Axis' Blog - June, 2004

Sunday, 6-27-04. Perpetually sunny and hot
My friend Justin and I saw the new Michael Moore flick today, Fahrenheit 9/11. I don't think it's as good a piece of cinema as his previous work, Bowling for Columbine, but it's still up there. I recommend it highly, though I feel compelled to warn folks that it's certainly not for the gore-phobic or emotionally squeamish.

I crated my long-dormant Peavey Transtube half-stack over to Justin's place after the movie, and we jammed for a bit on a wide variety of music. A rather nasty lingering headache crept over me later on, so I came home and took a nap for about 4 hours. Unfortunately, the nap didn't seem to help. In other news, tomorrow is the 90th anniversary of the event that essentially triggered the start of the first world war.

German word of the day: Geschirrspülmaschine (f) - Dishwasher
Saturday, 6-26-04. Perpetually sunny and hot
Today, the excessive clutter that has been accumulating in my apartment for the last 9 months finally became too much to bear. I spent most of the day vacuuming and dusting my place, going through old boxes of crap, and reorganizing numerous piles of old mail and miscellaneous paper items to deal with later. After sitting in my living room since I finished my folks' TV cabinet last month, my tools were finally put away. I can actually see carpet in my living room now, and it is a beautiful thing. Part of the mission also included going through a box of old music and guitar-oriented magazines from the mid to late-1990's. Out of about 20 of them, I kept 2.

Justin and I tried to see Fahrenheit 9/11 tonight, but it was sold out. We got tickets for a showing tomorrow, however. Then, to occupy our time for the rest of the evening, we rented one of the most bizarre movies I've ever seen, Mulholland Drive.

NASA has some pretty neat missons going on right now. Be sure to check out the movies.

German word of the day: Kolportage (f) - Trashy
Wednesday, 6-23-04. Perpetually sunny and warm
I feel like writing.

What has this day brought forth? Unfortunately, not much. My job search hasn't been going as well as I'd hoped, and it's coming down to the wire as far as my savings goes. It's ok though, because I have a deadly spider living in the frame of my front door.

In other news, I made a batch of my world-famous cookies last night. If that wasn't exciting enough, I put in a fresh pair of contacts today, as I've been wearing glasses for a few days. Tonight was fun though, as I joined my friend Justin and his brother in an extended game of Trump, then watched one of my favorite movies, The Professional.

Upon thinking of favorite movies, the 1984 version of George Orwell's "1984" came into mind. The scenes where John Hurt and Suzanna Hamilton lay in bed together smoking seemed to stick out in particular. I'd always imagined that's how death feels. Quiet moments surrounded with the decay of yesteryear, just sitting around waiting for a green field somewhere. It's sort of an endless, helpless feeling... like being a child. It's beautiful, but so horribly depressing.

I found this humorous.

German word of the day: Schminke (f) - Makeup, cosmetics
Monday, 6-21-04. Perpetually sunny and hot
Today was the longest day of the year, both literally and somewhat figuratively, in my case. In effect, it began last night, as I felt the whimsical need just before midnight to go out and pick up some ice cream. I'd just changed into some clean shorts (soup had been spilled on my other pair earlier in the day) and, just as I locked and shut my front door behind me, I realized I hadn't grabbed my keys out of the pile of pocket contents I'd left on my bedroom floor. For those that would like to know the rest, I wrote the whole story here.

I rented Slaughterhouse 5 tonight. I'm not sure why, as I've seen it many times. It ended up not seeming like the best choice, as the wide variety of subject matter ended up forcing me to bring to light countless thoughts on life and death that I presently do not enjoy lamenting over. Afterwards, I tried to sit down and write about Meenee, as I've been meaning to for some time. Unfortunately, it didn't go so well. This is going to take some time, I'm afraid.

German word of the day: Müll (m) - Garbage
Saturday, 6-19-04. Perpetually sunny and hot
I drove down to visit my folks for lunch today, as they will be leaving for an extended vacation early tomorrow afternoon, and I wanted to see them off before they went. There was a ballgame, so the parking garage I usually park in was overcharging, and they also had re-routed the entrance to the upper levels. The elevators were out of order for some reason, so I was left wandering around trying to find the stairs. I kid you not, but after opening a half dozen plain, nondescript white doors, and making endless turns into empty, white hallways, I finally found some sort of cramped emergency stairs. I felt like I was in a parking garage version of Cube. If that wasn't bad enough, on the way back to my truck, the door to those stairs was locked from the sidewalk outside. This left me on a mad search for any sort of way to the upper levels, which eventually ended in failure. I ended up just walking up all the levels of the garage where the cars drive.

My attempt to give myself a haircut also didn't go so well this evening, as my cheap shaver decided to finally kick the bucket mid-head-buzz. I may have to break down and get a real haircut tomorrow.

German word of the day: Falle (f) - Trap
Monday, 6-14-04. Perpetually sunny and hot
Summer semester started today, and in full-force. My drafting class is hardcore, 3.5 hours straight in the middle of the afternoon. It doesn't help that it's been in the upper 90's here lately, and that I'm still getting over my cold. It also doesn't help that the instructor isn't the best communicator in the world, as he doesn't put much emphasis on being an interesting speaker, nor does he convey exactly what an assignment is until half the class has done it wrong. It seems interesting, though, so we'll see. Maybe us students will band together and light some fires to spice things up, once we're not stressing over finishing 4-hour assignments in our 1 hour of lab time every day.

The job search is on hold until Thursday, as my initially harmless cold is now kicking my ass. In anticipation of my move in August, I've been trying to get rid of as much clutter and junk I never use as possible. This endeavor has met with mixed results, though I am making some progress. Anyone want to buy a Peavey slant-front cabinet and matching Transtube 100-watt head?

German word of the day: Ungeduld (f) - Impatience
Friday, 6-7-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
As a fitting gift of departure, I appear to have caught a cold from one of the students at work. As colds go, it seems fairly mild, however. Hopefully I'll be over it soon so I can start looking for work again. I went with Justin and his family to see the San Francisco Symphony this evening. They played two excellent pieces: From me Flows What You Call Time by Toru Takemitsu, and The Planets by Gustav Holst. The Canadian percussion ensemble Nexus performed as a part of the Takemitsu piece, and it was very interesting.

Legendary soul musician Ray Charles died Thursday. RIP, Ray (salute)

For the readers of my odd writings out there, I finally put up a new Here I Sit entry.

German word of the day: Krank - Sick
Thursday, 6-10-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
Justin and I finally broke out the Risk 2210 (2012? 2250?) last night. We got a couple turns in, then I came home and had 2 cups of some freshly-set grape jello.

My job ended today. It finished much as it began... wearing shorts on a sunny day, feeling sort of uneasy, then driving home alone. As I was careening down the now excessively familiar stretch of freeway south of town, it really struck me how much time and life had passed since I first reported for work on my birthday last year. Particularly, it struck me how brief my time at the high school really felt, as it seemed like I'd been there a couple months, at most. I've had brief jobs before, but never one that I really enjoyed as much as this one. It was quite a unique experience, and it tought me a lot about myself that I'd chosen to forget.

German word of the day: Köstlich - Delicious
Monday, 6-7-04. Perpetually sunny and warm.
I made my deadline. I nailed on the backing board and installed the doors for the TV cabinet late Friday evening, then delivered it safely to my folks' bedroom on Saturday afternoon. Photos can be found here. Now I might consider finishing that second decorative box I started over a year ago...

Sad news for Canadian hockey fans came tonight, as the Calgary Flames lost the final game in the Stanley Cup to Tampa Bay. I watched the game over at my native Canadian friend Justin's house, with his family and Briana in attendance. Unrelated to the game, I was randomly knocked sideways by a heavy bout of depression tonight, and I'm not sure why. I didn't get much sleep last night, so that probably didn't help.

Former president Ronald Reagan passed away on Saturday. I think he was a good person, a great leader, and he lived a full, interesting life. That aside, I do not support the vast majority of his administration's policies, particularly in regards to deregulation and the environment.

German word of the day: Niedergeschlagenheit (f) - Depression
Wednesday, 6-2-04. Perpetually sunny and hot.
Sleep hasn't been too kind to me lately, so I forced myself to wake up early today. This allowed me to finally take a healthy wad of items off my to-do list, items which have been growing proverbial cobwebs for some time.

The students received their yearbooks at work today, so we signed a few to help occupy our time. After work, I finally finished restoring the top to Justin's desk. It was apparently a day of accomplishment, as I also wiped the last coats of polyurethane on the TV cabinet tonight. I need to nail on the backing board and install the doors next. I'm trying to shoot for this Saturday as the finish and delivery date.

German word of the day: Schlaflosigkeit (f) - Insomnia
Tuesday, 6-1-04. Perpetually sunny and hot.
My work is beginning to be a bit of a contradiction in terms, as lately there hasn't been much for us to do. We took off early and dropped Briana off at her place, then I did some work on the TV cabinet I'm building for my folks. That was followed by a vigorous game of Risk, and then a quick chess match. I bought a flat of strawberries at the community market yesterday. I doubt I'll be able to finish all of them before they start rotting, but I'll give it a shot. I haven't been eating much fruit for a while, so it'll be a welcome change.

Who would've thought? Oh yes, my sarcasm is biting.

German word of the day: Schachbrett (n) - Chessboard
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