I bet I know!
http://guywiththecoat.com/halloweencostume.html

You know what’s odd about Western compared to USC?

At USC, each class was like a little baby-step up from the last one. So in a theater class, they’d say on the first day “Welcome to class. Next time, bring in a monologue that you’d like to look at.” and the next class the teacher would look at what you picked, and the next class you might read it in front of the class, and the next class you might do it memorized.
But at Western, the first day of class went “Welcome to class. Next time, be ready to perform your monologues.”
Yowza!

So over the weekend I looked through my book of plays that I have for a different class, and found a good monologue that would have been fun to do, and it was quite humorous. But the thing is, this class is nicknamed “intermediate crying,” because the prof wants us to work on heart-wrenching things that make us reach into our deep inner pain and pull our hearts out of our chests and put salt on them. And this monologue didn’t do that.

So I went to the library Monday morning between classes, and looked through book after book until I found one that could be weepy and inner-painful, and checked out the book. That night I realized: Hey, I have to have this ready for performance at 9am tomorrow morning! And so I was up late going over it and over it until I decided that I was going to have to leave it to my subconscious to learn it in my sleep, because it was later than I should have been up, considering I had math at 8m, and I wanted to get up early so that I would get to the bus stop on time for the early bus, so in case it was full, I would have another bus to catch, unlike yesterday when I got there on time for the later bus, but it was full, and so I ended up being 20 minutes late.
So I went to bed, got up feeling extremely exhausted, took a shower, went to the bus, went to math, then went to theater class. In the ten minutes before class, I went over it and over it some more, and kept going over it in my head until it was my turn to perform.

I was feeling very shaky on it, and after the first line I blanked and forgot the second line. But then I went and checked the second line, and by some miracle I was able to get through the whole thing, and the performance was not completely terrible - woo hoo!

So that was my big stresser of the day. After that, the day went uphill (or downhill? whichever one means it got better). I went to the gym after that class for an hour, and then I hopped on the bus to Sehome Village (the shopping center closest to my apartment). There is a bus route called ‘Sehome Village,’ and that was the bus that I got on, because according to my bus guide, that one goes right to Sehome Village, rather than a block away.

The thing is, what you can’t tell on the bus guide map is that when it drops you off at Sehome Village, they drop you off BEHIND sehome village, which means that you have to walk all the way around the shopping center in order to get to an enterance. On the other hand, I now know where all the Sehome Village dumpsters are, so in case I feel like going dumpster diving, I know where to go.

I had to go to the store to pick up some shampoo, soap, and toothpaste (because I’m almost out). So at the store, I picked up three things of Crystal Light (so I’d have a variety of flavors to choose from), 8 packages of Ramen (because they were on sale 8 for a dollar), a box of instant oatmeal, and a big pile of apples and pears. (I forgot about the soap, shampoo and toothpaste until I got to my apartment and was enjoying a tasty pear). Of course, the big excitement was that I was able to use my “spend $25, get $5 off” coupon. Rarely do I spend $25 at the store, and so it’s just been waiting for the right opportunity, and today my total was $25 and 5o-odd cents! So I got to use the coupon, and I felt like I got my money’s worth. Hooray for fiscal responsibility!

In other news, today I discovered that my old yahoo e-mail address still works, and I had a pile of e-mails that I never got, and almost all of the non-spam messages were from my friend Melanie from USC. Since I hadn’t talked to her since I left Los Angeles, I called her up and left her a message that I got her e-mails after months of sitting in my inbox. At about that same time, I was looking at godaddy.com trying to think of more website names I could get (because they’re having a sale), and I thought of capnrainbow.com, because Melanie is Cap’n Rainbow. It was available, so I got it for her as an early Halloween present. So now y’all can visit her website on www.capnrainbow.com

Also tonight was the first meeting of the Dead Parrot Society - WWU’s improv group. They do things much different than Comedus Interruptus (USC’s improv group). Rather than have a weekly lawn show or other type of show where people can watch, they have open rehearsals on Tuesday nights, and people that aren’t in the group can play games too, and that’s how they pick people to be in the actual group (rather than auditioning). And they only have shows once in a while. It was a pretty fun time. Peter was there, and one of the girls I met at the party on Friday was there (she left the party early, so she missed the cop invasion. Although she did say it was funny, because the guy that invited her to the party assured her that his parties never get raided by the cops).

And that was my Tuesday. Hooray for Wednesday tomorrow - the one day in the week I don’t have class at 8am!

This is the story of the last two days. I did not have my camera with me, so for this post I got some special pictures from the highest-tech 100 megapixel 4D scent-o-vision camera - my mind! It all began on Friday afternoon...

Well, folks, now that it is Friday afternoon, and since I don’t have theater 212 lab today, my first week of classes is offically at its end. All of the classes have been pretty fantastic (although theater 222 is rather on the dry side - I found myself glancing at the clock a few times today) - even the 8am math class will be much more survivable than I thought it would be. I’ve had that class twice now, and neither of the days did we actually do any “math,” even in the homework - woo hoo!

After some hastle with the registration website, I was finally able to offically register for theater 260 (musical theater) last night, so I have a full classload now, and I have two classes with Jim Lortz (266 and 260), so hopefully we’ll get along - he’s also the director of the WWU musicals. This weekend is “Big River,” which was a summerstock show that they decided to add some extra weekends to. I saw it on Wednesday after the new student convocation - it was a free show for new students, much like USC had the marching band.

At intermission during the show I ran into Peter, from the Mountaineers. Also on campus, I’ve run into Kerry (I dunno spelling) from Madrona, and another girl from Madrona whose name I don’t remember. I’ve seen Rudolph (who was supposed to be one of my suitemates back in 114, but he got moved out of that building before he ever moved in) a few times, I saw Lauren at the bridge club table at the info fair, and I ran into Joanna while I was walking to class from the rec center. So there are even more people here that I know than I thought, and I’m sure I’ll run into more.

Tonight I’m going to see Napoleon Dynamite with my roommate (Jeff) in downtown Bellingham. After that’s there’s some sort of party going on at the VU with music and free pizza and games and stuff like that.

I also heard some exciting news - Ryan Stiles from The Drew Carrey Show and Whose Line is it Anyway? lives in Bellingham, and he recently opened an impov theater downtown, with performances every Friday and Saturday night. So I’ll be checking that out at some point too. I’ll take the bus - with my handy new bus pass that I bought for $50. It’s been quite useful so far - rather than walking the long trek to campus for my 8am class, I just hop on the bus and it gets me there in half the time it takes to walk (or less). Hooray for public transportation!

That is all for now. I have to run down to The College Store and return my math book - it turns out that I got the wrong edition. TTFN, y’all.

Greetings, all, and welcome to my even-newer-than-the-last-new-apartment apartment.
First off, the tour:
This is what it looks like from the porch at night:


Now it’s time to get to studying - gotta do my homework if I wanna get the good grades, ya know.

Hello, folks - I’m writing now from my small rustic cabin apartment at Western Washington University. And now, the grand tour:

Here you see the door, decorated by the residence hall staffs with the names of the people in the room (with Rudolph missing - I wonder if he found a different place to live?)

When you walk through that door, you find yourself in the grand foyer:

In case you are wondering about the wire in the picture, this is the reason: the one and only phone jack in the apartment is on the wall there, and in order for me to be online right now, I have to send a phone line from my computer all the way to that jack. When there are four guys all wanting to use that phone jack to get online - that’ll be a fun time.

Turn left, and you’ll find the Living Room, with a nice wall-mounted shelving/desk system:

Turn left again and you’ll see the balcony. This is what the view from the balcony looks like at night:

Another left and there’s the dining room, and a window into the kitchen:

And here’s the full view of the kitchen:

With a cupboard full of tasty vittles:

While the fridge is still rather lacking (with only the bare essentials in it - jelly and lemon juice):

Also in the kitchen you’ll find this appliance, that was there when I came in. The bad news is that there may be a need for it to be there, the good news is that it is empty.

And finally, back through the hallway to the back bedroom, which I have turned into my awesome recording studio:

And that is my new apartment. It sure was nice having you over - y’all come back now, y’hear?

For those that have been reading my livejournal since last summer, you’ll remember that last year on the day before I left for USC I made the “FW Summer 2003 Party Mix” CD, and posted the track list online. This year, rather than make a party CD, I decided to make the “Summer 2004 Motion Picture Soundtrack,” so-called becauseiIf my summer vacation had been a movie, this would be the soundtrack from it (and also because most of the songs come I yoinked from movie soundtracks). And now, without further ado, the Summer 2004 Motion Picture Soundtrack:

Maroon Logo (from Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
Belleville Rendezvous (from The Triplets of Belleville)
Vacation (by the Go-Go’s, as heard in Fahrenheit 9-11)
New Slang (By the Shins, as heard in Garden State)
Origin of Love (from Hedwig and the Angry Inch)
Whatchamacallit (by Esquivel)
IM me ur <3 (by me)
School of Rock (from School of Rock)
Bubba Ho-Tep theme (from Bubba Ho-Tep)
Heal Me, I’m Heartsick (from School of Rock)
Girls (from Lost in Translation)
Back When the Earth had Two Moons (by Dan Bern)
Such Great Heights (by Iron and Wine, as heard in Garden State)
If I Had a Million Dollars (by the Barenaked Ladies)
Cotton-Eyed Joe (by the Rednex)
In My Country There’s a Problem (from Da Ali G Show)
The Fascist in Me (by Dan Bern)
It’s the End of the World as We Know It (by REM)
He’s a Pirate (from Pirates of the Caribbean)
Where is my Mind (by the Pixies, as heard in Fight Club)
We’re Going to be Friends (by the White Shirts, as heard in Napoleon Dynamite)
Oh, Canada! (by Five Iron Frenzy)

Now go out and buy all those CDs with those songs on them, and then record them onto your computer so that you can have a nice legal copy of the CD. (note: Originally I had put Jay’s Rap from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back on the CD, but I took it off to make it safe for children’s ears. If you’re not a children, or you like to offend them, feel free to add it back in)

This will be my last post from my house in Federal Way, so I’ll say so long from here, and see you all in Bellingham - woop!

The following stories were written by me in 1988 (when I was 4 years old). The first one I actually wrote down myself - the rest I dictated to my mom.

“Birds. nest. little g g.”
What. DiD. that. say.
the. do g. is. on. the. bus.
hoW. cAn. that. be.
a. Dog. on. a. bus.
that. is. so. FUNNY.

“M M M M M”
Once there was an M.
And he had a brother M, a sister M and a mother M.
And he had 2 uncle Ms.
And he had a flashlight to see in the dark.
And he had a cat and he had a dog.

(this story’s title was a crayon drawing of a baby)
One day a little baby was all alone
and he was happy cuz he had a brother and a sister and a Mom and a Dad.
And he went to school and he kept growing until it got dark.
And he sighed.

(this story’s title was a crayon drawing of an old man, frowning)
One day an old man was sitting in front of his house.
And he was an old man who didn’t have any food or toys to play with.
And he didn’t have a mother or brothers or sisters.
He had to be alone in the dark
and he hummed and he sighed.
And one day he decided to buy a puppy and a cat.
Besides, it was Christmas.
He decided to get a Christmas tree and put decorations on it.

The entry for this week is too long for my journal, and so instead of being here, it has a page of its own: South Dakota Photo Journal

My Grandma Jones passed away about an hour ago - the whole family was in the room with her at the time.
The funeral will be Tuesday or Wednesday.

This morning my Grandma Jones went into the hospital - my Grandpa couldn’t wake her up, so he called the paramedics and they brought her to the hospital. They couldn’t find a pulse at first, but thankfully they found one. Things don’t look good, though, so my Dad and I will be flying out later today to go to South Dakota to be with the family for the next week or so. Since I’ll be in SD, I probably won’t be able to give any updates till I get back, but I’ll have my cell phone with me, and your calls would be appreciated.

Please keep my Grandma in your prayers.

See you in a week.

According to the New York Times, Bush is leading Kerry in electoral votes now, based on polls in swing states. Gosh, this really is a horse race isn’t it? “And now Kerry is ahead by a nose, and now Bush is getting closer, and - what’s this? Here comes Nader, getting a ride from Karl Rove! Kerry appears to be trying to shoo him away. Oh, and now Bush inches ahead of Kerry, aaaaaand Beetlebaum!”

Although I must say, watching the Republican Convention this week felt more like an episode of Jerry Springer. Every time the speaker said something, they’d cheer, unless it was about Kerry, at which point they’d boo or “oooOOOOOooooo!” When McCain mentioned Michael Moore and everyone started shouting him down, and then Michael Moore stood up and raised his hands, I thought Steve was going to have to come out and stop a brawl. *ding ding ding*!

Have you seen the political maps these days? The coasts are blue, and there’s a big red area in the middle, that in recent days has been growing. It reminds me of some sort of medical commercial:

Announcer says “This is your country.”
(show the country all blue)
“This is your country when Republicans begin to set in”
(show animation of red starting out in Texas and then oozing through the country.)
“Symptoms include increased racism, bigotry, homophobia, desire to watch bass fishing shows and listen to country music.”
(show a woman dressed normally) person says: “This is me normally - and this is me with republicans.”
(woman bloats and turns into an overweight elderly white man with a cowboy hat and a shot gun).
Announcer says “luckily, now you can reduce the swelling and pain caused by republicans, with new, ‘election 2004!’ Just one vote can turn this: (republican man) back into this: (woman).
“Not valid in Florida or for people of certain races. Consult with your lawyer before beginning this or any democratically based electoral process.”

Hmmm… I think that ad might make a good flash cartoon… But not tonight. I’ve had enough politics for one day. Oy - methinks it’ll be a long time till November 2nd.
“Better Dead Than Red”