Kuk Sool or Fencing?

I have a choice before me: On one hand, I can take Kuk Sool, a martial art that seems to mix concepts of Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do, as well as a little influence from Chinese martial arts. The benefits of this would include being in much better shape and learning self-defense. The class meets four times a week, and I can show up at whichever ones I choose. The downside? The $90 a month fee, and the pain. D=

My other choice would be fencing. It's not nearly as physically strenuous or painful as Kuk Sool would be, but it would still give me some good physical exercise. Also, as a theater major, learning to fence could be an advantage in auditioning for Shakespeare's plays and the like. The cost is only $40 a month. However, they meet only twice a week. This can be a good or bad thing. I don't have time to make four classes a week with the martial art, but the two specific days fencing takes place on my occasionally mesh horribly with my schedule.

Further complicating things is my girlfriend. We had decided to do one of these together, but she was quickly discouraged from doing either. I really wanted this as something to do WITH her. =(

Alternate Blog

I decided to keep up a blog based on my TheJokezOnYou YouTube page. The URL is http://thejokezonyou.blogspot.com/ . Unless you're a diehard comic book fan, I'd honestly say that it's not really worth reading. In any case, it's just going to be in-character blogs for the Joker. There will be reviews of comic book-based films and news on such films (for instance, did you know that Sony is rebooting the Spider-Man franchise?).
In any case, I'm actually trying to find a way to take advantage of the hundreds of YouTube subscribers I have and find a way to make profit on it without breaking any copywrite laws. Thus, I've monetized the Joker blog I have. Hopefully, it will work to SOME degree. I still do it as a hobby, but just like theater, it's sometimes nice to get even the smallest of paychecks with a hobby.

Status with Classes

So far, I'm making either A's or B's in my classes. The exception to this is math lab. I have fallen behind on my work there. If I do not catch up, not only will that class period have been wasted, but my Math 0800 would as well. That's totally not a good thing. I just feel pressured to get perfect scores on everything due to a change in policy this semester. Pretty much, we now have to score 90-something percent on the homework assignments. Given that we can retake homework assignments indefinitely, one would think this would be no large deal. Unfortunately, it instead pressures me to constantly retake the homework assignments, and I don't move on as far as work goes.
Anyway, there's no room for excuses. I have to get it done. I'll just have to focus more on it than other things right now.

Religion in My Childhood

Growing up, it would constantly switch between a strict "You WILL go to church every time the doors are open" and a lazy "we don't feel like driving you there tonight". We were taught Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy, but I'm not entirely sure we ever -actually- thought the Easter Bunny was real.

I can't remember what age I was when I was told Santa Claus wasn't real, but my mother tells me I not only took it well, but had already figured it out. Oddly enough, however, I still believed in the tooth fairy for a very long time. This was probably due to my mother's clever ploy of sealing my tooth in an envelope. When I woke up, a dollar would instead be sealed in the "same" envelope instead, fooling my young mind into thinking it had been done by magic. I never once figured out that the darned tooth was never under my pillow to begin with. My mother had already switched envelopes long before the envelope was ever put in place.

I don't think I'll teach my children Santa Claus. There is just too much strife caused by the eventual "you lied to me!" rant that is very typical of the revelation scenario. However, I might just tell my kids about the tooth fairy. Why the tooth fairy and not Santa Claus? I'll tell you- bribes. That's right: even when I tell them the tooth fairy isn't real, they'll still be getting that dollar when they lose a tooth.

You can't complain about something like that when you're still getting a dollar just for growing up. ...Er, right?

Movie Night last night

So, my girlfriend and I decided to watch Disney's Hocus Pocus last night. After watching it for the first time in AGES, I came to the realization that the main characters really didn't matter. They were kind of boring and very typically written.
No, it was very obvious the Scriptwriters put all of their love into the Sanderson sisters- the antagonists of the story. And you know what? I like that. =) The witches are what made the movie fun. Yes, there was some fourth-wall breaking moments, but that made them even funnier. Better yet, it was a movie both my girlfriend and I really liked.
In any case, probably gonna be stuck watching "The Animal" next night we watch movies. I -might- convieniently have to study for something big that night.

Computers 'n' Stuff.

Well, I never really owned my own computer until I was 19, but I was definitely addicted to the internet by age 16. If I could use someone's computer to get online, I would. The website I would go to most would be an anime/ video game website called "Animeglobe.com", which had a chatroom and a forum. I grew out of that site around the time I got my computer.
After that, I began using computers purely as entertainment. Whenever I got out of final formation ( I was still in the army at that point), I would head to my room and immediatley get on my PC. My interests then including online role playing, Doom 3, and Guild Wars (the later two being PC games).
I've become rather computer literate due to role-playing and constantly having to fix the "oopsies" I've done to my computer over the years. My family, of course, thinks "computer literate" means "computer genius" and expect me to be able to do anything with them.

Now, I've started mixing business with pleasure when it comes to computers. Some of my hobbies include in-character video logs on YouTube, and voice acting for animations made by others (also on YouTube). This requires skill in media-editing software such as Audacity and Movie Maker. Although these are hobbies, the reason I consider this partially business is due to the fact that it helps me practice my acting skills. Those will need some serious work if I am ever to succeed with a Theater-oriented major.

If my internet went out, I would usually be fine under the circumstances that I've already printed out all of my assignments, and that the outage didn't last more than a few days. I don't have a printer, so I usually do my assignments on my computer, then move to the computer lab to print them out.

Movies

I bet that title got Ms. Simms' attention.

I was right, wasn't I? Huh? Huh? Yyyyeah, I knew it.
Unless I was wrong. Then I just feel silly.

In any case, I have quite a few movies I've yet to watch. Nicole and I have been bargain-bin movie shopping over the last month or two, so I'm trying to decide which ones I should watch. I've seen many of them, even if it was a long time ago, but there are a few I haven't seen. I'm trying to figure out which one to watch next time I have a chance to. Here are my options.
-The Animal (The Rob Schnieder film... THAT was Nicole's choice. -.- Not a big adult comedy fan.)
-Some other Rob Schnieder film. Also Nicole's choice.
-Dawn of the Dead... the original oldschool Romero film.
-Diary of the Dead ( I like zombies. D= I bet Nicole hates it as much as I dislike her Rob Schnieder stuff, which is understandable.)
-Nightmare Before Christmas
-Hocus Pocus

I know most of these aren't exactly the shining example of what a film should be, but it's the ones I have that I have yet to watch recently. Thus, it shouldn't be a very hard choice to make. However, if I actually find the time to dedicate an hour and a half to sitting in front of a TV watching something, I want it to be time I won't have regretted spending.

Summer?

I don't even want to think of summer, yet. The only place I can really go when I leave the dorms is my mother's trailer. People think college is stressful? Ha! One of my primary reasons for going to college was to get the hell out of there.
The trailer leaks horribly. The doors are practically falling off their hinges. The bathroom sink barely functions. There's no heat during the winter, and no air conditioning during the summer. Worst of all, my mother won't let me bring someone in to fix it all for her! She's "embarassed" for anyone to see how she lives.
Then there's my mother herself. I recently called her, asking if she would like to go out to eat with me- my treat. Her response was screaming her head off for calling her while she was driving ( because I TOTALLY knew she was driving). Imagine living with someone who goes off screaming for such little things. While I lived there, I practically remained cramped up in my little room so I wouldn't bump into her and make her start screaming like a two year old over whatever random thing I did wrong THAT time.

I don't know what I'm going to do over the summer. If I get an apartment, I won't be able to afford moving back into the dorms in the fall. My best bet is probably to ask some friends if I can stay with them, then pay whatever rent I can afford without draining the money I've started saving for dorms next semester. I also need to find a job for the summer. Ha, yay, I get to compete with high schoolers looking for ways to pay for entertainment through the summer.
Okay, so maybe I'm being more of a sarcastic pessimist instead of a sarcastic optimist today. Just thinking of moving back into that trailer gets me into a heavy negative mood. Anyway, leacture is starting, so I gotta go.

Spring Break

Okay, okay. Since I slept through my alarm on Monday and didn't make it to class, I figure I'll try to take a guess at what Ms. Simms wanted us to write about in our blog for Monday. My guess is what we did on spring break.
At first, I'd say I did a whole lot of nothing, but that's not entirely true. I found out a friend of mine teaches fencing at the Montgomery armory, so I dragged my girlfriend to try it out with me. It was pretty fun, but I don't think Nicole seemed to interested in it. It's kind of a drag... we're looking for a fun activity to do together that would give the two of us exercise and get us out of the house. We considered martial arts first. We both agreed that we didn't want Tae Kwon Do, but she wasn't satisfied with one of the few decent dojos here that taught something other than that. When we tried fencing, it was the same thing. She wasn't happy, and since I'm looking for something to do with her, it feels pointless to do it if she's not happy with it.
We bought a lot of movies from Movie Gallery when we found out many of the local stores were closing. We had hoped to find some major Disney classics, but no luck. Guess I'll have to try ebay if I want Lion King, Aladin, and Beauty and the Beast. Ended up picking up Land Before Time, Hocus Pocus, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Saw VI.
I took Nicole out on a few dates, which was nice, and we watched some of the movies we bought. Other than that, time was spent trying to contact people for the Profile assignment interview (you have NO idea how many people I went through til I found one!), playing a couple video games, and sleeping the days away. I didn't really feel like being awake, for the most part, especially after the idea of taking fencing with Nicole was shot down.
Don't get me wrong- she's not lazy. In fact, both martial arts and fencing were mostly her idea. However, she doesn't like spending money, and once she sees how much something costs, she doesn't care much for it anymore. It's totally understandable, and I know it's good to be conservative with money, but I just... need to get out and do something.
Meh. This blog article isn't anything like it's supposed to be. That's what I get for typing while tired. NIGHT!

Out of the loop?

I feel like the flow of information isn't trickling down to me, no matter how hard I reach to take a sip of it.
For the fifth time this semester, I went to one of my classes, only to find it either rescheduled or canceled- I still don't know which. For most courses, this would be no major deal, and, in fact, a break. However, attendance in this class is semi-optional, and you are graded based on how many hours you spend in the course. I cannot get these required hours if I am continuously left out of the loop. Most school days, I have another class during the available hours of this course, so I have to use my time well and schedule things in a way to get there when I can. This is difficult to do when hours are suddenly changed or it is canceled without me knowing.
Further more, there have been some specific opportunities for those to become further involved with AUM activities dealing with my major. Know how I eventually found out about those activities? I stumbled into a group doing them during what I THOUGHT was supposed to be hours set aside for the fore-mentioned course that constantly eludes my grasp and my schedule.
In any case, I think I'm getting depressed and discouraged. I am sleeping much more than normal, and I sleep right through alarm clocks and, even worse, a fire alarm during a drill. Last semester I had apparently developed the habit of sleep-walking (much to the humor of friends that would find me doing so), but that was due to a lack of sleep.
I keep putting off the fact that I think I need to see the counselor at AUM. I need to get that done... I swear, it's SOMEWHERE on my To Do list. Along with wash the dishes, do laundry, and reading.

Carpet Cleaning, Presentation, and Employee Happiness.

I've been a carpet cleaner for both [large well-known carpet cleaning company, henceforth labeled "Company A"] and [small local carpet cleaning service, henceforth labeled "Company B"]. It's an interesting experience, and I actually learned a thing or two about business and presentation between those two. Company A treats their employees very well, at the expense of treating the customer like nothing but a paycheck. Uniforms were new, vans were clean and shiny, and equipment was well-tended.
However, I noticed that very often, the equipment just didn't get the carpets very clean. Despite this, the customers smiled and often tipped us. I could never figure out why they acted like we had done an excellent job until I worked for Company B.
At Company B, we were given uniforms that were old and occasionally had holes in them. The vans were drove were old and dented, and our equipment was decades old. The employees were treated horribly in comparison to Company A, and we were enforced with a "Customer is always right" business style. This showed. Instead of the two smiling carpet cleaners with bright new uniforms greeting a customer at their door, there would be one guy in a ratty uniform forcing a smile at best. Behind him would be the carpet cleaning van, engine sputtering and smoke coming from the tail pipe. ( I would like to point out that this was due to the manager, not the owner of the company.)
The owner of Company B knew what he was doing as far as chemicals went. Company B was able to get carpets much cleaner than Company A, with half the manpower and in less time, while charging half the price. However, customers were always grumpy and never seemed satisfied with the job, no matter how good it was. It made me realize that people apparently are more impressed with presentation than the quality of work they receive, and their perception of presentation affects their perception of the job itself. It also made me realize that a company that focuses treating the employees well is more likely going to succeed. A happy employee will be more inclined to greet a customer cheerfully and treat them well. Meanwhile, a company that focuses only on the customer while ignoring an employee's needs is counter-productive. It is the employee that interacts with the customer, and if the employee is not happy, it shows.

URRRGGGGHHH.

My mom. Broke. My car.
Don't ask me how, but within 24 hours of letting her borrow the vehicle, she messed up my car. MY vehicle started fine beforehand, but she's somehow ruined the starter. How do you mess up a starter?
Well, I know how: continue to excessively attempt to turn the key when it won't crank. She said that the battery cables had come slightly loose, so my guess is that she couldn't start the car, cranked the [explicit deleted] out of it, THEN finally looked under the hood after she had already screwed it up. She does things like that.

In the meantime, I'm relying on my girlfriend to get around, which bugs me. It doesn't bother me that I'm dependent on her in a fragile-ego-kind-of-way, but more in a "I don't want her to be inconvenienced the way my mother is inconveniencing me" way.

I just can't help my mom anymore. She's hopeless. She refuses to change her ways, and expects me to bail her out every time. I'm tired, and it's dragging me back into the hole I've been working so hard to get out of.

Auditions

Over the weekend, I auditioned for a local indie film, "Life-Like Movie". I think I did well in the auditions, and I feel confident I've gotten at least some part, if not a major role.
It was a little different than auditions I've been to, and felt more like an interview. Rather than keep all questions related to the auditions, I was asked about myself, and what sort of movies I like.
Unprepared for those things, I stammered a bit at first, but warmed up to it quickly. I mentioned "Stir of Echoes" as the type of movie I like- not in genre, but in style. It's a very plot-heavy movie with little action and more subtle hints towards what is going on.
In any case, I hope I can get a part- another film would look good on my resume.

Reading rewards?

I believe rewarding younger students for reading is a great idea. While some would argue that it merely rewards them for something they should do anyway, I believe this reflects the adult world well. Is it not true that those that excel in their given tasks are often given better rewards such as pay raises job and promotions? By giving the children something to look forward to, it gives an idea of short term goal-setting. While reading and doing well in classes may have long-term rewards (better grades in high school due to greater prior underestanding, college scolarships, etc.), it is likely that a 3rd grader is not yet thinking seriously of these things.
Furthermore, reading regularly for the sake of getting good grades could get a child mocked by their peers. While it is frustrating to admit that this may influence a child's decision to do well, it is a factor nonetheless. However, giving rewards may give peer pressure a more positive direction. For instance, a pizza party for the class that scores the most in an Accelerated Reader-like program would instead enforce a positive view of those that like to read.

Mild Frustration

Yesterday, BOTH of my mother's vehicles had trouble. One's fuel tank busted, while the other began over-heating.
I love my mom. She's done a lot for me. But I'm sure you can feel my frustration when I was guilt-tripped into lending her my car for a week, as well as give her $500 for repairs. I get the feeling that no matter how hard I try,I be in the same place financially as I started out as long as I am constantly taking care of my mother. She needs to learn to save money and stop eating out, just like I've had to learn over the past year. The entire reason I was able to help her is because I've learned better money management skills, but those management skills won't help if she keeps borrowing money from me.
Even worse, she becomes severely hostile and defensive if I offer to help her help herself- for instance, tell her how she could improve her finances. She lives in a broken-down trailer with a leaking roof and appliances that don't work. However, when I suggest having a friend of mine come over and teach the two of us how to fix things, she becomes angry at the idea. She is "embarrassed" to have someone see her living conditions, but she will STAY in those miserable conditions until she lets go of her pride.
I think I'm finished helping her. She doesn't help herself, so why should I?

Wal-Mart TLE

So, for the third time in a row, I have gone to Wal-Mart Tire Lube & Express to get my oil changed and tires rotated, and three times in a row I have ended up with a hubcap that would not stay on afterward. Even worse- and I WISH I were exaggerating- it took three hours for them to finish. There were two vehicles in front of me, and one of the two was already being worked on. Now, I understand that Wal-Mart is legally inclined to provide a certain number of breaks for their employees. That still doesn't justify the long wait. Next time, I will just pay the extra ten dollars and take my business elsewhere.

Protest!! D=

I just looked at the review for my textual analysis paper, and you know what!? "Plethora" is a perfectly acceptable word! It's one of my favorite words, and I like using it!!
Okay, I'm being a little silly now. I'm actually surprised I'm making A's in this class. I'm usually a B student. It's nice to see that years of being a bored geek on the internet has attributed towards halfway-decent writing skills. Oh, and then there's that whole "learning better writing in college" thing, but that totally doesn't count.

Edit after having left class: And I can mispronounce "plethora" all I want, too!! D=

Guess I need to sleep better

Last semester, I had a slight... problem. I had classes in the morning, rehearsal in the evening, and work at night. This, of course, meant I was only getting a couple hours of sleep a day. While it was alarming, it was no conceptual surprise when I was woken up on two occasions by friends as I wandered the halls of school. Through sleep deprivation, I had developed the habit of sleep walking.
I thought that by quitting my job and getting more sleep, this problem would just vanish. Unfortunately, I learned yesterday that one of my friends found me sleep walking again last week. Even more alarming, she was not actually able to wake me up, this time.
So far, I don't appear to have been in harm's way. However, the fact that I'm still doing it after I thought my sleeping habits had improved is probably a bad thing, and I can eventually end up somewhere that could put my health at risk. Perhaps quitting my night job threw my sleep schedule off, and now my body is compensating for the change. Either way, it tends to happen when I fall asleep in class. This isn't often (...anymore), but perhaps I should start drinking small amounts of caffeine during the day until I get used to sleeping at night.

Halo

No, not the best-selling (and highly over-rated... not bad, just over-rated) video game.

Halo is a play intended as a Black History Month story of four black soldiers tasked to protect Jewish refugees after Allied Forces had driven the Germans from France. Unfortunately, scheduling problems prevented us from performing during February. Due to its delay to the 12th of March, I guess one could no longer call it a Black History Month play. However, its message can still be strongly delivered.

The central story of the play revolves around SGT Mills of the U.S. Army, and his black platoon. The platoon has been given an undesired assignment as punishment for an incident caused by one of their members. The assignment consists of guarding a large group of Jewish refugees in an area that was supposedly devoid of enemy contact for several days.

The platoon, consisting of Mills, Wade, Johnson, and Percy, are assigned under the openly racist Lieutenant R. Cornknocks. Further adding to conflict, Percy is heavily disdainful towards the assignment, and is being just as discriminating towards the Jewish refugees as their lieutenant is to them.

The play explores comparisons between segregation laws in the U.S. and the laws holding Jews down under the rule of Hitler. While historically inaccurate, the play covers ideas I've never heard discussed before, and I believe it is worth a watch.

If anyone is interested, ask me about tickets.
March 12
7:30 PM
Davis Theater in downtown Montgomery
Ticket prices: $12 for single, $10 each for groups of two or more.

Vacation

I've never had any vacation that came out any different than any other vacation. To me, summer was just a time in which I had to struggle to find things to do that didn't cost any money. Usually, this meant playing video games my grandmother had bought from my Uncle Jerry (who had a habit of buying things he could not afford, then selling them to his own mother once he realized he couldn't afford to keep them anymore). Once I got out on my own, vacations consisted of being online during the day and sleeping at night.
If you've never had a very long time in which you had absolutely no schedule, I'll tell you what it ends up feeling like: one very boring, drawn-out, day. The days and nights blur into one another, since time really seems to lose its meaning. You sleep when you're tired, eat when you're hungry, and it feels like there's no cycle. I guess I do need a schedule to remain sane.


Because of this, I've never really considered what a really good vacation would be. I guess, go to Disneyland or something? ...Or is it Disney World? Which one is it in the southeast? Anyway, I've been to Six Flags a couple times, but it was usually church-sponsored.
Of course, Disney Land might actually depress me. I want to be a voice actor for Disney animations, and that's a one in a million shot. I'd also like to be one of the street performers you always see in photographs, imitating Disney characters next to rides. That, however, requires you to actually LOOK like the characters. I'm too short for anyone other than Peter Pan, and even if I were to dye my hair blond, I don't think I'd look close enough to the character.

I'm getting horribly off-topic here. I guess what I'd really like most for a vacation is to spend it with someone I care for, making strong and magical memories.