Nine

Today is September 9th, 2009. This happens one time a year, and won't happen again until one year, one month, and one day from now. It it 9-9-09. This is a cause for celebration. In response, I took a Sharpie to a shirt (see why this matters later in the post). 9-9-09. Incredible.

The photo you see above is a homage, a nostalgic metaphor. Check it out: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-remembrance.html. You might see a resemblance. That was one year ago on September 11th. I was not even planning this, but I was thinking about what I should do for 9-9-09 and I thought, "Hey! I should draw a big ol' '9' on a shirt and wear all white! Oh and it could be orange because I have an orange bandanna and orange shades!" Then I thought about it: "Haven't I done this before?" I went to the blog archives and discovered, why yes, I had, almost exactly one year ago. Strange? September draws similar thoughts, I suppose.

Moving on.

Here's a topic that has been brought to my attention: sleeping habits. In high school, school started at 8 for everybody. Most of the time, school started at 7 for me because of zero period. This is early folks. I found out the hard way that I am definitely not a morning person as every year there would be one class (at least) that would be an absolute nightmare as far as falling asleep in class would go. To all my teachers whose class I had a very difficult time staying awake in: I am greatly sorry and it wasn't your fault. The lack of sleep caught up to at the same time every day and it just happened to be during your class. Honestly, falling asleep in a class is a pretty intense sign of disrespect, but the problem is that it is almost almost unintentional. Can you really control when sleep fatigue slaps you in the face inducing you to fall face first on the desk in a slumber? All that said, college has treated me with a much better schedule. My earliest class is at 10:30 which often times serves for proper rested sleep. I'm not trying to brag, I'm just saying this kind of schedule serves my chemical makeup much better than the lovely 7 am class time of high school. For this reason, I am grateful. I have one concern though. What will begin to happen is the nights will get later and later because I know I can sleep later. Sleep fatigue will strike again.

Another point of interest. Before I left, a few buddies and myself ventured into the hills of Simi Valley into what is rumored to be the caves Charles Manson and his followers huddled in. I decided to bring my video camera. The experience was unbelievable. I hadn't touched the footage until yesterday. Feast your eyes, video stellars.

The Manson Caves - An Exploration from Morgan Lott on Vimeo.

IRRELEVANT: Labor Day.

For those of you who know me, you know I "make" a lot of t-shirts. After wasting many t-shirts with Sharpie, I came up with this revolutionary idea to write on the white t-shirts with washable markers, that way I can reuse and reuse and reuse the same t-shirt over again. But hey, guess what I forgot when I came to Biola? Yes, washable markers. So, instead of making myself a Labor Day 2009 t-shirt, I am wearing my Hillside Middle School Star Student t-shirt. Find the comparison.

Other than that, Labor Day will be pretty much just the way it was created to be. "Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer. The holiday is often regarded as a day of rest and parades." Thank you wikipedia. Quotes from wikipedia are always spot on, yes? So with that, summer is officially over. School is up and running, the fun and games are dwindling, and it is Labor Day: it's official.

Fisheye

I have a few things on my mind. I have them in a list. This may be a little structured for your tastes.

To begin, the photo. There is actually quite a bit of symbolism involved and I will attempt to explain it. You'll notice the fisheye. If you don't know what this means (I was going to try and explain it, but I just realized that I have no idea how to explain it--sorry), then I'm sorry. Google it. The reason for this deliberate effect on the photo is that I have been wearing my glasses a lot lately because my eyes have been irritated for a while, so I'm giving them a little break. The fact of the matter is that my glass are a few prescription notches low, so that doesn't help anything, and it puts a slight fisheye effect on everything I look at. So the way you see that picture up top? That's the way I see most everything...it may be exaggerated a bit. You'll notice the tie and white shirt. This is symbolism of the roots of "It's Wednesday." When the tradition began, I would wear a white SS collared shirt with a tie. That's what I did today. Also, if you can't tell in the picture, I am wearing a tie with numerous knights and medieval characters riding horseback, some with swords, some with horns, some with armor. This tie is representative of the "medieval times" restaurant and show that is nearby. I have never been and I will continue to never go until I actually go. This tie represents that. The pants and shoes show an interesting color palette choice. The tie somewhat matched the pants, but in the same "off" manner as the dirty off-white shoes match the white shirt. Hmm...interesting. You'll notice the granola bar. Already, I have made a habit of missing breakfast, even in the confines of my room, so I must resort to granola bars. It's not good and not substantial. I'll work on that.

To second, cranberry juice. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I really am enjoying the cranberry juice here. There has been a few instances where it runs out in the machines and I literally burst out in frustration. However, in my enjoyance of cranberry juice, I have come to miss milk. Milk is a wonderful drink and I miss the soothing qualities it delivers when paired with pizza, or pasta, or tacos, or a sandwich. I miss 2%, I may have to go on the hunt.

To third, scootering. Interesting topic because you are not supposed to ride skateboards, longboards, or bikes around campus, but scooters are alright. So I have my scooter and am fully enjoying its benefits in arriving at my destination in a much greater speed than walking. However, it has been brought to my attention that "you can tell the freshman by who rides scooters." This is ridiculous. Even though I am a freshman and ride a scooter (imagine that), why don't the older folks ride them? They're missing out for sure. Yeah maybe it looks childish, but hey, I'm going to be in the middle of my meal before you arrive at the caf. I believe scooters a beneficial.

To fourth, room tour. Welcome to the Stewart 170 tour. Please keep all arms, legs, and other appendages inside the vehicles at all times. If there is a segment that is looked over or not shown, the authorities can not be blamed. If you need the vehicle to stop during any emergency, please place your hand on the "Emergency Stop" handrail on your right side. Thank you and enjoy your journey.

First stop: the desk.


This is where the work is done. This is where the blog is written. This is where stuff from my pockets are placed. This is where the tunes explode. This is where it virtually all goes down. Tour secret: the abominable snowman in the center of the desk, you see him; his eyes glow.



Second stop: if you look to your right, you will see the bookshelf.


You will see the subwoofer. you will see a volcom Hawaii bank. You will see a Red Bull. You will see penned sphere. You will see Sherlock Holmes. You will see my family. You will a nice solid green paper with black text. Tour secret: There is a book that was found in the Royal High School dumpster in the bookshelf.



Third stop: the wall.


Whenever I see a legit piece of comic mastery, I cut it out, "laminate" it, and stick it on the wall. Look at them and enjoy. You will laugh. If you don't laugh, you'll get a free refund of this tour. You will laugh though. I also have the golden ticket. I gave Charlie one of the laminated comic strips, a Bizarro comic from 2008. Tour secret: "Argyle Sweater" is very interesting and humorous if you read into it more.

Fourth stop: the closet.

This is where the clothing, food, shoes and other goodies are stored. Not much to see unless you know what you are looking for. Tour secret: There are five suits, exluding the smelly brown one, in the closet.



Fifth and final stop: the inspiration.


Let me clarify: the inspiration. This is what the inspiration reads: "Video Production Professional - Rudy Campos." This is why I am in the film program. I want to be the Video Production Professional, just like Rudy Campos was before me. Tour Secret: This picture is hanging by two of my three nails.



And that's the tour. Please exit to the left.

Leaf

So this is the first blog entry of my college career. I am here in room 170, Stewart Hall, Biola University preparing to write to you about my experience (is that what this blog is about? I don't know anymore).

Let me explain what this blog is about for all my potential new readers in case it is not common knowledge. I started this blog at the beginning of my senior year in high school, simply to record the events I partook in for future remembrance. As the year progressed, I started to develop a name for myself. People were now expecting me to dress up on Wednesday, were now expecting me to dress up on holidays, were now expecting me to create a bigger, better blog entry every single week. Sometimes I wondered what caused the popularity, was it that someone decided to go against the trend? I was technically the oddball, not conforming to the style trends of society. Whatever the reason, the blog caught on and my dress antics were being noticed and now I am put in the spot of college; what do I do in college? Do I continue the blog? Do I continue dressing up? Do I do both? Do I do neither? I am here to tell you that as of right now, I am going to continue both, but, as always, we'll see what happens.

I hope this makes sense, especially to my fellow readers who are not used to, well, my style of writing. I write in stream of concious meaning I don't edit, I don't outline, I don't, honestly, think before I write. I just go.

Moving on.

I arrived at Biola on Friday. I moved in and met my roommate Joel Limbauan from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Currently he is reading The Illiad by Homer because he is in the Torrey Program and I feel almost left out because I don't have work to do (this is will change shortly). The last week has been fun getting to know people and developing friendships that have been, thus far, the basis of the college career. Class is going to change this. School : Wednesday : change the absolute "nothing to do but hang out" complex.

Here is my FB status update on August 25, 2009: "

"should be an interesting year. The people are interesting. The facilities are interesting. film and art are interesting. finishing in four years will definitely be interesting. declaring a for sure major is interesting. Classes starting tomorrow will be interesting. Leaving college in the Lord's hands is interesting."

"Interesting" is an interesting word. The connotation is interesting. Thing about that for a while.

Randomity

I found I really enjoy cranberry juice. Thus far, I have had at least one glass of cranberry juice during every meal. Now, I don't exactly know if it is real cranberry juice. I'm assuming it's not because it comes out of one of those machines that screams "flavor powder" all over it. I'm not saying this is bad because it tastes delicious, but, out of curiosity, am I getting the beneficial antioxidants that is found in real cranberry juice? I guess I'll have to ask someone who knows. But hey, it's better than drinking soda's right?

Another thing, there is a frequency of I'm assuming construction machines that, call me a geek, sounds exactly like the opening to the "Why So Serious?" track of "The Dark Knight" soundtrack. Every time I hear it, I honestly think there is a showing somehwere. It makes me excited because that particular movie is much better in all aspects that most movies out there. But every single time, I am immediately reminded that is it not the "Why So Serious?" track of "The Dark Knight" and that there is not a showing somewhere. It's alright though. I'm glad they are not playing "The Dark Knight" multiple times a day.






EDIT: So this technically isn't Wednesday, but it happened the night of Wednesday, so technically Thursday. This is what happened. I woke up in the middle of the night, though I had to get up real fast, so I jumped off and over the railing of my lofted bed that is 3 feet from the ceiling. I jumped and hit my toe on something...I do not know what. I was in pain and I believe it was this pain that induced me to realize it was indeed the middle of the night and I probably should sleep some more. So I did. I woke up in the morning with a very bloody toe and massive flap of skin. I took a picture of it. The link is below. I did no photo editing on it except sharpening...so that is really what it looks like.

IF YOU FEAR THE SIGHT OF BLOOD OR GET QUEASY FOR REALLY ANY REASON, PLEASE DON'T CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW. IF YOU END UP CLICKING ANYWAY, DO NOT BLAME ME FOR YOUR FOOLISHNESS.

{CLICK HERE FOR PICTURE}