11 of 30: Remember, Remember the 3rd of November

So it is for sure Fall now. It has been toying with us, but it is too cold for hoodies and I can see my breath. Hello Fall.

You know the saying, "Spring showers bring May flowers, but what to Mayflowers bring?" Yeah, that is how Fall is. Except its Fall cold brings Oct/Nov shows, and Oct/Nov shows bring really really good bands. Every year around this time it seems like all these sweet shows happen. Yesterday was Flatfoot, today is Hobgob, Tuesday is The Toasters, the 14th is The Copyrights. It's chaulk full of killer times.

I am here tonight speaking to the concert going folks. There are a lot of good shows happening, where ever you may be. Springfield, St. Louis, Belleville. Get out and get to some shows. Must of us try to get to shows, but fail way too much (like myself). I am wanting to say this now before the roads are snowy: Get out and support your scene.
DIY or die.

Go have yourselves a Halloween.

GET OUTHOUSE:

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10 of 30: Short blog

Out of time. Gotta type fast. Why do we like hot long showers, they make our lungs hurt? I used to not like to shower, or bathe at all. It's boring. That is why I shower at night. I do not waste time in the shower that I could be reading or playing games with friends. My sickness is turning around.

Live Long And Prosper.

9 of 30: Top 10 Comic Book Movies That I Have Seen

I am tired and sickly and nothing exciting or interesting happened today. David is reading 'V for Vendetta' so I was thinking of best movies from comic books. Here is mine:

1. Watchmen
2. Ghost World
   
3. American Splendor
   
4. V for Vendetta
5. Sin City
6. All the Batman's
7. Both Hellboy's
   
8. 300
9. All the X-Men's
10. Mystery Men

Runners Ups:

1. The Leauge of Extraordinary Gentlemen
   
2. The Spirit
3. Judge Dredd

MILES HAS A COOL TATTOO:

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8 of 30: Late is better than never

NOTE: So today was a busy day for me and I couldn't get my blog in on the real time I was supposed to do it. I can't miss a date so I am going to post a late one. Sorry.


So I was thinking about what to write. I was going to write about going to the doctors, then I had a real fun time at the show tonight so I was going write about that, but then I found what I wanted to write about. The title kind of gives away the main idea. I was thinking to myself, "Should I even post?" I decided to because late is better than never. I feel that we all need to carry this philosophy in aspects of our lives.

I was transcribing a DVD of deans of music that are All Steinway Schools. In a segment, a few students were interviewed. They talked to this women. She was a pianist and had a future in playing, but she met a guy. They had kids and she raised them all. Now all of her kids are out of the house. She has decided to get the degree in performance. It took her decades but she is finally realizing and living her dream. It was late for her, but it was never too late.

I am getting closer to graduating. And I am in classes with people that are like 3 credits from graduating. I seem to think about being in their shoes, being so close to a career or even in a career. I wonder if they have done what they wanted, realized the dreams they have had. Or is working in their career field the dream they have had for themselves? I will never know, nor does it matter. What matters is the point that I want to achieve with this blog. I want to say to you that you should do what you have always wanted to do (I would write more but I am tired and sick). But I say go today and start. Go buy a guitar and start a band, write that letter, drive to Canada, fly out to California, join an armed force, write a book, paint something, backpack Ireland, ask that crush out. Do not let yourself forget the dreams of your youth, even before you lose your youth. People get busy, or tired, or embarrassed and they put off the little dreams for themselves and I am afraid we will grow up to be a generation of lost dreams. Don't let us be that. Let us all have the stories for our grandkids just like our grandparents had for us.


Seickr O'Ricture:

www.flickr.com/coryvanmeter

7 of 30: Cleanliness Is Next To Diseaselessness

I live in a house off of campus. I live with dudes. 7 dudes. 8 including me. The place gets a little untidy at times, as you can imagine. This blog is not about tidiness. I am by far not tidy. This blog is about being clean, like smelly-free clean and rotting trashlessness. It is gross and unhealthy to live in grossness. The bathrooms get filthy and trashcans pile up at my house. It starts to smell and it gets pretty grody. I am going to give a break down on how I think houses/apartments should be taken care of without actually having to do much manual labor. This will in turn keep your home stench free.

LIVING ROOM/LOUNGE AREA:

• If you are eating food, throw uneaten food into the trash can. This will keep the old food from sitting out on the couches and tables for days at a time, and it won't smell like Chinese food for weeks!
• Throw your trash away! Most areas that have a lot of traffic will have a waste bin near. If not, you should get one. Very helpful! It doesn't take but a second to toss away some garbage and it helps to keep the room look clean for guests. And paper cups start to leak after awhile and cause a big mess.
  
• Trashcans should be emptied regularly. The food in there will go bad and smell terrible after a few weeks, so take it out when it is relatively full instead of falling onto the floor.
  

KITCHEN:

• Clean the food of your dishes into the trash can. You know you won't be doing dishes anytime soon, so this saves your sink from smell like poo.
• If you microwave something and it pops and some of it gets on the walls of the microwave, just grab a paper towel and wipe it up. It will be fresh and you won't have to scrap it off a month later.
• DO YOUR DISHES. 'Nuff said.

BATHROOM:

• If you pee on the seat, wipe it up. We all do it, so just grab some paper and wipe it. This also goes for peeing on the floor. And yes, that does happen. Way too much.
  
• If you clog the toilet, get a plunger and plunge the shit out of it. Haha, that pun made me laugh. If the problem is taken care of promptly, other stinky issues will be avoided.
  
• Throw away your empty toilet paper rolls. They look dumb. Unless you draw faces on them all like I did one semester. That is funny.
• Clean the sink off every once and awhile. The tooth paste film and the soap film are grody, so get yourself some cleaning wipes and give it a rub down. It won't hurt anything.
• Clean the shower every so ofter. Grim gets at the bottom and it is not pretty. So all you gotta do it get your bleach and go to town. It will smell bad, so watch out.

BEDROOM:

• Pick up your dirty clothes. I have a problem with this. Keeping the dirty clothes of the floor is kind of one of those real lazy things I do. I just put them wherever. But every time I think about it, I put them all in the basket or a pile. It makes things look nice!
• Don't let trash build up. It is nasty.
• Change your bed and pillow sheets every so often. New linens are comfy!

So there you go, my simple steps on keeping your home tidy and stench, trash, and disease free!

PS: This blog is not written towards anyone in particular, but it was written with a certain 8 maned house in mind.


Picture of Flickr:

www.flickr.com/coryvanmeter

Blog 6 of 30: Life In The Slow Lane

We are a product of our generation. We want everything fast, easy, cheap, and good. I am guilty of this. And if you say you are not, think about it. I am sure that you are probably guilty of it yourself. I am not going to speak against that tonight. I am just going to say that I feel we all need to appresh everything we run by everyday. We miss the nuances of life that make the boring, monotonous routines we fall into worth it.

Today, I saw something I have not seen in a long time around the Lew. Getting on my bike in front of Spellgirl, I notice a person bend over and pick up a leaf, freshly fallen and beautifully colored and covered in rain. They just looked at it. Appreshed it. I was amazed. I used to do that kind of thing, take in the beauty of the such an insignificant object. They just enjoyed that 5 seconds of their life with that pretty leaf instead of hurrying, bustling, worrying about the next thing life has coming.

I have been getting into photography recently. I use a slightly vintage Canon AE-1. It takes real nice pictures. The reason I bring up this hobby is the whole reason I got into film photography in the first place. I had a digital camera, like everyone else that has a digital camera or a camera phone. I would take a picture of someone, and then they would demand to see the picture and then hence delete if not up to their standards of self image. This bothered me. I felt slightly offended, but not offended. I wanted to capture that 1/250 of a second. But instead I was told to recapture the moment, to recreate something that has passed. I did not want to do that. So I went out and bought disposable cameras so people couldn't edit the tiny momeny I wanted to preserve. Then I eventually got my Canon AE-1 and the rest of history. I learned to enjoy the ugly pictures, the grainy, the misframed. I could not do anything about it, as people would say, I "rolled with the punches." Film photography is how life truly is. Life is not something we can edit to fit what we want. We need to accept our ugly moments, our beautiful moments, our stupid moments, our brilliant moments, our grainy moments, our misframed moments, our overexposed moments, our masterpiece moments.

Moral of the Story: Live life second by second. Everything is important, do not ignore anything.


To commemorate the the blurry:

www.flickr.com/coryvanmeter

October 25th, 2009: Today was not my day

Sorry for the lack of anything today. I am feeling really sick and completely sapped for creative energy. I wrote a six page paper today. So I will not be writing anything worth much today, other than if you have never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, you need to. Straight that. One of my favs. Well, it is way too close to bed time for me to be writing this. I will end on this note: A diet of Diet Coke, Tylenol and stale doughnuts does not make you feel any less sick.

Goodnight.

Plickr Ficture:

www.flickr.com/coryvanmeter

October 24th, 2009: Moon

I just watched the film 'Moon.' All I have to say is wow. It used so many aspects of other classic Sci-Fi movies, but came out as a very original film. It was very visually pleasing. I read somewhere online that the most recent writers strike occurred during the production, so that gave the Duncan Jones a lot of time to get gather aboard some of the top effects people. It paid off very well. The visual effects were great. Costumes, the set, the moon. I should have tried harder to see it in theaters. I think it would have had been a bigger mind destroyer.

I can't talk about the plot too much, becuase you need to see the movie. I do not want to ruin it for anyone. I will lay down some basics. The earth peoples are harvesting what I assumed was Hydrogen-3. They said H3, so it could be something different. We will never know. But to the point. They have bases on the Moon where they harvest it. They have a person(Sam) there for 3 year periods taking care of everything, with his only companion a computer(GERTY) that helps with what ever he wants. Sam has his routines of carving a village of wood, excirsing, eating. It comes to a point where Sam leaves the base to fix a problem on one of his harvesters. He leaves the base to head to the harvester then something happens, more other things happen, and then that is where my mind goes nuts. That is all I can say. Trust me, you don't want to hear more.

When I read about this movie, I was stoked. When I watched a trailer, I was stoked. The film completely satisfies and lives up to everything that I expected. Watcht this movie.

PS: Wait for the DVD, the computer screen did no justice.


NOW TIME FOR MY FLECKR IMEGES!

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October 23rd, 2009: Car Influenced Blog #2

ay, I am on kind of a roll with this blogging about cars deal. This is a simple issue-more like a request. I am a person who walks, drives, and rides places a lot. I have to deal with cars a lot, usually stupid cars at that. Driving like they are the only ones of the roads. That is dealt with in yesterdays blog though. This is solely about one problem that I feel we all face. Drivers that do not use their blinkers. You know how annoying it is. Sitting and waiting for a car to pass so you can go and then they turn right and you could have went the entire time. Gunning through an intersection on our sweet bikes because you have the friendly "Walk" light, the car at the intersection seems like it is going straight, and the hill you're going down is sweet but then that dormant car suddenly guns it right almost taking us out. It is really unsafe. Turn signals are put on cars to warn surrounding motorists and pedestrians of what their planned maneuvers are. They were invented for that purpose and they serve it well. So, pretty please for the sake of safety, push the lever up or down according to your desired destination.

I am not putting blame on people but more of a friendly reminder to use your blinker. It's not hard to forget or get distracted. Tons of traffic, a phone call, etc etc. So yeah, just look out for everyone else.

And if you are not using your blinker cause you are lazy: Paul will "try" to "stop" and will "accidentally" run his bike into your car and try to cause as much damage as possible to either himself or you. Who are the police/insurance agents going to believe had the right-a-way, a bi-cyclist or a motorist? So watch yourself.

PS: Paul is serious.


FLICCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRR PICCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCTRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coryvanmeter




Also, Paul and I have a bet that I can't blog everyday for 30 days. Watch me.

October 22nd, 2009: Railroad crossing, watch out for cars

Stupid driving, we have all seen it. Going way too fast or driving way to recklessly. Like today, Paul and I were riding up to Shnucks on our bi-cycles. We were going going going and this really big truck speeds up to us, the people yell incoherently and peel out speeding blindly into a left turn. What if there was a person walking across the street? They would be dead. LU is really bad with harvesting drivers with the tendency with driving really fast and paying no attention to where the are going. Daily, I have to dodge traffic on my sweet bike. It bothers me on so many levels. So the rest of this blog goes to those shitty drivers trying to show off or pay no attention to anything but getting home or to class faster than anyone else in the 63301 area. So if you are a nice driver, I thank you. Go to Shnucks and buy some Turtle Cookies. You deserve them.


Dear A-Holes:

Here are my qualms and concerns about your driving:

1. You are driving around campus. A part of campus that there is really no need to drive around nonetheless. Everything is pretty close on campus, try walking or biking. It is fun and does not make you seem less like a MMA fighter.
   
2. If your car is loud: It is annoying. It does not make you cool. Buy a new muffler. If your car is to quiet: Good for you, unless you are driving stupidly. People can't hear you, so be careful.
3. You are driving too fast. You're probably not going to be late to class. If I can get to Young 404 in 8 minutes by walking, you can get to where you're going 10 times faster than me. So cut us all a break and slow the eff down. None of us want to get hit by a car.
4. Misc. dangerous driving acts: a) Texting. We all do it. No big whoop if you are careful, but is texting while you are driving in fast moving traffic on the interstate a great idea? How about through bustling campus roads with tons of bi-cyclers and walkers? Think not. How does waiting the minute and a half until you are way from potienal manslaughter cases to text your bro back about the partay last night. Sounds awesome! b) Peeling out. Are you kidding me? Why do you think peeling out in front of two dudes riding bikes will make us envious of you? Most people ride bikes for a reason, to get places without having to drive a car. Thus, we don't care that you can gun it and go really fast. We know how cars work.
   
5. Calling me names from your car when you speed by me on my bike. You are adults, act like you are one of them please.

So please heed some of these comments. They will make a lot not hate you and think you are a tool. Slow down and be courteous. It means a lot to people that are not driving. And next time you roll by someone riding a bike and you decide they are a wuss for that, think about this before you want to show off: You need to get gas for you Nissan, I don't. And my bike will work if a terrorist group attacks us with EMP weapons, your car won't. It is easier to break traffic laws on bikes, cars, not so much. So, don't be douchers.

Moral of the story: Please Do Not Hit! We will die. Your car has insurance and it can be fixed. Our bodies aren't and cannot. Thank You.

PS:

1. Giant TAPOUT vinyl stickers on your windows are not cool.
2. I have always wanted to kick out a headlight or a taillight out, so don't give me a reason to do it. And to you drivers of the black car with grey stripes and that grey SUV, watch yourself.

Shameless Flickr promotion:

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October 21st, 2009 or: How I Learned to Start Worrying and Hate the Bugs

So I am going to start blogging again, but not in my usual fake diary format that I had done in the past. Re-reading through my blog proved that I am a very boring person that sometimes does exciting things with exciting people, but not frequently enough for me to have my own space on the interwebs to revel on. So I am turning it into a place where I will talk about something I experience that day and give my take on what it means to me and its effect on society. Sounds lame, probably will be sometimes, but I don't think I will take it too seriously. I have a list of topics to write about, and let me tell you, it's going to be a trip. Now on with the show...

I have been riding my bike a lot lately. It is very efficient, clean, and way effing faster around campus then that bros Jeep/Truck/etc. that almost hits me every day riding to Roemer. That is a different topic for a different day, though, so I will get back on subject. So I ride my bike around my area of St. Charles. It's not bad, no dogs chase me and I hardly ever anymore get called a queer, faggot, or am told that I will burn in hell. But there lies my problem, the roads I adventure are outside and bugs live outside.

It has gotten warmer in the last few days and with that, a rise in bugs. I have no issues with bugs. I think they are mostly cool since I am a boy. I only don't like bees, wasps, and those giant ass beewasps looking deals that kills bees and wasps and eats them. I am afraid of those three. So yeah, bugs are neat and fun to watch. My earliest memory of bugs is my uncle or somebody like that had just found a stick bug and I was mind blown. Awesome. I keep getting on tangents about other things than my point. Back to it. The part I hate the most about bugs is their love of living in my hair. Since my 5th grade year in Mrs. Post-Lucas' art class when a tick fell off my head in front of abunch of my peers, I have always hated things being in my hair. I guess it partly ruined bugs for me. I am always paranoid about things on my head, I will get a itch and think some thing is eating my dead skin cells etc. etc. And the temperature lately has not helped my situation one bit.

This semester has been bad for my critters-in-hair phobia. Early this year riding to class before the first cold spell hit. I felt a lot of little things hitting my arms. It felt like little rocks kicked up from a car or something, but I was on a walking path so it wasn't that. I didn't think anything of it and continued. A week or so later I went the same route and had the same thing happen. This time though, one hit my glasses and it was freaking gnat. That is what was hitting me all over. And of course a crap ton landed in my hair. I procided to wigout calmly to make sure none of them little boogers got in there. Some did, sad to say, but I took care of them. I have not taken that path again needless to say. A similar incident happened early this evening. There recently has been an out break of Asian lady bug things around LU. They are not too bad becuase I can see them coming; and they are nice, slow and pretty, go them. But I was riding to the same class as I was riding to when my gnat incident, and you guessed it, a ton of lady bugs hit me as I was riding. I can totally feel them when they hit my head, I quickly got them off my head. All was dandy until an hour into my class when I notice some pocket lint in my pocket. I start to take it out and found out it was a GD lady bug. It startled me. Cory was spooked. It snuck into my pocket, probably to use my phone to call it's bras about the sweet kegger this weekend . That bitch. I am sure I am not the only one who has this problem. Tell stories of your experiences of bugs getting places they should not be in or on. Let us speak up! Revolution is a foot!

Moral of the story: Bugs, you dudes are cool, but if you sneak into my hair or beard or pockets again, I will probably kill you.

Now here is a cool picture of Greg from my Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coryvanmeter/

Thank you.