Wednesday, December 25, 2002

Current Musical Selection: GnR - Dead Horse

" sometimes it feels like im beatin a dead horse; and i dont know why youd be bringin me down; id like to think that our loves worth a tad more; it may sound funny, but youd think that by now id be smiiiiiilin; yeah well i guess something never change... "

well its christmas eve, more like christmas day as i write this.. its something after 2am; although the post time will show later. back on the laptop, in a nice dark room; warm bed, cold air around me. GnR blarin in my ears. what else could i ask for? really all the material possessions i could need are around me; my family is sleeping safely upstairs; all is well in the world [more or less i suppose].

today was interesting. logged some hours in church tonight at a midnight-service. didnt know it, but i was recruited to do some lay-readings. not that i mind doing that; its all rather fun for me, just that i objected at some of the stuff i had to read. for a "birth of the savior" theme, im not sure how some readings in Genesis [about Adam and Eve] and some from the covenent between Abraham and Yahweh had to do with tonights purpose, but i read them all the same. I even spared the congregation my thoughts on the passages: we covered Genesis in its entirety in the bible class this fall... so instead i read along, then read some dopey script for lighting the advent candles; correcting grammar on the fly. didnt throw me off a bit, until i looked out in the congregation. i was hardpressed to see more than 20 faces of the 300 seat facility that i knew. this is a church that i was raised in; minus one other that i was born into; but have been a member in for over fifteen years; didnt see many that i knew. worse yet, after the service, i was approached by people like i was a prospective member, or new to the church... funny assholes. i informed them ive been a member longer than they have. they looked at me funny. then i recited the previous few ministers. then they left. almost had to resort to showing off my name, which is scrawled in a classroom upstairs, that i did one sunday, about 10 years ago. i should have. i was walking in that direction to go see if if was still there when i bumped into a couple friends of mine from long, long ago. both are kids that i literally grew up with in that church. one i see every now and then; he goes to Iowa as well, the other; i havent seen in years. its funny talking to them now. to see how much people have changed, to see how they changed. thinking back and sharing memories over stuff that we all remember, when it was so long ago. its funny how maybe all the other stuff in my life may take controll of my brain most days, but it never truly pushes out memories like those... and appearantly its the same for them too.

theyve both grown up alot. the one especially. she got hot... H O T. interesting how that works. when i was a stupid kid, i never paid all that much attention to her then... sure, maybe id do something boy-ish to get her attention every now and then, but really the three of us were a group together and didnt need to do that; i never saw her as conquestable. instead, when a new girl joined the church later on [maybe 5th grade or so] my friend and i both went after her, never paying much attention to what was around us. lots of funny stupid memories from way back. i remember when she used to show me her training bra and stuff like that, and take great delight in giggling and showing off to me in dark corners of the church basement. i can remember being at church lock-ins with her and sleeping with her on the floor. even little things, like later in junior high, when wed get grabby with each other when wed play tag. man how id kill to do that kind of thing now... [my mind gets dirty when i feel old] she looks really differnt now. never would have imagined her looking that way all those years ago. never could have imagined her in makeup or shoes like that. it might not look like her, but shes still there. talking to her really made that appearant. maybe she thought the same thing about me. she kinda hesitated when i was standing there at first; she knew the other guy, but maybe wasnt sure who i was. after a few words, she knew. i could just watch her face and see it all click. she said the beard and the hair threw her, but she liked the beard. im sure she never would have imagined me looking the way i do now, all those years ago. its funny how people turn out.

its also funny when i sit and thinkg about what all has happened in all that time. everything has changed, everyone has changed. even the church building has changed. its hard to find the memories that you lock away in your head, when you cant seem to find the footsteps you had to retrace them. its difficult to remember where everything happened, nothings in the same place. i was looking out the field we used to play tag in between service and sunday school; and now its a parkinglot for the church. over beyond that used to be nothing but farm field and a broken down farm house. now its Golds Gym and a strip mall. across the street is where she and i would run to pick dandelions to blow apart in class as a distraction; now they are building a hospital there. even inside the church is different now. i can remember where he and i would sit in class and shoot rubberbands at each other under the table, and she would make up stupid answers to cover for us. that classroom is now part of the church's daycare program- something that didnt exist back then. even the sanctuary, where she and i would run and hid in during the church lock-ins, is now different and expanded. the cold tile under the pews where wed curl up together in one sleeping bag, is now carpeted, the pews are new too. the lighting is all different too. we couldnt hide in it very well now if we tried. everythings changed. everyone has changed. she seemed embarrased when i asked if she remembered some of it; but not in a bad way; more of a "ill remember something about you thats more embarrasing" sort of way. it was fun. but it had to end. she had a party to go to. he had something going, and i had family committments to return to. if but only for a few minutes, its was fun to be there with them again. it was fun to relive that old life once again.

ain't it fun~
s.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU LOYAL READERS!

Sunday, December 22, 2002

Current Musical Selection: Boston - More Than A Feeling

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Im sitting here, typing in the near dark conditions; using technology from the early 1990s, listening to stereo sound technology from roughly the early 1980s, of songs recorded in the mid 1970s, while I take a break from reviewing my vinyl LP collection, which is quickly growing, of records that predate my parrents marriage. Ain't life grand?

For some reason I decided not to use my thousand-dollar pile of parts sitting next to me, and have decided to resort to using a laptop I aquired during my senior year of high school. Sure, its frustratingly slow, and the applications are so outdated its humorous [using Lotsus Notes, remember them?], and sure the hardware is comical... no Windows keys, no mouse... instead I get this funky proprietary track-ball contraption that hooks on. But it works. This 386 is humming along, burning up the pixels at a blinding speed of nearly 40mhz. Its all about nostalgia. My cd player, [rather than using my computer, as I usually do], I purchased somewhere in the early 1990s... cant remeber when really... i can date it pretty easily... The first cd I purchased was GnR's Use Your Illusion 2. But it was a year or so after it hit big... I did, however, wait in line to purchase the album on cassette when it came out. Anywho; the cd player is just churning out tunes from the mid 70s.... I havent listened to Boston in a while; although I've been in a sort of retro music phase of late. [one of the first things i did when i got home, was put on my newly aquired Deep Purple - Live in Tokyo album {{IN VINYL}} ]. So its just funny when you realize that everything that is technological in nature around you is not only vastly outdated, but its comforting for it to be that way; just for no other reason than to escape all the gadgets as they exist now. But the one thing i miss so far, is a standard sized keyboard and mouse... pluse that heaven-sent predictive text and error correction built into Word. Makes me wonder how I ever used to type before this! Really the only time I may even consider using something this basic for text entry would be for html. And about the time this particular machine was probably created, the commercial world realized something called; the internet. This crate was packaged before Internet Explorer was around.... hell back to when the world was contrainted to 8 character long file names. Kinda puts it in perspective, and it kind of doesnt. Lots of other technology may seem superior nowadays, but some of it still hangs on. Cars are a good example. For as efficient and safe as antilock brake systems are; the vast majority of cars on the road, and off the production lines are still using front disc, and rear drum confingurations... unless your a truck or something heavy duty... then its either all drum or some air-braking system... either way; weve been manufacturing cars, and stopping accidents with this same system for decades, and even though the technology supports a change, we cling to the past. Same thing with automatic transmissions. Eventhough they are in a majority of cars produced; manuals are still in great demand... infact some vehicles still dont even come with the option for automatic. Manual shifting damn-near pre-dates the car its self, and its likely to be here for a while to come. To me its interesting.

ain't it fun~
s.

Saturday, December 21, 2002

Current Musical Selection: Fear Factory - Flashpoint

well my friends, its all come to an end, yet again. according to my calendar, we are shit out of days in this semester, and we can thankfully look forward to the new, and regretfully look back upon the old. i was trying to think of what to say about it all. couple people were pestering me about this semester, and how its all shaken out. im not sure. alot of things have come up and gone, some things never made the radar; and some stuff came out of left field and never went away. although ill write alot more on new years or so, about the entire year; i guess i can say somethings about this semester explicitly...

for one, i cant say much about my classes. i think ive had the worst attendance of any student in this university.. it was poor, even for my standards. somewhere around lmid/late october, the uselessness of it all hit me again. usually i can supress it enough to keep going infrequently; not this time. i stopped going mentally, if i did happen to wander in physically. its terrible of me. it kicked my ass in a few respects later on for it, but im most let down by how i can still slide by. sure, my GPA is crap... and getting worse, but i think i made it by again. nothing about these classes seemed to warrant my interest. not even the ones i picked as fun alternatives to class... even those got boring and laborious after a few weeks. nothing really that i wanted to spend my afternoons on. what did i? ARH. i sound like a fanatical madman, but i really think people never think twice to the amount of time ive logged in for it all, just this year= nevermind last year! if im not there, im thinking about it. if im not dealing with paper, someones talking to me about it. if its a day off, that means i can have 'fun' conversations with hall coordinators, students and staff. its depressing what my life has turned out to be; which is really nothing away from the organization. i owe it all to my sense of duty. it needs to be treated as a job; the organization needed the time and effort: it needed some respectability put back into it. maybe i havent done that; but ive tried. so many problems from previous years and boards; that this time was necessary. so i sacraficed that small part of me.... the part that is me. on my floor now i have bundles of paper, reams in size, all of articles and notes that need to be archived and sorted out. so much, that im loosing track of the piles... not the individual paper, but the piles! maybe it will all add up to something, to someone in the future.

people were a big change this semester. we started out the year with a plan, atleast all of us that live upstairs. we wanted it to be our tower, to have our group. we did that. for a while. after that it kinda fell apart. i dunno why. but it did. i doubt any of us would disagree about it. i guess, looking back on it all; it opened up the door for alot of other people to come in. several people int he 'group' now, werent around durring the original plotting sessions. but it was a definite change. also cant forget about the various hookups along the way, it was equally unexpected, yet undeiably destined to happen i suppose. but it all did change. me, myself? i met alot of people this year, been introduced to alot more; have several other people who i know can call friends. left alot of other people behind as well. somedays i really feel guilty for it. even if i just constrain it to the people that ive neglected just this semester. maybe i dont feel as guilty for that, as i do for sacrificing time with them/for them, and using it on other people. i think this semester brough alot of wasted time, wasted people into my life. lots of shit came up and became something that maybe wasnt deserving of my time, and i regret that. so if you are one of those people, that maybe i left off the hook... im sorry. really i am. if you happen to be one of the people i may waste my time on; dont make me feel that way. and for all the new arrivals and old friends; its been real. i guess ill leave it at that... i promise... a long, long, long introspective look come the end of the year. ive got alot of things to say about what its been. and i guess i see it as really being the end of the year, even though i have a few weeks to go. thats me being me, selling myself short, and cutting things off before they are done. two weeks can hold alot. in two weeks the entire wold can change; just a year ago we changed the world in a matter of minutes, and plastered it all over live tv for proof, so whos to say nothings going to change in the two weeks i have left? i do. i think the next couple of weeks is going to be me, lying low, doing nothing, sleeping in. i doubt anything will change. i guess, i dont want anything to change... i just want to make it through. just want to make it.

lifes been slow the past few days... hence no entries. its been a difficult time. for me, its all alot easier if i have things to pass the time with. when its slow, like it has been lately; everything just seem to drag on. when im idle; i sit on things alot more. i start thinking things out more [more than i usually do], and i start noticing little things that aggrivate me more, than when im busy enough not to notice it. the past week or so has seen like a month. that should tell you how bad its been. soper is probably right, it seems longer because we all spent alot of nights staying up, studying and doing exams. im no different; almost 3 days straight without sleep. then another 2 days solid for finals this week, and still never overcomp'd on my sleep. same schedule for the week, no naps, no nothing. that makes it go slow. time goes by very slow when your so tired of life; so tired of living in first gear. thats what it was like on sleep deprevation. first gear. everything is moving, the motor is just grinding away; your mind never stops thinking [because your making it do so], but everything seems slow... everything seems limited at about 15 miles per hour, no matter how hard you hit the gas pedal. yeah, i guess its like that. life just grinds along. days blur together, hours seem like days, cant even tell when a week passes... its too hard to count that long. it used to go fast. last year i remember having a conversation about it; about how fast time goes. one hall talk would last from midnight to breakfast; some IM conversations would go on so long as to break the program. its funny how things change like that, all within a semester.

as a minor programming note:::::::::::::::::::

ill be going home for break, now that classes are over. blog entries will probably be much less frequent because of it. if they are regular, then they will probably get posted all at once... so be warned. its not that nothings happening, or im neglecting my space. just dial-up sucks that bad. and so does using the family computer. relative to that; i will be around Davenport for nearly a month, so if anyone is in town, or is cutting through it, feel free to find me. likewise, i probably wont be on instant messenger alot. so, im sure some of you will go through withdrawl like i will; but in the event that you do; my cell phone is allways on. call me, or tell me to call you, thats all it takes. in the meantime; may God watch over us all:

and the Lord said; "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16.

an appropriate quote i picked up from my class this semester; until we all meet again

s.

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Current Musical Selection: Fear Factory - A Therapy For Pain

I welcome death with open arms
Her soft breath and simple charm
Wandering through memories
Takes my hand for me to see

Tried so hard
Tried so hard

Echoes of Innocence
Are my thoughts into dissent

Tried so hard
Tried so hard
Tried so hard
Tried so hard

When we finally reach the end
She lets go of my hand
Waking into realms of light
There will be no death tonight

Tried so hard
Tried so hard
Tried so hard
Tried so hard

--------------------

bad day doesnt suffice. i think i bombed 2 finals, that could end up being make-or break for me in both classes. one was 80% of the grade, the other was 25%... i think i did worse on the 25% one thank god. pisses me off the more i think about it. the exams werent fair, werent at all what i was expecting. and then it was just too much. no one should be forced to take a 4.5 hour essay exam, worth 80% of the final grade. its not right. cite everything my fucking ass. how are you supposed to cite "all applicable international law and treatise," its only a fucking intro course! she was living it up tho. she enjoyed watching me choke on it. really, she smilled when i looked up and slapped the paper back down in disgust. wieting wasnt much better. his pompous old fartself chuckled when kids started groaning. he didnt say anything when i realized id forgotten my calculator [on a math exam]; so i got the pleasure of doing 7 digit long division and 3 digit odd-number square roots all by hand. addition and subtraction is usually pushing the envelope for me. i fucking hate them both. they made exams that, even when i studied for them, i wasnt prepared for it. no to mention, i started at 8am this morning, was supposed to go to 12:30 with the law exam; but oh no; i have my stats exam at noon. upstairs boyd is an easy 20 minute walk from upstairs seashore. so either i stay on with the law exam, and be an HOUR LATE to stats [in a 2 hour exam slot], or i skip out of the law exam early, to make it to stats. i had to do the latter. i couldnt take the bullshit anymore. when i got to stats it was horseshit. i forced myself to think the change of scenery made all the difference; but it didnt. after i threw my exam back at wieting and stomped out, i spent the afternoon pissed off in my room... sleep deprived, angry, and now with shit horrible grades in classes that arent offered next semester for me to even repeat if i wanted to. not that id want a course by either of those pricks again. just there werent any options. punching the concrete wall in the dark for an hour straight was about all i could do to keep from loosing it. parents didnt say much. "im sure you didnt do that bad honey,"-mom "well i guess you should have stopped screwing around and studied" what are they supposed to say tho. maybe its my fault, but id like to think it wasnt. i wasnt AS prepared as i could have been. but then again, when the hell did i ever get the chance to do any studying. 2 massive finals on the same day, that overlap, that both required major papers 3 days before the exam to be done, on top of all the other shit that had to be done on deadline day, not to mention having other finals to study for. god forbid id like time to myself. so fuck it. i dont think im ever going to graduate from this shit hole. i hate this school. i hate my major. i hate the faculty. i hate the ciriculm. i hate the values. i hate the norms. i hate the students. i dont even know why im still here anymore, with days like today.

not like fuck else has really gone right in my life the past few weeks. nothing is more annoying than every last motherfucking friend you have, hooking up with everyone else. its absolutely incredible the depths of hatred someone has for me to do this to me. not only immerse me face first in shit, but then pack it around real tight. make sure to include every person i associate with, and just do it all at once. let them rub it in too. nothings better than rubbing cold fucking shit in someones face. lets fucking parade ourselves around; lets be happy because there is a 'we' for you. fuck them. fuck all of that shit. everyday i grow harder. the longer i have to deal with the constent shit like this, the less likely im ever going to be to change my ways, and its aggrivating. its aggrivating to have tables of people to eat with, to litterally one last person. so called friends dont even bother to inform me about dinner, they just off and leave [oh, maybe you all figure i just stopped eating] doesnt matter; i dont care. fuck you all. common, god damn descency between individuals is all i ask. i dont think theres ever been a night where if someone wasnt with us for a meal, i didn ask why, or go find them. never the same curteousy extended, never. ill wait an hour for people to come back from class, so they have someone to eat with... but it allways comes back to "scott who?" when you all have your turn. i dont get it. i also dont understand how all this inter-god damn-group fucking seems to change everything for us overnight. litterally, plans some of us have had for months, are now changed for these people... people we didnt even know 4 months ago; people that maybe in my mind, i still dont care to know. everything is tainted by the stench of incestual group courtship. it stinks of it. people dont even realize it i suppose. why would they, every last fucking one of them is happy. every last one of them has someone else. "aww sad" lets not think about who doesnt get picked. once all this shit started, i knew it wouldnt be good. people ive known for years, i dont even see anymore. i see the 'others', people ive known for maybe 2 weeks, more than the people ive known for years. and you guessed it, they have more importance, rank higher, and appear to be better company to replace me with. i guess thats fine. thats how you all want it. so dont bother whining about it to me, when you all fuck each others asses and windup covered in your own sickly shit stains. i wont listen. i wont be there to clean up the mess. i will not deal with it.

while im good and pissed, let me dedicate some other things: lots of people dont know how to have proper edicate in friendships. its proper to thank someone that does something for you. its common to say, "gee thanks" when someone gives you something. nah. im wrong again. that must be scott's rules... and the rule is scott who?, right? so that means; dont answer the person that talks to you, or that does an occasional nice thing for you. infact, just dont answer them ever. blow them off if they talk to you, yeah, just be guttless and do it that way. dont respect people. thats new rule 2. besides, you cant be snide to someone you respect. you cant wish them away if you respect their comments. and you certainly cant just ignore them, if you respect them as a person. better yet. if someone decides to suggest they care about you; dont listen to it. remember, the goal is not to deal with them. instead, make a rude comment to them at least twice a week. somehow, manage not to talk to them about anything on a personal level, just say something every 10 minutes, then leave. best yet, just put up an away message if they talk to you; yeah, thats how to do it! see, ive been taking notes from some of you. i try to be nice. i try not to let it get to me. i try to stay 'sunnyside up' and 'rosey cheeked' its not that i dont noticed it. its not that i dont see what youre doing. its that i expect better than that. its too bad, to think someone actually would go out of their way to talk to you; cheer you up on bad days, to know enough to just listen to you on good days; lets reward that. lets insult them. lets to do everything we can to degrade whatever might be there; and why not? our attitude has to be 'fuck that assclown,' besides, if we dont start now, well never have it perfected. so when that time comes, you can just all out embarress yourself with your own conduct towards another person. but thats where the practice comes in; youve allready written them off, for no reason at all, so now it will be much easier to do it. that how we can teach each other not to care about anyone. thats how you get where im at. thats how you KNOW when a situtation is exactly the way it is; because its all you ever see from people. well i guess i should just stop that. i guess i should just snip the wires that carry that kind of emotion, and litterally cut off those kinds of feelings for people. congradulations, horseshit immature antics, like yours, make it more difficult for you in the long run. someday, youll realize who your standing next to, and youll know its not what you could have had, if you didnt insist on playing by the new rules.

merry fucking christmas to you all; and to all a big fuck off!






Monday, December 16, 2002

Current Musical Selection: Gladiator Soundtrack - The Battle Theme

dont know what to say anymore. not sure what i want to talk about tonight... again, its one of those times where im finding myself awake at 5 in the morning, and im not quite ready for bed, but i dont want to stay up any later. and here i go again. yep. pretty much. nothing. comming. to me. nope. nada. nothing. cant think of. anything. to write. instead. i guess. ill just. play. with. periods. you all have. grown. accustomed to my. erroroneous. puncu. atio. n. ha.ven.t y.ou. ?

in the words my old highschool friend,

" homework sucks my balls "

studying for finals isnt getting me anywhere; in fact id guess ive played more video games than studying this whole weekend. to my advantage, i did study hard for one final, which i was expecting to come last week... the other two i dont have alot to study... i guess other than the entire text book and everything that was said in class. so, ive lulled my self in to my usual false sense of security. im sure when the lead hits the paper, im going to be mad at myself, as usual. finals are worthless in all respects except grades. only to grades and gradepoints do they matter. they dont test me on what ive learned; they dont show my instructors the mastery over the subject matter that should have been imparted on me throughout the course of the semester. instead, they make me fill out fucking bubbles. instead they make me write paragraphs about statistics. instead they make me cite court cases which we all know. its not showing me anything, and id argue its not showing the instructors anything. all they want is the answers, regurtated in the form presented to us; no spin, no unique idea, no exploration, just tell me what i told you, the way i want to hear it. then get your B- and go through that door. school in general is no longer a good determinate of what kind of person you will be, or how well you have learned the material. id like to think im not a bad person, and that ive learned something. but grading this way, just shows me that im not good at Iowa on their scales. their grading procedures places more emphasis on how often i show up and listen to their obscene filth; over how much i learn. they grade me on what they know, not on what i know. alot of times i find myself arguing during the course of an essay exam. im torn between writing the essay i want to write, and writing the answers they want to hear. my way jepordizes my grade [because appearantly that means i havent learned anything, duh] and their way leads to better grades. but i cant myself part with it. i always gut it out, and go with the bad choice. the choice they dont want. i argue it strong and fast. i argue my answer, knowing that each word is fighting the system they so richly believe in. and ultimately i can not be correct. but i keep writing it. they keep marking me down. again, appearantly i havent learned anything in my time here. i thought college would be about me learning the material, i thought it would be about me gaining a sense of self. instead, i learn what they tell me, to spit the same back at them on exams, then i learn that my way is wrong, in every sense of the word. its tough to be optimistic going into finals week. im sure not.

more later today...

s.

Saturday, December 14, 2002

Current Musical Selection: STP - Sex Type Thing

i am, i am, i am, i said i wanna get next to you; i said im gonna get close to you... you wouldnt wanna have me have to hurt ya too? hurtcha too? i aint, i aint, i aint a buyin your apathy, im gonna learn ya my philosophy; wanna learn about atrocity? i know you want whats on my mind, i know you like whats on my mind, i know it eats you up inside, i know you know, you know. i am a man, a man, ill give ya something ya wont forget, i said ya shount have worn that dress, i said ya shoulnt have worn that dress. here i come, i come, i come. i am, i am, i am, i said i wanna get next to you; i said im gonna get close to you...

not sure what to make of it. the last week has been magical hookup week. honestly, i dont think there has been any person left out of this vicious onslaught. some people, three nights in a row now; others just decide to sleep with random people, some get walked home the next day; and im sure there are others just waiting in the wings from what i know. its chaos. part of me says thats nice, go them.. the sensible part of me doesnt like this... any of this. these are all people who work for me. the minute any of this shit starts to go south, i then get to inherit infighting, attitude and disgruntled uncomfortable silence between people. im not looking forward to it, and the day is comming. its gotten so bad, im to the point that im not even able to keep score. in the begining i could, now im just lost; it seems like everything is just comming out of the woodwork. there has got to and end to this all... really, im running out of employees! all i have left are 2 that are untouched by this... one i can only assume is lodged into his own, non office pool, of whatever; the other doesnt seem to be too concerend with it all.... hes the one im scared of. next ill hear one of them is after him. its not right.

i actually got to sleep last night. for anyone that might not know; i had been up continuously since about 8am Tuesday morning; lasting until about 3am Saturday morning, with only a brief 4 hour interlude where i litteraly blacked out on the couch. ive really only pushed myself farther once in my life. im not proud to say it, but i know that im capable of staying up for about 4 days... this was really getting difficult for me to do, but it was very hard to get to sleep when i did. jamie is right; id probably punished my brain so much for trying to sleep, it just wouldnt allow its self to shut down. i scare myself with that kind of will power and conditioning. look at it this way, what if i channeled that into something useful? yeah. that what scares me. instead, i forced myself to do, really, 3 weeks worth of work in one... two major papers, a major presentation, 3 lesser papers, and still only missed 1 class the whole week... plus managed to take care of all the fruit basket everything, have a house meeting, 3 meetings outside the scope, interview potential university president over lunch, and manage to disappear for several hours, 60 miles away on a whim. busy week.

not much else is going on. nothing has changed. nothing will change. change is gone. reality is the name of the game. the reality is ive changed. notice the lack of blue webpage now? i thought black was better. i thought my words might stand out from the page now, rather than blend in. i blend in as it is, and im tired of noticing that. tired of getting placed in the same old groups. label them what you will; 'just a friend' 'poor student' 'non-motivated' 'mean' fuckem all. ive got nothing to prove any more, ive got nothing to sell, ive got nothing to make me do more than i should. i found that lately ive been spending alot of time by myself. some of you have asked about it, i guess i dont have an answer. i guess i dont care all that much, ive never felt that ive needed people around me... ive never felt the need to be wealthy by people. but then again, i think ive been 'feeling' too much lately. ive been thinking too much, ive been feeling too much, ive been wanting too much. maybe its just that people make me sick. people drag me down, and sometimes they push me, the push until they bring out the worst in me. its aggrivating. its frustrating to feel yourself lose your grip on everything, to watch yourself slipping. to be able to remember when everything was squarely in front of you, and now its all on its side, flowing all over the ground.

so not only have i been rather sleep deprived and anti-social of late; ive also felt pretty useless as it comes to women. the current weeks state of affiars isnt helping much, i might add. again, i suppose its all well and good for all of these people to be finding each other... aside from some of the match-ups being slightly creepy and unforseen, generally these are people whom id have said are probably due for someone. not to slam them, but i think each is probably difficutl to match to someone else, i suppose its a good thing that theve been able to find people which they are comfortable around and possibly more forgiving of all the lesser faults we have, and maybe, just maybe, they are much more appreciative of the nicer sides of us all. its hard not to feel left out in it all. not only do you get the obvious, 'i want mine too' when it comes to distributing signifficant-others; but ive noticed the pool of friends has dwindled since all of this started happening. even the group of us hardcore friends on the floor have really started to break up... id say theres about 3 major factions now, 1 is fairly tight, 1 is fairly loose, the third is made up of loose ends. seems that the 2nd group is starting to diminish, and the rest of us leftovers are really having to fend for ourselves. not to mention; once all this other group madness started to occur, there was alot of intermingling and movement across groups-- with the advent of the dating game, weve now adjusted down the ranks, everyone seems to be pairing off or staying in groups of 3s. but not me. i dont know why; but, i feel like ive gotten left behind in the dust cloud. not that it matters i guess. none of this is intentional id imagine, and its probably better off... little bit of natural selection to shake down the genetic tree i suppose, and who did that ever hurt? ive been eating some meals alone; something i tried to reserve to days when im uber busy or just non-sociable; past week or so its not been by choice. again, i guess i dont really care. its just odd to see it all change like this so fast. its differnt now. its different when i see these people together. maybe im in the wrong, but i quickly get the impression that being around me, is not a priority. its kinda... i dunno.. its weird to feel left out for things. its weird knowing that things have changed--focus and attention have changed-- since a week ago. some people ive known for years now, just lately seem like total strangers. and now total strangers have just been thrust into the mix as full equals for the group. its feeling like youve been replaced, and youre still standing there when they picked new teams. one of those indirect ways of letting you know you can just go home. teams are full. no one picked you. anyway, game on. i suppose you can sit out and watch us play. and thats kinda what its like.

for those of you that keep score, ive had another wonderful dream thats been pretty re-occuring lately. sometimes it repeats its self, sometimes it starts in different places, and sometimes its a continuance, but its all along the same lines. i really dont know why i get these things anymore. i used to be good about sleeping. i used to have good dreams. i dont anymore. i dont sleep worth a shit, and if i do, its been in the afternoons, when i shouldnt be sleeping. the dreams have gotten more vivid lately... and im not talking porno. like with some of the others, i really remember what happens, and more and more, im remember how i feel as it all goes on. i never used to.. i never used to get feelings in dreams. they always used to be something cool, like screwing a Playmate of the Year, or playing ball with your favorite Major Leaguer. they are all dark now. they all have little hope of anything good happening them, and they never end well... thats what been waking me up lately at night. waking up from some of these things makes it very difficult to go back to sleep, so i havent some nights. some nights i just sit in the dark and look out the window. sometimes i just do something idle, ill bounce a ball, or swing my keys around, but ill sit there for hours just thinking of it all, in the dark. im sure its not healthy. hopefully alot of this subsides before i go home; really the last thing i want to deal with is my parents getting involved. dont get me wrong, i respect their opinions, and i trust them and their judgements... just at this point i dont even know whats wrong. i dont even know why i share some of this kinda shit anymore, i really dont.

dreams are only what you want to make of them, and i know theres something in it all worth thinking about. i wonder what its all supposed to mean, and what its supposed to point me to. lots of cultures tend to think that dreams are a way of fortelling the future, in a cryptic way. so far, about all i can tell is it looks like im going to die. it looks like im giong to die in a state in life, where it doesnt look like im all that happy with where i ended up. yep, sounds reaaaal farfetched. fuck, that could be any day now, as far as things seem to be going for me. but i suppose its not. i suppose its not going to happen for a while. i hope not atleast. but the dreams arent nice to me, that goes without saying. this one seemed to go with the last one i wrote about. ill spare the details. its really not important, and im sure you dont want to know, but all i know is i wake up in a cold stone cell. its dark. its mildy damp. its humid, but the stone is cold. i cant move my legs well. my fingers dont respond right. my head hurts alot. one eye is swelled shut. and theres a deep ache everytime i try to breathe. without warning, a door is opened; bright light blinds me, and people speaking languages i dont understand, haul me out. its time to get beaten again. they usually just kick, punch sometimes too. they had some sort of stick or cane, but they broke that. they usually keep going until one of them is too tired to do it anymore. then they like to talk to me. in broken english, air hanging witih stale cigarette smoke; they ask me questions that i dont know anything about. they think i do. they think hitting me makes me remember. it tends not to. it goes on like that. eventually they try to smile, and be nice to me. they try to get me to tell them the answers they want; to questions ive never heard. its funny. the broken jaw keeps me from laughing about it. although im not really sure its broken; once after i didnt wake up for a few days, they brought a doctor to see me. he said he couldnt tell if it was broken, or just horribly dislocated... there was too much swelling and bleeding to tell without xrays. they like to tell me things. they tell my about how my world on the outside has fallen apart. they like to tell me that my country will soon be gone. but. since they like me, if i cooperate with them, theyd help get me a job in their country. they like how weve become such great friends. they tell me theyd like to do as the americans do, and 'have a beer sometime' together. they dont drink tho. probably against the religion. whatver the hell it is. they usually hit the back of my head when i dont pay attention or start to blank out. it helps me to concentrate they say. they show me maps of areas ive never heard of, then they show me pictures of stuff i dont remember seeing. they are looking for something, and they ask their friend to help find it. i suppose im not a good friend. eventually they get tired of me, and one of them drags me back to my cell... where i get to lay in a pile, until they decide to come see me. there used to be other people there. at first, you could hear them scream, or refuse to talk. anymore its relatively quiet around here. i was never allowed to talk to anyone. the only time ive ever seen someone else was when they threw a body on top of me. they told me the hotel was double booked. then they laughed. the worst comes when they try to break everything about you.. and its hard to tell what that would entail, when i really dont know whats going on, or where i am. its the most surreal when they play me tape recordings, and read me letters. they say the letters are from home, and they say the voice is from someone i know. i noticed that when i told them they were wrong, the next day it would be a different voice, and a different name. the letters would change too. once they got a name right, they changed what the letters were about. i suppose it took a week or so... i cant really tell how long; but theyve got me down cold now. they have the name or two, with a voice thats kinda similar, but not really. they make me think about things that arent true. they read me letters from some girls that profess love to me. i know better. then they write me things about how they miss me, and how they want me to be home. its probably a lie too. the stories continue. eventually i cant remember whats real and whats not. its a cruel game really. im at the point where i start to believe the lies they tell me. i start to believe it like they are true. i start to believe that these girls actually do want me, and actually do write nice things to me. but its all lies. eventually the letters get angrier. sometimes they start picking at me. sometimes, they start telling me how they dont like me, how im a horrible person, how ill never find a person to replace them, and how ill allways regret screwing this all up. maybe theres lies in there. but thats how it continues. its allways dark colored. never anything light. only the pale yellow light from the lamp that hangs in the room where my friends are. sometimes a smaller desk light is on by a chair in the corner; that how i know ive gotten mail or a tape from home. but the dream just goes in and out. sometimes they last a while. sometimes they dont. sometimes i think im having a new dream- a better dream, until in the dream im woken up by the sounds of myself being beaten mercilessly. sometimes i can feel it. sometimes i cant. sometimes those are the dreams that wake me up at night, and keep me from sleeping. i used to have pleasant dreams. now i dream of wars, i dream of physical punishment, i dream of emotional angst, i dream of people beseiging me for who i am, i dream of solitude and pain. sometimes i dont. sometimes nothing happens; alot of times i just sleep, and i remember nothing when i wake up. but sometimes i get dreams like that. sometimes its hard for me to tell whats the dream, and whats not.

ain't fun~
s.

Thursday, December 12, 2002

Current Musical Selection: GnR - Knockin on Heaven's Door [new live rendition from the tour!]

mellow, in a word. the new rendition that ive been playing the hell out of the past few days is nothing but mellow. back in the early 1990s, when GnR was the biggest and most dangerous band in the world [according to journalists; NOT themselves], this Bob Dylan cover rocked the arenas and venues of the globe with a ferocity rarely seen from such a simple, bastardized reggae song. They threw in the speed and style of GnR, and just amped up to all hell, and let it go. But now, its a new age; and its a new band. One of Axls goals is obviously to separate himself, and his new band from the past.. this song does it. At points, its reminiscent of the old tune.... some parts i can hear the true Axl bleed through; but mostly its new to me... its different... its mellow. Where as the former version reflected the jaded and raucus lifestiles of the times, the new song is much more pleasant to the ear. Its all about change.

I never been one to show much emotion... and ive probably mentioned something about all that here before. Sometimes thats not a good thing. Lately it hasnt been. Several have been reading just this, and attempting to extend that im nothing but unhappy and suicidal. I think we all know thats not true, whether or not i exhibit it correctly. I suppose, Im not a happy person- and i have never claimed to be; likely never will Happiness is relative to me. Happiness could be a new video game; it could be scoring a phone number from a girl in lecture; it could be sleeping in some morning; and it could be a night where people dont ask me stupid things. Happiness isnt a unifying property. Happiness is and can be many things; of many levels and intensities. To me, happiness is rankable, getting my haircut when it looks bad... minor happiness, of moderate duration. Somehow winning the lottery; major happiness, major duration. Getting a girl to go out with me; major happiness, moderate duration. Sleeping in late; minor happiness, minor duration. None of which really are permanent, none of which are overly life changing. None of which would change who I am, Id hope. But appearantly, Im told I should be happy more often. Im not happy enough I guess. Which is odd, none of the above have occurred lately; so in my mind Im not seeing much to be happy about. Rather, Im not seeing how my mood should adjust arbitrarily for lack of stimulating circumstances; for no reason than 'just to be happy.' Im a different breed that way; I require a reason to act a certain way.

Reasons are interesting too. Reasons give you grounds to do something, and appearantly to feel a certain way. Ive got reasons not to be happy. Ive got reasons not trust people, Ive got reasons why I dont go to class. But what gets to me; is how all of you insist that I dont need reasons to be happy. Im not against happy; but its got to be for some reason, no different than being sad. You all appearantly still think that I should just ignore what makes me 'sad' or 'poopy' as youve put it, in the idea of becomming 'happy' or 'non-poopy.' I say to you: give me a reason to be happy! Give me reason to not have horrible dreams, give me a reason to have pleasant ones. Give me a reason to have hope; and better yet, give me something to make me happy in the here and now, that will elimante a need for hope, as Id need nothing else to be happy to hope to. Instead, I see the reasons why I should not be happy. I see the reasons why I should remain frustrated, cold, and alone. I dont see you and your reasons aiding me. I see them hindering me.

But as I said, Im not so good at showing my emotion. I tell it. I hint at it. But I do not put it on exibit. I think I am easy to read. I think I am honest. Appearantly I am not. Reading the words I have written, I feel everything is there, but none seem to catch on to it. So you continue to ask me what is wrong, why am I 'sad' ? I am sad because I am denied of that which would make me happy. So what? What is new about that? My life is generally one chain of dissappointments, of greater and lesser intensity; with a sparse occasion of success. All in all, Im pleased with my self if I can manage to remain neutral through it all, much less 'happy'

I think back on it all, and remember the faces and places where I should have been brought down... maybe now is one of those times, and maybe it isnt. But now is a time where its difficult for me to maintain the neutrality of feeling throughout it all. Now is a time when it does affect me negatively. It affects me personally. Its me thats negative. Not in a sense of happy v. sad. But in a sense of me being the lesser of two choices, me as captain bringdown, me as not the attractive option; as the negative one. But that too, is not unusal for me; not unusal for being me. Its the context you put it in. Its the surrounding issues that make it worse. Its the people that exist and the things they say to you, that make you sad. Its the way they dont even acknowledge you, and just naively blow you by when you have something to say, that makes it negative.

I doubt that people ever truely know what they do, and maybe its not right of me to hold this against them, as they wouldnt know. Only a handfull of times have i ever expressed any feelings for a female that were stronger than 'hey, how are you doing.' Only for a few, have I ever felt that they, above and beyond the others, the friends, the allies, the aquaintences, that they mean something more to me than the average person. Most of them are just a close friends. Only once in my life have I ever admitted to loving another. She meant alot to me. As Ive said here before, she shouldnt have. She made me interested, she made me feel. She was the one that truely awoke a sense inside of me, that was destined to feel for someone else; a sense of me that wanted to be with someone else. For that, I dont think I will ever truely wish to forget her. Some of you have pestered me with questions about being over her... my answer is never. I never want to be over that feeling of having and wanting someone else, I liked it too much. A better question, Do I feel that she and I are over for good? Yes I do. Do I wish that I could have just her back? Not necessarily. What I do wish to have back is that feeling-- that sense of having someone; but does it have to be her, specifically? No. People think its sad for me to be hooked on her still, eventhough its just the feeling that im still 'hooked' on.

Not long ago, I did something uncharacteristic for me. I admitted feeling for another person. I admitted that I felt something more than just the obligatory 'hey, how ya doin' I thought i felt something, but I dont know what I feel now. I do know that they mean more to me than the average person. Unfortunately, it doesnt appear to be the case in return. Once again, I have become the negative outcome; as I clearly wasnt so great, to be met with anything but naievety and discontent. Im moderately new at this game; but I can guess this isnt the way it ought to be met; I can guess its not how a 'happy' thing would occur. I also cant say that every other time Ive ever mentioned anything like this I was met with open arms. In fact, many times I was told harsh and negative things in return. Ive always been the butt of jokes following something like this; or the one that gets sneered at, or just the normal cold shoulder treatment. The one time in my life where I told someone I loved them, I was yelled at for it. And here I've gone and done it again. So none of this is really stable ground that I stand on. To me, love is not a common word. Love is not a word I use often; much like hate, its a word I reserve to describe the most deserving of circumstances. To me, if I love you, I guess your pretty well set, because its not a word I'll take back- its not a feeling, an emotion, a state of mind, that I'll take back. Its not meant to be. For me, love is more or less unconditional, save something extreme; its something that makes you a priority in my life... like my parents, like some of my friends. If i love you, I dont want to be laughed at or denied. So why do I regeret it now? Why am I glad that they probably never noticed it? Because I shouldnt be. Its guilty of me to want that; I dont... but. nothing of what I know seems to make much sense. I dont even know what all I think. There are honestly sometimes where I feel that I could almost want to have something more than friendship with them, and times like I couldnt fathom wanting to talk to someone like that.

Lately my entries have been my lamentation over my desire to proceed with my gut feeling, knowing my prior 'convictions'; and so I went through with it. They may never know, or may only think of it in retrospect-- even then probably only by reading this; but I said several things, that from me, were very uncharacteristic. I noticed them. I noticed myself saying them, and often I quitely punished myself for it; knowing what it would eventually bring. And it did. A few days ago, I tried to explain, in my terms, that someone else mattered to me, more so than just ordinary people. I sincerely doubt I was ever heard. My words were gibberish and distracting to them; and my attempted message was nothing more than aggrivation. I knew they would be. I knew I would never be followed on what I had to say. I knew my words would not be received kindly and with admiration, I knew to expect resentment and possible rejection. And still it upset me. So I attempted someway of putting it non-verbally. Putting it in a way which may show, rather than tell, what I was thinking. I think it too was a bust. Shouldnt have to argue or send go-betweens for feelings. It shouldnt have to be frustrating and complex.

For what it means, Im not happy for several reasons. Obviously, but to lesser degrees, Im upset that relationship does not appear to be reciprical in nature. More importantly, the words were never allowed to come out that could prove anything one way or another. What-- to me-- was most, and is most frustrating and upsetting was the ability I felt at ease with to tell this person; but the appearant difficulty it required for them to receive it [if at all]. Nothing is more damaging than talking to someone who wont listen. I would much rather spend my time in a room full of angry people that dislike me, but will listen to me; then to spend a few minutes in a room with one person who will not listen to a word I say. I say this, because I dont make things as obvious as other people do... and should I finally feel the need to voice my concerns, I feel as though I should be listened to. Instead I think I was met with inattentiveness and blanket disregard for anything I might have said. Its difficult for me to deal with that. Its difficult to want to say to someone what youve wanted to say, and have them not listen. Its very difficult for me to say anything to someone, when they try to argue your points with them, when your intention was only informative. Its difficult for me, because i dont do it very often.

For me, giving a compliment likely shows 10 times what was stated; and for me to tell someone what I had wanted to say, from me, would speak volumes. I dont understand why people dont want to hear me, why someone wouldnt want to hear me. Then all I have to do is look down, and realize that its me. Another 'sad' thought, you might say. Some of you might say Im being hard on myself, or that I should stop with comments like that... oddly enough, you are all the people that would say the things to me, that make me feel that way. But nothing is sacred, not even I. All I have to do is realize that the reason why no one would want to hear anything I have to say, is because I am Scott. Scott is everything that is repulsive and wrong about living life. Scott is solitary, Scott is hardline right-wing, Scott is for killing people, and Scott is for cutting taxes. Scott is fascinated by weapons and warfare, and Scott to-the-point. Scott isnt attractive, Scotts not cute or desireable in appearance or a physical sense. Hell Scott doesnt even blip on the radar. Scott doesnt care for your popular culture, and Scott abohrs your musical taste. Scott has nothing in common with you, does he? Scotts got nothing that would persuade you, hes just the bad seed, the evil. Scott just has nothing you would like. So we treat him that way. We are cold, and deceitful. We lie to Scott, and we keep Scott from becoming anything more than distant. We get Scott to hear us out, then tell him to shut up when he wants someone to talk to. We laugh at what Scott says, we think 'oh geez' theres a problem if Scott wants to get close to us. We want Scott to be nothing more than something we can turn off when we want to. We want Scott to be devoid of all feelings. We want to keep Scott from becoming someone for us; we just want to use him up. Lets just let him sit out and rot, let all the vile blackness that we spit on him, just stay there. We make Scott out to be something that doesnt matter to us; we allow Scott to become less than a person, and more of Scott; something with no value or signiffigance. For that reasoning, I suppose I too would find it hard to accept Scott for anything. I do wish, that I have become something other than Scott. I do wish I have become and actual person, not just something that responds to your instant messages, or someone that opens the mail. I hope Scott would become something to someone other than me. But i realize he hasnt. I realize, just like Scott does, that its not going to happen. Just as much as Scott may like to change all of that, it wont. Just as much as Scott wants it all to change, you try so hard to keep him reduced to nothing more than that. Something less than me. Something minus human.

Its hard for me to say where it all happened. Its not like I can sit and pinpoint exactly when I knew things were different for me; when it started to change inside. I can say there were several events that really triggered it all. But you wouldnt listen to me if i told you when they were. You wouldnt care why I did either. So my reasons just stay my own. I wanted to share them. I wanted to share something more than just words. But you all dont want me around. You dont want to have the person that could mean more, that could say more and do more; you all want to have Scott around. Scott isnt anything real. Scott isnt anything to worry about. We can say these things to Scott like hes not even sitting here! We can tell Scott to 'fuck off,' we can tell Scott anything we please, and know, that since hes only Scott, figment of our utility; there is no consequence that come with friendship, attentiveness and mutual care. Its just Scott afterall. No worries. No me's. Even if we let Scott become something more; what then? How do we treat someone like that? How do we allow ourselves to let a caring individual in on our lives; how do we expect to function if we allow him to care? Its Scott remember. Its no one you wanted in the first place. I suppose that makes it easier on you, doesnt it? If I spell it out they way you all want to think about it.

s.


Monday, December 09, 2002

Current Musical Selection: White Zombie - Thunderkiss '65

its time i stopped fucking around. its time i just cut back to my roots. enough of the shit in mylife. im really to the point that people can just go fuck themselves. you try, and you try, you bend and you give. you do your damndest to be understanding; to be accesable. and you get lied to. fuck it. no time for shit like that. im better off back in my cave, back by myself, then raking myself with hot coals again. ive spent way to much effort for this... ive spent too much of myself on this. for what? for more lies, more deception; more uncertainty; more shit. shits about all i see. everything is shit. everything turns to shit. the walls, the ground, the colors all swirl to brown. none of it seems worth anything to me anymore. everyday its just more frustration; more complication. im so tired. all i want are the simple things, and those are the things i am denied most. i want just to have someone. is that too much? does God or the universe really hate me so much to keep me from that? just for once i ask for a small stroke of good luck, a blessing, a ducksnort of opportunity. yet, i look and see nothing but despair and desolation. nothing but the blackness and deaths of the illfate, that litter the killing fields of my past, and the future is nothing but a bleak, grey gravel road that winds through it into the mist. nothing. nothing at all. so back to the roots. back to being who i used to be. back to be what i always was, but put on hold for all of this. back to when it was about loud fucking music... drugs and booze.. yeah. back when it all made sense. back when i didnt have to see reality. back when everything made sense. back when i didnt have to try and get rejected each time. back when it made sense to me. back when i didnt matter to me, it didnt matter that girls loathed me, that i was despised by those that had 2 x chromosomes.

ive learned that you can only try so hard, and only for so long before it really starts to dig in again. it crawls in your skin.. it works its way up your back, and into your dreams, it goes into your head, and it doesnt come out... its stays there. its always there, its there in your days and in your dreams, if feeds your words and fills your mind, but it never leaves. it never leaves you, because its all the same. each time is a little different than the last, but it all plays out the same in the end. but im so tired of the end. its a game to people. fuck with what i think; fuck with what i feel... call it a good time, have a few laughs at my expense. it gets old. somedays its comfortable. its warm blanket. its hope. its all the things you want it to be. its normality. its having a relationship with someone thats female thats not family. its all a joke. by now i should have learned how it works, but i havent. i sink back into it all again. i slide back into my old shoes, and for a few moments, tell myself that it might be different; that it might be genuine; that it might not be the same.... that i might have one this time. but its not. i have to lie to myself sometimes. i have to lie to make it through the day sometimes; because if i didnt, it would get to me more than it does. recently it has. i dont know why im sharing any of this... because i still havent shared what ive wanted to say. i dont think i ever will. i think... i think its too soon for me to do that. i think several of my loyal viewers know the truth, and id imagine those of you that are quick of wit will figure it out. but for the rest of you; i cant say it in exact terms. all i can say is i miss having a normal relationship. i miss being able to say i have a girlfriend. i miss having someone to call me, just to talk to me. i miss having someone worry about me if i go out. i miss having someone buy me presents on my birthday. i miss having someone that takes me seriously. i miss someone who just wants to stay at home with me on friday nights. i miss being normal. i miss having a normal relationship. and i envy you all that have that. i envy that you all can have what i cannot, and it all comes so easily to you; and for me, its a struggle, that only ends in emptiness and frustrations.

last night i hardly slept at all. last night i had another monster of a dream that just wouldnt leave me. it was so simple that it scared me. i find myself in a tent, with soldiers. im dressed as one, and for once i realize im me in a dream, and not someone else. i look around and theres maybe a dozen other men my age, sitting around, talking and smoking. they are talking about tomorrow, about some big assult, and about our odds. one by one, we all talk about death, and about how each of us are going to cheat it when the sunrises. several of them dont seem to believe themselves. someone changes the subject. they all start talking about what they are going to do when they get out, when they can go home. they all start taking out pictures of girls and women from home. one is married, a couple have kids.. all of them have a picture of someone, and a story to go with. all of them have beautiful women that honestly sound like theyve got alot to go home to. they get to me. and i have none. i have no story. i have no picture. they think im bullshitting them. i pull out my wallet and open it. theres no money in it, and it just flops open where the bills should be. and i stare at it.. like a big empty void. then i throw it down on the ground. they go through it, even to my disgust. one by one the comments start. all of them think i should have a picutre with me. one man says it should be my reason for living through all of this, my reason for survival. and i have nothing. i finally stop, breakdown, and tell them about some of the girls back home.. just to staunch the flow of comments. each story is true, and is about a girl that i thought meant alot to me. they are all excited to hear the story, they cheer along at times and whistle, but the ending allways kills it. i tell them that i have nothing. they all look away or avert their gazes. the look at me, just not in the eyes... like how you look wearily at someone you cant respect, that cant be an equal; like how you look at a stray dog, or a crippled woman; the misery and the contempty you attach to their appearance, but you cant translate it to their eyes. thats how i was being looked at. one man says 'so just what are you here for anyways?' i tell him that im just here to fight a war. they all laugh. he corrects me, 'what do you think youre here for, whats youre life for if you havent got someone to share it with?' and i cant answer him. it burns in my throat. i can feel my face tighten up. but i still cant answer him.

even now when i think about the dream, i cant answer the man.

Saturday, December 07, 2002

Current Musical Selection: Edvard Grieg - Ase's Death Theme, from Peer Gynt Suite Number 1

such a long time since ive been here. really ive got alot to say; but im not sure how to say any of it. hopefully the classical will balance out my mood a bit better; music is supposed to be mood altering... but i find that music tends to be mood reflective with me. if im angry, i play angry music. if im happy, its happy music. lately its been angry music. its been moody music. its been alot of stuff that i just dont know why that ive been playing. i may as well just start in with it all...

stress is a major deal in my life right about now. it seems that each day only brings more; each day only brings worse stress than the day before. when i try to go to sleep in the morning [emphasize try], alot of times i cant. my head is too full of whats going on, im not tired; im wound up to keep going. and it catches up. there was a day last week or so that was nearly impossible for me to even get out of bed. at first, i knew i had to, and i could. then it changed more to a mental blockage, and i created something in my head to keep me from going. after an hour of lying there, watching the ceiling and the clock; i couldnt even physically force myself to get up. it just wasnt worth it. its not right. everyday i know ive got to get back into it, maybe deeper than i was the day before, if for no other reason than vain attempt to staunch the flow that will become tomorrow. it never works. but its the hope i have to hold onto. somedays its parents bitching at me over email or on the phone; some times its some scary representatives from corporations far, far away calling at 8 in the morning, or 9 at night. nothing is sacred to them anymore. email was compromised nearly from the begining, then came my other personal email account; which no one is supposed to know about. that followed with calls at work; calls to Res Services for me; calls to my room; and now calls on my cell phone, again a number no one is supposed to know. then there is the postal mail. it started comming to me at Res. Services; then to my office; then to my room, now it even comes to my parents house. its hard to escape it all. like i said, nothing is sacred. i received business related phone calls on my personal cell phone when i was taking time off at a funeral this summer. and even then, they werent happy when i was short with them on the phone for it. everybody just has to have a piece of me. it seems that at any one point in time, im missing a meeting, late for another or was just mentioned at another i had no idea was in progress. i used to laugh about it. last year it was funny; we always made the joke that my name was being thrown around in all the circles of people in the know at the university. now.... now its not so funny. now its a fact of life. and i cant say i dont enjoy it. i do. it makes it all interesting. it makes it all too interesting. id much rather spend my time doing this kind of think 9 to 5, then go sit in some rank classroom with barwhores and frat boys, trying to make sense of low level concepts. i wish professors respected my decisions not to attend class. wed be so much better off that way. they only add to my stress. god knows i dont need any more of it.

i suppose you could say there is always something lacking in my life, in my own mind if nothing else. its tough being who i am. alot of the bullshit with the job means im all but inaccessable to friends, family, and god forbid obtaining a date. i guess thats not right of me to say really. i have fun. i have friends. and i certainly do have family. i see my family on limited basis; but i talk to them no less than once a week. i see some of my friends everyday. some of them, i choose not to. some of them i havent seen in weeks; and all i get are a few words on instant messenger now and again. its gets tired and worn doing that. there is only so far you can take a relationship with someone you never see, and im surprised how fast they can deteriorate when you dont see them. im also surprised by how much i miss some people. you see someone maybe 3 times a week, maybe not for long each time; but you honest to god, love every fucking minute of time. then it becomes once a month, at best. and then, its not really talk... its not really hanging out. its just seeing them. it just doesnt work. i miss having the old relationships that i do. i try to keep everything up. i spend as much time as possible talking to the people that matter to me, and the rest? not so much. but i try. the effort is there. i dont think anyone has the right to say i dont try, and i know they take it for granted. there are some days where i know, just by seeing the pile of shit to start with, ill never get through it all; and even so, ill stop and make the time to talk with people. i always make the time for them. i suppose thats what hurts everything else i do. i really shouldnt do that. i really should just keep at what im supposed to and just say fuck the rest of them; fuck the rest of it. but i dont want to do that. i guess i just wish people would realize what i do once in a while. i dont go looking for excuses or credit. i do look for understanding and acceptance. maybe if the powers that be would just understand what i do and cut me some slack, and maybe if i actually got something back from the people that i take my time out for; it would be worth it.

thinking back on it all, there really is something lacking in my life. i see everyone around me with someone else. minus a few exceptions; because the rule allways has exceptions; but i dont want to be one of them. i dont want it to be a life long goal to end up with a girl. it certainly looks that way. and everyone all ways tells me something bullshit like that as 'advice' if i even start to bring it up. all i can say is its not fair. ive had people ask me why i dont have a girlfriend; yet the same people also couldnt come up with a list of girls that would be interested. ive had girls tell me that id be perfect... but not for them.... or anyone that they know. its a pattern ive noticed. a pattern that likely has no end; or has no end that i should be happy about. and yet, they tell me to cheer up, to be happy... such crap. its about the lies that we tell each other, and its about the truths we wont say. its about the feelings we hide, and the others that we just play along with. i sit and watch and listen to so many people who arent happy with their current situation or 'other', and not a one of them would rather leave them. being alone is that bad of an alternative. people should try it. people should go for absolute years with nothing - with no hope - with no contact - without a chance in fucking blackest hell, of anything. then they should sit and give advice about being happy. then they should sit and give advice about being hopeful, and about knowing it all will come some day. they think it does. they honestly think that in the end its all going to come up roses for each and every one of us. i just shake my head, and i know its just one of those little lies we tell each other. no one ever wants to come out and say it, not even when you give them free reign to say whatever it really is, they still wont say it. its not allways them, im guilty of it as the next man. ive got alot of things id like to say, that i know people dont want to hear. they arent bad, infact they are almost all things that i think would feel good to say. but i dont. its just another bunch of truths we wont say to each other. its hard not to be truthful sometimes, sometimes it just bleeds through; like an open wound gushing through gauze, every moment of it matters, every shred is very real, and every drop means something. its not about life adn death; its just about truth and happiness. its just about wanting what you can never have. its about sitting the bench. forever. and it never matters what position you play, you wont get the call. your job is just to stay out of the game. some days it hurts. some days you just try not to think about it. but it comes up. and the harder you push it down, the worse it comes back to the surface, and its never any different. it never changes. its an odd feeling to have. wading out here in a sea of women, and knowing that when you reach for one, any one, they drift farther away. and youd think that sometime, that with all this movement, youd get close to one of them. and then they are gone. even sitting still, you might think that movement would bring them closer. and they keep their distance like never before. its like that. its like watching it all from the shore, and just seeing it move, and seeing you flounder and splash around, just mixing up the water more, and watching them move away. and even those moments, when you just close your eyes, and let go... just let it all go and sink. making that choice in your head to stop fighting it, to stop fighting for it; and you slide down depeer. no one is even curious. no one seems to even care. for all those times when youve tried, for all those times when youve fought for your piece of it all; it still goes unnoticed. and its sad. i can think back to all the times where, even just being me, is over looked. where saying something nice, where doing something nice, never mattered. and thats ok. but its when you try, its when you stop and go out of your way, each time, everytime, and you never matter. thats when it hurts. and it hurts the most when you want it. it hurts the most when you do it for a reason, and still no one cares. it hurts because it works for everyone but you. anyone but you. you can just watch them all do it. watch it happen, half-assed; its received like the greatest miracle jesus could perform; its like lazarus comming back from the dead. but for the guy that does care; for the guy that does try, hes just someother two-bit know-nothing in the crowd. and he gets pushed to the back of the crowd. put him back there where no one will see him; and make way for the new guy. its always about the new guy, never about the one youve allready seen. we all want the flashy guy. the cute guy. the guy thats rich. the guy that youll have to learn to love and like. they guy that probably doesnt care about you. they guy thats going to have to be tamed, and taught to like just you, and respect only you. why would we want anything else... anything less than that isnt worth it. anything less than that, isnt what everyone else would want. thats the idea behind it all, thats what makes it hard to get through the days, thats what makes it impossible to have hope... knowing that whatever i may have, whatever good i may bring, whatever i could do; ill always be less than that of someone else, less than anyone else.

" whose in here, hiding from the outside world || whose out there confused and alone || one more day i feel like this || one step closer to finding your grip || its a long way down || such a long way down || cant speak, its too bleak for others, That Day... || so bleak, i cant speak for others... That Day... || long way down || long way down || such a long way down || so bleak to the world , so bleak to the world || now im starting to see it fall down " **

the days to just seem to drag by. nothing much to give me separation; i get up to finish the work from yesterday, and go to bed starting tomorrows work. each day keeps going, like a never ending version of last week; where its all scripted, where you havent had any break from any of it... and it keeps going. im not sure how its any better for kids here. there week consists of skipping classes, to the point you cant tell what day it is, then going out until 3 in the morning every night... and they only way they can tell what day it actually is, is by the drink specials at the bar of their choice. what a life. these people are the future leaders of the workforce. congradulations america; these people, are your hope for the future of this country. people like me? were getting phased out. people like me are in short supply- by design! everyone else doesnt want someone like me around. ill be the type of person that will make you work on mondays, well because its your job to. ill be the type of person to deny socialistic pay increases to everyone; ill opt for my own merit and incentive based system. im also the person thats going to ride your ass for 8 continuous hours to get the job done, and done right; i wont be letting you read the newspaper or call your friends on my dime. people dont want me around their job; ill make it work. theyd much rather keep it 'happy fun time, that i get paid for'. but not today. no, today you all have dragged me down with your attendance points, your busy work term papers, and your comprehensive final exams over thousands of pages and 70 days worth of discussions. for now, you have the upper hand. for now you can allow students, of lesser quality than me, admittance to this school based on their skin color, you can favor those that posess athletic talent over people like me; even in criminal matters; and the best part is, you can indulge me with your queer fetishes, sinntastic lifestyles and innappropriate displays of morales gone awry; and yes, for now you make me speak in tongues [diversity, political correctness, and group feelings], yes for now you have the upper hand on me. for now, you control the lever that makes my days from lesser to great varieties and intensities of Shit. and the only thing i have to look forward to is, someday it will all be over. much like a prisoner in captivity; i have to sit and remove myself mentally from the damage you do to me everyday; i have to loose my sense self, if i ever hope to emerge from this. for now you force me to break down, and break away from what i know and what i believe but some day there will be a time when you will not. break my arms, tear my flesh, and scar my soul, but eventually i will return to the dream that i hold in my head... the dream that is life outside of this institution. the dream thats only a faint memory at times. the dream that you have been able to wrench away from me day after day.

but until that day, i sit here; in this blackest hell. the hole that is solitude and confinement in a world of opportunity, isnt that what you call it? it is my own prison that i build, and i do surely dig myself in deeper, and pile the rocks higher around me, find the cold layers between us to be soothing and comforting; but never enough for me to feel at ease; never enough for me to put down my guard.

** Fly Banger - Bleak [alternate version]

Tuesday, December 03, 2002

---- more silence ----

so tired. sooooo tired. didnt sleep much last night, in an attempt to make up time on one of the papers. i ended up spending about 5 hours sitting on AIM getting nothing done. and yes, i pretty much just talked with one person. shameful. cant believe im letting myself get behind when im up against the wall like this.... tonight wasnt much better, i ended up taking an hour out to watch some Band of Brothers in jonahs room.... shouldnt have done that either. i suppose im not tooooo far gone yet.. paper for tomorrow is done, paper for wednesday is over half done, havent started paper for thursday yet. not to mention law final of death on tuesday of next week... yah havent cracked a book for that yet.. i figure its going to be my whole weekend. prof david would probably like that. make me spend my whole fucking weekend reading about the African Organizatin of Unity and other horribly inneffective multinational treaties and arrangements that the UN probably isnt clear on. i never wanted a life anyway i guess.

trying not to get too far behind with everything else in my life either. arh is starting to feel like work again... tonights meeting went really well tho. i know i tend not to talk about it much; but it did go well... we were meeting in direct competition with Bono of U2.. we still managed to eek out quorum and get through some interesting debate. yeah. debate at the arh house meeting. not something that would have happened in the recent few years. but tonight the kids really took it on. starting to change my perspective on them. i really am impressed by them when they suck it up and do it. but most of the time they all just sit there... its tough to motivate that many people what what i have to give is not what they need. i cant be the e'r present cheerleader and still be out doing the business with the university people. i cant be impartial and make rulings on debate if i have to step down to create the debate. tonight was good tho. i think that people that missed tonight missed out on something. im extremely impressed at how two or three individuals handled themselves tonight. not that i needed to be persuaded; just they really surprised me. if i had this kind of output from the group from day one, i dont even know where wed be at by now.... seriously. ive got so much in mind for what this group could do, and should do; i just cant get us there when the kids wont do it. ive allready stuck my balls out on the block on several occasions to get us some limelight with unveristy types. one person i had to personally assure that it would be worth their time to come. its difficult to do that. but nights like tonight start to make it pay off. even the advisors were good tonight. really blew my mind.

life also has other fruits... xmas is right around the fucking corner. only done shopping for one person thus far. need to corroborate with my sister to cover my dad; and dad has allready agreed to help me with listing and digging up what people would like and paying attention for me since im up here. nice to have spies on the ground doing work for you. im typically a last minute, typical man shopper. if they dont have it at truckstop on xmas eve, you probably wont get it! im not that bad--yet. but i do tend to wait till about a week out... usually i kick myself for it.. but its part of my xmas warm up routine. infact i surprised myself with the one gift that i bought allready. it was just something that came to mind, that i just happened to see out of the corner of my eye. it just fit. ofcourse, they didnt have exactly what i wanted at the store... so it took me a bit of resourcefullness to come up with what i really wanted... but i think its good. i think they will really like it. well see. i was thinking about keeping it a secret. i wasnt sure really whether i should even get anything; but deep down i knew i wanted to. then it just became a matter of keeping it a secret or not... eventually they hounded me enough about it that i ended up saying that i got something... that took the guess work out of that.

sooooo tired. more tomorrow.. or some day soon....

ain't it fun~
s.

Sunday, December 01, 2002

Current Musical Selection: GnR - Estranged [live in Tokyo]

gee what can i say... break was short, not overly calming, and now im right back here again. break didnt get any of my homework done, break didnt give me any sense of rest or relaxation, and i certainly didnt get any shopping or anything done over break. what a waste. i should have expected to get shit done... really only took 2 and a half days off; and from that count out several hours to mass family shit; more hours to hanging with friends, and more hours to sleeping... and i -magically- didnt get jack shit done.

homework and bullshit work are the main themes for me until the end of the semester i have: 3 term papers, 2 response papers, 1 4.5 hour exam, 1 final stats presentation, 2 quizes, then... finals week. not to mention arh bullshit, plus dealing with whatever else seems to come up. honestly, im not sure if im going to make it through all of this. as of right now i only have 1 response paper, and notes for 1 term paper done. i havent even looked at the material for my law class... which in all honesty i should have started studying for a month ago. this semester is going to kick my ass. until now, i had really, nothing going; then the last 3 weeks of the semester, everyone decides to make everything due, and everything has to be fucking ass 10 pages or more in length. not fair, not even useful.

couldnt believe how big of a mess my desk is. i cleaned up my room before i left, but not my desk. stacks of shit everywhere. cd's all over, paper and notes and bs like that about 3 inches deep. all i have is a small hole to move my mouse and to put my keys down. room even got cold enough last night i had to turn the heat on [if you know me, you know thats almost sacralige for me to do]. sometimes i hate this place. when i walked back in here last night, i just felt tired again. it was like i felt the stress of everything else just sit down on my shoulders when i went through the doorway. even as much as i could complain about being at home; i didnt feel like that there. only when i came back here does it all come back. with all the papers and work to be done, im not sure i like that feeling.

this weekend also had some other interesting moments. for one, i met a real live whore. not a prostitute; but a whore. a girl, who is 16, that has allegedly slept with 48 men--starting when she was 12. the current beau, is older than me. disgusting, was the first word that came to mind. intriguing was the next. anyone who hears someone profess a lifestyle like that should be all and out repulsed by it; and i was. but what started to get to me later on was thinking of how one could get to that point. then i started thinking about what i was doing at 12 years old... it sure as hell wasnt sex. i probably wasnt even starting to think about sex at that point... i would have been playing baseball and just getting into music... at 12 i bought my first GnR tape, and my first Nine Inch Nails tape. no where near getting pounded by some high-school aged chick. but i guess thats just me. and i guess alot of people arent like me. next i tried to rationalize why you could do that to yourself. i started comming up with a blank, but ive eventually settled on poor family relationships. the girl mentioned several comments about her father; none of which were very revealing; but all suggested to me, that shes doing this for attention. by now, im sure shes made herself believe in what shes doing, and truely like it; but im sure it started out as a way of attention- as a way to reinforce or suppleant a strong father-daughter relationship that was never there; which probably progressed into a similar social structure. [ie- her friends probably exhibited the same behavior, if not, the ones she kept imitated it and supported her... but by the sounds of it, they seem to engage in the same acts she does]. id probably guess that a mother is non-existent, that the father probably likes his booze, and by the grand scheme of things, they arent the wealthiest family in town. but none of my psycho babble means anything to this girl who does this. while she was over, she kept making comments that would strongly suggest shes seeking attention; and with her self-spoken love of 'older men' i think its tough to deny the type of relationship shes seeking. more over, i guess its tough to deny the type of future shes building for herself too. couldnt imagine anything positive comming from experiences like that; much less from someone who is proud of it all. i can sit back and think of the women ive been through, and although the number is much, much lower than was probably the norm for my age, i can still say im not very proud of it- i wish it was lower. but for someone, who under iowa law cant even drive by themselves yet, to have had sex with 48 strangers [she slept with the new guy the first night she met him], its hard to comprehend where all of that is going to lead her. one friend suggested porno. i disagree... shes got atleast 2 full years before she can show up on american made pornos LEGALLY. i suppose she can do some creepy jap kiddy porn work; but really, even as a prostitute she should have a ways to wait still. i guess what gets to me is how a girl like her does it. i dont question what i know, which is really anyone can be made to like something--- but the idea at first, when its still fresh... it cant have been too appealing to her. not at 12 years old. i suppose in this day and age, its not uncommon to suspect some form of pedophillia relation or incestual contact within the family, but she seemed to open for that. she seemed to proud for that. generally you find people to be tough to admit that problems like that exist at home; and when you do, they arent happy to say it. i just cant get over why she would be. she was proud to show it. the whole time she kept feeling up the new beau, even to his dissproval... several requests of 'stop it' 'cut it out' 'whats wrong with you' and 'dont' were heard, but it didnt work. she also was overly flirtatious and quick to respond in cutesy ways, attempting to attract the attention of the other 3 males in the room. it wasnt right. all the signs would suggest something other than what was sitting in the room. in that room was a 16 year old girl, who had enough make up on to cover up if she was 11, wearing kid like glasses, in a sunday-school type skirt and sweater outfit; who would look more in place laying on a bed, surrounded by stuffed animals and mandy more posters, talking about how cute carson daily is to her friends on the phone. but that wasnt all what she was.

i tried to think about how id handle that if i was a parent, and my daughter turned out like that. and i couldnt think of anything that would work. honestly, id probably beat the shit out my kid. id hope it would never progress to the point where he/she would reach something like that; but at that point there isnt much left to do. my child would have broken really every rule and expectation id have had for them; and what then? what do you tell the child who has done that to you? God banished them from the garden, and while thats not a bad way to handle it... its still your child out there then. at 16, you are legally obligated to care for them, even if you can break the chains of moral ownership. so what then? i couldnt imagine that situtation; much less that her parents seemed to be accepting of it all [based on what she said]. still at a loss for words for it all.

as some of you know, i had a long time, no-good relationship with someone. sometimes i mention it all in passing here, but i try not to dwell on her too much, although i know i do. [post edit - read back a few for more info on her, the long email and the poem were both about her... S.A.] While at home i found myself driving aimlessly, at 5:30 in the morning. ive been doing alot of thinking about the past, and about the future lately... and i dont know why; but at 5:30 in the morning; i find myself parked about a house down from hers, on her street. i guess i didnt know what i was doing there, but i was still there. yeah, its thanksgiving night, and im sitting there in the dark, with the engine running; and i have no clue why im sitting there. Lights are all off, no one seems to be around; and its not like id be expected here. honestly, i might be one of the last people that shed want around. so i sat there. for a while i thought to myself how bad it must look if anyone saw me there. i felt like a stalker; i felt like i was obsessed. but i dont think i was, and i dont think that i am. i think what i wanted was an end to it all. i wanted the end that i never got. i wanted some sort of finality to all the shit that had happened; i wanted something more that me just hanging up on her. i wanted more than empty promises as a goodbye. i wanted to have some sort of nasty, drag-out knock-down, fuck-off for good fight. i also wanted one of those heartfelt teary, blury, so long's. i never got anything i wanted. so i sat there thinking about it all. i thought of all the times id parted with myself to do things for her. i thought about all the compromises and the bullshit i put up with just to have something. and i thought about how it wasnt worth any of it; none of it. when all of it was happening, it was just one constant stream of frustrations; one new turn of events after another. and now ive got all the time in the world to sit and remember it all; to let it all just keep playing over and over. to sit and wish maybe id have said something different, to wish maybe id been a bit more understanding. while i sat there, i cut my own thoughts off. i began to see it how i always should have. i began to think that, maybe i did do everything right; maybe i was understanding, and maybe i shouldnt have been. maybe i should have just given her the fuck-off back then. maybe id have learned something now about it then. i still havent gotten what i wanted.

i thought about whats going on now. i thought, maybe things will change... maybe, just maybe Axl had it right, that "when i find out all the reasons, maybe ill find another way; find another day. with all those changing season of my life, maybe ill get it right next time" as the song says. but im not so sure of it all. Axl also told us that "we both know hearts can change" and that sure as fuck didnt happen either. not even when you wanted it to change, it didnt happen. even now when i sit and look at myself, and i think im sure of what im doing; im not. i think, and i act, in a way that i tell myself is right and proper; and they way i treat certain people is just nothing. and i lie to myself about it. i know its not what i want. if anything from her, _ _ _ _ tought me that im never going to get what i want; not even when i fight for it. and it made me angry when ive thought about it in the past. but not when i was sitting there in the car. not this time. and im not sure why. i guess i thought more of what it all meant to me; and now im starting to let go; but i never got the chance to let go. not that it makes any difference to her. but it makes a difference to me. i used to think that none of it bothered me. it did. but i used to try to force myself to think it was normal, and it was all ok, and despite getting screwed up the ass; it had its positive moments. im still trying to believe that. i do some days. but not that night, not sitting there looking at it all, wondering why i never felt like i did right then before. i wondered to myself why i ever cared about her. i wondered why i would even want to sit and think about her. i wondered why i even kept her in my prayers for so long. litterally years afterwards, id still include her. not that it mattered much. not that shed care. not that i should have. but i did. and even then i realized i still never got what i wanted. and it doesnt matter anymore. and im still bitter.

i guess im only bitter because it still ruins me. i sit and talk to some girls, and it doesnt come up. but sometimes, with certain ones; it feels like im back in it again. it feels like im not talking to you, it feels like im talking to her. it feels like im getting fucked over again, and you still dont care... just like she didnt. all of that got to me as i was sitting there. all of it started to make me mad again. some of it was about her, and some of it was with whats going on now. alot of it all made sense. after all the shit i put up with this weekend from people, hearing their comments, hearing their jeers about me; i just wanted it to stop. only so many times you hear shit about how youre single, how youre an dissappointment, how even 'family' can see that youd be un-attractive enough not to get a girl... only so much you want to hear. then youre sitting in silence. you are sitting in a car, on a dark street, and its all right in front of you. and it still doesnt make sense. it never made sense why the one time you wanted something to be different; it was more of the same... it was so much like every other time, that you made yourself think it was different. but there wasnt anything different there. there wasnt anything there at all. its funny how the past is like the present. its funny how you find someone, that really is different, but really nothing is different. nothing is there. its funny how you want it all to be different, and its all the same. its like its a pattern. a pattern that doesnt break; a pattern that fits every size and every occasion, and its allready there when you get there. it just follows you. when you say things, its got the replies made up. when you try to do something; its got their reaction completed. and when you try to care again; its ready to cut that part out. so many things i thought i knew, i thought were different; just really never were. so many things that now, id like to change, that now id want to be; i know wont. its funny how it all makes sense that easy. its funny how easy you can put your hands on it with one touch; how easy it is to feel the form, to feel it breathe to feel it be with one touch. it stays with you. that first touch never leaves you. its just so simple, so comforting, so reassuring. and then its gone. and then you have the rest of your life to remember it.

" for many times it would seem just like a memory
i searched and found the way to choose the end
i found the ways, why it had to be
mired in denial and so far away " *

with that simple touch i reached in the glove box and pulled it out. the steel was cold to the touch and gleamed in the street light. the nickel plating was polished and slick. i put it on the seat next to me to look at it. i thought about what i needed to do and what i wanted it all to end up like. and i knew i had to do this. i knew it had to end sometime. i dont want to loose the memories, i dont want to loose the freedom; but i did need to do this. i reached into my pocket and pulled out a picture. it was a picture of her that id had for awhile; one i rather liked. one i dont show people, just one that i like to keep to remember her by. i thought i knew what it all was, but i was wrong. i thought i knew how it was supposed to turn out; but i was wrong again. thats when i rolled down the window and reached over to the seat. i looked around, the street was still quiet, and i took one last look at her house. i dont know if she was there or not. but i knew it never really mattered, no one would really know that. i closed my hand around it, and sparked the lighter to life. i watched the flame for a second; before i lit the picture on fire. i watched it burn. i watched the edges turn black, and run into the middle of the picture. i saw it crumple in my fingers and smoke. then i flipped it out the window into the street. and i drove away.

i drove away because im done with it. i drove because i wanted to leave it behind; i wanted to end it on my terms. i wanted it to stop being something in the back of my mind. i wanted it to stop being something that just sits in my chest when i hear her name. i wanted to stop wanting her. i want something new to come along to take her place. i dont want to be the person stuck hanging on to something that i never had. id much rather be the person hanging on to something that i do have. even though i dont have anything... and people are probably right, i wont get anything; it something that just has to end sometime. its just got to end that i can try to be happy about what im not happy about; its got to end that im content to pretend and play the game when its not what i want. its about finding something to say, rather than finding the time to say it. i wish things could be different, i wish that i could be allowed to say what i want to, when i want to; to whom i want to... but if ive learned anything , i should have learned that patience doesnt necessarily pay off. it wont pay off whats not there to begin with.

ain't it fun~
s.

*- lyrics to Madagascar, by GnR