Ze Fashions! (55/90)

So it has come to my attention that these last weeks are adding up in the difficulty department according to the tightness of my schedule. I'm starting to feel like this little fragile body of mine will finally fall victim to fatigue as there is way too much stuff for me to do before I can finally enter the paradise known as summer vacation.

One thing I haven't mentioned in this blog yet is the fashion show I'm going to be a part of in like next week. Throughout this whole semester, I've been attending meetings every Tuesday in order to help out with the show we are planning to put out a week from now. I've been trying my best to do my part to each meeting by giving out suggestions and by trying to get other people to take an interest in fashion. I even made one of the flyers for our show!

Until about a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that I even had a slight interest in fashion culture. I mostly only looked at fashion as a way to categorize people based around their social interests (music, archetypes, etc). The two main factors of this newfound interest in fashion for me were 4chan and the twee subculture. And then the website that kept my interest intact was lookbook.nu which you should totally check out right now. Seriously, it's good! I'm jealous of those people.

I will say this. Ever since I started looking through all of these fashion websites, I've started judging people based on their taste in clothing. Appearance goes a long way. To me, the effort people put into "their look" reflects their personality and image; and not so much as to the occasion. I know. I'm weird. 

......o_O

National Record Store Day (54/90)

I don't know if you guys heard, but April 17th was National Record Store day. What does this mean? Well, It's the one day of the year where we get to honor our local record stores. In other words, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORES! The one here next to Ball State, the Village Green Record Store, is by far my favorite record store ever. Travis knows just about every type of music out there. He's addicted to music (or so he claims). He's the guy to go to when you want to find new music to listen to.

Well anyways, on to the bands that played on National Record Store Day..

I think I'll just start out by saying that I did not see every band that played. In fact, I missed some of the best ones (Bonesetters). Gosh darn, I missed the Bonesetters. FUUUUUUUUUUCK. Okay, let's move on...

Osteoferocious:
These guys are one of my favorite acts at the VGR. Their songs are so energetic and fast, it's crazy. From what I've heard online, their songs are a mixture of reggae and punk rock, but live their sound is completely punk rock fast. I find it so awesome how two people (guitarist and drummer) can create so much energy together. Usually, bands have more people playing than that.

P.O.N.S.:
At least I think that's what they were called. Their music was pretty much indescribable. That dude wasn't joking. All I remember hearing was some guy shouting as loud as he could and playing the loudest guitar I've ever heard. And the band did not disappoint.

The Seedy Seeds:
They were a band I really got into after seeing them for the first time a year ago. They have some really catchy folk pop songs mixed in with a computer generated synth beats in the background. My favorite part about the band is the freaking banjo. It's just so awesome!

Those three bands stuck out for me the most. I know this is a weird combination, but whatever. Don't question it.

I'm cutting this post here. Cheese. Out.

Just one of those days... (53/90)

is the little slogan for my website 6sideddice.com. I'm thinking of changing it. Especially the title of the website. Blog? That doesn't mean anything! Or does it? Hmm...

Well anyways, I'm still going to change the title and the slogan. Also, this is very important! I need people to start contributing to my website. I've decided to consult with 4chan on this matter. I hope I get some results. Actually, even trolls would be welcome as it would make the whole website that much more awesome. Are you a troll? You're welcome! :)

But seriously, go check the site out! I don't really have much, but you'll probably get a few laughs here and there.
FUCK YEAH!

If you don't already know what my website is supposed to be about, then (sigh) I guess I can give you a little intro if you're interested.

My website is about lego and people sharing stories they have written with their lego through pictures, videos, or audio, or text. I know, the concept is really weird, but if you're interested, please check out the website. I've tried to explain as many things as I could on the site, but if there's anything more you want to know, please ask or comment.

Peace. And giggles.... and pie :D

D.I.Y. Culture (52/90)

DIY culture has always been around, it's not anything new. But recently, I feel like this is a topic worth talking about.

I'm sure you've seen or heard of this ever expanding self taught ethic that has now been incorporated into modern culture. And maybe you've been part of this culture. Maybe you know about this more than me. 

In the old days, before the common person was able to publish content on the web, this Do-It-Yourself ethic was almost unheard of. DIY only really existed among poor communities who could not afford new items or amongst individuals who did not want to partake in consumerism. The punk subculture was one of the most influential groups to promote and incorporate DIY into everyday lives aspiring to think for themselves and to self produce content. They had a saying that goes, "Don't hate the media, become the media."

Then web 2.0 came along and changed everything we knew about DIY culture. Web 2.0 (an upgrade to our internet experience) allowed user generated content to be published and became the cornerstone for the new DIY culture we see today.

This upgrade to the internet planted seeds to some websites like Youtube, Facebook, and Blogger that let the common people broadcast themselves through spoken text, innovative pictures, and self published videos. This has led a rise to this Do-It-Yourself ethic through these interconnected communities born from the web. 

You now have these communities on the web that devote themselves to publishing their own news zines, videos, and stories; promoting their own bands, products, and ideas. So basically, the web is creating this incentive to go out and do something yourself. To try and do something new. To be an amateur.

And one day (just maybe), everyone will be able to participate in this culture...

Here's a list of a few topics I found interesting to go along with the do-it-yourself ethic.

Anti-consumerism

D.I.Y. culture

Edupunk

Punk idealogies

Thrifting
Web 2.0

Would you believe me if I lied to you? Let's find out. (51/90)

You know what's strange? Someone handing out a flyer to you that you made and saying "Dude, you should totally go to this event!" That happened to me today. I thought it was hilarious. I was all "AHAHAHA! Do you know who made that flyer!? It was MEE!! AHAHAHA!!" Ok, maybe it wasn't like that, but I like to think it was.

Oh. Something horrible happened on this day of Thursday, April 15th 2010. My camera died. It's officially dead now. It's been kinda broken these past couple of months, but now that I've taken the time to take it apart and tinker with it, I've found it to be irreparable. I'm sorry Samsung Digimax S85, but it's time for me to move on. I hope you have a better life as recycled materials. I'll be sure to love my next camera as much as I loved you... :(

So yeah, because of that little incident, I was unable to finish up on the little project I was going to work on today. Hopefully, I'll finish tomorrow. Wait. Fuck that. I'll just stay up and do it. There's plenty of other cameras I can use right here in my current location (Botswin). I'll just ask some lucky stranger...

Yeah, I totally asked some random stranger. Now that I have the pictures, I just need to write the script. Awesome. I'll see ya tomorrow. There's no time to waste!

I lied. There is time to waste. There's always time to waste. Especially when you're at your friend's dormitory. I'm way too distracted right now. But hey, at least I'm getting all of these random ideas from the people here.

T__Tuesdays... (50/90)

Ugh. I hate myself for not writing sooner. I'm starting not to like these late posts as they keep making me stay up for an hour longer than usual. But why am I complaining? This is supposed to help me become a better writer, right?

I'm trying to think of a nice moment I could talk about that happened earlier, but to my disbelief, not one thing comes to mind. I've spent too much of my day just "doing" and not "reflecting" on anything. As you may not already know, Tuesdays are usually my busiest days as I am up and about from 8:10AM to 4:30PM. And again from 7:40PM to 10:00PM. As you can see, I only have 3 hours in between which only gives me enough time to cook food, catch up on the web, and maybe put some things together for later. After I get home at around 10:00PM, you'll usually find me doing some homework and then blogging. So as you can see, I get almost no time to myself.

I feel like seeing my friends now has become "awkward." It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I don't get to see them all that often anymore because my classes have kept me busy for too long. Hopefully, this will remedy itself eventually, but for now, I'll just try and get my work done on time.

Almost over (49/90)

Oh man. I heard someone talking earlier about how we only have about 3 weeks left of the semester before our summer vacation. Has it really been that long since we came back from winter break? Geez. One of my friends said that about half of our total grade is determined on the last month of classes. This kind of puts me in a pickle. I've been trying really hard in my classes and it doesn't seem like I'm doing as well as I would've liked to. I am hoping that my efforts get me through this last month in hopes of raising my GPA to reasonable standards (according to the Program of Architecture).

With that said, I hope that this summer turns out to be better than the previous one. I cannot begin to describe the hardships that I faced because of money issues the previous year. Let's just say, I had to ask for help to keep myself from dying.

Other than that hardship, summers here at White Mesa are pretty awesome. It's basically us college kids hanging out all of the time minus all of the campus events and minus a job (for me, at least). There's also a record store nearby that hosts many concerts during the summer which really did a lot for me because it was hard to leave the house with nothing much going on around campus.

This summer, I'm hoping to have a full house for maximum fun (and cheaper monthly bills). There's also the fact that my friend Kyle is staying in Muncie over the summer so maybe we can have bread and ice cream parties XDDDD (inside joke).

I have no more to say so peace out.... dudes