July 2003 Archives

I need to pick a better broadcast time, seeing how I have to cover two days somewhat simultaneously can be tricky. Yesterday for class I gave a presentation over coins with Alexander's face on them. Exciting stuff. After watching more documentaries, class was ended early. I'm really beginning to enjoy our schedule. I then went to go hang out with some peeps. Good times. A whole bunch of people got together at this one guys apartment, whom I don't really know very well, and we enjoyed lasagna. (Is that how's that's spelled?)

Afterwards we went to go see Pirates of the Caribbean. What an incredibly boring movie. I'm sorry, literally every one that I've talked to concerning the movie said that they enjoyed it, but I just found it long and contrived. The plot was reprehensible. The acting lousy. And I dare say that the comic relief of Mr. Depp ended up being the highlight of the movie. Yeah, it was that bad. Oh well. I would probably still recommend that you go see it, after all, everyone else seems to like it.

I got to sleep in today, and all that class consisted of was watching a bad japanimation version of Alexander the Great for 2 hrs. Tomorrow I present on a piece of music written by Handel, Alexander's Feast, then more japanimation.

Back to the coal mines it would seem. My hiatus yesterday has cost me a bit of time...

Well, as it would turn out, the meeting with my small group co-leader was by far the highlight of my day. We chatted for a while about what sort of topic we might want for next semester, and then went out to lunch to get to know each other a little better. We just talked about our families, plans after college, general get-to-know-you, light conversation.

Then off to learn more about Alexander the Great.

We got about 45 min worth of lecture, and then went over to our professors house to watch a PBS documentary on Alexander. I say documentary because the guy in the video decided to retrace all the steps of Alexander. After about 2 hrs, it got old. Thankfully we stopped there, because there is still another video yet to come...

After 'class' I just basically had an evening of reading, reading, and more reading. I've now read 300 pgs in this book, so only 200 more to go.

The last part of my day was spent watching about an hour of Shanghai Knights, which is a funny movie. The drawback, however, was that I ended up watching it with one of my roommates and another girl. Now, I'm not entirely sure what their status is, but needless to say, there was considerable flirtation. It's been a while since I've been the third wheel. Hence why I only watched an hour of the movie and went to bed early.

So far today has not been terribly exciting either, but I am somewhat optimistic because I am on pace with my work for the class, and should be able to hang out with friends this evening.

Ok, so I admit that will turn out to be an inaccurate Hamlet reference, but it was the first famous line concerning dreams I could think of.

So, yesterday. Having overcome my paranoia concerning my class, I had breakfast and then practiced piano for a few hours. Then lunch. (Um...the day gets better, promise.) First day of class was fine. All the good things I had heard about this professor turned out to be true. In fact, she only kept us 2 hrs instead of the scheduled 4 hrs. Sweet. That left more time for...reading! I read about 150 pgs in a book about Alexander the Great which is actually quite good. If you have any interest in ancient history at all, I would suggest Alexander of Macedon by Peter Green. I've only gotten so far as the rise and fall of Phillip II and Alexander's attempts to earn the respect of his father's "allies", but so far it is quite good. Aside from bumping into an old roommate and chatting for 45 min., I basically read for most of the evening.

After having immersed myself in Alexander, I then went to go watch Zoolander with some friends. Talk about a 180. The movie was enjoyable, but a stark contrast from the otherwise academically intensive day.

Have you ever had those dreams where you wake up unable to shake the emotion that dream conveyed? I don't often remember my dreams, but this one was quite vivid. I had the opportunity of being on stage with Norah Jones for a performance at an awards show. If you have her CD (which I highly recommend) the song she sang, The Nearness of You, is the last track. The performance, like the song, was rather intimate. I then had to drive her to her parents' house (see, it had to get weird eventually) and a friend of mine who I didn't really know tagged along. I had intended to ask her for the music to that song (being a piano guy myself), and as I said, "Norah, this is a bit of a funny question, but..." my 'friend' piped in asking her out for me. So I got to experience the rejection without having even made the move myself. So we arrive at her house and her mother is really, really trying to convince Norah to go out with me, because apparently she is dating this rebel kinda guy. Well, I quickly decide to take my leave as the cops come swarm the house to arrest her boyfriend for some sort of crime. So, I suppose there was some sweet revenge at the end. Weird, huh?

Regardless, I unfortunately found myself awake having fallen for Norah Jones, despite all rational objections I made to myself. Thankfully, a morning studying the images of Alexander on coins was sufficient to dispel such notions. :)

I promise I'll get to the relevance of that title shortly, but there are a few stories to tell before I get there.

I had forgotten one of the things that I lothe about my college town, the driving. I have to take a two lane highway for the last 30 min or so, and consequently got stuck behind 15 slow cars. Yes, 15. It is amazing how much one slow driver can affect so much traffic. I finally get into the 'ville, as we affectionately call it, and I got behind a driver doing 25 in a 35, which is not uncommon. Shortly thereafter, I was almost hit by someone who ran a stop sign, and saw a fist fight on the square. Normally the 'ville doesn't harbor nearly this amount of excitement, must be my lucky day.

I found the place I was staying, turns out my contact had neglected to inform the other guys in the house that I'd be living there. Great. The place is also not air-conditioned...I guess I'll be spending a lot of time on campus.

Not long after arriving, I met up with several good friends to try this new resturant in the 'ville. The resturant itself was beautifull, unlike anything around, unfortunately the food and service were reminders that I'm stuck in a town of 17,000, 90 miles away from the next large town. After eating we went grocery shopping and I finally returned to my inferno of a house.

I miss the internet.

That is yet another absent feature of this house, but one that I at least expected. This is where the title comes into play. My class starts today, at 1:00 as I had seen several times. Yet, as always, I was worried that there was a possibility that I would be wrong. What if it was actually 8:00, and I missed the first class entirely, which for a two-week course would be extremely detrimental? Well, that's why I am in the library so darn early. I had to come and double check that I was right. I was. Isn't there something that can be done to alleviate this paranoia?

Well, I've spent the majority of this morning submitting my site to various weblog directories. Even got my first hit this morning! I also browsed around several different blogs to figure out what I do and do not like. One thing I noticed that was desparately missing was "about me" and "dramatis personae" (cast of characters) pages. I'm currently working to get some other webspace to host all sorts of different projects, including this, and will hopefully have that up within a few weeks. Oh, and eventually, if I'm getting enough hits, I'll even get a email subscription service going. Big plans, little time...

This morning I had eggs for breakfast, which normally wouldn't be news, but I thought I'd let you into my weird little world:

I like my eggs over medium, i.e. whites cooked, yolk runny. First I eat the egg white, because I don't like the taste of egg white and yolk combined. Then I use the right-hand side of a piece of bread to soak up the yolk. What remains is then eaten with the left-hand side of the piece of toast. Welcome to my world. This isn't necessarily a conscious (or is it conscience) effort on my part to develop an algorithm for eating eggs, but apparently I have a process for eating just about anything, from Taco Bell soft tacos to hamburgers. OCD much?

In a few hours I'm going to go head up to school for my interim course that will last two weeks. The housing arrangement should be interesting. I had to contact several guys before I found a place I could stay, and even now, I'm not so sure what the address is. Oh well. No worries mate.

It's 12:30, which normally wouldn't be that late during the school year, but after traveling to TCU yesterday, I am just exhausted. I added the little comment feature to my baby blog, which means that I'm not sure what I'll do with the forums. I figure once I finally get one main site with my pictures, radio, blog, small group stuff all on it, then the forums will be a nice place to discuss...anything really. I'm going to bed. I have to pack for a two week stay at school tomorrow. I'm taking an interim course on Alexander the Great. Should be good times.

sofg g3r gdb
*head falls on keyboard*

Good night.

Well, this is my first post, so I might as well say a few things about myself. I am a senior piano performance major with a math minor. I am really into photography and eventually I'll have a page up with some of my photos. I do accounting work over the summer full-time. So if you couple that with a few hours practice everyday and an hour of commuting, that doesn't leave much time for fun. Yay weekends!! I have not been romantically involved with anyone (I figured that's the only reason you are here) since I broke up with my girlfriend last semester. Stick around for a while, and you should be able to pick up on the rest.

Welcome to the "About Me" page. Before we can get started, my lawyers have suggested I offer the following warnings...*ahem*

Warning: This tour may cause mild to severe heart trauma, uncontrollable crying, irritating rashes, and/or tennis elbow. It is not advised that the following tour be taken under the influence of alcohol, illicit drugs, or Vitamin C as this has often resulted an unexplained lack of pants. Women who are or might be pregnant should consult a physician before continuing. Please do not attempt to operate a motor vehicle, heavy machinery, or anything else that could potentially cause physical harm to you or someone else immediately following the tour. Yes, the toaster counts.

That being said, sit back, relax and enjoy your tour. We realize you have many options when choosing a blog and thank you for choosing Walking Stick. We hope that in your future blog readings you keep Walking Stick in mind. Thank you, and have a nice day.

Well folks, my name is Andy Lee, and I'm the devilishly handsome gentlemen pictured on the front of this blog. Today I'll be walking you through a bit of my life, as well as giving you an overview of this site.

Currently, I am 24 years of age and attending The Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. I'm working on my Doctorate in Piano Performance and a second masters in Music Theory. From a personality standpoint, I would suggest you read a little bit about my Meyers-Briggs personality: INTJ. It is actually remarkably accurate. What I would add to that description, though, is an explanation of what my family has termed the "R-gene."

First, if you had actually read the profile as I had asked...

Take two: First I'll mention that I can be a remarkably shy individual, especially in unfamiliar social situations. This is characteristic of my father, and the absolute antithesis of my mother. My mom is one of eleven kids (she had a good Catholic mother), and all of them are quite extroverted. You get those guys around drinking, dancing, and/or karaoke and you have yourself a party. Apparently I was not denied this genetic material entirely, but it is rather selective about when it rears its head. I will be the quiet guy in the background, but when some dance music comes on...well, let's just say I find it quite difficult to not get down with my bad self. I've also been told that my "R-gene" shows up in my piano playing, albeit not in the getting-down-with-my-bad-self manner. Beethoven would probably kick me in the shins when I saw him in heaven.

Oh, and it's called the "R-gene" because of my mother's maiden name.

Aside from practicing piano (and blogging, duh), I spend as much time with my wife as I can. She is hands down the jiggidy jammiest, and I'd be a mess without her. We started dating a little bit after I had started the blog, so feel free to treck back and watch our story unfold.

So how did I get into blogging? Well, I actually don't remember, exactly. I imagine I was messing around on the internet when I stumbled upon a blog that I liked. The idea was sparked, and I ran with it. Originally I had intended this to be more of a journal, but I soon learned that wasn't very entertaining. The posts eventually started to morph into what have been called "mini-standup routines." I just try to highlight the interesting or funny things I came across during my day, with the intent of making you, the reader, chuckle at the least.

What you will not see on this blog are "internet-acceptable" spellings, abbreviations, or grammar. You will find typos and malaprops, as I often post when I am quite tired, but I still try to keep posts grammatically correct. This is also not an overtly personal blog where I substitute the posts for therapy. (Although some of my earliest posts may resemble that.) This is not a political or religious blog. There are too many opinions in this blogging universe, and frankly I don't have anything to add that isn't already out there. Instead, I try to stay funny and original with musings about my day. Nothing fancy, but I like it.

There are a few different things you may want to check out if you're new around here. If you don't feel up to going back to the very beginning and reading every post I've written (and I can't imagine why that would be the case), go and check out some of my 'Classics.' That should give you a pretty good sense about what's going on around here. If you are up for classical music, I have almost all the recordings I've made on the piano during my years as a music student.

Well folks, I think that will conclude our tour. Thanks for stopping by and do come again.

What's that you say? Where did the name come from? Ah, good question. You see, there are a few different reasons I chose the name. First, this blog accompanies me through my daily life, so the walking stick metaphor works well. Second, I'm really tall and skinny. Someone once said of me that if I turned sideways and stuck out my tounge, I'd look like a zipper. Hence, the title.