Holiday Update

Alrighty. Looks like I haven’t updated my blog in a while. Well, here’s the 411 for those of you who are remotely interested.

The Grandparents arrived on Christmas Eve. They attended the Christmas Eve Church service with us and my buddy David and his family were there. I hadn’t seen David since the Oscars. He and I go way back, so it was good to see him again. I showed him stuff on my computer, as usual.

Christmas Day was a blast. I can’t remember half of the presents I got, but I did get a battery charger and batteries, a DV tape case, Divx Pro, a TV Tuner, a little plush puppy, and lots more. Plus the usual Christmas money.

Since then, I’ve been stuck with quite the dillemna. I’ve had a drive for over a year now and used to be my primary hard drive until my computer fried last year. Since then, the hard drive has been unrecoverable. Until now. Dad has a program on his computer that recovers fried hard drives, or whatever’s left of them, and reformats the drive for use. We’ve got the drive reformatted and now we’re putting it onto my computer as a slave drive for extra storage. Since we tried that though, the computer has not been able to recognize the drive and now, for some odd reason, it won’t read my other slave drive. I also had to reinstall Windows and remove an old CD drive that was busted. Now I’m stuck with a computer that runs, but all my life’s work is, as of yet, discontinued due to the fact that it’s on another hard drive. I can only pray that it is safe.

On the plus side, my Internet connection, which hasn’t been working for some time now, works again. Thank God for that.

I’ll let you all know the update on the situation as it unfolds. In the meantime, hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

For Jeff Wester

As I lay back in my leather office chair, having finished all my finals for good and every other work assignment needed to get out of the way before my vacation could officially start, my mind wanders over the a promise that was made not too long ago regarding my ole acquaintance Jeff Wester. I met Jeff in my film class over a year ago. We wound up teaming up for the final project, which was a short film we called “From a Twisted Mind.” I found out then that he was in the Marines and that he was continuing his education as well. So when I opened last month’s edition of the school newspaper, I knew I had to get around to blogging about it sometime soon.

The following is a reprinted copy of an article from my school newspaper:

The Call Of Duty
By Stephanie Rinker

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to Iraq,” says Jeff Wester, a 22 year old College of Marin student who appears to not have an aggressive bone in his body. “Any day I could get a call. If it happens, it happens-but in the meantime, I’ve got to live my life.”

Wester is a full-time student at COM and plays on the water polo team. He joined the Marines in 2002 and although eh doesn’t dwell on it, life as he knows it could change if called to duty.

Wester had the support of his family in deciding to enlist in the Marines, but they were concerned about him joining active duty. “My mom is worried the most,” he said. “Every time I talk to her, she asks if I know if I’m going to be activate, where I will be and how long I will be gone. Typical mom.”

“I feel terrible and I don’t want him to go. I wish we weren’t over there fighting,” says Wester’s mother, Laura Wester.

Wester plays hole-man for COM’s water polo team. “I love swimming – it’s my passion,” says Wester. “The season just finished and although we were short on players, we made the best of it.”

Wester is a communications major with a passion for film. He has no limits on his dreams. “I want to write a screenplay, produce a major motion picture and would love to direct,” he said. “I’m most happy when I’m writing. I want to persuade people’s emotions – make people laugh and cry.”

Wester is in the artillery unit, which supports the infantry. “But with everything going on, things are changing,” said Wester. “We’re training to be an infantry rifle company within the year.”

Wester’s rank is lance corporal. March will mark his third year in the Marines; he has three more to go. “Typically, we train one weekend a month and do drills, but lately it’s been about four days a month because we’re expecting to be activated,” he said.

“People higher up are confident we will be activated,” said Wester. “If we’re activated in January we will be security for an air field in Iraq. If its September we will be provisional military police, basically keeping the peace in Iraq and transferring power over to Iraqi forces so we can get out.”

Wester said that when on active duty – like he was for the first six months of training – the Marines are his life. “Your whole life changes and you become too percent a marine,” he said. “It affects your daily life, your training, where you sleep, and who you’re in contact with. Of course you miss your family and you write letters but you have to be immersed in your job because you have a mission to accomplish and you need to focus on that mission to do your best.”

Wester describes himself before he joined the Marines as “unorganized and without direction…I was just flapping my wings, not sure what I wanted to do/” Wester only thought about the Marines for a few months before he joined. “I wanted a change of pace,” he said “I needed a challenge and thought of joining the military. I thought ‘why not the Marines – it’s the best of the best’.” He said being in the reserves is a way to help out his country and still do what he wants to do – school.

“Through the Marines I’ve learned organization, teamwork and most importantly to not take advantage of things. Just a walk outside or to hang out with friends is something to appreciated,” he said. “I’ve traveled across the country and met different ethnicities. You build a tolerance for all different kinds of people.”

Wester hopes to transfer to a four-year school after COM and has his eye on UCLA. But he understands the influence being a Marine could have on his dreams. “I could put almost a two year gap in my education,” said Wester. “”But I’d definitely go back.”

“I’m prepared as much as I can be,” he said. “But I’m not fearful. I have mixed feelings about the conflict in Iraq but I still have my heart into it. This is what I signed up for; this is my mission. I have to put all I have into it.”

Wester said that he doesn’t think about the possibility of being activated every day. Instead, he is focused on his classes and his passion for water polo. “I told myself I couldn’t go every day being held down by ‘what-ifs’,” said Wester.

END ARTICLE

When I first laid my eyes on the article, I could have sworn that they were trying to tell me that he was in fact going. The title “Call of Duty” in big letters, photos of Jeff in his Marines outfit, the quote from his mom saying she didn’t want him to go enlarged for emphasis. It wasn’t until I picked up this article and started typing it out that I actually read the article and found out that he wasn’t going YET.

I hope that if Jeff does go, he will have the courage to fight the enemies of our country for the sake of his family and his country. I hope that once he sees how things are over there, he can make up his mind about whether or not it’s a good war to fight. I pray for him and his family. And a Merry Christmas.

Almost There

Boy, do I feel like a dumbass. I missed my Astronomy final on Friday after getting the time wrong. Then I ran into my boss who laughed at me for missing the final. He was still apologizing for that poorly executed joke over the weekend.

Luckily for me though, I managed to reschedule my test with the testing office today. I’m cramming with the monotonous voice as I write. On the plus side though, I did finish my History notes. I should turn those in today.

That Liberal Media!

Just out of pure luck, I ran into the guy who interviewed me for the school newspaper. I asked him what the heck happened to my interview and he told me that he wrote down all the stuff seen in the article along with my interview, but when he gave it to the editor, my stuff got cut out. There’s no doubt in my mind that the editor is a liberal.

WAIT A SECOND! Déjà vu. Didn’t I already tell this story? Oh yeah:

“If I’d taken something like this into over-consideration, I could concoct a theory about how the Editor-In-Chief of the Echo Times is flamingly Liberal and is pressuring all of his conservative reporters to report with a left-wing bias, but that would be cruel.”

At least I got it half right the first time around. Lesse, I’ve witnessed the growing Liberal bias in the news and I experienced it firsthand from my own school’s newspaper… after accidentally predicting what happened almost accurately. Now tell me there’s no major liberal bias in our news. Come on, I dares ya!

2 down, 1 to go

That’s right. Two finals are done and one to go. As for my final today, I think it should be noted that I feel very good about how I did today. It was U.S. History, the final I spent all day yesterday listening to a nearly monotonous computer voice blab on about just to prepare for. When I got there today though, I realized that I left the in-class note materials at home, but I was able to pick up a few of those to help me. And I managed to kick some ass on both essays for the final.

Luckily for me, the essays turned out to be about Vietnam, something which I studied extra hard about and even did some extra studying this past election when choosing who to vote for. I wrote tons and tons today, so I’m surprised I can still write. Must be the holidays. But about the test, I did put a slightly conservative spin on the events of the Vietnam War. Stuff that I didn’t learn in that class. For those of you who know me well enough, that means I made a few allusions to John Kerry’s anti-war activities. And because the teacher is flamingly liberal, I can only imagine her reaction to reading my paper.

On a bad note though, I have to redo the notes I turned in for the class and arrange them in a fancy order over the break. Surprise.

Well, it’s time to pay attention to the monotonous voice again for my Astronomy final. Word out.

Ousted again

Yes, I’m back, as I promised, with wonderful stories about my life. This one is in regards to the post I made last month about getting interviewed by the school newspaper. Well, the update on that situation is that I picked up a copy of this month’s newspaper. Looks like I didn’t get my interview in. Instead, it looks like the guy who talked to me got several other people to answer the same questions. Here’s a rundown of the interviews featured in this months newspaper:

What about the election surprised you?
Will Bush work to unite the divided US?

Faith Caughlan:
“I was upset (that 11 states made gay marriage unconstitutional) because that means that gay people won’t be looked at as people who want to have the same equal right as straight people… All of a sudden we have these Christian-right moral values, saying that they’re not as equal as heterosexuals.”

Jocelyn Miguel:
“It disappointed me, because I wanted to see a different president this year. I was very concerned about Measure C, which is good for us.”

“I do not know… (about Bush.) I know what he has done. But I don’t know the future… We’ll see.”

Travis Bellinger:
“I was surprised it was such a close race. I though bush would totally win or Kerry would totally win.”

“I think Bush will probably do the same things he’s done so far… I think he’ll try to show people why he was elected president.”

Archer Fleming:
“Yes actually it did surprise me… I thought that maybe Bush wouldn’t be in office again, so it surprised me that he’s back in office, but I guess it’s another four years of Bush.”

(About Bush Uniting the US “No absolutely not.”

Peter Decker:
“Yeah, I was surprised that Bush won… And Michigan surprised me.” (Michigan was won by Bush.)

(About Bush) “No, absolutely not… He’s had four years of letting us know he’s not.”

So they excluded my interview and instead put in a bunch of quote from people who are either on the fence or on the left side of things. I quote Lee of Right-thinking.com when I say, “Oh, THAT Liberal media!” Funny thing is though, I asked the reported himself what he was and he told me that he was a conservative. If I’d taken something like this into over-consideration, I could concoct a theory about how the Editor-In-Chief of the Echo Times is flamingly Liberal and is pressuring all of his conservative reporters to report with a left-wing bias, but that would be cruel. Then again, if I was a Democrat concocting such theories about Republicans, I would have a lot of backing from my fellow Democrats on that one.

I also have to seriously consider the quote from Faith Caughlan up above. Faith Caughlan is an elected member of the student body. Even though I could have voted for her, I didn’t vote for anyone because I didn’t know who they were. Now I’m kinda glad I didn’t vote for her.

I apologize if I sound rude, Faith, but if you ever come across my blog, please take my opinion into consideration. Gay people are people who want to be looked at as equals. They have all clearly stated that they want to be treated as equals. There’s no way that most of them could be mistaken for people who don’t want to be treated as equals. As for the Christian right, they have always been there. They didn’t just pop up out of thin air, walk into the voting booths and vote for Bush. They have always been there.

For anyone who’s still upset about the election: calm down. You got through four years of Bush alive. You can get through four more.

Blog Shortage

Just a warning to anyone who still reads my blog: I may be slowing down again this week. It’s a real shame that I’ve been having these long periods of little or zero blogging, but it looks like finals are revving up next week and I need to get tons of junk done in the meantime. But I do have some wonderful stories to tell about my life. I just need to find the time to tell them.

In the meantime, here’s the story titles I have coming up:
“Blocked from the newspaper again”
“Saluting Jeff Wester”

Turkey Day Rundown

That’s right folks, I’m back at the computer after a long hiatus of being away from my computer to give you all a rundown of what happened during my Thanksgiving vacation. And here it is:

First of all, let me say that I never want to get stuck in an airport again. The first flight over to Louisiana was fine, good food, watched “Hidalgo”, listened to my tunes. But then when I got to the Houston Bush airport in Texas, I got off the plane and they told me that my second flight had been cancelled. And believe me, I’m not the kind of person who wants to spend a week in Houston on a $120 budget.

As I waited in line at the customer service counter at the airport, I reached into my pocket and found a little pink piece of paper with an appointment for my boss written on it. And because I’m such a good worker, I called up my boss’ mom to remind them of the appointment.

After a long time of running up and down the airport, or as I called it “getting the economy tour,” I finally got a flight but it wasn’t into Alexandria as planned. Instead, it was into New Orleans. Kind of a major shift there, but fortunately my parents were in New Orleans ready to drive north the next day.

So I got to the next gate and waited for the plane. As it turns out, that plane had been already delayed once. When the time came for it to land, we discovered that it had been delayed again. So I ate dinner in Houston and waited the next two hours while I chatted with the old man across from me.

This time, the plane landed and we got on like planned. But once we got on the plane, we got delayed for ANOTHER HOUR! I swear, I was ready to freak out. But we got off the ground eventually, and I got into New Orleans safely. Trouble was that now, I didn’t know where my luggage was. Had it come with me to New Orleans or did it go to Alexandria. As I waited in the baggage claim area for several minutes watching as two 15 year old boys made out with each other (gag), it occurred to me that my luggage must have gone to Alexandria. So I went outside and got a ride to my grandparents’ house where I would go to bed without brushing my teeth and wake up in dirty clothes the next day.

Note: Before anyone starts e-mailing me about not liking to see two boys make out, I’d just like to say that I’m all for gay rights and everything, I just don’t like looking at it. It’s like wearing a bad dress to the Oscars: it’s their choice but I don’t have to like looking at it.

So I woke up the next day to spend some brief time in my grandparents’ house. As I had gone to bed the night before, I noticed a copy of “Unfit for Command” sitting on my grandfather’s shelf and decided to read some of it before I went to sleep because my grandfather suggested I read it months ago. Then next morning, he told me I could keep it, so I did and I spent the next week reading through it. I’m not done reading it yet, but I’ll be sure to give my review when I’m done. For now though, let me say that I’m glad I didn’t vote for him. VERY glad.

So now, I finally got into Alexandria. We were going to stop by the house of my other set of grandparents whom we were going to spend our vacation with, but we’d heard that my grandfather (Paw Paw) had already headed off to the farm to start shucking cane for our trip. This was the first time I’d participate, to my memory at least, in making cane syrup. Not to mention, we also didn’t stop by the house on the way over to the farm for fear that my grandmother (Maw Maw) would try to feed us. And believe me, I gained ten pounds the last time we visited. I didn’t need that again.

Note: the names of my grandparents are not Maw Maw and Paw Paw but Audette and Dick. I will refer to them by the names Maw Maw and Paw Paw simply because I have done so since I was born and I think they sound more interesting than just calling them Grandmother and Grandfather. Remember, this IS redneck country, so bear with me here.

We spent the bulk of our time down in Alexandria making cane syrup. It’s a painful process, but the outcome is well worth it. First we shucked the cane, then washed it, crushed it, juiced it, and boiled it. It takes several days to do all this, so don’t try it at home expecting that it’ll all be done in one day. It took us a while to shuck the several tons of cane we had. We washed it down with a hose, and crushed it by sticking it into a crushing machine that was powered by an old tractor. The juice squeezed out into a vat after being quickly filtered through a fishing net. Then it was pumped via aquarium pump into the cooking vat. We cooked it for about 4 hours over a hot fire. And I got it all on tape too. Can’t wait to edit it into a presentation.

I also had a few jam sessions with my Uncle Steve. He’s been a guitar guru ever since I can remember. He’s taught me most of what I know about the guitar. This time though, there were other instruments thrown into the mix. I brought my harmonica, a spanflute and an old recorder. Things got really interesting. Especially since my Uncle Cliff decided he should get back on the violin. Next time I go over there, we’ll probably have a concert going once we get jamming. You never know.

I also brought over a demo DVD full of the stuff I’ve been working on these past couple of years. Film stuff that is. Needless to say, it was all greatly appreciated. And I’ve also come out of the trip suspecting that my 2nd cousin Corbi, adopted, has a crush on me. Now I know I must be improving.

The only major complaint I have with the trip was sleeping. Tending to a farm usually means getting up early. And since I go to bed late… Well, you get the picture.

Time for the ride back. When I got into the waiting room, I suddenly realized how filthy my camera was. I tried playing the video but it wouldn’t work for some odd reason. The gears were moving slowly and everything. It then occurred to me that perhaps holding the video camera over a vat of boiling syrup and letting the steam get into the works wasn’t such a good idea. But magically, on the ride back, I tried playing it again and it worked. My airplane must’ve hit an angel on the ride back too because the flight back was smooth. No cancels or delays whatsoever.

There was one amusing gesture on the ride back though. The whole deal with the airplane delays was and is still very fresh in my head. Ironically, on the way back, the in-flight movie was “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks. It’s funny how the fickle fingers of fate can flip you one every once in a while. At least the movie was OK though.