I think that people in general are horrible advice givers. Whenever I have a problem people will usually just give me some generic form of advice that doesn't really mean anything. Sometimes it makes me feel better knowing someone has tried so it has some value, but the advice itself is usually meaningless. Here are some examples
A lot of people will say things like "Just be yourself". This might be the worst piece of advice you give anyone, especially if you add "ignore what other people think of you" to the end. First of all, know one really knows who they are. People change all the time and so do their wants and needs. It's almost impossible for a person to know what he or she really wants at any given moment. Also ignoring what other people think is a horrible idea. That is probably what Jeffrey Dahmer's parents said to him when he was a young lad.
Another piece of advice that makes no sense is "do what you think is right". This is horrible advice. It's this kind of advice that makes people stop thinking about what they are doing. If people stop thinking and just start acting, the consequences could be terrible. Jeffrey Dahmer probably got the same advice when he was a kid.
Another saying that sounds good but isn't is "do your best" or "try working harder. It makes sense at first but if you think about it, it is not the most sound advice. Working hard does not always give results. For instance, maybe an athlete tries to hard and gets himself injured. How do you ever know when you are doing your best? Besides, sometimes doing your best is a bad idea if the goal isn't a good one to start with. Hitler probably tried doing his best and look how that turned out.
I think that the only real piece of advice that is always relevant is "be smarter". It might sound to simple but it really is the only thing that makes sense. Whenever someone makes a mistake it is because they were not smart enough to make the right decision. The whole point of this blog is to say that I don't think intelligence is valued enough in society. We value characteristics like hard work that really doesn't mean anything. We should be working smarter not harder.

Appetite for construction

There is a guy I know from my church that I have known for a long time. His wife was my third and fourth grade teacher. He was even a substitute teacher for me in fifth grade.
Recently he has become very good friends with my parents. He needed some yard work done around his house and he asked me to do it. I happily obliged.
He needed help fixing a wall on a shed in his back yard. He says he wanted my help because he was lazy. For some reason he thought that hiring a person who's only experience with wood is a semester of shop class his freshman year of high would be a good thing. He's either really lazy or more senile than any doctor could have expected.
I went to his house at 12:00 in the afternoon. I started tearing up the wall while he went to go get lumber. tearing out the old wall was really easy because there was a lot of water damage and it was very soft. Soon he came back with the plywood. I cut the plywood into the right sizes and then nailed them on. Then I cut the trim to the right size and nailed them on. It was surprisingly easy and I finished the job in two hours.
I left his house covered in a mixture of sweat and testosterone. There is something about using power tools and building a wall by yourself that brings out a certain manliness in you. Now I know what Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor feels like.

Last Friday I finally got enrolled at WSU. I'm really excited and I can't wait for the semester to get started. I decided that for the first semester I was going to take it easy. I'm taking it very easy. I'm only taking 12 hours which is the minimum to be a full time student. I'm taking a biology, french, intro to mass comm., and a weight lifting class.
Also on Friday me and my family went up to visit my sister in Topeka. Right now she is working with the Sunflower State Games. They actually paid for us to get a hotel up there and to watch some of the events. We watched cycling and a 10 K race while we were up there. I left early because I was unable to visit with my sister much and I had work to do at home.

The smith coolness curve

I've developed a theory of coolness I call "the Smith Coolness Curve". It states that the bands with medium levels of musical talent are the coolest because they have the most time to work on their image. This theory explains why bands like N'SYNC can become popular even though they can't play music.
If you were to make a graph with cool as the x-variable, and musical ability as the y-variable, I think you would see a curve where bands and musicians with middle of the road musical talent are the coolest. For instance, look at Elton John. A lot of people think that Elton John is one of the most talented pianist of all time but know one thinks that he is cool. On the other hand look at Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson can't even play a musical instrument as far as I know but he is still considered much cooler (or at least he was considered cool in the 80's) than Elton John. That is because instead of working on things like musical skills, Jackson worked on his image. He put more effort into his dance skills and music videos then his actual music and it paid off big time.
Then there are bands like Marilyn Manson and Insane Clown Posse. These guys have no musical ability whatsoever. They also spent way to much time on their image and whenever you try to impress someone too much then you become uncool.
This theory works especially when looking at some of the greatest guitar players of all time. B.B. King, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, and Eric Clapton are not really considered cool, but bands like Green Day and the Ramones are considered cool even though I could play most of their songs.
There are a couple of outliers though. Like Van Halen for instance. Van Halen is one of the greatest (he is the greatest in my opinion) guitar players of all time and he is still considered cool. The only explanation I have for this is that his image propelled him into the coolness sector. He had a fun, party guy image that set him apart from the other great guitar players.

This is a long drive home for someone with nothing to think about

"I'm a grumpy dude and you just pressed my grump button."
The last time that I saw modest mouse live this is what the lead singer, Isaac Brock, yelled at a fan who wanted to hear some old stuff. The fan yelled this right after they played one of their very first songs. Isaac has a tendency to drink before shows and do crazy antics.. On of the bands live albums he yells at a fan for yelling "Free bird" and responds by saying "Life is too short to hear or play free bird". In another show he actually got into a fight with someone who was throwing water at him. Once he came out in a sailor costume for absolutely no reason. And in probably his most famous onstage antic (which is on youtube by the way), he actually takes a knife and cuts himself on stage.
I mention these things so that you can get an idea of why I like going to live shows. Some people criticize me for paying money and driving long distances to go to shows but it's antics like this that make it worth it for me. You get things during live shows you can never see if you just buy the records.
Me and my friends decided to meet in the JCPenny's parking lot at 3. My friend Matt who was driving had to work so we met him there to get a quick start. Me and my other from Taryn who was going met there also. We at about 3:30 we were on our way. We stopped at Chipotle to eat and got to the arena at about 7:30. We wanted to get there earlier so we could get to the stage but that didn't happen.
The venue was not the greatest. It was outdoor and the entire floor was covered in wood chips which made standing uncomfortable. It was also packed and there were a lot of people smoking. It was like being lost in a sea of fog and hipsters.
The opening act didn't take long and Modest Mouse started. They started with gravity rides everything, one of my favorite songs. Their next song was the view which was probably my favorite song of the night.
During the show you could tell that Isaac was drunk. On several songs he forgot the lyrics or just wouldn't sing. He did a great job and he was very entertaining to say the least but it could have been better.
All in all it was a great night. There weren't really any stories worth telling but it was still fun.

explosions in the sky

Here are some pictures of fireworks I took with my phone. They're really not that bad actually.

Obligatory emo post

I've decided that this blog is not emo enough. I've looked through some of my old posts and noticed I haven't complained in any of them. This is different from about every other teen blog that I know of. I think it's time to get some of my teen angst out; ready...Go!
I've come to the conclusion that I will probably never have a serious girlfriend. I think I've finally found the reason why I've never had one in the past too. Don't get me wrong there are many reasons; my lack of maturity, pale skin, awkwardness, lame car, shyness, disorganization, messiness, and general lack of social skills are good reasons but I think I found the biggie.
The biggest reason I will never get a girlfriend is because I can never tell when a girl is flirting with me, and when they are I have no idea how to respond. I've had this problem my entire life but I didn't notice it until my freshman year of college. One time during a class a girl turned around and said something that was a little rude then said "Just kidding". I was confused. I did not understand how someone could go from being rude to just kidding in a matter of seconds. I thought about it later on and I think she was flirting with me. I was kicking myself because I didn't know, and because she was hot!!!
The biggest reason I'm so bad at flirting is because in high school girls never flirted with me. I was terribly shy in high school and not that popular. So whenever talked to a girl it was usually because I started talking to her.
Now that I was in college where nobody knew me and I was no longer as shy as I used to be, I now had girls I didn't know coming up to talk to me. I had no idea how to handle it and I still don't.
I'm not the only person who thinks this is a problem, my friends are starting to notice it too. One time Me and my friend were picking up free pizzas at pizza hut for a Cowley Press work-night. The girl at the counter was apparently flirting with me (I wouldn't know) and when she left my friend said "What are you doing? She was totally flirting with you and you acted like a jerk!" Of course I had no idea what I just did. If I did act like a jerk to her I totally didn't mean it and I just hoped she would come back and say the exact same thing so I could make a witty comeback. Unfortunately I made no such witty comeback and left discouraged. She was not bad looking either. The point is my friends can tell when girls are flirting with me even though I am completely oblivious.
This post so far is fine and dandy, but it's not emo enough yet. So far I've only described my own faults. For this to be emo I have to blame someone else for my miseries. When it comes down to it there is only one person I can blame for not getting a girlfriend...Ryan Gosling.
My entire life I've tried to be the nice guy. I've always thought that girls wanted a polite gentleman so I would always be quiet and not talk much so that I would not seem obnoxious or rude. This strategy obviously has not worked. Girls tend to go for bad boys who can never shut up, even when they say stupid things. They also want guys who are fearless and are not afraid to stand up to other people. This is where Ryan Gosling comes in.
When I talk about Ryan Gosling I really mean his character he play in the Notebook, and yes I have seen that movie. His character first makes a girl fall in love with him by lying in the middle of a road for her, has the patience to write 365 letters to her, and is fearless enough to fight in WWII. I don't have any of those qualities.
As I have already mentioned, for years my strategy with girls has been to talk to them enough to make them like you but not too much so you don't seem like a jerk. This is the antithesis of Ryan Gosling's character in the movie. Now whenever girls see the movie they fall in love with a character that I am nothing like. They then go after the guys who talk all the time even though they usually are jerks. You can see my problem.
Of course it's unfair to blame all of my problems on one person but that is why this post is emo.