| The Chronicles | Self-Perceiving | ||||||
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 Random picture of me with people who happened to be standing near me at an Adult Swim promotional gig. I scored three free t-shirts, some stickers, several masks, a clock, and a magic eight-ball-like "Ball O' Justice". Pretty good haul I'd say. Conference Wrap The MUN conference closed without much fanfare. Win and Jeff won an award in their committee. I think I'll wait for a second conference before being disappointed about not winning anything. I really couldn't argue about most of the delegations that they named in SOCHUM, though there were several that were recognized that contributed little more than crying about "neo-colonialism". When the time for best delegation was announced, a lot of us heard 'Auburn'. Unfortunately, they'd said 'Harvard' and Win met with a spot of embarrassment when he went up to accept. We assured him that we'd all heard Auburn too. Go ahead and laugh. One additional note...I actually got paid to go to conference. Since the university sponsored our trip, they gave us a budget of $34 per day for food and $72 for those that drove to Atlanta. So all in all, I made a tidy sum. Reminded me that I really would like to earn some money somehow. I've considered moving into freelance web design, but I'll have to wait until the break to really give it more thought. More Sports Talk The next week was relatively uneventful aside from the following weekend. Ole Miss came to town and provided a dramatic game. You'd think Auburn could score with two downs on the opponent's 3 yard line. However, you'd be wrong, as they decided to finally fully flush the season. The game wasn't a total loss though - I spent most of the time talking to my brother's date. I think I'm probably a little envious of the fact that he takes it for granted that he has a new date every weekend.  The next weekend, Auburn further flushed the season with a loss to Georgia. I wasn't too happy with the results of my last road game (Georgia Tech), but I decided to drive over to Athens with a friend from MUN anyway. The town was nice and some of the fans were nice, but I left with a really bitter taste in my mouth at the rudeness of a huge amount of their fans. They flipped us the double bird a lot and were just downright bad winners.The following weekend, Auburn thankfully went on to beat Alabama. In fact, we made some amazing plays...though again, we tried to flush it in the last half. Luckily, we held on for the win. Now we get to go to the Music City Bowl! Yaaay. That's sarcasm, folks. Tuberville (our coach) is mediocre and underachieving...we've got to get someone better, but unfortunately, due to administrational folly, we're stuck with him for another year. Anyone else think it's ridiculous that he'd get paid $3-4 million if we fired him? Step-Half-Family On the familial front, my mom, sister, and Jonathan arrived in town soon after the game. Should a random visit set off flags? Yes. Mafia didn't last too late, and the reason for the visit became apparent as I announced that I was retiring for the night. My mom and Jonathan asked me to wait while they talked to me and my sister (my brother having gone to some party at that point). Relatively unsurprisingly, Jonathan announced that he'd asked my mom to marry him. Duhn-duhn-duhn! Yeah, but anyway, my dad's seen this potentiality coming for many years now despite my mom's long-held insistence otherwise. Ray and I were both immediately supportive. Jon's a good guy, and if anyone was to have our approval, it'd be him. He's practically been family for so long anway. The announcement did come to as a bit of a shock to my sister though. Upon hearing the news, she promptly left the room. I spent a good deal of time reassuring her, and I think she's becoming accustomed to the idea despite the occasional cynical remark. I can understand her hesistancy seeing as though she still lives at home. The wedding is tentatively scheduled for February. Oh, on side notes...upon hearing the news, lots of people have shouted "I knew it!" as if they had some sort of strange insight into the whole thing. I honestly believe that for many years, it wasn't really a possibility. Only within the last year has the proposition become more plausible. Additionally, this does help to clarify Jonathan's relationship...no more "Uhh...he's a friend of our family who lives with us." I mean, we'll still think of him as 'Jonathan', but he's got a concrete "title" now. Funnily, I mused to Kevin that this means I'll have a step-half-uncle who's a teenager.  Ill-reportThe Sunday after the Georgia game, I decided to go play ultimate with Kevin and the Navs. I hadn't been out in a while, and I'm not sure what motivated me to go, but it was fun. Unfortunately, it wasn't really very good for my body. I was on the verge of being sick (by way of my brother) and that just pushed me over the edge. Having thrown up many multiple times, I decided that it was probably best to drop by the medical clinic for an IV. The experience wasn't nearly as miserable as the last time...and I made a pretty full recovery within a few days. This meant that I went to class on Thursday and Friday, but since Thanksgiving Break was the next week and we had the whole week off, those were really my only two class days for two weeks...and there's not much time left in the semester. Thanksgiving Break was filled with the normal laziness. I went back to Chattanooga for a few days, cheered up after a while, and briefly visited with Alex and Rachel for the first time in a long time. We watched "Real World" while we talked. It re-sparked my interest in getting on the show, but really, out of all the applicants, what gives me reason to think I've got a shot? Oh, and it also made me want to go to France. I should also note that I finally watched "Dinosaur" (as well as a deluge of behind-the-scenes material) and "Bicentennial Man". I'd highly recommend them. I'm not quite sure why the second film got so panned by audiences. The plot really was pretty unique and inventive. I certainly thought it was one of Robin Williams' better "serious" roles.  After the visit in Chattanooga, we headed back south to my cousins'. We spent a great deal of time playing Risk and Mario Kart: Double Dash. Ray won the first game of Risk, while the second game (using two boards) was a called draw between Jeff and Malcolm (after knocking me out). I'd won a couple of weeks ago when Ray, Kevin, Michael, and I played, so I wasn't too distraught. After having played so many rounds of the game, I fear that I'm growing tired of it...I really need something new to mix it up. Maybe I'll get some new board games soon. As for Mario Kart, we've unlocked everything, and I think it'll still be played for the foreseeable future.Oh, I should also mention that I managed to convince my brother, my sister, Dixon, and Jeff to go see "Looney Tunes" as opposed to "Cat In The Hat". I think it was a wise choice. Perhaps I'm just a sucker for lots of obscure cameos by old Warner Brothers cartoons. Really though, it was pretty funny and worth watching.  I believe this pic's from my 18th birthday. As I look at it, I wonder how much I've really changed. I can observe changes in my brother and sister, but I feel as though I'm the same as I've always been. Oh, and yes, that's a candle in a lobster tail. Reflection on Perception Perhaps pathetically, I checked out eHarmony and americansingles.com recently. My curiosity got the best of me and I actually filled out both profile things. There were lots of questions about how I perceived myself. They asked me to rank myself from 1-7 on a plethora of adjectives or descriptors. It made me think. I mean, when I rank something like my loyalty, how accurate am I? If I ask someone else, how accurate are they? I guess it really just made me wonder how much of a disconnect there is between self-perception, the perception of others, and the truth. Once I finished the survey, they searched for matches. Apparently, I'm a little too unique...they didn't turn any matches up in the entire world. They assured me that it was no fault of my own (how nice of them). The whole corporate/mechanical vibe rubbed me the wrong way, but upon reflection, they seem to be a lot better than most of the matching services out there as they don't just throw out a random match. In fact, they state that their whole goal is to encourage healthier marriages - something they don't feel that the current dating climate does. Eh...I'll be curious if they ever turn up a match. They supposedly guarantee a monthly match if you pay for membership (barring a match, they refund your money). Musical Rants I won't name names, but I recently got into a rather heated discussion about my musical tastes. See, I enjoy a wide range of music, including pop music (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, etc.). Apparently, this renders my taste in music "horrible". In fact, the notion that I'm 21, a guy, and like Britney Spears' music and admit it...well, that's the "gayest" thing ever in the opinion of my detractor. I asked why they didn't like her music...they explained that the music didn't appeal to them.  When I ask a lot of people in the anti-pop movement "Why not?" I typically get something like "It's not real music," "She has no talent," and "She doesn't write it." Now, if you honestly examine those, they're crap reasons for disliking it. They're the heart of the elitist, intolerant anti-pop movement. If you say, "Hey, it doesn't appeal to me cause I don't like the rhythm," then fine...that's legitimate, but don't cloud the issue with invalid reasons for hating it. Okay, so maybe that image over there doesn't help my argument...particularly the message from her fan. And, does her head look a little freaky to anyone else? It's like they took her face and put it on another neck.Anyway, back to the rant...apparently, my detractor can "stand" that I like punk - to which I think, "Hey, it's my musical taste...I don't care what you can stand about it." I resent being called retarded because I happen to enjoy something that other people dislike. To be fair, my critic was a bit stressed out at the time of the conversation - my argumentative nature doesn't always help in those situations, but I really was somewhat offended/insulted. On another note, I'm curious if musical disownership is really the norm. What I'm talking about is when someone really likes listening to a certain genre and then several years later decides that the genre is crap. I've run across quite a few people that seem to follow this pattern. Honestly, I move in and out of different musical genres. For example, I used to listen to a lot more swing than I do now. However, I certainly don't dismiss it as crap. In fact, I have a hard time understanding how one can move from deriving pleasure from a certain style of music to really hating it. Your insights on this matter are welcome. Closing Remarks I fear that I've had way too many "side notes" in this entry, but I suppose it'll have to do. Man...it feels good to be caught up. Now if only I could get my school and organizational work done.  | |||||||
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