May 28, 2005

Time's A'marchin
life, log

Yesterday there was an interesting gathering which I attended. It was, in an occurrence beyond belief, held within the premises of the tiny little out of the way place which I tend to call home, and that quite delighted me. There were lots of flying objects there too, at least until the sun went down, and they reawoke in me my CTY-born love of frisbees. I now have an intense desire to chuck some disc in a nice grassy field, and I'm going to have to find a way to do so this summer, although it might be a bit difficult to find others who would be as excited to throw discs as I am. I also got a chance to dance a bit, which made me happy, especially since I got to show my dancing off to people not accustom to it.

Now, however, I'm in a weird mood. I'm not exactly longing for anything, and nor am I really lonely, but, nonetheless, the only thing that sounds like it'd be really fun right now is being with friends. This is probably just due to the impending exams tarnishing my recent (friend-centric) view however. One exam starts on Tuesday, with the rest kicking in on Thursday, and I have quite a bit of studying to do for them. So far I've done 1/2 of the stuff I have to do for Latin though, and that only took 2 hour or so, so it shouldn't be too hard to finish everything, especially with the super-delicious 3 day weekend. The only really big thing I have to do now is my French composition, but once I actually start writing that it should be a breeze.

In other news, I've been extremely hooked on Angband recently. It's an extremely fun game, and I'm doing better than I ever have before in it. There's not much that's better than chopping up orcs and their kin while hunting for the next best weapon. I'm also enjoying T.O.M.E., a variant of Angband, and THEME, a module for T.O.M.E. which adds some new classes and such. Currently I'm playing a half-troll warrior in vanilla Angband. He's level 18, and I just found the Phial (YAY!) on level 9 of the dungeon.

Well, I'm off now to watch me some Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Last weekend I watched the movie, and this weekend I get to watch the DVD of the TV series, YAY! Y'all enjoy yourselves.

Posted by Trevor Savage at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2005

Brims, Sore Throats, and Rain
life, log

Soo, our last regatta was this weekend. I got to the beach house rather late, so the only fun I caught was the tail end of a family guy episode, but 'twas alright. We were the first race or so in the morning, and while the rowing wasn't precisely heaven, it felt better than it did at the last regatta. This weekend I finally noticed that all the races that felt really good, where I didn't really get killed by exhaustion but where I also felt that I'd rowed my best, were races in which I'd rowed in an eight. Racing in a four seems to be much more tiring and seems to require much more effort; hopefully next year I'll get to row in more eights than fours, although that seems unlikely unless we manage to snare some more guy-rowers.

In addition to rowing, I coxed a shell, and had a brimful of fun in the process. After a bit of difficulty getting lined up at the start, the race went quite well – I think it's the first race I really coxed, as when I'd coxed previously I hadn't done much encouraging of my crew. Saturday, though, I discovered the delights of yelling and trying to drive the shell forward with your voice. All three shells in the race were neck and neck for almost the entire time, and near the end we started to pull ahead. Unfortunately we faltered a bit, one of the other shells got a lead, and we pulled into a close 3rd. I was still rather proud of my shell though, and boy do I want to coxswain some more! If just for that, I'll definitely be doing crew next year.

While we were across the bay we headed over to Stark & Legum. I found a really awesome black Stetson rain hat (the gable) which I promptly fell in love with. It should look quite nice and perhaps Europeanish with my black pants and shoes and whatnot, and it makes me happy to have something of a collection of hats now.

Mayfair at school on Sunday wasn't too bad either – all I had to do was help set up some things in the beginning, help man the crew table, and then help tear things down when a rainstorm flashed down on us. They had some pretty yummy snow cones and fries for sale as well.

Now that crew's out, all I have to do in the afternoons is some kinda fun data entry for community service – it's nice to be able to do something kinda within my realm of specialty, even if it's a bit monotonous.

I need to work some more to fire up the furnaces of friendship though – with a number of people away to Fox Island (some nice pictures, but from a different school) for a few days, social opportunities don't jump on me anymore and I think my Sims-style social meter is sagging. Tomorrow however I'm bringing in my banjo ukulele, so we should be able to rustle up quite a bit of fun during lunch and activity.

Anyway, thanks for tolerating the flushing of my mind's accumulated worries and thoughts, if that's indeed what you've done. Future entries will be less splattered, but I needed a wide entry to allow my mind to focus, if that makes any sense. I'm off now to rustle up whatever fun I can find here, as I do seems to be stagnating a bit.

Posted by Trevor Savage at 9:33 PM | Comments (1)

May 6, 2005

Experiences from the Abyss
life, log

[NULL]
murkiness
murkiness
sickness brings laziness
longings for warm tea and good music
and a desire to lie back in a comfy chair

as I recede into my mind
I must be moored to the present
stimuli halt my fall into the abyss
[/NULL] Well, I'm definitely sick, although to what degree is arguable. It varies quite rapidly; one second I'll feel fine, then sickness falls upon me and I just want to lie down. One advantage of sickness, however, is that it usually inspires some interesting poetry, as you can perhaps see to the right. Anyway, today was the A.P. U.S. History exam. It wasn't so bad, although I shouldn't talk about details I don't suppose. Most of the questions pleasantly surprised me though, and, although I have no idea how well I'll do, I made it through! None of the essays were unanswerable from my knowledge base. And tomorrow is the SAT! Fun! At least it doesn't have as many essays as the AP did, and the multiple choice questions I'm certain to do better on. Best of all, I can't really study for it! So tonight's pretty much dedicated to relaxation. There're evidentially plans to go to an awesome mexican restaurant after the SAT too, so I quite hope those pan out. The length of the test (4 hours or so) is rather intimidating, but I don't worry too much about it; there's nothing I can do about it (other, perhaps, than sneaking a hip-flask of tea onto the site so I don't fall asleep) and everyone else will have the same disadvantage. I'm happy though. I'll be in British mode tonight, more or less. I have a delightful dose of British comedy from Netflix, which I'm quite overdue for – I haven't seen a movie in a week or maybe even longer, and – goodness – it may even have been 3 weeks since I've watched any British comedy. Plus, I'll definitely have to brew up a nice cup of tea, and soon I'll direct iTunes over to the Beatles to get some goodness pumped into my brain. Of course, that doesn't mean too much; I'm also planing on making some Mexican-inspired spicy chicken noodle soup without chicken tonight, along with some of my modified Civil War era corn cakes which will be fried in olive oil. Anyway, I'm off to get to the aforementioned Beatles; may you have success in all your culinary adventures!

Posted by Trevor Savage at 6:39 PM | Comments (0)

May 4, 2005

Postprom Experiences
life, log

I've started to write 3 different blog entries on different topics, 2 of which I haven't finished, so I'll just pile them all into this entry.

I think I'm starting to get a bit sick; marathon weekends tend to do that to me. The weekend of Macbeth, when we had a regatta stuck into the schedule much as one was this weekend, I had about the same symptoms. This Sunday, at afterprom, my throat got sore, and it didn't improve over Monday and Tuesday. Today, my nose starts running and feeling a bit put upon by unidentified invaders. This afternoon, I start feeling a bit sick and a bit chilled, and spend 2 hours doing much of nothing; nominally, I was surfing, but I only got around to a few sites. I just hope I hang in through Saturday; Friday is the day of the A.P. U.S. History exam, and Saturday we have the SAT.

Anyway, the Prom was quite the delight, I suppose. I was high on dancing and a lack of sleep and tophats and tails the entire time, so I had quite a bit of fun. A bit of socially challenged wonkiness was there in various forms, but oh well. Afterprom was like a really weird version of hell; one where they make you play games and give you prizes, but also one where you're so sleepy you start hallucinating. The dancing made the whole night worth it though, even if I felt like I was going to throw up at one point due to having consuming more water than the average camel. It was amazing how much I sweated; despite my copious consumption, I barely had to go to the bathroom at all. Boy did I love me some tophat though!

I am a bit worried about my ears however; since I've started going to dances and the like, I think I've noticed some decline in their ability to sense, and now it seems that a dull pain inhabits them. I definitely want to find a pair of earplugs to keep on me. I'm not sure how damaging intermittent dances can be (although if they can be very much so, I'll definitely start wearing earplugs) but if I ever have the opportunity to dance more often, earplugs will become a necessity if I want to dance for much longer.

My only real gripe at the moment though is that socialization is ADDICTIVE! They should put a bloody surgeon general's warning on the package. And, at the moment, I'm a bit devoid of this miracle fruit. Online conversations don't really suffice any more; they usually don't have as many people contributing, and the lack of outside stimuli shared by the conversation's participants can make coming up with topics difficult.

In addition, school doesn't seem that great of a social local either. There isn't much free time in the schedule for one; lunch only grants 25 minuets, during which you also have to stuff your face to glean necessary nutrition. In addition, I don't have a much better time talking at school than I do online; for some reason, I can't really come up with too much to talk about. This probably isn't so much a problem with school, entirely, as with my mind, so I'll have to work on it myself.

The best chances for social interaction, though, are definitely off-campus activities; regattas, the ride to crew practice, and other gatherings can become facsimiles of mirthful nirvana. For the moment, though, most of the crewbs with whom I like to twist words are going to morning practices, while I go to practice in the afternoon. Thus, I'm feeling a bit low in my quota of laughter and happiness.

Anyway, I'm off for French and Math SAT (fun! no, really!) homework, as well as some AP studying. I'll have to make sure to fit in a nice cup of English tea too... Be happy y'all, and socialize yourself up some mutual fun!

Posted by Trevor Savage at 9:05 PM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2005

An Ordinary Week, Topped with Spices
life, log

Finally had a nice row at crew; the water was rather calm, and I felt that I was recovering from the, uh, stagnation of the last few practices. We didn't work too hard either. In other news, my community service is finally falling into place very nicely; I have something lined up which involves typing (that is, data entry), so it should be neat.

Just got in a nice half hour or so of random fun fiddling with my banjo ukulele, at risk of blowing my ears out; that thing is loud! I'm having fun experimenting, but I want to learn about playing chords up (down? everyone seems to say up, even though that doesn't make sense...) the neck – I understand the concept, but I'm not really sure why one would want to do it in the first place – as well as how to play/pick melodies; I don't really understand what melodies even are (on an instrument) yet.

Other than all that, it's been a rather normal week so far. We're doing SAT review in math (which is rather fun) and english (which is rather boring). I'm kinda addicted to SAT math problems; they tend to require equal parts of problem solving and math skills, so they're rather fun. The english ones just slog along though. They're not very fun in the first place; while solving math problems is, generally, what math is all about, you don't read book for the purpose of answering foolish little questions! And, furthermore, the questions can be VERY picky; does ponderous have a good or bad connotation? In my mind, depending on the situation, it could be either. And yet some of the questions hinge on such feeble supports. English is inherently much more subjective and not so well suited to standardized testing, although the essay that they added is definitely a step in the right direction.

Tomorrow we start decorating for prom; I have no idea what to expect, but it should be an interesting diversion at any rate. And I'll jump on any chance to play with duct tape! I don't have much of an aversion to constructing things or doing light manual labor either, so it shouldn't be too bad. And now that our ranks include a few crewbies, I'm sure the labor shouldn't be too onerous whilst socialization lightens the pain. Anyway, I'm off to find some good music and indeed socialization. Have fun, and may your tongue be the harbinger of many great conversations!

Posted by Trevor Savage at 8:12 PM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2005

Roaring into the Week with a few Deadweights
life, log

I just got back from a nice long row at crew – during half of it I rowed and during the other half I coxed. The rowing was nice to get back into the week with, although it left my hands a bit roughed up, and the coxing was fun too, except for docking and a few times when my fluid dynamics model in my head reversed. I haven't ever really docked on my own, and I'm kinda nervous about it, although I suppose it shouldn't be much different from the rest; just use the oars to turn and pull the boat in, one way or another. Most of the time there's a coach on the dock at that point though, so I tend to get nervous over whether I should try to bring it in or if I should just let the coach call it.

Anyway, crew set me into a nice, happy mood, despite a few things which're worrying me and which I'm doing my best to forget about. The first's just a take home history test, which isn't too hard, I just have to buckle down and think about it. I'll have to make sure to do that tonight, so I can put my mind to rest... The other thing is community service; It was nicely lined up to all be finished one day at a regatta, but wind canceled it... Now I'm rather lost as to what to do; the only time I have free from here on out is Sundays, really. And the library isn't open on Sundays. Conceivably, I could skip out on a regatta, but I really don't want to do that, especially since we only have a few left. Thankfully, this is the last time I'm forced to do community service.

We really should have a debate team or somesuch at our school, even if all I really want to do is rip through those who don't think some people deserve equal rights. And, if we did have a debate team, I'd rather join it next year than this, when a few certain people with rather excessively fiery opinions won't be here anymore (although that'll be a mixed blessing, what with some of the nifty people who're in the present senior class). But history class has a tendency to get me rowed up, when the (also nifty) teacher mentions certain issues. What with it being a lecture, I have to just boil in silence with visions of me at the head of an army of liberals roaring in my imagination. And, if you happen to be conservative in issues like gay marriage: jolly good, but you'd best have some great arguments to back yourself up, ones that don't fall back on religion or marriage-for-reproduction...

I feel a bit guilty about not having included any photos or many textual tidbits recently, so I'll just vow to put together an album from my last Italia trip soon. And I'll also post the one from Washington D.C. last December; it has some nice pictures. Anyway, it's high time I put on some TMBG, so I'm off to do some hard core relaxing; y'all be happy, you hear?

Posted by Trevor Savage at 8:36 PM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2005

The Shakespearian Shell: Fun on the Water and on Stage
life, log

music,
	the healer of all wounds
	such glorious tunes
	they power the elevator to heaven
	within the mind act as a leaven
	it takes your hand in depression
	and lead you until it has lessened

I have a rather lengthy article brewing about musical instruments and the playing thereof, but that will have to wait for now. I need a good bit of time to cut it down to size, and time's rare right now. In the meantime, you might like to look at this picture and, if you're inclined to, drool.

Anyway, dress rehearsal is tomorrow for the Scottish Play , in which I'm playing Banquo, and we're... dancing along. Things are getting fun, although I think I like small plays much better; this one has about 35 cast members, and thus one doesn't get as much time on stage and the actual production doesn't seem as personal. In small productions all the rehearsals seem quite fun as one prances about in character, but in this play only a few rehearsals have thus far reached that level of delight. I also had to get over a slight dislike of Shakespeare – he's not exactly high comedy – but I'm alright now. In addition, it's quite delightful how you tend to remember other people's lines, even when you're not in their scene; they make excellent quoting material.

As highschool draws nearer to an end and only one more production is seen approaching on the radar, I've been thinking about acting and my future. Previously I'd thought I'd probably drop it after highschool, but with only one more opportunity for such fun currently planned, I think I'll definitely join up in some amateur productions in college and beyond; I can't conceive of going my whole life without any more acting.

In addition, this Saturday, right before our second performance of the play, we have a regatta. I'm coxing, and it's rather fun; I'm a bit hesitant at the moment about shouting out orders to correct our course, but I suppose I should just do so whenever I think it's necessary; I might not guide us on the most efficient path, but with time that'll be corrected.

With luck, I won't loose any vertebrae during the regatta; the shell we've been rowing in doesn't have any way to secure the coxswain's bottom, so you tend to jerk back and forth, which can be quite painful for your spine. Bracing yourself and sitting so your side, not your back, gets the whacking, seems to help a little.

Finally, on the topic of the poetry which accompanies this entry, the powers of music are quite amazing. I came home with only an hour and a half to rest and do my homework in, in something of an imperfect mood. But, after one or two listens to Dragoste din tei my mood had soared to levels of great happiness and optimism, within a period of mere minutes. I hardly know what I'd do without such tunes; they serve as hammers with which to forge your state of mind.

Away, and mock the time with glee! True face must show what the heart doth know!

Posted by Trevor Savage at 9:41 PM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

Whipped Butter and Bagels
life, log

fresh bagel smell on the air
the goodness is everywhere

Wombat! We have a three day weekend ahead of us, and boy is it delightfully packed! Saturday, the crew team is up bright and early to head to an erg pull, where each of us will attempt to yank a chain at break-neck speeds in order to trounce (or not) the rest of the crewing community. After that, a few of the crewbies and some noncrewbies will be heading back to school for the first "rehearsal" of the Scottish play, where we'll attempt to prevent certain members of the cast from decapitating anyone. I'm quite looking forward to the rehearsal, as it has, of course, been a year or so since the last play, and I can't wait to dance about under a borrowed face once more.

We also have sketchbook exercises in art! And they wouldn't seem to be very onerous; no paper-shading this week! Nope, this time we get to design and color 3 outfits. Ought to be interesting, although most of mine will probably end up being either fantastical or just really weird designs which I'd love to wear but which I'd have to make myself if I'm to have them. They'll probably mostly be male too. I'll likely stay away from female figures so that I might prevent myself from massacering either the anatomy or the outfits themselves, although some nifty colorful billowing clothes might work well enough on a female frame.

Speaking of art, I'm becoming rather amorous of watercolor. Although I'm loath to try anything complex yet, like a duck *cough.* or a marsh, at least with any high expectations, it seems rather fun, and the patterns the paint sometimes makes in the water can be quite delightful. The water can also be a curse though, as if you put it on an already-dry surface of paint, it can splotch, forming a downright ugly and as far as I know unfixable water-mark.

We're currently doing the previously mentioned clay tiles, though, which work well enough, although I'm a bit wary of the kiln's destructive powers, and my clay didn't want to get properly wet today– it was either too dry or too wet all period. The sword handle is also frustrating me, as the period before last I crafted a nice little sword, but I spent all of this period to little avail. I almost had it once, but the scale wasn't right. I'll have to do a computer version of my personal crest/coat of arms/etc thing and post it soon.

I noticed today that the acronyms for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (MSWF) and Macworld San Francisco (MWSF) are remarkably similar. Knitting and Apples seem to be more closely related than the first glance might indicate! Maybe the two events should merge; never mind the fact that they're located on opposite shores, surely some dimensional magic can solve that problem.

Finally, I just opened up and toasted the first of a package of Thomas's blueberry bagels, and boy did they smell good. Pure happiness they didst contain the pheromones of. They didn't taste quite as good as they smelled, and I had a time with the whipped butter (golly is that stuff messy), but they served their purpose. May your weekend prove delightful and filled with the smells of happiness!

[Yes, this was posted on the 19th &ndash you haven't gone insane – but only because I hadn't finished reading over it the day before. Oops.]

Posted by Trevor Savage at 8:48 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2005

Knitting: Scarves, Pouches, and Hats
log, yarn

Just before Thanksgiving or so, I started knitting along with a number of my fellow crewbies for the purpose of creating fundraising scarves - my contribution to the effort being happily sold afore the scarf-selling was through. Becoming hooked upon the craft, I then went on to buy a surplus of needles (tip: you don't need to buy 3 sets of needles to knit one pair of socks.) and forge ahead, needles poised. A modicum of yarn later, the clack of needles can be heard as I do battle with a 21 inch long rectangle, also known as a hat.

Prior to starting the hat, I also knitted a nifty little pouch, albeit with a good number of modifications – I ended up with a much smaller flap, and a nifty little button loop instead of a hole.


The "hat" (or is that a new breed of caterpillar?) poses next to my stylish duct tape wallet.

The hat, based on this pattern, is knit on straights, "around" one's head. I would've knitted it from the brim to the crown, but I wanted vertical stripes. I took out the increases/decreases from the pattern to eliminate the spiral, and switched to 4-row wide stripes. I'm using black and neon orange acrylic yarn, selected based on color. At first, the acrylic felt a bit oily after using Wool Ease, but that feeling soon disappeared.

At first I was cutting the yarn at each color change, but that would have resulted in 84 ends to be woven in. Looking into the nifty-nifty Vogue Knitting book, I found the simple twisting method of carrying the yarn, after trying the weaving method also found in the book. Twisting seems to work quite well, although I suppose it makes the edge a bit messy, but it's a lot better than either of the other options I've tried, and is quite easy too. I'm currently twisting the two colors at the beginning of every knit row – I'm using stockinette stitch – which seems to work alright.

I'm a bit worried about my gauge, since it seems to have varied a bit since I started. Moreover, my tension when purling is much looser than when knitting, which is a bit wonky. I'm hoping that it won't matter and so I'm just continuing on, making efforts to equalize my knitting and purling tension as I go.

At any rate, I'm about 3.5 inches from the end of this thing - I'd best hurry up and finish it before the cold disappears. After finishing the knitting I get to sew it up, add a pompom, figure out how I'm going to do the black brim I also want it to have, and start some yummilicious socks! Tube socks, that is – I don't think I'm quite ready for the complication of real socks.

Posted by Trevor Savage at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2005

Snow!
life, log

SNOW! C'est beau! A physical manifestation of the yummlicious cold air, coating everything in a beautiful white icing and making me want to dance about in it whilst in good company! Alas, to home we went, to study for exams. No snow-dancing for us. We did sit outside during lunch, though, while the snow started it's descent, so not all is lost. The snow called out to me to photograph it, and I caved in when I got home and hopped around for a while; click the photo above to view some of the resulting pictures. It may seem that I'm getting a bit excited about a teeny bit of snow, but what can I say- I like precipitation.

And, speaking of snow, I hail all towtrucks! Saw three or so accidents on the way home, two of which had towtrucks working about. Although I have no idea where they come from, seeing as how this seems like a towtruck devoid rural area, thanks be to them and their drivers!

Exams and snow, snow and exams; others often express heated preferences as to when the school-halting snow comes, some preferring that it come during exams that they might have more time to study and others desiring that it come about afterwards, so that they won't have to worry about exams. As for me, as delightful as hoping is, I don't particularly care when it comes, as it'll come whenever it will and whenever it comes I'll be happy. Either way, though, when the snow gods take their tally for and against powdery precipitation, I certainly shout "Aie"!

Posted by Trevor Savage at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)