Sometimes, Whenever I Encounter Someone New, I Might Flip Through Their Last Few Tweets/posts To Catch

Sometimes, whenever I encounter someone new, I might flip through their last few tweets/posts to catch up on them. Just a few, you know; maybe their last hundred or so. Until I get a good idea of the person, or until I get bored :P

Last night I had the drive to update a few things around my blog and such, so I decided to be narcissistic and do the same thing for myself.

Normally when I do this for other people, it's people who post things regularly - at least once a day, usually more. I could go PAGES back and still be in the same month as I started. Not so with me, as I don't really post all too often. I was expecting that, but I wasn't expecting the magnitude of it:

I had barely started before the timestamps read August 27, half a year ago.

...maybe I should post more often.

My sense of time is so screwed up lately it's not even funny. It'll be Friday or something, and the next time I check it'll suddenly be Tuesday; but then the next two times I check it'll still be Tuesday, and then I check again and it's Tuesday of next week. I can recognize that time passed in between, and on average it passes at normal speed, but everything else could be either twenty times faster or twenty times slower than normal. It's very difficult for me to keep track of things to do like this, especially when one Monday I get an assignment due on Wednesday and the next time I think of it is Thursday.

So how the heck am I supposed to do my assignments like this, much less keep up a blog or a Youtube channel? I've already had to set a reminder on my phone every day telling me that another day has passed. That's not helping either, so now I have to find another alternative...

It's like my life is a game of Mario Party now. Roll the die, go that many days forward all at once, realize I accidentally gave half my coins to Luigi on the way.

Some days I sure wish I could roll a 0. I think that feature is in Mario Party 9 Life Simulator 9? But I also hear in that universe you have four people in your body?? I think I'll stick with this universe for now, thanks.

The simultaneous "yes"

I didn't participate in a lot of events at my gifted school, mostly because they involved being "social," or "leaving" my room. I remember the dances were the most fun to stay back in the dorms for, because everyone was gone and that meant WAY better internet.

There was, however, one event I always loved to participate in: the Gold Rush, known one year as the Gem Hunt. It was organized annually (or occasionally semi-annually) by a student life advisor named Jim. He was an outdoors-y kind of person, and this was his attempt at getting us students unfused from our keyboards and into the sunshine.

He went out and hid colored rocks around the campus for the students to find. These could be traded for fancy prizes like snacks and stuff. There were a few bigger rocks that were worth a lot more, but they were much more deviously hidden; I remember one up in the nook of a tree, hidden by the leaves. But the best prize was the giant rock, which was always the central focus of the hunt - whoever found it would be granted anything - within reason, of course, which usually meant either worth ~$15, or some sort of service like "a private fire in the back for me and my significant other." In sum, it was kind of like a high-stakes Easter egg hunt.

Our campus was located on top of a college campus, and there were four major routes: two paths from each dorm to the school building, a path between the two dorms, and a path out by the lake. Each time the hunt was on, I went up and down those about ten times each looking for the rocks. Of course, I was always most interested in the big rock, because I could feasibly get a game with it.

The year of the gem hunt (the last one before I went to college), I had made my routes up and down the dorm paths, but hadn't gone out to the lake yet, so I invited one of my closest friends, Eric, to come with me. We agreed that if we found it, we'd split the prize.

The lake path is the longest by far - about half a mile. It's popular with the college students as an exercise path, both for the length and the scenic route. We started at one end and combed the whole path, finding bunches of little rocks that most others had missed. We even found some in pieces of trash, like old chip bags. But there were no large rocks, and the number of small rocks seemed to be fewer towards the end of the path. Moreover, we didn't find the largest rock.

So I convinced Eric to look with me another couple of times. All we found was more trash. I was certain it was somewhere near the lake, as I had already scoured the other paths without success. Finally, after maybe the fifth pass (without finding any more rocks), I conceded and we went back. To give an idea of the time, we started at 3PM and didn't go back until 6.

After eating dinner (and convincing ourselves someone else found it), we went to talk to Jim. I turned in my haul for some snacks and casually mentioned the large rock.

"Yeah, no one found it this time," he said. "I'm pretty proud of where I hid it." "Really?" Eric chimed in. "Can you tell us?" "It's late enough that no one's going to find it, so I suppose... Do you guys remember seeing a crushed styrofoam cup?"

What followed could have come straight out of a movie. Eric and I both turned to each other with shocked realization, then turned back and, with perfect timing, deadpanned:

"Yes."

Because out of all the litter lining the lake, there was only one small styrofoam cup, located near the beginning of the path at the lake's edge. And we had both ruled it out, because the large rock definitely couldn't fit. How could that possibly have worked out?

"There's a small gold rock in there," he explained. "I tied some fishing line to it. On the other end is a plastic bag with the big rock in it. I dropped that into the lake itself. So when someone found the small rock, they would find the large rock."

We all got a good laugh out of it. Although I was mostly laughing at the mind-reading Eric and I did. Secretly, I was screaming at Jim.

[WillWare is sitting in his room, alone. Enter Smart Alex.]

Smart Alex: Hey look, you're in your room by yourself again. Looks like you've been busy, eh?

WillWare: As a matter of fact, I HAVE been busy. Been hanging with friends and getting work done. It's been a productive couple of weeks.

Smart Alex: Wow! Impressive. Sounds like things are going pretty well for you, for once.

WillWare: Har har.

Smart Alex: Ever start any of those projects you've been jabbering about so much?

WillWare: No, not yet. Haven't found the motivation. I'm enjoying the ride right now.

Smart Alex: What's to lose? What, are you afraid something's gonna come along and kill your progress? That's never stopped you before, heh.

WillWare: ...

Smart Alex: ...Wait, you're serious.

WillWare: A little bit, yeah...

Smart Alex: Come on, dude! It's not like the universe is going to kill you if you try something new.

WillWare: It's not about trying something new!

Smart Alex: Then what is it? Scared? Too much work? Not enough people breathing down your back? I bet I can get someone on your case if you--

WillWare: I'm scared I can't finish what I start, okay?

Smart Alex: ...Something from the outside, or something from the inside? Cause I've got a pet snake, I can make it something external.

WillWare: [mutters] where the hell did you get a snake

Smart Alex: Tell you what, I can make this one easy. Finish this conversation.

WillWare: ...what?

Smart Alex: Finish this conversation with me. Right now. That way you've finished something. Confidence!

WillWare: Is this a trick? [glances around for camera] Are you setting me up?

Smart Alex: What? No. I'm trying to be nice to you. I know that's not exactly normal of me, so you should take advantage of it.

WillWare: But--

Smart Alex: If you doubt my generosity on this one, I could just stay here for a few hours and leave on my own terms.

WillWare: ...Um... Okay then. Thanks for coming by.

Smart Alex: See you later! And do get some work done, won't you? [Exit.]

[WillWare pulls out his computer and starts clicking away furiously.]

Smart Alex: [from behind] How's it going?

WillWare: HOLY FRICK-- [jumps] WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!?

Smart Alex: Good, you're hard at work. Get back to it!

[Smart Alex pats WillWare on the back before leaving. WillWare grumbles as he resumes working.]

friend: i'm here for you if you ever need me!

me: *needs friend*

me: i probably shouldn't bother them

I’m only now realizing how much my travel bug was influenced by my parents.

I did a good amount of moving as a kid. About every four years, we would move across the state for some reason or another, usually of my dad’s necessity. I didn’t mind too much; I preferred to stay in my room, and as long as said room had a Gamecube in it, I’d be okay.

We never knew where we were moving to until maybe a month or two before the fact. Even when we did move, we weren’t sure how long we would stay. The last few months were very stressful, as we had no idea what to do or where to go - that is, until God revealed where we’d be going.

One of the options we would kick around in these times was the idea of living in an RV. We could just drive around the country wherever, stay for a week or two, then drive somewhere else. This was always our favorite idea! Even though what we ended up doing was more stable in the long run, on some level I was always disappointed that we never did this. Just traveling around and meeting people and seeing things sounds like so much fun!

In fact, that thought has come with me to my college life: After I get a degree, I can’t imagine myself staying in any one place. I’d love the freedom to travel around and visit my internet friends and my high school friends (these groups are strangely overlapping recently). I’d love to see new places and try new things. I’d love to journey out far away from “home,” sleep somewhere new, and do it all over again in the morning. Maybe not in a RV, but the idea still applies.

Right now I can’t imagine myself staying in one place for very long without going crazy. Maybe that’ll change one day. But right now I’m exploring ways to keep the traveling option open.

It’s just too bad there’s not more jobs that can accommodate such a lifestyle. Maybe something Internet-based?