Nov 10, 2005

Bell, Book, Band, and Candle (11/10/05)

Book: An Idiot's Guide to World War II
I've read a lot of Vonnegut and want to understand a bit of what's going on. I mean, I know what WWII entailed, but there are a lot of details that I need to cram into my fragile little mind. Okay, I get it, an idiot's guide can't possibly give me EVERTYHING that I need to know, but it's a start. ALSO: Jane Austen's Persuasion. I have to for my Romantic Lit. class. I hate it, but I have to read it.

Band: Jimi Hendrix Experience - Greatest Hits. I'm going through a pretty big Jimi phase right now.

Movie: Saving Private Ryan. I watched it the other night, and it still gets to me. There's something about the whole story and it's context that makes it hard not to feel for all of the characters in it. It's not called the "greatest generation" for nothing, folks. ALSO: Heathers. I'm AWARE that it's an eighties flick, but I need to watch it. The movie is an analogue to a play that I'm reading in my Rennaissance Drama class. It's called The Changeling, and it's about a teenager who convinces a deformed older man to kill her fiance. She thinks he wants money, but he actually wants her virginity instead. Talk about a penetrating read!

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Just Another Update Song. . .

It's November the eleventh and I have a lot of homework. Perhaps that's why I'm here, writing another blog. You should be proud that I value all of you above my education. It's a difficult thing to give up school for friends or whatever you call yourselves.

Either way, there's not much to my life outside of school to talk about. You're probably wondering, then, why I even have a blog.

Because I can, damnit!

I'm thinking about starting another blog that deals only with music stuff. The subject is slowly creeping back into my life. My girlfriend isn't the most well-versed in popular music, so I'm trying to initiate a little music school with her so she can at least spit out verbatim the names of the greatest bands(The Beatles, Dylan, Bowie, Hank Williams, Sr., Jimi, The Stones, Zeppellin - you get the idea), albums, genres, etc. I've always wanted to bestow my knowledge of music onto someone else, mostly just to show off but also to see if I actually have a concrete understanding of all the things I claim to know about rock-and-roll. That's when it occurred to me to start a little music blog. It will be a little while, but I'll post something to you about it when it happens. Though it might encompass music AND movies, though we'll just have to see.

Only four and a half more weeks until I am done with school forever! Or, at least until I go back, which may be sometime in the near future if I can't find a job at all. I'm being pulled in so many directions that I don't know which direction to go in. It's all I can do just to keep my dull wits about me.

This weekend is the Auburn game and there's one question that plagues me: Can I tailgate for twelve hours straight without a break? The game isn't until 7:45 and I'll probably get to the tailgate spot at about 8 a.m. I've never looked up the phrase "pace yourself" (Well, mostly because I know what it means), but I just hope that I can make it to the game, into the stadium, and through the whole thing without A) passing out B) throwing up C) passing out into a pile of my own throw up D)eating a whole bunch of cheese (I'll have to explain some other time). Pray for me people. Pray to Whiskedicus, the god of holding your liquor, that I may make it through Saturday safely.

email me at: t_blake_braddy@yahoo.com

Nov 3, 2005

Book, Band, and Candle (11/3/05)

This week's installment is the first in a long line of what I'm reading, listening to, etc. You should probably love it as much as I love taling about it.

Book: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
It really does live up to the hype. It's a bildungsroman/journey novel, but it's wholly wacky and has some pretty unexpected moments. It defies a satisfying category, but the one listed above is the best I could come up with.

Band: Beck Mix #1: It's not an actual disc, but I have to admit that it's one helluva compilation that I made from various songs of his that I dig. Highlights: Satan Gave Me a Taco, New Pollution, Jackass, Devil's Haircut, (a song I can't recall, but it's good)
Big Box of Soul, Vol. 1: This is a compilation box set that I got my senior year and put away because I didn't like 99% of the songs on it. Boy, was I a complete idiot. I bought it for Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman," but there are so many good songs on this disc that I can't believe I ignored it for so long. Highlights: "Soul Man" by Sam n Dave, "Take a Letter Maria" by RB Greaves, and "If I could Turn Back the Hands of Time" by ? (I can't find it, but it's NOT R. Kelly's version).

Video Game: Evil Dead: Regeneration. Very akin to the previous one for XBOX, though there's a Deadite sidekick - played by Sam Raimi's little brother - that I'm not too fond of. It's pretty good overall though.

Movie: The Ladykillers. I have to write a paper comparing LK to Volpone, a Renaissance play by Ben Jonson. It'll be pretty good, and the Coen Brothers rock, so I'm fairly happy.

School. Over and Out?

I am almost five weeks away from graduation. It's an odd feeling, but I'm more overwhelmed by the sense of uncertainty about what to do after the whole college thing. It's a particularly tricky subject for me, because I've spent the last eighteen years with the same exact schedule.

Boo hoo, I know. Poor me for only needing to be productive for nine months a year.

However, it's not that simple anymore. I need Real money. I will have student loans to begin paying off (I won't tell you how much, but it's more than a molehill and less than a mountain), bills that always seem to come EVERY month, two dogs that need to be fed at least once a week, a car that needs it's daily 1.9 gallon/$5.00 fillup, and an appetite that doesn't seem to go away. It's not that I have expensive tastes, I just have many small bites that add up. I plan on NOT talking about the whole job thing. I don't have any relevant real-world experience, I don't have any contacts, I don't want to move to Atlanta...Oh yeah. Sorry.

The one good thing about graduating? You can expect plenty more blogs here. You're excited, right? I certainly am.

Healthy tidbit for the week

1. Eat Breakfast

You are four hundred percent more likely to become overweight or obese by cutting out breakfast. It really is the most important meal of the day. Hell, drinking coffee with a bit of skim milk in it is far better than not doing anything at all.

If you're lazy, make an easy breakfast the night before. If you're slightly less lazy, take the two minutes to nuke a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave. Scramble an egg or two, or at the very least, make a bowl of cereal. It will satiate your morning hunger and set your metabolism in the "go" gear.

If you can't eat well, eat smart. If you can't eat smart, eat stupid but with a little bit of heart.

Legal Trouble?

Tonight, while talking with my oldest brother, I checked my old web site - Jinx Protocol for all you newcomers - and saw that a pseudo-site had been placed there. Now, I'm not completely sure what the deal is, but I hope that my site hasn't been overrun.

I don't care about the site. It's the Name that I don't want corrupted. So, if it is different, then I will have to change the name of the blog to circumvent any type of confusion.