Star Struck... Oww!

In one of the few instances I have actually had to live vicariously through a friend of mine, my best friend, Kate, had her picture taken with one of the Holy Trinity of hot movie guys: Orlando Bloom. Not only that, but she got to sit in on his interview and generally be where 1,000,000 screaming Legolas Fangirls (and me) would love to be.

This rare honor, bestowed upon my friend, has left me so dumbstruck that I am at a loss as to what else to write. I was planning on something cynical and biting about the movie industry when I sat down but it all seems to have fled my head. I do remember I was going to attempt to break out into a huge musical number, only to discover that my sound budget had been slashed, whereupon I would curse the blog for its lack of paying me money to write for my own pleasure. The irony, of course, is that I, in fact, love Hollywood culture and couldn't possibly do a musical number even if I had a budget.

Having thusly amused you into forgetting I used to have points in these posts, I need to make a few notes. One: Got your message Goldom. Expect an E-mail or something. Two: Being sick is the worst thing that can happen to a college student so... *big breath* SEND ME COOKIES!

Three is a touch more serious. To my family in Houston: I hope everything is getting better and with some speed. I got some e-mails saying that everyone was OK and I hope that nothing changes that. Good luck and I will see you all in about two months. For readers elsewhere, I ask that you turn a kind thought towards Texas and do whatever you can to help the relief efforts for both Rita and Katrina. Thank you all.

Muah!
Lyrinoir

Edit: Wow it's late/early. Why am I up this late?

Cold Redux

Having gotten over my cold, I have come down with another one. Woo! This school makes it very difficult to take a day off from classes. You have to be dieing of something if you want to miss a class. Not that this is a bad thing. I just wish I wasn't in class right now. I wish I was sleeping but you can't always get what you want. So it goes. I have this image in my head of the dorms being this huge microbial battlefield with platoons of streptococcus vying for my bloodstream. It’s a fun thought.

The topic today is why do we like what we like. Why do I enjoy classical music while my roommate can't stand it? Why do I enjoy reading when the majority of the population today prefers watching TV? Obviously, some people have different tastes but why isn't there an universal media that everyone can enjoy? Some kind of music that could appeal to everyone.

Recently I have come to enjoy the sound of the Black Eyed Peas. Their music is a fusion of Hip Hop and Pop that really crosses normal music boundaries. I don't listen to Rap or Hip Hop normally but for some reason, the BEP sound really appeals to me.

I would ask you all if there is some kind of music or TV that you like that you think you wouldn't normally like. I would like to find out if we have a common denominator for music. This may be futile but I would like to anyway. Indulge me.

Muah!
Lyrinoir

"Like the deserts miss the rain."

I love the rain. So after a week of hot, but muggy, conditions this morning's blessing of a deluge was wonderful. In a lot of ways, today was such a relief. Which was odd in itself because Mondays and I do not get along. So going down the list, it rained. Woo! I ended the quiet standoff between me and my roommate for the time being. Finally! The crazy cold was defeated by the power of positive thinking and the wonderful drugs that are available in this time of medical wonders! Yay Nyquil!

But, as the Hindu teachings tell us, we live in a world of duality. With pleasure, there must also be pain and today's came in the form of a pang of homesickness. I received an e-mail from a teacher from my high school and for probably the first time, I missed it. I really miss my close friends. I haven't talked to any of them since Tuesday. My AIM client caught a virus and I spent the week digging out copies of the worm. No fun. And more importantly, no chatting. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not totally isolated, I just have been cut off from my oldest, dearest friends. We could call each other but none of us are good about phones in general. You know who you are.

So I write a shout out to all my buddies. It's time for me to do some work.

Muah!
Lyrinoir

Dead time

I'm falling apart at the seams. First, apologies for the lack of blogage over the past week or so. I died in a very not real sense. Bad week in terms of time and such. Second, apologies for not bloging next week. I have caught the plague (common cold) and am dieing a slow and painful death (sniffing and coughing lost). That’s all I'm going to write. It's too late as it is. Sleep is key.

Muah!
Lyrinoir

Potentials I

“What are human beings capable of?” I am studying Greek history and culture for like the sixth time. The professor has asked this question. I am sitting in the class room, about to fall asleep because I have heard it all before when this question jars my brain into action. What are we capable of? I am capable of writing, so I start to write. I can’t help but feel that we, as a species, aren’t living up to our full potential. We, for the most part, live ordinary lives, doing dull jobs. If we are lucky, we get a good or a great job and can enjoy ourselves a little. But for the most part, we live vicariously through the existences of a few great people.

We put on our yellow rubber bracelets and pretend we overcame cancer like Lance. We dress up and wear designer clothes and makeup to feel like J-Lo. How many of us fail to live up to our potentials? Our ideals? The rates of adult and teenage depression have been climbing in recent years. Why? I propose that it is because we are no longer able to achieve our dreams. Or rather, we have forgotten how to dream. We are faced with an overwhelming tide of realism. Realism, of course, is pessimism in a tie and blazer.

But what can we do? What can we do to change our selves to achieve our full potential? I don’t know. I’m just a kid in college. What the hell do I know? I know that I have no idea of what I want to do in 20 years and I’m fine with that. I know that I know very little about the world around me. But I want to know more. That is my goal: To know more about life and the world around me. It is this desire to know more about the world that we live in that remakes the average human from a simple beast into a great creature with a change to change the world.

I would like put out a call to rethink the way we perceive reality. Instead of seeing a world of olds, we need to see a world of unknowns. A world that remains to be discovered. Changing the way the world appears is the first step in started to realize our creative potential.

This entry is the first in a series. More will come as I research the topic and come up with more ideas.

Muah!
Lyrinoir

Coffee and the heart of the matter

There is nothing more intoxicating for a writer than feedback. Admittedly, some of us pretend to hate the stuff and claim to write purely for ourselves, but their lying. Badly. The recent rash of comments has been like manna for a starving desert wanderer. I love it. So I am sitting in a coffee shop, heaven to artists everywhere, trying to bypass my school's firewall and writing. And its isn't one of those terrible Starbucks chains either. It's a real coffee shop. With hyper college students and creepy artsy people. Yay!

Um... I wrote tonight's post earlier today so it doesn’t quite mesh up with current reality. Deal with it.

What is cool? Is it cool to listen to a type of music? Is it cool to dress a certain way? Is it cool to be cool?

I’m taking a communication class that questions the essence of cool. Cool, the professor claims, is more and more a product of mass communication companies like Viacom and AOL Time Warner. Now I’m not saying that I’m not a victim of this overly marked world that we live in, but I would like to believe that I can see through some of the hype. Now I’m finding out that the agencies account for smart people seeing through the hype and to the layers below. They create more and more intricate advertisements to pierce the human mind.

I think that it’s cool to be individual, but that coolness may have been manufactured. It may have been the advertisers themselves who came up with this idea of individual coolness. To believe in self may not be my idea but a global campaign to enhance the idea of cool.

So what is cool? I like vertical stripes on shirts. I love soundtracks to plays and TV shows. I hate rap. I love techno. Is techno cool? I don’t think so, but that doesn’t stop me from liking it. Is sexy cool? I’m not sexy. At least I don’t think so. Is cool sexy? Does wearing the right clothes, the right hairstyle, make me cool?

No matter how much I think about it, I can’t get a good read on what really is cool and not cool. I know that a lot of what I do is not cool, but at the same time, cool people sometimes look up to me for being cool or, at the very least, more interesting than they are. Do my idiosyncrasies make me cool? I believe that I am pretty individual compared the average person.

Muah!
Lyrinoir

Weak End

Wow... this week went really fast. I'm not really ready to post something but if I don't I'll probably hurt myself later. So here we go.

Today we are going to discuss the travesty of fraternities. I have a problem with what is termed "Greek Life" on college campuses. Not that I'm the only one. I'm not. Right? It's rush weekend here and at a couple dozen schools across this nation. Somewhere between 1000 and 10,000 (being very vague because I haven't had time to do my research) college students are at a frat or sorority party as I write this. My roommate is one of them.

One of these days, he's going to find out how much I write about him and the shit will really hit the fan.

These parties are long and invariably involve drinking and occasionally other drugs. Now I realize that as I write this, while I may be a paragon of virtue, I am also sitting alone on a Saturday night, bloging and dealing with my Facebook account. So I may be a bit out of my element here. I don't have a problem with that. If I went to one of these parties, I would invariably get hit on by a drunk girl and that would be very awkward. It always is. I've kind of gotten used to it.

But this is not meant to be an entry of resentment. I'm not jealous. It's more that I'm honestly worried for the people who go and party at these things. I am constantly hearing stories of cops busting up parties or crazy parties where people get far too drunk for their own good. Example, once again, my roommate, who has come back drunk every weekend night and also Thursday night this week. His hangovers are equally bad and equally funny for me to watch. The disturbing bit is that he has started lying to his long distance girlfriend about his party/drinking habits. The worst being when he talks to her while drunk. Those are the times when I have to leave the room.

Speaking of my room, it has also become a party place for the campus freshmen, who congregate here after the police have shut down the big parties. More recently, clever freshmen have found a way to sneak rather large quantities of liquor into the room. I woke up yesterday to find six cans of beer and a bottle of "Bacardi Razz" in various states of emptiness around the room. Then I looked in the fridge.

I guess I blame these massive Greek parties for most of my problems but that may or may not be true. Certainly there are other factors. My roommate's hyperactive social life, our room's inherent coolness, (both in actual temperature and decoration) and my unfortunate contribution of a Facebook group (Club 418) that now boasts 20 member and a new one every day. I have garnered a reputation as a force of order in the chaotic club when I unilaterally kicked everyone out of my room at 3:00 last night. Personally, I would rather be seen as a nasty dictator. Then they wouldn't all come.

On that note, I am retreating to Vana'Diel before the party gets started in here. Have a more peaceful night than me.

Muah!
Lyrinoir