Yeah, sorry for the temporary leave of absence, it was unintentional. I got a little overwhelmned with some stuff and I've been running back and forth to Dayton a bunch because Papaw had knee surgery right around Halloween. In fact, I'm there now. I hadn't realized how comfortable and familiar Kent had become until I got here the other night and felt completely disoriented sleeping in my old bed. It just felt foreign, like I'd never lived here at all. Weird how fast we can move on if we embrace the new. Anyway, away from all that deep, reflective junk and onto what's new and improved about me!

I'm still technically unemployed (fml), but I do have the internship at the record label to keep me busy. I've also been helping out with/learning about sound at a local venue and it ROCKS. Classes are going well, if slowly, but I have a really cool Children's Lit workshop coming up that I'm excited about.I love books...

Also, I should tell you all before you find out on Facebook and get all confused about why I don't talk about it...I met someone. And he's awesome. And we're going out. And I'm absolutely amazed at how uncomfortable it makes me to write about this on here, lol! I guess it's 'cause I tend to find the posts and updates on how wonderful significant others are a bit cheesy...and annoying. I mean, when it comes to this stuff, I tend to stay kinda private. I know, it's kind of unlike me. I mean, I write on here constantly, I update my FB and MySpace monthly, I Tweet, I DailyBooth...really, it isn't that hard to get a pretty close-to-complete picture of who I am as a person by being a resourceful internet citizen. But this isn't even about the internet. I mean, I'm private about it in real life too ("it" being relationships). I think it's 'cause I'm used to being single in a depressed and sullen way and when I'm in that state of mind and hear someone talking about their relationship, or read those annoying little Facebook updates about how the wonderful boyfriend remembered the anniversary, I get really sad, annoyed, and frustrated all at the same time. And I know I'm overly sensitive about it, I've been working on it. Really. But I still think like that a lot and don't want to cause any of my friends that same feeling. Am I nuts? I think so, but oh well. I mean, I changed my FB and Myspace status hoping it would get burried in the new Live Feed feature...but someone saw it and commented, and the someone else and someone else enough so that now I'm pretty sure it's showing up on the News Feed and every one of my 600 friends sees it as soon as they sign on...and I'm sorry, but that makes me uncomfortable. Everytime I see that someone else has commented on in, I just get nauseous. Damn. But he is awesome.

SUBJECT CHANGE!! I went to 2 Scythian shows this week and have 3 GB of pics and videos to post as soon as I get back to school. WOW boys areborrowing my laptop, so I'm using Papaw's computer and, honestly, I'm surprised it's supporting this editing program right now. So yeah, once I get back to Kent and the wonderfulness that is my PC, there will be a plethora of media resources available for your perusal. Hehe!

That's all you get for now. More to come soon. Good day!

Anyone that was on the internet in the late 90's remembers GeoCities. It used to be an independent free website hosting service that was later bought by Yahoo! on which individuals could make websites about stuff. Anything really. Little animated .gifs flourished on GeoCities and most of the sites also had those obnoxious looped Midi tracks playing in the background. But it was the 90's and we loved it. GeoCities, now owned by Yahoo!, was shut down this week. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that GeoCities, and the other services that were out there at the time, were a really big part of the way the internet evolved.

In school right now I've been learning a lot about Web 2.0. I had never really heard this term before grad school, but the more I learn about it the more I realize how spectacularly immersed in it I am. Web 2.0 is the idea that the internet connects people and is interactive. Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Twitter, Livejournal, these are all sites and services through the internet that encourage people to participate and connect with each other, as well as to create new content. People post pictures and talk about what they're doing with their lives and share their hobbies and interests...any of this sound familiar?

The majority of the pages on GeoCities were pages made by individuals that talked about what that person was interested in. There were fan pages for video games and movies, there were stories with illustrations, there were pages with information made by amateur scientists/dog breeders/truckers, really anything you could think of could be found on there, the page laid out in the most basic HTML code with the repeating tile background that makes the text near impossible to read. Parents made pages about their kids, my mom made a page about my little brother's illness, and I...well, I had a page that hosted a legion of little animated faeries, complete with a story I wrote about them and clickable images embedded and hidden throughout the site to take you to new parts of the story. Trust me, it was very sophisticated for a 12-year-old.

I would argue that the fan and personal pages on GeoCities were the grandmas of every social networking site you can think of today. They were simple, they were repetitive, they were annoying, but they asked people to contribute to the internet in a way nothing before them really had. And so, today, we mourn the death of Web 2.0's Grandma. We'll miss you, GeoCities! Rest in peace.

Twice this week I've signed online to be greeted by messages of "OMG, you're alive! Yes!" So yes, I'm alive, I survived the dreaded strep...and David's birthday party, but that's another story for another time. For now I wanna tell you about this thing my mom has gotten into. It's a program called Snowball Express that does program for kids of military personnel killed in action. She write a whole about it on her blog, so check it out, k?

Had a crazy time last week. In the midst of illness I was attacked by the homework beast and forced to perform amazing demonstrations of academic prowess in order to prove worthy of continuing in my program...yeah, that sounded more excited than the reality of me sitting at my computer typing for obnoxious amounts of time, but whatever. I read a lot, too. I finished Leviathan and it was awesome. Serious. I finished reading it and was immediately depressed that I had to wait so long for the next book to come out...so I read Extras from Mr. Westerfeld's other awesome series. Yeah, I had been putting that one off because I just couldn't imagine it being as good as the first three or making the world more awesome than it already was...but I was wrong. It was so cool to imagine this future not only in relation to the continent I'm currently on, but to also imagine how the other cultures of the world would interpret that future. Amazing. Too cool. I've started Silver is for Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz now, and it proves just as disturbing/exciting/readable as the previous two. Should be good.

Remember the paper mache tree I was talking about a few post ago? With the squirrel and the books? Well, it was for a competition. And it won. So yay MLIS! Yay for being good at crafts! Yay for the justification of the 12+ hours I spent working on it! Just yay!

I watched Transformers 2 again last night with some friends. I commented that one of my favorite things about the movie was the sound track and was surprised when I had to explain why, so I thought I'd put it on here. Most everyone, I'm sure, has heard the Linkin Park song from the movie, Great Divide. It's a great rock song, I like it. What people don't seem to notice/realize is that a majority of the music in the actual score of the movie is just an expansion of that song. It's really kinda cool to listen to. I noticed it right away the first time I saw it and got really excited, but it wasn't till last night that it dawned on me that not everyone is obsessed with film scores. (Thank, mom!) So yeah, think of that as your "Did you know?..." of the day and go watch the movies. It kicks, seriously.

I bought a little notebook a couple weeks back thinking I'd start a German journal...then I just didn't. I finally sat down yesterday and wrote out an entry and was really surprised/depressed at how long it took me to fill the page. Language is seriously like a muscle you have to exercise regularly...and my German muscle has severely atrophied.

Ok, I think that's enough for today. Gotta do something else...I think. Have a good day!

I got out of bed yesterday and took a shower...and then felt so sick I didn't want to move. I was sore all over and I had snot and gunk coming out of my nose and my head hurt and my throat hurt and I just couldn't get myself to move. I got to coughing so hard that the lady that cleans the bathrooms in the dorm actually came and knocked on my dorm to check that I wasn't choking or something (then gave me some antibacterial cleaning cloths). I eventually email my professor to say I couldn't come to class, took some Sudafed, and went back to bed...for 10 hours. When I woke up I realized I hadn't eaten anything, although I wasn't hungry, so I made myself eat some ramen...then went back to bed. I got a doctor's appointment this morning, which turned out to be a really good thing since I have strep throat and it wouldn't have gone away without antibiotics. So now I'm taking these massive horse pills and drinking lots of water. My throat is still hurting really bad, but I took some ibuprofen and now I can swallow and not cry. That's nice.

I uploaded a bunch of Sunflower Fest videos onto YouTube, so you should check them out. I really like this band that I'd never heard before that was there, Holy Ghost Tent Revival. They were a lot of fun and really spastic, so it was awesome, lol! Here's one of their vids I took:

I've kinda backed myself into a corner with some of my homework. Stuff I knew about is taking longer than I thought it would and stuff I didn't know about came up at the last minute...Anyway, yeah, it's been a little crazy. I think I've come up with a plan, though, and the fact that I'm basically quarantined till Friday when the antibiotics make me magically not-contagious anymore will really help me stay focused.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I've been pushing Pomplamoose a lot the last couple of days. I just love them SO MUCH! They're so AWESOME!! They did this cover last week and I can't stop listening to it, it's just soooo great!



So yeah, I know, two YouTube vids in one post, big no-no, but it needed to be done, hehe!

On a sidenote before I go, I'm thinking of someone and they don't know it, but I guess that's how life goes, right? Anyway, tschuss!

Damn LiveJournal ate my entry again. Grrrrrrrrrr...

I went to Scythian's Sunflower Fest this pas weekend and it was AWESOME...except  that I now feel like I've been hit by a truck. There as a lot off walking with hills and we camped and it was really cold and, whie none of those factors on it's own was really enough to slow me down, altogether they have left me very very sore and very very very tired. I can't move without some muscle or appendage screaming out. It kinda sucks, but we're suffering on!

I started a new class today (yes, in my pain riddled, sleep deprived state I did make it to class) and it's all kinds of technical stuff about cataloging. My other classes up to this point have been very laid back, focusing on big concepts and theories. This one requires me to memorize Library of Cogress call numbers. During the lecture the professor defintely described the card catalog as the Sacred Cow that was slaughtered when patrons removed the cards...yeah. It's intense, but at least in here I actually feel like I'm learning things instead of in my other classes where we're just chewing on big ideas without really deciding on anything.

This one is gonna be short because I'm typing it on my laptop and the keyboard is NOT reliable. I keep having to go back and re-type words that it just didn't send through. grrrr. There'll be another post soon with pics and vids from the fest. Ciao!

It's 4:20am and guess what? I'm awake!

For one of my classes I have to make a Wiki page on a topic related to Library Science. Sounds easy and broad, right? Well, it is. It's 25% of my grade and I'm pretty confident I could finish the entire thing in 2 days if I actually buckled down to it. We had a list of broad subjects that we could pick a sub-topic of, so I chose Censorship as my big topic and I'm doing a page on Censorship in Young Adult Literature. I had a ton of ideas when I first started and all these thoughts about how I'd organize the page...until I started seeing what other people were doing. We've all used Wikipedia, we know how it is an how it works...at least, I would assume we would as we spent half a class talking about it. But as I look at what other students are doing, I doubt my own ideas. We're supposed to have 5 pages we wrote linked to our main page, like you would on Wikipedia (Ohio's page with general info, then a page on government, a page on population, a page on education, etc.), but some of my classmates are just writing blog posts about their topics that aren't connected at all...and it's making me doubt myself. I mean, I know what I'm going to do, because it's what the assignment says and what the professor said to do, but it always makes me nervous when I think that maybe they're not the ones that are misunderstanding, I am. Bleargh, get it together! Grow a backbone!

Back in reality, I posted a bunch of flyers around campus saying that I could give English lessons to international students and I've gotten two responses. I'm supposed to meet with one girl this afternoon at the Starbuck's on campus, so that'll be something new and exciting to figure out.

I got all freaked out the other day because my car started smelling and smoking while I was driving it. I got it back to the dorm and called Papaw and he's pretty sure it's just my power steering fluid leaking on something hot and smoking...but he couldn't guarantee that the whole thing wouldn't just blow up sometime or other...so that's exciting! It's like taking my life in my hands to drive my car. Did I mention I'm going to Steubenville in a couple weeks? Fun times...

So I'm trying to get all involved in student clubs and stuff and joined the ALA student chapter on campus. I'm on the Social Committee. Our first thing of the year is the upcoming Homecoming...stuff. It's the school's Centennial year and they're doing all kinds of weird and fun stuff for it. One thing is the school is selling little statues of black squirrels (the schools "other" mascot) that clubs can buy and decorate, then enter them in a contest to be judged. I don't know if there's a prize or what, but eh. So we bought a squirrel and then spent an entire meeting trying to figure out how we were going to decorate it. Everyone had ideas and everyone was talking over one another and I just kept thinking about how much more organized my high school clubs were and that these were supposed to be adults. (Side note: I keep finding that adult students, like 35+, tend to be more disrespectful to fellow students and professors in classroom and club settings than the rest of us. Do they feel what they have to say is more important? Or have they forgotten how to be students? Or do they just not care? Someone please tell me because if that 40yo guy keeps trying to strike up conversations with me during class lectures, I just might punch him...) Everyone had these huge fantastical ideas and then finally someone was like "well, do you know how to do that?" and everyone realized that they had no idea how to do any of the stuff they had been suggesting. It came down there being 3 of us (yes, us) that had any idea of how to pull this stuff off, so we were given the squirrel and the club's blessing. Yes, I can handle paper mache, I was homeschooled.

I went to the mall yesterday for earrings. I usually just wear ball-capture hoops and had lost the ball of one, then the hoop. So I got the earrings and thought "Hey, I'm still looking for Silver is for Secrets by Stolarz, I wonder if they have it here..." So I went to the baby-Borders in the mall and, while they had Blue, White, and Red, they didn't have Silver. But one of the guys that worked there said there was a BIG DADDY-Borders about a block from the mall, so I jetted over there. Bad idea. I found Silver. And Bermudez Triangle by Johnson. And Geektastic. And Revelations by de la Cruz. I love bookstores...

Ooo, another book-related thing. So I went to get a library card for the local library the other day. Backstory: in the state of Ohio, anyone living anywhere within the state can have a card and membership for anywhere in the state. So when I lived in Dayton, I have a Dayton Metro card, a Greene County card, a Wilmington card, and a Springfield card. As long as my driver's license says Ohio, I'm good. So I went into the Kent Free Library to get my new card and was told (by this older, not so nice gentleman) that I needed to provide the address of where I was currently living with a piece of mail. Well, I'm not getting my mail at the dorm because they're making me share a mailbox, so I set up a box at the UPS Store. He said I couldn't use that, he needed proof that I had a physical address in Kent. Well, this is, um, kinda against the law. My driver's license says Ohio and I'm physically here now, that gives me the right to have a library card in this library. In the end he said I could use a computer upstairs to print off my dorm assignment from the Kent website, but I was pretty ticked. I met a real nice girl upstairs that had graduated from my Grad program and was now working there. She, too, was aware of the peculiarities of their system and had inquired as to its revision, only to be shot down repeatedly. I got a library card in the end, though, so I guess that's the important thing. But as a future library professional, I was angry.

Ok, that's all for now, LiveJournal keeps trying to kick me out and it's making me nervous. Tschuss!

hehe, I did something silly... Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a hint:


I got my eyebrow pierced!!!

Wanna hear how it went, 'cause it's a thrilling tale really! Not for the squeamish, so if you are skip to the next paragraph. I knew I wanted to have it done and a girl I know got a tattoo the other day and said the place she went to was great, so I asked one of the girls in my hall, our officially designated "I'll-hold-you-hand-while-they-stick-a-needle-in-you" girl, to come with me and, you know, hold my hand while they stuck needles in me. We got inside and I immediately started having second thoughts. I mean, this is CRAZY, right?! So I signed the paper saying I wouldn't sue them if they ended up gouging my eye out or anything, then followed the guy back into the little cubicle-esque space that had a table of what looked like torture instruments on it. The guy was all business and went into how to take care of it while he was opening the package with the brand new, shiny, thick, long needle in it. At this point I think Danielle sensed I was about to bolt because she grabbed my hand and was like "Ok, here we go!". The guy put the clampy thing on and I closed my eyes and...it wasn't that bad. Like, I know a lot of people are like "Yeah, you know, they had to cut off my finger without anesthesia, but it wasn't that bad..." but really, no joke. I felt the needle go in and felt him push a little more to get it come out the other side, but it wasn't that bad. It was a little wierd to feel him pull the ring through the now gaping wound in my face, but even that was as bad as having the cartilage in my ear pierced (that was pain...). So yeah, now I have new metal and it's cool. I have to clean it with Bactin, which you can only get as a spray, so I can to spray myself in the eye with anti-bacterial disinfectant a couple times a day. That's fun...

In other news, I got a new hair straightener and it has pretty much changed my life. It has cut the time it takes to fix my hair in half, and, get this, my hair actually stays straight ALL DAY! The only down side is I occasionally smell like burnt hair, but it wears off after a bit, lmao! So yeah, yay for styling success!

Not a whole lot else worth noting has been going on really. I'm starting to get into a rhythm here (finally) and, while I didn't go out and party or anything this past weekend, it was cool to be on campus and see people when they weren't jetting off to a class. My classes are going well. I finally got the textbook for that one class in the mail and was able to complete my assignments this week. Yay for being able to do homework!

I think that's it really. I'm hungry and I have class in a bit, so I kinda wanna go take care of that before. Ok, cya!

Yes, it's been a while. So, in classic Brotherhood 2.0 style, this post comes in 4 parts: Excuses, Music, School, and Pictures!

Ok, excuses. My last post was on Monday, August 31st. That night, after months in the hospital and nursing home, my Granny passed away. She went peacefully in her sleep after my family had brought her home to say goodbyes. She was very happy, I am told, and I believe it was probably the best possible way it could have happened. My mom wrote a wonderful piece on her blog about Granny, so if you are so inclined, you should go check it out. I went back to Dayton on Tuesday after my class and stayed until Thursday afternoon to visit with my family and be with my Papaw. So those are my excuses for the beginning of the absence, I think most would agree they're pretty good.

Part 2, Music! I left Dayton on Thursday afternoon and drove to Athens, OH to meet the wonderful Julie and see Scythian at Jackie O's! We were signed up to do merch that night and got to the venue early, then got to stand next to the bathroom during the whole show and have every female in the joint ask us at least once if we were in line. We never were. Other highlights of the evening included hanging out with Kirsten, the made-of-awesome Scythian merch/street team machine, and getting to taste Jackie O's self-brewed draft. Yummy!

Stayed in Athens with Julie and Kirsten that night, then the next morning Julie returned to Dayton while Kirsten and I caravan-ed our way to...Pittsburgh! That's right, the Pittsburgh Irish Festival was this past weekend! I was all set to sell merch for Pogey for this fest, so I didn't stay and admire my ridiculously nice hotel room for long (the Hilton? Really?!) before jetting over to the fest. It was smaller than I had thought, but it was still a nice layout with a good size A Stage. I didn't see the guys anywhere, so I sidled up to the side-stage merch table and inquired of the friendly volunteers there. Bombshell: Pogey was stuck in DC because of the weather. I was instructed to go talk to the main merch tent, as they would have more info. Yep, they were stuck, not gonna make their set tonight, should be in tomorrow, hopefully. So for the first time in about 4 years I was at a fest...for fun. I had no responsibilities, I had no one with me, I had nowhere I had to be. I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all. I'm such a high-strung person, that kind of freedom is more frightening than freeing. I mean, what am I gonna do with all this excitement and energy if I'm not channeling it into selling stuff? I'm gonna get in trouble, that's what! lmao, I ended up meeting back up with Kirsten and her group and hanging out with them for a bit. I actually got to watch a Scythian show from start to finish and got a bunch of coolio videos, so that was cool.

So one of the things I didn't like about Pittsburgh was how little they actually announced about the fest. When I was trying to book the hotel, I had to call and leave messages on the fest's answering machine for a week before anyone got back to me to tell me what the hotel was, and that they did in fact have reduced rates for fest people. Isn't that something you wanna tell fest people? I guess not in Pittsburgh. They also never announced anywhere, to anyone, that there was an afterparty. But Scythian is awesome like that and announced it at their set, so we all headed en mass to a little pub downtown to the afterparty....AND BOB BANERJEE WAS THERE!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I've only gotten to watch Bob play in passing as I'm scurrying somewhere or other at whatever fest it was I saw him at, but I love the YouTube vids and then there he was RIGHT THERE!!! It was the first time I've been star struck in a long time, lol. But awesome show that night, really. He got the Scythian boys on stage towards the end and did an awesome jam with Drunken Sailor, then into some spastic Bollywood-style sets. Ridiculous! I love him...

But back to reality, Pogey did make it on Saturday and I had purpose in my life once more, lmao! Gaelic Storm was there as well on Saturday and I got to pull double duty between the two. I think the universe was trying to remind me to treasure free time, as I had so little on Saturday. All the same, it was super fun running around like a crazy person and breaking in to various band rigs in search of credit card machine tape and sharpies, hehe. (BTW, I bought 10 Sharpies for the fest, none of them made it home with me. Awesome points to who can guess who has them, because I know who took each one, hehe!) So yes, Saturday was wonderful. The girls and I did go to the afterparty again that evening, but it just wasn't as good. Sunday I didn't go to the fest. Gaelic Storm and Pogey had gone to Chicago and, while I did want t see Scythian again, their were closing the fest and I really didn't want to stay that late, so I just drove back to Kent.

And that leads us to Part 3, School! Those of you keeping track have probably realized that I really haven't been at school at all. I mean, I'm gone Friday-Sunday, stay for Monday and part of Tuesday, then leave again until the following Sunday. That's a lot of time gone. I didn't have class, though, because my only class right now only meets once a week, and I was already ahead on my schoolwork. So no harm really done there. The fact of the matter is, though, that I have yet to spend a weekend on campus, and most of the people I know on campus (all 3 of them) have other people they hang out with. You know, people that are actually living in the area instead of stopping in for temporary recharging. So I'm trying to fix that, I think I'll be spending the next 2 weekends on campus (missing the Celtic Classic Highland Games in Bethlehem, PA...)

But SCHOOL! I had one class that I needed the textbook for. The bookstore didn't order enough and they ran out. So they tried to order more and told us they couldn't 'cause the book was out of print. So we go to the internet and order the book. It's being shipped and then...the bookstore gets it in. Grrrr. Problem is, I still haven't gotten my copy in the mail. We have weekly quizzes on the reading and, while they're not that big a percentage of my grade, I've already missed one from not having the book and really REALLY hope I don't have to miss another. Grrrrrrrrrr. In other news, the school told me they'd be mailing my refund check to Jamestown ad it'd be there last week. It never came. So I get here with the intention of going to check on it when I check my mailbox on campus and see a pink slip. That means a package! MY BOOK! So I rush to the desk and she goes, oh, this isn't a package, it's a check! It was my refund check instead of my book. I was simultaneously relieved and disappointed. It was weird. Then I get an email from the school saying I still owe them $200 and would I please come pay it. So yesterday I go get the check cashed and deposit most of it except the $200 for the school. I go to the bursar's office to pay the bill and...the email was a mistake, I owed no money, all is well. So I went to the bookstore and bought myself a shiny new Microsoft Office 2007 that was on sale. Yay! So many ups and downs...I'm tired.

But wait! you say. Part 4! Pictures! WE WANT PICTURES!! Ok, Ok, chill out, here ya go!


The stage at Jackie-O's before the show. Stole this one from Julia because she's better than me at just about everything. :D


The bar was ridiculously small and so Nathan had to construct his own sound booth. I took this one on my phone, so it's not that great, but at the top of that tower, that's the sound board, and next to the light, that's his arm. He had to be all bent over like Quasimodo whenever he was up there, it was crazy.


Merch Girls! Hi, Julie!!!


More Merch Girls!! Hi, Kirsten!! (And Dante lurking in the background...)


Show time!


My view of Kirsten's car the whole way to Pittsburgh. That little white dot on the left, that's a Scythian sticker. That's how I found her most of the time.


Scythian Friday night in Pittsburgh!


And the leg kicks...oh yes

Had a few minutes on Saturday to watch Slide before Pogey got on stage. I love Slide...


Autograph table art!!!


And I stole this from Julie, it's actually from Sunday in Chicago, but I just love it! Rock Star Zach!!!!!!!

So yeah, that's what I've got. I hope you all are following my on Twitter because I'm kind of addicted and I went through today and was reading old tweets and you can definitely keep track of where I am and what I'm doing on there constantly. If you care. I care. But then, that's because it's me. (When I typed "I care", I had a total carebear moment...) Ok, ciao!

I've been telling myself I needed to do a post for the last 3 days and kept putting it off saying that I wanted it to be a photo post with pics of my dorm room and all. I've decided this is silly, why would I want the whole internet to see my dorm room? So sorry, but you might get some Scythian pics if I'm in a good mood when it comes to that point.

I've been moved in to my dorm at Kent for 5 days now and I've slept here 3 nights. It actually looks like a room that I've been in for a while, so that's nice. Everyone that comes to see it comments on how nice it is. I had meant to take before and after pictures and completely forgot to get a before shot in the insanity that was move-in. Joe and Casey drove up with me and it turned out to be a lifesaver. It took all three of us to loft my bed the way I wanted and it took us 4 trips to get all my stuff up. The dorm had brought out laundry carts for people to use, but seeing as how I didn't have an obnoxious parent there to duke it out for me, I never did get one. If fact, we didn't even get to take elevators most of the time. We just took the stairs. All 8 stories of stairs. It was a good workout. But yes, the dorm room in inhabitable. I was concerned about being in this particular dorm because of the high number of freshman the live in it, but it's turned out all right. Yes, I've been mistaken for a freshman more times than I'd like to share, but as my mommy keeps telling me I'll appreciate it later in life.

So I moved in Thursday, just kinda chilled around Friday, and then drove back to sweet ol' Dayton on Saturday to see Scythian! Of course they decide to come 3 days after I move out of town, but oh well, that's life. I met up with my awesome friend Julie and we hung out at the radio station while the guys were getting interviewed, then went to her place and watched Drumline while waiting for the show that evening. Good times were had by all!

The show itself had an interesting start. The guys started playing and it was awesome and everyone was getting excited and then!..they blew a circuit. So there was some sad noises as the guys set it all back up again and then they started playing again and it was even more exciting this time until!...they blew the circuit again. This time Mikey just kept playing and got a got riff going, but they ended up having to turn off the stage lights and use the track lighting for the rest of that set. They were able to rewire everything during the break and get it going good then, but it was a pretty awesome start to the evening. Here's some pics, but all were stolen from Julie 'cause mine were terrible.

You can see in this one where the stage lights the guys set up on the sides aren't working.

The track lights were really bright and shining right in Dan's eyes. They were able to turn them down a little so her could see, lol.
 

Me and Julie!!

Me and Brandi!

So yeah, fun times. Back to college stuff, I've made a few friends from around my dorm, but tonight I'm gonna (try to) go to a meeting for the school's chapter of ALA (American Library Association). They seem like a friendly enough bunch, so hopefully that'll work out. I wanted to buy all my books today with the lovely loan refund check the school gave me, but they bank would only release $100, so I got 1 book. Guess I'll go start on that. Have a good day, eh!

I go to my student orientation tomorrow at Kent. And I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, really. I mean, it's been a long time since I've been to any kind of school orientation, and those were quite different than this one because this is for grad students and those were for...not grad students. Cedarville had a whole week of stuff you went to that was supposed to help you bond with your dormmates and the people in you department. I remember feeling incredibly awkward the entire time.

Best story ever: When we got all checked in for orientation at Cedarville, there was this block of free time and most kids were talking to people they knew from high school or that they were rooming with or whatever. I kinda wanted to do my whole run and hide bit, but Mom was all like "go talk to someone!" and I was all like "are you crazy?" And then she started threatening to go around introducing me to these groups of students. And she was serious. I don't think I ever did talk to anyone, but I didn't hide in a corner...

So yeah, that was Cedarville. When I went to Lee we had a special section for transfer students. I won a prize for being the youngest transfer student in our session (yay me...). What I liked most about that experience was that the entire thing was in a lecture hall and all we did was sit there and listen to people talk. They never once made me talk to anyone else there. I liked that a lot.

From the looks of things, tomorrow is going to be a mix of those two experiences, but hopefully without the pre-choreographed dance we were required to perform at Cedarville. 2 hours of listening to people talk about the program and all the professors, but then there's a "Social and Exhibits" section. Social. It says "Meet new students and mingle with representatives from professional library associations." I don't really see this ending well. I like meeting new people, but only on my terms (like at a show, where I can make a quick exit if things aren't going well.) This is a completely pre-arranged, pre-planned meeting bonanza. I'm not a fan. I don't like being in situations where I am basically forced to "mingle" and make friends with people I know nothing about. Oh yeah, and that whole "representatives from professional library associations..." Does that mean I can't wear jeans? Because I definitely have a problem with a no-jeans environment...

Yeah, so that's what's going on here. Wade Johnston is playing down in Cinci tonight, but I'm not supposed to go alone...I might...but I shouldn't...I just really want out of the house. I was supposed to go hang out with a friend last night and it all fell through. I haven't left the house in almost 4 days now and it's really starting to get to me. I mean, I know I'm going to be driving 4 friggin' hours to Kent tomorrow, but that doesn't really help me NOW! Bleargh.

Happy thoughts: I might be able to get a room in the "host" hotel for Pittsburgh Irish Fest, so no lonely walks through the big city for me! I've also discovered this friggin' awesome band on YouTube called Pomplamoose, you should check them out! They're producing Julia Nunes's new CD (more happy, Julia Nunes is gonna have a new CD out soon!). Secret wish is still alive and well, though not really any closer to coming true (no, Mommy, I can't tell you, it's a SECRET!!). Yeah, I think that's all the happy thoughts for now.

I would keep typing on this for another hour just to have something to do, but I think all intelligent discourse has run it's...course. Yeah. Tschuss!

Papaw and I have come to a kind of stand-still with our household chores. I have stopped washing the dishes he cleans, and he has stopped buying food. We have not had a sit down to declare the terms of the stand-off, but it will have to happen soon. We have no milk, eggs, bread, meat, fresh vegetables, or really anything that I am able of making into a decent meal. We have a lot of canned corn and, for whatever reason, carrots, and ramen noodles. Papaw won't eat ramen noodles. At some point in the next 24 hours, he will get hungry and go to get some food...I hope!

In other news, I haven't done any real packing in days. I could pack up my books, but I have no boxes. I don't wanna pack my clothes until the last minute (I actually haven't even done laundry since I've been back from Milwaukee- crazy!). I've been on the computer a lot and I've been reading a lot and I've been sleeping a lot...and that's really it. Brandi and GMa are still out in South Dakota, although that whole crew should be back this weekend. I really haven't been doing anything truly useful, lmao.

I did send out inquiries to different festivals and parks about a band I want to have play around here, but I won't hear anything back from that for months, if ever. Scythian plays in Columbus and Dayton next weekend and I get to flyer the city for the show, but you can't go doing that too early or the flyers get taken down or thrown out long before the show. Also, they didn't send me physical flyers or posters, but a computer file I have to print out and cut up. Kinda cheap and lazy if you ask me, but I didn't say it...well, maybe I did, but don't tell them I said it!

I did find an awesome band on YouTube thanks to the lovely Julia Nunes called Pomplamoose. I listened to their 5 songs for about 3 hours last night, they make me happy lots. So yeah, check them out. They're recording a CD with Julia this summer, and I am very, very excited about that...yep!

Paramore's new music video came out. I like the song. I'm never a real big fan of music videos, so not a lot I'm gonna say about it, but the song was really cool. I wonder when the new CD comes out...Oh, and Flyleaf is FINALLY putting out a second album! I thought they must have split up or something, it's been sooooo long! Still haven't heard anything from it yet, so we'll have to see if they suffer the sam fate as so many other sophomore albums...

I got my guitar restrung the other day and have been messing on it a lot. My fingers hurt, lmao! And I really want a ukulele because I still can't even reach to bar or anything. It sucks.

I still have a big blog entry on a band I need to write up, but this is not the time. I need more info first...So until then, ciao!

So a giant part of me wants to do a repeat of Dublin Fest and just not blog about it, but I feel like that's cheating at this point. I mean, it was really too awesome for me to put into words without sounding like a fangirl, but like I said, I need to give you guys something, eh? So I think what I'm going to do is instead of doing a play by play of what I did/saw/etc., I'm gonna write more of a kind of review. Is that ok? I mean, I'd love to sit here and write all about what I talked about with different people and who I saw doing what when they were really drunk, but this blog has definitely never been about that. So with that being said, here we go!

First stop on this train ride would have to be a stage show that came to the fest from Canada called Drum! I saw them on Friday more than anything because I had ended up hanging out with the majority of the cast the night before without realizing it and felt like I really needed to see what brought them to the fest and what they were about and everything. As a result, I had no idea what the show was (or that it was a show, I thought it was a band!) until I was actually watching. The show seeks to tell the story of the blending of four central cultures in Nova Scotia, Canada through music, dance, and, more than anything else, drums and rhythm. It was all staged and choreographed and awesome, kind of a blending of Stomp, Riverdance, and...The History Channel. They play regularly in a theater in Halifax, but they also tour. The full show is 2 hours, but for the festival they cut it down to an hour. it was very very cool. Here's a promo video I found on YouTube:

I got a haircut today. I don't know if it's an Ohio thing, or a Dayton thing, or maybe I'm clueless and it's a girl thing, but for whatever reason when a fellow female cuts my hair, it looks like crap. I had this awesome guy that used to cut my hair before he moved to a salon that charged twice as much as the already outrageous price of the first place, and he was so good at giving me something I could manage that made me look alright. I went in and explained to the lady today exactly what I wanted, how long where, how it should lay, everything. It's too long all over and she poofed it up when she dried it. Do I really look, ever, like the kind of girl that wants poofy hair, ever? I'm wearing Chucks covered in mud, ratty jeans, and a tshirt that's 2 sizes too big, and you wanna give me big Nashville hair? Really?! I'm telling myself to calm down and wait till I try to style it on my own (maybe I can tame this beast I've been saddled with...), but it's hard when I keep walking by mirrors and shuddering. Grrr.

In other news, I leave for Milwaukee day after tomorrow. We're leaving earlier than we really need to in order to (hopefully) avoid Chicago traffic. As it is, we should be getting around that area around 2-2:30, after lunch hour but before quitting time. We'll hit traffic, that's inevitable, but I'd love it if I didn't have to do bumper to bumper for more than a few minutes...well, one can hope.

I got flowers today. They're very pretty and make me giggle every time I see them. I've only ever gotten flowers after concerts when I used to do the performing monkey thing. This is the first time I've ever had them sent to my house, either way. Awesome.

I'm listening to Jane Eyre, the musical. I like it lots. I don't know much about it other than it didn't run that long and I've never really researched, but I stumbled across the album at school a couple years back and I just love it. It's so...classically musical. It doesn't try to be pop or cool, it's just people singing with British accents with traditional musical arrangements...and awesome piano lines. There are a lot of very cool canon sections and recurring themes that I just LOVE. The male lead reminds me of the Princes in Into the Woods, very classical style baritones that just belt it. Yeah, it's fantastic.

Been reading some very cool books the last few days, trying to work my way through the huge stack I've acquired lately. And I've developed a new character crush. Sarah Dessen's Just Listen is a pretty typical Sarah Dessen with a troubled girl working through problems with a guy coming into the picture at some point. The good guy in this one is Owen Armstrong, a misunderstood music junky that has assaulted fellow students in the school parking lot and goes to court ordered Anger Management classes. Oh, and I love him. A lot. It's terrible, lmao. But yeah, it was a very good read. It ended too quickly today. Started on E. Lockhart's The Treasure Map of Boys right after, almost done with it and it's pretty good...yeah, it's good. I think I'll go back to Sarah Dessen after this one, I've heard the other book I have of hers is even better...

Interrupted the blog post to watch the new John Green video and have completely lost all thoughts...hmm...

I've been friending like crazy on MySpace, so Hi to all the new peeps! No real reason other than boredom and curiosity (I wanna see how many people that I've never met will agree to be my friend...yeah)...

Before I go, thought I'd share this. I don't get into politics much on here because, while I have ideals and ideas, they are mostly kind of ill-defined and...mushy. I'm not very outspoken about politics, however my mom is very VERY active in all things politics. She writes a blog about her political views and...well, I made the blog. Or, well, my 4-year-old self made the blog. And my brothers and granny. So, if you're interested, here's that: http://www.findingmyselfinalaska.com/2009/08/learning-about-health-care-from.html
The views expressed in this blog do in no way reflect on me. I'm not saying I disagree, I'm not saying I agree, I'm saying this is my mommy and doesn't she write pretty?

Anyway, off to listen to more awesomely old-school musical tunes. Ciao!

I'm waiting on an email. I've been waiting for this email for 2 days. I was told by the writer that it was being written last night. It hasn't come. So I'm checking my email every, like, 2 minutes, hitting refresh to see if it's come yet. It hasn't. It's driving me a little crazy. It's not a life or death email, but its' contents will dictate whether I send other emails, and thus I need it...well, last night. Should I email the sender again and be like "Yo, um, did you finish that email? Because it's kinda, like, eating my life. Waiting for it." I don't think I will because I always try to stay on the good side of the line between helper and stalker. But yeah, it's definetly consuming my consciousness....

I'm listening to Pogey on YouTube right now. I find it both fabulous and troubling that you can find their entire sets from festivals for free, but eh, whatever. I'm really hoping I get to go to Milwaukee and see them again next week, it's all up in the air right now (that's what the email is about!). I really wanna go, but I also don't want to get there and end up stranded with no one I know anywhere about. I know it's a long shot, it IS Milwaukee, but all the same. If I get to go, I'll be leaving on Thurday and be coming back Sunday. I'll have that week off to pack and whatever, then Tuesday the 25th is orientation, Thursday the 27th is my move in day, and Friday the 28th is when Scythian comes through Columbus and Dayton, so I'll be driving down from Kent for that. The week after that is Kansas City Irish Fest, then the week after that is Pittsburgh Irish Fest.

SO much stuff. TOO much stuff!! Serious, it's amazing. I start thinking about how I'm living right now and I want to stay like this. I've heard my friends talking about buying houses, and a lot of my friends are married with kids and stuff, but honestly I can't imagine myself in that position ever, let alone now. People keep telling me I'll grow out of it, or that it won't last, that I'll need a "real job" eventually. Why is that? I mean, the majority of people I know of with "real jobs" are miserable. Sure, they have a car and some place to live, maybe even really nice versions of these, but they seem to be owned by them. And what's the point of having a nice house if you're working 10 hours a day? I'd rather have a junky car and an efficiency apartment and have the time to travel and have fun and not feel guilty for staying out till 5am than have a nice house and car and be completely owned by a corporation. I have a  college education, yes, but not because I want to get a good job that pays lots of money. I want a job that can give me work I enjoy in small enough portions that I can have fun. It's a dream, I know, but it's my dream and I'm ok with it.

Woah, we got deep there for a minute, eh? Weird. Gonna check the email...Only Facebook. Oh Facebook, how your email notifications annoy me, let me count the ways...

Speaking of Facebook, the boys of Enter the Haggis are having an all out war regarding who can gather the most friends. It's quite cute actually, but it's eating both my Twitter AND Facebook account. Fun times still. That's another thing about MIF this year, no Enter the Haggis. Of course the one year I get to go is the one year they don't come. Sad.

Ok, I'm gonna put down the laptop and turn on the TV and hope to take a nap...yeah, we'll try that. Ciao!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, so I thought I'd do a picture post! Dayton Celtic Fest was a couple weeks back and I didn't have my actual camera, so I took pictures on my phone.
So yeah, fun times. Waiting now to find out if I'm gonna be able to go to Milwaukee Irish Festival. As far as I'm concerned, I'm there! But I don't know about the other people coming with me, so that'll change things. Here's to hoping! Still house sitting, waiting for something to happen. See ya next time!

Ok, so I've decided I need to quit school and travel constantly. The feeling of being almost homeless (in the sense that one isn't 100% certain where one will be sleeping/eating/getting online) is just sooooo enticing to me. I have this problem every year during festivals, but this season has hit especially hard because it was an especially awesome Dublin Irish Fest. I can blame it all on a single band: Pogey. They rock. Nicest guys in the world. Awesome music and live sets. Can not say enough, so I won't try, but check them out. Indeed, if you read this regularly, this will be far from the last time you hear from them.

By the way, I was kidding about that whole quitting school thing, although I really thought about switching to all internet classes...

I'm house sitting this week and it has further reinforced in me the thought that I would be miserable living alone. She has dogs and they're fun, but I've been there less than 24 hours now and feel very lonely and depressed that there's no one else there, no one coming home soon, no one I need to worry about feeding. I'm not joking and it's really freaking me out, lol. A lot of it could also be that the access codes she gave me to use her wireless aren't good and the only internet I have is on my phone. It's not that bad, but it's amazing me how much I've come to rely on the internet...scary!! But Joe is coming over later and we're gonna hang out, so all is not lost. I won't die of loneliness of boredom!

The thought of dying of boredom in Yellow Springs is...unsatisfactory. This is one of my favorite places in the whole world! And I want to go hiking!! But we had rain all night and there's flash flood warnings, so I'm inclined to wait till tomorrow to venture down into the gorge. Pity.

Not a whole lot else to write on here really, I decided I wasn't going to post details on the fest because they are too awesome and I want to keep them for myself. Maybe something exciting will happen today and I'll post tomorrow. Two days in a row, OMG!! Ciao!

I was really surprised last week to find that, quite without my knowledge, festival season had arrived! Dayton Celtic Festival is one of the only free Irish fests in the country and is made more awesome being not only my hometown, but also a stop for both Gaelic Storm AND Scythian!! I love both these groups so much, they're just such awesome people and so much fun both on stage and off. It was a little different this year as a couple of my favorite people had moved on to bigger and better things like family and the Jonas Brothers, but it was definetly still a spifftacular weekend with new and old friends alike. Friday after the last set we all went out the Dublin Pub, my favorite local establishment, and proceeded to take over. Saturday night was the official afterparty at Flanagan's and while the venues sucked, all was made well by Scythian playing the longest show I'd ever known them to do, not wrapping up till around 3am. A good time was most definetly had by all. Sunday was the last day of the fest and I ended up walking around all during Scythian passing out band stickers and collecting names for the email list. I know it's weird, but I actually like the shows better when I have some kind of job to do. Really, and I know it confuses some people, including me, but it's true. I love being helpful, lol. We went out to Dublin Pub again last night and had an awesome time chatting with everyone while some of the guys from Blackthorn and the other groups played tunes. I love the random music that breaks out at these, it's so much fun. We were eventially kicked out by the guardians of the establishment, but they were nice about. Silly Sunday liquor laws. It was some kind of awesome weekend, seriously.

So, in other news...I'm having trouble thinking of other news. I got my dorm assignment for Kent and it sucks, but I'm hesitant to make a fuss since I'm new and all. I got my move in date, August 27, and Scythian plays in Dayton on August 29...so not sure how I'm gonna swing that logistically, but it will happen.

Oh! And I think I'm going to try to go to Scythian's new Sunflower Festival in October. It has been established this year as Joe's wedding reception (friggin' sweet, eh?!) and there's gonna be all manner of bluegrass, irish, and world music. I'm quite stoked, I must say.

Ok, so I'm typing all this out on my Sidekick and my thumbs are getting tired. Dublin Irish Fest next week, the big one. I'll be working with Gaelic Storm, Scythian, Pogey, and possibly Slide, so it proves to be an
AWESOME weekend!! Talk to ya later!!