Into the Madding Crowd

At long last, my Web site is complete! Well almost, I still need to upload some R&B ads for my design section. But regardless/nevertheless/either way, I’m pretty dang proud of it. 

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Sunday night = 5 hours

Monday night = 2 hours

Tuesday night = 9 hours 

That, my good people, is my sleep schedule to date this week. No wonder I’m oversleeping 98% of mornings. You know how Veronica Guerin had her speeding problem? My schtick is my chronic bum-rush to get to class on time. I make it, but not before panicked tooth-brushing; Special K bar consumption while driving; speeding and sudden braking; and running down the hill. 

True story, happened twice this week. 

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Dissed in 90 seconds coming to you soon with 3 more episodes! Get excited for the pending verbal assault on cinematic gems such as, Forbidden Kingdom, In the Name of the King, Never Back Down, 10,000 BC, and Beowulf.

Picking out weather-appropriate clothing is somehow not my forte.

Yesterday was a muggy, balmy, high 80s kind of day. I decided to wear long jeans and a long tunic. Today, Hurricane Kay is rolling in on the coast and Athens gets a wave of downcast skies. I opt for plaid shorts.

I have no excuse; I was warned last night by Randy that it would be a colder day today. However, I never remember to factor in weather when I pick out my outfits in the morning. It’s all based on whim and fancy. I mean sure, I know to wear long sleeves in winter and the like. But in the in-between seasons like spring and autumn, I manage to always get it wrong. I wear a scarf when it’s sunny, I don a t-shirt when it’s almost first frost. And then there was that one time sophomore year when I wore my silk skirt on a day of downpours.

I went through a spurt of song downloading these past few days. It always comes in spurts, I never download just one song. Got a lot tracks from The Stars and The Hush Sound, including, if you didn’t notice, “Hurricane.” Really starting to like the male/female duos, adds an interesting texture to harmonies. Another band that came up on my radar, thanks to Pandora.com: Hard-Fi. Really should check out:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMwC32nN4Lc&hl=en&fs=1]

The video looks to be someone’s class project. But it was the best quality one I could find.

Speaking of student-made videos. I thought it would be nice to put one my own music videos from way back, when I had time to do stupid things.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OhIgGSR9aE&hl=en&fs=1]

Off to class!

Hello strange world, 

I’ve been putting this moment off for quite some time; been waiting for the perfect, creative moment to inaugurate my official entry into the blogosphere. Knowing me though, a stroke of cleverness isn’t coming anytime soon and I’ve run out of good excuses to delay my first post.  

Don’t know why I should be so anxious about a personal blog. But then again, I tend to get anxious about anything I write. I suppose the roots of my anxiety lie in my previous failed attempts at self-immortalization. Like the many diaries and online journals before this blog, most of my endeavors eventually peter off into obscurity. I have used and abandoned a xanga, a deadjournal, and a crate full of half-finished diaries. I am, at my best, inconsistent; weeks to months separating entries. But like a reoccurring case of hives, the itch for self-expression inevitably gets me and I start another project.

It should be a fascinating ride this year, I must admit. It will be like watching a car wreck in slow motion, my sanity being the toyota corolla crushed underneath the truck called life. Taking 16 hours of classes, working as an editor and assistant production manager at the college newspaper, being historian and webmaster for my sorority. Yeah, it’s a Molotov cocktail of stress. 

So here we are, on The Emerald City Express. The inspiration behind the blog’s name derives from many different aspects of my life, only about half of which are interesting. But since I don’t feel the need to sound interesting to an nonexistent audience, here they are:

1. I have a love affair with fantasy fiction. In fact, being an author of a grand, dramatic fantasy novel is my dorky wet dream. I even have a pretty complicated fictional world growing in my head. The book that warped my mind? Ozma of Oz in the 4th grade. The Oz series led me down a yellow brick road to self-delusions and a rampant, albeit weird imagination. 

2. My favorite color is green and my birthstone is emerald. I naturally love the concept of a city in which EVERYTHING is green. And not just green, emerald green. 

3. Funny twist for those who haven’t read the book, the Emerald City isn’t actually green. The inhabitants don green-tinted glasses, makings things look green. It’s a lie, an illusion they delude themselves into believing. To me, it’s a cool way to think about how we see our world, how everything at the end of the day is only about perception. You know, like viewing the world through rose-tinted glasses. Yeah, so this is my Emerald City: this life and world as I see it. 

4. Express makes this sound like a train, it can also be read as its verb form. A bad pun, I know. 

And with this anti-climatic post, I tire and conclude. 

Til my next inspiration,

- Julie