Hello. It's me. Sorry I've sucked at posting lately, but it's the end of the semester and things have been really busy with classes wrapping up, more london meetings, last minute homeworks, papers, exams, packing, saying goodbye to friends...it's all kind of crazy right now.

Let's see, fun stuff that has happened...well, last Saturday, they showed "The Dark Knight" on the big screen in the chapel...that was pretty awesome. It's my second favorite movie ever (number 1 being, of course, "The Empire Strikes Back"), and it was great to see it with my Highlander friends (even if Mel was scared to death of the Joker, lol). Here's a little clip from the movie, right before the interrogation scene (My favorite part of the entire movie, btw).

Such a good movie. I've also completed my next movie. The song I used is "Life in Technicolor," the opening track of Coldplay's new album "Viva La Vida". I'll probably post the movie in a few weeks. I incorporated 4 different versions of the song in the video. I like it a lot, and you'll see it eventually.

Let's see, what else? Oh! Here's something fun. So this past year, Houghton has removed all of their cafteria trays to see if it would save more water to help the environment or whatever, and all of the upperclassmen were upset. The freshmen didn't care because we weren't used to them. Anyways, if you still needed a tray, like if you broke your leg or something, you could still get one. Well, I needed one for a Spanish project (we reinacted the Wizard of Oz, and the Wizard gave the Lion a "relic from Houghton's past"). But the next day, I still had it until dinner, so me, Adam, Joyce, Elisa, Monica, and Zeke went tray-sledding down the ski hill! It was so cool. It got off to a slow start until we went a few times and packed down the snow and made a good path. Then we went flying! We all went a bunch of times. I only recorded myself going down once though. It was really short and crappy because I was holding onto my camera instead of the tray. But the other runs were fantastic!

One of the best parts was when Adam, my awesome roommate, snuck up behind Elisa as she was getting ready and pushed her down the hill. She went farther than anyone else off of that.

Other than that, it's just been the aforementioned school work combined with hanging out with my friends as much as possible before London. Speaking of which, this will most likely be my last post until I'm in London (I might do one over break or on the plane). I will be posting a lot more in London, I promise. I hope to do at least once a week, maybe even a couple times a week. They'll be shorter posts, usually just "Look at these photos of my friends and I doing British things!" or "Aahh, these weekly 5 page papers are killing me!" (we actually have those, btw), but I will be keeping you posted a lot more. So if you think to, and if you happen to see people who currently read, have read, or might possibly like to read this, tell them about it and give them the link (www.houghton26.blogspot.com). I hope you guys have a great Christmas, (I hope I do too, for that matter), and thanks for reading. See you all in 2009!

Dan

Top Ten Best Things to Come Out of England

So, in one month, one week, and one day, I'm leaving for London. To make myself feel better about that terrifying fact, I've come up with my ten favorite things that originated in England, from least to greatest. Here you go.


#10. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

One of the best comedies of all time. It's original, random, offensive, witty, and creative, basically everything a comedy should be. It inspired me to buy and shell two coconuts, which turned into a fun Tent Camp tradition of riding gallantly to the snack bar every day.

Honest truth: The last 2 minutes of this movie are frustrating, disappointing, and unfunny.

#9. "Greensleeves"

"What Child Is This" has always been one of my favorite Christmas songs. The tune is taken from an English classical music piece called "Greensleeves" which was written around 1580 in England.

Honest Truth: "Greensleeves" is a love song to a prostitute. Merry Christmas.

#8. Kiera Knightley

So as not to get in trouble with Emily, I'll only mention the fact that Kiera Knightley is in Star Wars Episode I and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Other than that, I think she's butt ugly and not attractive at all, and I know that thousands of guys agree with me. Really.

Honest Truth: I am deeply saddened by the fact that I will never meet Kiera Knightley. And Pirates of the Caribbean 3 sucked. A lot.

#7. The United States of America

Alright, it's a bit of a stretch, but it is true! Our country started out as British colonies, and we eventually broke free and became America. So there you go.

Honest Truth: I haven’t heard anything from or about Joe Biden since he was announced as Obama’s running mate. What’s that guy doing?

#6. The Beatles

There's really not much to say here. The Beatles are from England. The Beatles are musical gods. The Beatles came to America. The Beatles defined rock and roll. The Beatles are currently 50% dead.

Honest Truth: Paul McCartney is overrated and Ringo Starr is underrated.

#5. James Bond

I love the James Bond movies. They're a bit cheesy and redundant, but you can always expect the same things in each one: awesome music, sweet cars, hot girls, cool gadgets, and freaky villians. I never get tired of them. Every Thanksgiving, Spike TV used to have James Bond marathons, and instead of watching football after dinner, I'd watch 3 or 4 Bond flicks in a row. I'm not sure if I have a favorite Bond actor. Of course Connery made, defined, and perfected the role, giving Moore big shoes to fill, and he actually did a great job. I grew up and was introduced to 007 when he was played Brosnan, so that's naturally who I think of when I hear "James Bond", but Craig did a sweet job reinventing the character in the last two movies, even if "Casino Royale" was the least Bondish movie so far.

Honest Truth: The single greatest thing about the Bond movies isn't the Bond Girls. It's Q.

#4. Coldplay

Every time this band puts out a new album, EP, or song, I like them even more. They're so cool. "Parachutes" sounds like U2, which makes sense because Coldplay used to open for U2, and Chris Martin always cites Bono as one of his greatest influences and heroes. "A Rush of Blood to the Head" still reminds me of U2, but it definately sounds like the band is starting to get more comfortable with themselves as they search for their own "sound". "X &Y" sounds like it's from outer space and showed the band getting more experimental. "Viva la Vida" is by far my favorite album by Coldplay because for the first time, they sound like Coldplay. They've got their own distinctive instrumentation, rythym, and style, and it's incredible.

Honest Truth: "Viva la Vida" (the song) is not as good as everyone makes it out to be. "Viva la Vida" (the album) is Coldplay's best work so far.



#3. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

To clarify right off the bat, I'm talking about the books, not the movies. But these books plus The Hobbit are some of my favorites. They're kind of hard to read, but that's because Tolkien put his heart and soul into writing them. He didn't just make new creatures and end there. He gave them histories and even invented written and spoken languages for all of them. He didn't just create a new world. He drew elaborate and consistent maps so we could see Middle Earth. He even wrote several other books, such as The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales that give us the whole history of Middle Earth and all its characters. And yes, the movies are epic as well.

Honest Truth: Saruman taking over the Shire at the end of Return of the King is just stupid.

#2. The Harry Potter series
Yes, I just put Harry above Frodo. Sue me. Like Tolkien, J.K. Rowling created a magical universe from scratch and set it right next to the real world. She wrote a 7 part story of a teenage wizard and made a school that seemed fun. There were a million characters that we loved, and about half of them died, but almost all of the deaths helped Harry grow and the story develop. She made Voldemort who, in my eyes, is right up there with Emperor Palpatine and Sauron. She made us grow attached to the characters even moreso than Tolkien did, and each book had about 2 dozen connections to each of the other 6 books that you don't really understand or appreciate until you've read all of them.


Honest Truth: The epilogue in Deathly Hallows isn't all that bad, and you'd whine if it wasn't there. And Dumbledore is straight.





#1. Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
That's right. Above Harry Potter and Frodo Baggins, John Lennon and Chris Martin, James Bond and Kiera Knightley, Christmas songs, coconuts, and our entire country is Thomas the Tank Engine. This was the first part of pop culture that I ever got into and obsessed over. I had the diecast trains, the videos, and books. I had Thomas board games, Thomas puzzles, Thomas shirts, Thomas Christmas ornaments, Thomas cookies, and Thomas bedsheets. When my parents potty-trained me, I got Thomas toys as rewards for not crapping my pants. I was Thomas for for my 4th and 5th Halloweens. I had at least 2 nightmares about scary parts of the TV show as a little kid. Thomas was the original reason of why blue is my favorite color. I'm not sure if I loved Thomas because I loved trains, or if I loved trains because I loved Thomas, or both. But they definately went hand-in-hand. Thomas and Friends started out as a children's book series, The Railway series, written by the Rev. W. Awdry from 1945 to 1972. In 2000, my parents gave me Thomas the Tank Engine: Thee Complete Collection, which includes all 26 books written by Awdry. I crack it open every now and then to read about Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, and the rest of them, and when I have a son, these will be his bedtime stories.

Honest Truth: "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" was better than "Sesame Street", "Barney", "Reading Rainbow", and "Mister Roger's Neighborhood" combined. I will physically fight you over this fact of life.

Batman doesn't like chocolate

Things are/have been pretty crazy. For starters, I had an awesome break. I got to see a bunch of awesome people and have Thanksgiving dinner again. It was great to be home for a longer period of time than two days. I got to play Wii, go to a Sabres game with Megan, play trombone, see the new James Bond movie (much better than Casino Royale), spend time with Emily and Jordan, and all sorts of other cool things. Oh, and I finally shaved and cut my hair. I had a goatee for about three days, but it was weird-looking so I got rid of it. My birthday was very nice. I got tuna rice and chesese, and LOONEY TUNES! Thanks to Golden Age Collection Vol. 6 from my parents AND burning a DVD this past week, I am now up to 987 cartoons. When I hit a thousand, you'll all know because I'm planning a big event with people. It'll be fun.

I came back to Houghton on my birthday and had to work on math homework and a history paper due the next day. The history paper was about railroads and the Civil War (guess who got to pick the topic) and I think I did really well on it. Monday, however, was rough. We had an Advanced Composition research paper on Robinson Crusoe due on Tuesday, and naturally all of us waited until Monday to get started. We had to come up with a thesis, find and read 8 articles on the book, and tie them all together in an 8 page paper. It was a really miserable day. Here's how it went down on Monday

-I started work at about 2:30 (spanish class was cancelled)
-I finished Tuesday at 4:00 in the morning (13.5 hours after I started, and 5.5 hours before it was due)
-I read 8 articles as well as much of Robinson Crusoe over again
-My paper was 8 pages and 2,409 words long.
-While reading and writing, I listened to over 30 classical music songs. (some were over 15 minute long!)
-I had two dinners (Tuna Rice and Cheese at 4:45 and Big Al's at 8:30.)
-I only watched 2 Looney Tunes cartoons
-I drank 5 caffinated drinks (1 Cherry Coke, 2 Dr. Peppers, 1 Root Beer, 1 Jones Soda)
-Due to these drinks I went to the bathroom over 2 dozen times
-At about 5:30, I had to put my pillow on my chair and sit on it because my butt was sore

At about 4 AM, I finished. I handed it in on Tuesday and after class and cleaning showers I did...nothing. All day long. It was my day of healing. I lied around Roth and ate food and watched a bunch of my new Looney Tunes. It was great. (Coincidentally, it was also mine and Emily's 25 month 'anniversary'. Go us.)

Another thing I've been doing is making new videos, all using music by Coldplay from their new album and EP. I started one for "Violet Hill", but it was lame so I scrapped it. Right now, I'm working on one for "Life in Technicolor" which includes a bit of the Vitamin String Quartet's version of the song as well as Coldplay's songs "The Escapist" and "Life in Technicolor II". It's coming along pretty awesomely. I'm spending way too much time on it, but it looks great and will be worth it when it's done. I've also got some ideas for "Lovers in Japan" and "Glass of Water", but those probably won't happen for a while.

Yesterday was pretty good. It was the halfway-through-the week point, which was nice. I went to class, vegged a bit more, and watched "Forrest Gump" with Mel and Seth. Great movie.

Today has been a "nothing day" as well. I slept in until 10:00 (Adv. Comp. is cancelled for today and Tuesday), went to an informational London meeting at 11, had lunch with my friends, and came back to Roth and messed around on the comptuer, which leads right up to now. When I finish this, I'm going to clean the showers.

Finals are coming up. I should probably get on that. But Christmas is coming up too. That's a lot cooler than finals.

Here is one of the things I was doing on the internet today. These are spoofs of those motivational posters you see everywhere, with the epic picture of a guy climbing a mountain or something, and the caption says "Victory" or "Teamwork" or something cheesy like that. These ones are better. Some of them are a bit mean, but you're all big boys and girls and the posters are still funny. If you can't read the smaller caption, click on the picture and it should get better. I'll post again later. See ya.