RyanHarne.com

I’m really not liking this new layout and graphics so hopefully sometime around graduation I’ll get rid of it.

Ok, so this weekend was the wedding. It went very well, and definite congrats to Garren and Michele! The rehearsal dinner was at Polo Grille, some good food, but better dessert. I had like a bourbon creme brulee, of course with many character accents because it’s French. It was amazing, I’ve yet to eat such an exquisite dessert like that. And don’t forget the great conversation with my brother-in-law, Mike, who I never really got a chance to talk with up to that point. Also there was one of my most famous ’spottings’ on the way up. It happened to be in Fredricksburg where I spotted “New Found Glory Assembly of God.” It was very close to “Allen, Allen, Allen, and Allen Attorneys for Injured Persons.” But yeah, that was interesting.

And this morning I woke up really late. So I went to BRCC, kinda like my back-up church when I am not in the mood to visit some place else. Anyways, it was good and I saw Matt, Jennifer, Hunter, Sydney, and Jonah. Enjoyed.

And after that I went car shopping. I looked at the MB C230s, lots of nice for those small things. And I was looking at a BMW M5…wow. Then I went over to the Volkswagen place to check out the TDIs. Again, lots of fun.

Then tonight I went to see The Matrix: Reloaded with Kristine. The first one was ok, and this is more or less on that same average level. But this one had the worst dialogue of any film I’ve seen this year. Some serious cheese going on…a lot. But the action scenes were very nice and the CG incredible. I did have a complaint about all of the new characters they introduce so quickly; it seems that every scene has a new person to uncover. And I was disappointed with the car chase choice of cars. Cadillac?! Come on! I agree with Kris; at least a Porsche. But I enjoyed it, and that theater is much cheaper than the crappy mall theater that I’m used to for non-Dollar Theater films. Good times and a film. The film scores a 5.6 out of 10.

Today has been one of those evil homework days when I leave everything for my last minute Sunday afternoon time frame. And worst I have to read all of Macbeth tonight. It’s such a bad story, especially after reading Shakespeare’s highlight, Hamlet. Oh well, I did it to myself. Time to suffer my consequencses.

Also, I do enjoy getting some real email every now and then to counterbalance the immense volumes of spam I get daily.

Hey, new design! However, I’m not very fond of it and plan to say goodbye as soon as I can. I’m having major issues with these graphics and alignment of the tables. Oh well, something new to look at for the time being.

So I’m here at home while countless millions are at school. How does that work, well, I’m leaving for my brother’s wedding rehearsal in a few hours so I more or less get the day off. And I slept in until 8:45!! I haven’t slept in that late since Christmas. Feels very invigorating.

Shout out to Kenny, Jon, and the rest of the people who helped me find the information for “So Happy Together” so I could download it from the wonderful (only when you always have the latest version) LimeWire. And I guess LW deserves some gratitude as well.

Also, I believe I would like to Shout to those who visit my site daily. Thanks for putting up with bad designs and mediocre graphics, and thanks for peeping into my life just that one step more.

Such an odd assortment of life these past few days. Wednesday was my AP Gov exams. The U.S. one was simple, nothing to it (or so I hope, but now that I’ve said that I’ll probably get a 1 out of 5). The Comparative one (international gov) was beyond hard. But then again we technically never took that course and the exam is kind of free if you pay for the U.S. one, so it was just a shot in the dark for most people. Although our class ended up creating some of the most profound artistic creations for the Comparative essay portion; mine was a fluently created Chinese Cookout. And then there was the lunch at the duck pond behind China Royal, that was fun. We found out that if you throw things at loud and obnoxious ducks then they’ll stop their annoying ways. And we saw the greatest duck chase ever as one duck bit another one’s butt for an extended period of time during a chase…a true Kodak moment.

Then, on a whim, I went to the movies last night. Just by myself, something to do. I saw Adaptation starring Nicholas Cage and Nicholas Cage. The idea is good (the movie about itself) but the storyline really needed more. Character development was at points unrealistic and every now and then you’d get thrown off due to the lighting quick changes in scene, especially with the time of occurrence differences. An ok film. 4.9 out of 10.

And Happy Birthday Allison! Also, Happy [belated] Birthday to Tabitha! You two are too cool to be used in a sentence with so many to’s. Yeah, I need some sleep… But I suppose I can blame it on this sudden storm that LBC has been stricken with. Yeah, it’s definitely raining hard.

The last few days have been interesting. I’m really starting to question myself about college and life beyond even that. After a most intriguing conversation with a friend, I realize too that even though I have a college to go to I’ve yet to honestly find a career I think I can enjoy for a long time, not to mention location and salary. It seems that all we, as humans, seek in life is pleasure and I guess that’s the only thing life is for. My Christian faith would tell me that we are created to worship God, because in His Holy Goodness He sent His Son, part of Himself, to be our sacrifice for our natural deviance from His Holy Plan. I believe that to be true, but have yet to fully contemplate the idea that we were created to worship God. And I’ve struggled immensely for the last few days about how that incorporates into my life, because, obviously, I can’t live in a church constantly praying or praising all day. Understandably, I doubt God expects us to be church rats either. I’m just having some difficult times gleaning from my life to discover a purpose and meaning to it all. There’s so much that could happen in my life, but this human cycle seems so discouraging and apathetically focused that I continue to semi-believe that everything is meaningless. Of course there is some meaning, but I’m still searching. I just hope there’s more to life than work, cars, and real estate.

On a side note, I’ve noticed a trend in the modern sitcoms. They all suck. The true tv shows of the past (including, but not limited to, Seinfeld, Frasier, The Andy Griffith Show, Jeopardy, and even the recent Everybody Loves Raymond) were the staples for evening entertainment. But now our WEGA’s and DIGITall’s are hounded every night with crap like My Big Fat Greek Life, Eight Rules to Dating my Teenage Daughter, and Mr. Personality. I gag every time I hear a new reality show is born, I mourn when hearing yet another laugh track from law-grade comedies. What happened to tv? On that same ground, what happened to Disney? I remember the days of The Lion King and, the all-time classic, Alladin. Now the likes of Lilo and Stitch light up my local theater’s walls giving me yet another reason to get up from those uncomfortable seats. Media, why have you forsaken me?

We finished A Beautiful Mind today in AP Calc. It started off well, but ended on such a vague and general note that I was minorly disgusted. I remember the first day of watching and being highly intrigued but as it drew to a close I was kind of hoping each character would fall into some tragic doom of some sort. Despite my wish not being granted, the movie did end and I went away glad I didn’t buy it earlier on a sale. 5.0 out of 10.

Happy Mother’s Day! This holiday, however, should not be confused as a ceremony of celebration for a minority of our populace in which case could be described as discriminatory practices, nor should this greeting, in any way, force itself upon an individual provided he/she not wish so at the specific instance of recieval. Happy Mother’s Day!

This weekend has been good in a strangely odd way. Last night I went to the Savory / NAV show. Simply wonderful. I had never before realized how good Savory was and was definitely highly pleased and impressed. NAV was great too, but maybe I’m not really into the whole skanking thing. Yet still, the music was good and the calamity of hilarity equally exciting.

Then this morning was good. But I’m starting to really question and propound upon parts of my faith as a Christian trying to understand things. See, this is all so very much tearing me to pieces as I piece together my beliefs. Mainly because I see both ends of the spectrum very clearly and still question the relativity of both extremes. And in more detail, I understand that my faith in Jesus requires an active faith, yet I see that it is a natural way of life for people to walk away from God as they grow older and I think I should go ahead and start sliding into that horrible downward spiral, yet all the while I know that it is this foolish and frugal human nature that wants me to believe that I simply and controlled by sheer destiny. Arg, this is really hard to explain, but nevertheless very confusing and difficult to handle.

So naturally, I talked to Mark tonight over dinner at Bob Evans. Good food. I even got a dessert for free, more or less because it was sitting untouched during the entire course of our meal and is was like a ‘reject’ dessert so was open, kind of. But I ate it anyways, at least part of it. But, yeah, some very good conversation.

And who could forget my sprint out to see the Audi TT parked in front of my driveway (apparently someone had some guests over). I got some pictures on a disposable camera that I’m not expecting to come out very well, but my Cam shot for today looks ok. I cannot wait until I get a true digital camera. I’ll buy like a 2GB Compact Flash card because I’ll be taking pictures all the time. Maybe it’s because I’m a very visually-stimulated learner. Or it could be because I’m a complete techie geek.

Last night was, in the best sense of the word, freaky. When I came home from the movie, that I’ll get to later, I got out of my car to walk in the garage and I sensed this odd presence, like someone was watching me. And then of course was the scary rustling in the woods and such. So I get inside and go to bed shortly after. I wake up at approximately 11:30PM to this enormous sound. The lower level was titantic and just moved things within my room. The higher frequencies sounded like breaking glass over and over again. Then one of my parents comes into my room and tells me to get in the middle of the house. By then I’ve realized it’s some kind of storm that has begun to rattle our house apart. So I go to living room and lay down and then I’m told to go into the garage to watch the catastrophe unfold. Good Lord…I was totally speechless. It was hailing ice as large as golf balls, and the wind was tearing things up from the ground, even small shrubbery. So I end of getting back to my bed some time later and fall into some uncomfortable sleep all the while feeling that someone this is God’s wrath on me. I wake up to go to work and I walk around outside for a few minutes. All of our flower gardens are gone, only the stalks remain of a few lucky plants. There are shredded leaves everywhere, even the grass can’t be seen, not to mention my car and the other Mercedes that was nearly sealed shut with leaves and our roof which is now a delightful green color. My Jetta has suffered a busted side mirror. Side mirror! How the crap does hail take out a side mirror?! So, anyways, I am on the drive to work and it hits me. Why isn’t the rest of this town destroyed? There is no visible damage anywhere, at all! Even the street that I live on is ok, except for my house, of course. So then I start thinking again…Was this God’s Wrath?

Regardless of the answer, I have lots of cleaning up to do today and car that needs some loving.

And, like I mentioned earlier, I went to see The Hours last night with my fine, movie-viewing companion, Allison. I am having such a hard time rating this movie because it’s so different. First, it’s really hard to understand, even more so than Memento (my undoubted fav film). Secondly, it has really awkward plot twists and character development. Just overall, I liked it, but was really confused by a lot; yet, then again, I tend to like movies that really make me think. I’m not sure if I would get this DVD, maybe I would go see it again in theaters to try and understand it more fully, but maybe not the DVD. 5.7 out of 10.