Vexing sense of futility

Watching someone for whom you care suffer is difficult.

But knowing that there is nothing you can do to ease their pain is agony beyond comprehension.


Postscript: Wow, talk about a premonition. Seven hours after the original posting, it actually happened. Before careful what you wish for, especially when the collateral damage extends beyond yourself.

My silly invasion: 6

Ming tombs.







The Overrated Great Wall.




West siiiiiide.


Umm. Yeah.

My mythical reprieve: 5

Minimalist with words today. Captions present only when absolutely warranted.
















Katie's run-in with a local. Read more about it over at her blog.








I almost sprouted a little wood when I saw this metro stop ;)


Gift for the office. Yay pandas!

Gentlemen, rock the casbah

My tempestuous ardor

Go see this movie. Recently, rarely does cinema appear that focuses as much on the music as it does on the story telling. August Rush is an amazing, touching, and miraculous film. Take note of Robin Williams' performance; to me, his character had the human touch that many actors nowadays are unable to impart.


This next picture speaks for itself.



Excuse my bare midriff.
Rock on!
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it... happy holidays to the rest of us.

A ceremony erased

Sometimes I love those damnable online networking services. Below is an example.

Dxxxx Gxn down south chillin. 11m ago
Dxx Jxxxxxx is chillin.' 18m ago
Kxxxxx Rxxxxs is in Entre Lagos, Chile. 36m ago

I went to Facebook just now and saw that in my "Friend's Status" box, or whatever it's called. Obviously I doctored the names for anonymity. I realize that the third one is, at the same time, a match and a mismatch. But the entire thing is still creepy and hilarious.

As you've probably guessed, dear reader, I am still without much to do around the homestead. (I love how I phrased that last line, it's as if I'm just bursting at the seams with traffic to this pretentious little blog.) I will admit, however, that I had the opportunity last night to go up to Melrose for a party at Courtney's. But it was not to be. Quite frankly, as much as I miss the lovably kooky Courtney, her house would have been about an hour's drive away, and I would have only known two people there (three by association, long story). I'm not one to avoid meeting new people, but generally I try to make it happen on familiar territory, and Court's abode in the-Middle-of-Nowhere, FL doesn't fit those parameters.

All was not lost, however. I turned yesterday into a productive one, and verily so. I finally managed to put a sizable dent into the monstrous issue of my sleep schedule. I got up today at 5am! Quite a step up from previous wake-up calls of midnight and 1am. I think I can manage staying up later than 5pm today. Hopefully this trend will effectively die when I start driving myself home.

I've been taking pictures at home. Here's kitty #1!



Lazy bastard. We have a second cat but she's outside all the time. Originally I was going to follow them around and try to catch them in funny poses, but then as it turned out, one slept all the time and the other never was around.

Also, I realize how ubiquitous my use of the word "ubiquitous" is lately. Oh won't someone please save my redundant soul and buy me a thesaurus?

Anyway, ubiquitously enough, when I got bored for the first time, I launched into more high-flying picture poses... similar to what I did in the AIESEC office.



I'm quite proud of the air I got in that pic.



Check out that HEINOUS double chin.


Bo and Andrea tomorrow!!! YAYY!!! (... and Katie)

Query the monolith

Being at home as been so boring. I am, alas, without car due to the seasonal rambunctiousness of Florida drivers (someone rear ended my dad) and have been forced to spend the days sequestered in the house. The 'rents need my car to commute to work. I guess it can't be helped.

I've been watching a lot of DVDs, writing a bunch of pensive and brooding blog entries (just you wait until they've all been proofread to perfection) to unleash unto the world, and otherwise occupied with becoming slovenly and unkempt.

Luckily, there's a bunch on my plate for next week. Example? The annual outs and abouts with Andrea, Bo, and Katie. I've missed my dear Andrea quite ravenously.

Reason why Andrea is awesome:

Andrea: "Oh Natey, please forgive me. I didn't buy you a Christmas gift. So just let me pay for the movie ticket or lunch or something."
Me: "Oh you don't have to do that!"
Andrea: "No, no. I insist. I'd feel bad if I didn't."
Me: "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I didn't get you anything either."
*laughter all around*
Me: "So yeah, you really shouldn't feel guilty at all."
Andrea: "Well, when you put it that way..."
Me: "Tell you what. Let's pretend that we both got each other the greeaaatttest gift we could ever ask for. But we were so infinitely gracious and humble that we weren't able to accept them."
Andrea: *laughter* "So basically we both come away empty handed."
Me: "Exactly. And we both get to feel good about ourselves because we gave such wonderful gifts."
Andrea: "*more laughter* "You know, this could work."
Me: "Also, we get the added bonus of good vibes because we turned down our own gifts. It doesn't get much more selfless than that."
Andrea: "Oh Nate, I couldn't have asked for a better gift! Thank you so much!"
Me: "Me too! I've always wanted one of these!"
*hilarity all around*
Andrea: "How awesome are we?"

Well, needless to say, I took some artistic license with the specific semantics of our conversation. But still!

Resolution #2: Sleep on a more regular schedule. No more of this sometimes-a-vampire, sometimes-an-alcoholic style of sleeping.
I just thought I'd sneak that one in there.

In other news, I've been feeding the embryonic leftist revolutionary within myself. Here is said fodder. Feel free to check out the provocative article featuring the poor Icelandic woman too.

Man, the distance we've gone in the past 7 years is just staggering. And yet, I think we could probably measure real progress since then with two fingers. Can I get a witness?

All things considered

The effect of boredom.

Oh, office. You have so much untapped potential.

Some damage control

Note to self: I should not be allowed to be anywhere near a keyboard while intoxicated. Especially when I think I'm being hilarious.

Oh well.

One of the tamer shots from last night (what the fuck am I doing with my left arm):

Managing all fronts

More video work today. I should have gone to see RHA though. And now it's 6 a.m. This is me:


I'll get over it though.

I convinced myself earlier tonight that I had had a creative breakthrough, and that inspiration was beating down my door like a fat man at Wendy's. I sat down at my computer and enthusiastically pounded out what I believed was a genius storyboard and accompanying soundtrack. And then I realized... I had really done nothing at all. Without any actual pictures to work with, I had just restructured my original plans into exactly what they used to be with only minor changes, and I was left with the same number of songs that I had coming in. Luckily, however, even though there isn't much in the way of tangible results to be extracted from my six hour foray into insomnia, I think I have a better idea overall of how I want to do this.


Now I'm left with the overarching problem of how to pull this off... like, literally. I still need to figure out the video editting programs and stuff.


And since my sleep schedule is now completely in the toilet, I get to spend the next two days in a total stupor. So much to do today (I love how sometimes, the term "today" applies to two days) and Friday. I hope I haven't rendered myself completely useless.


Well, until next time, here's a preview from the banquet video. Outtake from Katie's reel.