The Summer Formula

12(5(I+Y)+Healthy Food+New Job Yet to be determined)+2 Visits to Chapel Hill+A hopeful visit from some people staying in CH down here=My summer.

Yes, I know exactly what my summer will be for the next 3 months, assuming I get a night job (which I'm currently searching out), it won't be so bad. It's boring, i won't lie about that, but the ability to go out is good, as will be the 2 trips up to Chapel Hill.

My blog entries have been few and far between and for that I apologize. Basically, my days have been going like this:

8:09: Wake up and prepare for the day by lagging in bed until 8:25 and messing on the comp.
8:25: Shower and shave and get ready for the internship
8:50: Drink a glass of water and fill up the nalgene with water before the internship.
9:03: Leave house after catching top story on Sportscenter
9:31: Arrive at law firm a minute late and get to doing a spot of work.
1:00: Finish work and lag around for 30 more minutes to maintain the 4 hours a day
1:35: Intend to go job searching, but decide I don't want to that day
2:03: Arrive at home with late small snack.
3:50: Leave to go to the Y to lift and ball (Operation Ben Wallace, 5 times a week)
4:15: Arrive at Y and go do specified area for the day.
5:25: Head to gym and play 4-7 games of pickup
7:25: Leave and head home for dinner.
7:50: Eat dinner
8:15: Watch HBO and mess around online, also watch NBA playoffs.
11:00 Go downstairs to watch late nite movie on HBO.
12:24: Start the sleep playlist and get ready to repeat the above.

It may not be exciting, but my week consists of the above. Maybe things will change with a new job (although less working out will suck). However, I'll find time.

Sorry for this bland ass entry, but I had to do it. I'll post more later. Holla

"The Voice"

For a large part of junior year, my communication with Jimmy (my former roommate for those completely unknowledgeable about my life) has thrived upon one solitary thing. That thing has been entitled merely "the voice". If someone had a hidden microphone in the room for the whole year (minus the month or so when Jimmy was dating Liz, and therefore only talked with her on IM and listened to his headphones), they'd predominantly hear the voice. The evolution of the voice has been a long detailed progression from merely catch phrases, to mocking conversations, to hand gestures and real, full conversations, almost to its own dialect of a language. If you're familiar with the use of the voice, then I'm pretty sure you also have an idea who the inspiration was as well...

It started off innocently enough, with a simple gesture...GONE! All you did was when something bad happened, a player got hurt, someone fell down, or anything else genuinely tragic happened, we made a sweping motion with our fingers and said "GONE!" in a gruff, staccato manner. It expanded to different sayings such as "Oh HELL no!" "You little bitch", and the classic "asshole". Now this is no normal "asshole". This is "asshole said in a low passing manner, made to sound as if the used just called people assholes routinely...which in fact...

This also brought about hand gestures. Certain commercials would get the finger wave treatment, that is, swinging of one's hand from left to right on the beat, followed by the "GONE!" upswoop at a moment's notice. It typically came at the climax of a song, and the intensity of the finger swing would rise more and more until said climax. Conversations about any topic would routinely come up in the voice, until it started to manifest itself as the main dialect of the english language in 104 Lewis. Others caught on and began using it as well, mainly Mike, Joe, and sometimes even the great John Woodcock.

As the year drew to a close, the voice became more and more prevalant in the room. You couldn't get around using it. Instead of going to bed, we "took it to the bed." Upon retuning from the bathroom, class, or any other semi-extended absence, the returner would say "I've MADE it back!" and the person already in the room would say "You did, IN-deed". We'd also speak favorably upon being an "ass-kicker", and kickin ass would routinely be the order of the day. Things somehow eventually made their way into a domestic violence theme, and there they stand today. A typical sentence in the voice would be "I'd kick his ass, and then I'd come home and throw some more punches to the face." Obviously we were joking, and obviously it's pretty shitty to joke about domestic violence, however, we were so outrageous about it that it really was funny...and come on, we're two normal college guys, not two trailer trash wifebeaters.

And here we stand today. I thought about this topic only because I was watching the Sonics-Spurs game, and saw Danny Fortson commit a flagrant foul, and exclaimed, out loud, by myself "HELL YES! ASS KICKIN!" This is when I realized that "The Voice" is something that will always remain with me, as a part of my college experience, and I really don't think there's something that can characterize my junior year relationship with my roommate any more than our constant use of the voice. It was definitely a good year, and a great time of ass-kickin.

P.S.: J.P. "butt-fucking" Losman was probably another of the most used comments of the year, for obvious reasons.

So I'm home.

Yesterday was a pretty bittersweet day. Or maybe I should actually say a sweetbitter day, as the sweet likely outweighs the bitter. I moved out of Lewis dorm. I moved out of housing affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill...forever. I moved out of leaky, jungle rot ridden showers, toilets that remain clogged for the entire weekend, and I moved out of the irritation of having to typically take my keys to enter the bathroom with said clogged toilets. Sure I'll miss it when I look back upon it, but for now, having my own bathroom and not having certain people with the gravitational pull of a small elephant plop down on my futon at full speed (and subsequently breaking the metal support) will do just fine.

However, on the ride home, after packing all my memories of my junior year, and in fact the rest of my dorm life in the rented Navigator (defintely tight to drive that around for a bit around the QC), I got to thinking how life in the dorms has changed me as a person. It's taught me how to deal with different situations, and was a great transition from living at home full time to becoming somewhat self regulated (emphasis on somewhat). Freshman year taught me to somewhat manage my time,but mostly, taught me how to NOT succeed. Late night food, to much hall partying and drinking, and lack of emphasis on school left me 25 pounds heavier and my GPA struggling. Sophomore year taught me moderation, and I met a lot of really good friends. Wile-Out All Stars started this year, and we're still running strong, Monty's, TO THE BARS!, the Wile-Out summer beach , and countless other outings. Losing that freshman 25 was good too. Living with LaShaun was definitely my most rewarding experience during college. He's such a good person, strong in his faith and determined in his goals. Junior year taught me how to truly manage studying and going out, while completing all my other responsibilities. It also taught my liver how to process LOTS of beer. Oh yeah, winning the NATIONAL TITLE. Spring Break in the Bahamas, getting even tighter with Wile-Out, and finding that all things and people are not as they seem. Lessons learned every year.

Now I'm back for another summer in Charlotte. A summer NOT involving the YMCA. Thankfully. I'll be working an unpaid internship in a law firm, and getting another job, hopefully as a server somewhere where I can get good hours and make some good money. I turn 21 in 8 days, which is awesome. I'll be here, but there's room for about 4 or 5 people in the house, so if anyone wants to make the trip down to celebrate with me next weekend...

I'll miss the times I had in Ehringhaus, HoJo North, and Lewis Dorms. I won't miss a lot of aspects of dorm life, but I'll never forget what it gave me. A diverse appreciation for everyone, a meaningful form of respect for those with whom I live and interact every day, and shaping my character for my first three years at UNC. next year at Town House will be nice, convinient, and I'll have my own damn bathroom, however, I wouldn't trade my three years in the dorm for anything.

By this time tomorrow...

I will have:

1) Completed 3 exams in one day (yes, I know I could have changed them. I see it as a challenge, one that I will overcome with flying colors, although I may regret this study break to blog...haha, right...)
2) Taken Ben's Application to Townhouse, and hopefully set up the lease signing date for this Friday. We'll see.
3) Cleaned the shit (not literally, obviously) out of my room. And fast. This includes disassembling the futon, debunking the bed, sweeping the floor, beginning the fridge defrosting process, and generally making this place look as good as it did when we moved in (minus the damn black scratches on the wall from the futon.
4) Sold all my books back for around 10 dollars.
5) Subsequently spent said 10 dollars on something frivolous or alcoholic. Or maybe both.
6) Said a decent number of goodbyes to some Lewis residents and non-lewis residents.
7) Gotten shit back that I've lent to people (video games and the like)
8) Taken a ridiculously wonderful shower (maybe after having played some basketball after my exam at 4)
9) Made a decision as to whether I should go out or not.
10) Drank a couple beers after making what is likely the obvious decision.
11) Seen about 6 or so girls that I want to date.
12) Narrowed those 6 down to 2.
13) Realized that I'll probably never talk to either of those 2 girls in my life.
14) Blocked 7 shots in 3 games of basketball.
15) Spoken in "the voice" with Jimmy about something humorous.
16) Cursed exactly 57 times.
17) Come to the realization that I am going into my senior year. Breathed hard about it. I'll be happy and sad at the same time. Continuing to move forward while wishing I can move back...wow...it's crazy.


So there's another damn list. I need to find a different posting style...

A CD review, along with some of my life thrown in...

Yep, so apparently this Napster service has not run out yet. And that means procrastination (see the tenth item on my procrastination list.) And I come to find that the new Bobby Valentino CD has come out today, and every song is downloadable to Napster. So of course, rather than focus on my exam tomorrow, I instead decide to download, listen to, and blog about this CD. And yes, it's the type of CD that I like.

Falling in the R&B genre (which is quickly returning to top status in my book) it's something that I can generally listen to from start to finish without skipping a song (always a plus in my book). In addition, it's got a good mixture of fast and slow songs, some being real hot, and others bein mad chill love song. Some good cameo appearances, especially Luda with one of my favorite lines so far from a song I've heard this year ("It's whatever, whenever, you make the choiceand I'ma call ya Duncan Hines, just keep it moist"). In fact, I liked said lyric enough that it became my away message within 2 minutes of hearing it. Yes, I do that.

Now upon first listen, one may say that it falls in the formulaic genre of "The Modern Day Mario, Jagged Edge, 112, and Marques Houston, While In Addition Revealing Some Old School Boyz II Men and New Edition Influence". And yes it does. And yes, I like that. I like sitting in my room, listening to them by myself, bobbing my head to the fast songs, and thinking about the girl described in my previous post during the slower love songs. In addition, I lament sadness of lost loves that never really happen in the slower out of love songs. Yes, it's what I do.

As I currently listen to one of those slow love songs, I realize how much this genre of music has really affected my life. I put too much inflection when I sing things, in any situation, simply because of damn R&B and how much I like it. Tyler, Josh, and the rest of the band in which I sang during high school said I could turn any song into an R&B song. Upon further review, yes, I absolutely did. Even when we sang some band staples, like "My Own Prison", "Fly Away", and the awesome original "New Beginning", (Yes, we really played these great concert covers) all I did was inflect. Damn R&B.

So in retrospect, this CD (well, metaphorical CD, seeing as I downloaded it), is good, and could be a good minor birthday present (and oh, by the way, IT is absolutely on the horizon!). Or I'll download it to my computer at home, as I'm only at risk for an RIAA lawsuit at home, as opposed to a great invitation to honor court after my past violation (of which I choose not to disclose, but enough of my friends know about it that if you ask them, THEY can tell you).

So in regards to this Valentino CD in final, I approve, and recommend to anyone who likes the "Modern Day Mario, Jagged Edge, 112, and Marques Houston, While In Addition Revealing Some Old School Boyz II Men and New Edition Influence" genre. Although it has a few less hot songs, and a few more ghetto romance songs than I'd like on an R&B CD, I still recommend at least a couple downloads and a listen. I suggest the following 3 songs (other than Slow Down, which I love) for a listen: Give Me A Chance, Want You to Know, and Tell Me: after a listen, hit me on that feedback meter.

(Oh, and just adding another parenthetical comment cause I don' t think I had enough in the actual post itself, TWSHIT)

Somewhere Out There

So I guess I've determined today is list day. This is a far more important list than my prior one. This is a list of qualities in the ONE. It reminds me of the song Somewhere Out There by Our Lady Peace, hence the somewhat cryptic yet pretty obvious undertone. Yes, the undertones are evident even in writing, especially here. But anyways, here you go, the list of traits that belong to my ONE.

1) She is beautiful. Not made up ready to go out beautiful. I'm talking about wearing a hoodie and sweats beautiful, you're proud to show off your girl, even when she says she's slummin it. And beautiful, obviously being subjective, beautiful to me...

2) She has amazing eyes. Color doesn't matter so much as depth. I just want to be able to gaze into them...bringing me to number 3.

3) She doesn't mind me gazing into her eyes. Cause she's doing it too.

4) She loves sports. Not to the degree I do, but I want to be able to watch a game with her, and she catches a missed pass interference call. Or she notes that the 5 needs to post up more. Or that Demarcus needs to make better runs up the far side. In short, she's near my level, but not on it. And she likes to play as well, or work out on some level.

5) She knows that romantic doesn't equal expensive. And that expensive doesn't equal romantic. And that one rose is far better and from the heart than 12.

6) Rather than cook for me, she wants to cook with me.

7) More often than not, I see a smile. A perfect one.

8) Loves music. All types (barring country). And singing. A girl that knows all the words to Get It On The Floor and isn't too afraid of being a "lady" to belt them out. A girl that harmonizes The General with me, and a girl that knows who Mr. Mojo Risin is...

9) Is aware of my undying love for all things Carolina. Ideally she is a Tar Heel, but if she's not, she knows that it comes before anything else for me.

10) Doesn't need nor does she like expensive clothes, shoes, or whatever to feel or look elegant. Also knows that I don't want nor need those things to impress me, so she doesn't try. Cause she already does...

Those are basically the 10 things that I'd ideally have in a woman. If you feel you fit the criteria, feel free to apply...

A list of things that make me procrastinate THIS Semester

1) Only having one in class exam this week
2) Realizing that Telecom has screwed up and given us free HBO
3) Thinking about what I am gonna do this summer
4) Trying to get housing secured for next year
5) Thinking I'm the smartest person in the world and don't need to study
6) My undying yet incredibly sad addiction to the Maryland message boards
7) Facebook...unfortunately
8) Choosing a bad time to get back into the blogging habit
9) My hatred of the library
10) Napster and the ability to download music.
11) www.2flashgames.com
12) NBA playoffs
13) Following the Giants' games on Yahoo due to their not EVER being televised (when are they gonna play the damn Braves)
14) Not wanting to face reality
15) Every time I get ready to study, I open up the internet instead...
16) I am generally unmotivated

I guess once I solve each of these 16 dilemmas, I can get on to studying...it would really be quite badass.