ChekotianFire

I have come to the conclusion that high-school needs to be harder. Why? Because as much as they warn us that post-secondary is difficult, I don't feel they prepare us enough. In high-school, I was an A student for the most part. I put the effort in and ended up with high grades. You would think a straight-A student transitioning from high-school to college would at the very minimum be able to pass, wouldn't you? Well, in my case, no. While the issue isn't entirely academic (I have been struggling with awful sleeping patterns), I can say, at least in my case, that the step from high-school was MASSIVE in terms of workload, although perhaps that is the fault of my particular program. Meh, moving on.

Working away at SQLcraft when I can, not making much progress feature wise since I want to make a secure login system for it. Said login system is bending me over it's knee and beating my ass with the vengeance of a thousand screaming monkeys. Fun times!

I finally watched a few episodes of Dollhouse, and I can best describe it this way: Firefly made me question my sexuality towards Joss Whedon. Dollhouse made me gay for him. The man is brilliant, it's a shame that he typically doesn't appeal to the majority viewership (or gets fucked over by a network in the case of Firefly (the decision makers on that one at FOX have a special place in hell reserved just for them)). Yes, his series' can be confusing, but that's because it isn't dumbed down for the general viewership (or said decision makers at FOX decided to be dickheads and ignore episode numbers and air Firefly in a seemingly random order, losing everyone as characters seemingly come back from the dead, or meet someone for the first time when they have already met in a previous episode) like a lot of modern TV shows. It's a higher level than the typical crap that's fed to the masses.

I left Mine-RP. Well, not just Mine-RP. Minecraft in general. It was an addiction that I have finally been able to admit that too and step away from. It's time to get my life back together. I have a lot of friends over there and I'll miss them; I left the staff, I won't be on their TS anymore, and I won't be on their forums either. I've hidden my Minecraft bookmark folders from view so that in a week or so I'll forget about them, but should I ever return to Minecraft I'll still have everything I used to refer to/use. I plan to focus on my homework first and foremost, and return to writing.

So long story short, I completely failed my fall semester of college. I'm currently taking a "interim" semester to gain re-entry to my program as a first year next fall. I've since joined Mine-RP as one of the server administrators, but I don't have much time for Minecraft currently. I'm seriously considering revisiting the world of EmpiresMod and finishing TOVR and Arctic Tundra. I hope to be more active on here, but I can't say for certain.

This is just a reminder that these entries of Humber are actually my daily correspondence to a good friend back home, hence the unorthodox style as far as blogging is concerned, and the daily song she links me to.

All I really have to say about today is that I painted boxes. I don't want to spoil what's happening in-case anyone reading is going to watch the performances. And I met two new people and learned their names (: Margaret is fun :) And that's about it really. Oh, I also fail horribly at sewing. It took me 3 minutes to thread a needle. Then I yanked the thread back out. I failed. Hard. GO ME!

Todays from Alyse is Stickybuds - Whalestep. My pick for today is The Reason, by Hoobastank

This is just a reminder that these entries of Humber are actually my daily correspondence to a good friend back home, hence the unorthodox style as far as blogging is concerned, and the daily song she links me to.

Today was amazing in class. We started with the final of the 3 workshops we started yesterday. My group did installation; essentially setting up a space for an event. Since we were the 3rd group to do installation we were finishing off what other groups did, which meant lighting. We had to rig our own lights, which were unfortunately small featureless lights, and set up our own lighting stands to hang them on. It's simple work, but very enjoyable. After that we milled around for a while, while another group finalized the acting portions for the room holding the Installation workshop, and we were walked through the interactive finished performance group-by-group. After that we were finally given our final assignment for this week: our public performance. We have to incorporate instrumentation and movement into an art-themed interactive performance down the side of the BIR building. We took a lunch break around 1315, and I hungout with the twins and over the course of lunch a few others migrated towards us. The soup was ok, not scalding hot, and totally NOT worth $2.00.

After lunch we figured out what we were going to do, I'm not going to spoil it here, because as unlikely as it is, someone that reads this may come and see it. Needless to say, it involved dumpster diving. We did that for HOURS. Well, my group did. I dislike other peoples garbage. I got to carry a pipe. That carried us to the end of class. When I got back to my room I waited to see if anyone wanted to grab a bite to eat with me before heading to the caf alone. Pizza remains my food of choice due to how inexpensive it is compared to all the other meal options, but I need to start eating healthier. No more cheapness, I need salads.

After dinner I came back to my room and chatted for a few hours with friends, surfed the web a little, then wrote this Friday morning (this is Thursday's entry D: ). My song today is a new favourite of mine by Ronald Jenkees , Disorganized Fun. Her picks for today are Bury Your Head, by Saosin and 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins.

This is just a reminder that these entries of Humber are actually my daily correspondence to a good friend back home, hence the unorthodox style as far as blogging is concerned, and the daily song she links me to.

Today was ok. I had my alarm go off at 0700, thought FUCK THIS IT'S TOO EARLY, set it for 0730. Woke up, had a showe and skipped breakfast on the main campus, taking a loaf (originally I mistyped this as load) of Jalapeno Cheddar bread with me to the Creative and Performing Arts building. I LOVE that bread, it's so damn good! Talked to a friend from high-school at the Creative and Performing Arts building, tore off a piece of my loaf (I originally typed load instead of loaf xD) to eat, STALE. I look at my loaf and the lower half is mouldy D: I had to get a shitty muffin to barely fill me up before class. Today class started at around 0900.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT'S A PARAGRAPH :D Since the first week is wonky for my program, me and my fellow first year production students had to leave during class to go to COMM200, aka College Writing Skills, aka 'English' class. We left the Creative and Performing Arts building at 1130 for our 1145 COMM class. The teacher didn't arrive until 1200! Apparently the security guard for the building did not like him parking his motor-scooter near the building. He argued for most of fifteen minutes but I can't recall the outcome. According to him, you can park a motor-scooter anywhere in Toronto as long as it does not obstruct, and then here comes Humber with its special rules. He's a fun teacher and I think classes with him will be very enjoyable. He even gave us his home phone number for when we're really struggling or there's some sort of emergency and we won't be in class.

We left class at 1330 and I went with 3 classmates to grab some food; a fellow production student and the twins (also in production, also quite awesome by-the-way). I don't think I've mentioned this yet but this first week, including Saturday, we have a mix of all production and acting students regardless of year. We went to H building for lunch, then went back to BIR for the rest of the Community theatre stuff for the day. Had some fun activities. There were multiple groups that would do some thing and not others. my group started with Instrumentation. We had to take all the random crap from the first day and make music. It was fun. One of the groups within our group had an amazing tribal feel with make-shift horns and balloon bass. My group had 6 things to work with and it sucked. We had a brick, a key, a suitcase, a military flask, a chain of fake flowers, and a basketball net.

After musical improv we went outside for physical creation or something like that. I can't remember much of what we did as it was so boring, but the most fun part for me was the fake bomb where we were all milling around slowly getting closer and closer until it was impossible to move of your own accord, you were driven by the people around you, and they were driven by those pushing at the outside of the group. Then someone shouts bomb and we all run like hell. Sounds sorta dumb, but it was fun. This and musical improv brought us to the end of classes for the day.

After I came back I had dinner with a classmate and then we went to the bookstore to get the texts for our COMM200 class. In line I met someone who seemed to be a geek quite like myself but i failed to ask for his name or find out which room he is in on residence. Later on a classmate bugged me to join her for dinner but I had already eaten so I tagged along as an alternative to sitting in my room writing this. She brought her food back to my room and we watched the rest of the pilot episode of Firefly. She wants to show me another scifi series, anime I believe, but I can't recall the name. It sounds rather interesting though.

You may have noticed all the times are 24-hour-clock style. That's because in theatre we use a 24 hour clock so I'm drilling this habit into myself ASAP.

I also forgot to mention that my steel toe work shoes. When using the custom orthotic insole I got after buying the shoes, my foot slides forward due to the higher heel area, and my toes get crushed. I can't walk in them D: I need longer ones :(

Alyse's song for the day
From First to Last - Emily
From First to Last - Secrets Don't Make Friends

My song for the day
Oasis - Wonderwall

This is just a reminder that these entries of Humber are actually my daily correspondence to a good friend back home, hence the unorthodox style as far as blogging is concerned, and the daily song she links me to.

I slept in and missed Humanities, which apparently was bullshit anyways so I'm not that bothered. Class starts tomorrow at 9 and ends at 5. Today we did some fun "exercises" to meet people; everyone from the Theatre Arts, Technical Production & Theatre Arts, Performance Acting was together in one of the black-box theatres. Just to give a few examples, we were grouped by favourite local restaurant at one point, where we were born another, and another time if we like hockey or not. Fun exercise in getting to know people ^^ After lunch we came back to some boring crap. We had to walk around a park in a meditative state trying to take in everything about the park. Instead me and a few people talked and got to know each other 8D And holy shit I met twins that look like River Tam (Summer Glau) from the TV series Firefly and the movie Serenity. I'm gonna show them a clip tomorrow (: And someone else looks like Rose from the first post-reboot Doctor Who. After the stupid park exercise we were put into groups for the Community Theatre project. Community my ass, we walked half an hour down Lakeshore before we got to our assigned location. Our group was split into 3 smaller groups since we had 3 locations to go to, and one group brought back a roadworks sign and a pylon o.o FYI this isn't really structured this is a train of thought as I think it. One of the twins is guaranteed awesome. I didn't get to talk to the other one much. Seriously. We will be awesome friends I think (: And I met another girl named Emma who is so much like me in that she's not very social at all. One girl also mentioned we're like NPC's during the crap in the park. I need to find her; THAT IS GAMER TALK! Someone also found the most epic VHS tape ever. It's called Pornography in Canada. It is produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. OMFG epic much? After we finished for today I went to get my textbook for Humanities but the line was too long so I'm putting it off for now. Humanities is once per week so I have a few days to sort that out. Then there was some confusion about a floor meeting, apparently ONLY the third floor had one? Then at 7 there was a presentation on Sexual Assault. It sucked. At least for me; nothing new. I saw a girl off to my right sitting alone and I was going to go make friends after the presentation but then I figured that after that presentation it would be pretty fucking weird/awkward. I chickened out when she took the stairs up. I hope she makes some friends though. Maybe I'll catch her another time. After the presentation I came back to my room and started on the email I am deriving this blog post from (originally this sentence was about the email I wrote). I should do this more often, it feels nice. I'm aiming for a full honesty policy. I don't care who reads this, I will be honest. It helps (: And why the hell is the entire security staff black? I'm not being racist, they just all are. Every single one of them I have seen. The fuck? Oh and I met a HILARIOUS African-Canadian in my group earlier. He also appears to have a death-wish as he constantly trips while walking beside oncoming traffic. I swear one day the reactions of the person walking beside him will be the difference between life and death for him. Oh and one of the twins, Jennifer, has this thing about my height. I'm too tall. If I'm standing on something, she must too, because I'm already tall enough and I'm not allowed to have a few extra inches xD I need to get their cell numbers, and Emma's [: I'm starting to love it here.

Alyse's song of the day
Nirvana - Lithium

My song of the day
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Damn Regret

Chekotian Fire is now powered by Movable Type, an awesome piece of website/blog-creating Perl-based software, that runs on my webserver.

All my writing will be PDF'd and embedded in the near future, stay tuned!

While I didn't know her personally, today is the birthday of a girl that goes to my school, whom I passed in the hall every day, whose face I knew, someone that was always smiling and cheerful. She passed last month. R.I.P. Bri, you will be missed.

TOVR

I have uploaded the short, Passwords and Counter Signs, to the blog. It comes in now as chapter 11, and tells the tale of a Jekotian spy within an Imperial intelligence agency.

IRL

I moved over the weekend, from an apartment to a house. Not fun. But I have a nice room. But I have no internet or TV at home D: Those might take a while to get the cable lines installed :( Old house is old.

As promised, here is my humorous, Zero Punctuation-style short essay.

“The King of Beasts” Journal Response

Based on my own knowledge, and the story, I think that man is indeed destined to be, if not already, the deadliest predator. By nature, man is among the weaker creatures on the planet, but intelligence and technological developments have more than made up for that. Mankind stands as the most destructive sentient force on the planet. The human race can be accredited for the extinction of the dodo which was hunted mainly BECAUSE IT WAS CONSIDERED STUPID (it was unaccustomed to humans so it would normally walk towards them out of curiosity before being killed); the meat tasted awful and there were many other species on the island so there was no reason to hunt it for food. Wow. We killed a harmless bird BECAUSE IT DIDNT KNOW WHAT A HUMAN WAS. The American Bison were on the brink of extinction, because large portions of the human race WERE TOO LAZY TO USE, PREPARE AND EAT THE ENTIRE THING, deciding to KILL MORE SO THERE WAS LESS CLEANING AND PREPARING, before ranchers in the southern USA started breeding purebred bison. There was countless other species likely forgotten, that have been DRIVEN TO EXTINCTION BY THE IGNORANCE OF THE HUMAN RACE. And then there’s religion. People that think with their god instead of their BRAIN, making it their life goal to destroy a nation or group of people BECAUSE AN ANCIENT BLOODY BOOK THAT NO ONE ALIVE CAN PROPERLY TRANSLATE SAYS SO. Just because your books say the eagle is a symbol of evil DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD KILL THOUSANDS OF INNOCENTS. Sorry, am I shouting too much? This topic, essentially the incompetence of the human race, makes me as sarcastic and angry as Jonathan Yahtzee*. In a matter of minutes, a decision could be passed THAT RESULTS IN THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE CONTINENT. Thankfully we haven’t reached global thermonuclear war. Yet. It’s only a matter of time before the religious fanatics START BUILDING NUKES, or piss off the USA enough for an ‘accidental’ nuclear launch. Here’s an interesting fact: the USA has 14 submarines EACH ARMED WITH 24 NUCLEAR MISSILES, PATROLLING NEARLY THE ENTIRE WORLD. That’s around HALF of the USA’s nuclear arsenal READY TO LAUNCH AT A MOMENTS NOTICE. And to think they complain when Iran GETS A STICK OF URANIUM. So, onto the other rant!

At this point, the only way for the human race to stop being highly destructive pricks, short of mass suicide, would be to get every weapon on Earth and use an intergalactic cruise missile to send it all flying into the sun. Sadly this isn’t likely because every person with a weapon, or that wants one, is going to start complaining about rights violations. And then there’s the fuel consumption of such a missile. Like that won’t drive gas prices even higher. At this point I don’t think even an ICE AGE could stop us. Alternatively we could just sit down, talk, AND LEARN TO GET ALONG. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is likely to happen either, due to most people’s INTOLLERENCE OF DIFFERENCE. The only real shred of hope is that a contained nuclear war occurs and only the nations obsessed with killing us all actually get nuked. On second thought, THAT WON’T WORK, because the Russians are just itching to exercise their nuclear trigger fingers on the USA. Yea, we’re screwed. If we’re lucky, global warming will kill us first. Hell of a lot better than radiation poisoning.

*http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation Pick one, any one, you’ll see what I mean soon enough.