Get Thee To A Nunnery

Today has been pretty good so far. The sky is very cool- it's really overcast, like it could rain at any minute. I got up at 8:15 and went to breakfast. Then I took a shower and hung out in my room until colloquy. This colloquy went pretty well for me. I'm pretty sure I got an A.

When colloquy was over, Eri, Tabitha, and I went to the professors' flat to have lunch with the Wardwells. Throughout the semester, they've been inviting students over to their flat for lunch, and it was our turn. I was pretty nervous though. I had never gone over to one of my teachers' houses for lunch before. But it went really well. Dr. Wardwell, his wife, and his son are all really nice. The conversations were good too. It wasn't forced or awkward at all, really. Mrs. Wardwell made cream of broccoli soup and we also had biscuits, carrots, fruit, and chocolate cookies. The soup was fantastic. It was really salty, and they gave us shredded cheese that we could put in it. I had two bowls. It felt so good to have a homecooked meal, as opposed to the Highbury meals or scraps of food that I put together for lunch.

After lunch, the three of us went back to the Highbury Centre and played tennis with Steve Corell for the next hour or so (there's a tennis court in the backyard, next to the garden. Adam and I have a perfect view of it from our room). It was me and Steve against Tab and Eri, but we didn't really keep score. On several occasions, I'd accidentally hit the balls over the fence into the convent next door. So we went nextdoor and knocked on the door and a very nice nun let us into the backyard so we could get the balls.

I was tired and sort of chilly, so I went back to the room and watched a couple Looney Tunes. Because that's just what I do. Then, remembering it was Thursday, I checked my email and saw this week's paper topic:

With appropriate and specific references to relevant selections from this week’s sources, document some of the ways in which eighteenth-century artists and intellectuals embraced and developed themes associated with Renaissance humanism, in particular a focus on human nature and its perfection (along with its many foibles), as well as the reform of society. (By “relevant” we mean relevant to the specific points you think you can provide evidence for and explain in five pages.)

I read through it a couple times, laughed a little at how confusing it is, died on the inside a bit, shrugged, and watched another cartoon. Now I'm in the library. I have a piece of chocolate cake in the fridge, and I'm going to bring it back to the room and watch a couple more cartoons. Then I'll start looking at the paper, I promise. I got a few general ideas in colloquy today, so I have a starting place, at least.

Tonight at 7:30, a bunch of us are going to a concert. They're going to play Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi. I'm somewhat familiar with all three of them, so I'm actually looking forward to this. I probably won't want to work on the paper much after I get back, so I guess I should do some of it before I leave. I will. But I still have all of Friday and Saturday too. So I might not get much done today. I don't know, I'll see.

I come home in exactly seven weeks from today. 49 days. A month and a half. Words cannot express my excitement. Just thought you all should know.




An actual ad we saw on the way to the Science Museum. I couldn't stop giggling.



My response to long and confusing paper topics right after they are assigned.

Adam's response to long and confusing paper topics right after they are assigned. I think both of our tactics are more than adequate, don't you?

So. You've probably heard this already, but I'm still having fun with it.. You know Joaquin Phoenix? He's one of my favorite actors. I've seen him in "Walk the Line", "We Own the Night", and "The Village". He was absolutely fantastic in all 3 movies. Well, apparently he's decided that acting isn't for him. He's aspiring to become a hip-hop artist. Yeah. You read that right. Here are links to two videos that I highly recommend, if you want to see how he's doing:

(Joaquin jumping up and down and ultimately falling off the stage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F_Ikksg40U

(Joaquin fighting with an audience member and getting dragged away by security)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-SQN18KUds

Good luck to you, Joaquin. Thanks for wasting a perfectly good acting career. Personally, I find the whole thing utterly ridiculous (the beard and hair are especially hilarious). The only thing that keeps it from being 100% hysterical is that I had a lot of respect for Joaquin, especially after seeing him portray one of my all-time heroes, Johnny Cash. I took Joaquin very seriously, and it's a shame that he essentially lost his mind and blew his career.

Speaking of Johnny Cash, I have an idea for a potential tattoo, because I'm 19 and have silly ideas like that. But tell me what you think- and please be serious. Two of my greatest heroes are Johnny Cash and Chuck Jones. Two of my oldest and best friends are Jordan Stengel and Christina Graczyk. Plus, I'm a Christian, and follow Jesus Christ. I was thinking of having a *small* ring of 4 J's and 4 C's going around my arm, like this: JCJCJCJC. (To represent Jesus Christ, Johnny Cash, Jordan, Chuck Jones, Christina) I've been thinking about this for about a week now, and I think it would work. Then again, I did originally come up with this idea late at night when I was trying to sleep, so it might just be a dumb idea. But I really like it. What do you guys think?

"I Got In A Fight With The Stenographer"

Yesterday we went to Hampton Court Palace, which used by King Henry VIII. It was a very, very cool trip. We went through about a dozen bedrooms and dining rooms. There were paintings hanging everywhere. We went in the kitchens and the armory. Cameras weren't really allowed inside the palace, but I took some pictures nonetheless. Most of my pictures are from the massive garden that had dozens of birds, including seagulls, swans, and geese. There were more gardens along the side of the palace, but the one in the back was the biggest, and my favorite. Emily wanted me to post pictures, but I didn't really want to because for as nice as technology and blogs and Facebook can be, I like the old-fashioned way where you take a bunch of pictures and bring them home to show people. That way you can tell them stories about the trip. So I probably won't post too many photos in the future, unless something really cool happen. That said, I really hope you enjoy these. The vast majority are from the garden, but that's because I'm surrounded by buildings and rooms in London, and I was really happy to be back in nature.

The outside of the palace from the front.

To the right is a small courtyard with a fountain.

Astrological clock. Notice how the earth is in the center and the sun is on one of the hands, revolving around it.

One of the side gardens. Because, you know, this place had multiple gardens. This photo is taken through a window from inside, which is why it's a little dirty-looking.

The rear garden. There were 4 or 5 rows of those trees. They looked like mushrooms.

This isn't zoomed in at all - we were that close.

I think that's a magpie. Don't quote me on that. But I know it's not a watermelon.

This pool was put in by Elizabeth II.

Contrails=win

Let's see, what else is going on? Well, Peter Furler is leaving the Newsboys and is being replaced by Michael Tait. Not quite sure how that's going to work out, but we'll see. It's not like he's the founding member of the band and has been singing in it for over 20 years or anything...oh wait, he is.

Here are the grades I've gotten on my papers so far: B+, B+, B+, B-, B+. As of last week, my colloquy grade was a B+. Yay for consistency.

I have been collecting music like crazy here. Since coming to London, I've bought 1 Sigur Rós CD, 1 old-school country music CD (and when I mean old-school, I mean that half of the songs were recorded in the 1920's), 1 Glenn Miller CD, 2 Louis Armstrong CDs, 1 Gavin DeGraw CD, 2 Johnny Cash CDs, and 1 U2 CD. The trick is that sometimes newspapers and magazines give out CDs. That's how I got the Sigur Rós and country CDs. Also, thrift stores are a great way to get cheap music.

I have thought about the Original Pancake House every day for the past week and a half. I think I miss it more than I miss my bed. I need raspberry pancakes and I need them now.

As I said earlier, my family is coming to visit in 2 weeks. That's also when we go on a much-needed break. Right now, everyone is sort of exhausted. Plenaries, MAGs, and readings have gotten noticeably longer. Paper topics have gotten harder and more abstract. These things plus the fact that we've all been living in such close quarters for so long have added up to a lot of bad moods and short fuses. If we can just make it to break, we'll all be able to rest and relax and get refreshed...and then like a month later, I'm home.

Well, right now it's 11:15. I don't really have much else to say, so I'm going to say good night.

"Welcome to the Club and Give Me Some Blood"

I am sitting on a field of victory, enjoying a few well-earned comforts. There is no salted pork, but the macaroni and cheese casserole is particularly good.

When I say "sitting a field of victory," I mean that I'm currently laying on my bed, listening to Green Day, eating macaroni and cheese casserole from the dinner I missed today, and typing on my own laptop. Finally.

This has been a ridiculously busy week in terms of workload, but at the same time, it's been a great week. I'm not quite sure how that one works out, but I'm cool with it.

Today in particular has been mad busy. To give you an idea: I've been gone from 3 to 11 tonight. And that wasn't even my first trip out. But here's how today started. I got up at 7:45 and went to breakfast and colloquy. After colloquy, I came back to the room and just sort of chilled for a bit. Then I went back downstairs and saw that I had a package! From Houghton! Which meant that my new hard drive came! I ran upstairs, swapped them out, aaannnndddd...got as far as the log in screen because they had to set me up with a new account and didn't give me the password. Fantastic. I tried a few things, my old password, my student ID, my social security number, and the name of the guy who'd been helping me through the process. Nothing. I sent him an email on Adam's laptop asking what the password was.

At noon, the profs' kids did a soloquy and vignette about Doctor Faustus. Both were really good. After that, I was in the library having lunch, when Eri told me I had another package. So I go upstairs, and there's this long, thin package from Grammy and Grandpa! I was floored. It turned out to be a letter that they tag-teamed (Grammy wrote a paragraph, then Grandpa, then Grammy, etc. It was really cute.) as well as a Reminiscence magazine that had an article on Tommy Dorsey. It was really nice, and it made me miss them a lot. It reminded me of this past April when my family flew down to Texas to visit them in their "second home". That was one of my favorite vacations of all time.

Anyways, at 2:00, Adam, Tabitha, and I took the tube to a travel agency to get some more info/ideas about our post-program plans. That was pretty helpful. So far, it looks like the three of us, plus Mary Beth, are going to Scotland and Ireland, then Mary Beth and I are coming back to London, and then America, while Tab and Adam go to Belgium. That's going to be fun. And we're not going to see The Fray as planned, due to money, but if I have the chance to see U2, which probably won't happen, I swear I'd pay almost anything for it.

After the travel agency, the three of us came back to the HC. Adam and Tab played chess and I used Adam's laptop. Still no word from Houghton. At 3:00, we left again, along with Eri, Steve, and Zeke. First we went to a theatre to get tickets to see an opera tonight. Then Zeke, Tab, and I went to St. Paul's Cathedral to check out the architecture for our MAG. It was crazy. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was huge and ornate and gold and glittery and regal and I hated it. But that's another rant for another time. We stayed for Evensong at 5:00, which was alright, if you're into that kind of service. Me, I'm not really sure what kind of service I'm into and why, so it was interesting.

Dude, I just found out that Robin Williams needs heart surgery and had to cancel the rest of his stand-up comedy show. I am not cool with Robin Williams needing heart surgery. Not in the least.

Anyways, after Evensong, the three of us went to Subway and Tesco for food, then made it back to the theatre at 6:30 to see the opera, which started at 7.

This was the first time I'd ever been to an opera, and I'm proud to say that I was in a blue t-shirt, blue jeans, sneakers, and a 2-month-old beard at the time. Why? Because I had been out for 4 hours prior to the opera, and I wanted to be comfortable, that's why.

The opera itself was wacky. It was in English, and it was called "Dr. Atomic". It was set during World War II, and was all about Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who invented the atomic bomb. If you think it sounds bizarre, don't worry, it was.

I left as soon as it was over, because I was hungry and wanted to check my email for that password. Across the street from the theatre, there were two people in sleeping bags on top of a sheet of cardboard. I didn't have any food on me, so I kept going. Man do I hate cities.

On the tube there was a blind old man reading braille. It was the first time I'd ever seen someone doing that. His guide dog was a beautiful golden retriever. He got off at my stop. When the train stopped at our station, the dog stood up and started going, without having to be told that it was their stop. She just knew. It was crazy. After we got off the train, I asked if he needed any help. He said, "Lucy will point the way, thanks", and kept walking. I followed them because I had to leave the station as well. I took a couple pictures of them. I didn't think he'd mind.

I came back to the Highbury Centre and checked my email. They had sent me the password. It was "password". Go figure. But my laptop is working now! Yay! I just gotta get my files off Lindsey's laptop, and I should be fine.

After making sure my laptop was good, I went to the library and heated up the dinner that I missed (I asked my friend Natalie to save it for me). It was a macaroni and cheese casserole, and it was good. Then I came up here, threw on "American Idiot", and wrote this.

That's it for now. I'm going to message some people and watch a Looney Tune on my laptop. Then I'm going to bed. Good night.

No Line on the Horizon

So I got the new U2 album "No Line on the Horizon" today. Finally. I've been waiting for it to come out for 4 years now. My original plan was to buy it when I go to Ireland, because U2 is an Irish band. But last month, I was on iTunes, and I saw that if you buy the album on iTunes, you get a bonus song, and if you pre-order it, you get ANOTHER bonus song. So I did. I'll get other cool stuff in Ireland, don't you worry.

I listened to the whole thing tonight. I'm on my second run through it right now. My initial thoughts: it's good. It's not great, not yet. But so far it's been worth the wait. And like anything else, the more I listen to something, the more I like it, usually. And their last album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", is my favorite U2 album so far, so it would be unfair for me to hold this CD to those standards. So yeah, I guess I'll go through the songs real quick.

No Line On The Horizon: This song felt weird when it started, but I loved it by the time it was over. It's VERY different from "Vertigo" and "Beautiful Day" in terms of opening-album-songs. It sounds sort of like "Ultra Violet (Baby Light My Way)", but it also reminds me of "Until the End of the World" and "Elevation". It's bit out there, but I like it. Bono sounds fantastic for almost all of it.

Magnificent: Adam Clayton started this song out so cool, but when the rest of the band came in, it just wasn't as good. I'd heard a lot of hype about this song, and I don't really get it. I mean, it's ok. It's not like it's bad, it was just a bit disappointing. Oh well. It sounded like U2's earlier stuff. It would've fit in perfectly on their "October" album.

Moment Of Surrender: Dude, this song is awesome. It's 7 and a half minutes long and there's an organ. But it's not like a typical U2 song- it's sort of funky. Kind of bluesy. The Edge has a pretty cool little solo, but my favorite part is the vocals. I'll be listening to this song a lot, methinks.

Unknown Caller: I didn't like this song much. It was boring at first, then it just got annoying. The vocals are obnoxious. It's like monotone chanting. And the lyrics are pretty geeky. "Restart and reboot yourself"..."Password, you, enter here, right now"...um, no. Sorry. Try again.

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight: This is one of my least favorite song titles on the whole album. But the song itself is actually quite good. It's...fun. It sounds happy. I like it. I don't really know why. I like the melody. Some of the lyrics are cool, too: "The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear." Watch videos of Bono in the 1990's- you'll know what he's talking about. Jeez.

Get On Your Boots: This was the first single released prior to the CD. I got it when I pre-ordered the album, so I've been listening to it for about a month now. And it's cool. It's definately a different sound for U2. It has one of my favorite bass lines ever. Adam was a bear on this. And the lyrics are really good too. I think it's mostly about terrorism and war: "Night is falling everywhere/rockets at the fun fair/Satan loves a bomb scare/but he won't scare you." I like that. This song probably sounds epic live.

Stand Up Comedy: About 18 seconds into this song, I wanted to punch Bono in the face. Then I got used to it. I never liked it. But I got used to it. I bet I'll like it a bit more later. But for now, it's just dumb.

Fez - Being Born: This song makes no sense. The title doesn't make sense. The lyrics don't make sense. The melody doesn't make sense. But it's not bad. One cool thing is that they incorporate the "Let me in the sound" snippet from "Get On Your Boots" at the beginning. This is not a bad song. I like it. I just don't understand it at all. But that's ok.

White As Snow: For some reason, I pictured this song being similar to the Jon Foreman song of the same name. But it's not. I didn't pay too much attention to the lyrics the first time I listened to this, because I couldn't stop focusing on the guitar. The Edge was intoxicating on this one. They did the thing where they start with just vocals and guitar, and add the drums and bass later. I need to pay more attention to the rest of this song though. I'm sure it's not too bad.

Breathe: This song was one of the coolest songs U2 has ever done. Oh my God. I can't get over it. I'm sure a lot of people hate it, but I love it. Larry Mullen starts out with this sweet rolling drumline, then the Edge and Adam come in with these awesome descending riffs while there's a little piano part in the background. Bono is essentially rapping during the verses, but he pulls it off. Rapping isn't always bad, but in most cases the lyrics are ridiculously awful. I don't really have a problem with rap if it's done right, but I hate the whole hip-hop gangsta thing. Ew. But here they're awesome. And he does sing for the chorus. So that's fine. There is nothing wrong with this song in my eyes. Or ears. Well, wait. At the 3:20 mark, there's a distorted guitar or bass, I can't tell which, that sounds like a dentist is drilling my teeth. It's annoying and uncomfortable, but it works. Then the Edge comes in on his normal guitar, and it displaces it. So yeah. This is one of my favorite songs on the album. It might by my absolute favorite, now that I think about it. I'd kill to see it live.

Cedars Of Lebanon: "No Line On The Horizon" opened strangely, and it ended even stranger. At times, it felt like "Wake Up Dead Man". But the song is not addresse to God. And it's not as sad or mad. It seems...bored. Lazy, apathetic. I'm not sure. Bono's like talking during it. It's more like poetry. It's abstract and eerie. It doesn't seem to be about anything, but it makes you uneasy. The weirdest thing about it is how it ends: it just ends! Bono sings/says the last word, and the song is over like 2 seconds later. There is absolutely no resolution at all. I was shocked. I have no clue what to make of this song.

Man, this was long. But you guys should be used to that from me. I ramble. I write like I talk, and this blog was basically me getting my thoughts out for my benefit.

This is not a bad album. It's not as good as U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", "The Joshua Tree", or "All That You Can't Leave Behind", but I enjoyed it better than "Boy" or "Pop". Comparing it's sound and style to another U2 album is hard, but I'd have to say it is sort of like "Achtung Baby" or "Zooropa". That's my initial impression, at least.

I like this album because I don't understand it at all. That's rare. Usually when an album comes out, you love it or you hate it, and you can always tell people why. But this album confuses me, and I like that. It makes it interesting. There are songs that I love on this album, and there are songs that I can't stand on it, and there are songs that I just scratch my head at. But overall, this was a good album. I like it.

Don't do drugs.

Cambridge, Behemoth Papers, and Free Burritos

Yesterday, we took a day trip to Cambridge. We took a train from King's Cross (finally!) and travelled through the countryside. There were long fields and hills and we passed little villages with clusters of buildings. It was just what I needed. I listened to the soundtracks to the Harry Potter movies on the way there.

Cambridge was pretty cool. Not as cool as Canterbury, but still nice. We took a tour of the city and went through several chapels. We saw buildings where Sir Issac Newton, Lord Byron, and William Wilburforce studied, lived, and prayed. After the tour, we went to a Sainsbury's and I bought 5 raspberry-filled doughnuts for 65 pence. None of them lasted through the day.

That afternoon, I wandered around Cambridge by myself while I waited for the train back to King's Cross. I found an indie music store that had hundreds of CDs, all priced between £3 and £10 (most of them cost £3). I spent about half an hour there and bought 2 Johnny Cash CDs for £5 each. It was awesome. When we got back to the HC, I checked online and found one of their stores in London. I plan on going there and spending all the money I have. Ok, that's a lie, but I am definately going to investigate this place further.

This week's paper has been very hard for several reasons:

-We didn't have a paper last week, so we're out of practice
-We had 2 weeks worth of material to put into this paper
-The topic required us to integrate all of last week's material with all of this week's material
-We lost a good chunk of Friday to Cambridge
-I just flat out hate writing these things

After a fruitless brainstorming session on Thursday, I buckled down and made a decent outline last night and this morning. I woke up today at 8:45, ate breakfast, went to the library, and hammered out 3 whole pages by 1:45. Then today got good.

About three weeks ago, we walked by a Mexican restaurant on our way back from Sainsbury's. Adam was talking about burritos earlier that day, so we stopped in to smell them. While we were there, we saw a poster adverstising free burritos from 12-9 PM on February 28. We all got excited and I put the date on my calendar.

Today, Adam, Steve, Tabitha, Zeke, Natalie, Laura, and I went back to the restaurant. On the way there, Adam was having second thoughts on whether or not the free tacos were even real. And he also figured that they'd be really small, if they even existed. I felt the same way, but I wanted a free burrito, regardless of how small it was or how bad it tasted. So we get to the restaurant, and the first thing we notice is this huge crowd of people outside the restaurant. We make our way up to the restaurant, and the next thing we notice is a live mariachi band and a dancing Corona bottle. There are also about a dozen girls walking around with trays of free nachos. There is a massive line coming out of the restaurant.

We finally made our way inside, and there is an assembly line of people behind the counter making tacos. There's a man at a counter giving out margaritas in brightly colored glasses. No ID's, no questions asked. Not only was this restaurant giving out free burritos and free nachos, but it was even giving out free booze!

The burritos themselves were amazing. Each one was bigger than a Super Mighty from Mighty Taco. And, you chose everything that went on it. Mine had steak, rice, and cheese. And it was free. We were in heaven. It felt like we robbed a bank, and they didn't call the cops, but gave us free nachos as well.

After the burritos, I relaxed until dinner. I took a shower and skyped my family (Adam was at a service project from 4-10, and let me use his laptop while he was gone). Then we had dinner. About an hour after dinner, Natalie, Laura and I took a new group of people (Evan, Ben, David P, David B, Vickey, and Liz) to the Mexican restaurant for more. I got the same taco as before, only with chicken instead of steak. Because, you know, we got to choose what went on our burritos. Our free burritos. I didn't eat it, though. Right now, it's sitting in the fridge, waiting to become my dinner tomorrow.

When we got back, I belted out the remaining two pages of my paper and Vickey peer-edited it for me. I turned it in and watched two Bugs Bunny cartoons with Steve. Then I messed around online for a bit. Then I watched Johnny Cash's "Hurt" video with Lindsey, David B, Erin, and Liz (watch it- it'll make you weep). Then I made this blog. Now I'm done. And I'm going to bed. Good night.

"Get Up, There's Further To Go"

Wow, today has been difficult for me. This past weekend was like a mini-break because we didn't have a paper, and today it was all over. Our plenary was 3 and a half hours long. It was insane! We were all sleepy and unfocused because of all the fun we had this past weekend. So it wasn't the best thing ever. On the bright side, you should've seen the beautiful sketches that my friends made! Tabitha and Steve, sitting on either side of me, drew fantastic pictures of their hands, apples, and Dr. Wardwell. I made a "thought list," which is basically when I write down something that pops into my head and then whenever I think about something else, I write that down too. It's basically a list of what I daydream about. Here's what I wrote in today's list, starting with a Road Runner cartoon title:

Zip Zip Hooray
Sausage
Syrup
Orange
Patrice Terrace
Ralph Phillips
Sunshine
Buffalo
Coldplay
Children's Hospital
Cemetary
Das Court
Grandma Hahn
Road Runner
Ginger Ale
Cheez-Its
K-Mart
Tops
Valentine's
Mother Was a Rooster
Cassie
Kitchen
Saturday
Ostrich
Water Tower
Hare-Breadth Hurry
Chair
Desert
Upstairs
Bugs
RRSRR
Canada
Hotel
Tinker Toys
Lightning Rod
Zipping Along
Crossroads
Darien Lake
Mousetraps
Incomplete

I swear, it makes complete sense to me. I could explain it to you, but it would take a while. After plenary, we went to the British Library to do part of our MAG. Then we came back to the FMC and started the reading. It was relatively boring and sorta long, and the chairs in the Blue Room are really comfy and sort of eat you. So that didn't go so well. Dinner only distracted us more, and when we went back to the Blue Room, Adam, Evan and I had like a 45 minute long conversation about Animorphs and how awesome that book series was. We're all going to reread them during the summer. Then we joked around with Eri and Mary for a bit, then I went to my room to finish my reading. And I'm done! Yay.

Oh, by the way, I'm on the computer in the library because my laptop is having hard drive issues. Not cool. Not cool at all. But I'll survive. There's nothing on that computer that I can't live without. In my devotion today, I read Psalm 23, and the first verse is "The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need." That made me feel better.

Hey, this week and last were big days in Looney Tunes history! Alright, time for a little Looney Tunes rant. I'm done with events in my life for this post, so if you want to stop reading now, it's all good. The entire remainder of this post is going to be about Looney Tunes.

This past Saturday was Frank Tashlin's birthday. He died in 1972, but if he were still alive, he'd be 96 years old. Tashlin was a director in the 30's and early 40's. He didn't create any of the main characters, but he made some of the best Porky Pig cartoons out there. He also made som fantastic WWII shorts featuring Daffy Duck going up against the Nazis. Some of his cartoons also influenced later cartoons done by Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng. 1944's "I've Got Plenty of Mutton" is sort of a precursor to Jones' Pepe le Pew cartoons, as well as the Ralph Wolf/Sam Sheepdog cartoons. I can't upload videos now that my laptop is out of comission, but I can post links to cartoons, and you can check them out if you want. But this is "Puss 'n' Booty" from 1943. The music is just fantastic in it. Tashlin made great use of Raymond Scott's work. The style is great too, with all sorts of interesting angles and "camera shots". A few years later, Friz Freleng remade this cartoon with Sylvester and Tweety, but I like this one better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr_IsVvLf74

Yesterday was the 7th anniversary of the death of Chuck Jones. Most of you have heard me gush over how awesome he was, so I won't get into that now. But he is one of my greatest heroes, and the creator of my two favorite cartoon characters: Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. Last night, I watched seven of his cartoons in his honor. Here's one of his later Pepe le Pew cartoons: "Who Scent You?" from 1960. It's not my favorite Pepe cartoon overall (That happens to be 1957's "Touché and Go"), but there are some great moments in this one. One of the best things about the Pepe series is the dialogue, and this one is no exception. Pepe has some great one-liners here, such as "you are my peanut...I am your brittle." Good stuff. And his rendition of "How Dry I Am", an old drinking song is priceless. Sugar and Jazz fans will notice a bit of Count Basie's "April in Paris" after the opening credits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osZvwzr334Q

Finally, this Thursday marks the 101th birthday of Fred "Tex" Avery, who died in 1980. Tex Avery was an animation god. He broke away from the "cutesy" style of Walt Disney and pioneered a style of cartoons that had no limits or rules. He was the man who personally trained Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett. Basically, Chuck Jones is to me what Tex Avery is to Chuck Jones. In 1937, he created Daffy Duck. That's right. This is the man who invented Daffy freaking Duck. 3 years later, he created Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny. This man is Bugs Bunny's father. In 1942, he left Warner Bros. after a dispute with the producer, Leon Schlesinger, over the ending of one of his cartoons. Apparently it was too risque, but that was Tex. He worked at MGM from 1942 to 1957 making some truly great cartoons. It's so hard for me to pick one Tex Avery cartoon to show all of you (then again, my parents and Emily are probably the only ones still reading this! :P), so I think I'll just go for the gusto and post Bugs Bunny's debut cartoon: "A Wild Hare." This is the one that started it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JMmyHWO424


Alright, that's it. I'm going to go mess around with my friends now. Hopefully, the next time I talk to you guys will be on my laptop. I love you guys.

An Unexpected Break

This was a fun weekend. The profs were behind on grading papers, so they didn't assign us a paper due this weekend! So basically, we've had a free weekend. Friday and Saturday had gorgeous weather, which is rare in London, and I've taken several walks. I also watched a lot of movies with my friends this weekend: X-Men 2, X-Men 3, The Village, Prince of Egypt, and Aladdin. I also watched You Only Live Twice by myself. We were going to see a Shakespeare play last night, but they were sold out. Oh well. I've also spent a good chunk of this weekend making plans for my 200 cartoon marathon this summer, in honor of the fact that I finally own over 1000 WB cartoons. I skyped Emily twice this weekend, and I'm going to skype my family tonight, so that's cool too. This week will be hard though, because we WILL have a paper due Saturday, and it'll have to cover the past two weeks. Oh well. Hey, I got my 3rd paper back today. I got a B+, just like I did on the two papers before it. This pleases me greatly. Well, not too much else to report here. I had some delicious cheese yesterday. That was cool. I got into a prank war with one of my friends last night. She splashed water on me, so I took her slippers, poured water all over them, and hid them in a freezer. It was a good time, but I think we're done now. She targeted Adam today by adding salt to his tea when he wasn't looking. Hilarity ensued.

Chuck Jones died 7 years ago today. This makes me sad.

Joe Paul finally got a Facebook. This makes me happy.

Canterbury Tales

This past Monday, we went to Canterbury. I woke up in time for breakfast, which was great, because breakfast turns into breakfast and lunch because I steal bread and apples from the dining hall for that afternoon. So we left the Highbury Centre and took the tube to Victoria station, where we took a train to Canterbury. You know me and trains. This one was excellent. It wasn't Great Western, but South Eastern, but still good. I sat at a table with Zeke, Tabitha, and Eri. Part of the time, I read my book from Jordan, and at one point I played chess with Eri. But most of the time I just looked out the window. Because for the first time, I had hills and fields and grass that didn't end. The first train ride was nice, but we went through cities and everything was covered in snow. But this was like the car ride to Houghton. In a train. It was beautiful. The sky was awesome and I was in such a happy mood. My lunch was the bread and apples, then a back of crisps, my nalgene of water and some candy.

So we get to Canterbury, and it's warm. Like, in the 50's. And the sky was blue and there were clouds everywhere, and I saw over 2 dozen planes with crisscrossing contrails. I love those. Our hotel was amazing. I can't describe it. It had no rhyme or reason to it. The floors were crooked. The ceilings were different heights. To get to Adam's and Eri's rooms, you had to walk on the roof, which had a table and chairs on it. It was like all the construction workers got drunk and said "hey, let's throw a wall here and some stairs here and maybe a floor here and let's see what happens." Oh, and we were on top of a Starbucks.

Steve's and my room was awesome. They actually NAMED the rooms, and we were in the Golden Galleon. The walls were blue and there was a model ship on a shelf. My bed was by the window which overlooked the town square. Oh man, the town was great. It had cobblestone streets and oldschool buildings and castle-like buildings everywhere. And a river ran through it. (Get it? But really, one did).

So the only thing we had that day was a guided tour of a cemetary then the ruins of an abbey. Both were awesome. I took a lot of pictures. I'm not going to put any on the blog though- these are so cool I only want to show them to you in person! :)

We had free time for the rest of the night. We went shopping through the town. There were a LOT of thrift stores and we went to almost every one. I bought two Looney Tunes tapes, a Thomas the Tank Engine tape, and a Robin Williams stand-up comedy tape, for the following prices: 33 pence, 33 pence, 1 pound, and 49 pence. Isn't that cool? But apparently UK VHS tapes are different than US. I didn't know that until this afternoon. But I think I can convert them easily enough. And either way, now I have more cartoons in London! Also today, I bought a pair of Louis Armstrong cds (I'm listening to it now!). We found a Tesco that had jam-filled doughnuts for 14 pence each. I bought 3, but ended giving one to a busker and his dog. Also, at the Canterbury Cathedral, I donated 2 pounds and some change. For the entire weekend, I brought a ten-pound note, and after all the stuff I just talked about, as well as a VHS I bought for my friend that cost 1 pound, I still brought back change.

Before dinner, we went to a worship service at the Canterbury Cathedral. It was by far the coolest building I've ever been in. I can't even describe it. I'll show you pictures when I come back.

Dinner at the hotel was incredible. It was by far the best meal I've had in the UK, and rivalled some US meals. It was hot beef, carrots, and potatoes. I had a thick slice of vanilla cheesecake for dessert. It was like eating a hug. That night, my friends and I went through the town. I got yelled at by my friends when I kept making fun of drunk people. This one woman was totally smashed and was annoying, and I just stared at her. She yelled "stop f-ing looking at me!" I called back, "I'm sorry, you're just so pretty." It was funny and scary. After we got back to the hotel, we played cards and went to bed.

This morning we woke up at 7 to a fire alarm. Some jerk in Starbucks had set it off. But we had an incredible breakfast- bread, cereal, toast, eggs, tomatos, sausage, bacon...so good. We amused ourselves by setting the jars of marmalade on the floor and watching them roll all by themselves.

After breakfast, we had a tour of parts of the town (from the same guide from yesterday- she talked like, looked like, and reminded me of grammy) who also gave us a tour of the cathedral. It was sooo cool. After the cathedral, we wandered around the city, going to more thrift stores and eventually went back to the train station. On the way back, I read my book and fell asleep.

So earlier today, I found out that a plane crashed and 50 people died less than 15 minutes away from my house. I’m the kind of guy who tries to avoid bad news, because tragedies and all the crap you see on TV really affects me mentally and emotionally. And this was as close to home as it gets, you know? So as soon as I got the email from Dad and read the article on the internet, I immediately entered my “rationalize the bad news and come up with explanations and excuses to make yourself feel better.” Ok, I said. That’s easy. Maybe the plane was filled with bad people who deserve to die. But no, I said, that’s not my call to make. Try again. Let’s see…maybe everyone on the plane was a Christian, and they all went to heaven! There we go, that’s much better. Stick with that thought. So I had my protection. I fortified it by reading a Facebook note by my friend Brittany who made me feel even better by saying that the plane had enough fuel in it that it should’ve taken out the whole neighborhood, but only one house was lost. And, only one person in that house actually died. The other two survived somehow. And, a woman was going to take that flight, but didn’t, and so she’s fine. Great. So I had my defenses up and running. It was sad, but it could’ve been worse. Besides, no one I knew was on that plane. And just because it happened in my hometown, that doesn’t mean that it’s any sadder than if it happened in California or Spain or something like that. Well, that's not true at all, actually. But pretend it is.

Then I read another story on the internet. About a 13 year-old child in Britain who is now a father. I read the whole article, and saw the picture of this kid (who looked like he was 5), holding a newborn baby and smiling. Now, anyone who knows me knows how much I value children and childhoods and the innocence therein. I don’t know much about life, but I do know that 13 year old kids should not be having sex, and they should not be parents. I know that when you're 13 years old, you’re still a kid. You’re in middle school. You play video games. You watch Looney Tunes and other Saturday morning cartoons on TV. If you’re really responsible, you babysit or have a paper route. But you don’t have a baby. When I read about this kid, I was incensed. I was livid. I wanted to kill him. And my anger flowed through me like a river, breaking the dam that held my pain regarding the plane crash in check. And then my anger at the kid and my agony for my home and the families of the victims combined into one big emotional mess. I wrote a furious Facebook note where I yelled at the kid for throwing his childhood away and I yelled at…someone, maybe the pilot, maybe God, maybe Satan, for letting a plane pop the bubble of safety I call “home”, and go ahead and take 50 innocent lives while you’re at it.

I watched a Looney Tune, like I do so many times when I’m upset. But this one didn’t help at all. So I went for a walk with my iPod. I stormed down streets I had never been before, not caring where I was going. It didn’t take long for me to reset my excuses for the plane crash. It was an accident. A terrible, tragic accident. But then I focused on the kid. That was no accident. He had sex as a 13 year old boy, and is naive enough to expect that he can take care of this baby and give her a good life. I was furious at him. I hated him more than I ever hated anyone else in my life for what he had done to me. He had destroyed the innocence of children in my eyes.

I came back to the room and wrote another note, essentially to this kid. I poured my anger and wrath into it. I swore profusely and threatened to “beat him until he bled” if I ever saw him in London. It felt good. But then it didn’t feel good. I took a shower and talked to God. God helped. He comforted me. When I got out of the shower, I deleted the notes.

I tried to start my paper, but I was so far gone mentally that I just couldn’t do it. So I watched an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine in an attempt to reclaim the light of childhood. It helped a little. I then watched another Looney Tune, one that I had seen so many times with my sister and grandma as a kid. That helped as well. But I still couldn’t write my paper. I tried 4 times today. And I have a weak thesis and a few sentences. But I don’t care about the grade, you know? I’m alive and a virgin and both are very important to me. My childhood was still amazing. I had, and have a good life. So who cares about the grade. I’ll still do the paper. I’ll do the best I can, whether it turns out to be 5 pages of gold or 3 and a half pages of dog poop. There’s a big difference between trying but failing and not trying at all. If I turn in an essay with a page and a half of words and 3 pages of haikus, I’ll turn it in. But I am going to turn something in tomorrow. And I hope it’s good. But if it’s not, I’ll still have my life and my friends and my faith. So there.

There’s another reason this plane crash has messed me up. The plane, flight 3407, was from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York. On April 30th, I’ll be flying on an airplane from Newark to Buffalo to come home. And Buffalo isn’t a big airport. There are only so many planes that go from Newark to Buffalo. Here’s what I’m trying to say. It could’ve been me on that plane. 2 and a half months later, and it would’ve been. And you think 2 and a half months is a long time, but it doesn’t feel like it. I know that God saved me. And this isn’t the first time a weird thing with a plane has happened. In August 2000, I was on the roof of the World Trade Centre with my mom, my best friend, and his mom. A year and a month later, it got hit by a plane. I keep on dodging aerial bullets, but someone is doing the shooting, and people are getting shot. I don’t get it. I don’t believe in coincidences, and I know that it’s still 2 and a half months difference, but I know that I would’ve been on that plane in April if it was still up. So God is protecting me, keeping me around for some reason. I wish I knew why.

So far, I’ve talked for 1,180 words and I don’t know if I’ve really said anything yet. I wish I could say something to my community, my family and friends in Williamsville and Amherst, and especially Clarence, but what can I say? What can anyone possibly say? A plane crashed into a house and 50 people died in our home. That’s it. It’s terrible, and there is nothing that I, you, or anyone else can say that will make it not terrible. But try to find some good in it, ok? That plane was practically a flying bomb. It had enough fuel to blow up the entire neighborhood, but it didn’t. God didn’t let it. He is there. My favorite Bible verse is Romans 8:18, which reads “For I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Right now, I’m suffering. You guys are too. So are the families. This doesn’t happen without people suffering. But it also doesn’t happen without glory, even if we don’t get the glory until we get to heaven. Right now, a few/some/most/all of the victims are in heaven. They suffered in life, but right now they have glory, and the glory they have now is more intense than any of what they suffered in life. I hope that helps. I’m not good at this. Just look for God. Pray. Be there for each other. Everyone will get through this, myself included. It’ll take a while, and it’ll take longer for some than it will for others, but our lives and our home will heal. And take this time to appreciate your life. Stop worrying about grades and stupid stuff like that. I mean, try your best, yeah. But don’t let grades be the most important thing in your life. Same thing with your job, you know? And arguments and stuff like that. Just think about what’s important to you and go for it.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got. I’m proud of myself. I made it through this whole thing without crying or swearing. Now it’s 10:46 PM and I am going to go have fun times with my friends whom I love. You should go do the same. And pray for the families of the victims of 3407, and everyone else in Western New York who was affected. I love you guys a lot.

"Halfway around the world lies the one thing that you want" ("Syndicate" by The Fray)

Today and yesterday have been pretty spectacular. So I thought I’d let you know what happened.

Yesterday morning, I got up at 7:55 and had a pretty good breakfast. The Highbury Centre has a bad rep for bad food, but the eggs are always great. And the bread and apples are good too. I don’t know how badly one could mess up bread and apples, but I bet it’s been done. Colloquy wasn’t so bad either. Afterwards, I talked to Prof. Wardwell and asked him how I was doing, because intellectualism isn’t my deal, and I often question what the heck I’m doing here in the first place. He told me that I was doing fine and that he wasn’t worried. He said that the reason he and Prof. Stewart picked me for the program was because they thought I could handle it, and so far he hasn’t seen any proof that they were wrong. He even complimented my writing style! He said that one nice thing about how I write is that it’s straight-forward and leads to a purpose, and that I don’t use a lot of “flowery language”, and that as a reader, it’s very appreciable. So take that, smart people!

I was in such a good mood after colloquy that I went to the Blue Room and watched 5 Road Runner cartoons from 2nd tape I ever owned. Nostalgic fun is yummy. After the cartoons, I read Dante’s “Divine Comedy: Inferno” for a while. Then I had lunch, which was consisted of two rolls and an apple that I swiped from the dining hall, a bag of potato crisps, some water, and a Jolly Rancher. Gotta love college poverty. After lunch, we (being Adam, Eri, Tabitha, Zeke, and me) went out to finish our MAG (Museum And Gallery assignment). On the tube, I sat next to a woman who had the cutest Scottish terrier ever. At least I think that’s what it was. But anyways, her name was Maggie and she was a year old and she freaking loved me. She kept licking my fingers because of the salt from my potato crisps. Then she sat down right on my foot and let me pet her. Eri and Tabitha kept trying to steal her from me, but she always came back to me. Tab took a picture of us, but it came out blurry. I’ll post it anyways.

When we left the station, we were right under Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We had seen them before, but not from this angle. It was awesome. I’ll throw a few pictures of that in as well. We also saw the London Eye (again), as well as a handful of people camping in tents for a protest.

Our first stop was the Westminster Abbey. So far, that was by far my favorite assignment. We couldn’t take pictures inside, so you lose there, but I’ll post some pictures of the outside. It cost £9 to get in, but it was worth it. They gave us free audio guides narrated by Jeremy Irons. So I got a guided tour of a church by Scar. Cool beans. The architecture was breathtaking. The statues, windows and the ceiling designs were absolutely ridiculous. Oh, and apparently it has the oldest door of England. That’s…cool? There was a section called Poet’s Corner where a lot of literary giants were buried and remembered. There were a lot of people buried in the abbey. The floor and walls were covered in markers. Here are some of the people buried at Westminster Abbey whose graves we saw:

King Edward I (the English king from “Braveheart”)
Issac Newton
Charles Darwin
William Wilberforce
Charles Dickens (There were flowers and a note on his grave celebrating his recent 193rd birthday. The flowers were left by over 100 of his direct descendents!)
George Frederick Handel
Rudyard Kipling
Alfred Tennyson

There were also people that weren’t buried in the abbey, but had special memorials commemorating them, such as

Jane Austen
Lord Byron
Winston Churchill
Edward Elgar
William Shakespeare
Charles Wesley
John Wesley
Oscar Wilde

So that was pretty awesome. I will never forget going there. After we left, we swung by a Tesco to get some baked goods. I got a chocolate chip croissant and a Cherry Coke. Alliteration ho! After that, we took the Underground to the National Gallery. That was alright, but anticlimactic after the Abbey. Ok, this alliteration has to stop. That’s totally too much technique for my taste. Alright, I’m done, I promise. But the National Gallery was cool. It was a nice change in pace to be looking at paintings in an art gallery after 3 solid weeks of looking at sculptures in a museum. That got stale after a while. Speaking of stale, some rooms at the National Gallery smelled terrible. I mean, ew.

After the National Gallery, Zeke went off to buy tickets to a concert, and Tabitha, Eri, Adam and I took the Underground home. The tube was packed with people going home from work. And apparently, someone’s job wasn’t good enough for them, because Tabitha got pick-pocketed and lost her wallet. That was ridiculously lame. (And if the guy who ripped her off is reading this, then you’re a jerk! And stop reading my blog! That’s creepy.) Tab, Eri, and I went right to the professors’ flats and told them what happened. They gave her advice and walked her through the whole “I-just-lost-my-wallet-and-everything-in-it” process. The good news is, she got in touch with her mom and got all the cards canceled, so she’s in relatively good shape. I mean, it sucks that it happened, but she’s pretty much all set now. She’ll just borrow money from Eri and I until her new cards come in. So that worked out alright.

When we got home, I messed around on the computer a bit. I went on iTunes and pre-ordered the new U2 album, “No Line on the Horizon,” which was cool because in doing so I instantly got their recently released singled “Get On Your Boots.” Boy am I pumped for that album. And when the CD comes out, I get two free bonus songs, one for buying the CD on iTunes, and another for pre-ordering it! Later that evening, I had the terrible realization that in pre-ordering the album, I had ruined one of my plans, which was to buy the actually CD in Ireland, because U2 is an Irish band. But then I thought about the 2 bonus songs I would be getting, plus the song I already have, and I’m ok with it. I’ll get some other sweet Irish souvenir instead.

Dinner was really good. It was pasta with cheese and Highbury Centre-style ham, aka leftover bacon. Which I’m fine with. I had half of it and put the rest in the fridge. That’ll make for a good lunch this week. After dinner, we all hung out in the Blue Room and slugged through that day’s reading, which was Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. Lindsey Houghton read the last part to Tab and I out loud, and that helped all three of us. Then I went on the computer, talked to a few people, watched a couple Looney Tunes cartoons from the Great Depression, and went to sleep.

Here are the pictures I took yesterday:

Maggie. Awwwww....

Her name was ironic because we were on the way to our MAG.

Blurry pic of Maggie and I.

Big Ben.

Houses of Parliament.

I bet they were cold.

"I've got a submarine / you've got gasoline / I don't wanna talk about wars between nations" ("Get On Your Boots" by U2).

Westminster Abbey.

Big Ben and the London Eye.

I like the people's shadows in this one. And it's a contrail!

Today started the same way as yesterday. Wake up, go to breakfast, steal some food for later, go to colloquy…and colloquy itself was really good for me. I was all inspired by Dr. Wardwell’s talk yesterday, so I talked more and made some good points. After colloquy, Vicky told me that I had a package from Emily! And I did! It was a very nice, very much appreciated Valentine’s Day package! It was a complete surprise. Here’s what was in it:
Nestle Crunch hearts (I did some serious damage to these today)
Skittles in a plastic heart
A gigantic Reese’s heart
Raspberry lemonade mix
Goldfish (!)
Cheez-Its (!)
The Fray’s latest album (I’m listening to it now. And I might see The Fray play in Ireland!)
Thomas the Tank Engine toddler’s toothpaste (It was a gag gift. But I’ll use it. And sorry about the alliteration. I have a problem)
3 letters and a Valentine’s Day card

So yeah. I pretty much have the greatest girlfriend on the planet. Just thought you should know this. I love you, Em!

After I opened my box, I took a much-needed nap and actually fell asleep. Then Adam, Tabitha, Eri, Zeke and I went for a walk. Thanks to Emily, I had some goldfish, Crunch hearts, and raspberry lemonade to go with my usual apple and 2 rolls. Hooray for eating healthier! On our walk, we terrorized pigeons, and found a totally amazing playground that we’re going to go nuts on someday. I’ll take pictures when we do.

We all went back to the Blue Room and spent the entire afternoon reading “Divine Comedy.” Due to starting it on Monday, I was farther than everyone else, and actually finished it before dinner. I really liked it. It was all about Dante being led by Virgil through the various layers of hell. The punishments for the sinners got worse and worse as they progressed, but it was really good nonetheless. It had people like Caiaphas, Judas, Brutus, Cassius, Plato, and Potiphar’s wife in it. It reminded me a lot of a story I wrote this past summer in which I’m on a train and progress from the last car to the engine and meet a ton of people from my life on the way. If you’re reading this right now, there’s a big chance you’re in it. I plan on editing it and giving it to people someday, because I really like how it turned out.

After I finished Dante, I took a shower, then went in my room and watched a Tweety Bird cartoon. Then I went down to dinner where we had chili and rice! I was really skeptical of how the FMC would handle chili, but it was really good. Before I had any, though, I went to the fridge in the library and grabbed some English cheddar and a slice of turkey that I had in there. I ripped them up and mixed them in with the chili and rice, and it tasted even better! It was nice to eat an actual meal. I saved half of the chili and put it in the fridge. So I have my next two lunches planned out: pasta tomorrow, chili on Friday. Go me. Oh, and dessert was strawberry shortcake with real strawberries.

After dinner, I lounged around and listened to some Green Day. Then I wrote this. Right now, Adam is taking a nap, Tabitha is on her service project, and the others are probably reading Dante. When Tab gets back, we’re going to watch “The Jungle Book” to clear our minds and relax before we get our next paper topic tomorrow. Speaking of service projects, I start mine a week from today. It’s actually the same as Tabitha’s, and we’ll also be with Evan, Mary Beth, and Vicky (the last two were my airplane buddies on the way to London, and probably will be on the way home because we all have the same flight to Newark). But each Wednesday night from next week to just before our break in March, we’ll be helping setting up/serving/cleaning up meals for All Soul’s Chapel. That’ll be cool, as long as it doesn’t mess me up with reading. But it shouldn’t. Ok, I’m gonna go do stuff now. I love you guys!

PS: You know what London needs? More smokers. It’s getting way too easy to breathe when we go outside nowadays.

PPS: That was a total lie.

PPPS. I hope Butterbur sends this promptly. A worthy man, but his memory is like a lumber-room: things wanted always get buried. If he forgets, I shall roast him. Fare Well!

Boo.