I say "music-something" because I'm not sure what that will eventually represent. I'm the product of a white, sort-of-upper-middle-class existance that digs on making sounds that don't terribly suck with my larynx and an amalgam of wood and steel - for the time being.I'm a denizen on a single open mic that I haven't attended in months. I'm the recorder of A song that I'll post when I figure our how to make something like that "web-ready."

I sit here half drunk and unsure of whether or not I'll ever even make a second post to this lovely loudspeaker of the web - but I'm hopeful. A sane muse in my sphere of consciousness, Hugh MacLeod once said... ...shit, I can't remember where I'm going with this. What a fantastic way to start things off. Fuck. Well, perhaps I'll leave this with something mildly poetic I spilled from the ol' mouthpiece in respose to a friend's comment earlier this evening...

Brian [When referring to his hate-fuelled devirginization of some rebublican broad]: "It was one of my worst showings, but at the same time, it was one of my best showings."

Me [While toasting with the douchebag drink of choice: a jäger bomb]: Well shit, here's to the dichotomy of moments.

Whenever I say something that sounds halfway cool, such as "dichotomy of moments," I attempt to write it on a napkin. This exchange was one of my rare successful instances of transfering thought to bar supply. I will now wait for my trusty all-in-one printer to warm up and I'll scan the thing to demonstrate how I'm amazing at bothering a bartender for a pen and making my thoughts come to life as ink on a bar napkin.

Regrettably, I'm shitty at putting it to any practical use once the doctored square of glorfied paper product is in my possession - I like to write shit down but I don't do anything with it. I have a growing collection of these little scraps of inspiration - I'll share them in another post if I'm even able to make it past this one. These should ideally turn into lyrics, however they seem, instead, to collect in a myriad of notebooks I keep with unfinished "masterpieces" scrawled across their blue-ruled pages. Cool - I got my scanner to work:

So who knows? Maybe this will become something lyric worthy. Maybe not. At any rate, I suppose this is the launching point for something that I think will make sense for me and for you. I know there's a message in the cacophony of my waking mind somewhere. Can't tell you why, but I feel it. I am going to make this an important part of my existance - for better or worse. This is the beginning, the Genesis, the, well, turning point for me taking this seriously.

We'll see how it goes...

• Nervousness

I'm not as nervous as I thought I would be. I'm pretty calm, but I'm hardly packed yet so I think I'm doing that subconscious time-creation-denial thing. I do have my random bits of nervousness though. They mostly occur right before I go to bed and involve me having an insane need to know the Japanese word for floor (floor.. furoa). I think I'll be ok. Since I don't really take anything too seriously, I'll probably get to Japan and do what I always do when I've got nothing---- Eat a bag of cookies and take a nap.

• Everybody Else

I'm fine with going to Japan. Obviously that's why I chose it. It's everybody else that makes getting ready to study abroad difficult. Sure I'll greatly miss my friends and family, and it'll be weird not seeing them. BUT if I have to hear one more time:

"I can't believe you're going to Japan, How are you going to survive."

I only have to reply... "Well It is a civilized country. With one of the largest GDPs. I'll probably just eat and all the other things I do to stay alive in my regular life"

I've had people ask me if Japan is like The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift and tell me that I'm going to get a sweet car the only way I'd be able to get a car in Japan is if I intended to live out of it.

I'm sick of people making it like Japan is a place "Few have dared to Venture" like it's fucking Venus or something.

"Careful going to Japan I hear there's a Giant Red Spot that's like a million storms"
Me:"Nope that's Jupiter"
"Well there's all those stairs that change on you"
Me: "That's Hogwarts"
"And paper beasts that are filled with evil, and the locals leave the children outside to fend it off"
Me: "Are you talking about a pinata. Those are filled with candy"
"Well there's that Godzilla thing. Watch out for that"
Me *places face in hand in utter disappointment*

So that's life. My parents are clinging on to every moment they have with me, random people are proving their ignorance, I'm drinking Cheerwine in place of water, I leave in 8 days, and the only thing in my suitcase is the promise that I'll get around to packing eventually.

Hey at least I'm starting, normally I would just wait to the last moment and throw a blog together it'd be some shoddy piece of webspace where I'd tell you about things long after they have happened and then promise you to post more later but then never fulfill that.

So the only difference in the blog that I'm creating right now and the blog I would have created later is the fact that it's being created now.
So now that I've assured you that this will be nothing special, we can move on to me. (wow isn't technology great I can just talk about me me me)

So my name is Eric. I will be studying abroad in Japan for the 2008-2009 school year. I'm going to Obirin University which is located in Machida Japan. (Google it if you care to find out where it's at)

The primarly purpose of this blog to document my travels abroad. As well as my daily life.

However
I see no point in only posting about Japan, I will also post about whatever comes to mind. This means that while I'm in Japan, blogging about living in Japan, and doing the general things it takes to stay alive, I will also blog about whatever the hell floats into my mind.

Thinking...

and thinking...

and thinking...

Oh... yeah... I created this blog for nothing. Yeah, I was just staring into nothingness a few hours ago, and a voice inside me said, "Hoy! Wag ka ngang nakatunganga lang jan! Gumawa ka naman ng bagay na may magandang maidudulot sa buhay mo! Or at least mag-blog ka! Para naman may ginagawa ka! Hindi yung tatangatanga lang!" Oo, pinagalitan nya ko, sinuntok, sinabunutan, tinadyakan, kinurot, sinaksak, binaril, at kung anu-ano pa. Pero heto ako ngayon, bumabangon pa rin kahit basang basa na sa ulan, kahit walang masisilungan, kahit walang malalapitan. (Ang hindi tumawa pangit. hahahahahahahahahaha!) Sus, sige na, tumawa ka na, pleaseeeeeeeee, pagbigyan mo na ako, ikamamatay ko kung hindi ka tumawa.. sige naaaaa.. kahit isang "Ha!" lang. Lolz. Sige, babye na nga. Baka kung ano pa masabi ko dito. Haha. Sana nag.enjoy ka sa first post ko. Kung hindi, aba eh neknek mo! Wag ka na magbasa. Bwahahaha. Oi, ang taray noh, as if naman may K magtaray. Haha.. Sige.. Vavush!

-Yentot

I want to mark a whole new beginning. And this is the place where i shall start.

Just mumbles, no significant stuffs. But just hope i'll feel better, and be better

:p

I really came up with LaurenSpeakerbox because I'm into film and I don't shut-up.  I also find documentaries very interesting and I'm a ham.  So I really my goal here is to entertain, state my opinion and raise awareness with certain issues.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7988812217450377484&ei=rWa3SLv7LaG-qgOM9pXFDA&q=laurenspeakerbox]

That's all until tomorrow! Playerben1 :D

I haven't taken enough photo's recently as i have been majorly busy with War of the Worlds, at the minack theatre. We're going down tomorow, so hopefully i will have time to chill out and take some snappies.

I should really go and pack. Chances are i will post later. :)

Okay, so I'm nowhere near suggesting that everyone in college is an alcholic nymphomaniac.

But I do know what the average picture of the "ideal college life" looks like, so here's my theory/motto/challenge/goal... it's many things.  But primarily, it's me.

I don't wish to hook up.  Or drink. Or "let loose a little."  I wish to make the most of the next four years of my life.  I don't know how much peer pressure I will or will not face, and I can't tell you yet what college life really looks like from the inside. But I will be able to.  And I promise to do it with snark, because that's how experiences turn into entertaining blogs.

I don't doubt that some will think me a prude, or judgmental, or stuck-up.  But I'm none of those things, which you'll find out if you read.

I finally decided to start blogging because tonight I'm going to audition for a role in Jesus Christ Superstar and considering I have neither auditioned for anything since high school nearly thirty years ago nor sung since eighth grade choir this is a big new experience for me. I figured that maybe this would be worth writing about especially if I wind up in the show, even in a tiny role. It is always fun to enter a new world, and the world of the theater is certainly a new one for me.

When I saw that there would be open auditions for JCS, I felt like I had to give it a shot. I've been singing along with Caiaphas since my voice changed when I was about thirteen years old. Something about that wonderful bass voice (I've only listened to the original London cast recording with Victor Brox in that role) just made me want to sing along. As a very skinny kid, I was overly proud of my deep voice so that was probably part of the attraction.

In my dream world, I'll wow whoever makes the casting decisions and wind up playing the role of Caiaphas. In my slightly more realistic world, I'll wind up with a small part, enter the unknown world of being part of a theatrical production, meet a bunch of new people, and hopefully have a lot of fun. If I don't make it into the show at all - and the fact that part of the audition involves "making sure you can move" which makes that an extremely real possibility even if I'm not overrating my ability to sing - oh well, at least I'll have tried.

If "Trepidation" isn't going to wind up qualifying for immortalization on "One Post Wonder", I'll post an update on how the audition went soon.

This is my first post on this blog.  So new in fact, it's still got the fresh-out-of-the-dealer smell.  But I'm sure that won't last.  So a couple things.  First off, check out the "Who Am I?" section if you want to know a little about...well, me!  Also, you might be wondering, "How did you decide on the name of this blog?"  Well, ladies and gentleman, it is a quote from one of my favorite books and the definitive novel on Oregon, Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey.  So, here it is, my new blog.  Thanks for stopping by, let me know you're here, and look forward to actual stuff!  Things I'm planning on writing about in the next couple of days:

• An editorial on the McCain campaign attack dogs
• My thoughts on the Democratic National Convention
• What the heck is up with the Red Sox?
• And a little glimpse into my life, goings on, etc.

With school upon us once again, I'll sure be busy, but I'll try my hardest to keep everyone (and myself) entertained!

I'm not your average baker, most people don't even know that I can boil water. The joke in my family is that all I know how to cook is tuna fish and cereal...get it? You don't have to cook that stuff! Ha Ha (can you feel the sarcasm through your monitor?) Anyway, I've made several cupcakes since then and have earned the praise of my family. That says a lot, believe me! Family: the toughest critics but its all love.

I'm really excited to enter this underground baking cult aka cake blogging. There are so many cool blogs, I don't know where to start. I've done a lot of research but so far Bakerella is my favorite. I even went out to Party City to purchase some candy making tools (I'm so ready to do this). Unfortunately, my camera is out of commission for now :(

In the meantime, I will explain why my blog is called Ilene Miriam. It's actually named after my grandmother. To me, she was the best baker on earth HANDS DOWN. All of her cakes were from scratch. I found that pretty weird as a kid. Why wouldn't she just pick up a Duncan Hines box and call it a day? I soon learned there was a huge difference. From that point on, I looked forward to her 2 signature cakes each holiday: Coconut and Chocolate Frosted Butter cake. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! it was truly an event. Her homemade cheesecake was no joke (and that says a lot coming from a girl who doesn't care for cheesecake). Though we lost her in 2001, she will never be forgotten. Here, her legacy will live on through me and my attempt to be just like her...and pick up many more recipes along the way.

From time to time, I might post other things that interest me, like fashion, movies and music. I love to shop, LOVE IT! Fashion is Life! It's all about feeling good and looking good. So, i'll definitely put you on to the hottest trends in fashion. Music is also a huge part of my life. R&B is my favorite. My ipod is filled with it...and you know what? That's the way I like it! Don't get me wrong, there's tons of other stuff like rap, reggae, etc...but R&B is #1. Last but not least, I love a good movie. Comedies are my favorite but I'll watch anything with an interesting plot. You will see how fashion, movies and music influence my baking. It's just a natural chemistry.

Thanks for stopping by. I promise you that my next baking post will be INSANE (keep your fingers crossed)!!!!

Tiff

I intend to just detail events of my life, even though they're hardly eventful, possibly post pictures, and post music-related entries (not necessarily reviews) here. I don't know just yet!

I named my blog after the song "Building A Castle" by the lovely Japanese singer-songwriter Bonnie Pink. I highly recommend her to anyone who enjoys Japanese music and hasn't already checked her out.

I'm gonna post a proper, music-related entry soon. I want to customize my layout and make everything pretty :)

I toted my computer to Bryant Park, yuppily, to write my first post. The guy at the next table was engrossed in a book -- so engrossed that, as I sat down, he looked up just long enough to give me a distainful eyebrow-raise. I'd decided to just sit as I ate my sandwich, but after I saw this Look, I coincidentally remembered that I had an issue of The New York Times Magazine in my bag. I have never read The New York Times Magazine. I also cannot read and eat at the same time. But after seeing how much my Bryant Park neighbor was improving his brain by reading, I decided that it would benefit me to learn about Obamanomics and eat chicken salad, simultaneously.

After a few minutes of looking back and forth between the sandwich and the magazine, I was exasperated. Then, I realized why I was attempting this Herculean feat. The man wanted everyone to think he was intellectual, or both smart and cool, based on his presentation (park on a Tuesday night, book in hand, legs outstretched). I saw him, absorbed the presentation, and made one of my own to match his. Here's where the meta part comes in -- in realizing what I was doing, I people-watched myself! I deemed myself brilliant.

More than most, New York City's people carefully craft their own images. Status isn't just money or education -- it's what you carry and how you carry yourself. The most entertaining part is that New Yorkers don't always realize they're doing it. That's the fun of people watching: guessing what these folks are thinking and, if you're good at it, getting it right.