Bryan

Song Of Myself

santinb — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:08:00 GMT

Yep, it's all over. This is my last blog entry. I have to say this was a great experience. Week after week it makes you recap the previous seven days and order your thoughts. Of course this was extremely helpful in Italy. I've looked back (here and there) to those old blogs written in Rome and it brings back an almost infinite amount of memories. It's not just the places and events that I remember, but the general mood pervading the particular blog entry. I don't know if I effectively captured that essence for you, the reader. I mean I remember it personally. I just hope you see Italy in a different light now, too. Allow me to expand on this thought:

What really made this such a good experience (both in Italy and back here in Columbus) is that I was able to write down what I was feeling in "the moment"--whether that be post-Oktoberfest or post-Rolling Stones documentary. There is an immediacy to the blogs entries--a hasty attempt to carve coherent thoughts onto the page before they become lost in the gray ocean of general memory. For instance, I don't remember just the Rembrandt museum in Amsterdam; I remember convincing one of my more gullible roomates that Rembrandt was named after the toothpaste. This is something I probably wouldn't have recalled. By remembering these seemingly trival details, though, entire events are opened up--other seemingly trival ones that, in the end, are quite significant. If the famous cities and monuments are the main skeletal structure of memory than these small comical events with friends are the marrow that make such events worth remembering. I hope that makes sense.

In many ways, this blog was a song of myself. So I'd like to leave you with the end of a famous Walt Whitman poem, "Song of Myself LII." Thanks to all of you who have read this over the past 9 months or so, espeically my family (the Constant Readers).

"Song of Myself LII"

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love.
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

Shine A Light & Finals

santinb — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:42:00 GMT

Friday a couple friends and I checked out the new Rolling Stones documentary dircected by Martin Scorsese. Awsome flick. It's showing on IMAX in Easton. The movie is an entire Stones concert in New York last year, and each song is punctuated by old interviews with the band. In one from the early '60s Mick Jagger is asked how much longer the band will be making music together, to which he responds: "I'd say at least one more year."

They play a great live show, especially considering their age (early-60s), and the IMAX screen is amazing. If someone were to ask me if I've ever seen the Rolling Stones live I might slip up and say yes then have to correct myself. My favorite song was probably this old Southern blues one they did with Buddy Guy, who came on stage, played guitar and contributed some pretty powerful vocals. So yeah, check it out.

On tap this weekend is school work, however. Even though finals week is offically next week, I'll be taking alomst all of mine in the next few days. Today (Mon.) I have a final essay for my 1st political science class. Tommorrow I have an essay due and an in class presentation on poet Charles Bukowski. Wedn. I get a quick breather. Thurs. is the final essay for my 2nd political science class. Friday is my Eng. Lit. final. Come to think of it, the only final I have during finals week is my poetry one.

Well, time to gather up my Stones albums and hit the books.

Cya next week (for my last blog)!

The Weekend & New Job Dilemma

santinb — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:47:00 GMT

Pretty good time this past weekend. Friday I stayed in and wrote a paper, so I wouldn't have to worry about it the rest of the weekend. My cousin Tim came in from Akron on Saturday and we met up at my sister's in Pataskala. First we played a little Guitar Hero with my brother in law, which I had never played before. It was more fun than I'd thought it'd be. After you start to memorize the buttons and get used to the controls it does kind of feel like you're playing the song. That night Tim and I headed down to OSU campus, met up with a couple friends and walked to the Gateway. Really fun time. We unexpectedly ran into some old high school friends at McFadden's, stayed until closing time, then grabbed a little late night pizza. The next day we drove back to my sister's, who was cooking out, and hung out with Tim's parents. Overall, a nice, stress-free weekend.

However, I do have a little job dilemma going on. Last week I told you that I'd gotten a job at 84 Lumber. Well, now Timet (the titanium plant I worked for last summer) is hiring again. Here's the catch-22: I would live at home and make considerably more money at Timet, BUT I would have to drive to ODU every Saturday from June through July with gas probably hovering around the 3.50--3.75 a gallon mark. Oh, the tangled webs we weave! Ok, that might be a little too dramatic lol. I'll be sure to let you know which one I choose before school ends.

Also, I can see many papers and tests and powerpoint presentations on the finals' horizon. But I'll update you on those next week.

Until then, Cya!

Summer Job, Home & School Work

santinb — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:31:00 GMT

Good news, I found a summer job last week. I'll be working for 84 Lumber in Pataskla making roof trusses (triangular pieces that make up the roof of a house or barn). It's full time hours, which is tough to find for a summer job. No one wants to hire full time worker who'll just go back to school in a couple months. And on top of all that, I'll only being working about 3 miles away from my sister's house, so gas money won't be a problem. The only time I'll really have to drive is to ODU every Saturday for the summer science class I'm taking. I'd say I got pretty lucky.

Because of my new found employment, I had to make a trip home to pick up some old work clothes--jeans, steel-toed boots, a few old t-shirts. I had a good time, though. Pretty relaxing, plenty of time to do homework. Plus it was my aunt's birthday, so we all went down to my grandmother's for cake and ice cream. I shot up to Pittsburgh to buy her a birthday gift--a John Irving novel. We both like to read, and I usually take advantage of any opportunity to get into a bookstore.

Now it's back to the salt mines this week (i.e. school work). I'm pretty busy, let's see: Eng. 222 poetry homework, finish reading a novel by Wednesday, write another precis for political science class (which are really time consuming) then my final Eng. Lit. paper is due next Monday. And somewhere in between that I have to take a drug test for 84 Lumber.

I should be able to fit it all in, though.

Cya!