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It’s been a long day. Nearly a continuation of yesterday, seeing as how my new kitten kept WAKING ME UP all night long by jumping on my head or whining really loud just for the hell of it or crawling under the covers and biting my toes. I would put her outside my room but if she’s alone out there and knows you’re in your room, she whines like crazy until you let her in. But tonight I’m going to let her whine until she shuts up because I need some sleep.

Anyway, yesterday I cut all my hair off. I pretty much just shaved my head. It hasn’t been this short since I was a kid. Anyway, the black is gone and my hair is pretty much blonde right now because it’s so short but it should darken a little when it grows out. I hated it at first but now it’s growing on me and I feel so light-headed, so to speak. Last night I went to my brother and sister-in-law’s for dinner with my family and then the girls were hanging out (making scrapbooks no less) and me and my brother and step-dad went rock climbing at Petra. It was so much fun. I haven’t gone since I was in high school and I forgot how much fun it was. I went up two of the big walls, one of them had a reverse incline and it kicked my butt but I made it to the top. I had never been able to do the reverse incline one before so obviously I’ve developed a little upper body strength since high school, haha. Then we did some bouldering, which basically is just climbing different paths on walls that you climb just over 10 feet in the air probably. Some of them were easy but one consisted of kind of practically doing the splits to reach a foot hold about the size of a half dollar. But I did it…after about 5 tries. I can’t wait to go again. It’s good exercise too, and while I didn’t hurt much today except my back a little, tonight my shoulders and back are just killing me.

I left the rock climbing gym about 12:30 and got to bed about 2:00 to get up at 8:00 for the SATO 48-Hour Film Challenge screening in the morning. It was awesome. There were some very good short films, as well as some very bad ones, but overall it was just a great time and a huge success for film and the arts in Springfield. Everyone laughed a lot during our film, and it was fun to have so many people see your hard work, but I found it strange to see myself on the big screen. Ha! I could never be an actor, I would want to shoot myself at all my premieres. I bet lots of actors feel that way though.

After the screenings I worked at the Moxie all day then Erin came by after I got off work and brought us Chinese and we ate it in the new MSU parking garage, just like old times. It sounds silly, because let’s face it, it’s a PARKING GARAGE. But it was raining and we couldn’t go to the park, so it’s the next best thing don’tcha know. After that we went downtown and walked around and went to the Mud Lounge where Erin faked that she was 21. Not so she could order a drink, but so that they wouldn’t kick us out. I got a drink then we went to see The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada at the Moxie. Wonderful film, very powerul and well-made. It’s a western I suppose, but mostly it’s a drama about human dignity and redemption. Now I’m home, and I’m going to bed.

No, I’m not moving into a trailer park. Yes, I am pointing out some movie trailers that for some reason or other appealed to me and encouraged me to share them with you. You might have seen some of these already, but if not you should check them out…

• Marie Antoinette – Sofia Coppola’s new film starring a nude Kristen Dunst. Ok she’s not nude the whole movie, but she is rumored to be showing off her bum in the film. This movie looks very chick-flicky but I don’t care what a movie looks like if it’s directed by Sofia. And the 1980s music is supposed to be present in the film too, which I think is great.
• Art School Confidential – First of all, this movie looks absolutely hilarious. Secondly, it is directed by Terry Zwigoff – the guy that directed Ghost World (which is a great movie if you’ve never seen it). Thirdly, it stars John Malkovich playing an art professor. ‘Nuff said.
• Little Miss Sunshine – This movie looks SO FREAKING GOOD! I really really really hope the Moxie gets it. Oh yeah, and that music you hear in the trailer is none other than Devotchka, whom I highly recommend checking out if you want something a little different with a tinge of Spain.
• Down in the Valley – Looks to be a controversial, powerful film with knockout performances from Ed Norton and Evan Rachel Wood.
• Duck Season – The Moxie is getting this movie next month. It’s a black and white Spanish film with subtitles. Those are the two biggest things that make average movie-goers not want to see a film. Or should I say average American movie viewers. Stupid Americans missing out on so many great movies for two silly reasons. Anyway, this movie looks fun and funny.
• The Notorious Bettie Page – The Moxie is getting this movie too in May. It looks so good, plus Bettie Page is hot.
• Alpha Dog – This movie looks interesting, but it could very easily end up being crap. But it did garnish some positive reviews at Sundance.
• Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man – Looks like a very intresting documentary about a musical legend.
• Wah-Wah – It looks quite funny, it’s British, and it boasts a nearly all-around Academy Award nominated leading cast.
• Full Grown Men – This movie might be one of those that puts all its funny scenes in the trailer and the rest of the movie sucks. But I doubt this will be the case. Also, if this movie is funny throughout, I think it has the possibility to achieve Napoleon-Dynamitesque cult status and popularity. Of course I said that about Me and You and Everyone We Know too.
• Just Like the Son – This movie looks touching and funny, though I find it just a tad disturbing that a 20-something would kidnap a little kid just because he thinks the kid has a shitty life.
• Word Life – I can’t tell if this is a documentary or a drama, but I’m going to guess it’s a docudrama. It looks very good and I think could be a very moving film. I hope the Moxie gets this.
• Peaceful Warrior – The beginning of this trailer looks pretty stupid and cliche, but then it turns into something else entirely. Nick Nolte’s character looks like it could make this movie. I don’t know though, it looks a little too mainstream.
• The Omen – The teaser trailer for this movie sucked. The trailer for this movie rocks. I hope they don’t overblow it, but I have a strong feeling they will. Either way, it looks like a horror movie actually worth paying to see.

My computer is working again at home. I fixed it myself this time. I felt like a regular genius after it successfully turned on after I operated on its innards. It took me a whole five minutes to fix, compared to the three days it took Computers Unlimited to fix it last time. And I dropped my computer animation class. It won’t affect anything for me at all, suprisingly. I am glad I learned how to use the basics of Adobe After Effects, as it could prove useful in later productions and projects. Anyway, a huge amount of stress has been relieved due to dropping that class.

I finished reading Running with Scissors this morning. It was hysterical and crazy and touching and did I mention hysterical? Probably the funniest book I’ve read so far this year, aside from the momentary outburts of hilarity that were present in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Anyway, I can’t wait to see the movie. After reading the book and finding out Annette Bening is playing Augusten’s mother, I can bet she has a very good chance at winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress next year. Annette was born to play that role. I’m sure the movie will be highly controversial because of its subject matter, but I’m sure it will also be very good. And plus, the guy editing the movie graduated from MSU! Anyway, I’m attempting a very long novel next, it’s over 600 pages. It’s called The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and it comes highly recommended to me by my Moxie co-workers. I like it so far.

School can’t end soon enough. I’m ready for summer. I’ll be working about 40 hours a week and be taking summer school, but I’ll have a few weeks of breaks in there that will be great. I plan on going camping with some friends, at my parent’s new land no less, and hopefully go on a little road trip even. Even if I end up doing nothing but engaging in an “adventurous outdoor retreat” by sleeping out on my balcony one night, I still will be done with this semester and that’s all I can focus on at the moment.

Team Moxie finished filming our short film Saturday night and Justin went to work editing it all last night. It actually didn’t take us very long to write it, film it, and edit it. We screened it today at the Moxie (just for team members) before turning it in this evening. It is hilarious and very creative and original and we’re going to win. Ok maybe not, but we do have a very good chance at it. It really is awesome. I don’t know when everyone will get to see it, but it will be showing this Saturday morning at 10:00am at the Moxie, though I’m not sure the details of how to get a ticket and I’m sure it will sell out fast. Your best chance to see it and all the other films will be during the Artsfest on May 6-7. Everyone should be going to the Artsfest anyway because it will be awesome. I will post details about it later. There is an Audience Award for Best Film too so go to Artsfest and support Team Moxie by voting for us! I loved competing in this challenge and can’t wait to compete next year – hopefully it will be HUGE by then!

In other news, I came home Saturday night to continue working on my ART 230 animation, which is due MONDAY, only to find out that my freaking brand new computer power supply blew up and my computer won’t turn on. I have no idea where I can buy a new one in town but I assume it would only be somewhere open during weekdays anyway, so I figured I would wait and deal with it on Monday. I am going to install the new one by myself this time, since I know that’s what the problem is and I don’t want to waste money paying someone else to fix it. I am probably going to call Computers Unlimited (or whatever that place was that I took it to last time) and tell them what happened and see if they can sell me a cheap power supply or fix it for free or something, because that’s ridiculous. It’s not like I’m running a super-enhanced graphics card with multiple hard drives or anything. I am thinking it’s actually my portable USB hard drive that’s causing the problem. I was thinking back and both times now that by power supply went out was when that thing was connected to my computer. I wonder if it’s faulty? I hate technology sometimes, I really do.

Most importantly, this computer problem is going to cause me to have to miss my critique in ART 230 Monday night and turn my project in late. This is the second project to have this happen, the first being turned in late due to family issues but she excused that one. Anyway my grade sucks in there because all my projects suck, and this class is USELESS to me now that I didn’t get accepted into Electronic Arts, so I am seriously considering dropping the course. I’m going to talk to my teacher about it and my advisor and see how it would affect me since it would drop me to 9 hours for the semester. I wouldn’t risk my scholarships because I’m taking 8 hours this summer so I’ll be fine on my hour requirement, but I don’t know if there is a requirement that you must be enrolled full-time during the fall and spring semesters. On top of this class taking up all my time it’s also been causing me to neglect other more important classes and procrastinate on research papers because I’m too busy with animation homework. So from every angle it seems that dropping this course is the best decision. I will fully think it through before doing so though, and I have until May 5 to decide.

This has been, by far, my toughest semester. Not necessarily because of classes, but because of changes and happenings in my life that have just knocked me out emotionally, physically, and financially. I just feel drained and I don’t care about anything anymore. I always find it easy to be Mr. Positive when my friends are having trouble with things but I struggle being that way with my own issues. Somehow I always keep going and pushing myself and lately I just haven’t felt up to doing much at all and I’m so sick of school and working so much and never having any time to do anything with my family and friends. Anyway, I’m just griping. I better quit before this post gets any longer than it already is!

P.S. Check out the band Eagles of Death Metal. They are amazing. At least their first album was. Their new one isn’t very good. And no, they’re not a death metal band.