So it appears I'm finally graduating from UMBC, woo!  *knocks on wood*  In any case, there are several events that are coming up, of which anyone is welcomed to attend (though giving me a heads up would be nice.)

GRADUATION CEREMONY
It's held on Thursday, May 22nd at the First Mariner Arena in Baltimore, and you should probably be there before noon.  No tickets or such are required.  See details here:

http://www.umbc.edu/commencement

GRADUATION PARTY #1
My first graduation party, held at my dad's on Saturday, May 24th in the afternoon-evening.  If you need directions or such, contact me.

GRADUATION PARTY #2
My second graduation party, held at my mom's on June 1st (it's a Sunday I think) during the afternoon-evening.  Again, if you need directions or the like, contact me.

If you'd like to attend to either party but do not live nearby, I'm going to try and set up some sort of chatroom using Stickam, Yahoo, IRC, whatever I can set up, so that people can be there by proxy.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Here's the interview molly gave me:

1. Why are you unable to sleep at night?
I've suspected from time to time that maybe there's a physical reason for my strange sleeping habits, but I'm pretty convinced it's more psychological. In any case, there are a number of reasons:

a) The simple answer is I usually have difficulty sleeping at night because I wake up absurdly late.  I wake up absurdly late because I go to sleep absurdly late.  Unforunately, unlike most people, I seem to lack the self-disipline to wake up after 8 hours of sleep (as I also like to average more sleep than most people).  That's not taking into account trying to get up on less than 8 hours -- forget it.

b) I seem to be more awake and active during the night, physically and mentally.  Even if I've gotten little to no sleep and woke up at 6AM, and all other factors aside, the general pattern seems to show that I stay awake during the night.

c) The stuff I'm interested in and the people I like to talk to are most active during my night hours.  To over-simplify, the "real world" that I dislike runs in the morning and afternoon, and the online world runs in the evening and late hours.

It's an issue that's complicated my life quite a lot and for some time now.  If only they had Sleepers Annonymous.

2. Do you think you'll always keep your current friends in your life, or do you sense transiency in all things?

Transiency implies that there isn't truth, or that there is a very thin, insignificant level of truth.  In this case, that one keeps friends or not based on how true the friendship was.  It makes sense, and does apply to some degree... but I'm not answering the question here.  I think I keep all the friends that I've been able to keep on my part, but how much time you spend with them (time communicating with each other) I think is directly proportional to how well a friendship can be kept.  Keeping a friendship isn't just how much you talk to them, but also how much they reciprocate in return.  From experience, I know that many close friends can fade away because of this.  So returning on my tangent, which hopefully will close my answer with a satisfactory conclusion, I think to keep permenance in frienships, it requires not only love, but a living communication betweem each other that stays true.  Hopefully that made sense.

3. Myspace seems to be old hat to you... yet you're not on okcupid. How do you feel about using the internet as a tool to find possible romantic interests?

Funny thing with myspace (and facebook) is that I didn't really want to get involved with them either at the time.  As with livejournal, I got sucked into it because of other people.  Go figure.

I dislike the use of the Internet as a tool to find romantic interests, though that is likely not entirely accurate.  The short answer is I carry a level of distrust with everybody on the internet, especially when it comes to romantic interests.  The root of that distrust comes from being young and stupid and getting involved in a relationship over the Internet when I was sixteen.  It was only half a relationship, as I never spent time with them in person (not having even met them), and it continued for a year, when I found out that they were not the person they claimed to be.  The Internet is a very easy place to present yourself in a way that's not true to yourself.  Even without the stereotypical "no girls exist on the Internet" type of thought, even if you're being as true to yourself as you can, there's a part of your identity that is never seen.  I've had the experience of meeting people I knew only online before, and it's strange how they speak differently, how their presence alone gives you a different idea of who they are.

Having said all this, I have to admit that I am a hypocrite.  I dislike the traditional school of thought that dating is a means of experimenting, that finding your significant other is like finding a car.  I want to be friends with the girls I'm interested with before being MORE than friends -- being otherwise feels backwards to me.  I'm also an introvert, also shy, also more skilled with the written word than with speaking, also a big geek and internet junkie... you should see where this is going.  I flirt pretty badly online -- it seems that all the awesome girls out there are on the Internet, and more to the point, the possibility of finding a girl that I like that also likes me back seems a lot stronger on the Internet.  Yet I feel that the physical aspect of a relationship is very important - a significant other that you're not physically attracted to is what I'd call a best friend (or less).  Even aside from that, there's something about that friendship with their WHOLE identity (for better or wose) that seems only possible when you spend time with them in person.  I look at other people who have the Internet to thank for their relationships with heavy skepticism, and yet here I am on the verge of doing the same thing.

So what's all this mean?  Will I ever openly accept the idea of using the Internet as a means of even FINDING someone through something like OKCupid so that I can meet up with them and go from there?  I don't know.  It seems a lot more likely that I will continue to discredit the Internet as the source of possible future romantic relationships, even if the truth is that it is.

4. What is your greatest passion?

Well there are the easy answers:

One easy answer would be that The Never-ending Story Thread (NeS) and all that it involves is my greatest passion.  And that's probably true.  I've been involved in NeS for over seven years now.  I obsess over it, I often write notes on notes about it.  I try getting everybody, especially friends, to write for it.  It's likely one of the major reasons I developed my interest in creative writing.  I get down when other people that are involved don't obsess over it like I do.  The story reflects a lot of my identify and in turn IS part of my identify.  It includes a lot of the other things that interest me, such as the videogames, movies, TV shows, and the like.  It presents themes and philosophies that appeal to me.  And it brings together other people who share the same passions and help make the NeS grow and live into something that feels worthwhile.

Another easy answer would be my passion for videogames.  There's something about its aesthetic and its interactive quality and their own worlds that I really feel in love with.  I mean, a plumber that takes on a world of killer plants and monster-turtles with the strength of size-altering mushrooms to save the princess of a fungi kingdom -- what's not to like?  Over the years, I've grown attached to the "retro" roots of videogames, particular towards the aesthetics and the like that aren't "cool" or "pretty" or the like.  Stuff like minus worlds and other glitches in the code really appeal to me.  But I think at its core, it's the visual/tactile interface that I like the most.  I'm not sure if I could logically explain why - only that it's been that way since I first played a Nintedo when I was 5 and always sketched out game designs or "improvements" on games that I played.

Does passion for women count?  Probably not.  I'll put it down anyway.  Hopefully you all don't need me to rant on about why THIS is a passion, though I will leave this with a thought that might give this a little more depth -- there's a part of me that considers women to be more "human" than men.  I think there was an Eve before an Adam.  I can only hope that, sooner than later, I'll be able to put this passion to more use... =p

The more complicated answer probably involves some passion of mine to create, to communicate thoughts that I'm arrogant enough to think matter to others, to make the world a happy-good place filled with life and whatnot.  However, I have another passion -- my passion for laziness.  And it's kicking in right now.  Besides, the writer in me says that my audience shouldn't have things spelled out for them.

5. What are your five most definitively geb-like qualities?

I'm going to answer this both as myself and as Gebohq (my "own" main character in NeS).  They're similar enough, and it'll make this easier for me:

Tall/Heroic - As much as I don't like it, in real life, I am tall.  Like 6'6" tall.  If I could, I'd be a lot shorter, so that I was more proportional, average, blending with the crowd, but I'm not.  Being tall is who I am.  Gebohq of NeS is characteristically a hero.  It is both his job and his calling to save people from danger, even if it means giving up his own safety and wants and the like.  He has a power of his own that gives him a heroic status.  Though I am no hero, and Geb is not tall, there's a little of the opposite in us too.

Introvert/Cowardly - I am an introvert.  I like hanging out with people and get vibes from them, but I don't do well just randomly meeting new people in a humongeous crowd or the like.  Gebohq of NeS is known for being a big coward.  To "geb it" is to run away, evade, avoid conflict, etc."  Scary god of war wants to kill me?  AIEEEE!!!  It's basically the human fight vs. flight quality, being too scared to take risks and whatnot.

Mysterious/Quirky - Apparently I'm sometimes a hard person to figure out.  It might stem from when I was mentally retarded before the 1st grade.  My train of thought is sometimes considered quirky, random, strange, dorky, etc... Geb, being the main character of NeS (which is a confusing, mysterious quirky story) shares my own qualities and the story's as well.  I think I could only explain this by pointing at the NeS.

Wise/Simple - While I might be more "book-smart" or logical or whatnot than Gebohq, we're both believers of keeping it simple, if it's stupid but works it isn't stupid, etc.  Usually, the wisdom that we have tends to want to work at the core of something, simple fundamentals rather than advanced calculus or something.

Good-finder - We both see the good in a lot of things and people that most others don't see.  Sometimes we see good in something that might not actually be good either... it's really hard to say sometimes.  If nothing else, it's an aim that we try for.

If you want to be interviewed yourself, do the following:
001. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
002. I will respond by asking you five questions of a very intimate and creepily personal nature. Or not so creepy/personal.
003. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
004. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
005. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.