

A minor problem with this setup is that the game is also wired through the theater's 10 channel sound system that sounds as if its powered by that big glowy thing that Han Solo blew up inside the Death Star in Return of the Jedi. However, and I think any guy between the ages of 12 and 30 will agree with me, punctured ear drums is a small price to pay for such an ridiculously fun experience.

We hope to play again this week, maybe I can get some video. Updates to come.

Prelude

I'm aware of the lack of updates to this blog this summer, and while I might try to explain them away by citing my increased work schedule or college preparation, the only real reason I can think of is a distinct lack of creative will. I've had plenty of inspiration, perhaps even more so than I experienced during the school year. Everyday at work, or on the train commuting to and from work, I have been witness to some of the most astounding examples of humanity. I mean that in the least profoundly stereotypical sense. I mean real people, people who I otherwise would have looked right through. Sitting on the 8:29 local train to New York every morning has forced me to take into consideration the people around me, if even on the most superfluous of levels. When I'm not lost in a book, or attempting to shake of the wispy fog of sleep, I have found creative refuge in the people around me, forcing my imagination to make the time pass. It's shown me that, despite what I may have thought, it's been awhile since I have really used my imagination that way. I'm talking about the old school, looking-at-people-and-inventing-their-life-stories-in-your-mind kind of way. And it's captivating, and darkly comic; providing what would normally be considered prime material with which to write about. So why haven't I taken such great inspiration and transposed it here?

I suppose the answer to that question would be found in the same place I'd find the answer to a lot of questions I've been asking myself lately, like: Why am I not as prone to argument anymore? Why am I not as sarcastic as I used to be? And, perhaps most disturbing: When was the last time I had a really good conversation?

Sitting here and thinking about those questions has provide me with a jolt of sorts, awaking in me a refreshed need to express myself.

Memoirs of a Human Looking at the Sky Pt. 2

When the boy woke up the following morning, the first thing he did was pull on a pair of pants, pull the medal out from underneath his pillow where he hid it last night, and drop it deep into his pocket. He thought for a second. The ninjas hadn’t snuck in last night and stolen his medal. He fished it out of his pocket and studied it. It looked real; it’s sleek silver finish reflecting the yellow early morning light. The child ruled out the possibility that they had replaced the medal with a duplicate. In fact, he was beginning to doubt that he had seen any ninjas last night at all. He returned the medal to his pocket, ate breakfast, got his drawing pad, and left for the hill.

School had let out a while ago, and it was an exceptionally beautiful summer. By far the most beautiful the boy and ever seen. Although he was young, he was not too young to appreciate the golden sun, radiant warmth, and the blue sky. The sky was what interested this boy the most, and he spent a lot of his time each day fascinated by it. When he got to the hill, he smiled. There was no one else around. The hill was secluded, separated from the park by a stretch of tall, thick pine trees. The hill overlooked the river, a wide powerful current, which separated the land that the boy was familiar with, from the Beyond.

The Beyond had always fascinated the boy. He had flown over it in large planes with his family. He knew that other people lived in the Beyond. In fact, the Beyond had an actual name, the boy just chose to think of it the way he thought of it. The Beyond was fairly vast, a huge expanse of hills and valleys. Smatters of forest spread throughout the Beyond, and in the far distance lay the Mountains. They were grand jagged peaks of dark rock. At their base giant forest of trees covered the ground, however at this distance it just looked like smudges of green. At their peaks, snow gave the allusion of a white blanket covering the ground.

He loved the Beyond, he loved the Mountains, but, as I explained earlier, he loved the sky the most. Blue beyond comprehension, it baffled the child. Looking at it on a cloudless day it almost seemed like an optical illusion. It seemed two-dimensional as if a giant can of impossibly blue paint had been spilled across an expanse of paper. However, when clouds dotted the sky, there was no mistaking the depth of it. It seemed to go on forever, a vast expanse of blue. The clouds were enormous, humongous and white. They curved in and out, stretched thin in some places, and bunched up as thick as a mountain in other places. The boy’s father has explained to him the nature of clouds. How they are formed, and the different types. The boy’s first plane ride had been a bit of a killjoy. Despite the obvious excitement of being in a flying piece of metal, the boy was disappointed to see that the sky was still above you, and that when you flew through a cloud, you could hardly notice the thin wisps of fog comprising it.

However, the boy had long since decided that above where the planes flew lay the sky as he observed it. A great expanse of blue with giant mountains of clouds. An endless expanse.

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>I read your book, Mr. Shwang.
>You did?
>Yes. Dreams of Our World, Our Perspective, Our Fellow Humans, and Our Imagination.
>How did you like the section on tax evasion?
>I found it enjoyable and quite insightful. However, that wasn’t the section that interested me the most.
>Took me months of research.
>What?
>The section on tax evasion.
>Oh yes. Listen, I was more interested in the section you wrote on the creative development of children. How children learnt to see the world.
>Yes?
>Well, a recent series of events in the government has led to the creation of a sub-division inside of the SAFE. It’s called the DCC, or Department of Creative Control.
>Okay…
>Although I’m technically a secret agent, I think it’s right to be truthful with people, so I’m going to be frank with you. The purpose of the DCC is to attempt to control the creative processes of our nation’s children in hopes of making all of our citizens obedient and law abiding, whilst at the same time repressing any notion of individuality to create a conformist streamlined population of human drones.
>Sounds good.
>Wait, what? You’re okay with this plan? Most people object completely.
>Sounds okay to me. Law abiding, obedient citizens. Sounds like a swell plan.
>Oh…okay. Okay then. Great! Fantastic! I’m so glad that you’re okay with it.
>Where do I come in?
>Well, this is where we need you…
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