Unshackled

Oh right, I have a blog.

I'm home now. College is over. Four months ago, this seemed like such a giant beast, so far away. I skated through, and here I am on my bed, listening to "The Kids From Yesterday," immersed in the simple joy of Christmas time.

The question is, does my meaningless life begin now? Everyone dreads the "real world," but it has been my heart's desire to just finish up with school for, heck, over four years now. I'm not terribly afraid of the real world, because it's where I can get money. And when I get money, I can pursue things I really want. I'm not ambitious or career-oriented; I feel like I could relate to Jim Halpert very easily. But there are things that I legitimately want to do. I've always wanted to write, and for the last three years or so I've really wanted to make music, and at long last I can do that without the drudgery of school hanging over my head. Homework and exams are in the past. my evenings and weekends are free, utterly and completely mine. How could this possibly be worse than school?

I AM A FREE MAN.

For a long time I've lived nostalgically, wishing to go back to a better past, but now that I've cleared the major educational hurdle, I don't know that I'll need to wish for what once was so adamantly. Moving right along, indeed.

I suppose this short little tidbit is all I have right now. I guess there will be more to come later.

Meetings

I have yet to discover a more wasteful expenditure of time than meetings.Rarely does anything get accomplished; when it does, it takes approximately five times longer than necessary. I say this because I am sitting at a group meeting right now for a pointless presentation in a class that has next to no relevance to my life. And I've sat in on enough meetings thus far in my life to know that they all take the same form.

It's sort of like trying to solve a Rubik's cube where one person acts as the eyes and the brain and the other person acts as the hands that physically manipulate the cube. In other words, it's frightfully inefficient.

On the plus side, here I am tapping away on this blog while everyone else chatters about irrelevant things. I choose to broadcast my irrelevancies to the tubes rather than the people in my immediate vicinity.

Okay, enough talk about meetings. I don't care about them. Today we got the first snow of the season. I suppose that's quite exciting. It's cold and wet, which I can deal with just as soon as I get a nice pair of boots and/or stop wearing shoes with holes in the bottom. I stepped in a particularly unpleasant puddle on the way to the Union about 45 minutes ago, and now my feet are moist. Otherwise, I rather like the snow. It makes everything all white and cool-looking, and sometimes melts and re-freezes, turning the trees into popsicles.

I'm bored of writing this post. I'll come back later or something.

Favorite Musical Transitions

One of the things I love in music (probably second behind great harmonization/multiple melodies) is really cool transitions. I decided to list some of my favorites for today's entry. Most of these are from song intros, because often those have the hooks that pull people in, but some are found elsewhere in the song.

Headfirst for Halos - My Chemical Romance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8vurKQ1RJk#t=00m24s

This is one of my favorite songs ever. The first 45 seconds or so are a solo that is a different tempo than the rest of the song. The transition from the slower, buoyant-feeling introductory bit into the upbeat, driving main riff is really sweet.

Beast and the Harlot - Avenged Sevenfold

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXTC0SmgE2s&ob=av3e#t=02m51s

The part of this song I'd like to focus on is the breakdown following the second chorus and leading into the bridge. The song rolls into a sort of lull after the chorus, with the main riff from only one guitar and a steady double-bass beat on the drums, but then everything comes crashing back in for a forceful yet simple bridge.

Swing Swing - The All American Rejects

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtypSRcwIhA&ob=av3e

Organ...guitar...BAND. The way this song explodes into action is just cool.  I'd have to say it's one of my favorite song intros ever. Which is, of course, why it's on this list.

Shotgun Serenade - The Juliana Theory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_7zPlSck3Y


The intensity of the song is anything but apparent at the beginning. It starts off rather mournful-sounding and acoustic, but that doesn't last long. The first chorus explodes...just like a bullet straight through the heart.

Only One - Yellowcard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJLkcPhVi9w#t=00m40s

This song is a bit trickier. It's hard to pick out a specific part that reaches out and grabs me, because truthfully I think this entire song is one of the most beautiful musical creations. The lyrical content, the tremolo guitar harmonies, and the blend of violin over the pulsing drum beat just charges this song with feeling. If I absolutely had to narrow it down, I would point out the first chorus, which elevates the song from a simple breakup ballad to a composition reflecting a soul's worth of emotion. I would also have to choose the dual violin-guitar solo, which is just mighty. (Note: the music video (linked) has an abridged version of the solo which isn't nearly as cool. Listen to the album track to hear the full version.)

Hotel California - The Eagles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgLfoQfmSQ4#t=04m08s

This is just a really cool song all around. I'm sure anyone could guess that the part I'm going to single out here is the solo. There's something epic about the lines, "You can check out any time you like / But you can never leave" followed by a soaring (pun intended) guitar solo.

More Than A Feeling - Boston

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSR6ZzjDZ94#t=00m30s

Ever since the first time I played Guitar Hero, I have loved this song. I knew of it before then, but I'd never been all that into music historically until a few years ago. I love the pre-chorus interlude following each verse ("I closed my eyes and I slipped away" and sweet, ringing guitar) and the iconic chorus riff. The vocals are impressive to say the least, and the syncopation from the percussion section is just excellent. Of course, I also love the solo and the vocals that bookend it, because they are truly powerful.

I Don't Care - Fall Out Boy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alh6iIvVN9o#t=00m23s

This one is simple: the intro fill and bouncing hook of this song get me from zero to amped in less than three seconds. That's not an exaggeration. This is one of the most fun songs to drive to.

Knights of Cydonia - Muse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mkIrvuU_zE#t=04m06s

This one seems pretty obvious. I can't imagine I'd have to explain why I like it.

Pull Me Under - Dream Theater

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mipc-JxrhRk&ob=av3n#t=00m11s

Dream Theater is not a band I'm really that fond of. I never got into progressive rock (or however weird music characterized heavily by frequent changes in time signature for no readily apparent reason would be classified), but this is one of the more structured, "normal" songs that I've heard by DT. I really like the jump from the flangey clean guitar intro to the pounding, heavily distorted, oddly rhythmic riff.

There are plenty more I can think of, and these are by no means in any particular order, nor would I even consider them necessarily my top ten. Anyway, I hope this has proven interesting/enlightening for my select few readers. Like Billy.

The Winding Path to Enlightenment

I was remembering recently the fond days when I would sit in the Guidance Office at CBA and just rattle away at the old keyboards, producing all manner of nonsensical prose. I know memory tends to distort things for the better, but I also know that even at the time I loved those days. I've mentioned before to a bunch of people that I used to be convinced that people who claimed high school as the best years of one's life were wrong, and I would have the time of my life come college, and of course how my subsequent college experience actually led me to believe those people had been right all along. Well, the jury is still really out on that one. I have a lot of gripes about my college experience, but I also have some really great experiences that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

I don't know where I'm going with this today, it just felt like it was time to metaphorically dust off this potentially hefty tome full of insight into my weird mind. The last time I wrote a blog (it was at this address, when I was starry-eyed and convinced I was going to reinstate old good habits) was in August before classes had a chance to start up and make me hate my life...not really. And the last time before that was June of 2009, which is practically ancient history. That was a time steeped in television and Knights of the Old Republic and Little League baseball--in short anything that could distract the wheels of my mind from turning too much. It's a time I honestly don't remember that much. It's like Nega-Chris has left the building...only unlike Bryan Lee O'Malley, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. (That was a reference to the book version of Scott Pilgrim, mind you, which I didn't like as much. It just made contextual sense.)

There's a weird thing about the past, and that's that everyone was an inferior person back then. The good memories that we relate come in one of two forms, really. The first is a sort of amoral anecdote that entertains but has no strong substance; it just kind of happened and it might temporarily provide a conversation piece. The second is a story that just illustrates that back then we used to be ignorant, careless, or just dumb. Whether it's a horror story (the kind that spills out during those intense heart-to-heart bonding sessions we usually only have with people we trust) or just something to allow everyone to laugh at our expense (even we the storyteller), it has the same message. In other words, it might be "I regret some of the stupid things I've done" or "Look how funny this one instance of my past stupidity turned out," the common theme is that we're in a more enlightened place.

I do wish I could recapture the whimsical spirit of those many hours in the Guidance Office between 10th and 12th grade. The ability to unleash my absurd creativity was liberating. I think I did some of my best work then, or at least demonstrated my potential more clearly than at any other point. I'm not a stuffy academic. I don't belong pigeon-holed into a strict path of learning that siphons off the more charismatic parts of my mind in favor of rigorous dedication to precision and numbers. Life is not glamorous...that is, if we don't make it so. I hereby dedicate this blog and its subsequent posts to the rediscovery of childlike wonderment, a lively sense of humor, and all things good and pleasant in this heretofore underrated life of mine. I'm going to enjoy this, dang it, because enjoyment is what I enjoy most.

I love the progression of thought and the engine of writing. It always leads me to exactly the conclusion I needed to reach. It's a wonderful form of enlightenment, perfectly-paced and meandering like a mid-Autumn stroll around RPI with Billy, Lauren, and Missy Elliott. And with that weird simile, I leave to do great and wondrous things for the rest of the day.

Godspeed.

Summer Vacation

It's been three years since I've had a real summer vacation; you know, the kind where the days are spent doing anything and everything to avoid...well, doing anything. Summer jobs are a taste of the adult world, and while they do provide a little padding for the wallet, they take away from valuable freedom. Freedom is something we all yearn for, from our youngest days. The funny thing is, I can't remember ever using my freedom in any constructive way. What good is it to have days upon days upon days with absolutely nothing to do, only to spend them inside all day playing video games (or something similar)?

I've come to appreciate those times when the weather is nice and I can just sit outside and take it all in. Those times are pretty infrequent now, but then I think that's part of what makes them valuable. After all, excess of a luxury hardly makes it a luxury anymore, right?

You might be wondering why I chose this particular title for my blog, and it actually makes me puzzle a little bit too. I was enjoying some of the aforementioned time outside with my friend and roommate Alex last night, and the topic of my late graduation came up. Alex suggested that maybe I just wasn't ready to graduate yet, which cosmically caused me to end up taking an extra semester (and ultimately not graduating proper until May of 2011). I tend to like this explanation. It's not that I purposely extended my college experience because I didn't feel like it, but rather that things happened in such a way because I am still supposed to be right where I am. And I've always been a heavy proponent of the idea that things happen for a reason.

At the end of the day, do any of us really ever grow up, or are we all just kids searching for answers in a big scary world that doesn't make any sense? Do we ever stop chasing down that elusive freedom of summer vacations long since passed? I'm not afraid to admit that's exactly how it feels to me.