So my old high school is having their homecoming tomorrow against their biggest rival. I thought about going back, as I was a Bellguard (meaning I was one of 10 guys who acted like a dumbass on the field during the game) and figured it might be the right thing to do.

The only problem was... I wasn't even remotely excited about it. I guess it's been too long?

Sure it would've been fun I guess to go back and see some people from back in the day... but I don't get fired up like I used to get. It's weird because I can still remember staying up all night Thursday night guarding the school from the onslaught of SGHS people, armed with paintball guns and sling-shots, and the car chases around downtown Garland late that night.

It's just interesting how quickly life progresses... and how a few years can make what used to seem like just yesterday seem like distant memories...

I wonder if in 3 years, I'll be looking back on now as one of those distant memories?

Do you ever catch yourself making a terribly awkward face? For example... maybe it's that funny movie you've seen 30 times with your friends, and the lead character just made (yet another) humorous reference to breasts... so you laugh. "LoL!"

Approximately 1.3 seconds later the joyous smile has faded from your face... but with your eyes glued to the set unaware of everything but the flashing phosphorus in front of you, there remains a shitty "mouth halfway open semi smile" awkward face. Who gives a damn right? Well then you catch a slight movement out of the corner of your eye. Your animal instincts kick in! You look over to see what it was... but it was just your friend moving in his seat.

Too bad y'all made eye contact and he got a full-on view of your shitty awkward ass face. Whoops!

It happens. A corollary to this phenomenon is the "look over to the car next to you at a stop light" accidental eye contact. Do you look away quickly hoping they didn't notice you? Do you wave? Give them the finger?

Of course a cute girl definitely deserves a wink or at least a smile... and a douche bag looking back at you deserves a mug... but what about less obvious cases? Contextual sensitive and situational evaluation is necessary.

So stop yourself from time to time... and look at your face. Does it convey the feelings of your soul? Or is it just shitty looking? Think about it.

-B. S. Valosek, awkward face avoider

Living in Austin... I see some weird shit. From the drag rats to the transvestites on 6th to the RTF students, it just isn't your normal town. They even sell merch that says "Keep Austin Weird." Here's an example I managed to capture on my cell phone:

"I Brake For Amazons, The only Bush I trust is my own, PAGAN Special Forces, Support Your Local Revolution, No War On Iraq, DEFORESTATION: The Gateway to Hell, Against Abortion? Then Don't Have One, Who Would Jesus Bomb?, The most violent element in society is ignorance."

And a few gay and Pagan symbols.

woooooow.

-Brandon Valosek, Normal Austinite

Damn... can't sleep.

It's more or less three o'clock in the AM, on the cusp of a fresh Wednesday morning, with school starting in about six hours and forty minutes.

Given my current state of tiredness coupled with my apparently innate disposition to expostulate and endlessly expand on bullshit, this entry might be a little rough... so hang on!

While sitting here with the quite subconscious escape of sleep continuing to allude me... a multitude of perplexing thoughts enter into my head. For example, tonight my cell phone's batteries were running low. I'm not sure what blowhard was in charge of designing the warning system for such an event, but even a liberal arts major could figure out that the appallingly loud warning sounds/chimes and flashing screen does nothing to help the dying power source. Way to go Sony Ericsson!

As a quick aside.. after getting some fresh lettuce and onions etc. from the store, the quality of my midday sandwich has gone up SIGNIFICANTLY. Go ahead and get you some fresh fix'ns... it'll do wonders for your lunch.

The fact that I'm still awake can also be attributed to the addictiveness that is online user-submitted video sites, like YouTube and Google Videos.

Just looking through some stuff from the Top 100 of Google's videos, I saw the closest thing to a hover board since Back to the Future (I still want one by the way...), our current Mr. President flicking somebody off, and a video that just makes you say "wow that sucks.". At least I'm putting the broadband connection to good use, right?

Well I can feel the welcomed tug of tiredness creeping into my brain, so this is going to wrap up the entry. Hope it was as good for you as it was for me! Any maybe from now on... I won't let myself do late night entries. Stay tuned for more information regarding my upcoming living situation in Austin!

'Till next time,

-B.S. Valosek, sandwich architect

Postscript: My middle name IS Scott... convenient, isn't it?

Today I took my final for my US government class at Eastfield College. It was cake.... but we'll see when my grades come in. It was a different experience, going to Eastfield vs. UT, but I lucked out and got a pretty cool professor that was really opinionated, somewhat cynical... and just weird enough to make class interesting.

For those you of you unaware, I feel compelled to tell the sad tale of how I ended up going to Eastfield (~23 miles roundtrip) instead of Richland (~16 miles roundtrip).

It was my first day at Richland... I had printed out a map of the campus and my schedule off the internet.... and I was ready to go. I got there early too.... so I wouldn't have to worry about finding my class. My classroom was N212... So I found the N building.... but apparently room 212 doesn't exist! WTF mate? So I asked around and somebody told me there's a government class in 210, "It was probably just a misprint", somebody suggested.

So I sat in the class and when the teacher came and announced that this was a government 1 class (I was supposed to be in government 2), I realized I had screwed up.

So during break I went to the registrar and told them about my situation, and a large woman asked what room number my class was supposedly in. After I told her... she gave me a funny look and said, "Nope... there's no room with that number here. What's your professor's name?"

After I told her I got another really weird look. She typed it into the computer and squinted at the screen to make sure she was reading it correctly. Then she told me, "Hun, that professor teaches at Eastfield. You're at the wrong college..." Shit!

I must have accidently registered at Eastfield somehow... even though my second summer semester was all set for Richland. Go figure!

But now I'm done and will be attending Richland, and saving an ass-load on gas money too. Lesson learned.

I guess I should be more aware of the subtle clues I seemed to get. For example... next to my class room number there was "EFC" printed. What does that mean??? I had no idea until I realized it stood, of course, for "Eastfield College." Whoops!

-Brandon Valosek, clueless student