4/19/13: In Which I Contemplate Linguistics

I was lucky enough to attend one of the few public high schools I've ever heard of that offered more than two or three foreign language classes to its students. I don't know how it is anymore, since my youngest sibling has now graduated from the school and my connection to it has almost completely evaporated, but in my time at Greenfield-Central I was lucky enough to dabble in two languages: Spanish for my freshman and sophomore years, and Japanese as a junior and senior.

I was not the best student a teacher could have hoped for. I was lazy and irreverent, and when I did pay attention and know what was going on I tended to play the know-it-all. That's not to say I was the worst kid in class, just that I was a B-student who caused a little more trouble than necessary and who honestly should have been acing it. But to get to the point, I didn't make good use of my time in my high school language classes. As a result, by the time I've graduated college and moved out to NYC, I've effectively forgotten almost every lesson from both languages.

This realization hit me hard today as I was... Well, I'm not entirely sure why it hit me today. I haven't spoken I a Japanese person, I haven't needed to know Spanish, I haven't even really watched an anime in a year or so... I'm not certain where the feeling came from, but I decided that it was time to actually, truly do what I've been meaning to do since my junior year of high school and learn another language for real, no matter how hard it gets. The only trick is that now I don't have easy access to classes and teachers who will help me for free (or at least no additional cost over my tuition). It's all on my and the Internet now, and whatever I can buy and borrow. But that's not meant to be the point of this post...

Or maybe it is. This just became a journal update. I was going to talk about linguistics in general, but that can happen tomorrow, or later tonight if I'm feeling particularly adventurous. For now, I have a poker game to get to.

12/5/12 : In Which I Hate Technology Sometimes

I just spent the last forty-five minutes typing a long post that I really liked on my phone, only to have it erased in an instant just before I tried to publish it. So this is my post today. I am angry. That is all.

11/19 : In Which I Cannot Sleep, Again

Why is there a Portland on the northern bit of both coasts? I guess etymologically it makes a little sense, what with it being the "land of ports," but there's a Portland, Oregon and a Portland, Maine. Both are very northern states. Is there a Portland, Georgia? A Portland, California?

I just looked it up. Thanks internet. According to Wikipedia there are only three Portlands anywhere, and two are the American ones I've just mentioned. What is it about the name of this city - these cities - that lends itself to northern climes?

Furthermore, Portland, OR isn't even coastal. It's close, but it's not exactly oceanfront. Portland, ME is, though. Right on the coast. And I guess if the Oregon one's city limits are wide it probably has some waterfront real estate, too. I'm in a weird mood.

My insomnia is getting worse. Lately I've been staying up (by lately I pretty much mean this week) to keep my lady-friend internet-company while she works on her homework, because it sucks to just be working all the time with no connection to the outside world. She has a killer work ethic. ANYWAY, whether as a side-effect or a coincidence, my insomnia has returned. Tonight, for some reason, is the first on which it occurred to me that I should write up a blog post.

I guess the other night I tweeted a lot, and that's technically a "micro-blog" format, so maybe that half-counts, but I did it on my non-Jesse account so nobody who reads this would know what I was saying and none of it was really relevant stuff anyway.

Should I do some "journal" stuff here? I guess I've been working a little lately, though as usual it's not as much as I'd like. My most recent gig was on a show called Zero Hour which was described to me as, and I quote, "Like The Da Vinci Code, but with Nazis," and it was a decent shoot. I thought I'd be working the Scorcese/ Di Caprio/ McCaughnehey (no CLUE if I spelled a single one of those right) picture The Wolf of Wall Street last week, but I wasn't picked for the scene. There's still a good chance I'll work the movie this month, though, and I'm working with John on Tuesday on... something. I wrote it in my journal. It's a show I haven't worked yet. It should be fun. It will likely be our first time actually both doing background for the same gig, so I'm looking forward to it.

John and I were supposed to work together on a shoot this summer for My Man Is A Loser, but he got upgraded on set to a stand-in position so we were separated. This Tuesday will sort of be a milestone. We've worked a lot of the same shows but never on the same day, as is the nature of the business. Not being in the Union (SAG-AFTRA), I can only be called in for certain shoots. Still two waivers away from getting that card.

This got long and rambly. Ummmmmm... I'm suddenly feeling self-conscious, because admittedly this is the most writing I've done in a while. I've been spending too much time on video games lately, but Skyrim is freakin' addictive. Tomorrow, I am promising myself that I will not pick up my PS3 controller for three days. I have decided this. I'm going to write, hang with John, and work. No Netflix, either. Pandora will be my one allowance, unless a new Adventure Time episode comes out. Which is shouldn't...

Woo! Five-in-the-morning blog rambles. Signing off!

10/28/12.2 : In which a Hurricane Party contains no hurricane

I'm currently standing on my roof looking at the Manhattan skyline with a few friends. We just watched Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (if I ever cite something else as my favorite movie I'm lying) and a few drinks have been shared. It has yet to rain on us.

Tonight has been wonderful. Beautiful and delightful. I'm with friends, have supplies, and the weather's a bit windy but is still holding. All in all, Sandy's been sweet so far.

10/28/12 : In Which I Prepare For A Hurricane

First and foremost let me say I'm not scared of Sandy. That said, half of Long Island is evacuating. I'm not in the evac zone up here in Queens, so in theory we're looking pretty steady. That's the theory I'd like to hold to, so here's hoping it's nice and valid.

In other news I just got back from the gym for the first time in far too long and my arms and chest and shoulders are mightily protesting that fact. I've learned I have a new motivating figure. Before I get into that, I'll explain a small thing. I don't like to go to the gym, and the only way I can motivate myself to get through a workout when I do go is to have a goal in mind. For most of the summer, that goal was Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man. Today, that changed to Game of Thrones's Jon Snow. Pictures included for reference.

I'm not entirely sure why my mental goal has beefed up so much, but it seems to have gone from a still-kind-of-scrawny but well-defined geek to a rather buff rough-and-tumble swordsman. I'm pretty okay with this. I think part of that is because I'm still really skinny but so are a lot of images of Spider-Man. That might have started to not be enough, though, so I needed something a bit manlier.

Anyway, that's my random updatelet. There will be more of these as time goes by but it's time to go now. Headed to Target to get a few last minute supplies. Bye-o!

10/25/12 : In Which I Was Unproductive

I gave myself one job today. One task to complete. And as I'm sure you can already tell, I did not complete it. What, you ask in disbelief, was this monumental task that he speaks of? What Herculean obstacle did he wrestle against? What boulder did our modern Sisyphus attempt to roll up that treacherous mountain? Well I'll tell you, my faithful friends. I'll tell you in hopes that the shame of a defeat so complete, so fully realized, will push me to try again tomorrow to mount an offensive again the enemy that trounced me on the battlefield today.

I speak, of course, of my bedroom.

But Jesse, I hear you saying now, surely you could muster up the motivation to at least move that small mountain of laundry from your floor to the hamper! "But alas!" I retort, hand placed dramatically against my forehead. "There are still, like, three clean socks and a shirt in that hamper. I would have to move those first!" And at this point you're likely getting annoyed and wondering why I don't just do that, then. Well to that I must answer, "I don't have drawers in which to store them!" Also I might remark that drawers doesn't look like the right word but I'm pretty sure it is so you should ignore that. The rest of this dialogue is likely you wondering why I don't have drawers and me revealing that none of the furniture in my room is mine, and the wire shelves I've been storing my everything in are being taken back by the former occupant of said room, so I'm short on storage. Then you ask, well, all of your clothes that aren't hanging in your closet are dirty so why not at least put them in your hamper and then the conversation gets way too circular and we both explode in a mess of unnecessary verbosity and boredom at this truly meaningless topic.

In lighter news, I bought light bulbs so I'll finally be replacing the one in my room which has been out for a month and the one in the living room which we lost today maybe? I don't know. I never go out there. And now I'm going to wait for Claire to get home so we can be adorable and have a nice Skype-date with dinner and wine.

Peace out,
Jesse