New Song and Download link!

http://dracs.kicktone.com/jjnpw/start-something-single

Radioactive Horses (Imagine Dragons and Switchfoot Mix)

Radioactive In The Dark (Imagine Dragons and Fall Out Boy Mix)

Rock Climbing

I'm very glad that a). ASU has a rock climbing wall and b.) my girlfriend likes to climb.  It makes climbing a lot more enjoyable and appealing. Still get some weird glances from people in the SRC but I guess I kind of deserve that when I fall asleep in the waiting room.

Time to Make the Donuts

College has just seemed to be a blur of barely-reached deadlines, late night work and parties, and worries.  I've been building my alias of Aiken Arrows by spray painting the graffiti tunnels with some of my lyrics and quotes, fixing random things around campus (like the squeaky door in Trivette), busking on King Street, and leaving various other kinds of public art.  Hopefully, if I can find enough time, I will gather a big enough reputation, like the girl that does art in the tunnels that everyone just knows as "The Ghost Girl", and start getting some money from my band and this blog.  My band just started a Kicktone page at http://dracs.kicktone.com/, so please go and check us out!  We need more monies so we can make more songs!

Mornings and Tunnel Tuesdays

Have I ever mentioned how much I love have breakfast in Central Dining Hall in ASU? No? Well, I do, like a lot. The old 80s-ish music is surprisingly calming and open space makes me feel comfortable and at ease. It's also a great place to just go up to someone and talk to them, which is rather strange for my inner Yankee but it's cool.

Also, every Tuesday, late at night, the college students participate in this little music get together that we call Tunnel Tuesday. I played in the graffiti tunnels last Tuesday an it was a lot of fun. This guy named Charlie on my floor brought his sax and was jamming out too. Needless to say, the instruments have been getting a lot more diverse and the sound is incredible. Go Tunnel Tuesdays! 

Shout Out to the Guy Who Doesn't Know the Opposite of "In"

Life is strange; looking back, it almost never seems the same as it did in the present.  We only get to have one and, thus, are critical of mistakes we make but only a select few get to have the honor of having their lives reviewed and recorded into biographies that lay in piles of dust on library shelves in wait for a student, procrastinating on a research paper, to come by and skim the pages and thrust the piece of literature back, causing the dust bunnies to float up and waltz in the air before settling back down.  Why on Earth, with only the nearby dust bunny population to keep the records of our lives company in years and decades after our deaths, do we try so hard?  Why is a trip up, a typo, a bad grade so terrifying?  Because of what it means right now, in the present?  Consequences?  Rumors?

I don't know, honestly.  I just think it's funny when you truly think about it and, no, I have not received any traumatizing bad grades or anything.  Just being deep, you know... like usual.  Anyways, the last couple of days have been crazy and a blur.  My dorm floor had a mixer, called "Neon Blackout" which was awesome even though I was only there for the last 3 minutes of it; if you live in ASU, please, PLEASE, keep your ears open for the next mixer.  I went hiking to these amazing waterfall thingies (really technical, I know) and got winded walking back.  My weekend has been crazy and I'm kind of happy to back into the world of order and deadlines.

Oh, and by the way, I am starting to get paid for this blog and my band's YouTube channel.... you know, just putting that out there.

Best Dorm Floor Ever

Honestly, my dorm floor is the best ever.  I consider them to be part of my family and I feel so safe with them that it's not even funny.  Love you guys!

Collection of Great/Funny Graffiti

Among my floor (Art Haus/Frank Penthouse) and throughout the campus are some awesome and hilarious graffiti artists.  Here are some examples:

On the whiteboard of someone's door on our hall:

3 Things I Hate:

• People who write on other people's whiteboards
• Lists
• People who can't count
• Irony

On the wall of the graffiti tunnel:
(In white spray paint) Do what you love and love what you do.
(underneath in black with an arrow pointing up) Basically, have sex with your wife

On the side of the gym in chalk:
The cake is a lie
(to the side of it, scrawled out) Let them eat it

English, meditation, nihilism, and One Direction hyptonism

English class seemed to be pretty nice; only problem was that I was sitting next to the rackety, old air conditioning unit that sounded like it would fall out of the window at any moment.  Next was my Arts, Community, and Change class which was a breath of fresh chloroform, if you know what I mean.  You see, I had forgotten that dancing and theatre are forms of art and the professor seemed to think that they were the only forms of art (she is originally a theatre professor).  She has us doing meditation at the beginning of class and then introducing ourselves through acting.  I'm going to stick the class out though because I believe it will help me be more tolerant and understand some of my fellow artists better.  Finally, History class; remember that "scary, fearsome dude" that I was talking to you guys about when all I had was the syllabus to go off of?  He's about 5', balding with greased toupee-like hair, skinny, and wearing one of those theed (I don't know if I spelled that right) suits like a professor from the 80's with a voice to match it.  He's a pretty cool guy though: he lectured about(against) nihilism, which is the modern belief that nothing is behind what we experience and there is no limit to our individual liberty.

Later on yesterday, some friends and I went to a hypnotist show, which was HILARIOUS.  At one point, he had 5 of the volunteers/subjects believe that they were One Direction and playing a concert in the auditorium.  They ROCKED it so hard it was so awesome!!!!  I love the college life, complete with it's strange classes and tons of homework.

2nd Day/ Statistics

My 2nd and last class yesterday was Reasoning with Statistics..... the teacher oddly reminded me off a mixture of Mr. Bell and Mrs. DelliSanti.... yup, this isn't gonna be good.  I had to pay a 85 dollar fee to use the online homework service thing (Mr. Bell) and she always seemed overly happy when she said something terrifying (Mrs. DelliSanti).  Anyways, this is the start of my second day and this time I have 4 classes, not two.  Let's see how this works out.

Principles of Economics

Principles of Economics/ Price Theory seemed pretty chill.  The professor reminded me of Mr. Thacker (Thack-Attack).  I have a feeling I'm going to mess up one of these days and say Mr. or Mrs. to one of my professors instead of Dr.  Breakfast was pretty peaceful and good until Mr. Muffin Man came running down the hall outside the dining hall with only his underwear on... Yup, I'm loving the college life.  How are the rest of you guys doing?

College

First day of classes. Sitting outside of the dining hall that should of opened 6 minutes ago. Enjoying life and this freedom

What's happened so far

So much has happened!  I have finally graduated high school after 5 (just kidding; 4) long years of toil.  My relatives from both sides came down to visit me and my grandparents stayed for my father's birthday.  I got some sheets, a blanket, bucket loads of money and a pretty sweet laptop (kindof feels like my birthday).  Also, unbelievably, I received a letter in the mail yesterday from Vector Marketing, asking me to please apply online for a job at the company.  So, like I would for any other store or company that I would receive this type of letter from, I applied for a job.  Within a hour, I was called and an interview was made.  After a 3 hour long interview process, I got a job... selling knives.  Still cool though.  Well, I'm typing this post up from a hotel room in Boone; orientation at Appalachian State University is tomorrow and Friday.  So excited!  Also, D.R.A.C.S. is making leaps and bounds in the cyber world, so look for us on YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, or Facebook.

Exams

School is almost over. The final stretch!!!!!

Ooooh

Power just went off at the school. Everybody's freaking out. I feel like I'm in 4th grade again

Prom

Prom was crazy.  Enough said.  Actually, I want to mention that Gerg has some crazy good moves, and Jesse can slow dance like nothing else.  My friend, Will, brought his partner, Cheyenne, though I spent most of the night dancing with her.  Honestly, I am eternally grateful to my Hispanic ex, who taught me how to dance.  I didn't know a girl's body could move like that... It's been a crazy week.  A junior at my school committed suicide; Coleman Mitchell was loved by everybody that knew him.  Unfortunately, I never got the chance to meet him before he killed himself.  Like I said- crazy, eventful week.

I feel like I'm condensing a month's events into a paragraph.

Falling back to move foward

Sometimes we have to go back to our childhood to understand how to be an adult.   Kind of seems weird when you say it but if you think about it, it'll make sense.  Laughter can solve almost any problem, so why not become the class clown when the class is failing or upset? I've been looking back partly because I'm trying to remember stuff and, with my screwed up head, it's not working too beautifully.  I've started working on StoryCom again here and there and I spent Saturday reading "Story".  I'm so glad to be going to prom with my best friends in the world; love you guys, Gerg, Jessi, and Hanvec (I don't think Mattias is going).  I wish Vin and Seria could be there with us, but I know you guys are doing fine.  I've been peeved lately because I had always imagined going to prom with a girlfriend and all that flowery stuff but, unfortunately, that is not a possibility.  I also imagined having a hover board by now but, that too, is not the case.  I'm glad I have the friends/family that I have.  Thank you guys.


Now go make me a sandwich.

Another Car Wreck

On the way home from NY, we hit a bad snow storm in VA.  My dad was going 70 and hit a piece of ice and spun out and hit a guardrail.  I hit my head and got a cut on my head.  I was the only one hurt so that's good.  We had to stay overnight in a hotel and I slept on the floor.  Rode home in a tow truck and got home on Friday in the afternoon.  Car is going to be worked on; it's my mothers.  I'm so tired.

Back to the place

On the road home! So tired.

Almost there

Finally at the Tri State area! Almost there.

New York bound

I forgot to mention before that I would be spending Spring break in New York, starting today. Yes, it's hard being in a CAR for 12 hours with 4 other people and, yes, a dog. Plus the wonderful driving mannerisms of the New York population is something I don't look forward to. But whatever. See you guys when I get back

Rant.... ON A MONDAY!

The next paragraph may make no sense but it's coming straight from my mind so...

WTF? Come on, seriously?  This is becoming like a disease, an ache I can't find but still feel.  I kept my head down, looking at the bottoms of the lockers and walked at a moderate pace; I've never known exactly when I would pass you in the hallway, so it can't be that I was waiting for the specific time that you would walk pass.  Did you really say my name or was that my overactive imagination?  How did I know that that was you?  How the hell did I manage to see you, when all I could see were pants and shoes, no faces to connect.  It's like, no matter how hard I try, whenever you are near, I feel pulled to you and it hurts so freaking bad.  I knew the exact moment when I passed you and I made the mistake of looking back and seeing you.  It should be like you're dead to me and I could care less but, the truth is, I still love you.

I was riding with my neighbor to school and that Bruno Mars song started to play on the radio and I listened to it.

Same bed, but it feels just a little bit bigger now
Our song on the radio, but it don't sound the same
When our friends talk about you all that it does is just tear me down
Cause my heart breaks a little when I hear your name
And it all just sound like uh, uh, uh

Hmmm too young, too dumb to realize
That I should have bought you flowers and held your hand
Should have gave you all my hours when I had the chance
Take you to every party cause all you wanted to do was dance
Now my baby is dancing, but she's dancing with another man.

I started going through this mental checklist as the chorus went by; "Yup, bought her flowers... held her hand, mhmm... I gave her all my hours when I could... tried to take her to every party, cause I knew she loved to dance... annnnd, now she's dancing with another guy... yup"

  I hate the fact that I love her; it would be so much easier right now if I had never given a fuck.

Today's Summary

Today was kindof a waste, but I guess that means I'll work twice as hard tomorrow to make it productive. Memory is a strange thing; we have no control over what we remember and what we don't, but we know that we can reinforce the memory we have of a concept or piece of knowledge by studying it 7 times in a variety of ways. We can't control it when a random memory pops into our mind, but we often have the ability to bring up knowledge of something at will. We don't know how to prevent memory loss or how to regain it but we do know what sorts of trauma have a strong likelihood of causing it. Our memory is the closest thing we have to knowing the complete truth of a situation, but it can be tainted with hallucinations and misinterpretations caused by trauma or shock. We know that it is connected to the brain, but, like the mind, we don't know how exactly. We know that memories associated with certain feelings can be more easily recalled, but we don't know why. Memory seems to be both a gift and a curse; a tool of responsibility that we tend to wield haphazardly, as if we are ability to repair or tweak it if it fails or retains a recollection of a distasteful event. In fact we tend to try to block out only the events that can turn out to be ultimately useful later on in life purely because we don't like the idea of it. "Memorizing" is often used in place of "learning"; however, the two could not be more different. When one learns something, they will never "unlearn" it. However, one cannot educate someone on how to "learn" something. They can "teach" them the way to do it, but they cannot tell them if they will learn it or not. Memory disabled people are not the same as learning disabled people. Wow... That was a really long tangent. Huh...

Zane's Photo Submission

Come on folks, lets get those pics submitted

Blade's Photo Submission

Here's Blade's submission

Rea's Picture Submission

Definitely not boastful

Well...

Good news, bad news. Good news; AISS will start up again soon. Bad news, as you have probably already guessed, is that my girlfriend dumped me on March 6. Once again, prepare to see me go through the multiple phases of dealing with it, only amplified, 'cause I actually gave a shit about this one. Oh well

Tony's Submission

Tony's submission.

Jinx's Submission

The band decided to follow Ralphie's lead and submit their own versions of the band.  This is Jinx's:

Ralphie's Submission

This is Ralphie's submission for the contest.  Please don't let this be the only submission.  Please

I don't know why but I do

It's been a month and I'm starting to recognize the all too familiar signs of the end; the ex, the ignoring of calls and the absence of her smile... I think it's the loss of the smile that kills me the most. I mean, that's the best part; the knowledge that you're the reason for that smile, that wondrous thing that somehow manages to make those circles under her eyes disappear.
Today, I was waiting for her to walk up the steps from the student parking lot (I get to school before her) and an old friend was standing beside me. He looked and saw my excitement, my happiness to see her again... and then fall of my face when I saw her ex, the most recent one, next to her; most days she's accompanied by either him or another ex. She was laughing like I used to make her laugh and he had that grin I have every time I'm with her.
Looking at me, my friend coughed and said, "You don't deserve this, man."
Biting my lip to keep myself from agreeing, I thought back to the scars on my brother's face, the girl who's heart I hurt, the wrongs I've done, and the pain I've caused. "Maybe I do," I said, closing my eyes. "Maybe I do."

Check this out!

OK, so I'm having a contest to see who's the best editor out there (plus, I'm bored and I want to get a little of that competitive spirit going).  Below, I've placed a basic picture of a anime band that I drew for D.R.A.C.S. (Notice that there are too many band members: there are 5 in the actual band).  I've added an edit button underneath it.  Clicking on this button will allow you to apply several edits to the image which will appear after you save and close out the editing window.  NOTE:  Refreshing this blog page will get rid of your edits; please right click on your image and save it!  After you have edited it, send it to the band at dracthegroup@gmail.com for them to judge and pick the best one.  They will announce the winners on April 2, 2013.  The winner will get to be a part of the recording of their new album and may even get to be in one of their songs!

Creative Website

I was searching through the Aviary website, a favorite resource of mine for photo editing tools, and I happened to scroll down on their About The Company page and I have to admit that this is the most creative thing I have seen in a website in a very long time.  Using animated gifs for thumbnails of the various creators to make them look like they are alive.  Check it out!!!

http://www.aviary.com/company

New Twinkies

So, it seems that Little Debbie is making the new Twinkies, which are, surprisingly, the same as the old Twinkies.  Saturday I spent at my girlfriend's house, going through the old jewelry and such that was in the fire.  Saturday night I spent at Cookout near the Big Lots on 29 preparing for a Harlem Shake. Unfortunately, the Harlem Shake was so much cooler in person than it looks in the video.  Sunday, I did homework like a mad man and cleaned/restored my girlfriend's jewelry.  Today I gave her the jewelry and promptly fell asleep in AP US History.  Here are some of the pictures from the Harlem Shake.

Internal Conflict- First Person

I have a feeling that I'm going to lose a bunch of potential readers just from the title; despite it's appearance, I'm not talking about anything particularly "English-classy".  How many of you have had that kind of yearn to do something but you know it probably won't turn out well or is morally wrong?  Most circumstances I would say f*** it and do it anyways and deal with the consequences with ease.  However, in this circumstance, with this being my senior year and everything, the potential consequences are incredibly high.  The fact also presents itself that I might not really gain any certain kind of satisfaction from doing this; it seems that I would, but I'm not really sure if in the end I really would feel any sort of accomplishment.  I would potentially stop something from happening that may just resolve itself in time.  I don't know; that's my rant for today.

Exhausted and Mental

Or, I guess you could just say mentally exhausting.  Finally making up that snow day today, so I don't have President's Day off. :(  Feeling, once again, overloaded with homework.  Kind of starting to wonder where she gets all of this paper to print off all of these assignments.  Took my girlfriend to see Ile's concert and then to get Cookout (she had never been before!!).  She enjoyed both, though we really didn't understand the music; classical never makes sense.  Here's a happy (and tired) President's Day to you all.

Saint Valentines Day

Happy Saint Valentine's Day to all of you!  I'm going to assume that none of you call it that and I can understand why; what on Earth does present-day's Valentine's Day have to do with Saint Valentine?  To start, I'll edumacate you on who Saint Valentine was.  Obviously, Valentine's Day is a romantic holiday that probably goes back to ancient Roman pagan holidays, just like every other holiday.  Depending on what country you're from, Saint Valentine is either a priest, a bishop, or a group of 14 martyrs.  Just out of preference, I'd like to go with the priest story; it's a little bit more exciting and less depressing.  In Roman law, soldiers were supposed to be bachelors at a certain period of time; Valentine was a natural romantic and couldn't stand this.  In response, he rebelled against the emperor and performed secret marriage ceremonies for the Roman soldiers.  La de da and all that, Valentine was eventually put to death and people saw him as a saint and Valentine's Day was created.  This also explains why we see a half naked little boy with wings shooting arrows at people to make them fall in love on Valentine's Day; cupid is a essential part of Roman and Greek mythology.

So I've gotten roses and concert tickets for my girl friend today and I'm hoping she likes them.

AP Art

Luckily for me, I recently had the chance to change my AP Art portfolio from the daunting "Drawing Portfolio" to the more friendly sounding "2D Design Portfolio."  This may come as a shock to you but my focus in Art is not in forming the figure and creating a sense of three dimensions.  Instead, I focus more on the elements of art and the principles of design and implementing them in interesting and creative ways.  Just to let you know, I took the choice of switching to a 2D Design Portfolio and I have to admit, this opens many different paths that I was unable to take under the burden of a Drawing Portfolio.  In case any of you were wondering, the amount of work and quantity of submissions needed are the same for both the Drawing Portfolio and the 2D Design Portfolio.  In addition to the increased freedom and creativity, I am also able to submit photographs, a field that I have dabbled in here and there.  In regards to AP Art, I am feeling a bit more optimistic.

Overload

Feeling overloaded with work; was laid off this week and instead of being able to catch up on hw with the newly acquired time, I spent the day going through stores like big foot goes through socks.  Still a day late with the first AP art project and I'm hoping that she will let me turn it in around the middle of the class period.  Hoping.  I'm also hoping that my billionaire Physics/ Pre-Cal teacher puts my name in his inheritance.  At least I got a doughnut this period for being hungry- I mean, awesome.(Hey, did you know the plural form of doughnut is donuts.  Never noticed the spelling difference before!)

Rescinding of previous post

Due to recent events, I am no longer single and thus AISS has been postponed until (or if) I am single again.

Google +

Just connected my Google + account and my blogger account: hopefully this will make it a little bit easier to connect to the social networking world of Google +.  In other news, I have learned a valuable lesson: never, ever, EVER drink my father's coffee.  It tastes like cat pee.

Tornado Devastation

Fortunately, the title of this post couldn't be more misleading.  Despite wind storms and tornado warnings, there is very little if any damage in NC to date.  However, there is still the problem of the absence of Twinkies in the nearby Walmart (it is NOT illegal to sell endangered foods).

Recently, I've been swamped (figuratively) with homework and projects from my two AP classes and Honors Physics.  Hopefully, with some luck and a couple cups of coffee, I will be able to finish everything that is due on Friday for school.  In other news, I do believe that we are reaching the 250 post mark (halfway to a new album from D.R.A.C.S.!) so if I were, oh I don't know, one of the other 8 blog contributors (counting myself... I think), I would start posting some stuff. 

In other news, I have started to recruit some voices for a possible animation series..... idk

Party, Vlog, and other stuff

Because it is the second semester and we are all bored as heck, a couple friends of mine have another party planned on the 9th.  We haven't really decided where we're going to have it this time but I can assure you that it will be just as awesome as any of the other parties we've had (it's kind of like our guarantee).

I have kind of started a vlog series on the D.R.A.C. YouTube channel (which is still named frostthechao1 for some strange reason), so if you want to check it out, go to the channel and click uploaded videos).  Let me know if you like, dislike, or really just don't care at aaron.mckenzie101@gmail.com.

In other news, I have absolutely no voice right now and my eye gets this pangs of pain at random times of the day.  I am also still single so I will most likely be continuing the AISS series on Jahn Flipnotes.  Enjoy!

New Classes

New classes!!!!! With the exception of Ile (middle school), Hex Shadows and Vin (out of High School), and Autumn Hex (who graduated early.... lucky).  I've got A.P. US History for first period, which seems to be a crapload of work and bulls***.  For second period (right now), I was supposed to have Librarian Assistant, but I was relegated (or promoted) to Attendance Office Assistant.  Kind of an easy flow, lots of paperwork.  For third, I have Honors Physics with, you guessed it, the infamous Mr. Bell.  For those of you that haven't heard my plaintive cries of pain and discontent from the days of PreCalculus, Mr. Bell is the billion dollar math/science teacher.  And for 4th, I have AP Art.  Go figure.  What about you guys?  What new classes/teachers do you have this semester?