Fueling a Secondary Engine

          Goodness gracious, I more or less forgot about the fact that I have a blog. But to catch up with whats recently going on in my life, I have started my second year of college at Colorado State University, which already seems like time is flying out of the window. So far things have been seeming to go like a sinusoidal graph or a roller coaster with the ups and downs of stress peaking and then dissipating later. Every year of school that I go through follows a similar pattern in regards to my work ethic and the energy I have. I always start out strong and do all the readings and manage time very well, but then I start to want eat a good dinner or go hang out with friends, see movies, all of this starts to take the world of academia and put it on a back burner. This is especially the case when I only get around 7 hours a sleep every night, I am aware that to some people this is a very long amount of time, but I after awhile it sort of saps the energy from me. But then I usually have this point where it feels like I a starting to get surrounded by homework and reading and projects and I start to get the feeling of claustrophobia, like I'm drowning or being buried in it all. 

          This is the point where I can’t take it, I have always thought that I can do great things and when I’m going through this a little voice pops up in my head saying “Is this really how you want to go about being great.” When I am in this trough it feels like embers are warming up, getting hotter and slowly reigniting. I know if I really want to do something with my life I can’t just go through it not giving it my all. At this moment it feels like I throw fuel on to those embers of the soul, I pull that pan off of the back burners; I am ready for round two.

          So this is the point where I am at right now, I feel like I am a rubber band trying to stretched around four nails when my maximum is three. The embers are heating up, I can’t be satisfied by not giving it my all, I don’t want to look back later and say “If only I pushed myself a little harder.” Currently I am going to be part of an International Wildlife Conference Committee, I have started a new job, I’m trying to do well in all my classes and stay on top of the course work. As well as I am trying to plan two trips, one for a spring break road trip to Washington, and I am trying to plan a substitution for a summer course so that I may take it abroad somewhere.

         I want to do something with my life, I want to break away from normalcy and leave my flag on summited peak that hasn't seen footsteps for a while. With my life I really want to get the most out of it that I can. I know that this is going to require hard work and dedication, so with that I believe that I am ready to add some fuel to my embers and move off the perennial back-burner.

The Watsky Concert and the Occurrences of that Night

Also a long time on this post, but hush your faces because at least it is here now.

          So this night was absolutely incredible, this was the best concert I have ever been to. The concert was George Watsky, a poet, a rapper, and public speaker. Those seem very odd to be all together in one person but I am telling you it works very well. I put him as one of my favorite artist before this concert because it was just the way that he had with words didn't put him in that traditional category of rappers talking about drinking, parting, women and a vast amount of money they have but it now nothing to them. I put him in a category I like to call Smart Rap, raps that are in this have a story and tell it throughout the song.
        So I will start telling the story from early that night, I was going to the concert with one of my good mates from up here Schyler, shout out to Schyler, and we figured that if the concert started at 8 that we would leave at around 6 giving us enough time to walk down there get inside and find a cozy place. Maybe even find the merch table and buy a shirt; something I like to do at each concert I go to as a was to remember it. So as Schyler and I make it to Old Town the temperature is below thirty degrees; our ears are freezing and our breath is visible. We get to the venue and we walk in, we get pretty far before a man approaches us and says that there is wedding on and that we could come back at around 7:30. as we leave there is a man that I perceived to be homeless in front of the building. So now Schyler and I are in Old Town, in the cold, with nothing to do for an hour and a half. We walk around trying to kill time, we get something to eat, play games on our phone and, visit a local Safeway, and return a little before 7:30 to make sure we have a good spot. At this point we see there is a group first in line and then a single individual by herself. We take our place in the cold line, I turn to Schyler pointing out that the homeless man we saw earlier was actually saving a place for the rest of the group that was at the front. This man was there at least a hour and a half earlier, maybe even more. So even if Schyler and I would have got in line when we first got there we still would have been at least the sixth and seventh people in.
          Waiting in line the clock strike 8 and everyone starts to get ready to run in and get their spot. Then suddenly...nothing happens, the doors don't open and people wonder what is happening. At 8:05 a man comes out and says things are taking a little longer to take things down and doors should open at 8:15. At 8:15 a women comes out and says they are still setting up, she apologizes to the line and starts to hand out Cd's to the first 20 or so people. We finally got let in after multiple people telling us it will just be a bit at 8:50.

          The place we found to watch the concert was incredible, being the third "group" in we got amazing spots. "OH what is that don't believe me? Well here you go." You might think to yourself "What am I looking at?", the answer is you are looking at a photo of my hand TOUCHING THE STAGE; ya that's right I was front row. I was so happy about our spot it was almost embarrassing; I was all giddy and I had a big ol'smile. This moment would be should lived though. As the concert started people started to come closer to the stage and this one pair of people had the nerve to literally just push us out of the way by very aggressively sliding in front of us. They took advantage of how awkward and nice I am. The couple ended up leaving before Watsky was on but this  other group came over and very nicely asked that they couldn't see and if they could share our space. I yes only to regret it later but at least my hand was still touching the stage.
           One of the openers was very good probably just as good as Watsky, he went by Adam raps/ A-1. My favorite song was a tie between a song that satirically kept using Charlie Sheens' "Winning" and a song that used the theme song from the kids show All That that was one in the 90's.

          Watsky's Concert I will forget, he puts on the shows and everything he does by himself. He doesn't have a label and pays for everything out of his own pocket with the success he has made himself. Which is very respectable alone; Watsky really enjoys his audience and reacts to them. Not like other bands that say that the audience is the best and this is the best show they have ever done, or maybe every I show I have ever been to have been the best for them, I don't know. Watsky went into the crowd during the first song an then another two times during the show.

          The spot that I was in turned out to be perfect, there was a gap between two speaker and Watsky used that as a small walkway to get even closer to the audience, at time he was probably as far away as to are to whatever to are reading this blog on...seriously that close, it was so cool.  After I saw Watsky pick up the camera of another man and pointed the camera at his face and the audience from on stage while it was recording I decided to try a similar thing. What did happen was he got inches away from the lens and looked directly at it.
          I hope I will never forget this concert; not that I think I will I mean I am writing a blog about it and I bought a sticker and a shirt from the merch table. While at the merch table the lady told Schyler and I that Watsky was going to come out in a little and meet some of the fans. we waited patiently and then this happened.

Myself and Watsky (top)
Myself and A-1 (bottom)

Your Going to Get Into an Accident Late at Night, But in Reality It Is Only Like Six, However it Feels Like Midnight

          Wow, I really shouldn't have waited to do this. But we are past that and we are moving forward. So awhile ago, I was going to go back down to my high school to see a play, since I was in the theatre at my school and I miss that family I was part of. But being the first year student that I am how was i going to get down there? Well that is where my very good pal Brian (shout out to Barnold) comes in, the person he is he didn't even hesitate when I asked for a ride (even though I live about a hour away from him). and then once he got me we were going to drive about and hour and a half to get back to Centennial.
          I am going to interrupt this story for a second to tell you about a theory that I have about myself. The theory goes that if I have to travel somewhere and it is important to me the weather will inhibit me. It is like the clouds are angry at me and they test me to see how bad I really want this. Most times I have tried to go home this year to see my family the weather out of nowhere I might add decides to snow really hard. The best example I can think of though is when it was Caite and myself's anniversary, one whole year is pretty good by itself but we happened to continue to date while she went off to college. So I really wanted to see her, so being me I decided that I wasn't going to go to school on that Friday and drive up there and take her out on a date. Oh ya but around that time those clouds up in the clouds decided it cant just be a nice day to do this, it has to be a blizzard. A HUGE blizzard so instead of driving I had to take four buses and a light rail to get up and it took about 5 hours.
          So back to the story, As the days get closer the weather starts to get a little funky and then the reports say expect snow on the day we were leaving... great. But Brian is a person of word and he drove through the snow and got up to Fort Collins, he picked up another one of my good friend , Cole, and myself and we were on the road again.
          Time goes by and the road were pretty nice and then we ran into the storm. Snow started falling hard, visibility decreased, and the road got coated in ice and a layer of slick slush. The next part of this story I hope to never forget. As we are the descent of a hill stuck in traffic the song changes to  "Too Much- Sufjan Stevens", and we are all laughing. But then the car two in front of us hits its brakes and then the car in front of us does the same. So we do, but something is wrong now, the car in front brakes more. Brian has to slam the brake hard now and we start to fish tail one way to the let then to the right and then back. I don't think I have ever seen someone so in control of a situation while it is also just getting worse and worse. Our car is closing in fast on the one in front, Brian takes the wheel and cranks left, the only chance we had to avoid an accident was to take it into the median. So off road we go, pavement turns to dirt under the tires and we come to a stop finally after a very stressful time.
          Then we just got back on the road and kept on driving, yup just like that. Stupid? yes but we wanted to see that play. Bet you want to story to be all sunshine from here right? Well we did to but no such luck happened.
          Setting: A very dark night, cars on a highway, the hardest snow ever. I wanted to just not go to the play and just pull over but we just kept on rolling. At this point, one of us asks what time it is worried that we might not make to the play because we had been on the road for hours and now it seemed like we could make the very end. A voice answers "It's like six.", a response "Seriously  I thought it was like midnight.", the first voice "I know right! but nope it is like six".
          So Big thank you to Brian because I'm alive and we did make it to that play. Which was very good and it was great to see everyone that I hadn't been in contact with in such a long time.

Posts Are Coming

So I had a really nice break and I wanted to treat wanted to have a really relaxing one so I didn't work on any posts. Probably my bad, but we are moving past that. In other news I am incredibly busy at my school, I have had to write three very long papers this week and they were not fun, I also have I read a book that has been put of for a little. So I really want to put up these new posts and at some point I will get to it I promise I know a couple of you are really interested in the concert and the high school play one. With that being said I think it is also important that I pass college. I enjoy writing blogs but I don't think it will be making money to live off of.

So final words...Posts are coming, sorry there hasn't been more, I'm excited to tell you more about life up here.

I appreciate all your views...ya YOU, you right now reading this guess what is happening? I am appreciating it.  A lot. seriously.

Good news I'm close to getting 300 views on my blog which is just incredible.

To cheer you up until new blogs come, and to reward you for checking in follow the link to get a present.

THE REWARD

Whats Happening

          Alright, well this weekend has been very crazy and flew by it seems. So here is my plan for the next little bit. I am not the world best writer, I am not very good at grammar for example as some of you have mentioned to me. Partially because I when I wrote the first couple of posts when I got done writing it seemed a little schoolish to edit and revise and then post a final draft so I just hit post...Maybe I could have done it a little bit. And that is what is going to happen, one night I will write a post and then another night I will edit and post it. This will hopefully lead to better posts on my part and you all will enjoy reading more!! Right now is a bad example of this because I am just going to post this when I'm done because in a tad I am headed to the Watsky concert, so my apologies everyone.
          Things you should know:

• If you enjoy reading this, first off thank you, secondly the best way to keep in touch about my new posts is to do either one of two things. Some how you are able to follow me on this site. I'll be honest I don' know how that works, which leads to the better of the two options. I have a Twitter and I will be converting it into a way to update my followers on when new posts are up. My User-name is @JuneauMatthew, so follow if you are interested.
• Secondly there are a couple of posts that are in the works, Going to see the play and the adventure of that and the Watsky concert, so stay tuned for cool, interesting, sock knocking off posts coming up*.

 *(Socks might not come off, but they could for some reason and that would be pretty cool if they did).
 

In the words of Porky the Pig,

Upcoming Things

       This blog is an interesting experience for me; because of it I find I push myself to do things that are outside of my comfort zone or things I just normally wouldn't do. Today (November 5, 2012), I received a email that was about attending a focus group. Being a introvert this is the kind of thing that I would never see myself doing, however this blog is always in the back of my mind so I replied with my application and was accepted into it. So we will see how this goes, hopefully I don't become very reserved and shy which has happened before. One good thing about this focus group is that at the end of it we get twenty five dollars, which I need pretty badly. For two reasons, one I am a college and that money could go pretty far whether it go to a meal that isn't fried chicken, to a video game or towards a date for my partner and I. Two it would help replace the dent in my wallet after I either lost or had $40 stolen from it, I believe the latter of the two. I will keep this blog posted with what happens.

         Some other things that are happening this Weekend is that I get to go home and to my high school to see a play. I was pretty involved with the theater program the last two years of high school, and I can't wait to return and see that group I left. That is on Saturday and my friend is picking me up and we are driving all the way from Fort Collins to Centennial which is about an hour and a half, then we are seeing the play, and then driving all the way back. So that will be a long day but a fun one. I have to remember to start making a good playlist now for the road.

         On Sunday I have tickets to go see Watsky, who is a poet, rapper and speaker of sorts. I am very excited to see him perform, the reason being as before mentioned I was in theater in high school and in my senior I was in a class called "Company", an elite acting class. We once had the assignment to perform a monologue and I picked one of Watsky's speeches to perform entitled "Go Robo". Click Go Robo and see the video that I was going to perform parts of. That is until my teacher found out it was from a YouTube and not from literature, and told me to choose something else a couple of days before the showcase. I really enjoy his work and can't wait to go see it, I will try to get pictures on the night. Definitely expect a blog on this.





         Finally for everyone that has read my blog I would like to say thank you. To do this I am going to change a couple of word in a lyric because I think it fits well here, "Thank you for reading again, or for the first time, or for the last time, we share this moment and for that I am grateful"-more or less attributed to AWOLNATION. There are good things that are going to come if you folks keep on reading, I will try my best to keep things interesting.

         P.S. Feel free to leave a comment, I will try to write a response promptly. I have my phone glued to me all day and I will receive a email saying I have a comment and I will be all over that comment so fast you'll be like "Whoa he wasn't kidding".

Glowing Mountain Dew

           One day while I was on StumbleUpon I came across a site that showed the picture to the left. Pretty amazing right? The best part of this is that you only need Mountain Dew, Peroxide and Baking soda. All of which you can get from a local store for under $5. So the instructions on the site told to pour out about 3/4 of the Mountain Dew so 1/4 is left in the plastic bottle. Next add 3 cap fulls of the Peroxide to the Mountain Dew and mix around. Finally the website instructed to add baking soda, not a certain amount or anything just to add it. I preceded to add about a tablespoon and then to mix around and then two more. I shook it around and ran into my bathroom and shut the door; that was the darkest place I could find.  Standing there shaking the bottle for about a minute I was still in complete darkness. Figuring it had something to do with the very vague step of the baking soda, I figured I could add more until the reaction took place and it would light up, I did so... and did so... and did so. A little bummed I preceded to head to the internet and look for what I did wrong. What I had done wrong was be a little to gullible.

           Previous to the experiment I had done no further research about it, if I had it would have shown that this is nothing more than a hoax. There is nothing that is chemically to different about Mountain Dew than any other soda and if it was to work with Mountain Dew it should work with all others, but it didn't, because there is no reason that peroxide and baking soda should make soda glow. I was tricked and it was disappointing because I wanted it to work so bad. Now I have all this extra peroxide and baking soda laying around and no cool glow stick MacGyver knowledge to help me out should I ever get stuck in a cave.

           So if you want to re-create the photo you need the same ingredients but as well now dish soap and... a glow-stick. Which kind of defeats the purpose, if I want something to glow and i have all of that why would I not just use the glow-stick? My feeling aside, to make it repeat the steps above and add a teaspoon of soap and then activate the glow-stick by snapping it and then cut it open and pour the glowing liquid into the Mountain Dew. The internet wins this time but I will find some experiment that WILL work and I will show how to do it on here. There won't be any foolery either just straight up science.