Frontier.

Nordic flags and If-Only Boys.
Originally uploaded by Any Syler

What a fantastic weekend. If only it could have gone by a little slower. Time disappears when you are having a great time. I don't like it like that.

I have dumped upon myself many projects to do in less than a month. I have three deadlines that I would love to have finished by the end of February. In ten days, I must write a 10-20 minutes play. In 20 days, I must write a short film for the school's literary magazine. The other, I don't want to think about yet.

But, this play I have to turn in ten days... I haven't the slightest. I have been trying to settle on an idea, and nothing is coming to mind at all. I figured I would have a panoptic-inspired short play... or an absurdist Albee-inspired short. I can't say I can't do this, because I won't know until I try to do this.

I am trying to see what the word Frontier means to me. I shall admit that the first thing I thought of was Frontierland from Disneyland, where you can travel on a raft to Tom Sawyer's Island, take a risk on riding Thunder Mountain. This idea of a Frontier- a new border, a fresh start, where dreams of making a new home, breaking the boundaries of the Puritan values, and discovering things unseen by the majority of the planet. I am trying to imagine crossing the vast American Plains, going on the Oregon Trail, seeing and experiencing things that nobody would ever understand.

I wonder if that is why life seems so boring to Americans nowadays? There isn't anything new to discover, and we are all pretty much over this whole Space idea. Travels in space have not been announced very often, being as the entire planet is in debt, there has been a major slowdown on external-earth studies. For a short time, I would always believe that space studies were a wasted of billions of dollars. Why would we need to study what else is out there? If we were to know about anything else, we would know about it by chance. I would be a hypocrite to say that we shouldn't search for things, as I am someone that is constantly trying to search for something.

// Searching. Maybe that is my Frontier. Not just these definitions off of Oxford English Dictionary:

A. n.

1. a. The front side; the forepart. Obs.

b. The side that fronts in a specified direction. Obs.{em}1

c. The forehead. Obs. rare{em}1.

2. = FRONTLET 4. Obs.

3. The front line or foremost part of an army. Hence ‘attack, resistance’ in phr. to make frontier (tr. OF. faire frontière). Obs.

4. a. sing. and pl. The part of a country which fronts or faces another country; the marches; the border or extremity conterminous with that of another.

b. U.S. ‘That part of a country which forms the border of its settled or inhabited regions: as (before the settlement of the Pacific coast), the western frontier of the United States’ (Cent. Dict.). Also in specific use (see quot. 1894 and D.A.).

5. a. A fortress on the frontier; a frontier town.

b. A barrier against attack. Obs.

6. A settler on the frontier; a frontier-man.

B. adj.

1. Of or belonging to the frontier of a country; situated on the frontier, bordering; const. to. Also, characteristic of people living at a frontier; pioneering; primitive.

2. Fronting; opposite. Obs.

C. v.

1. intr. To be a frontier, or as a frontier; to border on or upon. Obs.

2. trans. a. To look upon the frontier, boundary, or coast of; to face; now rare. b. To stand in front of; to bar, oppose. Obs.

Hence frontiering ppl. a., occupying the frontier or border; neighbouring.

Sorry to take up so much of this post with a significant part of it being definitions of a slightly uninteresting word... It keeps mentioning the forehead, the front... maybe experiencing something on the surface. Looking at the surface of things. It's coming to me... but not quite. Not quite there. I can feel my full understanding of Frontier surfacing, but I still don't have a grip on how I want to view it yet.

Hej hej,

Any

His name is not Julien.

Metronomy
Originally uploaded by Any Syler

Fact: I have a strong liking for the name Julien. I actually prefer Julien to be spelled with an 'e' rather than with an 'a'. Why? It is because it looks prettier to my eyes. And, I am the writer. I make these decisions around here.

Today was another one of those awkward days where I woke up, not wanting to wake up, still tired and unrested due to my frustrations in relationships with others. Please do not request for me to go into detail, but I will go into detail. Every nitty, gritty, wretched, detail about my ever growing impatience with these habits and behaviours.

I am starting.
Truncated.

I shall speak of the sky right now, instead. Take me off of this trail of negativity: Well, it is swirling. I am not starting this off very well, but it's painted... warm and cold. Violet and orange. The sun is tucked away in the horizon- that I am unable to see, due to these buildings in my way at the moment. This color is fading rapidly, growing darker by the second. A crescent moon hovers above my head, glowing in the dark blue.... It's this time of the day I like to sit down and watch. So much change is happening such a small period of time... not many get a chance to observe this beauty. But, some will once or even a few times in their life.

Life.
That is exactly what this dusk is. A brief moment during time... that happens so instantly, not everyone has time to enjoy it. I am really horrible at doing these analogies, but I really don't care at this point. The more I absorb this dieing color of orange, which is almost carried back to California, the more I want to dive into it, swim around, writhe in its serenity. Now it sounds like I am trying too hard...


Julien.
That is not the name of the man in the picture. His name is Gabriel. And he is a fantastic man with fantastic glasses that you cannot see in this picture. I wish my time in that building, in that room, at that spot, had never come, or that it had never ended. But, as everything else happens, it had to end. Along with me continuing to believe his name was Julien.

Oh well. He felt like a Julien to me.
Now the sky is almost black.

Hej hej,
Any

Labor omnia vicit.

Work conquered everything.

Good ol' Virgil.

I'm not the greatest Latin student, let me begin with that, but the stress that continues with this class is driving me nuts. I enjoy knowing about it, this is very true. There is always some kind of "Oooooh" factor when someone asks what foreign language I am taking. Enough about Latin. I can have a catch-up weekend, as it is a 'long' one.

I hope to spend this weekend having adventures in reading some of my books that I purchased yesterday.
I went crazy. I need to obtain a library card, as I have all of my shelve space at maximum capacity. And I shouldn't spend so much money on books that I have never read before. I mean... I had an adventure. There were many I picked up that I have been dieing to read, and I know I shall enjoy them, but there is another part of me that needs to conserve the cash for other things. Though, books are a nice investment. Plus, galumphing through a library is always amazing.

Before I forget, I am going to make a little list of things to do. Stickie notes (on the computer or on my door!) are not only doing it for me anymore.

Things I must fulfill within the next few days
1. Finish two books, begin a third
2. Complete my maths homework
3. Complete my English assignment online
4. Recopy all 17 Chapters of Latin notes, at my convenience
5. Purchase a memory card for my camera
6. Buy a Birthday card and mail it to my Uncle
7. Purchase milk for breakfast so I do not have to go during next week for some
8. Attend the play-writing workshop in two weeks
9. Establish a solid idea for my first attempt at a play... that must be completed in less than a month

Thank you for this (semi-) brief interlude.
I have things to do... and being that maths is in about one hour... I reckon I am off to go finish one of those books on my list! 'Tis The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime- I should have finished this earlier this week, but I was lazy, stressed, the list of negative adjectives goes ad infinitum.

(See how I cleverly managed to begin and end this on a Latin note?)

Hej hej,
Any

You are my voice,

my Microphone.

New Coconut Records is coming out on Tuesday! I can't believe Jason is actually going to release a new album... I thought that Nighttiming was going to be his only album. Now I feel bad that I have had my doubts... and I am so excited for "Davy." I think it's going to be brilliant, based on the first single that has been released for purchase on iTunes entitled "Microphone." Click to listen on his myspace page.

Went out this weekend for a photo adventure. Too bad I was cameraless, and I had to borrow another's camera... it's a long story why I am cameraless that I wish to not get into again.

Things have been tough the last few weeks for me- emotionally. The winter quarter started on Monday, I'm back here in Seattle where it is beautiful and dark and rich, 24/7. I'm working on becoming stable once again. I felt today was a nice day to leave a new message up here... it would be good for me to get back on track and at least attempt to updating this thing more often. I love writing, and this, this will help me write at least something from time to time.

Well, off to fulfill my requirements of doing Maths, English, and Latin!
Hej hej,

Any

Yule shoot yer eye out, kid.

Merry Christmas.
To you, you, and you. To me? To who?
To you!

'Tis been another month stretched passed since I've paid a visit... I'm back home, lounging around, finding new music I thought I would never have found before. It feels goo to be hearing new stuff.

The opening months of starting school have not been what I've expected. Haven't bought one music mag in AGES- though I've obtained a few Alt. Press' from others or elsewhere...
Well, it's Christmas! And iTunes is giving out a song from Stephen Colbert's 2008 Christmas special (which featured many brilliant artists, such as Elvis Costello, Feist, and John Legend) titled, "Another Christmas Song."

Click here to snag it for free- this week only!

Since it IS the end of the year, everyone has their end-of-the-year-music-lists out, and I made a Top 20 Songs of 2008 list about a month ago... I reckon I'll post it later.


Hej hej,

Any

Minor Scales

Four days is not long enough to be home.

I don't love it here, but I don't hate it here, either. I don't particularly miss Seattle, but I am not particularly dying to go back to the place. I'm in limbo. Fuck, I love Washington, but I'm finally admitting it's a nice break to be back home in SoCal. It's a tad warmer here... lots of rain happening. Serious rain, harassing the gutters, consuming the cars on the streets. It's mayhem- the ground can't drink up the water fast enough, and both Los Angeles and Orange County shut down-- the people can't cope with rain in this land of dry, sunny, air polluted skies. I reckon I brought this wrath down with me...

Minor scales.
Minor scales own my heart. I love them... Natural minor scales.
I'm only sounding fancy with my newly-learned theory knowledge... and it's also a form of studying over break. Harmonic minor scales are pretty... I'm just adoring Minor scales. Especially after seeing PlayRadioPlay! last Friday at El Corazon in Seattle. I've been listening to "I'm a Pirate, You're a Princess" and "Some Crap About the Furniture" incessantly since I came home from the show... baaaah. Golden.

You are golden.
Your days won't always be.

I am getting really tired... I need to get on a schedule... and back to listening to music! I have the new The Killers album to listen to... hope the rest of it is as good as "Human."
I am off to sleep.
Vita est bona.
God natt.

Hej hej,

Any

What a rough and mysterious morning.

It is 9:25 on a Saturday morning. I have been up for at least two hours. This hardly ever happens in the college world... usually I sleep in on the weekends, or I would dream to sleep in later on the weekends. I don't get the chance to anymore. I am constantly thinking of what is going to happen, what I am going to do, if I can get it done... what a crazy month it has been. I feel horrible that I have neglected posting on this. It was a great, liberating feeling, clicking that orange button, "Publish Post" virtually everyday. If I was lucky, maybe even got up to posting well over twice in one day.

The sound of coffee sounds so rich right now. To my surprise, I have had coffee maybe only 5 times since I have moved here in Seattle. Record, right? The city known for it's range of little independent coffee shops. I am thinking about having some coffee today. My head hurts slightly to the right.

I have many reasons to be excited for this weekend, yet I am not fully feeling it yet. As a member of my school's Crew team, I am traveling to Portland for the Fall Classic regatta for tomorrow. Naturally, I am scared out of my mind that something could go wrong, but I don't think anything will. Knock on wood. There are just so many other things to do before I leave tonight, and I don't know how it is going to get done... maybe if I wasn't sitting here, at this table down in the lobby of my Resident Hall, I could be a little more productive.

It's been hard to find some new music lately. Really tough, as I have been more busy trying to find a balance between school, schoolwork, job searching, crew practice, eating, sleeping, and having "me" time. So far, it's a little rough, but it'll even itself out eventually.

I need a job desperately...

... I have about 3 hours of Latin to parse.

Maybe I'll throw in a load of sheets to do with laundry! I feel like I do laundry all of the time, now. Ugh.

From this step on, I will do my best to not be a stranger anymore.

Hej hej,

Any