"I love it, now make me hate it..."

I enjoy how frequently oxymorons occur in the land of stage direction and character development. These can run the gamut from helpful to obnoxious.
For example, very confusing:

Q: "During this monologue, would you rather I play it introverted and collected, or exuberant and exploding with emotion?"

A: "I'd like to see both at the same time..."

Quite helpful(a good friend of mine, directing one of my scenes yesterday): "In this scene, think of yourself as a menacing Gene Kelly."

Makes sense to me...

Yay Holidays!

I have to admit, I'm a total sucker for the holidays... My woman and I buy our tree the day after thanksgiving, I enjoy the commercialism, and I tune my car radio to one of the 24 hour holiday song channels. Thanksgiving at my grandma's was nice, she lives in a tiny, idyllic town in eastern Pennsylvania. The fact that it is only about an hour and forty minutes from here make it the perfect getaway from the city. I stuffed myself, did a ton of laundry, and managed to find time for a romantic canoe ride on the lake with the woman I love... Of course now it's back to the reality of a rapidly approaching end of the semester. At least holiday excitement is in the air...

Oh Axl, how we miss thee...

So I had one of those weird coincidences yesterday... It was a relatively nice day outside so I walked to school without a jacket, no biggie... When I got to school, I realized that I had completely forgotten the I had changed my lesson time for the week and was thus 1/2 an hour late to my hour long lesson... I was already not in a great mood, this didn't help. To top it off, it had started pouring while I was at school, thus I had to walk home in the cold November rain...

I arrive at my house, soaking wet, bitter a the universe, and decide to do nothing but lie down and feel sorry for myself for a while. I set my iTunes to "shuffle" and hit play. Out of a playlist of about 500 songs, the computer happened to choose none other than November Rain by Guns N' Roses...

...And all was right in the world...

Try the Red Rum, it's delicious!

Any fans of The Shining out there? Check out the re-cut, more family friendly version... Here's the Trailer.

(right now, the chances aren't looking too good that) I'LL BE BACK...

So, the recent miserable defeat of the Governator's four ballot measures in combination with his approval rating in the low 30s (and dropping) has me in a state of utter disbelief... Sure, he didn't have any previous experience in politics or positions of leadership whatsoever (no, the council on physical fitness doesn't count)...

But he had so many snappy catch phrases... I thought those would surely solve the budget crisis...

Maybe I'm just being too much of a Girly-Man.

Music Thoery...

My Principles of Analysis class just went from easiest class I've ever taken to one of the hardest classes I've ever taken in the course of a week. Don't you love it when that sense of security gets pulled out from under you so fast, you don't have time to catch your footing?

ahhh, religion...

Yesterday, I read an article in the NY Times regarding the Methodist Church's high court deciding to defrock an openly lesbian minister. Though I may disagree with the decision, it is fully within the church's rights to take this action; the Methodist Church is a private organization, and has the right to exclude whoever it wants. It got me thinking though...

I am an agnostic in my beliefs, I have studied relatively extensively most of the major religions of the world and have never felt that one religion has a better foundation of truth than any other. I have yet to find any proof that religion A with its millions of followers, is clearly correct over religions B, C and so forth, with their millions of followers. I have absolutely nothing against religion, several of my friends are very devout in their beliefs and I respect them for it, they have found something in their search that has up to now eluded me... In the past, I have always told myself (and anyone who wanted to listen) that if one religion suddenly revealed itself to me, I would become a follower and worship the appropriate deity, if one is applicable. Now I'm no longer sure about that...

What if the religion that shows itself to be right turns out to one who's moral code has vast differences with mine? Would I be able to completely change what my intuition and experiences tell me are right? For example, what if militant Islam (that of terrorists like Bin Laden and those of his ilk) turns out to be correct, and all those suicide bombers who have killed thousands upon thousands of innocent poeple are rewarded with eternal paradise? Or what about a religion that has Ghandi, whith all of the great things he did, burning in hell eternally because he didn't worship the right god? This is where the homosexuality issue comes in. I have a good number of gay friends, and I couldn't support a religion that puts them in hell no matter how much good they do in life.

It's funny, religion is one of my favorite and least favorite subjects to discuss. I hope I haven't offended anyone too much. I'm interested to hear what anyone has to say, whether they agree or disagree. I'm always open to people pointing out flaws in my logic...