Apologies for adding a personal comment to something like this, but I just want to talk about this scene for a moment. This scene really got to me when I watched this. As a kid, really one of the first things I ever wanted to be was a pilot. I loved planes, and I once sat in the co-pilot’s seat of a Cessna when I was a kid. It was an amazing experience. I would make paper airplanes all the time, loved lego airplanes, even had a jacket that I’d pretend was a flight jacket. I had it set in my mind that I would beg my parents to let me try to get my pilot’s license when I was 14. This lasted for a very long time. I’m not sure when it was, but I eventually realized that my Tourette Syndrome would make it impossible for me to ever become a pilot. My reaction wasn’t like this. I don’t even remember my reaction. It might have just been a small thing. But when I watched this scene, I remembered that my disabilities also kept me from achieving some of my dreams. It wasn’t until just now that I realized that the first dream I lost because of this was the same one he did for the same reason.

About Hal

Okay! So!

I should be doing some homework before class, but since I wasn’t, I decided to do something questionably productive and create an ABOUT ME post for all of my new followers and for those who have been following me but do not know!

Read More

So since January, I have started reading a LOT more.

This year I have read the following books:

Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare
The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Domestic Crusaders by Wajahat Ali
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project
Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

(yes I know most of those are plays and one of them is comics and one or two of them are essentially rereading, but STILL. Besides, each one of these is only counted if published in separate volumes.)

I have been reading, but have as of yet not finished, the following books:

The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
My Antonia by Willa Cather

 This also does not count the numerous poems and short stories I have been reading.

Guys.  I haven’t read this much in ages.  I forgot how amazing it is.  It feels so good to be reading again.

Fact 051: A 2011 Retrospective.

It’s an interesting thing for me to look back and see where I am compared to where I was a year ago.  I don’t usually enjoy summing up a year in a few thoughts.  That usually never captures the spirit of things quite adequately.  It also involves both retrospection and introspection, two things of which I am historically not fond.  But I think that though I may not wish to sum up the year as “good” or “bad” or “fun for the whole family” or “delicious with cheese”, I should like to draw a comparison to where I was a year ago.

If I am not mistaken, it was exactly a year ago today that I left La Crosse and moved back to Milwaukee.  I had a spectacularly bizarre year, and the two months leading up to December were rather difficult for me.  As a result of emotional, romantic, intellectual, environmental and professional stress, I found myself unable to cope.  I left my house, my school, and my job rather abruptly and moved across the state to live with my parents again.

A lot happened to me in this year.  I did a great deal of personal reflection. I started going to a therapist. I quit myself from medication. I engaged in a very long job search. I experimented with graphic design. I reconnected with old friends. I got chiropractic adjustments. I did enormous amounts of paperwork.  I wrote a play. I eventually even reapplied to school.  I started taking classes again. I started getting things together.  I made so many new friends.  I experienced many new things. I tried learning three musical instruments and succeeded most in learning one of them.  I’ve developed new interests, read new books, watched new things, listened to new music.

A year ago today, I was an emotional wreck, terrified that I had become a failure in a family full of really smart and successful people.  Today, I’m passing all my classes, living healthy, losing weight, playing a new instrument, spending time with amazing pals, and even working on getting a play I’ve written to production by next spring.  I could not be in a more different place, and I could not be more pleased with my progress.

A year ago I thought I’d never finish college. Today I’m looking at a mere three semesters left.

Life is good.

So, uh, anyone here have PesterChum?

Your name is DAVE BRIGGS, as can be seen on your PLACRONYM, engraved EIGHT YEARS and TWO MONTHS AGO on your THIRTEENTH BIRTHDAY like everyone else. Which is good, because it prevents people from sticking you with a name such as DUNGSNOT COLONBARN. That would be DUMB.

Most people might find their room to be indicative of their personality, and with that in mind yours is a GODAWFUL MESS. The floor is littered with examples of your eclectic taste in SEMI-FORMAL CLOTHING. You have a fondness for BOOKS and FILMS, and as such your floor is also COVERED WITH THOSE TOO. Seriously, how do you WALK?

You also have an affinity for HARMLESS DART LAUNCHERS and CIRCULAR THROWING PROJECTILES. As such, your strife specibus is allocated to DISCKIND. You also have some UNBELIEVABLY SHITTY SWORDS, but that is to be expected since they are TOY SWORDS made of FOAM and you actually think they are PRETTY RAD and won’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Your Pesterchum handle is halberdierMinister and you Don’t really su??ose you get workeD u? about things.