Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Remembered Faces, Forgotten Names


I went to a sort of neighborhood reunion on Saturday night. It was advertised a bit on places like Myspace and Facebook, I believe. I saw it only because a friend posted on a forum.

It was a night of remembered faces and forgotten names. Most of the people I recognized were from high school. It was no one I really associated with in high school though. I was never the social butterfly. It came through again that night. I only jumped into conversations when people I knew were already talking with someone I didn't. I don't quite know how to approach some one when it comes to a reunion aspect of familiarity. "Hi, I remember you from when we were in high school. We didn't have any of the same classes, none of the same friends, and probably said only two words the four years we were there together. How are you?"

I don't think I could pick out any of the guys from the yearbook. It doesn't surprise me that I recognized the girls most of all. Hell, it's what I used to look at the most while I was there anyway. If only they felt obligated to break out the old school uniforms. That would have been something.

For the most part, it wasn't a terrible night. Granted I didn't go home with anyone or grab any numbers for future conversations, but that's par for the course. A few people I haven't seen in a while did show up to my surprise. The air was thick with smoke and old school rap. There were many people there I didn't care to deal with and plenty that I wouldn't mind getting to know better. Sadly, I am not entirely forthcoming with the whole ice-breaker thing. The setting seemed almost too forced.

My friend Bill had no problem reintroducing himself to people. He's a loud personality that likes an audience. He was all about mingling as much as possible. I believe his theory was that if he ever met you once, he would try and make sure you remember him this time around. I think it worked on a few unfortunate souls.

The night ended with an escape from the parking lot followed by a trip to Denny's with some friends. That part was so great for me. A half hour wait to be seated is fine. Almost an hour wait for our food to show, not so good. Worse still, my food dropped last while everyone else was finishing theirs. I don't think I will be returning to Denny's any time soon.

Friday, March 20, 2009

3 things on my mind

I am feeling better. It took a solid 13 or so hours of sleeping to rid most of the sickness. Now, I just have the aftermath symptoms to get expelled.

Sadly, I have to work this weekend. I usually don't have to work on Saturday, but I have to make an exception this weekend. My coworker and he fiance are heading to the mountains for a get away. I thought I would be nice and cover his shift. Thankfully, it is only a morning shift till around 3PM. One of the only problems is that I have to cover a painting class, alone. There would normally be help, but the store is also running a tournament in another storefront, so the bossman will be over there for the most part. I just hope the kids realize that I don't paint. They are usually pretty good teaching each other anyway.

I started trying to get more people to add to my Joker sketchbook. On of the customers at the store has it at the moment. He asked if it was ok to have him look like the Heath Ledger Joker. I told him just to do whatever he wanted. That's the whole point of the thing. I want artists' interpretation of who/what the Joker is. Sure, he is just a comic character, and some people envision certain artists' renditions as the actual Joker. Ultimately, I just want whatever comes from the artist doing the drawing at the moment his/her pen hits paper. The most recent addition was from another customer at the store, Don Downie. He's a huge Green Lantern fan, so he drew Joker getting a yellow, Sinestro Corps ring. It even has a purple glitter pen coloring of Joker's suit. It's pretty cool and definitely fits the cartoony style. While Don is an artist, his main trade is jewelry. You can view some of his work here: Spiral Acorn Jewelry.

Currently, I am listening to part of the Watchmen soundtrack. Specifically, Pruit Igoe & Prophecies by the Philip Glass Ensemble. I like the piece. I feel it fits within the movie and evokes a lot of emotion. It's the type of song and music that gets me thinking. Part of it inspires me to write. Granted, it doesn't particularly help in writing random things on a blog, but maybe something more creative. I do have something rattling in my brain that wants to get out. I just have to give it the proper outlet for escape. That just means dedicating time to it.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Should be sleeping, throat be scratching

I think I am getting sick again. This tends to happen whenever I have inklings to do something at the very least, semi-productive.

It is currently St. Patty's Day. I was going to be a "true" Irishman and hit up the local pub for a drink. Depending on my health, I just may still. It may be the cure for all I know. All this will be after work of course. It is currently almost 3AM, and the bars are all closed.

I want to write a romance story. At the moment, I feel like Jack Nicholson's character from As Good As It Gets. I could probably imagine a great story in my head and may even translate some of it to paper, but lack the actual real world counterpart. Of course in the movie, he gets the happy ending with Helen Hunt, but comeon' it's Helen Hunt.

I am hungery. Who wants to go out to eat? My treat. I need to eat out more. Someone needs to try and bolster the economy. One man can make a difference.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Structured Ranting

I have been lacking with writing lately. It seems that every time I have some inclination to write something, I am no where near the computer. Taking notes also doesn't really work either. I sort of lose the passion after a prolonged delay from the keyboard. Another excuse is that I tend to be very tired lately. I literally didn't get in from work until 7:30 tonight. After eating and checking my typical websites, I grew sleepy and proceeded to fall asleep in my computer chair. I eventually moved upstairs to my bed to possibly catch a good hour nap. It turned into about 3 hours. Apparently my dream was good because I wanted to keep retuning to it. Now, as I sit down to type, it completely escapes my mind what the dream was about.

Yesterday my boss asked me to write up a little advertisement for the store that would go in some high school playbill. I completely froze when I attempted to write anything. My coworker, Trent, even pointed out that I was supposed to be a writer. I told him, "No, I just went to school for it." Eventually, I laid dwon some words to promote the correct products, but they were mainly ideas. There were no complete sentences to be had. Eventually my boss cleaned it up because it had to be done in minutes. I only had about 5 minutes from start to some up with the whole thing because the lady picking up the ad was on her way in. My boss, true to form, forgot that he promised to get it to her.

Theoretically, I want to write more. I want to come up with some creative outlet for people to experience. I just have no real passion for it at the moment. I have no real drive to get works of fiction out. I haven't actually written anyting with any creative merit for years. I write a good bit, mind you, when I write this type of blog stuff, but most of it is really rambling. Call it, structured ranting.

All in all, I am attempting to get back into something. When the window of time I have to actually write is so small, it's difficult to cram things into it. The only time I really have to do the things I want to do usually consists of the few hours before I have to get to sleep beofre work the next day. I don't even sleep much in a typical night. My average time is only about 4 to 5 hours a night, so there is a reason why I take naps and sleep late on weekends. All of that time sleeping takes away from my fun time to write, play video games, watch movies, and any other hobby I want to do.

I'll have to figure something out. I need to find a muse.