blake » Friends

I’m in town!

Runeshai — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:32:07 +0000

Staying in Seattle with my brother and his wife was wonderful. Now, living in my apartment, I realize and admire how comfortable of a life they’ve built for themselves. It was great. They’d be at work, and I’d be home. I ventured off a couple of times and found a bookstore, a music store, a cafe. Most of the time, I was home on the internet, or watching one of the hundred movies we pulled out for me to see, just the classics I hadn’t seen like Jaws, Predator and Alien. And then there was The Usual Suspects, the Bourne movies and the Goonies. Most all of the movies I watched there I liked. Tuesday nights were game nights, so I met their friends I hadn’t seen since the wedding ceremony. We had an action movie night one night, and a few other friends came over then. Their two housemates were great as well, always friendly, always interested and joyful, joking. And of course visiting Vancouver with them was even more fun then sticking it out alone. I’ve seen a ton more movies since being up here, and rated and reviewed around 350 more online in the last 3 weeks or so. Tuesdays were pie-making days also, when Juliana didn’t work she’d stay home and we’d make pies from her massive pie book together. She’d really make them, I’d just help. But it was fun. And they usually tasted quite good by the end. That was Jesse’s favorite part about Tuesdays. He’d come home from work, say hi to me and the dog, and walk straight into the kitchen for a plate and a fork and dig in to the pie of the week. It was fun. We also did a baking day on Superbowl Sunday one weekend. Nobody was interested in the Superbowl, but the food was excellent, so they made chili cheese dip, popcorn shrimp, bacon and potato skins, all the good parts of a Superbowl celebration. And us guys watched some good action movies in the living room while most of the women cooked. It was a good day. :)

Vancouver. Vancouver is awesome. The city itself couldn’t be more gentle or fun. The apartment I’m in is just the right size for three guys who don’t typically cross paths for more than a minute. My room is nicely sized, comfortable and well-lit…now. And the people… Canadians blow me away. Why aren’t Americans this nice to random people? Maybe it’s because we’re roommates or maybe it’s because they’re friend of my family, but everybody I’ve met so far has been more than willing to drop whatever they’re doing and help out in some way. It’s shocking, but nice.

I start school in about a week and a half, so I’m still getting used to the area around the apartment, finding new places to get groceries, household things like tape, light bulbs, etc. I just got the internet set up today, and the roommates will pay me back for the router when I see them later tonight. So far it’s been pretty quiet days at home, since the roommates have school and/or work, and I’ve got neither, and then some movie and food later on, with the occasional interest of one of them. Tim goes to the school I’m going to be going to, only he’s in the Game Design program, so he’s doing a lot of 3D modeling and texturing, making characters and stuff for games. He’s almost done with his clay version of a character, he said, and he’ll be 6 months through the program once I start. Andrew’s finishing his masters in Health Economics. That was a shock to me, since when I saw him he looked like he was just out of high school and starting college for the first time. It was also a field I never thought existed until he mentioned it, but it’s something I now can’t imagine not existing, even though I’m really not sure what it is.

I moved up on Sunday, and it’s Wednesday now, so I’ve got no good excuse not to learn the bus routes soon. Tomorrow I’m taking the closest one down to my school to see where it is, and meet one of my brother’s friends or a brief visit in the middle of his work day (see what I mean, and he’s not even Canadian!) I’ll wander around and explore the area a bit, and finally come back home when I’ve explored enough for the day. I hope it’s just so exciting I go back again on Friday, only it’s supposed to rain Friday, so maybe I won’t. I’ve always got the apartment to stay in. It’s still surreal, being in the apartment, thinking it’s partly mine. Walking into the kitchen thinking it’s my kitchen, my living room, I don’t know if it’s sunk in or not, but it’s an odd feeling. It’s kind of a feeling like I have this freedom, this ultimate freedom where my life isn’t determined by the schedules of other people, my daily life is completely and entire up to me, down to the absolute minute details, and yet I haven’t changed anything about my habits yet. Maybe I will with time, and maybe finding new friends will cause that, but for now, I’m happy to have a place to sleep and eat and a brand new city to explore.

The Big Move

Runeshai — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:26:33 +0000

Well, here it is. I’m sitting in the airport on my way to LA, then Seattle, then Vancouver for my long-awaited move away from home. This is the first time I’m going to be living outside of my parent’s house, and it’s really kind of interesting how I feel about it. I’m not excited. I’m not dreading it. I find myself thinking of it as just another day that happens to be taking place in a different state, and eventually, country. Everybody keeps coming up to me saying things like “Oh, I bet you can’t wait,” or “You must be excited,” and really, honestly, I don’t feel different.

I’ve heard it doesn’t hit you until you’re there, without your parents, and you think “When are they coming to pick me up?” and the inevitable response pops into your head and you think “Oh, right.” I guess that might be what’ll happen to me. Maybe it’s a sort of feeling that nothing in insurmountable. Maybe it’s just that I’m not afraid. Whatever it is, I feel absolutely normal. Except I’m in the airport.

It’s going to be a good move though. New people, new places, I’m glad to finally be getting away from the tiny-town Vermont. I wrote in an email to a friend a day or two ago:

In my room, I can stand up straight, just normally, and flat-footed I can touch the palms of my hands to my ceiling. I like to think that’s how it is living in Vermont. I can touch the ceiling with no effort, but I can’t push beyond it to do what I want to do. A bigger city might have higher ceilings, but it’s definitely going to have more potential. So that’s what I’m really moving for the most.

Overall, I’m obviously looking forward to the move, and I’m looking forward to being closer to my brother who lives in Seattle. I’m staying with him for a week or two before getting up to Vancouver, and that should be fun, since I rarely see him more than once a year. But now, being closer, I should be seeing him more often. In addition to that, I’ve got the opportunities abounding from the new city, the new people, and the new things I’ll learn and do when I’m out there. If you can’t tell, I can get myself excited about the move, but I’m not overly zealous about the whole thing.

So I’m going to sit back, relax in the airport and enjoy my nice soygurt (just joshin’, I’m hardcore, I go for the real stuff) and wait for the plane to be ready to bear me on my journey through the heavens… err, the clouds anyway. It’s gonna be a long day of traveling, but it should be fun in the end.

Friend & Freeware

Runeshai — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:29:40 +0000

I wanted to take this opportunity to announce two things (really three).

First, I’ve added another friend’s blog to the Blogroll section on the right-hand menu, so check that out when you get a chance. He was a friend of mine when I lived in Colombia. Not too close, but we knew each other, and we had the same group of friends. It’s cool to keep up with old friends like that. Check his site out by the link to the right, or here.

Second, I found an incredible listing of freeware/open source/GPL-licensed software today form one single site. It’s amazing. I’m not even going to go into details, but they’ve got everything, and it kept me busy going through only half of the page for about 4 whole hours. Yea. It’s that kind of incredible. Here’s the link, check it out if you’re interested… and I bet you are ;).

Thirdly, I’ve updated the AV blog twice today, which is a big change from my typical habits with that blog, since I don’t usually update that one all that much, unfortunately. The first update actually includes the site I mention above, but the second update is about the final film shoot for my short film The Waiting Room. I’m super excited to get that finally done, and tomorrow (err…today) I’m going to edit the last bits of footage together and try to get a rough cut online for some friend’s critique, and look into music for it. I’ll keep updating on that as it progresses.

I’m really liking the fairly reliable updating of this blog recently, especially those posts accompanied by Flickr uploads. I love the layout and usability of Flickr and the nice-looking calendar and image pages are great ways to share my photos with people through this blog. It’s a fun thing to do at night when I have time during commercial breaks from Man vs. Wild or some such nonsense thing. Heh. Thanks for reading, enjoy the links. It’s bed time now for me ;).

Christmas Spirit

Runeshai — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:14:08 +0000

My mom and my sister are making waffles right now, and we’re going to decorate our Christmas tree after breakfast, so it should be a fun day. I got a MacBook laptop recently for the college move and I’m sitting right now in the living room in front of a fire with my dog resting his oversized head on my lap, and typing this blog post to you. It’s a nice morning, heh. He twitches every time I brush past his ear with my hand. Oh, and here comes the plow I think, now I’ll get ot drive to work later. Heh, and the dog’s off to investigate the growling noise of the engine. I’ll talk to you later. Have a wonderful holiday, and thanks for wishing the same. I hope things are very happy and warm.

Meaning of (my) Life Pt. 2

Runeshai — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 04:23:45 +0000

It seems like there’s so much time and
talent going to waste when all these super talented people all over the
place that always seem to catch my attention, but never the attention
of people who have the power to make a difference in the field they’re
in. I like to think that if I ever got to a powerful position like
that, I’d do my best to get people from the online mass into studios
and the like as much as possible, even if only for a trial run on me
(and hey, if I had the money, what’s the loss? It’s helping someone
with their dream, which is always nice to do). I like to think I’d
always scour YouTube and sites like it, daily, for new talents to call
my friends in recording and film studios and other places so the
talents could get to work on the things they loved and make a
difference. That could revitalize the field so much, just constantly
adding brand new talents to the works. I like to think I would even
use the same actors in different films, nor the same musicians, unless
I had a super close relationship with them or they really fit better
than anyone else. But I like to think I’d continuously look all over
the world for talent that can sustain my projects so I don’t have to
depend on the constantly-recognizable faces of most Hollywood actors
and actresses. Watching a movie with good actors I’ve never heard of
makes it that much better for me as a viewer, because I forget they’re
acting and it seems all the more real to me. When it’s Nicholas Cage
or John Travolta, I can always tell who it is, and I always know, and
sometimes they pull off roles well, and sometimes they don’t. It
depends, but I like to think I’d make my films all the more real and
well-done because they’d have no big stars in them, and so people
wouldn’t be worried about veteran’s performances or obsessing over
their favorite stars… they’d go to see a good movie for what it was,
a good movie, which is supposed to be what filmmaking is about in the
first place, isn’t it? I guess what I want is in a way what happens
whenever you get into this field, since it’s just a wide range of
contacts that can be called upon to help out on projects in the
future. And when you’re in this business, you meet a heck of a lot of
people, and most of those will probably be hungry to come back for
more, especially if they’re on the low-budget end, which is what I’ve
become more and more interested in being in lately. It doesn’t have
the Hollywood glitz and glamor, and though it doesn’t have the same
distribution outlets, those can be well-found elsewhere with plenty of
audience to boot. But also, what it lacks in Hollywood rep, it makes
up for with ferocious talent and just pure love for the work and the
medium and the storytelling of a movie. It’s the telling of a story
through visuals and sounds, music, emotion, that make this such a
lucrative and engaging, passionate field for me to want to get into.
That’s why I want to make films, and only finding this attitude in the
lower-budget films so far, that’s why I want to stick with the indie
community of making them. After all, who doesn’t want to work on what
they love with people they love to work with? That’s essentially the
goal, to do that for myself and then provide the opportunities for it
to as many other people as possible, as often as possible. It would be
a wonderful thing to be able to make that many people’s dreams come
true. I would love to do that, and make movies, for the rest of my
life. :)

Meaning of (my) Life

Runeshai — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:20:35 +0000

I’ve noticed myself shifting focus from pure filmmaking and obsessively following that career to an idea of a business or cooperative that consists of all the talented people I’ve met that essentially creates projects by ourselves and others’ and is a hub of creativity that only ever grows, with the addition of new contacts. I’ve been thinking more and more recently of bringing together all of the people I’ve met, from filmmakers near the West Coast to singers in Australia and Vermont, to work on projects together, and all form a creative team of people working toward creating one solid piece of work that really doesn’t depend on money or star power because of its content and the quality of work that goes into it. I find myself thinking more and more about creating a production company, somewhere down the line, that brings together all sorts of talented people that I’ve met over my life from singers and musicians to actors and dancers even, writers, directors, technical equipment and computer operators to pure business minds for successfully navigating the power-hungry world we live in to show the world that bringing truly talented people together with very little money but a hell of a lot of spirit is really possible, and that it happens all the time now, due to the bridging of the physical distance gap by internet technologies. I love meeting new people online, making new contacts and fostering new relationships with people all around the world that may some day become just a friend, or help bring a project to fruition. It’s inspiring in itself, the fact that people can and do come together on the internet and create as great a piece of work as any small-time filmmaking crew can when they’re all in the same place. I think it’s wonderful that we can collaborate like I did on the “Friend In Need, Friend Indeed” project with filmmaker Ryan Nord all the way out in Ohio. Maybe it’s my modern idea of an originally hippie theory of community, but it’s a wonderful thing when people don’t even have to care anymore about the distance between themselves and someone else and they just do stuff. Of course, I would love them all to be in the same place, in a form of town all our own, full of creative types that always, always, were making something new. But the distance is often desired. And I’d love it.

I guess I feel the most proud of having met so many extremely talented people, from Ryan, to the crew over at Stick To What You Know, to ElizaAnne, to Cliff Burns, to Alejandro Lugo, and tons of others. I’m proud to know so many talented and knowledgeable people that know their stuff and can get things done. It’s the spirit of doing things and loving what you’re doing that can really get things done and that I love to find in people. I guess the production compnay title AnimiVirtus (meaning “courage of the heart”) is very appropriate for this. We would not only bridge physical gaps but age gaps, utilizing musicians and actors from all over the world, of all ages, through such publicity venues as Myspace, YouTube, and other such sites. Whenever I need music, I’d look through YouTube and Myspace at the unsigned amateur artists, as both a way to get some great music, and give the musician(s) some publicity for their talents. I love the independent, small-time, do-it-yourself spirit that seems to constantly permeate myself and now the internet filmmaker community. It’s a wonderful thing to see people just go “Wait, screw the system, I love this project enough to get it done no matter what, and I’m not stopping until my story is told,” and then they go out and do it. It’s the perfect age for a company like that to come around I think. And I love thinking of the potential that we could tap into if we approached a project like that. Alejandro Lugo said it great in a recent email to me when he said “You have to love what you’re doing… if not, find another job.” And the greatest thing is that so far, out of all the people I’ve met that I mentioned here, they totally love what they do. And it shows in the work.

Quest for Love

Runeshai — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 05:24:54 +0000

Why do we search for love? Is it just for acceptance? Is it the whole point of life? Why do we search for something seemingly so out of reach that it would seem to deter even the most lovestruck of fellows, yet we do not quit? Why are we obsessed with finding someone to share our time with, to ease and relax our pain, to talk with at 3 in the morning, to sleep with only for warmth? What is so special about finding someone to understand each and every word that we speak, or even the ones we never say at all? Is there something beyond survival that drives our lust for these people? Is there something more to life than just success, stability of mind and decent surroundings? Is there some fulfillment not yet carried out in our hearts and our should until there is someone to ease away the sorrows of the day and simply whisper in our ears, “it’s going to be alright, you just keep going”? Something seems necessary about the visibility of a relationship in society, the tangible status of togetherness, the lack of aloneness that normalizes a person to the rest of the world. Something makes a relationship a necessity, and the lack of it nearly unbearable. And see we turn to friends, to guide us, aid us, help us in times of sorrowed darkness, shadowed woe where we find to great comfort, no simple whisper or pat upon the back, no gentle kiss nor slip of skin upon the arm or shoulder or lower back, saying things like “I’m here, we’re here, and the world knows,” to comfort and silence our worries of tomorrow. In that warm, thoughtful gesture of love we find solace and comfort, peace and happiness. Though without those occasional gestures, something seems amiss. Something is indeed gone, since our social image is halved in the eyes of normalized society – where is out other? Where is the oh-so-cherished better half? Where is the standard by-my-side symbol of stability? Why is the approachability of a man gaged by his marital status and why does that directly determine his susceptibility both to rejection and cheating, abandonment of the necessity of love? The necessity of love. Such is the world today, or so it seems. It’s both depressing and intricately fascinating, that a human must find its equal to share its life with, else life be incomplete for its duration. It seems so unfair, and yet it is only that one human’s fault, because how could one person be to blame for another’s marital status? How could I hinder my parent’s marriage, my sister’s relationship? However, on the other hand, I can directly control my willingness to speak and act calmly and normally in front of a beautiful girl. I can directly control my willingness and ability to speak and recognize friends of old who no longer recognize my beard-ridden face and glasses-bearing eyes. I am in complete control my myself. Therefore it is wholly my fault and failure that I let opportunities of flirtation go unused. And in my younger days of high school I would seize them with vigor, no matter my current marital status at the time, and hold onto them, shake them, pursue them until I found an answer. Maybe that was what I was looking for all along, the answer to the question. Why do we search for love? Why is this depressingly never ending quest for companionship the apparent goal of all life on earth? And why, for god sake, is it so damn hard? Aloneness is only easy to tolerate for so long; seeing couples across the room, happy, smiling, giggling, holding one another, is only bearable for so long. And then the ride begins to tumble. Life spirals down like a broken rollercoaster, down to the ground with a thundering crash and you know for sure that you’ve hit rock bottom. Only then, I suppose, can you be sure that you cannot fall any further. But how do you know for sure you’ve hit it already? And how can you be sure you won’t hit it again? Depression can only be held off for so long. Tears can only be held back for so long. Friendships, no matter how new or old, can only satisfy for so long. And a young man in the face of life and on the quest for happiness can only take so much missing out and giving up. Whispering to himself doesn’t work. Keeping himself up doesn’t work. And once down, you can’t pull yourself up again, you have to be strong enough to push yourself off the ground. But wouldn’t it be nice if there was someone there to help make sure you weren’t bruised when you fell? That’s what I think. It’s so damn hard to find anyone. And it’s so damn hard to watch all the happy couples go by in their happy little worlds with their happy little faces and their happy little lives and think to yourself “God damn I wish I had something.” And things like “I’m the Ebeneezer Scrooge of only 18,” and “I can’t wait to get the hell out of here” are constant thoughts in your mind. It’s so damn hard sometimes. And foreign crushes and famous admirations only make things worse. And the tears can honestly only be held back for so long. And in the darkness, at past two in the morning, the only one to talk to is yourself. The hurt can only go so deep and then fade. But you forget that it can always come back, and when you least expect. And you forget that it hurts and you want to cry, and you see everyone happy and you hear all the giggling and you smile and nod and wish them well, while inside you’re cursing their ultimate good fortune, wishing nothing ill upon them – you would never do that – but wishing to God or Someone out there that someone would come along your way to pick you up and make you see that things are indeed not so bitter and hard as you had once thought. And life seems so tough and full, and obligations go forgotten until hours before they’re pre-established deadlines and rushes to complete them are only as futile as the attempts to seize those opportunities of flirtation. And then you go unnoticed – again. The world won’t see if you don’t show, but how do you show when you’re so nervous and unsure? Or is that the whole point? To overcome the fear of abandonment and rejection for the slight chance of a smile and a warm moment of heart in another person. Maybe that’s the whole point of the quest for love. And maybe I just really am the Scrooge of my age, and maybe there are others out there like me, and maybe I’m not so alone. And maybe I’ll end up happy in the future and successful and with time full of those warm gestures of love and of kindness, and of gentle hugs and warms lip-caresses until the sleep fades us away into warm nights together in clean beds and comfortable embraces. But for now, at only 18, I am again forced to resign into another cold, empty bed with the sheets ruffled and the sides as flat as the mattress they rest on, to dream of something unrelated to my current troubles of heart. And tomorrow I’ll wake up, depressed at the amount of forgotten work and the mounting day presenting new challenges in finding someone to laugh or smile or simply open themselves for a moment of kindness to which I’ve been so long denied. Though I know it won’t happen tomorrow. Am I wrong to be set in my preconceived notion of aloneness and solitude and depressing singularity for yet another day in yet another small, relatively unimportant life? Compared to the world, my troubles are nothing, but compared to the world, my troubles are universal. Am I wrong to be this bitter, am I wrong to be this cold? Or is the freezing breeze coming through my window just another reminder of how I’m to spend my night asleep? And is this writing simply a method to express the sadness that so long soaks my bones and sometimes surfaces in unexpected moments of ordinary life? Of course. But then what do I do? Simply continue the quest?&nbs
p; Of course, what other option is there? Other than to lay down and die, which I would refuse if offered the chance. So I simply trudge off to sleep, satisfied at least at having made headway on one of the forgotten pieces of work that loom so heavily on the darkened horizon. Continuous depressive writing is probably the most needless activity of the night. So I retire, likely to think about the same matters and let the tears flow, ever so slightly, onto the cold pillow on the bedside. Or maybe simply to dream. Only time will whisper, and only to me, coldly, as I tick away the seconds wondering when anyone will come along and warm up the heart in my chest.

Brush with Death… maybe

Runeshai — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:05:30 +0000

Well, tonight I was working on my Violence documentary video when out of the blue and ex shows up, completely hysterical, at my house. I thought it was my sister at first but that was too hysterical even for a young teenage girl at the end of a premature high school relationship. So I went downstairs to see what was going on and there was this girl on the bench in the dining room, who I at first thought was a friend of my sister’s. Then my mom, who was comforting the girl by that time asked my ex’s phone number, and when I didn’t know, the girl turned and gave it to her, still hysterical with tears and sobs. I realized it was my ex, and then went further into the room to try to find out what was the matter. We heard partial explanations of what had happened, something like she was worried about a friend of hers who might not make it or something. My mom talked to her mom on the phone and sorted out our bringing her back to her house, and so I drove her car and my mom drove herself and my ex in my mom’s car all back to the house. We got there and discovered that her friend, as she had said, was in the hospital, a result of an accident (not a car accident, but I’m not sure of the details), and might not make it. Needless to say, that’s awful enough, but when your life revolves around your friends, like hers does, it’s got to be heart-stopping. I remember once when we were dating she organized a Thanksgiving party, just for her friends, just because she wanted everybody to be together for the holiday and to have a fun night of food and friends together. I remember that blew me away when it happened. Something about the willingness to get everybody at your own house just to have friends together in complete and innocent fun was amazing to me at the time. It’s still an admirable thing to do. And very rewarding. Taking that story in stride, since she adores and loves her friends more than she even cares about her own wellbeing, the fact that her friend now, who she’s known since she was very young, might not live through whatever has just happened was pretty shocking even to me. She’s very warm and I guess it just gets under your skin. She’s very relaxed, very nice and calm, energetic when she needs to be but overall accepting and generous, sometimes beyond what seems rational. The coincidence in tonight, as I usually notice coincidences and try to figure out what the meaning behind them is and why they happened at the time they happened and what I can learn from it, is that I was at that very moment when she heard the news and came to our house, unable to drive anymore, working on a documentary against violence, against needless pain and bullying and suffering. I wonder now what was the meaning of this coincidence tonight? Why did this happen in this sequence, what am I meant to think from working on this video to hearing about and helping an old friend? And why did this happen to me, tonight, at this age, and what do I take from it to learn and help teach others? I guess all I can come up with now is to be careful. But more important than that and less cliche – though being careful is completely a good thing to be – to reinforce my conviction to get this anti-violence piece finished and out there, promoted, known, watched and accepted as help and truth and opinion, to be taken as it is and learned from, acted upon. Life is precious. Don’t waste it. Be careful. And definitely, definitely help others when in need. I know that I’m not suffering from this, and I know I’m not even related to the incident beyond what happened tonight, but for some reason it touched me, like the death of my sister’s friend last year, even though I barely knew her and had only seen her a few times. Maybe it’s the relationship with the moment, the connection of helping someone that draws you in closer. Maybe it’s the ability to try to do good, to try to make them feel better when it seems they can’t hurt anymore than they do at that moment. Maybe it’s just the fact that I was there, and I felt it, and something changed in me. I don’t know. But I guess we often don’t know what happens inside us, it just happens. And then we change, and we learn, and we act and react and carry on with our lives. Now I’m sounding so high and mighty. I was wondering in the car on the way to her house, alone, whilst talking to myself as I often do, “Why do people talk to themselves? What’s the point? Maybe it’s because we’re lonely. Maybe it’s because we like the sound of our own voice. Or maybe it’s just because we want to feel like we’re heard.” Or maybe it’s simply because we don’t know what else we’re supposed to do. And so we talk. Maybe we should listen more often. Maybe less talking, more listening, less convolution and more communication and cooperation would help. Maybe we just don’t know what we’re doing. And maybe helping people puts that fear of ourselves – fear of the unknown – aside for a moment to let others push away their fear. Maybe helping someone just is a gesture, maybe it’s better than talking. Maybe a hug would have solved everything. Maybe not. Maybe “I’m sorry and I’ll call tomorrow” would help. Maybe not. Maybe I just didn’t know what else I was supposed to do. And maybe driving and talking to myself was all I could do. I know this sounds unrelated but I watched a part of Gilmore Girls today and a character said “Don’t pull, fragile,” as some kids pulled at his arms to pull him along. I guess don’t pull at life or your friends either, though I know my ex never did, because they’re just as fragile as you are. Best wishes to everyone who reads, and those who don’t. Be careful, be safe, and be nice. Listen, and best of luck. Warm wishes go from me to my friend, so please send her some as well. Thank you. Goodnight everyone.

College

Runeshai — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:17:09 +0000

Well it was my first day of college today. Pretty cool. I just feel more mature now, just different, cooler, heh. I remember talking to a friend a while back and him saying that you just feel different when you turn 18. You just start thinking that you can’t do things you used to do sometimes, you’re different, there’s a different feeling in the air around you. I know more of what he means now. It was one of those rare moments you have with someone when they seem completely genuine and deep. One of those true movie moments (right, true movie, what an oxymoron) that grab you and you go “wow, that was… and you’re speechless in your own head.” So now I started college. Officially. I had English and Sociology. I think I’m going to like Sociology. It was pretty good today. It turns out it’s more of what I find interesting than I’d first thought. English is so-so, it seems like it’s just going to be an English class, which isn’t bad, it’s just nothing to brag about, and that’s not so hot really. I think my posting more in the past two days might have something to do with it. I’m just different feeling, more into life, maybe. I was sitting at the table with a couple kids my age after classes and we were just hanging out and it just felt like college kids, hanging out, which is typical, when you think about it, to relate to the college experience. I just felt like we were older now, more us than kids, and it was cool. Anyway… I’m posting this because I don’t want to fall into the trend of a college guy blog or website that’s all about viral videos and random stuff online, because sometimes that’s cool, but this is supposed to be my personal blog, so I’d like to keep it related to me at least sometimes. Plus my friends sometimes read these posts, and the more impersonal they become, the less I’m communicating with those friends. So, enjoy what I do post in league of videos and entertainment, but this is still my blog for me, about me, and it’ll still have those deeper, more life-related posts in it coming whenever I feel the need or urge to get one up. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the posts to come.

Stop The Violence

Runeshai — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:53:47 +0000

Hey everyone, I met a guy a few months back who’s trying to organize an
effort against Violence in the form of a video collective/group of
YouTube where people can post their videos about violence in their
area, their lives and in general. I’m a part of the group and am almost
done with a nearly 20-minute documentary on the subject of violence at
my old high school. I want to ask all of you to at least join the group
and help spread the word about the group on YouTube. If you can post on
forums, blogs, anywhere, tell friends, whatever, join the group and
tell other people about it. Whoever can record video with a video
camera, still camera, webcam, whatever you’ve got, or even an audio
file with your computer’s microphone, do something to contribute and
post it on the group’s page. There is no definite final product out of
this, just a group of people wanting to stop violence to some degree in
whatever manner they can. So, without any more from me, here’s the
link, and please join the effort:

http://www.youtube.com/group/stoptheviolence

Thanks!

Blake & The Stop The Violence Group