RyanHarne.com

This week has been very crazy. We got FP started back up again (donuts do a world of good) and school was more than hectic by itself. Plenty of homework and larger-size assignments compared to other things I’ve done this year. I so can’t wait for VT; although I know I’ll be dying the first semester in the College of Engineering it’s going to be so fun (out of the house I mean). Yet I keep reminding myself my friends won’t be able to come along. This realization makes me count my days very seriously. Life is often wasted on ourselves, I want to get out of that natural habit and start actually doing something in this feeble world. Wow, call that my soapbox for tonight.

I’m starting to re-rip a lot of my cds again due to a major error I had (without knowing) before when ripping. So much to do…and at 1x it’s very slow.

Me admitting something: I’ve been listening to Hybrid Theory a lot lately, thanks to a good friend of mine. I’d heard so much about LP and how awesome they are blah blah blah. As I said previously I began liking Good Charlotte a couple of weeks ago and was amazed at their quality of sound and lyrical work. Well, we almost have a tie with LP. Although their music is predictable, I still can appreciate it in a new way. Lyrically it’s pretty good. I guess it’s the energy of the music that attracts me to it. Regardless, it’s a good cd.

Work today very early before my basketball game.

Almost forgot: we had our first basketball game Wednesday where everything seemed to fit together incredibly well. We won 75-24. It was simply beautiful; passing was perfect, shots hit each time, and forced turnovers galore. Great game. Then today we played and just bombed it. Only a few of us were really trying (it seemed like it at least) and we just couldn’t keep it together. Lost by like 10 points, I can’t remember the exact score. Our team name is the Forest Party. Color: bright lime green with orange lettering. You’ll see our eminence before you see us totally destroy you with fastbreaks.

I went over to Matt’s today to get some things prepped for eBay. Hopefully I’ll get lucky and rich (although the money is going right out as soon as I get it).

Tonight Mark asked me to help him co-host CafeRock thing at SFM. Well, it’s not LiveWire (which I dearly miss). It was fun though getting to be at the station and doing some radio stuff like the good ole days.

Well, after the news of the second cloned kid the issue really starts to heat up. But I have noticed a very odd (at least to me) trend among other people: most don’t care. It’s as if their attitude is "as long as it doesn’t affect me it’s ok". Cloning is one of the biggest mistakes in all of mankind’s history. To artifically re-create life in an entirely unnatural way is further lowering the bar of human standards of morality and ethics. Abortion already desensitized people enough to the merciless killing of people without appeal; cloning apparently will be no different. As long as regular Joe-Americans don’t have to see a clone being tested on 24/7 I guess they just won’t care. Maybe in 50 years the DMV will offer another choice on driver’s license registration besides Organ Donation: "In case of death, do you allow the state to use your DNA samples for cloning research and development?"

School has started back with a bang. I’ve been hit with a large amount of homework and stuff already. Not that it’s some unusual feeling or something, but the break really kicked in my slack-off approach to school. Oh well, just another week closer to June 7!

Major shout out to Jeremiah who is currently in San Francisco at the Mac World Expo. Have fun, if not for yourself then for me too.

Before I say anything, or more likely before I forget, I am officially changing my rate/score for Tuck Everlasting. After much deliberation I do believe this movie is pretty good and definitely a DVD buy, and it’s only PG! Well, here goes more nothing…6.3 out of 10.

I’ve been avoiding the issue of a new year pretty carefully, not really expressing any general feelings about 2002. So now I guess I’ll go ahead and do some spilling. Last year was a good year for me. But from the surface it would not appear that way. So many rather tragic (using the term loosely) things happened that really threw me off in the race of life. There were some mountain-top experiences when things just seemed to go so well, but they were very short-lived and exasperated quickly. The valleys and issues seemed to overwhelm me for the good majority of the year. Struggles and mentally obscuring events that just made me stop and pray for help. My faith in God grew in 2002 (no rhyme intended) and the lifestyle I lived changed. I can’t say that things became easy for the slightest bit or that reality seemed to float away in some bubble so I could focus on myself; but honestly, in 2002 my perspective on living and myself really progressed from dire selfishness to sincere hope for a fresh and better future not only for myself but for anyone I ever could come in contact with. I could rant and rave about the difficult situations I faced last year, but in hindsight I can now see that the distance I travelled in a year was upward and not further in regression. That’s something to thank God for.

Now for the Shout Outs that really, truly matter. These are to the people who were there when I needed someone to talk to, who influenced me in some great way, or those who I’ve found a true friendship in: Jeremiah, Rianna, Cliff J, Mark L, Matt H, Adam N, Melanie F, Kristine, Dan B, Tabitha and Allison (they are that famous duo), and I’m sorry if I’ve forgotten anyone. Each of you has somehow affected the way I look at life and how I react to myself; God Bless, I love you all so much.

Here’s my 2002 top picks from the top of my head, I’ll probably add more later; these are the ones that just deserve to be bought:

Music; Jeremy Camp The sound is awesomely good, the lyrics pure as silk, his life story is filled with personal tragedy, losing a new bride isn’t easy, and the songs he sings reflect such a passion for new things instead of focusing on the bad. This is such a good cd.

Movies; Monsters Inc. Come on, how can you not love this movie! The storyline is incredible and the CG work is phenominal. I’ve seen this movie more than any other last year and I still walk away just so sentimental (and that’s not me!). The comedy never ends but a true emotionally charged film emerges just the same. Just great!

Oh yeah, be looking out for V. 2

Not much has happened these past few days. Homework basically kept me waking up every morning because I still yet to have complete several school things before Monday. I really need to start seriously disciplining myself in the area of school because next year is going to be the greatest test of mental courage I’ll ever take; well, as far as I know.

I had a rather eventful day. Work, basketball practice, some window-style shopping that was actually more like walk-past-stuff-I’ll-need-for-college shopping. Then got home to do some well-deserved work on my "handy dandy notebook."

Tonight I saw Tuck Everlasting with Tabitha and Allison. I have mixed feelings about that one. The concept that the plot was built on was unsurpassibly awesome, but the plot itself just wasn’t very good. I’m not saying the storyline was bad (which it definitely wasn’t, I enjoyed the film) but there was so potential to be had and the creativity seemed to stop flowing somewhere. I had already figured out the plot about 35 minutes into the film, they gave it away in too many subtle ways near the beginning. So, I’m really struggling to rate this movie. It was so good, yet just wasn’t there. I’ll just recommend you go see it before it leaves theaters; the DVD comes out 2/25/03 FYI. Hmm, here goes nothing…5.1 out of 10.

Hey, it’s a new day, new year, and if you’re as optimistic as me then anything is possible. Let it be known that I wish everyone *most everyone* a very Happy New Year.

Shout Out to Adam, a cool new friend of mine that I met through Jeremiah (who by now is off to SoCal again). Adam apparently has his own site too. He calls it Divivonan ::a Memento twist::.

New Year’s Eve was spent at Mark’s place with the company of Jeremiah and Adam. First, however, we went to Adam’s house and had a bonfire/s’mores time with his family. That was a good bonding time, hence the bondfire. Ehh…maybe I’ll stay away from the jokes tonight. Then we went back to Mark’s place where we watched tv and talked about tv. We flipped over to MTV to watch the NYC ball drop at midnight starting off this grand year, then we were back to Cartoon Network watching one of Adam’s favorite shows, Adult Swim.

New music interest: John Mayer. Something about that smooth and fluent sound just intrigues me. The music and lyrics have such a comfortability to them that it’s a very attractive sound, at least to my musical tastes.

And still Good Charlotte is, since I’ve heard them, big on my favs list. Down with Avril.

Oh, I’m glad I didn’t go to Winterfest on New Year’s Eve because I heard it totally sucked. That was a good monetary decision on my part.

Closing off this first update of 2003: Make this year better than the last otherwise you’ve totally wasted an enormous amount of precious time.