blog.big-woop.com

New Years Eve and it's hard to believe / Another Zodiac's gone around / While you drank yourself high on hoping / And watched the ceiling spin from the ground...

Then you tell yourself / What you want to hear / Cause you have to believe / This will be my year

The past two nights were, ultimately, mirror images of one another, with different people.

Sunday night, Amelia, Kelsey, John, Jacob, Keegan, Emily, Joe, Alice, Blakey and Pavel (age)...

and

Monday night, Blakey, Keegan, Emily, John, Alice, Joe and Pavel (how long I've known them)...

...all came over to my house. We watched DVDs, ate biscuits and pretty much just chilled for hours on end. Both nights, I didn't leave the house until after midnight because everyone came to me. I felt loved, on both occasions.

Tonight, I'm partying. That's all. Just partying.

Peace.
-Todd

I just counted 58 Eclipse Records receipts totalling $720.73. This means that I have spent well over that amount there, as I have only a sample of the receipts from records purchased at said location. That's pretty sick.

Tonight, Alison, Ben, Joe, John, Katie, Liz, Nina (alphabetical) and I all went bowling. I sucked, bowling 125 and 116. That means my average since Thanksgiving is somewhere around 110. That's fucking pathetic. I should have asked for a bowling ball for Solst-mas (That's what I'm calling it now, because I'm an Atheist tool). That'd have been sweet. Later, we returned to my house, less Joe and Katie, to watch Ocean's Eleven.

Earlier today I replaced my old baseball glove with a mighty fine new one. I also got the new Phish album. It is also, needless to say, mighty fine.

Peace.
-Todd

FUCK! I sent my TOK paper to the wrong address!

Other than that, my day was good. I watched South Park at Chris' house, then we went to John's and cooled it with Joe and Charlie. Now I'm an honorary Gypsy, and thus, a part of the Gypsy Mafia. We are now hiring ourselves out. To do what I have no clue.

I bought Sigur Rós' Ágćtis Byrjun with a Best Buy gift card today, as well as Oasis' Live By The Sea on DVD and Ocean's Eleven, also on said medium, which I presently plan to watch and/or fall asleep to. Good night.

Peace.
-Todd

I also got an external firewire hard drive, the latest Simpsons episode guide, a fake-rotary telephone, a baseball glove, gelt (Delicious fake money, in a bunch of different fake currencies. I got a Euro-gelt! How effin' sweet is that?), Mastermind and about a billion dollars in gift cards to Best Buy and the like. We had Spam for breakfast and steak for dinner. I had a nap for lunch. It was a pretty sweet Christmas.

Peace.
-Todd

So, mom gave me a copy of ( ) by Sigur Rós. It contains eight tracks, all untitled, and beautiful beyond description. I have learned several things, since first describing my love for this music.

a)	There are four members of Sigur Rós. Thus, they are a they, and not a he, she or it.
b)	They're Icelandic.
c)	Some of their lyrics are actually in English. The rest are not.
d)	It's a silent 'G.' The 'I' is pronounced hard. The 'Rós' is pronounced 'rose,' and is said very quickly.
e)	The band was named after its vocalist's sister. Translated, it means 'Victory Rose.'

Cool, huh?

Upon checking my e-mail tonight, I came across yet another, "Todd, update your goddamned website" email. What the fuck!? Whenever I miss a couple days, people flip out and flood my inbox with this shit. They aren't worried whether or not I'm alive. They don't email me to tell me what's new. They don't just want to drop me a line. They just want me to update my website. Fuck that. That sucks. I'm not here solely for your entertainment! I'm a living, breathing, walking human being, not a machine. Give me a goddamned break!

Fortunately for those who whine about my hiatuses (hiatai?), I also get bored when my content isn't fresh.

Peace.
-Todd

Even though I cannot decipher a word of it, Sigur Rós' Svefn-G-Englar is one of the most beautiful and well-written songs in the history of beautiful and well-written songs. Every emotion imaginable is encapsulated within its nine minutes and fifteen seconds. It is in its final throes and pangs, however, that you come to the astonishing realization that what you've just heard is absolutely amazing in every way possible. It is as good as today's songwriting gets. Sigur Rós are certainly kings of expression. Sadly, I know nothing about them, nor do I own any of their albums. Just the Vanilla Sky soundtrack, which is pretty sweet in and of itself. Especially at four in the morning.

Peace.
-Todd

I'm sitting in Cherin's room eating Doritos while all the econ kids are taking a test. I'm actually pretty happy I didn't get into this class. It's really boring. And for someone with an attention span as short as mine, damn near impossible to keep up with.

Last night we celebrated my acceptance to Grinnell with dinner at a sports bar. How trashy [EDIT: 21 December 2002]Minnesotan[/EDIT] am I?

Peace.
-Todd

I am going to Grinnell.

Peace.
-Todd

I have 468 stitches in the inseam of my pants.

How many do you have?

Peace.
-Todd

I recall that back in May, upon seeing Star Wars Episode II twice within a twenty-four hour period, I referred to myself as a 'big dweeb.' Well, I've surpassed myself. I have now seen Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers three times before its first official day at the box office was even up. Yesterday I went at both 12:03A and 4:00P. I suck.

I'm super-ultra tired now too, because I was up 'til two in the morning burning compilation CDs for my friends. "Who's fault is that?" you ask? "Fuck you!" is my response.

Peace.
-Todd

I think that it's worth mentioning that after "Pour Some Sugar On Me," which served as background music for my last post, on came "Cum On Feel The Noize," as performed by Quiet Riot. I love Mix104.

Rock on.
-Todd

Grinnell won't send me acceptance or rejection for Early Decision until 20 December, which means I probably won't receive it until 23 December. I dislike that. Especially because Emily just got accepted to NYU. Props to her. And to Caitlin for DePaul.

Today I woke up too early at John's and just kind of cruised through the rest of the day. I didn't do anything of note, really. I hung out with Pavel and Alice at Cecil's for a solid thirty minutes. At this point I had just hit the wall and got extremely tired, and just spouted ridiculous inane bullshit. No wonder people think I'm kind of stupid.

Saturday night I went caroling with a bunch of kids from student council and the like. It was pretty cool. We collected money for Project Starfish, which is an organization that sets homeless people back on their feet. The idea is actually quite a good one, and we were "all up in the rich 'hood, so we gots mad ca$h. Yeayaw!"

Props also go out to Jacob, who recently became an official full-fledged Eagle Scout, which means the man can now get damn near any job he wants. Good for him.

Peace.
-Todd

I got the following e-mail from Alice today:

From: alicemcglave@hotmail.com
To: todd@big-woop.com
Subject: it's official

Todd-
Yesterday after school, Chris finally asked me out.  So know [sic (I think)] we're an "item" or rather, he is my "significant other."  So, I'm happy!!!!  We hung out at uptown and then we watched Lord of the Rings at my house.  I hadn't seen the first one yet.  It's one of Chris' favorite movies, he's a dork but I still like him.  You should tell everyone on your web page so they know.

love
Alice

So there. The rumors have been made true. Maybe I should stop meddling now, even though she kind of encourages it (see last sentence). "Everyone" entails, however, about fifteen or sixteen regulars and five or six random other souls unfortunate enough to happen upon my website. Whatever. Content is content.

Peace.
-Todd

Tonight, or rather last night, I saw The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers. It was very good. Spectaular good. I don't actually know, because my face was about two inches from a billion foot wide screen. Barrie Osborne was there. He's the producer. Go see it, when it comes out, on Wednesday, SUCKA!

Alice and Chris may or may not be going out. The sad part is that neither of them even knows if they are. This means that:

a)	They have absolutely no idea what they are doing, which is respectable, as I have been there many times. Actually, that would probably make it less respectable. Anyway, it's kind of cute, but also mildly irritating.
and
b)	They don't speak to each other frequently enough to even entertain the initial notion of dating. This is also cute, as in grade school crush cute, but at the same time altogether also mildly irritating. But only because it's Chris and he's so awkward and goofy.

I know that none of this is really my business, but for the moment I'll have to live vicariously through others relationships, and since everyone else has made it their business, I felt it best to put in my two cents.

The real loser here though is Pavel... he can do nothing more than sit idly by and watch in horror as that goof inches ever closer to his big sister. Poor Pavel...

Peace.
-Todd

I'm feeling kind of down recently. I'm not entirely sure as to why. I'm pretty sure that it's just musical withdrawal, but I also can't help but think it stems from something else.

I've been weighing my chances of getting in to Grinnell for early decision. I'm not sure that they're very good. I keep second guessing myself. That's something I dislike. I find out within the next seven days.

Today I had an interview with Lawrence University. It's not too bad for a fourth or fifth choice. I guess.

Peace.
-Todd

Today, at school, we have this early release deal, which means that they shorten each of the classes just enough to make it so it's not important for anyone to be here, which is nice because it means everyone is just chilled out and the teachers don't ask a whole lot of you. Of course, I'm just presuming, as I have yet to attended any classes, but last time all the teachers would just use their half-hour of time to complain about how they don't get an entire hour for their class so it's not worth doing anything so we can all just play Boggle or sit around with our thumbs up our butts.

I'm going bowling at noon today. I like bowling. Especially at noon. Today.

Nobody likes Boggle.

Peace.
-Todd

Fiddler surpassed every expectation and allayed every fear I'd had. The entire weekend was one of the most amazing I've ever had. The experience as a whole was spectacular, and I miss it so much already. As Anne put it, I've gone into "musical withdrawal." Fortunately, I get to edit the video (That's meant to be both sarcastic and not, simultaneously).

But now what do I do?

Peace.
-Todd

It's borderline ridiculous how excited I am for tomorrow night's show. I'm not even in the goddamned thing (For those of you who don't know, I've spent the last three plus months producing Fiddler on the Roof).

Today, despite the pizza dillema, I got a lot done. I sent the publicity crew off to make t-shirts, which they finished in slightly under two hours. That's pretty cool. I finished the program and am now in the process of putting together all 1,000+ of them. It's hard work when you don't even know how to operate the machine that is rapidly spewing out page after page of silly quips and phrases. I figured it out, though, and intend on enjoying the better part of my school day tomorrow. Not because I'm expecting intellectual awakening or cohesive thought or anything, but because I will be spending it in the auditorium listening to music and redoubling paper length-wise. Why do I find this enjoyable? I don't know.

I'm absolutely giddy. Mayhaps I will lay down and listen to music and rest, perchance to sleep, thus adding to my two and a half hours last night, the four the night before and the three on Sunday night. I don't remember Monday. Did I sleep? I don't know. And I don't know what's unhealthier; the lack of sleep or how energetic I am during the day due to it.

Is unhealthier a word? No.

Speaking of unhealthy... The new Martin Devaney album kicks ass, as did his concert last night. The funniest part of the night was that my math teacher, who plays for the band that opened, was the first to greet me without so much as a hint of authority. And he didn't even inquire about my absence from his class earlier that day. That's pretty classy of him. I wonder what he'll have to say on Monday, when I make my return after three consecutive missed days.

Goddamn... what am I going to do on Monday?

Peace.
-Todd

Despite my being a bitch and whining all the time, I've been pretty happy recently. Joe e-mailed me and pointed out that I'm not actually bitching about anything, and even though this isn't entirely true (That cut on the roof of my mouth still won't heal, for fuck's sake), I would like to point out that I haven't really experienced anything since the weekend, just hours of time spent in school. As I've noted before (elsewhere), this production becomes our lives for a week. That leaves just fifty-one more in which to do all sorts of crazy, random, fun shit.

I realize now, also, that I forgot to mention some stuff that has happened recently. On Saturday night I went to the Happy Apple concert, which rocked, as did their opener, Tomato Box, who played a song that absolutely rocked my world. It's called "Rock Star," and is not, apparently, available on any of their albums. Afterwards I hung out, albeit briefly, at Adam (H)'s house. Sunday yielded nothing terribly positive, but the two and a half hours of sleep I got that night made Monday all the more unbearable. So, before I start bitching about "nothing with substance" again, I'll end this post and go to sleep.

Peace.
-Todd

I was at school today from 6:40A to 9:20P. It fucking sucked.

I'm going to bed.

Peace.
-Todd

I have a cut on the roof of my mouth. It fucking sucks.

I'm at school and have been since 6:40A, and will be until after 9:00P. That fucking sucks.

Peace.
-Todd