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Skeptic Sight
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| | Security: | | | Subject: | 16:33 | | Time: | 04:36 pm |
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| | "I have spoken these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment   |
| Let's go, let's fly, let's get our backs up off the earth and get up in the sky. Come on -- you know the way. Second star to the right and straight on till morning. I'll take you there, I know the way, I believe, I have faith enough to get us there. Just come with me.
-danny- | | comments: Leave a comment |
| The thing is, I'm back in school now.
I'm making my own momentum. Coming back I had no momentum whatsoever. I spent eight months in Phoenix, Arizona walking closely with a God who truly loves me-- not in class, not paying my own rent, not doing homework, living with family, almost no responsibilities-- but all kinds of spiritual weights and burdens to lift. Then all of a sudden, I got readmitted to UCLA, just two weeks before classes started, and the next day I jumped right back into joining band, days before band camp started.
Don't get me wrong! I'm happy I got back in! I'm happy for the second chance, I can't even express how it feels to start over again. But it's a big, big mountain to climb, and I had to start from the very bottom and I had to hit those first rocks at a full sprint.
All the bridges I had burned in my selfishness over two years would have to be rebuilt starting now, now, now, and all the responsibilities I'd given up would have to be piled back on starting tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, and there was no time to think before bandcamp started and all of a sudden here I am in week 2, doing all kinds of homework and taking quizzes and about to jump on a bus to the Bay with 160 strangers and 40 people I used to know, and I guess this is why I came back, to turn it all back around, right? This is why I came back.
The only thing is, God, you can't leave me now!
-danny- | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I took a shortcut through Royce Hall tonight, to get out of the cold. I walked by a girl who couldn't stop smiling. This was easily the biggest grin I've seen on a human being in weeks. And the girl didn't look up, she walked right by me, just smiling at the floor, and it made me incredibly curious what she was smiling about. What secret could she have been keeping in her brain that made her so happy? What victory did she win, what prize did she take home, what wonderful thing did she know, who did she love, who loved her back?
Her smile made me smile. I walked all the way through Royce and across the steps to Powell and I couldn't help it either, I was smiling just thinking about it. Whatever was making her so happy, I guess it made me happy too. I'm glad I never found out her secret. It was enough just to see it from the outside.
Things like this happen 80% more often when it's raining. Another reason to move to Canada...
-d- | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | table for glasses - jimmy eat world | | Security: | | | Subject: | all good things... | | Time: | 10:14 pm | | Current Mood: |  nostalgic |
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| I was going to post tonight.
Then I figured, whatever. None of you would read it anyway. My life is boring, and my writing, let's be honest, is lame.
So instead, I'm going to do something that I've thought about doing for a while now.
I'm retiring my blog.
This doesn't mean that I don't want to talk to you guys. I definitely, definitely do. Just not here. But I plan on keeping in touch--most of you know my cell number, and you can find me on AIM and Facebook just about twenty-four hours a day. I'll keep up the journal so that I can see my friends page and read about your awesome and exciting lives. Just don't expect any new posts from me. I think I've finished a good thing here.
The journal was certainly a fun experiment for a few years. A lot of my best writing came from this website. A lot of terrible writing came out of it, too, but it was all great practice and I look back on it all fondly. I started the blog on January 29th, 2004. By today, April 27th, 2007, more than three years after that day in January, I've written 541 entries, sent off 1,871 comments and received 2,301 back. This is my five hundred and forty-second post.
#542--a weird number to end on. But I don't think any other number could really be any better.
And since it's the last entry of the journal, I figure I should probably explain the title of the website: "Skeptic Sight". It's a lyric from the Jimmy Eat World song "Table for Glasses", which was the opening track of the band's masterpiece, Clarity. I first listened to the song in sixth grade, sitting upstairs in my room next to the stereo, and it quickly became my favorite off of the entire record. TFG has a signature drumbeat--simple, slow and driving; yet it hasn't been duplicated in any other song I've heard, and I would instantly recognize it if it was. It's one of those iconic beats that you only find once. This is coupled with a brilliant and beautiful arrangement of instruments, cellos and glockenspiels adding color to the wonderfully simple guitar melodies that intertwine throughout the piece. The song slowly builds emotion up through the first two verses, helmed by the lead singer Jim Adkins, who gives one of the most heartfelt performances of the band's career, and culminates in an epic chorus that you never want to end. The lyrics are hauntingly simple and sometimes even profound.
The lead lyric from the chorus screams "Lead my skeptic sight".
Eight years have passed since I first sat on my bedroom floor, huddled next to the stereo, and listened to Table for Glasses. But over the years, it has become more than just a song to me; it is a part of me. It taps into my heart every time I listen. It brings out all the colors of my true emotion, taking me through all of my ups and downs, and leaving me in an entirely different place when it ends. Every day I live, my heart beats to its rhythm.
That's why I named my journal Skeptic Sight.
I've tried leading my own skeptic sight for a long time now. Far too long. And now I'm just going to see where it leads me.
Take care, all. It's been a lot of fun. I'll keep in touch, I promise.
* * *
"And it happened too fast to make sense of it..."
-danny- | | comments: 18 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | out through the curtain - the hush sound | | Security: | | | Subject: | a novel idea! | | Time: | 04:10 am | | Current Mood: |  excited |
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| You may not have noticed this, but if you did, the answer is yes: I did delete that beginning to a story I posted a couple days ago.
Not because I'm ashamed of the story. Actually, just the opposite.
I want to expand it into a novel, and publish it.
Crazy? Yeah. Wishful thinking? Definitely. I've got a snowball's chance in hell of attracting the attention of a publisher with my weird, quirky, tightly paced and plotted story with deep resonance, stunning originality and heart-stopping, page-turning action. Except if I get a literary agent first. Then they might notice. But I still have a snowball's chance in the Sahara of getting the attention of an agent with my weird, quirky, tightly paced and plotted story...you get my drift.
And if I left any of my manuscript sitting out here on my open blog, I would have even less chance. It goes without saying that I want to maximize my chances of getting this thing into print.
So wish me luck. I can't believe I'm even going to try writing a book.
I've wondered a lot over the past three days about whether I have the talent or chops necessary to pull off a well-written piece of fiction. Maybe in short bursts, but maybe not for a marathon.
But I'm really excited about this. I think I'm more passionate about writing this than I have been about doing anything in literally years. And I've powered through forty double-spaced pages in two days, plus writing a complete chapter-by-chapter plot outline.
I hope you liked the clips, while they were here.
-danny- | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | sweet tangerine - the hush sound | | Security: | | | Subject: | rebirth | | Time: | 09:38 pm | | Current Mood: |  lazy |
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| It took me about three weeks, but I finally finished all the positive Notpron levels. I know Phil and maybe John will be jealous of me after reading this. Damn, I'm so proud of myself.
So now for week four of UCLA, spring quarter, 2007. I have two midterms on Friday, plus a five-page philosophy paper due. So... If anyone wants to engage me in a lively debate about utilitarianism, NOW IS THE TIME. I would love the inspiration for my essay. And as it turns out, philosophy really is a great class. If I weren't so stubborn and unwilling to abandon my mechanical engineering major for something I can actually accomplish, I might actually switch to being a philosophy major. But I probably won't.
The thing about college is that it's a constant blinding light, shining with happiness and freedom and everything wondrous. If you aren't careful, that light will suck you in and then obliterate you into a million shiny pieces. It's like a rebirth. It's hard to adjust, after years of living in crushing darkness. You have to be extremely careful. But the light is worth it. The light is unique, the light is special. A lot of the time you wonder how the hell you ever lived without the light. But ultimately, in the end, don't forget what Einstein once said: that light and dark, baby, they're just two sides of the coin. It's really all the same, the blinding light and the crushing dark. Life ends exactly the same for everyone, no matter what wattage your universe operates at. We all end up in the dark.
So you can't get sucked in by the light.
-danny- | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| OK, it's been a while since my last post. And it probably would have been another long while until my next post, except that I discovered something to post about. Ladies and gentlemen, I have just received an urgent, and horrifying, news bulletin. And I want all of you to stop what you are doing, and listen.
The Hush Sound is an amazing band.
I heard them play live at the Wiltern a couple weekends ago, and their show impressed me so much that I actually went to the merch table and laid down $10 for their CD Like Vines. I was a little afraid that their live energy wouldn't translate well onto a CD, but after listening to it, I discovered that I was sorely mistaken--it's the best album I've heard this year, by far.
I don't want to overhype it for you. But let's just say that out of the eleven tracks on the album, I can't pick out a single one I don't like. I haven't been this excited about a band in a long time.
Trust me, you'll do yourself a huge favor by picking up Like Vines as soon as you can.
-danny- | | comments: Leave a comment |
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Skeptic Sight
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