Placemarker

Oh, I’m so sorry for not posting. No one wants to hear excuses but I’m written so much on my notepad and I just can’t find time to jump onto the computer except for times like this…at 2:57am when I’m just dying to go to bed. You know what, though? I’ll compile all of this week’s posts into a single, long kinda Spring Break journal once I get back to Seattle at the end of the week. You’ll love it, I’m sure, and you’ll continue to visit and bookmark and tell your friends, huh, huh??! Yeah, well, I’m gonna plop down now. Tonight was a nice night. I’ll say something about it and tell some jokes and some helpful advice or something related to it later. Bueno.

P.S.: Reminder to self to download some music by Blondie.

 

Reopening in 24 hours

You’ve all gotta excuse me. It’s just that one of my more important final exam of recent memory happens tomorrow and I’ve tried to be single-tracked of mind of late. I can look into the future, however, and I envision a big-time blooger post WITH AUDIO coming tomorrow afternoon once the wildlife biology testing is over. That is, if I can recall all of the information that has been on the periphery these past few days.

 

Minor Alterations

How do you like the eyes photo for the profile? I’m just really into taking photos of myself lately. So vain! The idea came from Street Fighter Alpha 3, of all places. Eyes are great, though…probably the most expressive parts of our face…certainly the most beautiful. They say it’s like looking directly at one’s soul. I decided to look away, however, so that the photo will seem contemplative or hopeful.

I’m gonna make some more changes maybe this weekend. The links section ought to be more representative of the links I actually use. That means out with Hyperwest, which I never look at, and in with five other great pages to join Louise’s chronicles in Venezuela.

 

More-or-less Milestone

Counting this low-effort post, Ice Climber has featured 84 posts and has enjoyed 527 hits. Those aren’t traditional milestone numbers but it’s a nice feeling that this page has survived a ton of schoolwork, a tumultuous and computer-scarce summer and blows to its ego from awareness of damn entertaining weblogs such as this one and this one. But WhatUpThen will make a promise now to himself and to all of you who climb the mountain…uh, yeah, I’ll keep trying to make it better. Enough. Go watch Maria, Full of Grace.

 

Class Notes

Another late night with not enough work done to justify the hour…but I do have some ramblings:

If you’re white, in college and you want to be perceived as cool, start attending meetings of minority group organizations in your area. It might be awkward at first, what with people wondering if your grandparents were of some particular ethnicity or if you just got too sloshed and wandered away from the frat boys’ turf, but eventually the silent accolades will stream in. For bonus points, become an officer.

Does anyone else become strangely proud when noticing a large wound on their body for the first time and having not the slightest idea where it came from?

Honestly, if you’re walking in with your punch card to get your 11th burrito free you’ve got some sort of problem.

Yes, Dennis Quaid really does look like Vince McMahon. No, I’m not sure which one should be more upset by this.

I’ve played basketball aganist this man several times. He walks his way up the court, shoves people while trying to grab rebounds and during a jump shot he either makes a kissing noise or exclaims: “Daddy…love him.” Complete asshole…that is, until I saw him on CNN interviewing Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now I just can’t decide whether to respect him or not.

Did Clay Aiken win something? Is he special? Why are people still mentioning his name in articles?

Four weeks into the quarter and I have no idea what my biology professor’s name is.

Is it just me or is a deep-voiced woman just the sexiest thing? There must be something physiological about that. Like maybe deep-voiced women ovulate twice per month. I must find out for myself.

Hidden pleasures from staying up until 4am…Bosom Buddies is on TV RIGHT NOW!!

No one asked, but since getting paid I’ve bought a Fossil Arkitekt watch, some new Nikes, a new cell phone and 4 enchiladas from Taco Del Mar. I was tempted to go buy an iPod this evening, but you know what they say: A fool and his money are soon parted. Aack!

Heh, a fool and his girlfriend…

If you want to see a grown man cower and run away just put him on a racquetball court for the first time in his life. It’s comedy, you know.

God, this show is dumb.

Yeah, Napoleon Dynamite was pretty good. But, come on, it wasn’t all that. Way to get some Jamiroquai in there, though. Go producers!

Alright, then. Time to go to bed, get up and get back on track. Love you all out there…make today a good one.

 

Ice Climber Awards

Oh please, please, PLEEEASE don’t let my child grow up to be like my cousin. I mean, arrested-FUCKING-development! This girl is in COLLEGE! How is it that she survives? I’ve said before that the defining characteristic of teenagers is immaturity but she takes it to an extreme. Teenagers have rebelliousness but my cousin has unjustified defiance. Teenagers change their demands; sometimes they want to be treated as adults, sometimes they want to be treated like children — but my cousin acts like a six-year old. She talks like a preschooler, she buys into stereotypes about the roles of men and women and she acts like she’s ENTITLED to everything. I’ve just never seen anything like it. Is there a psychologist who can study her? I think my 18-year old cousin is destined to have a hard fall in life. For her sake I hope it comes sooner rather than later.

So 2004 is coming to a close. TIME Magazine picked Bush as its person of the year, signifying the person having the greatest impact, good or bad (Did bin
Laden get it in 2001?). Without a doubt, the 2004 Ice Climber Person of the Year is the lovely Raquel Vega. I will discuss her as well as others I’d like to recognize.

E-Money: For showing courage by quitting his job and taking time to unwind and discover how to pursue his passions. And for being a great receptacle for all of the details that don’t make it to Ice Climber.

MK3: For being the most levelheaded person I know (including me, which is really amazing) for helping reassure me of my value and sanity and for being eye candy whenever I’m at her apartment.

(And E-Money has just declined his award.)

Mom: She gets too little sleep, she helps so many people and she is underappreciated (the defining characteristic of mothers?). Between taking care of her 88-year old father, working, exercising and doing all of the thankless things mothers do how could I ever complain about the minor little issues in my life? Thanks, Mom, for enabling me.

Cara: Many people say they are tolerant, that they are individuals an that they don’t care what others think. No one is any of these things 100%, but Cara comes closer than most. For living your life as you want i to be lived, and for setting a good example. Can’t believe her ass just turned 21.

Brian: Fucking Bergondy. Some would call him a college dropout. Some would call him a compulsive gambler. Some would call him a cradle-robber, irresponsible and without stability…and they’d all be right! But B has strong morals and generosity instilled within him, and I get the feeling that he would remain no matter how far everyone else drifts away.

Raquel: For making me happier and sadder than I’ve ever been before. Really, thank you. She brought out emotions in me I didn’t know I had and I’m better off for it. I more eagerly await the next chapter in our saga than with anyone else.

The rest of you motherfuckers try again next year! HAHAHAA! Just kidding, I love you all.

RESOLUTIONS
– Make some incomplete friendships complete
– Finish school and start a new stage in life
– we’ll see what else

 

A Note To Premium Subscribers

You may have noticed a few problems with the archiving on my site. The links to recent posts are broken right now as I try to make Ice Climber a bit snappier. I can’t, in good faith, work on these things during the week but I hope to get the problems resolved on Friday or Saturday.

I screwed up the HTML template because I tried some experimentation. I want Ice Climber to retain its minimalist feel, but there are certainly some clever features I’ve seen on other blogs (there are other blogs?!) that I could stand to appropriate…read: steal. So, keep your eyes peeled for improvements to be finished and tell your friends! If you’re a repeat visitor to this page then there must be something you like about it, and sharing is a good thing. Until then…adios!

 

Can You Hear Me Now?

 

Okay, today I have spent an inordinate amount of time on Ice Climber. This sort of thing can happen on Wednesdays when I spend only 50 minutes in class. This website got its first pictures, which I’m very happy about. But this next thing…ohh yeah! This is…this is it. This is huge. This is gonna be an amazing development for Ice Climber. Yes, you can see what it is…it’s audio! I’ve said many times that just reading or chatting eliminates so much of the emotion behind words. They are sapped of their power when written on screen. The ones that are powerful when written are really fucking powerful…like, say, Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham Jail or something. Obviously I’ve read that recently. Since the writing on this site isn’t MLK-caliber here’s something to really spice it up. Plus, I’ve been told I have a nice voice so maybe that will help.

 

Summer 1, WhatUpThen 0

I know that 99.9% of those reading this page are close, personal friends of mine. But whether you are someone I talk with frequently or a 63-year old grandmother from Fullerton who just happened upon this page while planning your extreme sports vacation, I appreciate you taking the time to read. So, I’m back at my computer to continue Ice Climber for an indefinite period. Keep checking back and be irresistibly entertained.

!!

So! My summer was rather miserable! How was yours?! I worked three of the worst jobs imaginable…packing boxes at a warehouse, passing out speed-reading flyers at UC Berkeley and the absolute freaking bottom, telemarketing (“Good evening, are you the lady of the house?”). I have comedic horror stories about each one so maybe I’ll make those blog topics for the rest of this week. Stay tuned.

What else? I’m totally not ready for school. Having difficulty deciding what to take and how much of it to take. Got a thesis to write that I should already have started. I’m living in the same apartment complex but I could swear my new room is smaller than last year’s. On the bright side, this is my last year of school and using my secret weapon (e-m-p-l-o-y-m-e-n-t) I should be able to make it just a little more exciting than last year.

Crap Summer Item #3? I’m in the middle of getting PAINFUL rabies shots because fucking Lassie has separation anxiety. While walking through a Costa Rican thunderstorm wearing sandals and soaked pants and carrying a duffel bag full of clothing, goddamn Lassie Jr. decided to escape from his yard and run up to take a bite out of my ass. Okay, it was my leg but it was a pain in the ass. And hassling with the owners and the vet and the first doctor and the second doctor and the nurse and the embassy and the third doctor and the doctor in California and the doctor in Seattle…I mean, WHAT THE FUCK?!?! And how do people without health insurance survive? The hospital up here charges $250 per rabies shot. $250 EACH!!! You need five shots if you’ve been bitten to protect you from an absolutely fatal disease. So, because Manuel Rojas of el Alto in Guadalupe in San Jose, Costa Rica couldn’t keep his dog on a leash, a hypothetical person would be faced with a) paying $1250 to not die, b) dying, or c) not paying and hoping like hell a stellar pet owner like Mr. Rojas takes his dog to the vet regularly. You say leash or death. Leash, please.

And, of course, the motherfucking bunker-buster…my girlfriend left me this summer. I mean, just totally left me for another guy. It wasn’t a gradual and expected thing like when my aunt died this summer while I was visiting her; it was a hit-from-behind, devastating, can’t-do-shit-about-it thing like when I lost a day on my short vacation because the plane was delayed causing me to miss the only flight to San Jose. Needless to say for those of you who have experienced this before, the breakup is the most rattling of the events. And summer is over, but I’m still rattled. She and I have reached a tenuous (?) resolution, but I don’t know how it will resolve. How can a person ever forgive and forget a punishment he did not deserve?

BUT ENOUGH COMPLAINING!!

BEC has been my slogan for the past couple of weeks and I haven’t lived up to it. Yet, the school year is starting; this is my domain. I always say that I don’t have problems, the guy who had to pay for his rabies shots has problems; the guy who telelmarkets for a living has problems, and so on. The time has come to make a little luck for myself and laugh off the summer. Did I do a good job of making you laugh and feel sympathetic at once? If so, then just keep returning to this blog and reap the fruits of my labor as I close this seasonal chapter and open up a bright new one. Bitch.