I know that when I actually write the blog I love it, but it's very difficult to motivate myself to write it, especially when I don't have much accountability for any sort of due date. But hey that just means it's an EXTRA THICC blog this time around! At least I know some of you read said thicc blog, so thank you. I also want to thank everyone who's sent me cards and postcards already, I was a bit embarrassed to be receiving some so early but they were very kind. I don't know if I'll have an opportunity to noodle but I wouldn't be against it.
So to start with how I'm doing, I'm well bar one weird thing. I don't know what's causing it but every so often I have a tightness in my stomach or abs area, like a cramp, but I only notice it if I stretch that area. It's not debilitating or anything, comes and goes, I've just never experienced it before. Please don't worry, I wouldn't have mentioned it at all if it would cause anyone to worry. But I'm getting plenty of sleep, love what I'm eating, and still caught up on all my shows, even started to write a few scripts! Admittedly however, I'm still not fully detached from the internet as I expected. I find myself looking through Twitter (invisibly, not liking or replying to anything because I should be gone), watching YouTube, etc. I'm looking forward to just NOT having wi-fi like when I was in Oxford (later) since then I can actually concentrate on my projects. Gratefully I'm almost positive I won't have wi-fi where I'm going...
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I got my permanent team on Monday (yeah almost a week ago now, sorry!). I was dreading it, like seriously loathing the idea. They had us spend so much time with our temporary teams and now we were very likely going to get split up? What if there were weirdos on my team? ....that was actually pretty much my only concern. That and what if my team leader was worse, but I wasn't too concerned since all of them seemed pretty capable. So what they did was give each of us different colored paper shapes, and it was a matter of finding the group with the same shape as ours.
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This was part of an activity during
Diversity training, taking four pipe
cleaners that each stood for a part of
our culture and making a sculpture
that represented us. The blue
and white represent my real self and
internet self intertwining and growing
up/forward, being supported by the
red and black as a base, which represent
the content I consume and the content
I make. I would later take this apart and
make a cool ass ring out of them haha |
Our temporary team leader Brenda handed them out, and nearly all 8 of us were different. Nick and I had the same shape (he was one of my room mates) so together we wandered the gym for our team, and circled back around to see Brenda holding the same shape. It was like seeing someone you thought was dead come back. We were elated, and most of our new team were familiar faces from being on the same floor. We quickly escaped the gym and talked for the first time on a grassy sloped hill. There are 10 us including Brenda, five men and five women (I can't say boys and girls anymore, RIP), 4 drivers (I'm one of them), and none of us had any allergies or dietary restrictions so we don't have that to worry about food-wise. I didn't even have to leave the floor I was staying at, I just had to move two rooms over to an almost identical room. All things considered it was a very lucky draw for me, but others weren't as lucky. Two from our team were from totally different units, so all the people they ate with, worked with, hung out with for over two weeks are in completely separated from them. My other room mate was sent to a whole other unit and dorm (but that wasn't it for him). So I was conflicted, if that happened to me I would be totally bitter about the process. But who was I to talk? It worked out for me. I don't quite think I explained it but the reason this happens like this is because A) there are specialty teams like DIRE (disaster + fire) and a pure construction team that people can join if they want, B) to make sure every team has enough drivers to get them where they need to go (I'll explain driving in a bit), and most importantly C) they don't get the results of the drug test until a few weeks after we take them, which they have to administer the day we get there. They lose a ton of people from it since weed is still an illegal drug federally, so they can't just keep the same teams at the start. There's no avoiding it or alternatives, other regions have tried and it's gotten them into trouble. When in a federal program like this if you test positive for marijuana that's it, you have to leave. Some 20-30 people just disappeared one day because most of the tests came back. And I say most because...not all of them came back at the same time.
My room mate Liam failed the drug test. He was gone hours later. We were on lunch break when we found out, we stood around motionless in the kitchen area in shock. There was nothing we could do. I say we because my whole floor was affected by it. He was so active and present with everybody, lending his XBox so they watched all the Harry Potter films, and he cooked authentic Buffalo wings being someone who was actually FROM Buffalo, NY. When one of our temporary team mates got hopelessly drunk, he was there to help him and save him from getting into trouble. He's a great guy, you would never tell he smoked pot, he hadn't for several months before and yet. We implored him to apply again, he's still eligible to so long as he passes the drug test next time. This was harsh, it was like coming to terms with a loss. But at least we were able to say good-bye. I had gone through something like this once before. My first year working at Camp, it was week 8, the last week of the summer, we had just celebrated our staff banquet, and the next day we were told our assistant Camp Director, someone I seriously admired, had to be asked to leave. We didn't get to see him leave, we had to get back to work. I remember how unironically hard it rained that day. I told Liam the best words of encouragement I could think of. Failing a drug test is not a failure on you. You should know that you were a strong positive influence on all of us for how little time you were here. And that next group of AmeriCorps folks are gonna be DAMN lucky to have you around. There was more but how egotistical would it be of me to write them down in that moment? Best of luck to him.
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Just a shot of my dorm, I'm currently typing at that far
corner desk. I still have a top bunk. |
A few days later we confirmed where our team was being sent first, and if you didn't already get the hint, yes we are being sent to Puerto Rico! Since Brenda is the only bilingual speaker out of all the team leaders, she had the priority. There will be two other teams sent there. We still don't know where exactly or what exactly we'll be doing there, but to say I worked for two months in Puerto Rico? Presumably as part of disaster relief? That's incredible. I'm still holding it loosely because with hurricane season we could still deffer somewhere else, or be forced to leave the area if another hurricane hits the island, so I'm keeping my expectations in check. I will very VERY likely not have any wi-fi down there, so I will still write blog entries but just update whenever I can, IF I can.
On Thursday we packed up the van and headed to Oxford to enjoy a low and high ropes course for some team building and courage building. This was just like COPE and our challenge course back at Camp, so there was a couple obstacles I was used to like All Aboard (where everyone has to have both feet off the ground on this platform but it gradually gets smaller) but they had awesome field games I hadn't played before like Chuck the Chicken and...I don't know what they call it but basically a rock paper scissors tourney but with emotional support?
The staff was great (even though none of them wore helmets on the course??) and had this great pledge idea where you take your hand and each finger represents a promise. Thumbs up (be supportive), pointer (don't blame/accuse), middle finger (no profanity), ring finger (be committed), and pinky (most often broken finger, safety). There were a few options for the high ropes, but since there were limited harnesses and helmets I only sampled myself to one, their traditional rock climbing tower, only I was one of two people to climb the inverted slope portion, it felt great but my arms just hadn't got that kind of work out in a while and I felt like Pop-Eye (with the bulging forearms), followed by their zip line. Since Oxford was over three hours away (we were well within the same state but it was like driving to New Hampshire for an afternoon trip!) we stayed at a nearby summer camp with their own quite nice cabins, and I guess in exchange for us staying there overnight we worked the next morning for them, till about 12, so it was finally our first dose of HARD WORK!! My team was tasked with filling in these holes that were left by a fence that was removed, and then prying out the nails and staples that were left in the wood fence so that wood was safe and could be reused. Mundane but straightforward. Some things I noticed at least on my team, they were...not too accustomed to this sort of work yet.
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The cabin we stayed at.
EXCELLENT showers. |
Ginger to touch any of the dirt we used to fill the holes (I was the only one to use my hands and boots since there were 9 of us and only 4 shovels), gave up on some tasks too soon (like there were these blocks attached to some planks that were difficult to pry off, but I managed to come up with a way to use the hammers), and at least two of them have a hard time walking long distances. But I'm not worried at all, since I'm living by what one of our lessons taught us: We're responsible for ourselves. It's not our fault if a team mate of ours is late to something. Sure I'm going to help and support my team mates, but at the end of the day I'm looking out for me. I know that sounds bad but I'm not the team leader, it shouldn't be my concern how well overall our team accomplishes something. After years of theater being that actor who thought he needed to stress about everything when that wasn't his job, I know better.
We had to drive there and back, and both were eventful. On the way there I drove for a little over two hours, mostly on highway. Honestly Mississippi does not look much different from New England, aside from occasionally browner roads and fields with big rolled up hay bales. Driving a 15 passenger van was not as intimidating as I feared, again it really helped having all the support like an assistant driver and people in the back telling me if I was clear to shift lanes etc. The choice of music changed all the time, it was often whoever's tunes and we played from there lot for stretches of time.
Taste ranged from fine but predictable to basic b*tch. I like to think I had some of the more eclectic taste. I almost lost all my stuff on the way back. They told us to put our bags in the van, me being the early bird the van was locked, so I left them next to the van. For some reason (because I wanted my laptop with me on the way back) I searched in the back for my stuff before we left realizing my stuff was gone. Probably put in another van. Granted, I understand all the bags look identical, but mine had my NAME ON IT, WHY would anyone just THROW the bag in their van without looking at the tag?? I managed to control my absolute fury of the thought I lost my laptop and literally all my spike stuff (my sneakers, my towel/toiletaries and mess kit, all my bedding, favorite personal clothes, all my uniform parts besides what I had on me) and also was able to get them back safely, crisis averted, but not having any idea for a three hour trip was...not fun. Thankfully there was a pit stop in downtown Oxford that made it somewhat better. Unfortunately while we planned to go to this place called Insomnia Cookies, one of our teammates had a sprained ankle and we couldn't get close enough parking, so she and several of our members stayed in the van. While some of our other team members went and got some more extensive lunch (we had a light lunch earlier), I went to Insomnia Cookies and found a great deal. There's apparently only 4 stores like this in the country (or world?), Brenda knew about it thanks to her sister, and it's essentially a pizza place but for cookies? You can order whole fresh batches, up to 61 (which is what they call their Insomnia deal, hence the name) in basically pizza style boxes. I ordered a set of 12 M&M cookies for less than $20 and surprised the group with them. Yeah it was ME who lost all his stuff earlier treating everyone to cookies, but I felt great doing it, and the cookies were fantastic too.
And now it's the weekend, we're about to celebrate Nick's birthday (sorry I don't know how old he's turning, I think 20), my impression of our team after a week is good. It's chill, there's a good sense of humor. We fight the most on where each of us sit in the van, I always take the back on purpose. Again I don't want to turn this into a gossip thing but since I've already mentioned Nick and Brenda by name, I may as well say the rest. In alphabetical order so it doesn't look like I'm showing a preference, there's Andrew, Jesse, Lexi, Lilly, Nicole, Sean, and Yuling. On Monday we'll have what each of our specialty roles are, so I'll try to remember what those are and explain next time. This week is more training, including some chainsaw training (which I probably won't be doing, only three of us can do it). Hopefully we have better PT (physical training) sessions this week, we have to do three each week, and this past week's were...not great. The first was Handball (basically Ultimate Frisbee with a ball) where we lost some 15-0. The second was random exercise stations with no music, on crappy concrete, doing the same thing for minutes at a time, but rotating TWICE?? Ugh it's hard to describe how poorly planned it was. Both of these were at 6:30am. The last one we intentionally pushed back and back until we had to do it on a Saturday afternoon--a day off--where we went to the local YMCA and used the machines for an hour. That was OK.
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Before I actually talk about Overman King Gainer, I NEED to disclose my thoughts on this experiment I decided to subject myself to. This is from Apache Yakyugun, all the episodes are on YouTube but there are no subtitles that I know of, but I'm watching it anyway. No I'm not fluent in Japanese, but I've watched some anime without subtitles before and it was really cool, so I thought I'd document and see what it was like to watch a 26 episode TV anime without subtitles. Sure you can do this to yourself with any anime, just turn them off, but nobody wants to miss out on any key details or conversations they don't understand, so if they're available why would you? Anyway I don't have to justify my choices to you, I'm already 15 episodes deep and enjoying the heck out of it. The show is basically The Bad News Bears or The Big Green or Mighty Ducks, in which a coach character is tasked with turning a group of roudy sucky players into super star players. Only this predates literally all of them (this is from 1971, Bad News is 1976) and it's ANIME so of COURSE it's far more brutal. I'm definitely gonna be making a video out of this so I'll save more of my thoughts for that, but so far I really like it. I miss out on some small conversations here and there, but I've been able to follow plot points and character arcs pretty darn perfect. It helps this show doesn't rely on much comedy or subliminal characterization, much of it is very universal, so I do think I got lucky with this choice. You would not be able to do this with LoGH or Sunred. I don't have a schedule for this one except finish it by the time I leave for Puerto Rico.
As tired a reference this is, this really is the best way to describe Overman King Gainer. I started it with Cam but we only got 8 episodes in before I had to leave. It's an original mecha anime from 2002 by Tomino, the guy who created Gundam and Ideon (which I'll be watching soon!) and you can really tell it's something he wanted to cut loose and have fun with. It's a rare snow themed anime, taking place in dystopian Siberia, where a domed town just uproots and has an "Exodus" to "Yapan," while army people from I guess London try to stop them. The robots or mecha are basically all biomechanical, like the cockpit's in the chest and it just ZIPS UP? The main character names the titular mech after himself. It's very goofy, there's an enemy mecha that broadcasts people's thoughts so the heroes start to distrust each other, and it's solved by the hero obnoxiously professing his love for the main girl until the bad guy turns it off. There's a mecha that's basically gumby? And I don't even want to spoil the finale, I've never seen anything like it, and if it took itself seriously...woof. Anyway, it's a fun time, check it out. FINISH IT CAM!
I actually just started my next QUAD last night, but I'm only one episode into each, so I'm gonna hold off talking about them until next time. For now let's bring up the seasonals I'm watching for summer. I'm still watching Hero Academia, Black Clover, Lupin III Part V and Pokemon Sun & Moon from previous seasons. I liked that Hero Aca finally had some anime original content, that was actually pretty riveting stuff. I do like this provisional exam but it's not GOAT stuff or anything, I'm not sure anyone's feeling that either. All For One was cool though, I'm just waiting for sincere consequences, more stuff like how Deku screwed his arms up so he can't use them much anymore. Black Clover is pretty dull, it's not offensively terrible, I really enjoyed this one climactic showdown a few episodes prior, this current arc seems pretty uninteresting so far though. Lupin III Part V is not wowing me, but it's Lupin so it doesn't have to. I like how they throw in different jacket Lupins to showcase different iterations, the "main story" episodes are just OK though. Lastly Sun & Moon is very consistent, when things get serious it's better but not by much. I do enjoy it but it's not XY, I'm kind of upset it's getting so much attention NOW from big twitter people and YouTubers and not back when it was genuinely spectacular.
As for new summer shows, I only got two. I would have more if not for my New Years Resolution to not watch any "New IPs" in 2018, like Revue Starlight or Banana Fish, both of which I would be on top of otherwise. So I just got the new Attack on Titan, which I'm excited for because it's forecasting LOTS of progress and as an adaptation it's much tighter and competent. I always love AoT's meta narrative in that department. The other is Middle Manager Tonegawa, which I've been juiced for since I made a video about it before it came out. Two cours of Fukumoto goodness? Sign me up! It's really funny so far, faithful to the aesthetic, and even adding material not in the manga, I'm fully satisfied with it.
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The Wheel has decided I talk about Samurai Champloo. I watched this back in 2015 over the summer. I'm pretty sure I'd seen Bebop before hand and had it as one of my all time favorites, so I think that's partly why I was fairly underwhelmed by this show. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good show, well within people's right to call it a favorite. I just think most people are either Bebop fans or Champloo fans, there's not a TON of overlap. I think the dynamic of Mugen, Jin and Fuu was a match made in heaven, I loved how they had a reason to stick together and it wasn't just "because show." Most of the stories weren't all about action either, since both Mugen and Jin were very capable Samurai, so they had to run into problems that weren't just solved by swinging a sword. I think this sub-genre can feel really tired if not spiced up somehow, and the Nujabes soundtrack was JUST what a show like this needed to stand apart from everything else. It's a Watanabe romp through and through; endearing characters, stand out production, big idea themes. The only reason it didn't strike a chord with me was just down to aesthetics, it's a lot less polished and just didn't have enough going on every episode for me. Also besides the main trio and maybe three other characters not much of it stood out and left an impression on me. So unfortunately that's as much I can say about it. See you next time!
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