“You don’t have a lot, but it’s all that you’ve got and you can turn it into more than it seems...” - Meat Loaf

Have you ever done something, seen something… experienced something that gives you that same feeling you get when you meet the most awesome girl in the world? Or guy, for you ladies out there. I’ve had that feeling twice in the last couple months. I’m not sure whether it’s the lack of girls making me feel that way lately (’cause it has been a while since a girl has messed up my head in a good way), or just a deeper appreciation for the simple things in life.

Tonight, that thing was The 40 Year Old Virgin. Yes. You read that right. The 40 Year Old Virgin was such an amazing movie, I feel like I’ve met the most amazing girl in the world. And it’s not a girl. And it’s not a gay thing. I’m not talking about the people in the movie. I’m talking about the movie itself. Seeing that movie has made me happy. It’s as raunchy as you’d expect an R-rated movie entited The 40 Year Old Virgin to be, but the ending is beautiful, AMAZING and FUNNY AS HELL. I laughed so hard that James says he was embarassed to be sitting in my proximity.

I have that feeling though. That feeling like I need to go on Oprah and jump all over her furniture and scream “I’m in love!” But it’s not a person. And I think that this might all be a little bit weird. Even for me. This feeling isn’t even really directed towards the movie or anything or anyone in particular. I just have that deep feeling of happiness now, mere moments after seeing it.

This feeling is familar. It reminds me of the after-effects of the most amazing dream I’ve ever had. Back when I was on the set of the movie, I went to sleep one night and dreamt that I ran into the first girl who ever rejected me (there have been several… they’re the rule, not the exception) and she didn’t recognize me, so I Casanova’d her into falling for me before the alarm clock woke me up and burst the most amazing, beautiful bubble I’ve ever been in. For a week afterwards, I felt like I was walking around on a cloud, even though it was just a dream. I didn’t meet a new girl. My subconscious just created one and gave her a real past. I didn’t fall in love with the fantasy girl or any girl for that matter… But I felt like I had.

As for the movie, I really associated with Andy. His friends remind me of Sam and Alvy, my roommate and his best friend from Freshman year, who both swore they’d get me “high, shit-faced and laid” by the end of said year (We’ve since moved on in separate paths). The movie of my life hasn’t ended yet, but I look forward to the day I can turn to my wife and sing “When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars...” and we both know exactly what I mean and we can burst into a full-fledged chorus of “Let the Sun Shine In.”

I know God has someone out there for me. I can’t wait until He brings her into my life. Someday… Someday…

I love this feeling, though… And I know it won’t last, and I don’t know what will bring it on again next, but I do hope that next time… it’ll be a lady.

I like ladies.

So I’m financially settled for this next school year.  At least, that’s what Baylor tells me.  Financially settled is a misnomer. What Baylor really means is they won’t cancel my classes.

It’s been almost a week and a half since I found out there was a hiccup in the system linking myself, Baylor’s Financial Aid office and Bank of America. A massive hiccup. A heart-attack-inducing hiccup. Through a miscommunication that had nothing to do with me, Bank of America thought it was trying to get certification for my fall loans while Baylor thought Bank of America was trying to get certification for the summer loans (even though summer loans were taken care of three months ago).

Well, after a week on the phone with Bank of America and a last-minute, rushed trip to Lewisville to get extra signatures from my dad, everything was cool according to Bank of America.

Guess who disagreed?

For some reason I don’t understand, Baylor received the money, which should be call for a Hallelujah. Unfortunately they received it and processed it as an extra loan for the summer. Of course, never willing to accept blame, they said Bank of America sent it wrong, even though a call to them last Friday told me all was cleared up on their end.

How do you choose who to believe when both could theoretically be at fault? I’m tempted to believe Bank of America over Baylor only because Bank of America was willing to work with me to resolve the problem and never pointed blame. Twice now, Baylor has told me it’s Bank of America’s fault without giving reason. Either Baylor could be shrugging responsibility or Bank of America could be trying to rectify a mistake on their end. I have no idea. Either way, it’s not on my end of the triangle, and I just want my damn money to go to my damn education.

What would you tell your wife, if through a freak accident, you contracted herpes from a BABOON?

Just got back from seeing Four Brothers. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, although that might just be because it followed up an entire day of playing GTA San Andreas. Those Ballas and Vagos can su........ er… yeah… Anyway, regarding FB I wasn’t completely satisfied with the climax but I’m not going to rant about it here and ruin the movie-going experience of one who should happen upon this blog. Except for Sunny. This one’s not for you. Overall it was really good though. I liked it.

I do feel the need to rant, though… My rant is simple: Gas prices suck. Driving back from the theater, I saw that the price at the CHEAP gas station (RaceTrac or RaceWay or whatever it is here in Waco) was at TWO DOLLARS AND THIRTY NINE CENTS! I just filled up on Sunday for $2.15… What the heck?

Wow. That was a weak rant. Oh well.

Well, this is officially my first post here.  Apparently I registered back in March, but I never bothered doing anything with this thing.  Well, here I go… (Happy Mark?)

Summer is almost over. I spent it at Baylor. 13 hours. It was intense. Oddly, I don’t miss the traditional summer (of doing nothing) as much as I thought I would, and even though this is my last summer before I must enter the real world, I don’t feel like I’ve misspent it.

The month of July (aka Summer Session 2) was spent actually on the set of an independent feature film. One of the lecturers in my department put together a mockumentary called A.K.A. Brian Barr and made a class out of it. Those who enrolled got to be on the crew. It was an awesome experience and cemented my desire to make movies, regardless of my capacity.

My only real regret is that I didn’t get to do more work on the film than I did. I got shifted around between departments the whole time, and as such didn’t get an opportunity to really focus and make a huge impact.

I started off as Unit Production Manager, which on the kind of production we had amounted to doing nothing. That only lasted like an hour, though, before it came out that I was apparently the only one in the crew with Photoshop experience, so I was loaned out to Production Design for nearly all of pre-production.

The Producer saw that I was comfortable doing whatever needed to be done, and since the Assistant Director had asked for two assistants, I was moved (promoted?) to 2nd Assistant Director. Unfortunately the AD didn’t actually need AN assistant, let alone two. When the head audio guy (another lecturer) saw that I wasn’t doing anything, he requested I move to his audio team and that’s where I spent my last week on the set.

I’d really started to enjoy being on the audio crew, but I had been scheduled since the very beginning to move to the Post-Production crew for the last week and a half of the production. I was looking forward to it, honestly, because I thought we’d be editing and what-not. Instead, we just captured the footage onto the hard drive for other people to edit.

I had fun working on the film. I really did and I can’t wait to see the final product. We wrapped on Wednesday and did last minute clean-up on Thursday morning. Since then, I have done nothing but sit around my apartment. I’m bored. Thus the reason you have something to read here. Anyway… I’m done.