Joel F

Find New Light

So check this out. Remember how much I have absolutely loved living by myself in a double? Well last night at 5:37pm I received a homewrecking email.

Hello Joel,

This email is in regards to your new roommate, Jason Oh, who will be moving in to your room, Harris 302, early tomorrow morning, October 26, 2005. I recently checked out your room to determine the living conditions and I need you to make sure that your room is clean and presentable for another roommate by tonight so that they may move in tomorrow morning. This request is urgent and mandatory so please make sure to take care of this by tonight. Thank you in advance for all your help.

Kofi Essel
Residence Hall Director- Harris Hall

How's that for a rain on my parade. Not even 24 hours notice and he still includes the threatening word mandatory in the email. Very unprofessional, Kofi.

For the last 24 hours I have been doing a lot of complaining and a lot of scheming. It shouldn't be that hard to get out of this right? I'd just have to walk around naked in front of him or tell him that I'm a convicted sex offender and I'm sure he'd leave just as fast and he got here.

Anyways, I avoided preparing my room for double dorming all day long. At about 8pm, there was still no sign of my new roomie so I stopped by Geneva's place to chill with the girls. While there I tricked Farrell into meeting my new roommate by telling him to come watch the baseball game in my room. Hah! It worked so good.

Just after the Chicago White Sox won the World Series for the first time in 88 years, Jason fiddled with the doorknob, opened the door and walked in. He seemed like a real nice guy, so I didn't have a problem with pummeling him with important roommate info seeking questions. The most important of those questions was what would cause this middle of the week emergency move. Jason didn't want to talk about it. He said he had earlier spent two hours in the office talking about it and was exhausted. A few questions later I asked him again. He was previously living in a much nicer dorm with two living rooms and two bathrooms. I figured something had to have happened for him to give that up and share a room with me where there are no living rooms and no private bathrooms. It wasn't too long before he caved.

"I'm getting a divorce," he said.

He said he didn't want me to talk about it, so I hope the internet doesn't count.

I feel lucky he unleashed that shocker because now I know not all hope of reclaiming my bachelor pad is lost. As my friend Ian suggested, all I have to do is figure out a way to get them back together! I could hack into his email and write his ex affectionate letters admitting fault and apologizing. They are facebook friends, so I know there is still hope for their love to find new light.

For Those Curious Ones

The effect is "a dull feeling of foreboding; something strange, ineluctable is approaching... images and chains of images, long-submerged memories appear, whole scenes and situations are experienced; at first they arouse interest, now and then enjoyment, and finally, when there is no turning away from them, weariness and torment. By everything that happens, and by what he says and does, the subject is surprised and overwhelmed. His laughter, all his utterances happen to him like outward events. He also attains experiences that approach inspiration, illumination... Space can expand, the gound tilt steeply, atmospheric sensations occur: vapor, an opaque heaviness of the air; colors grow brighter, more luminous; objects more beautiful, or else lumpy and threatening... All this does not occur in a continuous development; rather it is typified by a continual alternation of dreaming and waking states, a constant and finally exhausting oscillation between totally different worlds of consciousness; in the middle of a sentence these transitions can take place... All this the subject reports in a form that usually diverges very widely from the norm. Connections become difficult to perceive, owing to the frequently sudden rupture of all memory of past vents, thought is not formed into words, the situation can become so compulsively hilarious that the hashish eater for minutes on end is capable of nothing except laughing. The memory of the intoxication is surprisingly clear." - Der Haschisch-Rausch

Also. I am starting to enjoy updating Facebook on a near daily basis. Is this acceptable behavior?

We Came Together

I went to New York for fall break this week, my first trip there, and it was amazing. It was my first college friend surprise visit and it worked out great. Boy was Jeff sure shocked.

I had a few of his friends help me coordinate the visit, as well as some help from my main man Jason Chan. Farrell was there too, which means Farrell, Jeff, and Jason have all met! Nuts, I know.

Check out the playlist I made for the airport and other times during travel that require listening to music.

A lot happened on this trip. I toured around for most of the time and walked a lot. I thought it was one of the coolest places I've ever been. I liked Central Park and the pizza the best.

Can you believe this picture exists?

Leaving New York was crazy. We bought cheap standby tickets, thinking we could easily get a flight out on Tuesday, but we couldn't. The weather was bad and all the seats were full anyways because it was the day after a holiday. I stayed the first four nights of my trip at NYU and my fifth and final night in the apartment of my friend's older brother in Queens. We got a large pizza in a very authentic pizza place where the entire family played a part in the business. Very cute.

Morning and early afternoon flights were canceled on Wednesday, so we sat in the apartment watching different TV shows. We watched an episode of Star Trek where a woman fell in love with Data even though he was a robot and could never truly feel anything. After we ate some awesome $5 Chinese food we caught a 7pm flight back to Atlanta.

I didn't have class today. So I did laundry and cleaned my room. My friend Ian got a hookah in the mail from his mom. The package included all sorts of lovely flavored tobacco. Unfortunately hookahs are considered paraphernalia and are a illegal at Emory. Pooh Gas. Think of how many friends we could have made.

Here is what I had been listening to the most since I last updated itunes.

I have a feeling some of that will look differently after my trip to New York.

Feel the Outkast

Last night I was feeling lonely so I hung out with Sheena and Geneva in Sheena's room. While we were reminiscing while looking at pictures on Sheena's laptop, we came across a piece of film from the last day of school last spring. I must say my participation in the clip compares to a combination of Napoleon Dynamite's hot dancing skills and the Star Wars kid's huge loser skills. I had pink eye during this time, but I don't think that explains it. I guess I look pretty enthused.

video! <--- you need quicktime

Not having my own camera is affecting my image. It's good that I am not walking up and down frat row every weekend taking pictures of myself, but not having a camera kind of makes me forget what I look like. I also fear a lack of pictures means I'm not bringing others into my world effectively enough. Many internet surfers prefer to be told stories through visuals. But I guess I relate to those who prefer voyeurism through words, and thus I will try to get them off, multiple times in a single setting.

She Crooked

Much is happening. When Farrell asked me why I said I thought I'd blog today, I answered, "Because I have it in me."

Baseball action is heating up. With only two games left in the season, two juggernaut teams and a fire-spouting underdog third team are brawling it out for the two remaining playoff spots left in the American League. Consider this scenario. As of right now, if the Cleveland Indians close the season out with two wins over the best team in the American League, and the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox split their final two games, there will be a three way tie, and both the American League East Division Championship and the American League Wildcard will be up for grabs. According to senior baseball analysts Tommy Dahlk, Farrell Ingle, and myself, that outcome would present the following match ups. New York and Boston would play a one game playoff, the winner would decide the division champion, the loser would play Cleveland for the wildcard. That is intense baseball people and the playoffs haven't even started!!

Even though Ichiro had a quiet season, I'd still like to show some public respect to his most recent accomplishment. Oct 1 Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki made it five straight seasons with at least 200 hits, going 4-for-5 against the Athletics on Friday. He is just the sixth player in major league history to accomplish the feat.

Next topic -
For those of you who haven't noticed our wandyteeth advice section, we'd like to give you a glimpse of what kind of responses we are getting in an effort to ensure advice seekers they can find comfort here.

Fri, September 23, 2005 9:02 pm
You fine people at wandyteeth have always had your token gay bloggers, but why
haven't you ever had a lesbian? Do you not know any or are you all just fag hags?

Thanks,
a random reader|

Our response:

"It is true, Wandyteeth/Combatrhino has had a long history of gay dude bloggers. One might question the lack of the female variety, lesbians. I would assert that we do have, however, a bisexual woman, in addition to having had a pseudo lesbian. Perhaps this does not fill the quota, true, but I would still assert we are not "fag hags." I wonder, do you know any lesbian bloggers?"

"I'm not a fag hag. Maybe the gay bloggers we've had in the past have been straight hags. I certainly know Johnny has indicated he'd be up for a rumble with a few different straight boys from our community. Perhaps we haven't encountered any of the increasing numbers of lesbians that are coming out of the closet. I personally think Johnny and RJ are the kind of homosexual guys people like reading about. Maybe we haven't been cool enough to find that kind of lesbian. Whatever the case may be, we have an open door policy here at wandyteeth, as long as there is an agreement against stealing other people's babes."

Also - This week I saw two concerts.

On wednesday we went to the Drunken Unicorn, a venue smaller than Sokol Underground, and saw pyschodelic indie pop band Of Montreal. Before they came on I had to wizz one really bad. All sorts of guff was written all over the bathroom walls, so I wrote a little something directly in front of my eye level while I was evacuating fluids.
(these are phone pics taken by my shaky hand, but hopefully you'll appreciate)

These guys were super metro loveable dorks with incredible singing and flashy outfits. They wore a lot of pink. We were really close to the stage. Notice the cool stars above.

The best part of the show was a 10 minute long slow motion tamtrum performed by the entire band, complete with the kind of sounds you'd expect to hear in a time portal. Check out the awesome keyboard lady pushing over the drummer/bass player/etc. guy. All in slow motion!!

Thusday night was the Decemberists. They played at the Tabernacle. Compared to the $8 ticket price of Of Montreal, spending $20 on a Decemberists ticket seemed pretty costly, so during the day I earned a little extra cash. I traveled to Westminster High School and instructed one freshman how to answer some debate arguments. It lasted about 2 hours and I made $50. Jeal much?

The Decemberists were equally appealing to the eye. The lead singer was more flaming than metro, and had a powerful and attractive voice. The best song was The Mariner's Revenge Song, during which the giant chewing jaws of a paper whale on a stick was run up an down the stage as the entire audience, including balcony, screamed as if they were being eaten. Pretty awesome.

Earlier today Emory beat it's rival Wash U in soccer. I guess the soccer party I'm going to tonight will be pretty swrrt.

When Joel starts to play with his food that means it's time to leave.