Sudden Spring

Today feels like yesterday, and yesterday felt like Spring.  Whereas last week it was snowing and school was closed, this week it’s warm, windows are open, and the snow is gone.  What the fuck happened?  I suspect that the weather is going to be like this now.  No more transitions into seasons, just abrupt changes, and we’ll probably get more cold days again too.

I saw Watchmen on Friday, with Spiro and Justin.  Then we played D&D late into the night. That was awesome.

And I’ve been to get myself in decent enough shape somehow.  My first idea was to play Dance Dance Revolution, since that’s actually great exercise.  However, I heard from zefrank about one hundred push ups, and thought I’d give that a go.  Judging by my inital test, I can do maybe six good-form push-ups, putting me at rank 2.  Tomorrow I think I’ll start Week 1.  I also think I might have to re-do the initial test, though.  I think my room screwed me up.

Oh yes, yesterday was Daylight Savings time.  Spring forward!  Whoosh!

Philly Art Museum

Today, or technically yesterday, the AP Art students and the Art 3 students took a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  We did not see Cézanne.  I did, however, spend most of the day with a friend that I’ve never spent a day with before.  It was tons of fun.  At first we had to stick around with a tour group, but after that us students were allowed to wander around on our own.  We walked around looking at some awesome paintings and glass works and such; unfortunately I can’t remember names very well, so I can’t recite any artists, or link artists names to paintings.  But there were some remarkable things.  Then my friend and I got lost trying to find the contemporary/modern art.  She and I got even more lost when we realized that we were supposed to be at the cafeteria for lunch.

For neither of us was it a first-time visit.  I had gone a few times before–at least once before, years ago, taking enough from it to remember certain rooms.  She has been there more times, I think, and remembered more, I also think.

first half of day, with friend  >  second half of day, working at card shop

Later on in the afternoon, I had work.  That sucked, except for me getting a bunch of reading done.  A bunch, but not enough.

Demetri Martin = great mood pick-me-up

Hopefully we will have more fun in days to come.

Snow Monday

The last time I and my Dad decided to take me out to drive a bit, it snowed.  Finally the snow went away, and just when we make plans again: more snow.  I don’t mind very much.  As for a driver’s license, I can take it or leave it.  One of my friends is already learning how to drive, so he can drive us places.  Plus, living in the city, as I will when I go off to school, a car will just be inefficient.  Plus sinking money into insurance when I won’t even be using the car for that long?  Feh.  I just want a state ID, which, so I’m told, I can’t get when I have a learner’s permit.  If this thing expires again, screw it, I’m getting the ID.

But anyway, school was actually cancelled yesterday, something that our school is the last one to do.  Our school is weird.  And stupid.  And awful.  Most kids that go here would agree.  It’s not the worst, it’s just…like, an island.  But enough about that.  I had off yesterday, and of course, it was squanderin’ time!  After I stayed up until about 9:30 AM from Saturday to Sunday, then slept until maybe 3 or 4 in the afternoon, I needed to reset my schedule.  I did, waking up at around 1:00 PM, as is common for me when I don’t stay up until the sun rises.  But man, that time ignoring my bodily needs was productive.  I got shit done, mainly NPCs that are pivotal for this game of D&D I and my friends have going sort of.  We’ve only gotten off one session so far, but that’s just fine.  I still have to jam to get more done.

I’ve been wanting to make music and such lately.  My main problem is not being able to keep a tune in my head.  Aside from that it’s an inability to really play any instrument, but that wouldn’t be such a great obstacle had I some rememberance of original melodies and tunes.  Lyrics come well enough, though syncing that with the music itself is difficult.  It’s all hard.  God, why is creation SO DIFFICUUULT!!!!  I found this neat little thing called TinyPiano.  It basically turns your computer keyboard into a MIDI sound-playing keyboard.  I wish I had a good way to record the sounds it makes.  That would be a nice first step for me.

Straight Ahead

Last night I bought the Pennywise album Straight Ahead.  I was originally looking for an mp3 version of Land of the Free? but for some reason couldn’t find one on either iTunes or Amazon.com.  I wanted it since I particularly enjoy the song “Fuck Authority”, but I settled for an mp3 version of the album that was released just before it.  Amazon’s selection of Pennywise mp3s is shit, so I got it from iTunes.

As I was uploading the album onto my phone, the songs cut-off at around song 15 and stopped uploading.  I discovered shortly after that the problem was a lack of space on my phone’s memory card.  So, I deleted some stuff I don’t listen to, and ordered a new 8gb M2 memory card to replace the now-full 4gb one I have.  Doing this, and seeing that 8gb is apparently the largest size I can get of an m2, I know now that I will eventually upgrade to an iPod of a fairly large size.  I wonder how long it’ll take to fill up four more gigs.  Not that I’m anxious; I want as much use from my Walkman phone as I can get.  It’ll be interesting.

Game Mastering

I and my friends had our first real session of Dungeons & Dragons today.  I, as my name would suggest, am Dungeon Master, thus the one who creates and controls the game world in order to make the game playable in the first place.  The town I have more or less set up is called Harth.  We had a great time with the adventure, until we became pressed for time around 7:00, causing the game to become rushed and things to become far more heavily disorganized.  On top of that, I didn’t have any of the core rulebooks on-hand, and with no Internet connection at the time (though I had a laptop) no access to the online system reference documents.  Thus, some of the rules had to be fumbled around and improvised, as well as the animate mirror that I had attack them.  It all just makes me more determined to be prepared for next time.

We played at Spiro’s house, as seemed natural.  Not only in Spiro’s house, but in the basement, which is just classic for playing D&D.  This is the kind of group and game that we’ve dreamed of, or at least that I’ve dreamed of.  Playing with close friends whom I don’t have to struggle to get along with is really what I’ve wanted, with whom we can all make jokes and just have a great time.

Our next session is sure to be superior, since I’ll have all my shit together then.