Adrift

So some of you know that I went to San Fransisco a few weeks ago for my cousin Leea’s graduation (and subsequently, Lindenhurst, to see Mumsy).  And I have even perhaps told even fewer of you that I had to throw away the shampoo and body wash I had with me since they were full bottles of more than 3 ounces.  Because we all know how dangerous it is to be able to clean your hair whilst flying.  But that annoyance pales in comparison to what I discovered on that fateful trip.  For, in this seemingly innocent happenstance, the secrets of the ages were revealed to me.

Time travel does indeed exist.

I present the following series of events as proof of this albeit fantastic claim:

1. Before heading for the airport, but after taking a shower, I pack my Suave shampoo and Dial body wash into my suitcase.

2. Upon crossing security, the aforementioned items are labelled suspicious and, due to time constraints, thrown out.

3. Dad, Betty (my aunt) and I arrive in San Fransisco, take a taxi (after waiting an hour for Betty’s bag), and arrive at out hotel for the night.  The next day is spent with Mary Lou (my other aunt, aka Mel) and Leea.  Much gladness ensues.

4. In a bid to remedy my shower predicament, Mel, Dad and I go hunting for supplies.  Body wash is no problem, but for some reason, the shampoo is nowhere to be found.  That is, the particular variety I use wasn’t anywhere.  There were, however, bottles of the same brand.  However, these other bottles, unlike my previous shampoo, were Suave Men, as opposed to Suave for Men, in addition to having more new age designs on the front.  Continuing on, an adequate stopgap substitute is found.

5. The rest of the trip transpires.  A wonderful time, to be sure, but irrelevant to this particular proof.

6. Once arrived back in Illinois, and having spent the night at Dad’s, we eventually get around to taking me over to Mom’s.  On the way, we stop to get me some proper shampoo, and eventually find some.  But!  While it is indeed the proper type of shampoo, this bottle also sports a new age look, and no longer touts itself as for men.  It is purchased regardless.

7. Two weeks go by in Lindenhurst.  A wonderful two weeks, but again, extraneous.

8. I arrive back in Champaign-Urbana, courtesy of the Bonnie Bakers and their Bakermobile.  Once all my effects are transported to my room, I reach into my closet.  For, unbeknownst to the space-time continuum, I still had (and still do, actually) a near-empty bottle of the old Suave.  Only, it was near-empty, and thus in use, and thus in the shower.

9. Not to be deterred, I tarried forth to the bathroom, new Suave in hand.  And, as I had suspected, they were indeed different.  Same brand, same type, different style.

Obviously, there has been some sort of temporal discontinuity here.  The most logical of which is that I somehow traveled forward through time in my flight to San Fransisco, which is of course more futuristic than Lindenhurst, what with it being a city and all.  I couldn’t have gone all too far in the future though; a week later, and Lindenhurst was at the same point.

If for whatever reason you still find my claims outrageous, then the only other possibilities are conspiracy and coincidence.  And let’s be honest — 9 times out of 10, it’s the big companies what harbor the conspiracies.

Although, frankly, I don’t see what they really gain from the change.  Which would you rather use (hypothetically): Suave for Men, the essence of suaveness, geared specifically for men, or Suave Men, an ambiguous title that perhaps implies unethical manufacturing practices?

Well, just one small thing really. A mouse. I saw it yesterday, here at mom’s house in Lindenhurst, and after hours of night and early morning vigilance, I caught it via the power of tupperware. I’m glad it’s not running free around the house anymore.

But oh man, it was cute. Seriously. Like, I-wanted-to-keep-it-and-pet-it-and-love-it-forever cute. I ended up letting it go, though. In the end, I figured it probably would not be so happy with me.

I did manage to get it to climb on my hand before I set it free, however. And I took pictures! Maybe the good folks at the Bakery would be so kind as to help me get them up here, or something…

By the way, sorry I took a longer trip than expected out here. And thanks for looking after my plant! Hope he’s doing alright…

PS: I suppose I might as well say it now – “Ranger Man’s Agenda” is an anagram of “Green and Anagrams”.  Also, that post was written in in Champaign, then edited and posted in Lindenhurst.  In case there was any confusion

Edit: Pictures~

Indoor 1

Indoor 2

Indoor 3

Outdoor 1

So dad came over yesterday, and we all ended up going for a walk in the woods that we live oh-so-close to at the Bakery. There was so much green. I mean, I’ve seen pictures of such wonderfully verdant displays, but the leaves! And the grass! And the plants! All so green! And with no mosquitoes to speak of…it was heavenly.

Also, I have recently been fascinated with anagrams. Allow me to share a few with you:

Khalil Moutrie = Haiku: more lilt
Super Mario = Rare Opiums
Final Fantasy Tactics = Nifty satanical facts (well, it fits the story anyway…)

It’s just so crazy, the kinds of connections you can make with language. Makes me think that maybe older civilizations were right to regard anagrams as a source of wisdom.

Of course, there’s some less savory connections that can be made, and some are downright…strange. Like:

Khalil Moutrie = Uteri milk halo

I mean, I have kinda felt like I’ve grown up with a lot of female influence, but…

Well, anyway, here’s one last one to occupy your thoughts:

Achieve your dreams = Arcade hero, ivy muse.

P.S: The title is an anagram. Try running it through the thingy here. Or just pester mom.

A fly
Landed here. Right here on my finger
Near the nail. It must have been too exhausted
From trying to get outside to notice that the rest
Area it had chosen was MY INDEX DIGIT. What else would cause
It to do something so abysmally stupid

As to disturb my nap? Last I checked, that was a pretty stupid
Thing to do, even for a fly
Too tired to think straight. And yet, that initial contact didn’t cause
Immediate revulsion. My brain told me it was an angel’s finger
Brushing mine, a feather coming to rest
On the auditorium seat next to me, exhausted

From the Wednesday as well, exhausted
From its attic imprisonment, from its stale, stupid
Dust-mote acquaintances, fallen from the rest
Of high society. It would fly
No more, nor would it lift a finger
Against a cause

Of cancer, nor for a cause
Determined to relieve exhausted
Single parents from the peanut-butter-and-jelly finger
Of their firstborn. It can no longer see past the veil of stupid
Tragedy, the haze of misunderstandings meant to fly
In the face of you and I and Brad Pitt and Jane Goodman and all the rest

Of mankind – we need a rest
To remember the cause
Of things, to fly
Beyond this exhausted
Earth, to be stupid
And recall the feel of a finger

Pointed at our shirt, where the print of your finger
Planted a whorl of chocolate sauce to rest
As you made that stupid
Face, like you were the cause
For the existence of every exhausted
Joke and gesture ever to fly

From lips. It’s stupid, but I can still feel a stain on my finger
From where that infernal fly paused for a split-second’s rest
A minute ago. ‘Cause of that, I need to wash my hands…but after class; I’m exhausted.

I’m hungry, but I can’t eat the jewelry.

Ah well.  Probably tastes like orchids anyways.

Oh, but eel!  There’s good sushi in the fridge!

That does not taste like orchids.  More like rainbows.

Outside is still ice.  I’d like it to be, at least.

Frozen landscape is my personal soup du jour

Everyday – it helps when elephants are about.

Still hungry…what else is in the…?  A Post-it Note…

“Bad sushi in fridge!  Tastes like Osama!”  When was

That from?  “Bad sushi in fridge!  Tastes like”…rain…bows…there.

I need more Post-its.  Running out of kleenex too.

Not actual Kleenex – those make me cry coins.

Sounds nice, but it’s not; sugar cubes would be better.

Where’s my puppet?  I need culinary advice;

Without him, I am but a yo-yo in the wind.

This is too hard.  I’ll just go buy some tomatoes.

We’ll see how it works, eh?

– Performed my rap poem again for intro to poetry; Uma finally brought a friend of his to do some freestyle rap for us, so we had me do my rap for him.  It wasn’t quite the same without my beats, but ’twasn’t bad.

– Did not get to read my sestina for said class because I was anticipating Madonick asking peoples for finished poems.  Guess I’ll read it next week…

– Was late to my Short Story class, but the professor was still talking about next week’s test when I walked in, and there was no quiz.  So I got the notes, and didn’t get points taken off for having not read the stories.  Booyah.

– Heard Teresa address me as, “Silly stupid Khalil!” during dinner.  I was later informed that this was the tail end of a rebellious streak that had been running all day.  My sympathies to Bahiyyih.

– Improved my best times (in seconds) for Beginner (30 -> 14) and Expert (418 -> 333) difficulties on Minesweeper.  It took me twenty years, but I now appreciate the complexity of the logic involved.

– Grocery shopping is fun.  Grocery shopping with Bahiyyih is more fun.  Boo-frickin-yah.

– It has just occured to me that I could post my poems on this here blog.  Not the rap poem of course; for that I’d need to do a YouTube-y thingamajig.  But for the other stuffs, would that be interesting?  Lemme know what you think.

Edit: G’yarr, nine minutes past midnight.  Still feels like today…

…what havoc the bots will make.  Yeesh.

But anyways, spring break!  Boy do I ever need it too; I’ve got an 8 page story to write, plus a 6 page paper on books I haven’t read yet.  Then there’s the two other analytical papers I need to get to, and whatever books behind them that I haven’t read yet as well, and a couple chapters to read for Narrative Intro…

So yeah.  Lots of reading.  And writing.  But once I get all that done, there’s just one more analytical paper, story revision, poem writing, and reading short stories.  If I can just focus this week, I should be good to go.

Let’s see…as for relevant things pertaining to me recently, I’ve got two.  First, I wrote a rap poem.  I was doubtful how it would be recieved, but to my surprise I got the highest score in the class.  I contribute this in large part to my bringing beats on my Gameboy.  By which I mean, I used my Gameboy camera that I’ve been carrying around with me for years to compose a 16 measure loop and had that playing while I performed.  That day was an excellent day.  Especially since I didn’t have to wake up for discussion next morning.

I have also become interested in video game remixes again.  Just hearing what some other people have done already, I can’t help but want to contribute to that somehow.  So I went over to OverClocked ReMix to see what I’d need to get started.  They suggested downloading Winamp and Chipamp, which I now have; and after a few other downloads, I can now listen to a bunch of music from NES on up to a bit of PS2 and Gameboy Advance.  Bliss.

Up to this point, I had thought I might be able to get away with just this “Winamp” thing and start mixin’ it up.  But, as it turns out, Winamp is just for listening.  So I looked at the software they were talking about; there was one in particular that seemed appealing.  Check the website, features, samples, great-great.  Then I took a look at the price: $500.

Holy.  Mother.  Of.  Pearl.

Five-hundred dollars.  That’s like…at least 20-25 games straight up.  That’s a PSP and ten games or so.  That’s almost a full month’s rent.  Obviously, I’m not going to be able to scrounge that up from anywhere anytime soon.  Billy had mentioned something about having a music program on his lappy and that I could use it, so I’ll have to take him up on that sometime when he isn’t busy with it.

Five-hundred dollars…

There’s nothing like having about a month to visit friends, celebrate a holiday, and just hang around.  I think I’d forgotten how good things could be near the end of last semester.  But it’s all behind me, and now I can discover if writing is really what fulfills me.

I’ve got to admit though, I’m a little worried about Intro to Poetry.  Not necessarily because I’ll have to write poems.  After all, the best poets tell stories through their words, and the best novelists use poetic language to capture the beauty of their thoughts.  No, I’m not anxious about that part.  Having to read them aloud is more so, but if I continue with literature, then I better get used to it.  Hopefully, with the amount of exposure to peers that I’ll get between both of my intro courses, that won’t be so much of an issue.  No, the thing that has me most nervous is…

…the teacher.

My jury is still out on this guy.  I mean, he seems like he’s a nice enough person, and he can break ice like no other, but he drops the F-bomb all over the place.  The first thing he does once class “officially” starts is write PC on the board.  “Can anyone tell me what this means?”  Someone ventured, “A computer?” which was of course met with a retort, and all was well and good.  So he says no, it’s political correctness.  Which he promptly crosses out.  “F— political correctness.  F— that.”  At this point, my mind has hit the silent panic button.  He also later talked about how reader’s feelings come before the writer’s.  Only it was more like, “Do you have feelings?  No!  You don’t have any feelings!  Only I have feelings, because I’m the reader!”  Or something like that.

I’m likely going to stay with it though, if for no reason other than I won’t be a full-time student any more if I don’t.  I’ll take it as a character building experience, a way to try and cope with the less rational aspects of the world.

All in all though, I’m feeling good about pretty much everything.  I have a lot of reading and writing ahead of me, and I’m also aiming to get a job at a library shelving books.  But I have friends around me and no gen eds to torture me.  Here’s to the enterprise of self-discovery.

Oh, and if anyone left a comment in the past month or so and it hasn’t gone up, that’s because it was marked as spam.  You wouldn’t believe how much of the stuff had piled up around here; there was enough to live on it, if a diet composed entirely of spam could be called “living”.  Man.

And boy let me tell you, does it feel good.  The semester’s over, the gen ed’s are over, freshman year is over…and now I can move on.  And with next semester’s lineup of all literature/writing classes (aka: the short story, intro to narrative, intro to poetry…and…another one…), things are definitely looking up.

I need to take a step back for a second though, and clear something up that’s been nagging at the back of my mind since…October 21st, if the date next to a couple posts back can be trusted.  I had said that I don’t have any “socially acceptable” hobbies.  Specifically, video games and the internet.

Who says those aren’t acceptable?  I love video games; where does this sudden bash on my future career come from?  And the internet?  Everyone uses the internet.  It’s everywhere.  So why the negativity?

I don’t know where it comes from exactly, but I feel like there’s some sort of social stigma from being involved to any high degree to either of these things.  That, and the whole geek/nerd/gamer stereotype that seems to have accumulated in the general subconscious.  I don’t want to be associated with those images and notions, so I think I tend to downplay my true interests until I get to know people better, or until they get to know me better.  And even then, I keep finding myself making sure I’m not crossing some sort of boundary, like, “Am I going off on some total tangent now?” or, “Is this boring you?”

Well, social politeness or no, I think it’s about time I owned up to what I’ve admitted here is an integral part of me.  My Shakespeare, my Picasso, my Mozart and Beethoven…my Final Fantasy.  To know me is to know an aspiring artist in the world of gaming.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Baby steps, though.  Gotta take baby steps.  Today, my blog.  Tomorrow…which in my mind is technically also today…maybe my bedroom.

Oh, and I’m afraid this also means I will probably start talking a lot more about obscure things that who knows how many of you will know about.  But then, maybe I’ll spark someone’s interest.

To wit!  I have discovered something so glorious, so unbelievably blissful, I can scarcely dare to hope that it won’t be horribly maimed due to adding all sorts of awful, out-of-character material.  I am referring to Final Fantasy Tactics: Shishi Sensou (which apparently translates to The Lion’s War), a port of the original coming to the Playstation Portable (PSP).

I think I told my dad on a recent car trip that this would be the ultimate thing EVER.  The original FFT…played anywhere I want.  It would practically render anything else as…extra.  And yet, already my fears are being realized.  Sure, they’re going to add some more classes, but do I really want them in my precious Lion-War-era-Ivalice if they’re going to be things like…Onion Knights? (That’s a no, by the way.)

I mean that’s just…there’s no way to make that dramatic and dark.  Imagine, you’re about to face the incarnation of the most hellish fiend imaginable, Altima, the head of the Lucavi, and so you head into battle alongside your loyal priest, lancer, ninja…and onion knight.  That is so something suited to Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance 2.  Which, I might add, is also going to come into existence!  Why do you hate us so, SquareEnix?  WHY???

*Sigh*

On a brighter note, after having gotten myself hooked on the music of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (awful game, glorious music), and subsequently ordering the soundtrack for it, I happened to find a project of remixes for it.  Most of the songs were…junk…but one of them was just so quirky and innovative that it is genius, genius I say!  Because what’s better than an rocking boss theme? One done solely with Homestar Runner sound effects.

That’s right.  Homestar’s Mystic Quest.  It, along with just about everything else that the composer, Mazedude, has done, is superb.  Thus, I am also now hooked on video game remixes.

And on a minor sidenote, Super Smash Brothers: Melee has secured its place in my heart now that I have a character I like to use – Mr. Game and Watch.

I was skeptical too the first time I saw him.  Hah, a 2-dimensional character from a series of low-production gameboy games!  That’s hilarious!

I beat two end bosses with him.  Fighting at the same time.  And I only had one life.

Game and Watch forever.

[P.S: And as soon as I figure out how to somehow share tunes with this here blog here, I can let you all in on the fun…]

Edit: Mwahaha!  Unlocked the secrets of the eons have I, and all that is left now is to link it up!…Mweehee…

Homestar’s Mystic Quest

Edit 2: Booo…well, I can’t link directly to them, but if you go to the remixes page, there’s the whole list of songs.  You just have to click on the pictures to listen.  Be careful; they start at full-blast-bleeding-eardrums volume.

Some other listening suggestions: River City Rammstein, Turtle Wave, Reich Lake, Surface of the Moon.

Alright, so I know I said I’d tell you guys all about that thing that was going down last weekend.  In retrospect, that particular wording was perhaps in poor taste.  Because you see, I talked to my dad last weekend.

Some of you out there know that I’ve had issues with him, and I don’t know that I said everything I had planned on saying.  All I know is, I said enough, and that feels really good.  I won’t get into details, for multiple reasons.  (“Hey dad, we had a moment, so I went and told everyone all about it!  On the internet!!  Isn’t that great?!?”)

I wonder what Julie will say when next I speak with her…

In other news, I finally got myself a copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Hey Sam, I’m so bringing it to the movie night tomorrow, and we’re totally watching it with the subtitles for People Who Don’t Like the Movie!  Believe you me, it’s even better hearing the classic lines while reading subtitles from Henry VI, part II.  Pure, comedic genius.

Now I have to go to bed, so as to arise early in the morning and partake of the goodness that is Final Fantasy XII.  It came in a steel case!  With special edition, 2-disc goodness!  But the hunts are hard…grumblefreakingcluckatricegrumble…

(PS: Also, I now have Advent Children — which I will not watch it until I finally beat FF VII, which means I need to get a new copy first — and my sweet artifact deck is nearly complete.

Yeah, you heard right Nathan.  I went and got the darn thing.  That’s what birthday money’s for, or so I figure.