Sometimes I think of my life as a television series. Where sometimes an actor or actress doesn’t renew their contract, and so their character is no longer a main part of the series. They become more of a reference and sometimes make guest appearances. The analogy goes so much further. However, I’m told that I think of things within a cinematic framework too often.

Shots ring out in blind stellar night time
Town lights come alive like a land mine
Eyes wide up in five second intervals
Unpredictable, life’s a miracle

I love being a student. I love being a film major. I love the friends that I have made here. It’ll be sad when the real world takes me away from it…but that’s as far as I’m going to venture down that thought path right now.

The last three weeks have been crazy. I slept very little and spent many many hours in production or post production. No semester would be complete without some all-nighters at Oldfather Studios. But I love doing it all. Life is exciting.

It’s odd to not be working on any projects right now. It’s just in my DNA to always be working hard on something. Hopefully I’ll be doing some production work this summer. I have my job at the dorm, and I’ve applied for another theatre position.

Graduating in 4 years is like leaving the party at 11pm

The heart of this trip was reaching out to people. That is also the hardest part to explain to people. It’s not about the tangible things that I did, but about the interactions with others that I was able to have. Las Vegas has placed a lot of people on my heart that still remain in my thoughts.

A lot of misfortune kept us in the car an extra day on the way back. Then I had about eight hours before I had to be in class again. It feels like things have been non-stop since then. I’m involved in 5 different projects right now, with a couple more to possibly be involved with. My second job also decided to start scheduling me more as well.

Today was a relaxing day, but it might be the last for a while. I’m not burnt out by any means; I’m actually pretty excited for the things I’m working on. Sometimes I wish I could focus more on some other things, though.

Launching two services at Eastlake tomorrow. More lights for Jason!

Blink 182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)
I didn’t listen to very much music until I was fourteen. I had heard some of The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show, and the humor had caught my attention. I asked my sister for a Blink 182 CD for Christmas and she got me this one. And thus I began to find a passion for music that would change my entire life.

A.F.I. - Sing the Sorrow (2003)
This album means so much to me. This was the first A.F.I. album I picked up (by finding someone’s lost CD binder), and it was shortly after it had released. I hadn’t listened to anything quite like this before. “This Time Imperfect” will probably always be my favorite A.F.I. song. I never grow tired of listening to these songs, and there’s so much emotion attributed to each one of them.

Comeback Kid - Wake the Dead (2005)
This band made me like hardcore. This album is beautiful. The lyrics are incredible. They’re also Canadian :). I sort of forgot about this album for a while. But last year I listened again and immediately relived how powerful it is. “Can’t get back to the way we were. Nothing else mattered, it was us against the world.”

Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies (2002)
I didn’t take Flogging Molly seriously at first. The irish-folk-punk rock style was just entertaining in a humorous way. But like many on this list, I had a change of heart and fell in love with them. Flogging Molly keeps coming with amazing albums and nobody has what they have going on (no, not even Dropkick Murphy’s haha). This album is incredible and was a large influence on me back in high school.

A.F.I. - Decemberunderground (2006)
Most of these albums have a lot of memory attached to them. This one starts rather bittersweet. I came home from a vacation to find a girl I like beginning to get involved with another guy. I listened to this album for the first time at that birthday party. So it took awhile to get passed that when I listened to this album. But it grew on me and I managed to see what an amazing album this is.

Blink 182 - Blink 182 (2003)
Easily the most influential band in my life. This album shocked me when I first listened to it because it didn’t sound like the Blink that I knew and loved. I didn’t really know what to do at first. But a few more listens and I realized that it was even better. These guys matured as I did. This album was much darker sounding, and the lyrics traded humor for depth. I turned to this album over and over, and I continue to today.

The Clash - London Calling (1979)
This is one of the best albums ever recorded. The Clash have been a major inspiration for me. I don’t actually remember the reason I started listening to them. But whenever it was that I did buy this album, sometime early in high school, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.

Angels & Airwaves - We Don’t Need To Whisper (2006)
The break-up of Blink 182 broke my teenage heart. But this album was something amazing to come out of that. The soundtrack to summer 2006. So much inspiration came from how beautifully written this album is. I did a bunch of writing because of it. When I listen to it now, I can feel so many things that were in my life that summer. “If love’s a word that you say, say it. I will listen.”

Anti-Flag - The Terror State (2003)
Haha, oh Anti-Flag. I don’t feel the same about Anti-Flag as I did back in the day, but man, I used to love them. They were angry and gave me a place to direct my own teenage anger. I could probably put every Anti-Flag album prior to The Terror State on here. This album was a whole new sound for them and I really connected with it. Now three albums later it’s a bit worn out, but this one is still special.

Blaqk Audio - CexCells (2007)
I discovered Blaqk Audio a ways after this debut album released. This is my favorite album for Davey’s vocals. I am very excited for Bright Black Heaven to release this year.

Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal (2005) and Cities (2007)
I’ve grouped these two together because I got a hold of both at the same time, and I couldn’t decide between them. Sadly, it wasn’t until 2008 that I discovered Anberlin, but it only took a couple of weeks for me to know all of their songs. I’ve seen them live three times since them. The vocals and the music are beautiful and powerful.

Skillet - Comatose (2006)
This album is just covered in freshman year at KU. Christy lived with me in McCollum Hall and wouldn’t stop playing the CD. I was so tired of it, but after she moved out I started to listen to it on my own. It’s really good. It’s one that reminds me of the past but it also always has contemporary meaning for me. The best Skillet album to date.

Green Day - Warning (2000)
They always wrote the simplest songs, but somehow it worked for them. The first few songs I could play on guitar were Green Day songs. I still love playing “Good Riddance.” They were definitely a major influence when I was first learning to play guitar. For some reason I really like Billy Joe’s vocals as well. This was their last solid album before the content of their lyrics became more political and controversial. I definitely like their newer work, but Green Day had something that worked for them for their first few albums.

Switchfoot - The Beautiful Letdown (2003)
I would probably pick New Way to be Human as my favorite album now, but this one was at the time it came out. The album had a role in a pretty pivotal point in my life. I’m a fan of anything that Jon Foreman has done.

As I Lay Dying - Shadows Are Security (2005)
I bought this album almost at random. And before I actually liked metal. But I had heard some things about them that made me curious and confident. It took some adjusting at first, but in the end I was far from disappointed. The lyrics are amazing pieces of work on their own, but the music is beautiful as well.

MewithoutYou - Brother, Sister (2006)
People were talking about them, so I had to check them out. I found them to be terrible until I read their lyrics. They were some of the best lyrics I’ve ever read. So I had no choice but to learn to love the music. So I did it, and now mewithoutYou is one of my favorites.

Box Car Racer - Box Car Racer (2002)
A side project from Blink 182, so how could I not like it? This album has an underground sound to it, as Tom explored some music he didn’t find appropriate for Blink at the time. This is the only album by the band, but it really has something to it. It explores various themes involving love and war.

Ignite - A Place Called Home (2000)
This is a band that I heard for the first time while they were on tour with Comeback Kid. I bought this album that night. The messages they were spreading to the audience while on stage were amazing, and the way they put it into their music is equally amazing. There’s something very powerful about the vocals.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon (1973) and Wish You Were Here (1975)
These two albums are by far my favorite work from this band. Pink Floyd can put me in such a mood; it’s incredible. They’re great to listen to both actively and passively. I don’t really know how to put words to these works without using hundreds of them.

Avenged Sevenfold - Waking the Fallen (2003)
I like all of their work, but for this one album they really had something incredible going on that they haven’t had on any other album. I really don’t know how to describe it. The album takes you on a journey. It’s pretty spiritual. There are some really amazing parts to it. I feel like I’m using the same words over and over again to describe all these different albums, but there’s a reason they’re all on this list.

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I’m cutting it off here, but like I said, this list is far from complete and not in any order. I’m sure I could fill several more pages with honorable mentions. I had to refrain from putting every Blink 182 album on here because I easily could.

You probably scrolled through this to see if there was anything that catches your attention. But this was actually a pretty deep post for me to make. Just sharing it as a form of reflection.

School is definitely in full force right now. I’m working on three projects right now and about to start on a fourth. Thankfully I don’t work too much at either of my jobs. This weekend was very difficult on sleep however with a shoot on Friday, then a overnight shift at the Lied Center, followed by an all day training seminar on Saturday. But, I also live for challenges like that.

Christy was here on leave a couple of weeks ago. We got to spend a few days together and it was amazing. Then I went to the airport to say goodbye to her for several more months. I have bad memories of being too late to say goodbye at the airport, but this time I made it there in plenty of time. I hope to spend at least some of the summer in Seattle with her.

Las Vegas is approaching quickly.

When I was in high school, I could pull an all-nighter almost on accident and make it through the following day with just a little bit of drowsiness here and there. Then as I entered college, it was still relatively easy to stay awake all night, whether it was working on a paper or just hanging out. I used to prefer going without sleep over waking up with very little sleep. But now as I near 22 years of age, it has become far more difficult to keep my eyes open all night if I choose to or need to.

Last night as I made the hour drive back to Lawrence between 1:15am and 2:15am, it was quite a struggle to keep alert on the road. I used to be able to make that drive when I was awake until 6am just fine. In fact, I remember my friend and I left Oklahoma at 10pm to drive to Paola, a trip around 4 hours, and I drove the whole way. We even added an extra hour to the trip to go to IHOP (because that’s what you do at that time of night).

I can only attribute this to getting older. I do not like losing any control over my sleep habits. Note that I never take any sort of energy drink, pill, or even soda. I suppose the brighter side to this is that I struggle a lot less with falling asleep at night when I want to.

So now I’m a full time student with two jobs and a bad habit of volunteering.

I have two production classes which are good at consuming your time with group projects. Then Western Civilization II does a beautiful job of eating my time as well. Hebrew Scriptures is my other class but it is only a burden when compiled with the other three. All my classes are important to me, though, so I will be keeping all of them and trying not to complain.

My internship searching has kind of dropped off…partially because I’ve gotten busy, but also because I’ve been through most of my options (for Seattle, that is). It sucks that the one I would like the most I won’t hear about until April, which is likely too late to find anything else. So I had better work on a backup plan (and a fall back plan), even if it means staying in Kansas City.

Right now I’m at the ultimatum I face every Saturday night. I have to be up for Eastlake in about 2.5 hours (BTW, 270 people showed for the launch service last week). So do I get two hours of sleep, and have to deal with the pain of waking up with so little rest? Or do I show my sleep schedule who’s in charge by pulling an all-nighter? I’m pretty sure I’m choosing the latter this week.

My Christy comes home soon.

I did go to the Emergency Room twice over break. Both times were from being pulled behind a truck on a car hood in a field. It’s hard to imagine how something could go wrong with that. The first time, I cut my knee which wasn’t a big deal. The second time I got 8 stitches in my right wrist. Getting the stitches hurt the most. So if you ever find yourself out hooding, be sure to bail off when you see a tree coming! Don’t wait until half a lap later when you notice your skin is detached.

Linda, my supervisor at McCollum removed my stitches for me a couple of days ago at work. I’ve been working 8 hours days this week since classes haven’t really started. I had one class today and that’s it until Tuesday. Getting up at 6 am isn’t my favorite thing but thankfully work hasn’t been too bad. It’s just been taking a lot of my time and I have had a lot to get done this week.

I’ve been searching hard for internships for the summer. I’m trying to find something in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Specifically in post-production or audio design. It’s a lot harder to find than I thought it might be and I haven’t received any responses to any of my emails yet. I’m also looking for a better job here in Lawrence. I’ve applied for some theatre positions. I’d like to get something that will have better hours for me (since my schedule will only allow about 4 hours a week this semester) and look good on my resume.

Eastlake is meeting weekly now, which is exciting. We fully launch in a couple more weeks, which is even more exciting.
http://www.eastlakelawrence.com/index.html

I’m very glad to be back in Lawrence. Ready to kick off this last year of school.