Erick's Blog

I just spent the day watching the entire Cowboy Bebop seires on DVD, and there's a few things I've decided:

1) Movies are not nearly long enough. You hardly have time to discover who a character is by the time the movie is over, so how can you really care about what's happening to them, when you've just been introduced.
2) Leading from #1, if you want to have the emotional and intellectual experience of reading a good book, take a day and watch good series. If it's well written and acted, it will be an affecting experience. I don't remember any movie I've seen that has left me with the same feeling of loss that I felt when the last episode of Cowboy Bebop ended. At a movie, you go, you see a introduction, a rising action, a climax, and a denoument, and hopefullly the message of the story stays with you, but you won't miss it when it's gone.

Anyway, I guess the point is that to tell a good story takes time.

Short post, but that's about it. I got the part of Cornelius FYI, no deaths or ice cream. Bittersweet that way.

Night.

Bold means I've read it.

1984, George Orwell (started it)
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Animal Farm, George Orwell (really want to)
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
The BFG, Roald Dahl
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (eww)
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
Catch 22, Joseph Heller (will read for school this year)
The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett (have it, not finished it yet)
The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (should read it in college)
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
Dune, Frank Herbert (was reccomended to me, so I will, someday)
Emma, Jane Austen
Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
The Godfather, Mario Puzo
Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake saw the movie.
The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (wow... so... boring...)
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams (ooo, buy me a copy)
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
Holes, Louis Sachar
I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
Katherine, Anya Seton
The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, CS Lewis (want to, bad)
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
The Lord Of The Rings, JRR Tolkien
Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (saw it on a movie (Serendipity) does that count?)
The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
Magician, Raymond E Feist
The Magus, John Fowles
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Mort, Terry Pratchett
Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
On The Road, Jack Kerouac
One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Perfume, Patrick Suskind
Persuasion, Jane Austen
The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
The Stand, Stephen King
The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Tess Of The D'urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Twits, Roald Dahl
Ulysses, James Joyce
Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Watership Down, Richard Adams
The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Winnie-the-Pooh, AA Milne
The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

hmm, that's depressing. what's more depressing is that Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy is not on that list, and neither is Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev, which is an excellent book.

trying out for musical on tuesday. doing Hello Dolly, will be Cornelius or will go on mad killing spree, or buy pity ice cream.

a few people have quit madrigals, which means there's spots open, which means I've got shot, bada bing.

who wants a sandwich? Peter. Peter wants a sandwich.

Yeah, I'm kind of a hippie. It's cool.

General advice: never ever buy anything from barnesandnoble.com. I ordered SAT/ACT study books from amazon three days after I ordered some sheet music from bn.com (I had a gift certificate). I got the study books two weeks ago. I got the sheet music... actually I haven't gotten it yet. hmm.

It might be partly because my neighbors aren't getting their mail, and both the parcel lockers have been unopened for the past week, but I still blame bn.com, dangit!

anyway, tomorrow all the humanities classes are having a communal birthday, as I guesss that's what they do in Japan or something, and I went out and got a present for that and because Tyler's turning 18 on friday. the communal birthday thing means I bought a present from my friend Jennifer. Bought her the Associated Press Style Guide/ Media Laws book, as I'm pretty sure she wants to be a newspaper reporter. It's like a run down of how to properly format a newspaper article and stuff.

Hey, I would want to read it, and I'm not even planning to go into that career.

got Tyler Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. good stuff and all that.

hmm... musical tryouts at the end of the month. am trying out for Ambrose.

not much else happening. nighty night.

Happy Thanksgiving, and the like. Things are okay with me. spent yesterday (being the day before thanksgiving) with Tyler and Lacy. :-) I love my friends.

Todays been kind of a depressed for no apparent reason type day. Love those, loads.

Started reading Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka again, this time I'm taking margin notes and all the good stuff I do when I really want to pay attention. I managed to condense it down to 12 pages (from the former like 20) with my expert formatting, and on double side printing my new priner can do, I printed an entire book on six sheets of paper. Makes me feel accomplished, really.

My family's in Idaho visiting my grandparents for thanksgiving, so my brother and I went to Marie Callender's for thanksgiving dinner. I got a box, as I couldn't eat it all, and then remembered as we drove around the corner toward home that I'd left the box on the table back at the restaurant. Ah well, we gave a $20 tip, so the waitress can clean it up I guess, not that hard, to throw the box in the garbage, you know.

Have Winter Concert on Monday, which is why I got out of going to Idaho. If we had been two hours late getting back, I would have missed my choir final, and as that's one of the only A's I have, and the bass section sort of depends on me, I felt I'd rather not take the risk.

Actually, I really didn't want to go anyway. Somehow I didn't want to spend my first vacation in a long time driving for fourteen hours to eat dinner and drive back. Selfish me, but ah well.

hmm, am listening to music, and music is cool.

It's late at night right now. Crazy stuff. I was up till 3 last night doing much of the same things I'm doing now, listening to music with the TV on, avoiding going to bed, et cetera. I <3 sleep deprivation.

I think I need to start working out to get ready for musical. I couldn't lift anyone really well last year, would like to be able to this year. Indeed.

Go Download "Brick" by Ben Folds Five.

I think I read too much, or not enough, at least not enough of what I should read.

I want my friends to discover Mormonism, 'cause they'd be so much happier, but I can't really force it on them. :-/
Nighty night.

It's early in the morning, in case you can't tell. I went to bed at about 4:30 PM last night because I was so tired. I've come down with a bit of a cold, but I am feeling much better this morning. I went to go see Master and Commander yesterday, I can't report much, I fell asleep for part of the movie... but again that's because I was sick. It was alright, moved a little slowly for my taste, but that can be a good thing too. I think I'll have to see it again when I'm not sick.

Anyway, it's going well for me, I bought a few books the other day. Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg's Nightfall and a book called "How the Irish Saved Civilization" about the Irish and their part in the transition from the classical era to the medieval era.

Bei Mir Bist Du Schon, please let me explain, Bei mir bist du schon means that you're grand. Bei mir bist du schon, again I'll explain, it means you're the fairest in the land. I could say bella bella, even say vunder bar each language only helps me tell you, how grand you are. I've tried to explain Bei mir bist du schon, so kiss me and say you understand

was just listening to that song, obviously. Hear it, love it.

I'm in the play in madrigal dinner again. I play one of the bad guys, and have plenty more lines than I did last year. I even get a fancy frilly costume this year.

Had choir festival yesterday, the Adjudicator was from Southern Oregon University, which is the school I plan on going to. had the festival in my church's gym like always. My choir did really well, looking past the fact that we rushed the tempos on all three songs. the director said we "were moving like a runaway train". Anyway, the adjudicator was very impressed, because we were doing university level music, and one of our songs his only criticism was that the song required a kind of tuning we hadn't learned yet (he hadn't heard the songs at the right tempo, and we weren't rushing so bad that it was obvious) and he said that he hadn't even learned that tuning until he had a doctorate in music. yeah, we sang three songs, one he had nothing to say, one was that one I just talked about, and the third (actually the first one we sang) Daemon irrepit callidus, we had some tuning problems at certain spots, but other than that we were fine.

anyway, I started reading Ender's Game, actually, I'm now almost all the way through ender's game... but anyway, it's one of five books I'm reading right now. It's an ADD thing... if I get bored with one book, I just read out of another one. fun stuff.

anyway, I'd better go, morning everyone.

I've an official assignment for anyone under the age of 30, as well as anyone who works or volunteers in a position in which they mentor or teach, or otherwise interact with adolescents. That assignment is to read the book Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. There's a lot of things I really wish I'd heard 6 years ago in there. Here's a few Examples:

"If your daily lif seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place."

"...keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development; you cannot disturb it more rudely than by looking ooutward and expecting from outside replies to questions that only your inmost feeling in your most hushed hour can perhaps answer."

"Leave to your opinions their own quiet undisturbed development, which, like all proress, must come from deep within and cannot be pressed or hurried by anything. Everything is gestation and then bringing forth."

"Do not observe yourself too much. Do not draw too hasty conclusions from what happens to you; let it simply happen to you. Otherwise you will too easily look with reproach (that is, morally) upon your past, which naturally has its share in all that you are now meeting."

"Do not believe taht he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life has had much difficulty and sadness and remains far behind yours. Were it otherwise he would never have been able to find those words."

Yeah, that's just from the 1st, 3rd, and 8th letters. Actually haven't even read the 8th letter yet, but that last one was mentioned in the introduction, and the one before it caught my eye as I was skimming for the last one. Anyway, it's an amazing book, and I'd reccomend it to anyone in a teaching profession, or in a youth leadership position, just because it provides a great mode for discussion with younger people. The book is of ten letters that Rilke wrote to a young man (about 19) going to a military school. He addresses him seemingly like he would to any of his peers, not patronizingly, but still teaching as if it's something new and exciting he's just learned about. I mean, you can tell when you read it that he's aware of the age diference, but most famous artists wouldn't even look twice at a letter from a strange fan. Rilke considered the letters from Franz Kappus important enough that he answered all of them.

Anyway, it's a new book, and I haven't even finished yet, but I can tell it's going to be one of my favorites. I found it in the poetry section of Barnes and Nobles when looking for a birthday gift for a friend a few years ago. I bought it for her, but nevr read it, and last night I went there looking for that Tallis Anthology I was talking about at one point(that one I didn't find), and I remembered this, and decided I should buy it and read it.

Ah, it's late,a nd I have church in the morning, I really should be going to bed, but I'll say again, buy and read that book, it's definitely worth it.

la dee da. Long time, no blog. Nannycakes to that it seems.

had a fun time last night. The young women in my ward were having their annual sleepover, so the young men had our first annual "TP the house the young women are having their sleepover in". Yeah, we threw water balloons, sprinkled confetti on their lawn, and stuff. Water balloons were of course thrown after they came out and started chasing people. One of the deacons almost got caught... but he jumped into the car in time and we sped off. Yup, fun fun. Then the deacons had to go home and the rest of us went back. We left a really old recliner on their lawn, and Brother Bynon dressed himself up to look like a dummy and laid in it, scared them when they came out. Quality stuff.

stayed home sick from school Wednesday and Friday. Thursday, had a chemistry test and was going to lunch with Tyler. Both fun stuff. Have two essays I need to write today. That'll be lots of fun. I <3 essays.

shout out to Heather, as she's been bugging me to update my blog.

started reading the Gift of Asher Lev. definitely a good book so far. see it, read it, love it.

I want a sandwich. actually, I don't. so there.

Watching God's army right now. Not sure why. Methinks I prefer The Other Side of Heaven, in all honesty.

Think I need to get a bunch of people to go down to Sacto(Sacramento) with me in october to see the Book of Mormon movie. who knows, maybe I'll see someone there... (*hint*Heather*hint*)

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike. I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like. If you can name the song and artist, I will give you an imaginary cookie, or an imaginary rooster, or cocker spaniel. mmm, cocker spaniel.

Still don't have a job, but I got my picture license last week.

wow, I really haven't updated in a while. so here's how it goes. I'm in Humanities program, which is an arts centered study of history and literature. I'm going on a trip down to the San Francisco Opera House to see two short operas on tuesday, and I'm trying out for honor choir on October 24th with the song "Amarilli, mia bella"(1)(2)(3)(4) by Giulio Caccini.

yeah, the links are a history, lyrics, accompaniment, and high voice version of the song. I could't find a recording of the low voice version. the only real difference is I start on middle C and say "dubitar non ti vale" instead of "prendi questo mio strale".

yeah, have homework and stuff I should work on, but probably won't. anyway, gotta go.