According to Chris, "emotional sissy boys" are taking over my LAUNCHcast station. If they are, they are doing a good job of hiding from me, because I keep getting rock songs. I get Queen's "Hammer to Fall," then somebody called Simply Red, then Chicago...no emotional sissy boys.

I saw Harry Potter with Laura last night. It's pretty good, although I don't know why they insist on getting big-name actors for very little screen time (especially John Cleese and Alan Rickman). We could also track which order the scenes had been filmed in by how advanced the boys had gotten in puberty (the kid playing Draco Malfoy actually seemed to go backwards in puberty). Just about all the kids in the principal cast are in the midst of puberty, and I'd like to mention that Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Harry Potter) now has freakier fans than some other "celebrities." Marisa and I were watching an interview with him and he talked about an encounter with a 20-year-old woman wearing only a towel and holding a sign that said "Nothing comes between me and Harry Potter." The kid's 13, people; you're gonna scar him for life if you keep that up. Anyways, we enjoyed the movie, as we thought we would, and now Laura is counting down the days until the DVD becomes available.

Well, I'm supposed to go to Miss Cue today with Stephanie so I better go now...

Oh, by the way, I now have a LAUNCHcast station (I wasn't actually listening to Josh Groban's CD; that song came up on my station). If you don't mind my eclectic music taste, go to Launch and look for my username: tigera2001.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!

I started out with a little tradition of mine: I always tape the parade and then never watch it again. It's still on. Right now there are a bunch of girls dancing in day-glow green and orange outfits. Now they just announced that Jeff Corwin was coming up (Quick, Marisa, turn on the TV). Anyways, even though circumstances were not what I expected them to be (He just HAD to show up, didn't he?), I will still probably never watch this tape again. Now, if Styx performed there (and they never will, because that parade NEVER has rock groups), I wouldn't be so quick to determine that...

Okay, Jeff Corwin is on now, and Katie Couric just called him a "sexy beast." That's the second time she's commented that way on a parade guest, although the first one was a lot tamer ("Oooh, I love him" or something to that effect, but amusing nonetheless). And now I have "To Where You Are" playing on my headphones, but I can hear Baha Men's "Crocodile Rock" in the background, and it's not a good mix.

As hinted at from the short last entry, I finally managed to talk to Laura last night. It was nice to talk to someone who understood my position on things. We're gonna see Harry Potter tomorrow...

I just wanted to say: Laura, I am soooooo glad you're my friend. Thanks for listening (and, even more importantly, understanding) !

Well, two (minor to other people) things happened yesterday: one good, one bad/good, depending on how you look at it.

Good: I found my voice again (For some reason, that sounded really strange). I was getting concerned for a while because I was having difficulty hitting the higher register that I can usually hit, and that would be bad, since I'm a soprano. Then yesterday I was singing "O Holy Night" and it suddenly came back. I tried out a couple other songs and determined that it was consistent. Maybe something in the air/water/food at Denison was inhibiting it, but it's back now. I was worried for a time (and please disregard all negative comments from Marisa or Chris regarding my singing ability-one refuses to be convinced; the other I never bothered to convince)...

Bad/Good: I'm not sure what the cause of this was, but I was watching my mom's "Osbournes" tape and in the middle of it, I suddenly got a really bad feeling, like something wasn't there anymore, and I had a pretty good idea what it pertained to. I later verified it by listening to a CD. The "vocal crescendo" spell (for lack of a better term, since "spell" implies a lack of control) seems to have broken. I listened to that CD and I had no reaction to the music at all (and all celebratory comments WILL be deleted). I felt kinda bad because this probably means the end of my creative inspiration and I'm not sure what to do next (since I only brought one CD home with me), but I felt good that I was no longer acting out of "obligation" (which was what it was starting to feel like). The "vocal crescendo" spell is back a little bit today, but not as much as before. I'll probably go through the standard motions and save them for when it comes back (and I know it will), whenever that may be (it could be tomorrow, next week, or two years from now, but the rest'll be nice while it lasts).

As for now: Damn it! I wish I had brought my Styx CD home...

It's already Tuesday? Where is my vacation going?

Sunday night I went to my grandma's for my aunt and uncle's birthdays (no, they are not married, but their birthdays-NOT birthdates-are two days apart). I got to hang out with my cousin Nikki, who just turned nine last month (Yeesh, how old does that make me feel?!). She, as usual, controlled the TV, so I ended up watching the end of Hook, the end of some female wrestling match, and two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation that weren't particularly good (try explaining DNA to a nine-year-old).

The best day of this break so far has been Saturday, and that's pretty pathetic when you realize that what made Saturday good was Josh Groban's PBS concert (Which, I found out later, did not air in Columbus, so I'll be really cheesy and breathe a huge sigh of relief that I'm home). It was a REALLY good concert, though, and I'm not just saying that because it's Josh Groban (and I highly resent those who think I feel THAT way, and you know which way I mean). He didn't do so well in the World Children's Day concert, in my opinion, but he was back in his element for the PBS concert. I cringe as I write this, because I know what conclusions you'll all draw from this (and you should know better), but when an artist-male or female-performs well, praise from a fellow artist should not be inhibited by the shallow-minded conclusions of others, so I'll take the risk. Anyways, he sounded phenomenal once again (and it's been a good while since he's sounded phenomenal, with the exception of the World Series), especially with the one new song (that will apparently be on the next album), a remake of Lara Fabian's "Broken Vow," which sounds equally beautiful (Is that an appropriate word considering the song's subject matter) whether it's sung by Lara Fabian or Josh Groban. Entertainment Weekly didn't like the concert at all, which I think is unfair. Yes, I'll be glad to point out that the spinning projectors on pedastals for "Cinema Paradiso" were more than a little cheesy (at first I thought that they had been stolen from Denison's Cinema Department, because the model, take up reels, and dust patterns were identical), and I'm not sure who convinced Josh (I'm working on gaining the ability to refer to "celebrities" by first name only, and I think I'm making progress) to wear that black sweater vest for that segment (It'll blow Marisa's mind to know that there were no turtlenecks at all in the concert). I also think that the editing/cinematography could've been better (It was decent, but not great), but I loved the concert nevertheless, and I applaud all those involved (Yeah, like any of them are reading this, but I had to end this paragraph with something positive-that's why it's called constructive criticism).

Of course, that had to be marred when I found out my dad thought my interest in Styx was waning (NEVER!!!!!!). It hurts that people would think something awful like that about me. I thought you people knew me better...

Yuck; the radio station is playing Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby." If they MUST play that song, could they at least save my ears and play the Madonna version? It's not nearly as annoying. It's faster, and Madonna actually adds flavor to the song (Eartha Kitt sounds like she's reading the lyrics off a piece of paper for the first time). The radio station is playing all Christmas music now, and I feel like there's something I'm supposed to be listening for, but I have no idea what. I have noticed that they have mentioned David Foster (who doesn't seem to believe in capital letters) an inordinate number of times, and they played his "Carol of the Bells" at least 10 times yesterday. They also mention his name whenever they play something he produced (like Michael Crawford's "O Holy Night"), which is something they don't do with any other producer.

I just realized that I started this Xanga site so that I could talk about whatever as much as I wanted to without fear of shallow-minded conclusions. What happened to that idea?

This thought just popped into my head: "Can I never go back to the way I was before?" Before what, I have no idea. I do know that people used to see me as an emotional rock, a perfect stoic, and a mentor. Somewhere that image got lost, and I want it back... 

Oh, yeah, Marisa wants me to say that she's mad at Chris. I don't know why she can't say it on her own site, but they have a tendency to argue on my site anyways so I might as well.

Next semester I will be taking Molecular Biology, Radio & TV in America, Organic Chemistry II, and Media Literacy.

I'm about to start moving all my video files onto a CD, but I need to review them first, becuase I know I accidentally downloaded some twice, and some I don't know why I downloaded them in the first place. As for the variety, it's a little...uh...lopsided. Turns out that most of the bands/singers I like either have crappy music videos, are really obscure, or were famous so long ago that the material isn't there to digitize. I AM working on it though.

At long last, I get to go home on Friday. I get to stay there for a week. A lot of things are already lining up: Thanksgiving (duh), seeing Harry Potter with Laura, Josh Groban in concert on PBS (why not?), my aunt and uncle's birthdays, going to the library (sometime) and hopefully hanging out with Stephanie. 

Actually, beyond that, I really don't have much to say. I just posted because everyone seemed tired of looking at Michael Douglas and Annette Bening dancing. So, until next time...

Remembering a better time...

Okay, what's wrong with you people??? Just because we live in a more "patriotic" age (yeah, right) doesn't mean we need to turn into a bunch of mindless zombies and vote for the idiot party that was in power on September 11. I voted, so I have the right to complain. There were a lot of local people and issues that I voted for that won, but on the state level only one person I voted for won, and it was the one Republican I voted for. Contrary to what you may think of me, there are a few Republicans out there that aren't so bad, such as Betty Montgomery (the current Attorney General of Ohio, soon to be Auditor of State-the only Republican I voted for), John McCain, George Pataki, and Rudy Giuliani (I may have butchered the name), and, of course, my grandparents. However, the vast majority of Republicans are complete idiots, and hopefully the rest of you will realize that in two years, if we're still alive. Marisa thinks that the gubernatorial election in Florida was rigged, as well as the Congress election that Katharine Harris won (that I don't understand either). I just think that people turned their brains off after September 11, and that the vast majority have not switched them back on. Hey, we don't need Osama bin Laden. This country seems to be doing a good job of flushing itself down the toilet. Am I the only one that remembers life being better under the Democratic watch? (Apparently we were more popular too. The international students on campus have nothing good to say about Bush, but lavish Clinton with praise). I just hope the rest of you people wake up before the next presidential election. Otherwise, medical school in Canada seems like a very good idea indeed...

You're not gonna get me off the Styx and Josh Groban CDs anytime soon, Marisa. I have a feeling that the next two years are gonna need a LOT of destressing...

I got my "Code" story uploaded to my (real) website, so check it out by clicking on the link in the sidebar.

I have embarked on a quest to reform message boards from the inside out without compromising my morals. Wish me luck.